TV, Movies, Games, and more...

Every now and then I get a little bit creative and come up with an idea for TV show, movie, video game, etc. Probably about half the time I  forget about it before I have a chance to put pen to paper (I normally come up with the ideas while I am trying to sleep, or during that time in the morning when you are half awake and have some control over your dreams). Every now and then though I am able to recall the idea long enough to get something down so that I can then elaborate on it later. I recently shared a couple of my ideas with a friend of mine and he made some good points about them which I had not considered, and which if addressed properly could greatly improve on the stories. So here are a couple of my ideas (FYI if you steal my ideas I will hunt you down and make you eat your own weight in haggis!):

Bounty 

A TV show set 100 years in the future about a mid-20s brother and sister combo of bounty hunters and their crew as they fly around the inner solar system catching criminals, doing random jobs, and figuring out their place in an increasing corrupt world. Sort of a live-action Cowboy Bebop, or an alternate side of Firefly. 

The main characters, Scott and Penny Lawson, are the twin children of a deceased bounty hunter Roger Lawson.  They inherited his space ship and along with their fathers former colleague, a former special-forces soldier and now pacifist Maurice Johnson, have just started to make a living following in their fathers footsteps. Along the way through various means they recruit several new crew members, including a career con man, a young girl with a gift for technology, and about three others that I am still trying to figure out.

Fallen

A video game about an angel Sam (Samael), who is kicked out of heaven for defying orders. Sam can at times be regarded as both good and evil, and as he fights through earth, heaven, and hell to find where he belongs the player must decide which path to take. Decisions are not always black and white, often they are varying shades of grey, and it is up to the player to make the decision as to who they want Sam to be, e.g. a Holy warrior with no mercy, a merciful assassin, a destroyer of worlds, or a pacifist. I am still trying to figure out what format this game will take, it seems to be leading me towards a hack-and-slash but I am not sure if that is the type of game I want it to be.

I know religion is a dangerous genre to play with in computer games, so this game is not meant to be an evangelical statement. It will include some religious characters but it is not meant to be a religious story, rather a story about good and evil and how they can often seem to be not that far opposite to each other.

Modern Ninja

Another video game, this one is an action-adventure/stealth games in a similar mode as the Hitman series. Set in the present day, you play as a ninja who has just finished his/her training when their clan is disowned and destroyed. Vowing vengeance (ok, not that original here, I know), he aligns him/herself with various factions and organizations, learning modern skills and weapons to complement his ninja training in order to to avenge his/her clan.

What I want to achieve here is a game where you can play it any way you want - you can go in guns blazing and kill everyone in sight, use your classical ninja training or stealth and secrecy and achieve your objectives without anyone noticing you, use high-tech equipment and the latest weapons, or go old-school and use your fists and classic ninja weapons. I really want to open it up what a classical ninja would be in the modern day.

I know some people will recall the classical ninja stereotype and say " A ninja using guns!?!?!? That's just wrong", but if you look at what ninjas actually where it is not that improbable that they would use guns if they existed in the modern age. Ninjas where created to accomplish goals that a samurai, because of their Bushido (a samurai's moral code), could not. A ninja was not bound to honor and was designated with achieving their objective by any means necessary. Pop culture often depicts ninjas in black garb, but usually ninjas where hidden in plain clothes or using disguises so as not to draw attention.

I have a few more ideas, but they are not yet as clear or fleshed out as the three here. I have done a lot more work on these than what is shown here, but I would be interested in any feedback.

D-Generation Strikes Again...

Well, not quite.  The mighty D-Generation of the North Shore Cricket Club were defeated by Cammeray today, but we played well and had a great day.  Here are some photos from our batting innings...

PP starts off the innings	I had no idea where this one went...	The boys watch on
Nice form	Good job boys, keep it going	Big D goes for a ig one
Back into battle after the drinks break	Go for it PP!	Brent hits out
Run boys!	Waddaya lookin at?	Great shot Rak!
Brent survives a close run out chance	The beautiful Gore Creek Reserve	Back at the pub
Who is that vagabond drinking a bourbon and coke?	So an Englishman and an Australian walk into a bar...	Our illustrious leader finally arrives

Next week is our last match, hopefully we can put on a great performance against Comenarra.  Thanks to Alain and Mini-PP for helping out with the photos.

Ground Control to Commander Chris...

I had been aware of some the awesome photos taken by Commander Chris Hadfield while he has been aboard the International Space Station, but I didn't know he had been shooting video as well until now. As he is about to leave the ISS behind, he made what is probably the most expensive video clip ever.



Welcome back, Commander.

The Soft Kitty Adventures...

I had dinner the other night with a couple of my best friends. I hadn't seen them since before Christmas, and they had a present for me... a kitteh! Not a real kitty, for none could compare to their own cat Morgan, but a singing Soft Kitty from the TV show The Big Bang Theory. He is very adorable and has come to have several adventures since he came home...

First things first - got to find the right bed for sleeping. This one will do nicely.

A comfy spot.

Playing in the garden, like a tiger in the jungle. Raaaarrr!

Being mischievous. Naughty kitteh.

Watching the tennis. Too close kitteh!

Morning tea - coffee and mini quiches.

Chin scratches are gooooood.

Studying hard. Soft kitty wants to be a smart kitty.

Watching Pride and Prejudice. Soft kitty likes the classics.

Hiding in the laundry basket, getting hair on the clean clothes.

More Soft Kitty adventures to come...

Wibbly-Wobbly... Timey-Wimey... Spacey-Wacey...

Every now and then I have a weird idea about the universe. Usually I have these ideas while I am trying to get to sleep, so they can be a bit weird. The last idea I had was about the dimensions described by M-Theory. It seemed weird to me there are all these extra dimensions that are there to make the math right. Now I'm not saying that's why they're there. I don't have a background in theoretical physics so I don't know how it really works, and as I write now I am realizing how silly my idea must seem to someone who knows about such things...

So my thought was that all these dimensions, while mathematically elegant does not seem to make much sense. What is the real reason that these dimensions exist? Surely the God that I believe in had some kind of purpose for them that we have not yet figured out. My initial thought was that each of these dimensions has a specific force or action associated with is. I initially started out by thinking that light was a particle in one dimension, and what we saw in our dimension as a wave is the interaction between the two dimensions. I then extended this beyond light to gravity having it's own dimension (a theory which is discredited in the physics community) and the 3 other fundamental forces.

This led me on to thinking about what DOES happens when these dimensions interact. When space and time interact in a basic way we get velocity (distance over time). So what happens when the other dimensions interact? Velocity is an integral part of kinetic energy, so does the dimensional interactions we don't know about produce other types of energy? Is energy conserved within each individual dimension or only as a sum of all dimension? How do these dimensions react in the extreme environment of the Big Bang and during the universes inflation?

Speaking of the beginning of the universe, what happens to matter when it is in such a compressed environment? I have read some excerpts from physicists that theorize on this, mainly at the start of the universe, and that got the brain juices flowing again. I started thinking about a black hole and wondered whether there is a critical mass at which the black hole collapses and becomes something else. By this, I don't mean the point at which a star collapses and becomes a black hole, but rather what a black hole becomes. If we were to extrapolate the universe forward to it's near end, and every star has collapsed into a black hole, and the black holes all converge into a single singularity (if that is even possible), what then becomes of the universe? Could the pressure become so large that it causes a massive release of energy and cause a Big Bang 2?

After considering all this I decided it was far beyond my pay grade to know the answers. If you have any answers to my questions (which I'm sure someone does), please tell me how/why I am wrong. I have no doubt that I am wrong on most of my ideas about theoretical physics as I don't really have much education on the subject apart from a couple subjects at uni, two Stephen Hawking books, and watching all of The Big Bang Theory.

And now my head hurts from thinking too much...

A good day...

After a long and exhausting day yesterday, this morning I woke up around 6am. For the first time in a few weeks I got a full nights sleep, around seven hours or so. Feeling refreshed I decided to go for a walk to the shops to buy some cream. It was a beautiful morning, and the cyclists were out in force. I began to wonder how it would be to be that fit again...

After downing a freshly brewed cup of coffee, I found myself cooking up a batch of scones. I have been itching to make scones for the last couple of weeks but have never had the "up and go" to actually do it. I used a recipe from the CWA and as expected - perfection. I have made scones a couple of times in the last few years and have never had them turn out this good. Adding Chantilly cream I made last night and some homemade strawberry jam from a "jam session" last week, I enjoyed myself a nice brunch.

Following brunch, the warm sun encouraged me to do a spot of gardening. Afterwards I spent some time soaking up the vitamin D on the balcony. Apart from some cement being laid in the park next door, it was a very relaxing late morning.

Noon - and it's rugby time. Australia vs Russia. Not the greatest game of the World Cup, but Australia occasionally displayed some of their freaky skills. Full props to the Bears on some great offense and their record score.

2pm - my first yawn of the day.

AFL Grand Final - I was studying and playing WoW for a lot of the first half, so I wasn't really paying attention. Luckily I focused on the football in the second half and saw the Cats beat the Pies. I don't really support either team, but I preferred Geelong to win.

Back to the rugby, and a great game between Scotland and England. The Poms won (unfortunately), but it was an exciting game right to the end. It was quite a contrast to how the Wallabies played earlier. England still exhibited their reckless play in the first half, but the kicking game from both sides was fantastic.

Following the end of the days sport, I whipped up a pizza and settled in to watch... me! Well, not me, but a man of the same name. And yes... bow-ties are cool.

And that was the end of my day. I put the clocks forward an hour and went to bed. So what made it such a good day? Nothing that happened made it particularly good or bad. There was nothing remarkable or memorable. I guess what made it good was how I felt at the time. I didn't feel depressed or tired (except for the odd yawn). I didn't feel lonely or sad. I felt like everything was right and as it should be. I wasn't happy, rather I felt at peace. It has been a long time since I felt like that. Whether it was a full nights rest or something else, I had a good day. That fact gives me hope that I may have a few more in store.

Another year over...

And what have I done?

Nothing. Honestly, I have accomplished nothing this year. I have spent the entirety of it sitting around doing nothing. When someone asks me what I do I respond with "I am a man of leisure", but really I am a bum. A bludger. A waste of space.

Yes, that is how I feel. Maybe it's because of Christmas and New Years (probably), but I feel more depressed than ever. I feel alone and sad. The last two days I have left the seclusion of my room only on those very rare occasions that I need sustenance or need to use the bathroom. That in itself is depressing enough, but now I have started to have those very bad thoughts that I had thought I had banished for good from my consciousness. I won't tell you what they are, some close friends probably already know, but they are not nice and I don't like it, so when I realized what I was thinking I sat down to write this blog and hopefully get it all out.

So, what am I going to do about it? Well, for starters I am going to go out tomorrow, hopefully early in the day to get myself going. If not, I'll go see some friends at a church in the evening. I'd like to do both though.

That one act in itself is not going to be enough though. I don't want to make a New Years resolution because I know I won't keep it, as I haven't kept any I have made before. Instead, I am going to make daily and weekly resolutions. Hopefully then I can do better at achieving them, and if I don't it wont take me nine months to realize I haven't and then give up because it's too late.

So my daily resolution for tomorrow - get out of the apartment.

Let's see how far I get...

... and yes I know this has been a much longer blog. As a side bar, I feel these blogs are more for me than others (as I am sure no one is reading them). Prove me wrong.