Cliffhangers

CLIFFHANGERS
I like it when a story reaches a satisfying conclusion. Preferably, everyone you care about is safe and they achieved all their goals. I think this is what you might call an ideal ending, however...

I spent maybe 80hours on my first play-through of Final Fantasy 7 when I was 12. The game was a part of my life for who know how many weeks or months. I'll reiterate, It was a part of my life, so when I finally beat it, I was on top of the world. The sensation ended before the final movie and by the credit scroll I was really sad because it was all over. What was I gonna do now?

FF7 is a special case because I was extremely invested. Even still, the hardest part of telling a story is writing an ending that doesn't hurt. Both Seinfeld and The Sopranos got it wrong. I think a cliffhanger might have done some justice. Yeah, a cliffhanger. Why? Think about comics. Western super hero comics go on and on and on. They're not intended to ever have an end. They just have new story arcs forever. The sentiment "all good things must pass" is kind of a double whammy: Either something dies or it lives long enough to jump the shark (total Dark Knight reference). It's inevitable.

There are good cliffhangers and bad. Good cliff hangers tie up all the lose ends and introduce or hint at the next story arc or saga or chapter. Bad cliff hangers leave a few pieces of the puzzle out. This makes you feel gypped. Also, you actually do get gypped if something prevents the next part of the story from being made.

So I finally saw the ending for season 4 of Heroes. I don't know why people were so unhappy that the show didn't get a fifth season. Trust me, the show will come back in 20 years like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Anyway, I liked the ending. It was satisfying to me. It seemed that all the loose ends were tied neatly and everyone grew, achieved their goals, and etc. Then Claire exposes Specials to the world. Then the show ends. Perfect! It gives me the impression that the heroes never finish their heroes journey, ever, even if I never see them again. Also, It left off with in a sense that they had a specific and interesting idea for the next chapter in the story, rather than something vague.

Now that I think about it, THAT'S HOW DARK KNIGHT ENDED. All loose ends are tied and Batman goes on protecting Gotham as usual, but we're entering a new chapter in the story where Batman is hunted by the law.





Man, I'm good.

Barry the Bear

This is an idea I've had for a while, I'm I'm finally happy with these character designs.
It's about a bear named Barry who moves to the city to reveal the folly of humanity. However, living in the city is complicated and he'll need to get a job, and education, a place to live, and a social life.

Barry is an optimist who believes in that people will come around eventually to his wisdom. His roommate is a misanthropic goth woman named Lydia who thinks pragmatically. During Barry's trials, he occasionally meets a cybernetic cow from the future named Larry who shares some of his wisdom.

It's a social commentary and my own personal soap box filled with dark humor, droll humor, and wise-ass humor.

Why Haven't I Painted This Yet?

I should do a painting of this:

The reason why I haven't completely escapes me. It's a good piece. I'm not a digital artist (although I need to get into that), I'm a fine artist, so wtf david blaine.

Some Musings

I'd rather have an enema than another birthday.
I'm somebody else in all my fantasies.
What I wish for more than anything is super powers.
I find it unethical that you need money to run for president of the U.S.A. It limits potential candidates to greedy, out-of-touch people.
Lewis Black was more funny and less successful when he was an alcoholic.
Jon Stewart is Boss.
I'm seeing this turn into a slogan: John 10:28 "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish." It sounds manipulative; it's taking advantage of people's fear of death and will only appeal to the pitiful.
How come rock slang never changes and Hip Hop slang changes constantly?
Would my doctor be proud of me if I lost 10lbs?
I miss Dilbert the Animated Series.
Is Robin Hood a fighter or a rogue?
Goku, Ash Ketchum, Vash the Stampede, Yusuke Yurameshi, Luffy, Naruto, Ichigo, and maybe Kenshin too, are all the same character archetype. Fuck anime.
Why do no movies look appealing to me?
Music these days does sucks.
I wonder if I could become as popular as Maddox if I wrote such things as "old people are for eating?"
I like Failblog and Lolcats.
I haven't had meat in 5 months now and I'm doing pretty good.
It feels like movie directors aren't taking advantage of the fact that movies are both visual and auditory media.
My favorite Back to the Future movie is the third one.
I wanna see someone parody Star Wars, but show us what happened in between the movies.
Seth MacFarlane's work is getting lazy. Can you believe he has the rights to The Flintstones?
I'm looking forward to the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Although, fuck Michael Bay.
I need some new music.

Girl with a Tattoo Resembling a Dragon

I saw this movie today. 2 hours 19 minutes. It was good. Really good.Better than that, even.

I don't know what to say about a movie, game, book, or whatever to get people interested or invested in it without giving away too much detail. I believe too much detail is subjective. I don't even wanna know Ranma turns into a girl when he get's wet, but some people don't mind it if you give away the ending. To them, the movie is still satisfying if they get to see how it happens. How do the good guys win and the bad guy's lose? Does anyone get an eye poked out?

The movie is about 2 interesting people who get paired up in an interesting way to solve a very interesting 40 year old mystery. See, I think that gave too much away 'cause it was a nice surprise for me that they got paired up, even though I probably should have expected it as soon as the mystery was introduced. In retrospect, it wasn't something out of the blue, I just couldn't read the handwriting on the wall, or rather, I wasn't certain and it game me something to stick around for.

The movie is rated R and rightly so. There isn't anything graphic but there are a couple scenes that are still hard to watch. The mystery involves some dark subject matter. If I wasn't so desensitized from all the smut I read back in high school and Berserk, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish this because I'm generally a wuss.

I'm going bald from all this freaking wisdom

Recently, I have begun to remove myself from the petty bullshit squabbles of my family. It really is petty. They use words like bully and abusive like a child might use the word meanie or dumb. What do they fight over? Petty stuff. It's much more interesting and purposeful to instead talk about what the underlying cause is. The root of all evil in my parents' messed up relationship is they're not happy about it and they're not smart enough to figure it out. My dad probably doesn't even realize he's unhappy. I suppose, when you're heavily invested in proving you're the one who's less inconsiderate, you can't really tell how deep in the ditch you've scooted down on your taint.

As I've said, I've began to see this whole thing from a new perspective. Ugly fight's over which one is the dumb ass for losing the t.v. remote involving character defamation of people who died over ten years ago once made me fearful of my own family members and unsafe in my own bed now seem like two children arguing over which color is better, green or blue. I promise you, there's no exaggerating in the previous sentence.

So no offense, but here's the problem, ultimately: My dad is an idiot who is too stupid to understand the concept of consideration and the concept of other people having their own perspectives and my mom hasn't yet realized after 25+ years that she doesn't have to live with the guy. They're not very compatible people, but compatibility doesn't mean two people can't live their lives together. You just need to be wise enough to understand your differences and realize which aspects of your own character cause conflict and, oh gee, i dunno, keep them in the back of your mind the next time you leisurely stroll into your bedroom at 11pm and start flipping on lights and talking to the cat in your outdoor voice.

When you begin to see your parents in the same light children, you feel a weight come off. They can still aggravate the hell out of you, but it's no longer threatening.