I made a thing

Mortality

So after one day at school last month, I decided to head by a bookshop led by a major newspaper, aka, Politikens Boghal (The politics' hall of books in english, which is a stupid name for a bookshop but I digress). Whilst there, some kind of insanity took over my brain momentarily as I got out of there with 3 books - None of them fiction nor comic books. Trust me, that's not something common in my case.

The first of which I've recently finished: Christopher Hitchens' Mortality. In case you don't know who Hitchens is (or rather, was) let me fill you in: Christopher Hitchens was a journalist who took huge part in the ongoing religious debate. Something that has come to fill more and more in our age. Hitchens was one out of four pioneers of the "new atheism" thought, dubbing themselves "The Horsemen" (Named after the mythological four horsemen of the apocalypse, ironically). New Atheism is a more aggressive form of secularism, not content with merely not believing itself but also working to lessen religions grip on certain governments (most notably the influence of Christianity on America). Being a "follower" of this thought process myself I certainly sympathise with what they're attempting to do, rock on!. This book however, is something different altogether. I won't embarrass myself by trying to review it (It's out of my domain of expertise by far and Hitchens who reviewed books himself from time to time would be rolling in his grave if indeed such a thing was possible). So let me just vaguely describe what the book is all about.

Mortality in a nutshell is a compilation of the final published essays by the man Hitchens himself. Most of which were taken from the magazine Vanity Fair, of which he was a frequent contributor. The book has a morbid sort of narrative, his essays being about his worsening condition. All of these essays were written while he was treated for - and finally died of throat cancer.  It's a very self-reflective book, and no amount of opportunity for well-versed sarcasm is passed by. The man was adored by some and hated by others, and in some essays he answers some attacks on his person - all the while this reader could picture a smirk on his face over the keyboard. He also jokingly mentions the idea of writing a book about interaction between a patient and loved ones. All the things not to ask and all the things not to answer. The man knows his rhetoric, wielding it with great skill. Where the book is sort of off-putting, is the final chapter. The chapter is composed of loose notes found on the man's computer post-mortem, which makes it saddening. These were some of his final thoughts.

Reading the book has made me think of my own mortality and how little thought I've put into it, the last time I remember genuinely thinking about dying was a night in march 2012, where I after having drunk enough alcohol to slur myself through Tribute by Tenacious D on a Karaoke bar had gone home. On the walk home, as readers of the blog may recall, I was struck by a car because I didn't bother to look before crossing the road. One moment I'm crossing the road thinking about some personal issues when suddenly a jolt of pain hit my left side and I was sliding across the asphalt. Not thinking about pain for a few seconds, I jumped to my feet and looked to my right. A black station car's  red eyes were staring at me, I held up my hand confused to slap some sense into myself and the driver must've taken it as a sign to drive on as if nothing happened because that was just what he did. Drove on into the night, swinging down past the crossroad nearby and disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. Then and there, I thought about death. Well, for a couple of seconds anyway before my left ankle gave in from what I would find out was (thankfully) just a sprain. Allowing me to confusedly hump my way into the sidewalk before collapsing before a light pole. Now, I haven't done anything great with my life, and I certainly hadn't then so the thought of how easily death can creep up on you scares me. Looking at the numbers of course, a lot of arguments could be made for the fact that no human has done anything meaningful with their life as of yet at all - but that is far too depressing.

I'm way too happy-go-lucky to let myself drown in that way of thought though, I may be an atheist but that doesn't mean I think humanity is meaningless. The thought that humanity is a mathematical curiosity in the universe, and the thought that we humans may one day make a true impact on the vast sea of the universe is way too beautiful. Do I believe in Aliens? Definitely. Do I believe that they have made contact with Earth? Not at all. But the thought that we should be alone in the universe strikes me as sad. On the other hand the thought that we, ugly naked monkeys, should be the chosen ones of some higher being strikes me as both arrogant, angering and silly.

First week

As I write this, it's the first saturday after my first week in my new classes. I'm taking Religion, Media and Psychology at an adults education centre in the middle of Copenhagen. The new classes seem nice, but as I said, it's only the first week so I can't really say that much about them yet. It's actually funny how fast people get back into routine, well, me at least. I've only gone there three days but already the trip in there is a total cakewalk. Not the trip home though. No, on my way home I stare stark into the entrance to Fantask, a comic book shop. So far I've had trouble not walking in a buying me something. I've bought:

• The Dennis O'Neil/Neal Adams Green Arrow-Green Lantern run as a trade
• The World of Flashpoint: Starring The Flash as a trade
• Flashpoint the main book as a trade

I've also ordered the rest of the Flashpoint trades online from the same store. 

Yeah, I need to teach myself self-control on the spending part. 

Needless to say, I'm big on The Flash but I haven't really read the solo-adventures till now and I'm loving it. I got into the Flash after watching the animated version of Justice League: The New Frontier (Which you can read my review of here)

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on any further developments

- Later Days

Current situation

Life has it's way of making twists and turns and as such I am now currently sitting in a center for competence and occupation. I had the misfortune of failing to finish my last class - resulting in my education not being valid. Because of that I couldn't go on to university and now I'm on government wellfare. Yeah.. it's bad. The center I'm at is meant for people in my situation. Or a similar one. It's meant to provide courses so that people can go on to their next attempt at an education or till they get get a job so they can provide for themselves - whichever comes first. I've been here before, in 2010. I'd been drafted for the military and was waiting for my 4 months to come up. I consider it a dark chapter in my life, but it was still a milder experience than what I suspect others have had to deal with. Back then, CKB (as it's called) was for all age groups. I've come to understand that, that is no longer the case. It's now only meant for people under the age of 25 without a education that qualifies for something on the level of university. As such I still consider myself luckier than most others, since I know what to do next.

The Carrey

Arguably one of the most popular comedic actors of our time, Jim Carrey has starred in numerous both critically and publicly acclaimed movies. When it comes to acting, he has a great amount of talent for both serious and extremely bizarre roles.

Carrey is a funny guy, yes. Personally though, I'd like to smack him across the head.

So if you haven't heard by now, Jim Carrey has taken back his support of the movie Kick-Ass 2. Carrey himself stars in the movie as a militant weapon-toting character called Colonel Stars and Stripes. Carrey stated on his twitter recently that filming for Kick-Ass 2 had ended before the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre where several children and staff members where either shot to death or severely injured. Some of them crippled permanently. After the massacre, Carrey apparently decided that such violent movies as Kick-Ass 2 would be insensitive towards the victims and therefore he took back his support of the movie.

Now, this could have ended there. Carrey could have pulled back his support of the movie in light of the horrors at Sandy Hook, people (myself included) would have accepted his decision and that would be the end of it. However, the Sandy Hook shootings took place in December of last year. Kick-Ass 2 is set to release this coming August. Photography for Kick-Ass 2 ended in November. What this means is that Carrey has known how violent the movie was going to be for several months, known about Sandy Hook for several months but only NOW does he decide to pull back his support of the movie. This my friends, is what we in the business call a load of crap.

What this screams for me is that Carrey has felt this way for several months, but being the hypocrite this would make him, he waited for the paycheck to get passed. Thanks for the money suckers, Your movie sucks!

So why is this a problem? Why am I upset that a single actor suddenly changed his mind on a project - even if it is a project I have been looking forward to? Fuck it, right? Well, here's the thing. Mr. Carrey is, as I said, a very popular guy. Had it been a lesser known actor, I probably wouldn't have cared. But Carrey is likely to to completely ruin the sales for the movie on his name alone. Already mainstream media have printed articles with titles like "CARREY LEAVES VIOLENT MOVIE". Sure, you and I are reasonably invested in movies in general and we probably already decided whether or not to watch this movie. But the average viewer? The kind of people that only watch movies once in a blue moon? Let's just say that it's not going to be pretty.

I'm not saying that the average viewer isn't intelligent. Sure enough, they can be just as intelligent as anything. But unless you have a vested interest in movies you most likely aren't going to hear both sides of this argument. Most people will read the article "Carrey leaves violent movie" and decide not to watch it because an actor they like decided it was bad news. This movie is going to lose needed viewership because of a combination of ignorance and outrage. I can already hear the outraged soccer moms scream in disgust as I type this article.

Now, this isn't just about the movie losing sales. Carrey, to me at least, is also kind of insulting the viewer in taking back his support of the movie. What he is basically saying by doing this is that violence in media leads to violence in real life because the average viewer, in his eyes, isn't able to tell fantasy from reality. He'll still take money for appearing in it, so fuck that. 

So how can he win back my respect? By standing by the decision he's taken. Simply going back on his own words and saying "Oh wait, I changed my mind, go watch Kick-Ass 2 everyone!" would piss me even more off. One thing is making a stupid decision, that's annoying enough as it stands. An entirely different matter is going back on your own word due to peer pressure. That's just spineless. 

Mr. Carrey, You've fucked up. Now stand by it and stand tall. I'll keep defending your movies to my dying breath, but please take another minute to consider what you're doing and WHEN you're doing it. The when is sometimes, and especially in this case, more important than the what or the how.

- Later days.

Offspring Fling!

The game really isn't as creepy as the title may sound.

Sometimes it's nice to just sit down and relax with a nice puzzle platformer. This is exactly that. Lately I've not been one for big games but more something I can play for a bit and then quickly stuff away when I've had my fill. This game fills that purpose quite nicely. In Offspring Fling! you play some sort of bunny.. thing. You purpose is to get all of your offspring to the door in the level by flinging them through various obstacles, activating buttons and whatnot. There really isn't anything else to it. The artstyle is cute and fuzzy and the puzzles are just hard enough to keep you interested throughout.

I've had this game for some time now but I've not really played it before recently. Reason is that I got it in a Humble Indie Bundle and then just kind of forgot about it. Call it a pleasant surprise if you will. I even only booted the game when I did because I heard the game had become part of Steams Trading Card system. In hindsight, I'm kind of ashamed I didn't try this out sooner because it actually is pretty good. It reminds me of Braid, another puzzle platformer I just kind of bought and forgot about originally.

While certainly a good game art and game-play-vise,
the story for Braid was just kind of pretentious and confusing

This game is nothing like Braid though, it knows exactly what it is and it doesn't try to tack on some kind of artsy fart-sy drama on top of it that no one but the creator actually understands. The artstyle is cute, the music is cheery and simple, and the story is the most wayforward ever: Your family is attacked by a dinosaur, so your offspring scatters. Go collect them!

So why I am I talking about this game at all? Escapism mostly. There's some issues with my school-transfer endangering my entire livelihood (In my country, students are granted a monthly payment from the state). I'm expecting to have my grades put into the national exam database today so I can send out applications to the next stage of my education but I fear there may be some technical difficulties for various personal reasons. On top of that, my father has finally gotten told by his doctor that his liver is giving in after years of light-alcoholism so my life is kind of stressful. This makes me write as escapism, mostly reviews for Kaiser Critics. 

Anyway, I'll keep you posted.

Later days.

Batman

So I've bashed Christopher Nolan on this blog a couple of times. Needless to say I am not a fan of his methods nor his movies. But that's not exactly what I want to talk about. I want to talk about comic books.

Lego Batman the movie: DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)

Lego Batman the movie: DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)

Beginners Guide: Team Fortress 2

I've been playing Team Fortress 2 for quite some time now, considering myself a pretty decent player. However, some newer players make choices in the game that to me just defies logic. Therefore I provide you with this short list op tricks I've picked up for new players:

In General:

• Before choosing a class, please consider the setup on your team. If your team already has 3 Heavy, pick a Medic or at least another class.
• Don't let dying dishearten you, thankfully dying doesn't play quite as big a role in this game as in most others
• If you get an item drop, please wait to check it out or equip it till after the round is over. You're needed in the game.
• If you get a losing streak, don't take it out on your team mates OR your adversaries. Just carry on carrying on.
• Changing class rapidly helps no one, try to keep it to a minimum
• If you and your friends are on an English server but NOT native or at least adequate English speakers please consider not using voice chat and maybe using Skype instead, communication is awesome but listening to a language you don't understand can just be confusing and distracting. 
• If you ARE adequate at English or a native English speaker and discover someone not following the above rule, please hesitate to be in their faces about it. Be polite. Always be polite. Remember, you can just mute them if you're not using the voice chat anyway.

Batman (1966)

Batman (1966)

Lots of morereviews up since my last post :D

Read my reviews!

So, I've opened a new blog called Kaiser Critics. On there I expect to review whatever movies I see, shortly after I've seen them. So at the same time, you can follow my movie-watching habits (if you should be so inclined) There's both old and new movies there, from Rope to Iron Man 3. Right now there's 9 reviews up, so do me a favor and go check it out! Who knows, you might be inspired to watch some of these movies yourselves.

The collection of David

Today I went to see the collection of David and took a few pictures :) I know I'm not a super photographer so I'll strongly suggest you go see it yourself in Copenhagen!

just an update

It's about time I started actually updating my blog and now that I've installed this blogger app on my humble android phone I MIGHT get some incentive to do it just a tad more often.

The Lion King Storybook

 This was originally going to be a rewrite of the number 7 spot on my top 10 Disney Interactive games. But I instead decided to make the following it's own thing and delete the former post all-together:

ROCKS

Today I went to the Danish geological museum with class. I'd decided to take some pictures of this as it's my first visit.

Harlekin and the assignment

Kaiser had to take matters into his own paws to get attention.

I've turned in my major paper this morning, it counts for a third of my completion grade so here's having my fingers crossed, and my toes crossed. And anything else I can cross.

Buttons

Did I ever tell you guys how much I miss buttons on my phone? I mean really, aside from the aspect of "hey, we're able to" what is the purpose of only making the non-button phones powerful? Well. At least I dont live in Japan where they're still all about the flip phones.

A Whovians Plight

I've not mentioned this on the blog, but I'm actually pretty big on Doctor Who.

New Year lookback

Picture taken by me, that's Miki in the foreground there

A new year has begun, and so we look back at a year full of major changes.