Crimson Sundown

Maybe we can bring back the light

For the past few years, LOST has been a staple show in my viewing rotation.  Many times, it has been the only thing that I felt was worth watching.  Now for some people, their intrigue for LOST is something that just spawned after watching the first season and seeing all the weird things happen and how people tried to deal with it.  Some might have even been enticed by the flashbacks and the connections that people had to other characters.  All fine reasons to like the show, but I know for me my obsession for the show was tied to one very specific moment.

Watching Terry O’Quinn in the first season was something that made everything click for me.  Honestly, the flashbacks and episode were fairly standard fare.  Here was a guy, with a boring job, no significant other, and someone that got picked on by many people.  Sucky of course, but by no means tragic.  That all changed for me, and my attention was cemented in place once the music kicked up in the background and the grand reveal was that John Locke was bound to a wheelchair.  This was the first of many “OH SHIT” moments that I have had with LOST.

Here was a man that was crippled in the real world, yet on this island he is able to walk.  Would certainly give faith and conviction to anyone put into that position.  Still to this day that scene envokes such emotion in me, that I can’t think of anything else overtaking it as my favorite scene ever, in any format.

Yet with the amazing, comes the down turn.  Locke has gone up and down as the series has continued on.  When Locke reaches his lowest, I feel defeated.  When he rises back up again, I personally feel like I overcame adversity with him.  I have had many opportunites to do this, because like a well written character, Locke has a weakness like anyone else, one that I can immediately identify with.

Locke spends so much of the series being told what he can’t do, that once he gains a bit of confidence in Season 1, it’s obvious that he won’t be taken down so easily.  Yet over time what you find out is that Locke has had some stable points in his life, before his crippling.  Exploiting and bringing Locke down is not a terribly difficult plan of action, as you simply need to fill him up with thoughts that he is someone of importance.

Like so many others in this world Locke just wants to be apart of something.  People will go up to him and tell him that he is special, that he is an extraordinary individual.  Once you have built him up to a certain point, that is when you can start having him do whatever you want for you.  After that, characters have simply dumped a now degected Locke because they know that he won’t do anything to them.  He’ll just crawl back up into his shell, waiting for the next person to build him up and crush him.

Why the long post about a fictional character?  Because when I watch LOST, John Locke stands out as a masterfully written character, one that I wish I could create.  What if there was a character that was just so abused and kept trying to believe in something, only to have it snatched away from him every time.  Now for John Locke in the show, each time his faith is tested, he gets one step closer to fulfilling his destiny.  Yet what would happen if a character who kept getting shit on decided to shun his destiny.  Would characters try and embrace him and put him back on the path of faith?  Or would they destroy him, because he could bring anymore destruction on the world?

This is what I’m trying to work on for Scion and while I can’t see anything else that is happening in the story, I have a clear image of this character that I’m trying to create.  I see him, and I see his inspiration that is John Locke.  My only hope is that I can make this new character of mine 1/10 of as impressive as John Locke.  If I can do that, then I assure anyone who plays in my Scion adventure down the road … you’ll be in for quite a treat.

We are on the cusp of something cool here people.  We are officially 2 for 2.

CosWatch, the wonderful idea started by Frega, Dro, Liv, Tee Morris and myself has officially been accepted as Press for Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh, PA and as of today, Anime Boston in … wait for it … Boston, MA.  What follows after this sentence are my thoughts on the process and why I’m so excited about all of this.

This whole idea got started at Anime USA in Virgina this past November.  As anyone who has followed my rants for the past few years, I am a big fan of Anime Conventions and simply conventions of geekery period.  I think it’s a lot of fun to be in the same place as so many other fans, and have a forum to further your love of the hobby.

Yet this convention in particular, 2008 being our fourth year there, something was lacking.  Perhaps we had simply grown too old for this kind of thing (possible).  Maybe the event was just not well organized (definite).  Whatever the reason may be, the most fun we had was everyone huddled around the couch and table area in our hotel rooms, drinking and talking about things.

One thing that stayed constant, was our love and hate for the amazing and down right disgusting cosplay that we saw.  This is when the idea became a reality and people seriously considered trying to go to a convention and interview people, blog, podcast and take as many pictures as possible.  We wanted to give ourselves a reason to be at these coventions and we hoped that since that is our favorite part of this, that it would enhance what we were doing at the cons.

When I asked for press passes to Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh, I firmly believed that we would get a ton of passes.  Mostly because it’s a fairly small convention and any press they could get to the event, would be good press.  I ended up being right, even though it took me forever to get in touch with them.  Granted we didn’t end up going to this con because of Dan’s birthday, but that’s besides the point.

When I filled out the press form for Anime Boston however, this is where I began to worry.  Boston is a HUGE convention, one of the biggest on the east coast next to Otakon, and they are known for being real sticklers on a variety of topics.  Yet here we are, heading to Anime Boston free of charge.  This event, since it was in such doubt, is somethign that I’m extremely excited for now.  Tekkoshocon I could deal without, as it was just something to do because I wanted to get this idea off the ground.  Now though we are going to a big convention which is going to be a real blast I think.

I will keep everyone posted on how preperation goes for this event and be sure to keep tabs on www.coswatch.com for the latest news from the convention!

Because of the generation that I am currently (and forever) situated in, technology is just going to be a part of my life.  Things have moved forward and expanded at such a fevered rate that sometimes it’s a little daunting trying to keep up.  I am constantly striving to do just that, keep up, and for the most part I do ok with it.  What I have found out though, is that while I may be aware of something’s presence, I am usually very old fashioned and feel like the way I’m doing things is just fine for the time being.

The easiest example for me to point to is obviously how long it took me to break down and move to the iPod.  I wanted to stay so close to the CD’s that had cluttered my living space for ever.  I liked having the liner notes, took great joy in the little easter eggs that artists would sometimes sprinkle through the packaging, and simply liked collecting something.  Of course, those days came to an end, and now I’m like everyone else and loving the way I can have my full music library with me at a moments notice.

I didn’t want to use a blog software for my website, I preferred hand crafting everything myself.  Part of me still does, but now the convenience of WordPress has superseded anything I could have ever done on my own.  Just last month I was talking about how Twitter just didn’t seem that interesting to me.  Today I am watching as Trent Reznor and Chris Cornell get into a flame war, and wake up to the image of Shaq sleeping, all from just 140 characters per message.

Twitter has now started me to think in a different way.  Before twitter I just didn’t get the entire idea of Blackberries and iPhones and having the internet hiding in the back of your pocket.  I mean why may the extra money for a phone plan with all of this data integrated into it, so that I can have a cool phone?  Yet here I am, realizing that the iPhone plans aren’t much more than what I already pay a month.  With it I would be able to get Google directions instantly, have my e-mail always with me, and anything else that I may need.

This whole thought process got worse last night, as I bought my first Blu-Ray disk.  Just like my first DVD (The Matrix fyi) the only Blu-Ray player I have is on my computer.  For a start, I think that’s just fine.  Right now I think the Blu-Ray player in the laptop is a wonderful idea, so that if I’m every away from the house, which is becoming more and more popular lately, I can have a high definition movie to watch with me on the go.  That and a 17″ widescreen is pretty awesome to watch a movie on when you aren’t home.

The first movie I picked up was Wall-E, and I can’t come up with enough clever ways to tell you, the reader, just how damn impressive the picture and audio quality is.  It just looks completley uncompressed, so the texture quality and detail level is unlike anything I have ever seen.  I can see individual rust spots on Wall-E’s face, right next to the specific type of round bolt that keeps his face together.  It’s ludicrous how good it all looks.

Does that mean I dive head first into Blu-Ray?  No.  Like anything else, I will slowly build up to that point.  First I need a bigger TV that can get me 1080p, and then I get the player, and even then I can only get specific movies on Blu-Ray.  Animation and Action movies are worth it to me, because the high definition quality makes the movie better.  I don’t need my comedies or drama’s in high def.  What’s the point, so I can see how bad of a job the makeup artist did?  Not to mention that I can’t justify the $30 a pop price to rebuy all of my previous movies.  I have over 200 DVD’s, and there’s no way I’m going to buy them multiple times.  Shit, some of them I shouldn’t have bought even once.

With the other technology, it’s the same policy.  When my phone contract is up, I might switch over to the iPhone, or just get my parents off the plan and get a Blackberry.  Simply put I just don’t know yet.  Technology is great, but it’s very expensive and early adopters always get screwed.  I’m a wait and see kind of guy.  I don’t mind that I didn’t get something first.  I just like getting something that works …