James Cameron – Don’t you DARE blame your 3D mess on me

James Cameron loves CGI and 3D. Which in turn makes his movies suck because he’s more concerned about adding more pretty crap than paying attention to what he’s directing. And he’s blaming me (and other people who play video games) for it.

Once upon a time, James made good movies. The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2, The Abyss, True Lies, yes even Titanic. I’ve watched them all. They were awesome to watch, they were brilliantly directed, and the sets were great to see and experience with the attention to detail.

Then James realized that he could just use CGI to make everything instead of him having to direct real people in real places, he stopped actually using a camera half the time, made Avatar and just used CGI cuts which look straight out of a video game.

Now with the CGI, he’s pushing 3D like it’s some kind of game changing thing when it’s really just a gimick. It doesn’t add anything to the movies, it just makes me sick. It’s a gimick in movies, and it’s still a gimick in video games. But he’s pushing 3D in video games as the catalyst which will justify his stupid movies for the future.

“Video games are going to help propel the autostereoscopic (glasses-free) play because that’s going to be the entry level for most people.”

“These single-viewing devices that are engaging the person to play these video games will drive a lot of investment in autostereoscopic displays for that very reason.”

“I’d love to do an MMORPG experience inside the Avatar universe and I would like to see it authored in 3D.”

I’m just glad I don’t play MMOs to begin with.

From great movies, to bad CGI movies, to the horrible future of 3D movies. James Cameron is just another casualty to those who believe that a pretty moving picture to look at is more important than the story.

Via Joystiq

100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience –

When I was able to visit Japan for a short time, one thing that stuck out was just how much video games are a part of daily life in Japan. Video game stores every other block, all with huge displays selling the newest games; 6 story video game arcades taking up a quarter of a city block (which is a huge deal there, since there is such limited space); riding the trains, you will see one in every 10 people playing on a PSP or gameboy. It’s awesome for a game nerd like me. I spent more than a few hours exploring these huge arcades and checking out all the video game store. 100 Yen is an upcoming movie about arcades in Japan and just how video games are a part of life in Japan.

Quick summary of the movie. Looks cool, I look forward to seeing it.

100 Yen: The Japanese Arcade Experience is an hour long documentary focusing on the thriving, exciting, vibrant world of the arcades in Japan.
IMAGINE a world where video games reign supreme. Five stories of arcade cabinets, new and old, dominate the streets of downtown Tokyo. Welcome to Japan. A place where the arcades of the 80s and 90s not only still exist, but thrive and have evolved into elaborate environments of pleasure for any gamer.

Our 8-bit childhood has come a long way. A complete sensory overload is brought on by the multitudes of arcade games, they call out to you as you wander the vast expanses of these game havens. What was once a table top amusement has become an escape from your mundane existence. If you have a couple hundred Yen in your pocket, be prepared for The Ultimate Arcade Experience™

Following gamers such as DAIGO UMEHARA (arguably the world’s best STREET FIGHTER player) and speaking with gaming aficionado BRIAN ASHCRAFT (author of the book Arcade Mania!) we will explore the world of Japanese Arcades from a North-American perspective and compare/contrast the current trends of East and West gaming cultures.

Other experts include: Satoshi Numata, a professor of video games at the Osaka Electronic University; Ryan “Gootecks” Guitierrez another professional gamer from the Street Fighter scene; Bear Trickey, a game designer for Q-Games based out of Japan; and of course, we will be speaking to as many Japanese people as possible!

The overall arc of the story is as follows: The History of Japanese Arcades: 1978 saw a shortage of 100 Yen coins caused by the game Space Invaders. It is from this tidbit that we derived the name of this documentary.

Who is the arcade: The people who make up the clientele of the arcades in Japan; Daigo Umehara’s rise to fame and other stories that emerge along the way.

The Future: How are arcades evolving and changing to keep up with the new technology and how are they able to compete with home consoles. What is the corporate perspective on arcades in Japan?

Intel Visual Life documents The Sartorialist

I’ve followed The Satorialist blog for a little over a year now. I love the on the street style stuff he does of people in their every day lives.

Intel has done a short film following The Satorialist for a day in the life, as well as adds a little insight of how he views fashion and his work.

And here is The Satorialist website

Manifold Clock

I kinda want one. But I do have a short attention span, so unless I sped up time, it might take to long for me to be interested in it changing.

Either way, it looks cool.

Buy it here $45

Via Core77

I miss Tokyo

Found on hypebeast

I’ll be honest, it’s been a busy weekend, and it’s hard not having a working desktop at home. I’ll be back up and running with my main computer hopefully by the end of the week.

(featuring SSD! oooooo so fast!)

Aloha Hawaii – Let’s do this again real soon

With the islands still fresh on my mind Monday after returning from vacation, I was too lazy to do anything. So here’s my vacation pictures 4 days late. Deal with it.

We arrived late Wednesday night with a whole 4 days before we had to go back home. It was already nice, even at 1030 at night with the temperatures never dropping below 75 at night, never going above 88 during the day with a great breeze off the ocean. We stayed 2 blocks off of Waikiki beach which was really convenient although we didn’t get to spend as much time there as we probably wanted.


Just another of the hotel gardens around the area, this was right outside the Royal Hawaiian



Crys decided that we should go visit the zoo.
That is a freaking zebra.

He got so close, I could punch him.

But I wouldn’t do that to Mister Zebra. Unless he was getting mouthy.

Ostrich. That is a huge bird. Like, what I imagine Big Bird’s size to be in real life, but way uglier, and didn’t teach me to spell/count/sing/make friends (why don’t i have more friends?)

It’s a bird. He actually wasn’t even an exhibit. Just some bird.

That is an effin giraffe chillin with a rhino. They had like 4 giraffes, and 3 rhinos, but only these two would pose. Them other ones were stuck up or whatever.

On our last day there, we spent some time just wandering the east coast of the island, as we had only gone west and north shore each time we’ve gone. It was a good idea, as we saw so much we hadn’t seen before and it was actually very nice.
Here are some through the mountains. We just wandered around (thank goodness for the iphone GPS, probably would still be driving up there now) taking pictures at different scenic viewpoints and parks.




These are on the east shore, first time I had been there and it was actually probably some of the nicest shoreline and water I had seen, even for Hawaii. Might be better than Waikiki.
These are of a little rocky area we stopped by, mostly fisherman and such there, but down the road a bit were some beaches with sand if you wanted to hang out there.



Me gettin all artsy fartsy with the shutter speed

Then we had to say bye bye.

Few things I learned about nothing in particular in Hawaii:

The Ford Focus is actually a decent car, rides well, handles well, interior is ok.

Watching live soccer from England sucks in Hawaii, as they are 3 hours behind Seattle, and I usually get up early to watch soccer at 7 here. An early game to watch Manchester City game? 1:45 am local time.

Don’t bleed onto the dress shirt you plan on wearing to a wedding, it’s in bad taste.

Mopeds are cool, I want one.

If I were a bum, I would not live in Seattle, rather Honolulu or some other place warm, like San Diego. Being a beach bum has to be way better than bumming it up on a cold street.

Gas in Honolulu is actually about the same price as Seattle right now, and that sucks.

Vodka Tonic is my new drink. With a little bit of lime.

7 days was too many last time, 4 is not enough. 5.5 days should be perfect? (that’s using science)

Catching up on my summer happenings – the last few weeks

Here’s the cool things that I’ve done in the last month to get you up to speed.

Summer just hit in Seattle, for some reason it wanted to stay in the 50s until late June. Here are the things I have been able to do since it’s become nicer.

Went camping with my cousins.

Trying to be artsy fartsy camping pics

Went up into the mountains shooting, first time firing a shotgun, I want one now. Also shot a .40 glock, and there are 2 9mm in there, I shot both. Also that .357 revolver, I actually shot more accurately with that thing than the .40 or the 9s for some reason. I was really accurate with the shotgun.


Americuuuuhhhhhh!!!!


A bar in Issaquah where they serve Rogue beer, apparently one of the few bars that have it on tap according to beer snob Howard.


We went hiking with Howard the day before he left. 4.5 miles never felt so long. I’m a wuss.


Titan got a cool hat made for him


Watched the Sounders finally win a game, even if it wasn’t at Qwest in a league game. They beat the LA Galaxy in US Open Cup play at Starfire.

Double Rainbow Song!!!

Here’s the original

Catchy tune – japanese beer commercial

I don’t know what’s going on, but catchy tune, cool outfits, old japanese guys.

Axe Cop – up and coming web comic

I’ve been reading a lot of web comics, but this one takes the proverbial cake.

A comic written by a 5 year old, drawn by a 29 year old.

We’ve got a gang of dinosaurs to kill!

AXE COP!!!!!!!

Yeah, the picture sucks, but they didn’t give me anything to show you guys, so go to the website.

Read the rest at Axecop.com