Life Lessons from Video Games: Every Day Video Game Influences

On By James CastroIn Games, Random FunLeave a comment

LifeLessonsHeader

Video gaming has affected modern culture in strange ways. Many of the more recent ways spring from online/multiplayer culture, but surprisingly the games I grew up with, the ones from the 80s and 90s, have had a lingering effect. Things I do day-to-day still show the touch of the 8-32 bit era and just recently I thought to document the weird game references I do in everyday life and here are just the top ones…I’m sure everyone does something like this…

5.) Korobeiniki: I’ve found this to be more common than I realized. As someone with an advanced degree in OCDs and organization I’ve found that organizing anything, desk drawers, folders, shelves, U-Hauls, is always accompanied by this song playing in my head, and occasionally I hum it aloud. I never even played much Tetris because of how messing up lines made my OCDs want to eat my brain but I attached this song indelibly to putting things in order, in nice right angles, NEAT UND TIDY!

4.) Null sweat, chummer: Yes, yes I know Shadowrun was a pen-and-paper RPG before it was ported to the Sega Genesis and turned into an action/adventure masterpiece in 16-bit glory…but I never knew that in the 90s. I knew Shadowrun as a cool used cartridge I got with a very interesting futuristic landscape and creative lingo. Every now and then instead of the usual “No problem,” “sure,” or “My pleasure,” “Null Sweat, Chummer” pops out, much to the bewilderment (usually) of the person receiving this statement. I think if I ever say this to a girl and she responds “Keep running in the shadows” I’ll probably propose…

You say sure thing…he says “Null Sweat, Chummer”

3.) At Doom’s Gate: I spent more time running down the hallways of Doom than I spent in school I think. It’s a rare game I could put on godmode and not get bored. Thirty days in a row… To this day moving swiftly down hallways, corridors, or even through crowded mall makes this music pop into my head. Given how much time I spent blasting hellspawn in that game I wonder if I should fear for the crowd…

2.) Test Your Might/Flawless Victory/Fatality: Mortal Kombat…it briefly held our attention by being more cartoonishly bloody than contemporary games. Even beyond that it started its own mythos…you could find secret characters, see secret things, and half the rumors about it weren’t true. The fighting parlance of the game though far out-lasted the novelty of ripping people’s spinal columns out. I use the above three phrases a LOT in day-to-day life. “Test you Might,” any time I have anything to do really (not just breaking big blocks of steel, rubies, or diamonds). “Flawless Victory” is usually reserved for a better-than-expected result, with “Fatality” brought in when that result ended in total ownage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fykb-V-2oM

1.) HADOUKEN: I use this ALL the time. It’s sad. I use it when I throw clothes across the room. I use it when I toss my phone on the desk. I use it when I drop a dish in the sink. I have no idea why but anything leaving my hand at any moment and any speed equals HADOUKEN to me. It’s probably from the ridiculous spamming of that move that came with playing any version of Street Fighter II… If I ever do figure out how to throw a fireball (I’ve tried moving down, then slightly down forward, then forward and yelling it…it didn’t work) the world would be in big trouble (see my comments on crowds in the “Doom Music” section above….).

 

Take Action or Stop Complaining

On By R. PettyIn OpinionsLeave a comment

RavenRant

Satisfaction. Fulfillment. Happiness. All things we strive for every day. But what makes able to achieve those things?

I proofread an article this week about how we as humans are never satisfied with what we have. We’re too hot, too cold, too fat, too skinny, and the list goes on. We take simple things for granted. We never stop to think things could always be worse. However, there is a flip-side to this: we can do things to make ourselves more satisfied and happier.

People complain about many things, but I have noticed most complain about their weight and job – two things most of us have total control over. If you’re unhappy with your weight, then eat healthy and exercise. If you’re unhappy at work, then it’s time to look for something else. Simple, right?

I’m not saying it’s easy to lose weight or get another job, but it is easy to take the steps to get there. For example, you can’t write a book without writing the first chapter. You can’t get your driver’s license without learning to drive. Same concept – you have to start somewhere.

Listening to people complain wears on others around them and affects others’ moods. I’m not the happy police, but I will say when I have been unhappy at work, I found another job or applied for one. If I felt out of shape and my clothes were too tight, I cut back sugar and started exercising. If I find myself complaining too much, I stop. I don’t want to hear myself drone on about something, so I know no one else does either. At the end of the day, I know I did my best to resolve the issue instead of complaining about it.

I don’t rant often, but recently change has been all around me. I told a good friend 2014 so far has been the year of change and new beginnings, and we have all been just fine. For the most part, we’ve all been happier, too.

So, why don’t more people take action? Because it’s easier to whine and complain. Change takes balls, and it’s often inconvenient and scary. But it’s often worth it as well.

What actions have you taken to make your life better?

 

Story of the Month: The Quest for the Stereo and the Spirit of the 90s

On By James CastroIn Music, Random Fun, Short Stories, Story of the Month7 Comments

StoryoftheMonth

It’s strange that the 90s still feel “new” to me. The early 2000s feel passé and ancient. Things about the 90s still stick with me and despite the “convenience” of new technology I miss some of the aspects of “inconvenience” of my teenage years. Columbia Record Clubs, VHS and DVD rentals, Magazine research…it’s all stuff that, though it may still exist, isn’t a main part of the culture anymore… My first CDs came from Columbia record Club! And I could only play them in my Sega CD….through a mono-TV.

Thinking of this reminded me of buying my first stereo. It was 1997. I’d had them given as gifts before, Christmas and Birthday presents. The one that I was replacing was indeed a birthday present from my 15th Birthday. It was a TWO disc changer. And it seemed so cool. It had two trays on the top and they would swap places when the discs were changed (I knew so little I once tried to put my Full Throttle PC-CDROM into it to play the great Gone Jackals soundtrack… It didn’t work… But I DID get that soundtrack…from Columbia House!). The stereo started to skip and the changing mechanism didn’t work. I’d saved up some money and went to get myself a brand new stereo. We started out early, about 10 AM. I was kind of excited.

In the 90s, in my area, there were only a few places to go. Circuit City, H.H. Gregg, and Media Play. I usually went to Circuit City, but I remember H.H. Gregg had a sale on them so my mom drove me there. I picked out an AMAZING 5 disc changer. Brought it home, hooked it up, ran my TV and video games systems through it. Connected my parents’ old MASSIVE JBL speakers…and it didn’t work. I tried repeatedly and it didn’t work. So we took it back. H.H. Gregg said they would only offer to fix it, we explained it was a BRAND NEW item and they reluctantly let us exchange it. Unfortunately they didn’t have the one I bought so I downgraded to a three-disc changer, OK with the savings in money, and brought it home. I went through the rigmarole of hooking it back up and…guess what… It didn’t work. Acted like there was no CD in the tray. So we boxed it up and brought it back. The store manger came out and didn’t believe us that it didn’t work. I remember he went in the back and came out with a CD on his finger. He put it in, pressed play, and….it didn’t work. He said “It’s like it’s not reading the CD at all…” My mom, if I recall, responded “No shit.” We got my money back and went to Circuit City.

Old Circuit City buildings had these cool entrances with red-plastic floors covered in circles. it felt like something out of Total Recall. Shopping here was like being in a sci-fi movie…

I felt more comfortable here. We’d purchased PCs from here before with 2 year warranties. Typically when they died after 18 months or so we’d activate the warranty and they’d replace the PC with one that cost the same NOW as the one we got THEN. It means essentially a free-upgrade system if the PC went bad. They quit doing that after a few years.

I found a nice Philips 5 disc changer and took it home. I quit hooking up all my stuff to it and took to just opening the box, plugging it into to the nearest outlet and trying it. I plugged it in. The CD played! I changed discs…and…the mechanism sounded like a pepper mill and it just sat there. We tried it again and…nope. No disc-changing. By this time it was after 3PM. It had been all day. We boxed it up, took it back, and I remember distinctly the woman and man salespeople saying, “Oh I’m sorry… I can’t believe it… Luckily this is Circuit City!” They gave us another one and we took it and went home.

It didn’t even get all the way out of the box. I pulled it out and noticed the back of it looked like it had been kicked in. We just looked despairingly at it and shrugged. I remember saying, “Screw it if it works I don’t care.” It didn’t. It didn’t even power on.

So we took it back…it was after 5PM. Walking back to the stereo section the two salespeople were standing there chatting and I remember the woman turned and saw us, looking stunned she said, “Oh you’re kidding…” I explained it looked like it someone had used it for batting practice and she said, “That’s our shipping…it’s just a box to them.”

Of course they didn’t have the one I picked out. I went to the deep end. I found an amazing-looking Sony 50-disc CD changer. It was 200 more than I planned to spend but I had it. After much consideration I bought it… Took it home…took it out of the box….and…glory be. It worked! It sounded amazing.  in fact it STILL works. It STILL sounds amazing. It as surround sound ports built in. If I want it will play all 50 discs loaded one after another.  It evens started my love affair with Sony products…in all the years I’ve bought them I’ve never had a bad one…

It's an MHC-F100. Aftermoving it to and from college for four years, from room-to-room, furniture-to-furniture...it's still busting it old school.
It’s an MHC-F100. Aftermoving it to and from college for four years, from room-to-room, furniture-to-furniture…it’s still busting it old school.

Yes portable music, iTunes, Bose, have all changed the way we play music, but that experience plus the quality and awesomeness of this system still sum it up for me. Nothing sounds better than a CD…and it sounds all the sweeter knowing the system I found at the end of that capitalist-consumer quest is still alive and kicking. A bit like the spirit of the 90s to me.

Final Thoughts on Robin Williams

On By R. PettyIn OpinionsLeave a comment

This week, we at RevPub decided to pay our respects to Robin Williams. It’s rare we are affected by celebrity news, but this announcement hit us especially hard. It chipped away a piece of my heart. I remember standing there thinking … he was the genie. The genie is gone.

I grew up watching Robin Williams. I remember my grandma loving Hook, my brother loving Aladdin, everyone loving Mrs. Doubtfire. I watched his movies because he starred in them. He made me laugh and sometimes cry, and I loved his smile too. The genie in Aladdin remains one of my favorite Disney characters of all time, and I still quote and sing songs from the movie – especially “you ain’t ever had a friend like me.” That movie is still my favorite Disney movie and always will be. Robin Williams made that movie a hit.

The night of his passing, I watched the Weapons of Self Destruction stand-up and laughed to tears. I had a unique, strange experience while watching it though. When he discussed drug abuse and usage (specifically acid), the streaming on my TV slowed way down, so he had this trippy glow around his arms, head, and legs as he moved. At first, I thought it was part of the show (for TV audiences) because it was like watching the show under the influence of something, and it fit so well. From what I’ve heard about acid, it would compare to an acid trip lol. Once I realized it wasn’t part of the show, I stopped streaming and resumed, and the slow-mo glow was gone. As crazy as it sounds, it was as if he showed his appreciation for my watching the stand-up that night. I believe in spirits and energy, and that was too weird to not acknowledge.

It’s no secret he had his demons – we all do. Substance abuse, alcoholism, depression all tormented him, but many creative geniuses suffer in the same ways. Hell, schools around the world teach classes on the authors alone. Learning about the suicide hurt me more than his passing. This person dedicated his entire life to making others happy – even if only for a moment – and felt so low and hopeless he took his own life. Some believe people who commit suicide should not be celebrated, but it doesn’t matter how we die, it’s how we live. And he lived for others. With that said, I want to pay my respects to an actor who made me laugh throughout my entire life. We will miss him.
My Favorite Robin Williams movies:

Good Morning, Vietnam

Hook

Aladdin

Mrs. Doubtfire

Jumanji

The Birdcage

Jack

Flubber

One Hour Photo

Insomnia

In Memorium: Robin Williams

On By James CastroIn OpinionsLeave a comment

This past Sunday I was hanging around the house by myself playing some games, working on some writing, and I wanted to find something fun, light-hearted, and entertaining to watch or listen to. Scrolling through my Netflix list I came across one of my favorite comedies, one of the movies that can make me laugh out loud over and over, even if I watch it five times in a row… The Birdcage.

Though it really is an ensemble cast, the heart and soul of the whole film is the one and only Robin Williams. Seeing him at his best, so lively, as the owner of a high-class drag club on Sunday made the news of his passing on Monday even more shocking than it would have been…and it would have been anyway.

His performance as Armand Goldman in The Birdcage is his entire career summed up to me. At once he was completely hilarious, pithy, witty, sarcastic, and goofy; yet he also possessed the subtle gentleness of a father, and portrayed a gay nightclub owner with style and grace rather than completely over the top and flamboyant, though he could swing that when the scene or situation called for it.   That to me is Robin Williams. We’ve seen him be all of those things and more on screen, and he’s one person who, in interviews, always seemed to be four or five steps ahead and doing circles around his interviewer in a way not seen since the likes of Groucho Marx.

When I heard the news on Monday I was transported to two places in my memory: the first was the early Nineties. I used to love standup comedy and watched loads of them on HBO or Comedy Central. I saw Gallagher, Penn and Teller, Sinbad, and Bill Cosby: Himself (still one of my favorites). It was during this period I saw Robin Williams: Off the Wall, a rousing, fast-paced, comedy barrage by one of its masters. Despite his many and varied roles; comedy, drama, or even suspense, he was always that person to me. A young soul just waiting for emotion, whatever emotion was surging through him at the moment, to pour out in effortless waves.

The second memory was when I actually saw him in person once, if only for a moment while manning a booth at a book festival in Nashville. It was a weekend he was performing a concert during a stand-up tour and, wearing dark sunglasses and a casual street clothes, he walked by slowly, just taking in the event. It was early in the evening and the festival was clearing out with very few people still there. But he was there. And that moment sticks with me. He wasn’t there seeking attention or, alternatively, trying to hide from the public. He was just there. As a patron. He waved as a few people noticed him, a small subtle move, and gave us a small smile as he went by.  We all just kind of looked at each other in stunned silence until a fellow booth-worker said, “wait…was that Robin Williams?” It was indeed, and I’m reminded of it now.  He passed by us far too quickly but in that instant gave us all a thrill.  And a smile.

He’ll be missed.

The Strangers: Scary or Too Realistic?

On By R. PettyIn MoviesLeave a comment

When you watch a horror movie, what scares you? Is it the adrenaline rush? Maybe the jump scenes? Maybe there’s something liberating watching a serial killer slash his/her way through victims? What about realism? What if it could really happen?

Recently, I rewatched one of a few horror movies that scares me. I mean really scares me. It terrifies me to the point where I check doors multiple times, have trouble sleeping, and every noise perks my ears.

The Strangers (2008) – starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman – ranks as one of those movies you don’t expect to get a scare from. It’s just another slasher movie, right? The Strangers only cost $9 million to make and doesn’t star big names – in or outside of the horror genre – so it should suck. We should be able to laugh and make fun of it. But it’s hard to laugh, trust me.

The Strangers
Photo from: tooscarytowatch.blogspot.com

Reviewers do not love this movie, and people claimed it wasn’t scary, but it constantly makes the “scariest movies lists” on a number of sites and shows. The people who were not scared either didn’t pay attention, or it made them so uncomfortable they wouldn’t admit it. Instead of appreciating its simplicity, these people wanted tons of gore, monsters, or found footage, like so many of today’s popular horror movies. The Strangers is pretty clean gore-wise, and the monsters are real people – which should be scarier – and claims to be based/inspired by on true events.

Here are the top 5 scariest things about this movie:

1. Randomness. This exchange sends chills down my spine. There’s no reason, no logic, and it could happen to anyone.
Tyler: (crying) Why are you doing this to us?

Blonde girl: Because you were home.

Enough said.

2. Mind games. I admit, I feel most people would behave smarter than this couple, but you can’t fault them for everything. The killers mentally torture this couple and rip them phyiscally and emotionally apart. The killers play games with the couple hours before killing them, and you’re not sure if it’s intentional or not. The plot takes place in roughly two hours, but it feels like 20.

3. Realism. Whether we want to admit it or not, home invasions happen. They happen every day. In fact, according to FBI data, there were 2.1 million burglaries in the U.S. in 2012, and residential burglaries accounted for 74.5 percent of all burglary offenses. It’s something we refuse to talk about, but we still lock our doors and check our surroundings. The idea of a home invasion scares anyone who cares about their family, personal space, stuff, and their privacy.

4. Camera work. The production crew shot this movie well. The audience feels like they’re trapped with the couple without the camera bouncing all over the place. You see both perspectives, too. You see the couple from the killers’ eyes and vise versa. You the audience view, so you have three different point of views throughout the movie.

5. Sequel factor. It’s not the possibility that they may make another movie, it’s the idea that the killers will do it again. Spoiler alert: The killers get away, and one of the last lines is, “next time it’ll be easier.”

If you want a good scare, check it out. It’s not in your face, and fair warning, you may find yourself checking closets before bedtime…