Apple v Microsoft

With the rising popularity of Apple products over the last few years, many people have been claiming that "Apple is the new Microsoft:" that Apple has become a kind of imperialistic monopoly, and that Microsoft is now the "better" alternative.
My stance is this: Microsoft merely wants my money, while Apple wants my money but offers me a guaranteed high-quality product.
Thus, Apple retains my vote of confidence.

Superman: The Movies

Oh hey, so I forgot I was supposed to make daily posts now.  Whoops.

I watched Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman Returns (2006) back-to-back today while cleaning my room.  I wasn't terribly impressed with either of them.  They both annoyed me for different reasons.

WHY can't someone actually make a GOOD Superman movie?
There've been four Superman-themed TV shows in the last twenty years, but only one movie, and it wasn't that great.  People who were kids when the 1978 film came out love that movie, but it just doesn't entirely click for me.
At the moment, I have an idea for a Superman film that I KNOW would work on-screen.  It would reintroduce the character in new iconic ways to modern audiences, while being incredibly fun.  And I know I'm not the only person with a great Superman movie idea.  It's just that no one's actually doing it.

Christopher Nolan (the guy behind Memento, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, etc.) is now producing a new Superman film, but... I doubt that it'll be anything like what I've got in my head, and entirely too far in the wrong direction for the character.  I'm hopeful, but a little worried.

My generation does not have a Superman.  I feel robbed.

Justice League Haikus

If you don't get these references, don't worry.  Just go with it.


Tonight I will write
haikus of the Justice League
Sit back and enjoy

Superman is great
He gives people lots of hope
Heat vision is cool

Batman is angry
because his parents got killed
He needs a big hug

Princess Diana
is known as Wonder Woman
Her clothes are shiny

Aquaman is cool
No, really, he's pretty cool
He rides squids and stuff

J'onn J'onzz is lonely
His family died on Mars
He has creepy eyes

Earth's first Green Lantern
Hal Jordan loves flying planes
without his ring on

Barry Allen died
but is back now as the Flash
Sorry, Wally West

Green Arrow shoots things
He shot a guy last April
People hate him now

Mistress of Magic
Zatanna wears a top hat
and sexy fishnets*

Dinah Lance breaks things
with her super-powered screams
Yay for more fishnets!

Elongated Man
is now a ghost with his wife
Ray Palmer is sad

The Red Tornado
is a robot with powers
He controls the wind

Firestorm is two guys
in a single person's head
That's gotta be weird

Hawkman is hairy
And he never wears a shirt
Female fanservice?




*I couldn't find any other important things to say about her that would fit in five syllables.

Halo: Reach

I've never really been a huge fan of the Halo game series.

The first game in the series, Halo: Combat Evolved, was overglorified and overmarketed because Microsoft really didn't have any other good games at the launch of their Xbox console in 2001.  Halo had a few original ideas, but was basically a straightforward game.  It's mostly "run from Point A to Point B whilst shooting all the aliens along the way."  It was also somewhat simplified for the console-gaming crowd.  "Dumbed down," one might say.  For someone like me, a kid who played first-person shooters on the PC, playing Halo was taking two steps down in quality from what I was used to.  I hated it, and was constantly frustrated by the fact that nearly all of my friends were obsessed with it.

Then Halo 2 was announced.  They showed a new trailer of the game, which looked really, really fun.  I was actually getting very excited.  The general consensus among gamers was that Halo 2 would be the greatest single achievement in human history.  Then it came out, and it was... well, it was more Halo.  It didn't exactly fix any of the previous game's problems, and it didn't really make me like it a whole lot more.  Fortunately, by this point, I had played enough of the Halo games (at friends' houses) to actually get pretty good at them, so I could have fun with the game.

By the time Halo 3 rolled around, most of my Halo-playing friends were gone, so I was left to myself as far as that game went.  I loved it.  Really.  Something about the way they'd balanced the overall gameplay and enhanced the visuals made it much more fun to play than its predecessors.  The multiplayer was even better than before, and I really enjoyed it.
Then, over time, it started to get less fun.  Other games, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, started to show all the newer and better ways to make first-person shooters work.  In hindsight,  Halo 3 wasn't that great after all.

Now, the beta (preview) of the new game, Halo: Reach, is up and running.  I got to play it yesterday, and... wow, it's really good.
(the below paragraph may make no sense to the non-Halo-initiated)

Something about the way the game is balanced seems to be much better than before. In the multiplayer for Halo 1-3, the individual player didn't have much of any effect on the overall game, but now, with the addition of the new (somewhat limited) special abilities in each loadout (jetpack, sprint, camo, and shield), it really feels like each person in every game has the ability to turn the tide for his/her team.
Example: last night, I was playing CTF with two of my friends. We each had different abilities (they had jetpack and sprint; I had camo), and assaulted the enemy flag room together. My jetpack guy landed right in front of the door and caught the entire enemy team by surprise, while the sprinter ran alongside him from the ground. The two of them managed to move through the room like a wave, clearing it so that I could sneak behind them (while invisible) to snatch the flag. (random note: the flag now has a one-hit-kill melee attack. FUN. :) ) We managed to use our different strengths to their fullest, and safely got the flag home in plenty of time.
That one match has now convinced me that Halo is now, finally, awesome.

Sketchbook

For some reason, Elisabeth thinks that I'm some kind of amazing artist.  I don't know why.  But I've been meaning to get into sketching, so I bought a sketchbook and drew the above image.  I think it's pretty sweet.
The symbols above the shield read "AARON" in Kryptonian.  Yeah, that's right, I'm that awesome.

And here's two Camaros I saw yesterday:

Daily?

So... would you guys like me to make this blog a daily thing?  I'd mostly post random nothings from the day, but I'd probably also post a few more long/deep posts.  Comment!

When I was out earlier today, my Apple earbuds started acting up.  The left speaker was making static sounds when too much bass was going through it, and I could actually hear it thumping against the inside of the speaker housing.  So I slammed the left earbud backwards against my desk, in an attempt to shove the speaker back into the right spot.  It worked.  :)

Oh, and here's the Camaros that I've seen lately:

Yes, those stripes (and Chevy ribbon) are pink.