Hellboy 2

It's inevitable that these comic-based movies would have their sequels. There's such a wealth of material to draw from, after all. Anyway, I really do appreciate Hellyboy 2. Indeed, it is superior to Hellboy 1.

The first thing that drew me were the action sequences. I mean, what's a comic movie without its action? We're going to need to have different expectations given the context, after all. Anyway, this is the first time I've seen a convincing elven war dancer on the big screen. Prince Nuada could well pass for how I envisioned Drizzt Do'Urden to appear on television. Such speed and elegance of the movies that do not smack too much of stage swordplay. I like it that the moves were executed without hesitation.

Story wise, it's really quite standard Hellboy fare. World threatened, save the world. For some reason, that always happens. Don't people get tired that their world is always facing imminent destruction? I liked the chemistry between Liz and Red, though. That's how things should work: With lots of friction and preferably flames reaching to the skies.

Overall, I liked Hellboy 2 a lot. Not as much as I liked Batman (I do so love evil geniuses), but the grand action scenes and magical moments really brought the movie to life. 8/10

Batman: The Dark Knight

Batman was exceedingly good...and unexpectedly long. I think Heath Ledger's death may have had a part to play in this, since parts of the movie seemed quite tacked on. Attempting to condense two movies into one could possibly look like this.

Now, that aside, I am completely blown away by the portrayal of the Joker this time round. It is thoroughly refreshing to finally see the Joker as a psychotic evil genius. Under that loony clown image is the mind of a psychotherapist gone wrong. I especially liked that the Joker was out to prove a point: That, given the right stimuli, even the best of people can be brought down.

I'm sorry, Batman, but the Joker managed to steal the show again. Ledger put up a performance of the standard I've come to expect of a Johnny Depp show, and certainly breathed life into the character. The references to the relationship between Batman and the Joker were timely, too. It is well known that the two never had the intention to kill one another. Batman because he isn't a killer at heart. Joker because he does so love to torment the Bat. It is really a sort of strange attraction.

Of course, I felt the whole Harvey Dent sequence was tacked on, considering the show should've been about the Joker. Besides, there were precious few scenes where the two interacted, and I'd have to presume they were somehow related to Ledger's untimely demise.

I cannot help but give this movie a stellar 9.5/10. The length and apparently tacked on sequences kept it from perfection, but Ledger brought out the Joker I had been hoping to see for the longest time: Something beyond a selfish, mindless psychopath. Every Batman villian has a history and set of motivations, but much of canon focuses overly much on the action.

Human Rationality

If humans were truly rational, they'd likely have killed themselves ages ago. After all, life is intrinsically meaningless. In fact, the "meaning" in life is not only constructed, but also created out of nothing but intangible emotions. Like every other animal, humans live, eat, generate dung, reproduce and ultimately die. The cycle repeats itself. Over and over again.

Why one would continue playing this game seems to have no reason. The pattern repeats itself, with scarce change from one generation to the next. Indeed, there is little change even between tens of generations. Some would claim their faith in religion. Others claim faith in humans. Yet some will say they work for physical goods.

Note well, then, that all these are temporal. Religion will pass away. Humans are impermanent. Heck, one doesn't even own the goods once one's dead. It would therefore seem like the most obvious solution. If people didn't really like living life, the logical thing to do would be to simply lie down and die. Yet the majority choose not to do so. Clearly, there's irrationality at work here.

Long Distance Relationships

People do seem less than capable of maintaining long distance relationships the way they do localized ones. This could be a function of their animal natures, considering that it takes effort to maintain those relationships and keeping them simply delivers diminished returns compared to local ones.

I would imagine that the bonds formed between people in the immediate area would be stronger not only due to availability, but the level of interaction. I don't see how that works, but long distance relationships seem to be proof of this phenomenon. After all, most LDRs are actually established with the assumption/understanding that the other person in question will ultimately come back. That means the LDR is really hanging by that thread, and isn't supported primarily by the prospect of communicating with the person. After all, that could be achieved by simply getting a computer booted up and typing some words in.

Social Aspies

The relative social insensitivity of aspies may be beneficial in an adverse social situation. An aspie can escape to her own world, but an neurotypical would find herself shut out from her primary world. This would be undesirable to the extreme.

It is fairly common that people find themselves in adverse social situations. It could be a case of bullying, misunderstandings or any other possibility arising from the irrational social nature of humans. Understandably, it cannot be healthy to cut oneself off from all social contact, or even most social contact. Yet, allowing oneself to be overly involved with others is another potential recipe for disaster.

The E-1

I finally took the plunge and bought myself the Olympus E-1 with its "kit" 14-54mm lens. In a way, I feel sorta flipped out, since I already have a dSLR and the lens itself doesn't add that much to my capabilities. However, I've been itching to have a go at the E-1 for the longest time, along with its much touted kit lens. I feel really fortunate to have obtained both items at a very very fair price. In fact, I stand to make a rather tidy profit if I chose to offload them immediately.

Of course, that is unlikely to happen, considering that I already love the feel of this other body. Plus, I'm really quite attracted to the fact that it's splashproof, so I need not worry about my sweat spontaneously killing the circuitry. For the uninitiated, I do actually sweat a lot, so that's actually a big deal. Besides, the CCD ought to churn out some truly spectacular colors.

Right now, my main concern is not about how much money I spent (though it was a hefty sum, albeit akin to an investment) but how I will fairly utilize both bodies. The obvious answer would be to lug both around everywhere I go. Not terribly practical. An alternative would be to bring one out in the day (obviously the E-1 with the 11-22mm, other lenses with tripod) and the other in the night (E-510 with 14-54, or for otherwise lighter kits).

What really pleased me was that the E1 came not only with the kit lens, but everything else in the box and a spare original battery. That's hot because the BCM-1 charger is significantly faster (and actually bigger!) than the BCM-2 that comes with the newer cameras. No box set? Chances are no charger. The spare battery is always a perk, too.

Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed sure strikes me as a game built the ground up for console play. Perhaps it's to do with the really smooth roof running and Parkour action. Perhaps it's the fact that even the cutscenes are interactive to a certain extent, and even require situational awareness to make the most of them. Overall, AC is a great big open-world game that feels a lot larger than it really is. And that's a good thing, considering that's an efficient design approach. Of course, the game is far more action-oriented than similar open-world games like GTA IV. It also has a lot less depth than GTA IV. However, as an action-based distraction, this really is something.

I do wonder at whether there's a connection between AC and Dreamfall, though. The themes are similar, about the shifting between realities to some extent. Not to mention the hazy, glitchy real-life sequences that remind me of certain scenes from Dreamfall. Of course, gameplay wise, these two are worlds apart. It's just a matter of whether the game took ideas from Dreamfall, had shared developers or if it's really just a coincidence...