A Twist

I'm sure many of you have heard of the tragedy that has befallen the Benoit family, and if you haven't, you really need to pick up a newspaper or something. Like RVD has said on his personal website, it's really rare for a baby-killer to have so many people talking about how great a guy he is, and certain recent events have been quite strange.

A few people have discovered that the Wikipedia entry on Chris Benoit was edited about 14 hours before the discovery of the bodies of him and his family. This edit stated that Benoit no-showed a particular WWE event due to the tragic death of his wife, Nancy.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Hiro, Cable and Marty don't really exist.

Together with Fox News trying to link the apparent murder-suicide to Sherri Martel's demise, it's quite a sickening media circus. But we all know about Fox, don't we? Paragons of fairness and journalistic excellence.

OK, jokes aside, I just hope this gets cleraed up pretty soon. Chris Benoit has never impacted my life profoundly, he's never known I've existed, but he's still a legend in my eyes, and I need to get back to the essay I've supposed to have finished a while ago.

More Than Meets The Eye

"It's just you and me, Megatron."

"No, it will only be me."

"One shall stand, one shall fall."

I'm a Transformers fanboy. I admit it. And when I heard that in the 2007 movie, I almost wet myself. Classic quotes. For. The. Win.

After the disappointments of Pirates of the Carribean, X-Men 3 and Spiderman 3 and the less than fantastic Rise of the Silver Surfer, I had braced myself for a repeat of Alien vs Predator. Well, maybe not so. Nothing could have matched the crapfest that was AVP.

About 150 minutes after walking into the theatre, though, I exited with a smile. And not because it was over. Oh no. It's just that it's been such a long time since I watched a movie that had got me buzzing so much. Totally the best movie this year other than 300.

Only one complaint, of course. The weird fact that the Autobots and Decepticons both used a variety of ballistic and projectile weapons, not the traditional lasers that so many of us are more familar with (and make more sense, if you think about it).

I'm so hoping for a sequal, though I won't discuss what I hope is in it (yet) for fear of spoilers.

Still, the movie could have only been better if they had included but one more quote, from Megatron to Optimus.

"I'll rip out your optics!!!"

PS: No, I didn't watch it for Megan Fox. Prime was waaaaaaaay hotter than her anyway.

Eh...

Well, I usually don't have too much sympathy for those who've murdered their loved ones, but he was still one of my favourites.

I considered taking down my last post, but it'll stay up for now.

The Wolverine

I got home today, and went to check out what's been going on in the make-believe world of the WWE. And saw something truly shocking.
Benoit is gone.

It seemed only recent that Eddie Guerrero passed on, and now another one of my favourites has heard his final bell.
I remember the first time I saw Chris Benoit on TV on the (now-defunct) WCW. He was up against Dean Malenko, and it was a brilliant mat-based style wrestling-match. After years of growing bored watching repetitive kicks and punches and the occasional zombie, this match reminded me of Bret Hart, and how I used to love watching him counter the baddies like Diesel and Shawn Michaels.

Till this day, I'll credit Benoit for really introducing me to the technical side of wrestling, which has in turn led to my intrest in MMA and UFC. Of course, there will be those among you who will merely say "Naz, it was wrestling. It's fake." And to those people, I'll repeat what I said before: That's not the point.

Not much more I can say about him really; I was never fortunate enough to meet the man, and with him gone and Kennedy moved to Raw, CM Punk is my only motivation for even briefly considering shelling out some cash for the Summerslam tour coming up.

Rest in peace, Chris Benoit.

Lines Are Closed!

Due to overwhelming response, I'm no longer taking blog names. I like this word.

And... 14.

Same Crap, Different Name

Yeah, I changed the name of this place. I never really liked what it as called in the first place, and this one seems off too. Open for any suggestions.

Go.

Video Games

Video games have come a long way since their humble beginnings of Pac-Man and Mario. In this day and age, it is not uncommon for video games to possess special effects rivaling even Hollywood cinema. As such, there has been a rising level of “realism” that more and more games have come to embrace, and that the audience has come to expect. In correlation, some have argued that this level of realism in violent games such as Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Doom is a direct and major contributing factor in the rise of societal violence, criminal or otherwise; a notion that is, quite frankly, absurd.

Many are quick to point out the violent lifestyles that certain games seem to condone and encourage in its players. Take, for example, the immensely popular Grand Theft Auto series by Rockstar games. In these games, players assume the role of several characters, usually portrayed as a typical “thug” made familiar by Western media. The goals of the game(s) usually centre on stealing cars and killing all who stand in your way. While this might seem anti-social at best, the argument here is similar to the “Silver Bullet” or “Hypodermic Needle” theories whereby any message transmitted by a source is received and absorbed by its audience without question. There is, however, a rather large assumption made for this theory to be accurate; namely that the audience is passive and interpret the information or message in a uniform way.

In reality, however, people are not passive and homogeneous in their interpretation and reaction to a message. Incidents of a lone Korean gunman mowing down schoolmates after playing certain games or two adolescents who drag toddlers in an imitation of Death Race are not representative of the much larger audience. They are merely isolated events, similar to how some can go their whole lives smoking ten cigars a day without succumbing to lung cancer. It is unfair to assume that because such acts were in some way or shape related to video games, those very games are the root cause of such violence. Not everyone grabs the nearest chainsaw to eviscerate their neighbour after completing Doom, not everyone attacks scientists and soldiers with a crowbar or wrench after installing Half-Life and not everyone kicks adjacent bikers into incoming traffic ala Road Rash. Most people simply put down the joystick and get on with their (non-violent) lives.

One might also view this issue by taking a step back from what is actually being reported and represented. While the relative ratio of violent to non-violent video games has been increasing in correlation to rising societal violence, one might also argue (more forcefully, it would seem) that the only reason for such a phenomenon is that video game producers are only giving the public what they want. Violence and violent video games are both on the rise, but is the former attributed to the latter? Hollywood cinema churns out blockbuster after blockbuster, and nearly every single one of them has aspects of violence brazenly displayed. In fact, fight, chase and action sequences of gory punches, high-speed crashes and loud explosions are usually the selling point of many movies in recent memory. Disney’s hugely-popular Pirates of the Caribbean franchise has countless scenes of death and fighting, many of which can be argued to be excessive, at best. Even Toy Story, also released by Disney, and targeted at a young audience, allows its main characters the use of guns and violence. In the opening half-hour of the movie, viewers can already see “Woody” dealing with the “bad guys” by using his imaginary guns. Other “kiddy” movies like Finding Nemo also have their own violent aspects. Classic Saturday-morning cartoons like Tom & Jerry or Road Runner have also been found to be at least as (if not more) violent than traditionally “violent” programs like televised professional wrestling events. Even in music, violence is condoned, if not applauded. Popular country trio The Dixie Chicks released the song Goodbye Earl, which was about a pair of women poisoning one of their husbands. Other acts such as Eminem and Story of the Year similarly address issues like vehicular homicide and strangling a loved one (in Stan and Until the Day I Die respectively). With so much violence and aggression in the air around us, how can video games be a major factor in this rise in violence in our society? If our societal climate is evolving (or degenerating) into a violent one, would it surprising at all that more and more people play violent video games?

Modern day video games are violent. This violence has existed almost as long as Pong has blipped across minds of gamers. The Jedi Knight series released by Lucas Arts, modeled after the epic Star Wars saga, allows its player to dismember enemies. In Battlefield 2 by Electronic Arts, gamers may fire round after round into hostile soldiers, watching blood spurt from their many wounds. The Mortal Kombat series released by Midway, still going strong, has allowed its fans the glory of virtual death via acid and the ability to rip the arms off unfortunate opponents. Unreal Tournament and Quake encourage their best players to take the heads from lesser warriors. Even in pixellated Wolfenstein 3D, players could kill their “German” captors in the comfort of Windows 3.1. But gamers are people and not merely passive subjects moulded by any one form of media or entertainment. In addition, many more people watch movies, cartoons and MTV which can be said to be more violent than video games by leaps and bounds. Can mere video games be a major cause of the rise of societal violence? Absurd.

Foul-Mouthed Buffoonery

"Check this out..."

"Holy shit, dude that's not a guy!"

"Bro, that man has boobs!"

Now, a few people might have found the afore-mentioned bits of conversation slightly familiar, and have since given me some food for thought. A nasty (not nazty) habit, most of us have been guilty of talkig behind someone else's back at one point or another in the course of your adolescent (or even later) lives.

A long time ago, I learnt of someone who's been badmouthing the members of my household with little regard to the validity of his claims or even his audience. Truly, when you learn that a the significant other of the colleague of the significant other of someone who lives at my address was filled in on the apparent shortcomings of the family at No. 33, it does rattle the cage somewhat, so to speak.

It's not the first time such a thing has happened, and it probably won't be the last; far from it. The particular tattle-tale, who I'll call Anansi (look it up), apparently enjoys embellishing his reports of my family being stingy, uptight and arrogaant pricks.

Now, I'm no Momma's boy, but I can say we aren't uptight. Well, most of us at least.

Back to the point, though, I guess everyone has badmouthed someone. It's an incorrigible habit, but it's something widespread. Sort of like farting. Everyone does it, you just don't know of it, but the stink gets around and you can't figure out where it started from.

Well, I'm a little less annoyed with what I was from my last entry, and I'm hoping that someone lends me some good books to read. I know I'm supposed be lending Silence of the Lambs and The Hunter's Blades to people I know, so someone please save me.

And stop talking behind my back.

Ah, Melancholy

There is a blue wall in my room. Just the one. The rest are white. I can't remember what colour they used to be before the renovations were done. Biege? Green? My memory has never been stupendous.

Boredom is a vile condition. An affliction made worse when one is broke. It's like being... well, it sucks.

Today I was faced with the somewhat unique situation of going home. Now, you might argue (somewhat accurately) that such an occurence is hardly a rarity, but today I had to take public transport.

Well, I've taken the public transport services in Singapore for close to ten years now, and it's mostly been great. Fairly efficient and decently priced. But after driving almost everywhere for a week, it tends to get demoralising lugging your books and other stuff in a train that resembles a moving can of sardines than anything else.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people who insist on driving everywhere. It's just that the past week or so of driving has really been, well, a breeze. Waking up late(r) for school, getting home in under an hour, and the best part? I don't have to worry about bringing a good read to pass the time on the invariably dull train.

Sigh. Another day tomorrow, buses and trains.