Previously...
“Christ” he said has he collapsed back down in the storefront. “I killed Dana?”
“Not yet,” His thoughts had once again returned, “but there is still time.”
“Already done it once” a new thought said, “So what is a second?”
“Does he have a reason?”
“Did he need one before?”
Continued...
The newspaper was no help to him at all. It wasn’t that he could not find any unsolved murders; it was that he lived in a really bad part of town and there were just too damn many.
The obvious thing to do then is to go through each one and see if any sound familiar. He sat back down because there really were a lot of unsolved murders in yesterday’s paper. Either the crime rate was high or the cops were, but murders were going unsolved faster than the paper could report them.
He knew he was not the type of person to stab someone. He hated the sight of blood, so over half of them were dismissed immediately. There were four drowned: at once! He did not have the patience for something like that. There was a fire of unknown origin that killed a family. He checked for his lighter. It was still there. He did not set a fire.
It seemed he was in the clear, but not feeling particularly secure where he lived.
“Told you this was the type of place a murder could go unnoticed. Is that why you moved here?”
“He didn’t move here, he left her to come here.”
“You mean he killed her.”
“Stop it!” Charlie yelled silently. He was not used to these feelings. He was actually starting to feel guilt, guilt of all things! He never felt guilt before in his life and was unsure how to deal with it.
“Maybe she isn’t dead” he pleaded to his thoughts.
“Anything is possible Charlie.”
Dana made it to the coffee shop ten minutes early. She had left her apartment so early that she had time to stop and buy a pack of smokes before work, but didn’t have to. Luck was on her side today because sitting in an empty storefront she always passes on her way to work was an unopened pack of cigarettes. Her brand no less.
The only bad part of her day, the part that did not go as planned was her manager called in sick. He was not going to know she was early for once.
It did not matter, she knew Charlie would be coming in soon for his morning coffee. Ever since they met, he had to see her before going to sleep. If she left for work before he returned from a walk, he would go by the shop on his way home. He would have some explaining to do this morning that he may not be up for.
Today Dana decided she is going to find out what exactly Charlie does on his “walks” and why they take so long. He was gone for three days one time and never called. After seventy two hours, he strolled into her apartment and went to sleep. To this day, she still has no idea where he went those days.
To Be Continued
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Star War: Empire at War. The Nostalgic Review
By Kanrei
It was such a long time ago...
I remember the days when Star Wars always brought a smile to my face. Sure, I was twelve, but still. The movies were not even that important to my smile, although I worshipped them more than the Pope does G-d. No, it was the feeling of playing with my action figures and vehicles and recreating my favorite scenes.
As I grew up, all I was left with was the movies (people stared at me when I played with my toys in college). The problem was Lucas could not leave the movies alone. He had to re-edit the original trilogy. Then he had to make a new prequel series, only he doesn’t make it for his fans (now in their late 20’s), but rather goes for the toy market again and makes children’s movies.
The only positive aspect of Lucas making those movies has finally revealed itself to me. I was in a store (rather not give a free plug) and saw the yellow spine of a box sitting in the computer game section. The “S” joined into the “T” in the first four letter word. The “R” merged into the “S” in the second four letter word. There was a new Star Wars videogame out. Normally this would not have caught my eye, except that this one was in the Real Time Strategy(RTS)game section.
Star Wars releasing video games is nothing new. Some even don’t completely suck I have heard, but I am not a fan of shooters. I like strategy games. Command and Conquer, Warcraft, Starcraft, LOTR: Middle Earth: I loved them all. The idea of building bases, building troops and squads and sending them into battle was so much like playing with my action figures as a child, only this was virtual and not as awkward to be caught playing.
The only real problem the vast selection of RTS games had was none of them really dealt with my childhood fantasies. Most were geared towards the Dungeons and Dragons crowd and that was not really me. I was Star Wars. Starcraft came close, but the story and sounds and everything was just not right. That is why Star Wars: Empire at War has made me so very happy. My inner-child feels like giggling insanely, but he knows it scares me when he does that.
Star Wars: Empire at War is a surprisingly good product from LucasArts. I do not mean to upset the fan boys, but Lucas has sold me out to many times for me to say “it’s Lucas so it must be good”.
The game takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. As the Rebels, your main objective is to gain allies, steal empire technology, and destroy the Death Star. As the Empire, your main objective is to stop the Rebels and take over planets. Lucas was at his best when he did not worry too much about things like plot.
The game play can really be broken down into two games, so I will take each one separately.
To take over a planet, the first step is a battle in space over the planet. If defending, you have a station that the enemy must destroy to win. If you defeat all their forces or make them retreat, you win. Each side has “points” that limits how many ships they can have at one time. The stronger the ship, the more points it uses so the less ships you can have out at one time. This keeps the sides fairly even regardless of who has the most money.
The next step in planet conquering is the land battle. Not as strong as the space battle, but still fun. Same basic formula as the space battle in that each side is limited to how many troops they may have out at once, and the defender has a base that must be protected. The main difference is, while space reinforcements can be deployed in any area you control, land battles have a limited number of “landing zones” that must be held to bring down more troops. A land station is also composed of multiple buildings instead of the single station as in space.
That is how it works, but now you probably want to know if it works.
First, let’s get the bad out of the way. There are not enough ship types and the graphics are only fair. The single player campaign can also be completed far too quickly.
Now, it is time for the good. The sound is amazing. The sound effects and musical score are straight from the original movies. The voice acting is very effective and well done. The actor playing Han Solo sounds so much like Harrison Ford that you will forget it is not him.
One issue most people have with RTS games is the building of resources. Either hiring miners or building farms can really slow a game down. In Star Wars, all you must do is build a mine or two. Upgrade twice and you are done. No worries, no fuss.
While the graphics are weak, this does not detract from game play. In fact, in space, it will not even matter. The only real graphic problems are in land battles and that is just that I kept thinking "this is good for the mid-90's, but".
The one unique feature they offer to compensate for the fair graphics is a “battle cam”. This turns the game into a movie, complete with musical soundtrack, that you can just sit back and watch the action you started. Don’t worry; the AI is good enough for you to do this in short periods, although I would not recommend it during online play unless you are sure you have won.
Speaking of online play, the community is surprisingly kind and helpful. There are those cocky-game pros who love to mock new people, but their shallow pride is laughable, so don’t worry about them.
Overall, if you are like me, and really miss being a child and playing with your Star Wars toys, then this is the game for you. Few things will make the hair on your neck stand up like controlling a battalion of AT-AT’s or flying Luke Skywalker to the Death Star. Lucas has restored some of my faith in him. I remember why I loved Star Wars in the first place.
Grade: A-
Good: nostalgia, sounds from movies, fun game play, good online community.
Bad: average graphics, short game, and not enough variety to types of troops.
It was such a long time ago...I remember the days when Star Wars always brought a smile to my face. Sure, I was twelve, but still. The movies were not even that important to my smile, although I worshipped them more than the Pope does G-d. No, it was the feeling of playing with my action figures and vehicles and recreating my favorite scenes.
As I grew up, all I was left with was the movies (people stared at me when I played with my toys in college). The problem was Lucas could not leave the movies alone. He had to re-edit the original trilogy. Then he had to make a new prequel series, only he doesn’t make it for his fans (now in their late 20’s), but rather goes for the toy market again and makes children’s movies.
The only positive aspect of Lucas making those movies has finally revealed itself to me. I was in a store (rather not give a free plug) and saw the yellow spine of a box sitting in the computer game section. The “S” joined into the “T” in the first four letter word. The “R” merged into the “S” in the second four letter word. There was a new Star Wars videogame out. Normally this would not have caught my eye, except that this one was in the Real Time Strategy(RTS)game section.
Star Wars releasing video games is nothing new. Some even don’t completely suck I have heard, but I am not a fan of shooters. I like strategy games. Command and Conquer, Warcraft, Starcraft, LOTR: Middle Earth: I loved them all. The idea of building bases, building troops and squads and sending them into battle was so much like playing with my action figures as a child, only this was virtual and not as awkward to be caught playing.
The only real problem the vast selection of RTS games had was none of them really dealt with my childhood fantasies. Most were geared towards the Dungeons and Dragons crowd and that was not really me. I was Star Wars. Starcraft came close, but the story and sounds and everything was just not right. That is why Star Wars: Empire at War has made me so very happy. My inner-child feels like giggling insanely, but he knows it scares me when he does that.
Star Wars: Empire at War is a surprisingly good product from LucasArts. I do not mean to upset the fan boys, but Lucas has sold me out to many times for me to say “it’s Lucas so it must be good”.
The game takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. As the Rebels, your main objective is to gain allies, steal empire technology, and destroy the Death Star. As the Empire, your main objective is to stop the Rebels and take over planets. Lucas was at his best when he did not worry too much about things like plot.
The game play can really be broken down into two games, so I will take each one separately.
To take over a planet, the first step is a battle in space over the planet. If defending, you have a station that the enemy must destroy to win. If you defeat all their forces or make them retreat, you win. Each side has “points” that limits how many ships they can have at one time. The stronger the ship, the more points it uses so the less ships you can have out at one time. This keeps the sides fairly even regardless of who has the most money.
The next step in planet conquering is the land battle. Not as strong as the space battle, but still fun. Same basic formula as the space battle in that each side is limited to how many troops they may have out at once, and the defender has a base that must be protected. The main difference is, while space reinforcements can be deployed in any area you control, land battles have a limited number of “landing zones” that must be held to bring down more troops. A land station is also composed of multiple buildings instead of the single station as in space.
That is how it works, but now you probably want to know if it works.
First, let’s get the bad out of the way. There are not enough ship types and the graphics are only fair. The single player campaign can also be completed far too quickly.
Now, it is time for the good. The sound is amazing. The sound effects and musical score are straight from the original movies. The voice acting is very effective and well done. The actor playing Han Solo sounds so much like Harrison Ford that you will forget it is not him.
One issue most people have with RTS games is the building of resources. Either hiring miners or building farms can really slow a game down. In Star Wars, all you must do is build a mine or two. Upgrade twice and you are done. No worries, no fuss.
While the graphics are weak, this does not detract from game play. In fact, in space, it will not even matter. The only real graphic problems are in land battles and that is just that I kept thinking "this is good for the mid-90's, but".
The one unique feature they offer to compensate for the fair graphics is a “battle cam”. This turns the game into a movie, complete with musical soundtrack, that you can just sit back and watch the action you started. Don’t worry; the AI is good enough for you to do this in short periods, although I would not recommend it during online play unless you are sure you have won.
Speaking of online play, the community is surprisingly kind and helpful. There are those cocky-game pros who love to mock new people, but their shallow pride is laughable, so don’t worry about them.
Overall, if you are like me, and really miss being a child and playing with your Star Wars toys, then this is the game for you. Few things will make the hair on your neck stand up like controlling a battalion of AT-AT’s or flying Luke Skywalker to the Death Star. Lucas has restored some of my faith in him. I remember why I loved Star Wars in the first place.
Grade: A-
Good: nostalgia, sounds from movies, fun game play, good online community.
Bad: average graphics, short game, and not enough variety to types of troops.
Clear Sign of Endless Middle Eastern War: Part II
By Kanrei
I think I missed a page somewhere in my life's story. Last time I checked, David Hasselhoff was pretending to be a lifeguard with a talking car or something and Paris Hilton was a barely-dressed reality show star with a tendency to flash photographers. Now I see they both are not just singers, but singers with well reviewed albums?
Were those door-to-door preachers actually right and I died and find myself in Hell? Which flavor of G-d were they selling again and is the offer still good? If you swear it will be eternity with quality entertainment, I will consider your flavor: anything to take me away from a world where Paris Hilton is a pop star.
Has Reality Television so lowered our standards of entertainment that we don't even require, oh let's say TALENT from our stars anymore? I should not say Reality Television. Thanks to that stupid Cancun spring break movie and now two Jackass movies, MTV has spread this horrible disease well beyond the boob-tube. It is an epidemic.
We have gotten to a point where we let Reality shows decide our pop stars, our next big actor, and our freaks? How long until we decide that elections would make a ton of money if we just put them on TV and charged people $0.99 per call?
I can see it now:
"Call as many times as you want. Come on America and pick who will be your next President of the United States! Will it be Bob from Chicago who can balance a refrigerator on his chin? OR will it be Susan from St. Louis who can sing the entire score of "Jesus Christ Superstar" entirely in Greek? The lines are open America."
You may think I am making a joke, but I honestly am not sure if that is a joke or fortune telling. The path we are taking entertainment-wise scares me as a student of history. Right before most empires fall, the citizens take delight in watching the suffering of others. It used to be feeding people to lions, now it is humiliation on television and bad singers pretending to be actors and bad actors being bad singers.
At least no one dies anymore, although if I hear "Stars are Blind" again, that may change. Again, I hope I am joking =D
For Part One
To Part Three
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Welcome to the Home for Wayward Lemmings!
It appears I am actually getting traffic here. Welcome to the Home for Wayward Lemmings to all the new visitors. I feel I should explain a bit about myself to help you deal with the weirdness you may encounter here.
This is not one of those “let me tell you all about me” blogs. I hate online diaries and have no desire to host one. I am an aspiring writer (like 90% of other bloghosts) who writes short stories and political and pop culture essays; also the occasional poem. I am writing this one short bio-of-sorts just to get it out of the way and let you know about your host/author/commentator.
I am 35 and I live in Miami, Fl. I am single and live alone. A wonderful combination if there ever was one. I have two cats, but I am straight. I am a film fanatic and a political junkie.
I took the name "Kanrei" about ten years ago when I played a lot of role playing games. I picked it from the back of a book a friend had. I learned about two years later that it was Japanese for "Shogun's Deputy". That made me like it even more. When I became a blogger, it was a natural choice for an online name.
I have been blogging about four years, but contained myself to a single site until recently. I was more of a chorus member, posting short sentences in “debate” on a political commentary site before I decided to try and stand on my own. Why did I wait four years? It took a kick in the arse from some friends to inspire me.
I work in the field of sleep medicine. It is an amazing field actually. For example, did you know there were around 80 different sleep disorders a person can have? They also spread the gambit of psychological disorders to physical disorders, so what we do is narrow down the actual cause of the symptoms.
For the record, I am not a doctor or even a technician. I write the company news letter, and handle some HR issues. I suppose I am the assistant HR manager. I basically manage the night staff. In a nutshell, I call people who work at night early in the morning to tell them they must work that night. Irony defined. I ruin people’s sleep so they can help other people sleep. Their payback is I work seven days a week pretty much.
Politically, I am a left leaning constitutionalist. I have strong Libertarian leanings, but I hate political parties too much to join one. I believe joining a party limits your options. I am one of those people who find the Republicans selfish and the Democrats useless. I am not sure which is worse for the country.
I think that is about it. Anything else, you will just have to learn by coming back again and again. How’s that for a hook? Hope to see you again.
Welcome to the Home for Wayward Lemmings!
Ninjas and The Matrix
Jury Duty: At Least No Pauly Shore
I got the letter today. It is that letter that is dreaded by every citizen. It is that letter, the one with the envelope that just screams “bad news”. That is right, I got drafted: jury duty.
The first instinct in a situation like this is to start thinking up ways to get out of it. It was my instinct last time. I showed up carrying Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the Nation? and sat happily reading it while I waited to be called.
It was not what was in the book that made me so happy; it was my simple, yet devious plan. Who would pick someone reading a book called Stupid White Men? Miami-Dade County Courts, that’s who. I was in the first group called.
Even though it did not work out last time, it was still my first instinct again. The difference this time is that I feel no desire to follow through in any way. I was robbed last time. I got picked to serve. I got myself psyched for a trial. I began to wonder about what kind of trial it would be. I was hoping for something interesting and fun without a real victim. I don’t think such a court case exists, but I can hope.
I got nothing. The defendant decided to change his plea when he saw the jury. What the Hell is that? A tease is what that is. I got dressed up, got there on time, went through the swearing and the nonsense and “BAM”, thanks but “we no longer require your service”. I think I am the only person who served jury duty and got sent home within 4 hours and was pissed it did not take longer.
Here it is, a year later, and I am going to the same courthouse. Instead of a book picked for its offensive title, I will show up prepared for a long stay and hope to be picked. I really think a trial might be fun.
Of course, this could all be some reverse psychology trick I am trying on the universe.
The first instinct in a situation like this is to start thinking up ways to get out of it. It was my instinct last time. I showed up carrying Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the Nation? and sat happily reading it while I waited to be called.
It was not what was in the book that made me so happy; it was my simple, yet devious plan. Who would pick someone reading a book called Stupid White Men? Miami-Dade County Courts, that’s who. I was in the first group called.
Even though it did not work out last time, it was still my first instinct again. The difference this time is that I feel no desire to follow through in any way. I was robbed last time. I got picked to serve. I got myself psyched for a trial. I began to wonder about what kind of trial it would be. I was hoping for something interesting and fun without a real victim. I don’t think such a court case exists, but I can hope.
I got nothing. The defendant decided to change his plea when he saw the jury. What the Hell is that? A tease is what that is. I got dressed up, got there on time, went through the swearing and the nonsense and “BAM”, thanks but “we no longer require your service”. I think I am the only person who served jury duty and got sent home within 4 hours and was pissed it did not take longer.
Here it is, a year later, and I am going to the same courthouse. Instead of a book picked for its offensive title, I will show up prepared for a long stay and hope to be picked. I really think a trial might be fun.
Of course, this could all be some reverse psychology trick I am trying on the universe.
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