Only Captain Picard can restore the Prime timeline now!!!

I wonder whether this piece of writing will make me sound like a puritanical canon imbibing maniac, but what I’ve read about J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie has got me raising shields and going to red alert. Oh yeah, I’ll still definitely go and watch it, and I’m sure the production values are great (except for this thing I keep reading about lens flares…). But I also resign myself to the fact that Star Trek is ultimately some studio’s cash cow, and as a means towards capitalistic gains, we the viewers are subject to any re-envisioning of the medium that stems from the whims of studio executives. Accepting this, however, doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

What irks me about the new Star Trek movie is how everything that has come before no longer holds true after the defining moment where Nero kills off George Kirk on the U.S.S. Kelvin. For those of you who still don’t know, this is the point where everything changes because James Kirk no longer has a father figure to guide him, which leads him to become the rebel without a cause that we see portrayed in the majority of trailers released thus far. Oh sure, we’ve had these epoch making moments before, such as when the Borg Queen went back in time to kill Zefram Cochrane in ST: Nemesis; this incident left a couple of Borg bodies for Archer to find in the third season Enterprise episode Regeneration, thereby completely resetting the previous date of first contact with the Borg established in TNG’s Q Who?. (Note: the Borg’s appearance in Generations was simply a mistake, and has nothing to do with alternate timeline universes). Nonetheless, there has never been a reboot of the timeline to the extent of the new Trek movie. As a case-in-point, there has been a lot of criticism online about how cadets and junior officers eventually end up becoming the standing crew of the Federation’s flagship. Yeah, this in itself sucks, but it’s worse for me because this causes a whole lot of history to disappear as well. Just think, Kirk no longer served on the U.S.S. Farragut, which in turn makes the Nebula Class ship’s appearance at the end of Generations totally meaningless, and zaps the TOS episode Obsession into multiverse oblivion to boot.

Indeed, it also pisses me off totally to know that I just wasted time reading the IDW Countdown prequel series because those events now officially belong to some other galaxy far far away. Under the new timeline, it is anyone’s guess who will now end up commanding the NCC-1701-D after all. This also means that anyone who plays the Star Trek Online game will be subject to all kinds of ret-conning if the guys upstairs decide that it’s time to bring the game universe in line with the movie one. Ha, good luck suckers!

Anyway, in Roland Kelts’ book Japanamerica, the author argues that the success behind Japanese animation and manga has been the range of merchandising and fan produced media that takes place beyond what is officially sanctioned. This, he argues, allows fans to continue being part of the adventure that they fell in love with when they first saw it, be it in computer games, toys, or comic books. My problem is that my nice little virtual Star Trek world keeps getting screwed up by the guys who decide to change everything. This harks back to the days when I was reading DC’s run of Star Trek comics during the motion picture days of the TOS crew; every time a new movie came out, the comic book storyline would become totally out-of-sync (Kirk and company in command of the Excelsior anyone?). It is frustrating to know that this makes waste to all that time I’ve spent rationalizing this make-believe universe into a fantasy I can delve into, and such an investment can be pretty substantial for a fan. As an analogy, imagine your WoW character suddenly having a whole bunch of useless mana points because in a rebooted world, your Orc can no longer be a mage. Even virtual worlds have rules, which also means that they can be upset by major overhauls. In retrospect, one has to applaud DC in this regards for at least trying to resolve the discrepancies between it’s Golden, Silver, and Modern ages without completely abandoning what has come before.

The final thing that many fans have mentioned, and that I also take issue with is the apparent low-tech state of the Enterprise’s engineering section. The problem with this is that it stands at odds with Gene Roddenberry’s vision of “technology unchained”. This term refers to an envisioning of technology as being in the service of humanity’s journey of self-discovery, and not as something which sits as a stumbling block to it. Granted this concept belonged to the TNG bible, but I think that it is the spirit of the law which needs to be adhered to here. Certainly, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to consider this ethos as being present in TOS (warp drive exists to “explore strange new worlds” after all). What’s more, it’s especially unnerving to think that such an ideal should be dropped in this day and age when technology is supposed to free us but doesn’t (think mobile phone and always being contactable for example). I’m afraid to think of what else of the original has been lost in this new reboot of “Star Trek”. I’ll just have to wait for May 7th to see.

“Red Alert? No kidding!”

Well, after 2 years working on this piece, I am glad to finally announce it’s publication as a peer-reviewed article in the Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies. The genesis of this article has a certain amount of history, although it no longer has any significance in my current context...in more ways than one. What is important now is to offer my heartfelt gratitude to my co-author Jenny, who was ever earnest and diligent in her role as my co-author.

Academically, I’ve always felt that this article would be of use to students of Japan since so many of them express opinions regarding Yasukuni Shrine while knowing so little about the history of the controversy. Indeed, my feeling is that the mass media, in Singapore at least, creates a very negative bias towards the shrine. While I’m not saying that the mass media’s point-of-view is right or wrong, I truly hate this kind of paternalism because most people absorb and absorb without critically analyzing what their being fed with. In this light, I do hope that the article can provide those who have an interest in the Yasukuni Shrine controversy with some researched factual information, as well as some insight into the effects that the mass media’s reporting can have on people. Provided below are the complete citation (and link) to the article, and the abstract:

Tan, Joseph and Ni Zhen (2009), “Chinese and Japanese Newspaper Reporting of the Yasukuni Shrine Controversy: A Comparative Analysis of Institutional Media Bias,” Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, 15 April. Available at http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2009/TanZhen.html.

“Studies looking at the dynamics of the state-media relationship usually focus on structural reasons, such as geopolitical or economic, to explain how the media frames the news. However, this paper argues that media organizations also have their own agendas independent of existing socio-political restraints, and that they are therefore important social actors in their own right. A news discourse analysis methodology was used to analyze Chinese and Japanese newspapers' reporting on former Japanese Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine to demonstrate empirically the existence of institutional media bias within these newsmaking organizations that is not necessarily consistent with the reconciliatory tone of both countries' state actions. A comparison of the results suggest that while institutional ideology may predict how Japanese newspapers shape their reporting, rhetoric is an important factor in the case of the Chinese press where state control is more stringent.”

• Shinjuku Terrace City Illumination 2008 [新宿テラスシティイルミネーション2008]
• Midtown Christmas 2008 Illumination) [ミッドタウンクリスマス2008イルミネーション]
• Ikebukuro Christmas Illumination [池袋クリスマスイルミネーッション]
• Shinjuku Southern Lights [SHINJUKUサザンライツ2008-2009]
• Roppongi Hills Artelligent Christmas 2008 [六本木ヒルズArtelligent Christmas 2008]
• Tokyo Bright Christmas 2008
• Shibuya [渋谷]
• LIGHTOPIA 2008 [光都東京2008]
• Narita Airport Terminal 2 [成田空港第2ビル]

• Koganei Park [小金井公園]
• Rikugi-en Gardens [六義園]
• Mohri Garden [毛利庭園]
• Tonogayato-teien Garden [殿ヶ谷戸庭園]
  

Well, there are a couple of models falling down on the Web, but this one has got to take the cake, a true evergreen to get you up when you're down. The fall itself is bone-tickling enough, with the model doing a Tokyo shuffle before she goes down (yeah, you gotta see this one). But what makes it even more funny is the fact that the anchors are all just tickled to senseless guffawing, and as they say, laughter is contagious. But the best bit must be how the editor, evil as he/she may be, repeatedly replays the clip using different edits, which just makes the Tokyo shuffle all the more hilarious. Enjoy!

If you regularly read this blog, then you either have too much time, or I have the honor to call you friend or family. As you may be aware, I am now living a quiet existence in the suburbs of Tokyo. Pictures speak a thousand words, and I have tried to document my daily affairs as meticulously as possible, no doubt an academic quirk. (There is of course that one other reasons for this fastidiousness...oh look, what's that behind you?!) So, *ahem*, the mundane exploits of yours truly are recorded on my online photo albums at flickr and Webshots for your entertainment. Enjoy!

No, I'm afraid there's no help for men who will do the stupidest things when infatuated. I just read that this is an unfortunate evolutionary side effect. In Simply Irresistible By Dr Raj Persaud, it says that:

"However, a surprising result was that it's not just that certain shared areas of the brain are reliably activated in both romantic and maternal love, but also that particular locations are deactivated. And it's the deactivation which is perhaps most revealing about love. Among other areas, part of the pre-frontal cortex - the bit of the brain towards the front of the head - seem to get switched off when we are in love and when we love our children, as do areas linked with experience of negative emotions as well as planning. These deactivated parts of the brain form a network that is implicated in the assessment of trustworthiness of others, and basically, critical social assessment. In other words, strong emotional ties to another person not only inhibit negative emotion but also affect the brain networks involved in making social judgments about that person."

Or basically, men get stupid. Too wordy? Ok, here's the graphical representation:
 
Help Me Please !!!!! - Click here for the most popular videos

Was forwarded this by my brother, and it is deserving of propagation. This is part of a series on Hitler redubs. The story doesn't exactly flow, but if you can just laugh at the laugh-a-minute jokes, it's a way to start your day with a smile.:)

If it isn't already obvious, I've a great big fan of Supergirl. As mentioned elsewhere, there have been many Supergirls, and my scope of reference is limited to post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. I prefer my superheroes to be more complex and troubled individuals anyway. (I do feel that the current run by Kelley Puckett is getting a little too long-drawn; #26-32, that is 7 issues, running through the same arc of whether Supergirl can save a boy who is dying from cancer). Anyway, I can't say with any certainty, but I believe one of the trend starters happened during the 1986 reboot of Superman, when it was decided that he wouldn't be able to push planet and other god-like things.

The DCU has been, in the last two years, undergoing a revolution of its own. Ever since Identity Crisis got the whole 2nd and 3rd crises under way, stories have become so epic they can no longer be contained within a single title. While cynicism might suggest that this is simply a move to sell more comics, I must say that the the stories now, because of the added contextual depth and complexity, are much more fulfilling reads. Unfortunately, the current Supergirl incarnate Kara Zor-El is split over so many other titles that many people I hear have just given up. Even her trades don't do credit to all her appearances (and some are really lame one-liner bit parts I must admit), and I have yet to find a proper indexing of her story. And seriously, her own title can become incoherent without some of the fillers from elsewhere. For example, an issue made reference to her time in space with Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and I was going, "Wha wha wha?" It was only much later that I discovered this particular adventure to be contained within the first two volumes of The Brave and the Bold. While this arc does do justice to the character, it is irritatingly the norm for Supergirl to disappear into the background in whatever offshoots she appears in. Two examples come to mind: the 2005/2006 Infinite Crisis storyline, and the Vengeance arc in Superman/Batman.

This problem is prohibitive to anyone picking up her title since character is still trying to find herself. It's completely different from Superman, where I have never found a need to pick up Superman/Batman or Justice League because he behaves the same there as he does in his own titles. No monkey business, no unorthodox maneuvers, very consistent. However, while incidents here and there contribute somewhat to understanding Supergirl's angst, it's tiring to chase after a separate title only to be let down with an anti-climax where she is concerned. That being said, Action Comics #867 is a critical one-shot for Kara that any fan should get your hands on because it reveals a lot of the fear and loneliness that she feels from being the last person to have memories of Krypton, which in turns explains why she resists melding into Earth's human culture; being part of something means you risk losing everything all over again.

Whatever the case, I've decided to put together my own chronological index, that I will periodically update. And by chronological, I refer to the way I think the story flows linearly rather than date of publication. If you would rather read using the latter way, then be prepared to become lost as you try to figure out how Kara can be in the 31st century and One Year Later at the same time...good luck! Also, I would hardly call my list complete; I've scoured high and low to make sure I got everything I came to know off, but things like the DCU Infinite Holiday Special still elude me, and I'm not going to fork out on a trade just for one issue. This list will also go off on tangents sometimes because I believe in reading whole arcs, which means I finish the story even after Supergirl mysteriously disappears. An actually, I still don't have a clue how she ended up in the 31st century, although I suspect that this will never be covered, and readers are just expected to imagine how she ended up chasing a giant through space after Jeph Loeb's run in #5. If you were like me and always thought that she may have been blown away at the end of Infinite Crisis, well, she is in the last two-page spread of #7, so this theory doesn't check out. the final story arc of the old Justice League might offer a clue. Finally, although I would like to give DC the benefit of the doubt and say that certain crossovers don't fit because of POV differences, I'm more inclined to blame the mess between Amazons Attack! and Wonder Woman as an editorial screw-up. Ok, so here goes:

1. Superman/Batman #8-13 (collected in Superman/Batman Vol. 2: Supergirl)
2. Supergirl Vol. 5 #1-5 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 1: Power)
3. Superman/Batman #20-25 (collected in Superman/Batman Vol. 4: Vengeance)
4. Justice League of America #122-123 (collected in JLA Vol. 19: World Without a Justice League)
5. Superman #223 (collected in Superman: The Journey)
6. Infinite Crisis Special #1 (collected in Infinite Crisis Companion)
7. Infinite Crisis #1-7 (collected in Infinite Crisis)
8. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #16-19 (collected in SLSH Vol. 3: Strange Visitor from Another Century)
9. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #20-25 (collected in SLSH Vol. 4: Adult Education)
10. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #26-30 (collected in SLSH Vol. 5: Dominator War)
11. Action Comics #850 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 4: Beyond Good and Evil)
12. Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes #31-36 (collected in SLSH Vol. 6: The Quest for Cosmic Boy)
13. World War III #1-4 (collected in World War III)
14. Supergirl Vol. 5 #6-9 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 2: Candor)
15. Superman Vol. 1 #650 (collected in Superman: Up, Up and Away!)
16. The Brave and the Bold #1-6 (collected in The Brave and the Bold Vol. 1: The Lords of Luck)
17. The Brave and the Bold #7-12 (collected in The Brave and the Bold Vol. 2: The Book of Destiny)
18. Supergirl Vol. 5 #10-19 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 3: Identity)
19. Wonder Woman #5-13 (#6-10 collected in Wonder Woman: Love and Murder)
    Amazons Attack! #1-6 (collected in Wonder Woman: Amazons Attack!)
20. Supergirl Vol. 5 #20-22 
21. Teen Titans #49
22. Wonder Girl #1-6 (collected in Teen Titans Spotlight: Wonder Girl)
23. Teen Titans #50-55 (#50-54 collected in Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow)
24. The Brave and the Bold #17-18
25. Superman Vol. 1 #668-670 (collected in Superman: The Third Kryptonian)
26. Supergirl Vol. 5 #23-27 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 4: Beyond Good and Evil)
27. Supergirl Vol. 5 #28~33 (collected in Supergirl Vol. 5: Way of the World)  
28. Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom #1~5 (collected in Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom)
29. Action Comics #866-870 (collected in Superman: Brainiac)
30. Superman Vol.1 #679
31. Supergirl Vol. 5 #34 (collected in Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman?)
32. Superman/Batman #62
33. Superman's Pal: Jimmy Olsen #1
    Superman: New Krypton Special #1
    Superman Vol. 1 #681
    Adventure Comics Special featuring the Guardian #1
    Action Comics #871 (collected in Superman: New Krypton Vol. 1)
34. Supergirl Vol. 5 #35
    Superman Vol. 1 #682
    Action Comics #872
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #36
    Superman Vol. 1 #683
    Action Comics #873 (collected in Superman: New Krypton Vol. 2)
35. Supergirl Vol. 5 #37
    Superman Vol. 1 #684
    Action Comics #874 (collected in Superman: Mon El Vol. 1)
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #38
    Superman Vol. 1 #685
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #1
    Action Comics Annual #12
    Action Comics #875
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #39
    Superman Vol. 1 #686
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #2
    Action Comics #876
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #40
    Superman Vol. 1 #687
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #3
    Action Comics #877
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #41
    Superman Vol. 1 #688
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #4
    Action Comics #878
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #42  (Supergirl Vol. 5 issues collected in Supergirl: Who Is Superwoman?)
36. Supergirl Vol. 5 Annual #1
37. Superman Vol. 1 #689
    Superman: The World of New Krypton #5
    Action Comics #879
    Supergirl Vol. 5 #43
    Superman Vol. 1 #690 (Superman Vol. 1 issues collected in Superman: Mon El Vol. 1)
    Superman Secret Files 2009 #1
38. Final Crisis #1-7 (collected in Final Crisis) 
39. Teen Titans #66
40. Justice League: Cry for Justice #1~
41. Trinity #25~52 (collected in Trinity Vols. 2 and 3)
42. Blackest Night: Superman #1-2

Just looking at this list, if it doesn't already strike you how often Kara appears outside her title in somewhat significant portions, then you should look again. And the problem is that these aren't always neatly collected in trades. For example, Kara leaves the Teen Titans in #55, which isn't in the Titans of Tomorrow trade. So if you missed that, you're going to be left scratching your head, especially since the word is that she's about to join the Justice League. Also, if you decide to skip Amazons Attack!, then you're going to be wondering what the deal with the President's plane is in #20 of her own series. She's also slated for some big role in Final Crisis (yeah, I've heard that before) and another run in The Brave and the Bold. Super, blech. Stay tuned!

Due to an interesting change in circumstances just two days after I made the original post, a relative amount (yes, the evaluation is totally qualitative, and it's meaningless to quibble over such boundaries) of its contents no longer apply. It was an unsettling time for sure, and I'd rather not have people ask me what the hell that was all about. Nonetheless, what is in fact a more nuanced discussion of the incident exists elsewhere.:)

An interesting picture caught my eye in the 11th July edition of mypaper. Namely (left):
 
The thing is that this particular edition was so filled with images of bento boxes that I assumed the "fishes" in the picture to be plastic decorations on a balloon. How mistaken I was! Those Plasticine-looking fish are actually Balloon Lumpfish, and are very much alive. Check out the bewildered look on the fish second to from the left! Here's a close-up stolen off the Net:

And I came across this while searching out, so what the heck, it made my day, haha.
 
Why is it labeled Nevercaughtfish I wonder. Maybe this one IS plastic.

Ok, because someone actually sat through my photographs on Japan, I realized that I had better expedite a solution on the ambient music problem. A quick Google exercise later and voilà, problem solved. I needed a file host that would retain the file extension on my BGMs, and FileDen.com has proven to be a highly satisfactory solution. Strangely, the files then refused to be streamed under my old coding. It works offline on my computer, but doesn't off my web host. I garner that the host probably lacks support for something technical that I don't understand...and you know I oh so hate to be defeated by technology. I therefore resorted to the not-so-elegant but simple solution of embedding the BGM directly into the HTML code. Although this means that the music won't start with the slideshow, I have found the discrepancy to be negligible after some testing on my own. So, apart from the fact that I'm still 28-years-old on my Web site, I am glad to say that almost everything else has been returned to a state of normalcy.:)

Anyway,  I was shopping around for some free Web hosting, with the important requirement that no banner ads should appear on any of my pages in any form. There are some dubious one I must say, where the main page of the site doesn't even look legitimate. Others like the Webhostplanet family (yeah, there's a bunch of different sites with exactly the same layout etc., duh!) don't engender much trust - while the opening page says no ads will appear on your site, the small print says that by signing up, you give them permission to place ads. Huh?!

Finally, I settled on Zymic Webmaster Resources. To be honest, I'm still holding my breath on this one. I have transferred everything over, and my site is now running at http://jpstbcj.vndv.com/. However, FTP uploading wasn't smooth with many failed connections, and the URL itself sometimes requires multiple refreshes before it finally loads. It also blocks mp3s (fair enough), so my slideshows are muted till I figure out a way around this. Many of the transferred files are also smaller than the original, so without further testing, I'm assuming that the host is running some kind of compression; this might also explain why the page loads rather slowly. I'm no techie, so I'm just doing some deductions here. Whatever the case, the forum posts suggest that this vndv domain might be new, so I hope these are teething problems that will soon be resolved. In the meantime, I once again have a little corner of the WWW to call my very own.:))

I just had the opportunity to read Army Daze again (the first time I read in was in primary school), and I must say that it is much better than the movie; golly (and I'll get to this term later), the pacing got really slow at times, which took away from one's immersion, not within the movie, but into our own nightmarish recollections. Certainly, and as I also mention in my little book list blurb, the real setting is a lot more vulgar. I was in Alpha platoon in BMTC1 in Pulau Tekong, and we had this aqua OC who would always shout out, "You fucking recruits, want to suck my dick is it?" Well, he said it enough times for the birth of an urban legend regarding what happened to the recruits who went off into his office.

Then, there was the memorable third sergeant C. B. Lee. Hey, who can forget such a name, eh? Well,  this dude was a real beng, and his hobby was to give a bunch of us nickname. He called me Gomer Pyle (and he wasn't the first to remark on the resemblance, although I certainly don't see it). So anyway, whenever he said, Gomer Pyle, Gomer Pyle, hit it!" I had to say, "Golly!" But he didn't really pick on me much - there was this poor sod called S. A. Tan (no kidding) who was called Cookie Monster. When the sarge went, "Cookie Monster, Cookie Monster, hit it!" he had to go, "C is for cookie and its good enough for me," with a growling accent no less.

But the thing I remember C. B. Lee most for was a stirring speech he gave very early on; he said that as recruits, even the cockroaches in the drains had more rights than us, and he wasn't kidding when he said that. I don't think instructors can get away with this kind of talk anymore (when I left, vulgarity was already frowned upon), but those were the days. There was no logic to many of the things. Like when, during our first swimming lesson, the PTI ordered us to get into warm-up position when nothing had even been taught to us. His next line was something like, "Fucking hell, don't know how to get into position is it? Never mind, all knock it down!" Or, what about when you wrongly called a sergeant sir? Well, you had to repeat this tongue twister, "I will not call my sergeant sir and my sir sergeant" at speed, would inadvertently get it wrong, and would then be punished for it. Oh, and I think they can't do this now, but the instructors always had a way round the no-more-than-20-pushups-at-one-time rule. They would simply find fault with whatever you were doing and send the count back to zero. E.g., "Chao recruit, cannot count is it? Never mind, start from zero," and so on and so forth.

This was my first BMT. But since I spent the latter parts of it as a PES C temp, I had to go back and do it again a year later at Nee Soon Camp. Interestingly enough, I was part of a Hokkien peng section. Apart from the fact that they liked to stick their fingers up your ass hole (and I mean IN your rectum), they were quite cool people really. I dunno...I always thought that they looked up to me as the only Air Level, wishing that maybe they had a greater knack for studying. This second modified BMT had its fair share of characters too. Most notably was this former Manhunt winner, all buff and all, but was excused everything! I remember he went for the BIC in PT Kit because he was excused uniform and all. He recently appeared in a commercial for some piece of property chatting up a girl and all that. Man, if you'd see him back then, haha. And he was fit! He could run the 2.4 (before he was excused running) faster than the instructors (oh they tried, but they could huff and puff all they wanted to no avail). And during the gym session, he would do half presses and all that when the PTI turned their heads...funny.

Anyway, you're not supposed to have fun in the army, and the whole point of the bald heads and all is to make you lose all sense of being an individual after all. Not that I appreciated the crap that was dished out of course. But back to my main point: there is no movie or book that I have seen that truly captures the abuse that was a staple of National Service back then, which means that any adaptation of army life will always fall short. Oh and, if you ever wondered about all those Chinese profanities you were spouting with such fervor, there's actually a Wikipedia entry on it. :P

Man, I've never laughed so hard for a long time. If you haven't heard of fail humor, check out a sample of said fare below:

Well, I must say that my expectations for the PC version was greatly piqued after I had an opportunity to play it on a friend's XBox 360. I've never played the much vaunted NBA 2K, and with NBA Live 06 having lasted 3 years on my PC, 08 looked really great! The players' idiosyncrasies, such as shooting stroke and free throw routines were all there, not to mention the sweat that was rendered on the players. Not having a console myself, I could only turn to 08 for the PC, and what a shock and horror this has been.

For one thing, the PC version seems to have been developed separately from the console version, with many elements of 06 carrying over to 08. This was immediately apparent when I noticed the players running in the "girly" style that has irked me all this while since I started playing 06. If they could motion capture the dunks, I really don't understand why the players run like, I dunno, like an ostrich trying to fly. I can't comment about the renderings because I can't run the game at maximum graphics intensity, but there's enough to talk about with things like this:


I mean seriously man, did the developers do any debugging at all? The bench floating around doesn't obstruct your own players, who can run through them as though they are the apparitions that they appear to be, but it is just crap that this kind of mistake can happen in a commercial application. And let's not forget the infamous coach-in-the-scorer's-table image:
 

Or this NSFW image of a public display of affection between coach and player (I kid you not: the player was indeed frozen in this position of ecstasy):
 

But apart from this, the gameplay is simply appalling on 2 fronts. First, the ability to configure your roster has been severely crippled, with many of the functions in 06 now gone. For example, you have no ability to choose your starting lineup. You can set it on the menu screen just before you enter the game, but you have to do this every single time the game is rebooted. What's worse is that the starting lineup even resets itself if you idle on the calendar screen for too long. Another roster limitation is that you can no longer arrange the list of players according to most used. This becomes a real hassle when you think about how substitutions is now necessary in 08 because players can fatigue quite quickly; Kevin Garnett, for some reason, loses half his stamina after just 2 1/2 minutes on the floor. So, if you have a long roster, you're going to have to drag that side scroll up and down at least twice in each game. Apart from this, you also cannot select your controller until you enter the game, which is also another real drag.

Next is the in-game play itself. I know NBA Live has always been programmed with an advantage for big man (they can block shots and shoot over opponents), but this has gone all out of proportion in 08. The reason - even guards can block your shorter players. It simply amazes me how Tony Parker can block 4 shots in a game when his average stats is less than 0.1, and his block rating is only 13 (if memory serves). Heck, I think he blocked my Yao Ming avatar once...while on a drive to the basket! What is worse is if your player has some crazy floater signature move, which increases your chance of being blocked because a hanging player allows the computer to react and challenge your shot. (Note: a crazy quirk is that the block very often counts as a steal for the opposing team, and a turnover for you).

The super irritating steal-block thingamajig.

Things got so bad I even had to trade Paul Pierce! He couldn't drive because he would get rejected there, and he couldn't shoot because he floated - in the end a totally useless player in the game. By the way, in case you are thinking, the computer rarely if ever falls for a pump fake, so you can forget that. On my own part, even though Kevin Garnett is rated 90+ as a shot blocker, the computer's player almost always drives happily by without being challenged. Go figure. Another strange thing is that your players lockup as the opponent is shooting free throws. This means that, as much as Steve Kerr complains about your lack of blocking out, there is nothing you can do about it because you can't move your players immediately after a miss. What crap.

Hints and Tips
I play 5 minute quarters, and my team is averaging 170+ points a game; I have 3 players averaging 30 points, and I lead the league in sugar spice, and everything nice. How do you do this? Apart from the usual things, such as to challenge every shot, here are 3 other not-so-obvious things you can do.

1. Never forget to resort to the good old inbound steal! (Ahh, reminds me of the good-old Sega Genesis Lakers vs. Celtics days). You could do it in 06 too (I was averaging 200+ points there, which I also would in 08 if the likes of Parker and Bibby weren't blocking all my layups). You can't do it the 06 style though; back then, you had to poke the ball out of the hands of the player after he receives the ball. In 08, you have to move in front of the opposing player as the inbounder throws the ball. Your avatar will block the ball into his own hands 90% of the time; sometimes the ball is blocked behind the player, which is really only possible in the warped physical space of 08).

Going for the steal!

Unlike 06, however, you can't simply go in for the dunk after you get the ball, lest Boykins blocks your shot. What I've fond to be most effective is to use your player's body to block the defender behind the backboard. This way, he can only fling wildly as you drop the reverse layup or short jumper. By the way, these shooting options can be better than dunking because a dunk sometimes freezes your player with the post-dunk animatics, and prevents you from re-positioning your player to catch the next inbound.

Blocking out!

2. The usual trading rules apply in that the computer is greedy for numbers. You can easily trade 3 average players for a star player provided you don't exceed the salary cap and the other team's player slots. This is how I managed to land Chris Bosh for Leon Powe, Brian Scalabrine, and Tony Allen. What a coup. Christ Bosh in 08, by the way, is someone who can easily average 50 points. This is because he has a bigger profile that increases your chance of an inbound steal, the speed to rush to block the ball in spite of his size, and an unblockable dunk provided you do it in a particular position somewhere near the base of the basket.

The unstoppable dunk pattern.

3. And finally, get big men only! If you can manage it, i.e., they aren't too slow, play only big men. The block, steal better, and can dunk after the steal. Apart from wide open shots, this is your best bet at succeeding in 08.

Well well, the mid-semester break is upon us once again, and this means I'm free to post nonsense on my English blog again. Topics like this nifty online flash that converts you into a Simpson! Ok ok, this is old news, but I just got wind of it alright? Anyway, this online app allowed me to put to rest once and for all this theory I've always had that Felicia Chin looks like a real-life Simpson. I dunno, it's just that her mouth is shaped stylistically like a Simpson, with a somewhat protruding upper lip. Don't believe me? See the results of the Simpsonizeme for yourself:

Convinced? Yeah, I thought you would be, hehe. And just in case people think I don't have a sense of humor, (which I do...it's just a little subdued you know what I mean you anal-retentive prick?), I made myself into a Simpson too:

The flash app makes the eyes blink, which is a fetish I've had since my All About Ranma 1/2 days, but I'm too fat and lazy now to put myself through the ordeal of drawing eyelids frame-by-frame. So, in my own little socialist way, I give you the power to imagine me blinking instead of imposing my own artistic impressions on you. Yeah, I'm nice.:P

Read the texts indicated in the workbin and consider the following questions for the discussion in the tutorial:

Shira Chess discusses how a game like GTA actually disciplines the player into the ideologies and structures of contemporary society. GTA induces (or plays into) certain desires in the player - this is how it generates pleasure in the player.
1. How does the game lock the player into a certain 'subject position'?

P, 81 – Enclosure of disciplinary monotony; Cellular – forced narrative that keeps player within certain spaces in the game and in reality (p. 82); Genetic – time limits in the game lock the player into virtual rather than real time (p. 83); Organic – Precise movements and locked game narrative structure codifies and makes movements repetitive (p. 84); Combinatory – Rewards such as rank and points etc. are handed out based on obedience to these rules (p. 85).

2. What role does the interactive element play in this?
Supports the Western legal system by creating an inner penal system within the game that promotes conformity and legal behavior in the real world (panopticon); does this by using a reward system where crime doesn’t pay since the player is doomed to be killed or jailed (p. 89).

3. How does Chess' assessment of GTA relate to Manovich' discussion on interactivity?

Who is in control in User-to-System Interactivity? Manovich suggests that technology (i.e., the Internet) has objectified/codified the scope of interactivity. Contrast this with art without implementation – Yoko Ono’s “Record the Sound of Falling Snow.”

4. How does this subjugation of the player relate to stereotypical gendered and raced representations of 'others' in the game?

Player is subjugated under a binary of real vs. imaginary; exaggerated references to racial and gendered stereotypes implicitly acknowledge the political incorrectness of such sentiments; stereotype is so cartoony that as much as it re-enforces the stereotype, brings attention to what is politically correct (p. 87).

Use Wendy Chun's piece to explain why interactive technologies, like the Internet, invoke a disorientation and a 'fear of the other'.

1. What is particular about the aesthetic of interactive media?
It belongs to the frontier of the mind (disembodiment) with everything reduced to images, which therefore avails itself for the user to orientalize the experience (p. 7); At the same time, there is the danger of going native (p. 29); think of how the self and other reference and codify each other:

Assume that in this world, only John and Dave exist.

John is strong, and Dave (the native) is weak.

John’s superiority in terms of strength only has meaning if it is contrasted with Dave’s weakness.

So, John always has to reference Dave in order to appear superior.

In this case, John has been nativized because (i) not only does the self-concept of John now always include Dave, John can only ever be defined against categories that have meaning to Dave, in this case strength. So for example, if John and Dave has the same intelligence, John cannot define himself in a superior way using this characteristic.

2. In turn then, how do the current dominant fantasies or metaphors of interactive technologies, as well as the cybernetic interface itself, manage Western fears of the economically emerging orient (like China or Japan)?
p. 13 – metaphor of interactive technology is of the American cowboy who is able to avoid assimilation by the Japanese zaibatsu, and preserves an individualistic realm where the American can still triumph; p.13-14 – Jacking into cyberspace disembodies the self, making one anonymous and thus powerful; when the self no longer has to create a facade of the presented self, it is free to live by its own ideals; p. 12 – images of the Other are confined to the first point of meeting where colonialism triumphed, and where the Self is in a position to freeze an image of the Other within an Orientalized past; low tech future of the other (p. 23) allows for the fantasy of reconquering the Other (p. 26)

3. Why is a film like Ghost in the Shell so popular with Western audiences, and how

does this relate to racialised depictions of space, and characters in the anime?
p. 26 – Anime allows American viewers to orientalize and thereby penetrate into Japanese culture. P. 28 – The film is ambiguous enough to alienate the viewer, thereby allowing enough narrative space for interpretation (i.e., to orientalize). P. 9 – In addition, the nature of cyberspace/television is such that the Other is observed at a distance, which means that the self is free to interpret the Other without a chance of any errors being pointed out; p. 27 – The viewer’s gaze often coincides with that of the Major, which turns the viewer into a voyeur with a subjective locus with which to interpret the images being presented; this affords the viewer a chance to delve into fantastical interpretations (i.e., to orientalize)

4. Discuss the possible relationship between Chun's argument of 'cyberspace' as facilitating orientalist fantasies, with the common stereotyping by Western players of the 'Chinese' as 'goldminers' spoiling the pleasure of the game in, for instance, WoW.

Image of the yellow peril is enhanced rather than challenged.