Virtual Reality

Virtual reality. As we become more technologically advanced, this comes closer and closer. Maybe one day, the virtual and real worlds will meet in some science fiction reality. But now, the closest I've been to VR is in MMORPGS - massively multiplayer online role playing games. Usually the player takes the role of a character represented by an avatar in a game and lives out his life in the game - as the rules and world rules of the game dictates.

I've grown up with video games and this is just the next step in gaming. From stand alone pcs, to slow 14.4k modems and LANs to MMOs. But I came to realize something today. No matter how it is, virtual friends - people you get to know in the virtual world - can never replace real friends in the real world. I know them as nick names, maybe first names, what they do, where they come from, their job, maybe. But usually not much more. The only thing we do talk about is about the game as it's the only thing that we have in common initially.

As everyone is behind nicknames, and can make different characters, it's hard to weed out people's motives or who they really are. Being a somewhat too honest chap, I've encountered maybe more than my fair share of internet pain. I guess it is true that nice guys finish last. It seems so in the internet world where you're ditched just because you've got no more use to them. It just seems more prevalent that you're used by people and people have less qualms about using others because it's just a game, or it's just hiding behind the characters.

Maybe it's just me being bitter and upset about these so-called "friends", but the good thing is that it has woken me up to the reality that this game is more curse than fun, and that it would not be so bad to leave it after all and focus on my real life.

These two worlds collide, real life and the virtual world and it's a hard thing to find a good balance between the two of them. If you are focusing too much on the real world and neglect the virtual world, then you're dumped by the guild you're in. So there goes the concept of playing for fun because it's no longer fun when you have to fight for your spot in addition to fighting to your real world. And then there's politics involved wherever humans are involved, so add that element in as well and you've got a recipe for more stress than is actually wanted from such a game.

Back to the topic of friends. I learnt the hard way that in such a game, there is no such thing as loyalty, honesty or trust. You are only kept for as long as they can get any use out of you. And it is up to yourself to get what you can out of it. I never used to think like that - but after the last turn of events, I can't be bothered to help anyone else anymore. It's not worth my time or effort because everytime I tried, it's only led to pain and heartbreak.

So screw the others, I'm only going to be concerned for myself only. I don't care if it sounds harsh, because it's better I look after myself than let others take advantage of my niceness.

Bean Bean Bean

Another DVD watched - Mr Bean's holiday - was surprisingly good. I watched the previous Mr Bean movie and I preferred this one much better than the other one. This one feels more true to its origins. Truth be told, I tend to watch Bean with a grain of salt, and without much or any expectations. It's not that I don't think movies deserve any expectations, but I've found from past experience that when I watch films with any level of expectation, it tends to have a negative effect on the entire film.

So wifey and I found ourselves laughing at some of the new gags Mr Bean does. There's some standard Bean-fare with oysters, vending machine, etc. But the best part of the film, isn't from Bean unfortunately. The best part takes the piss out of film makers, the intro from Carson Clay's film - Playback time in Cannes.

Carson Clay pictures present in a Carson Clay production of a Carson Clay film starring Carson Clay. Classic. And also reminded me of an Indian guy I did film school with.



Look out for the "nothings" 1 min and 1 min 21 secs. Couldn't stop laughing. :D

Movies

I've been busy viewing dvds for the last few days since I found out Amazon was having a sale on them. It's hard enough getting english language dvds here in germany, especially when I like the extras in english, and not german.

Anyhow, some of the films I bought were diehard 4.0 and the fantastic four - rise of the silver surfer.

All I'll say is Diehard 4 rocks - good good stuff and that the FF was well, a total letdown. FF had not much of a plot, crap characterization and well, it was crap. Yeah, that would sum it up. Too many characters, too little plot, and it even begins to descend to Alien Vs Predator level of mediocrity. Sad enough that they had Stan Lee on the film as a cameo saying "But I'm Stan Lee!". Damn movie shouldn't even have been made. It looked rushed for release and not much effort was put into it. But Diehard was great, non stop action from the beginning and despite it being a shooting flick, it had more going for it in terms of character and plot than the FF.

Wish there'd be a Diehard 5 but probably there won't be. Sad though. I really liked the Diehard series.

Hard Stuff

Life is hard. Work is hard. I guess there is no easy way around it. I would have gone theres with an aprostophe before the s, but somehow blogger does a quickfind function instead which irritates me quite a lot. So youll have to bear the consequence of the missing punctuation marks.

But back to the point. Amazingly to reach a goal, there are so many subgoals along the way. I just bought my first ever proper professional camera and Im very happy about it. I took it for a test run today to check it out and to test its capabilities and so far it looks good - on the tiny little LCD screen.

Its irritating that something that should be automatically detected by FCP - final cut pro - isnt working. Ive no idea why it isnt and am scratching my brains about for a solution. Hopefully one will come by soon. To get to the simple goal of checking my test results, I have to figure out how to import my footage. ><

But I guess thats how life is like. Gotta measure up the cost and just go for it. Amazing though, how all this in the name of research - and relearning my basics of film editing - is now considered work. But at least its work I actually like for a change.