Harry Potter and the Great Addiction

As the title of this blog states: The Harry Potter books are worse than a crack addiction...and I don't mean that in a bad way either. I love the series and applaud the author [J.K. Rowling] for reigniting everyone's need to pick up a book and to read.

After spending this past weekend, reading the 700+ page novel that is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Now I will not ruin the ending for those who have not gotten to the end of the book (i.e., my sister who last time I checked was around chapter 17). Great Ending though! I just wanted to note that how over the weekend everyone from kids to an elderly man were waiting in line to get their copy of the coveted seventh book and final book in the coveted Harry Potter series.

Almost like a crack addiction, people needed to get their fix about how the story of the Boy Wizard would end. And fortunately I needed to get that fix too. I could say it was a close friend/ co-worker at the University of Florida Bookstore who got me into reading the book. I was probably with the few back then who thought a book about a boy wizard was stupid and childish. But after reading Book Three at the time, I was really hooked and thought the story was simple yet complex at the sametime.

The day before the book came out, my father and I had a conversation about the hype surrounding the book. He thought it was stupid (what compels someone to stand in line for a book?) He also thought a book about magic and wizards was stupid. My only counterargument was, "Hey it making kids and adults alike read. Haven't you notice dad that people nowadays just don't sit down and just read a book?" Alas, he agreed, still holding on to the thought that the media coverage about a kids book was getting too much hype. That's true, Lemony Snickets didn't get this much fanfare.

Now that the book is done and sits on my bookshelf as an amazing feat of my AWESOMENESS. I wonder what else is out there that I can conquer....hmmmm, sounds like that would be something worth writing.


Until Next Time.

Haiti comes to the video game world

Today while watching G4TV's Attack of the Show, it was revealed that setting/location of Capcom's Resident Evil 5 will be everyone's favorite forgotten Caribbean island: Haiti.

Now being Haitian myself (well my parents are from there, I'm really from New Jersey). I don't know if I should feel a bit elated that the tiny nation is being mentioned at all [beside the whole Grand Theft Auto: Vice City]. Or if I should feel a bit worried that this great game that deals with zombies and death, will shine a poor light on the Caribbean nation.

There's already that stigma that Haiti is all about voodoo (which I am wondering if that will play a part in the game as well). Or that the country is extremely violent. Which is not entirely true, but I won't sit here and paint the country as a paradise resort either.

What I will do is hold off judgment and wait until the game comes out. No rushing to prejudge a game that hasn't been played or seen beyond the trailers shown at this years E3. Will I play when it comes out? Sure why not. It's a video game and nothing more. If someone who plays a video game is unable to separate fantasy from reality has no business playing a video game. To those who had no problem playing Medal of Honor games, Call of Duty games, or the Grand Theft Auto series. However, they start to all of a sudden have a heart because the game hits a little bit close to home, tell me how the people of color in those games listed above felt when they had to point the fictional gun at their countrymen, and how come you weren't there to raise your voice when it was. I do hope that the game setting is done tastefully. And that even though it is a poor island nation, they show that there is some good amidst all that evil.

Provided below is the trailer for the game [which is slated for a 2009 release] that was shown at E3 2007.
Also another news site talking about the game Resident Evil 5 [source: E3 - Preview of Resident Evil 5]

The Future...

It is finally done...

Just finished filling out my graduate school application for the University of Central Florida. All I can do now is cross my fingers, do a lot of praying and probably investigate who do I need to pay off in order to get myself enrolled for their Spring 2008 semester. Now before applying to UCF, I had applied to both the colleges of the University of Florida [my alma mater] and the University of South Florida. Both of which I did not get accpeted in. Now I could of been upset, depressed and a bunch of other emotions about not being accepted. But the blame is rest squarely on my head. Before turning in my Personal Statement to UCF, I did a final proofread and I found a lot (and I mean A WHOLE LOT) of mistakes and grammatical errors. Hopefully, the corrections I caught were good enough to get those advisor's and department heads attention at UCF to take me in to the program.

Well feeling tired, so I'm going to go on and head to bed.

God of War...whew!

Just something kind of different today.

After obsessing over this game for the past few months, I have finally beaten GOD OF WAR 2. Talk about wanting a cigarette after beating this game [no I don't smoke, but if I did I would of smoked a pack that day]. It was THAT GOOD! Now I could of been bummed about how the ending of the game went down. But, I was not. It just has me psyched me up for the eventual sequel to the game and has me already craving the prequel that will be coming out for the PSP later this year. [Luckily I am one of the few that will be getting a demo of the game in the mail...sweet!!]

I would say that GOD OF WAR 2 [and the original GOD OF WAR] were the only games that honestly kept me glued to my chair for more than 30 minutes. And that is a feat upon itself.

Why is this game so popular or so fun to play? Beside the great visual, the sick looking combos, and very solid story. It is a great feeling to come home after a long day and just zone out for a while and play a game that requires not a whole lot of thought...talking about you Sudoku.

So those at Sony, thank you for making a great game and I look forward to what you got up your sleeves next.

The Past Apocalypse Story

I am always amazed at what I find when I do a bit of late summer cleaning.

Case in point, an old journal of mine from my senior year at High School. Well...I should not say journal, it was more of an attempt by me to write a novel [epic at that]. Briefly flipping through the pages of my handwritings, I saw that I had a lot of potential...but mostly a lot of head rubbing, with thoughts of "What in the hell was I thinking!"

Here is a bit of a rundown as to what I was writing, and don't worry I will not torture anyone with actual passages from my attempt in the writing department. The book was titled: "Apocalypse: Dream Wars" Don't know where I came up with that title, but that's what I had picked when writing this story. The story was suppose to be about a young guy named, Malcolm, who is unable to separate his dreams from his reality. In the beginning chapters it actually starts with the world coming to and untimely end [this is way before watching the movie or ever hearing of the book: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So if I had attempted to write that book I could of probably been brought in for plagiarism...glad I didn't,even though I didn't mean to on purpose].

If there was any good thing that I saw in my writings was that I wanted to write in a unconventional way: 1) Having the hero be someone who doesn't want to be THAT hero 2) The Good guy doesn't win all the time and innocent people get hurt, you hate to say that but it happens...read the last few Harry Potter books to see where I'm coming from. 3) Having the lines between "What's Right" and "What's Wrong" blurred so much that everything is just a gray area. What I mean by that is, if you go the movies or read a book, you know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. [side note: bad guys usually dress in all black, live in/near/around a volcano, explain their plans in details to the "good guy" just to have it foiled, and they always have the craziest laugh]. What happen if the people you think you are fighting with are good, but turn out to be bad? What extreme is an individual willing to go to ensure their survival? What if a battle that normally happens on a barren-like wasteland happen in their own backyard? Those were just some of the questions, I wanted my story to incorporate.

Hmmm...Maybe in finding that old dusty notebook with notes on characters, plots, developments, and such was a sign, that I should get back into writing. Now that I am older and a little bit more seasoned, that I can craft a better story. Well I know one thing that would change...that's the Title for damn sure.

Well, I'm off...

Until Next time,