Tuesday Mumbles: The New Normal

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: the following is based on my own opinion. Do not take any offense of anything.


Happy Spring break everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

Ya boy got himself his first Covid shot and now waiting on the second shot. Though as I’ve been watching the good news that we’re beating back this virus. I have to admit that I feel that everything may never be the same after the vaccinations and such.

“What do you mean,” you might ask? Well, there are three things i’ve noticed on our path to a post-covid world.


The first thing that is the most obvious is the political side of the world. Sure, Trump is out of office and we got Biden. The path was shattered during the events of January 6th and the GOP’s somewhat defiance between those that still want to push this fight. It’s not just limited to the right; the left is dangerously going into in-fighting as well (Remember, it was this kind of in-fighting that also got us Trump to begin with.) We need less knives and fighting and more unifying. After all, our democracy was threatened and yet we still argue over political crap and even anti-sjw petty nonsense. Not only that but the pragmatic reality that the US may not be the superpower that seems to get everyone a bit worried and scared. However, all this paranoia and such over a shifted power. Doesn’t help when you have people bitching about the aspect.


The second one is more or less a change in the economy. Covid hasn’t been so nice to everyone and a lot of people have lost their jobs, homes, businesses or everything. Some people have managed to get their jobs back or found new work in this era, but others seem to be struggling for the time being. Though from what i’ve seen that some folks have turned to alternatives to start their own businesses out of things like Etsy or other platforms. I’ve also heard that some computer and I.T. departments have even broadened the idea of allowing people to work at home. Why is that good? Well think of it as broadening your workforce without having to do accommodations and various other things that becomes a win-win for both the business and future employers. This can be helpful for ya boy on his career choice. This can also be helpful for future college students that need to learn but work at the same time. You might say this is not a bad thing after all.



The final one is that after all these changes and accommodations, even getting the vaccine will still lead to one possibility: Covid never going away. You heard me, there may be a chance that Covid may never go away and that we may have to get used to having this virus out there. We already have reports of new variants and a 4th wave of Covid in the news. These things could be something that can flare up, monkey wrench everything if another super-spreader event happens. Ya boy here doesn’t want to have some of his stuff sabotaged due to something bad. Heck, I had to endure the whole widespread incident and how it caused problems with my NCCT testing. It also got me thinking that this virus may be with us for a very long time and that it won’t be killed. Like a viral specter that haunts the world and serving as a reminder at just how easily we can be brought to our knees due to a virus. Gets ya boy thinking and scared at the same time.


We’re all pondering about the post-Covid world and what we should do. It’s a scary future but it’s something we need to get used to. However, we don’t have to be scared of it, for we’re all in this together.

Thursday Media Review: Raya and the Last Dragon.

Written by Joenn

Note: This review was submitted and written by another person, so credit goes to them for their time and energy for creating this review. This review may contain some spoilers.







All art is a product of its time, but it’s a rare thing to see a story come along that so perfectly resonates with the emotional needs of its audience as Raya and the Last Dragon. It’s early March, 2021. We, the audience, have been cooped up inside for a year now with precious little contact with the outside world. Raya went through production and post-production during 2020, so all of the voice capture and animation was done from home. The makers of this movie, all of them, have been going through the same troubles we have. They know the story we need to hear right now.
Raya is a heroic fantasy story from Walt Disney Animation Studios, set in the fictional land of Kumandra. It draws inspiration from Southeast Asian cultures and myth to create its world, and worldbuilding is one of this movie’s greatest strengths. Spoilers follow, but I’ll try not to spoil any details that aren’t established within the first half-hour.

The World

The land of Kumandra surrounds a large inland sea that is shaped like a dragon. Its people are divided into five tribes, each one named after a part of the dragon: Fang, Heart, Spine, Talon, and Tail. The tribes used to be unified as a single nation, but this nation fractured after the arrival of malevolent spirits called the Druun.
The Druun are introduced to us early in the story. They appear as amorphous clouds of
smoke that seem to glow from a sourceless purple light. They’re completely mindless; they never speak or show any signs of intelligence. If a Druun touches a human, it will petrify them and then replicate itself, and each copy will continue to hunt for more humans.
In other words, they’re virulent.
The Druun can’t be fought, but they can be repelled by pieces of a gem that was forged by dragons. Upon learning this, the chiefs of the five tribes scramble to horde these gems, and sequester themselves in isolation.
Does that sound familiar to anyone?

The Characters

Our protagonist is a young swordswoman named Raya, of the Heart tribe. For reasons I
won’t spoil here, she blames herself for the world’s current state, and she sees it as her
responsibility to set it right. But living in this world has taken its toll on her, and she has some serious trust issues. You could call her paranoid.
Raya possesses one of the five gem pieces, and she believes that if she can collect the other four, the Druun will be vanquished. So her goal is to travel to all five tribes and steal their gems either through guile or force, because she can’t trust anyone else to do the right thing. The question the movie asks is simple: Can Raya learn to trust again?

Joining Raya on her quest is Sisu, the last dragon. In many ways, she is Raya’s complete
opposite; she’s ditzy, upbeat, naive, and very gullible. She’s like your frazzled aunt who never figured out what to do with her life after college.
Opposing Raya is Namaari, princess of the Fang tribe. She’s kind of a fascinating character because we can always see her struggling internally between what her conscience tells her to do, and what her duty to Fang demands of her.

Along the way, Raya also crosses paths with survivors of the other three tribes. In Tail she meets Boun, an orphan boy who runs a fishing boat. In Talon she meets Noi, an orphan girl with three pet monkeys. And in Spine she meets Tong, a lonely warrior. In meeting these characters, we begin to realize something: In this world, everyone has lost someone. Everyone feels isolated and alone.
Now, if what I’ve just described sounds like a downer, fear not; Raya is also filled with levity to balance out its weighty themes. Sisu in particular is a giant doe-eyed goofball. And don’t worry, it’s a Disney movie; it has a happy ending.

The Flaws

As much as I appreciate Raya, it’s not perfect. If I were to summarize its flaws into one
word, this movie is stuf ed. The film is two hours long, but every scene feels just a little bit rushed because there is so much story to tell. It feels like the story would have been better served if it had been presented as a show, since it already divides itself up into six episodes.
The movie is also stuffed with elements that have clearly been borrowed from other
franchises. Sisu looks like she jumped out of an episode of My Little Pony. Noi is a
hypercompetent toddler straight out of Boss Baby. And there are two sequences toward the end of the movie that were pulled straight from The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. The parts of this movie that are original work very well. The parts that have been borrowed from other movies are obvious, obnoxious, and out of place.
And as a minor quibble, the movie has to break one of the rules established as part of its worldbuilding in order to earn that happy ending.

The Virtues

Aside from the simple virtues of knowing its theme and executing it well, the movie is
visually stunning. The main characters are expertly animated and the acting is emotionally moving. The fight choreography is stellar as well; I just wish we got to see a bit more of it.
Overall, I believe Raya’s virtues outweigh its flaws. This movie matters to the emotional
state of the world today. It deserves to be seen and enjoyed by those little ones in your life. I encourage you to go out and see it. Just please remember to be safe and wear a mask.

Links Used

(Late) Thursday Media Review: Eco

Written By TheChoujinVirus

Note: I was referred to this game by a friend of mine. He is a streamer and no way was part of the development of the game. My review may contain spoilers to the game.






When people look at survival or building games, everyone thinks of Minecraft or games like Ark: Survival Evolved that show up on people’s radar. Though you kinda wonder how the environment would react to those changes? Ever wondered what happened to Minecraft’s world if you leveled all those trees or wiped out the wolves and cats? Well, you have one game that can show you that outcome. I was recommended this game by an RL friend of mine and Twitch Streamer AznablZ. Created by the indie company Strange Loop Games and released early on February 6th, 2018, Eco is a game that shows the ecological damage players might do to a virtual world.

Brief Story and Gameplay

Eco doesn’t have much of a story, but the objective is explained through the in-game tutorial. A meteor is threatening the world. You and several other people must cooperate by using the resources the world provides; however you must be careful not to pollute or exploit too much of the resources to avoid any ecological damage. Will you save the world from the meteor without damaging it, or will man do more harm than the meteor?

You start out with the character creation screen, and you set out in this world with no intro cinematic or anything. However, you’re given a tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game. Gameplay-wise, Eco’s resource harvesting doesn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Axes are used to harvest trees, pickaxes are used to mine rocks, the hoe is used to till the soil, and a bow to hunt and kill animals for food. However, it takes energy to dig and make things, and wooden tools don’t last long, and you need a balanced diet to gain experience. The game adds a way around this through a job system that adds some flair or perks.

An example is that the Cooking profession allows you to cook better quality food, vital to maintaining a balanced diet and using fewer reagents. Building jobs like masonry or carpentry enables you to make furniture or items from specific materials. Some like Farming and Gathering lets you create larger yields of crops, and Butchery can help you harvest more animals. Though you don’t have to master EVERY skill, form trade deals through money, trade, or anything socio-political to offset that problem. Heck, you can simply be an eco-villain from Captain Planet and just pollute the world if you want to.

Ecological Beauty: What makes the game great

One aspect I do like about how the game works are the fundamental aspect of the world. It’s a virtual world similar to Earth with some various aspects than the blocky part of Minecraft. Another thing I do like is the game’s environmental message and the consequences of what you do. If you cut down too many trees, it can cause some issues like CO2 buildup. Dump tilings in water, and you can contaminate the waterline and thus kill all the plant life. Hunt too many animals, and you might lead a species to go extinct. The Political and Governmental aspect also plays a vital role in cooperation as you are encouraged to work together than killing each other for loot or PVP prestige. Lastly, some of the servers do have some exciting communities that focus on city-building roleplaying. It gives it a good vibe and gives a bit more flavor to digging and building things. The one thing I really love is the professions you gain while you play the game. Each specialty gives a special perk, and with combinations, you can become self-sufficient or a supplier for other people.

Meteor Crashes: What the Game Lacks

Though fun as it is, the game has some significant issues that may make the game unfun. One such example is that the game relies on cooperation, so you’re putting your faith into people who might refuse to cooperate or simply let the world burn. Another problem is that there aren’t many dedicated US servers that host the games here. This is due to most official servers being hosted in Europe. This causes massive latency issues, and that running the servers does require some heavy hardware to prevent latency issues. Another problem with the game is that it can be overwhelming for new players, with things like experience, professions, nutrient balance, and even farming could be a pain in the butt. Lastly, the game sadly does have some bug issues due to it being in Early Releases, like vanishing dead animals or cars falling through ceilings.

Fun Fact

The game was not intended to grace Steam. In fact,  was initially made to grace the computers of middle schools to teach the importance of environmentalism. Strange Loop got assistance from both the University of Illinois and The US Department of Education for the game’s development and funding. Also, the game borrowed inspiration from games like Minecraft, Rust, and even Eve Online for things like building, construction, and player social dynamics.

Conclusion

If you want to have some fun building stuff and learning what effect it has or just an RPer who wants to have some fun doing things, I recommend Eco to you and your friends. It’s a nice change of pace if you’re into building stuff like Rust or Minecraft without the player v player annoyance.

Links/Sources

Tuesday Mumbles: Remakes

Note: The following information being written will be based on my opinion. Do not take any offense to them if you hold them to heart

Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

There’s always the sweetness of a nostalgic reminiscent of something of my childhood, though that’s been years ago. Now there’s a new trend by the late 2010s and up to 2020s where older shows have been given a remake or reboot. Now some remakes are pretty good such as the Homeward Bound movies, the 2017 remake of Beauty and The Beast and even the 2019 Aladdin and Lady and The Tramp movies. Those are good and I enjoy those the best, but what gets me annoyed is that when people want to remake certain shows or things that don’t need to be remade.

“What do you mean we don’t need things that need to be remade?” is something you may ask. Some shows like the Powerpuff Girls remake or the not so good Disney remakes like Mulan or The Lion King which tries to go for pure memory but fails to attract that with high budget that backfires or straying too far off from the message or just plain was written by people who didn’t know the source material and heavily deviated from it. When you try to remake it, either try to be faithful to the source or try to ensure it’s close to it. Tiny deviations and some changes can be done though too much can be alienated such as a villain’s origin that didn’t have one in the original.
Though some movie remakes end up butchering everything except the title of the movie. One such example is the 2012 remake of Total Recall, which felt like it wasn’t the 1990s version I used to watch. No reference to Mars, no questioning of what is real and definitely no mutants or Arnold. It’s frustrating when they remake stuff I grew up and not even giving any possible aspects of it. It felt like it was Total Recall in name only.

As I mentioned, not every remake is bad but not everything needs a remake. In fact..i’m reminded of a quote from Pet Sematary (Ironically a movie that was remade as well). If you can’t remake a movie or series properly, don’t bother rebooting it or remaking it or whatever. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

Friday Fan-Work: Diction Poem

Happy Friday everyone, It’s ya boy Choujin here.
Enjoyed day one of Blizzconline (the online version of Blizzcon) and now here to provide you with a new piece of work. This time it’s a Diction Poem.
What’s a Diction Poem you ask? Well a “Diction Poem” or Poetic Diction is the term used to refer to the linguistic style, the vocabulary, and the metaphors used in the writing of poetry.

This was something I had to do in my CW class a while ago. It’s a simple poem about love (which was something that crossed my mind.)
So sit back, relax and enjoy this story.

Diction Poem: The Deeper understand Love

To some out there who view adoration as just a crush
As something young children giggle and snicker
but the meaning changes when we mature

it metamorphoses into something grander
moving from puppy-love and schoolkid crushes
blossoming more as we age with time

oh amour, you are that binding that holds time together
keeping two lovers together forever
time and space transcending what it is

oh amour, your tales are told in literature
as something everyone dreams to achieve
to have their fairy tale ending with their true love

oh amour, you are absolute in this world
something everyone wants to acquire
that one person that is one half of a perfect union

for every being on this planet
for those that walk on two or four legs
amour is a driving force, two lovers unified

oh amour, you are absolute in this world
keeping two lovers together forever fulfilling them with eternal happiness forevermore

diction-poemDownload

Thursday Media Review: Dinosaurs

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: this review may contain spoilers to the series, so do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled






The 90s were an impressive time of sitcoms that folks liked watching, from 3rd Rock to Seinfeld to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. However, things changed when The Simpsons came around and changed sitcoms as we know it. Though a new show was brainstormed as far back as 1988 by the late Jim Henson. It wasn’t until the 1990s when Micheal Jacobs and Brian Henson with the Walt Disney Company. This show aired on April 26th, 1991, through October 19th, 1994, and has been a part of ya boy’s nostalgia when he was a kid. That show was called Dinosaurs.

Summary of the show

Dinosaurs take place in a fictional depiction of the supercontinent Pangea, portrayed as a 90s America but with dinosaurs instead of people. The focus of the show is on the Sinclair Family, a family of dinosaurs living in Pangea. You have Earl, the dimwitted but lovable dad, Fran the housewife and mother, Robbie the intellectual rebel, Charline the materialistic middle child, Ethyl the mother-in-law, and of course the baby called Baby. You also have several side characters like Earl’s friend Roy Hess, Monica Devertibrae, and Earl’s boss B.P. Richfield. Throughout each episode, it themes around one or more of the Sinclair family, most of the time focusing around Earl, in this bizarre world of Pangea. Sometimes focusing on a significant problem that got them into a mess either leaves them learning a lesson or introducing a new concept to dinosaur society, such as refunds or freedom of speech.

Dino-Mite!: What makes it great!

There are plenty of good examples that make the show good; one prominent example that I like is the practical effects of the suit puppets. You can thank the Jim Henson Creature Workshop‘s work for the impressive detail (they used the same technology once seen in the TMNT movies). You also have voice talents like Stuart Pankin (Who’s the Boss?, Arachnophobia), Jessica Walter (Archer), Sally Struthers (Tailspin), and  Kevin Clash (Sesame Street). Each of them lends their talent to the series. Even the guest voices are impressive such as Micheal Dorn (Star Trek: TNG), Dan Castanella (The Simpsons), and even Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as well as Tim Curry. It shows that the people they brought on to voice the various talking dinosaurs weren’t just a list of nobodies. The second thing that makes the series great is that each episode focuses on topical issues of the 90s. Sure, many sitcoms concentrate on this, it would focus around a story, and that’s it. Each episode in Dinosaurs had a theme that focused on topical issues. Examples like Drug Abuse (A New Leaf, Steroids to Heaven), Sexual Harassment (What “Sexual” Harris Meant), Freedom of Speech and Censorship (Baby Talk, Charlene’s Flat World), and even down to things like racism (Nuts to War, Green Card) where you have a bit of issue between “two-legged dinosaurs” and “four-legged dinosaurs.” The episodes also have a bit of a moral lesson at the end of the story, so you at least get a good part afterward (even the characters learn that lesson as well.) Finally, the series has many catchy sayings, like Baby’s “Not the Mama” quip (even the song that the baby sings in Little Boy Boo). The show also has moments where they take jabs at television (especially ABC at the time) or shows and tropes found in other shows. You can say that it was meta for an early 90s show.

Not the mama! What the show lacks

Though the show was impressive and had plenty of good things, there are some problems the show has. One such is that though that some of the suits and puppets are reused as other characters. It’s not uncommon to see one puppet being the school science teacher in one scene than in a different episode. It reminds you that though impressive, it does have to cut corners around some of it. Another is that though the episodes do become good, some of the first season’s earlier episodes didn’t have much of any significant story to set up the characters. Some episodes like Little Boy Boo is just a Halloween episode. The obvious The Clip Show and The Clip Show II are clips from previous episodes just repeated (another trope, but that’ll be another story). Lastly, the finale of the show was BLEAK! The final episode Changing Nature, in which the whole episode involves environmentalism, climate change and leads up to the climax with the extinction of all life on the earth. Not in a “ha-ha” comedic death thing but more of a grim version of them, inevitably knowing they’ll all die. It can be a bit of a major downer for such a comedic series. Lastly, suppose you’re expecting a 90s show about it being scientifically accurate. In that case, you’re going to be disappointed. However, some inaccuracies are used in the messages, such as Cavemen being a stand-in for indigenous people and animal rights in some episodes(The Discovery, Charlene and her Amazing Humans) so that’s not a total loss.

Finale

Though the series does show its age, Dinosaurs is a series that I’m sure the late Jim Henson himself would be proud of if he was still around. If you want to watch the series, it’s currently on Disney+ for the time being, so it would be best to take a look. Oh, and before I leave, here’s some behind-the-scenes describing more about the show and some funny stuff here.

References

Youtube clips recorded by the following youtubers

Information about the show and episodes provided by The Disney Wiki

Friday Fan Work: Touring the Cosmic Bar & Media Review Poll

Happy Friday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin.
The bad news is again..no media Review. However the good news is that I have made a voting poll here of four choices. Just a tough choice but I’d like to hear what you’d like to see me review.

Anyway, here’s an oldie I found for you all to read. It’s a poem I made that is a bit based from my sci-fi universe. So sit back, relax and enjoy this villanelle with your favorite snack or drink

Villanelle: Touring the Cosmic Bars

People have their various means of having their kicks
From traveling to alien beaches or viewing books
Though for me, I have my own tricks

I like to travel through the stars
but not for interplanetary sights or alien cooks
I prefer to hop every intergalactic pub or bar

One bar I visited was in the sticks
Relia was the planet’s name
It wasn’t popular with its style or looks
Though I do got to say they know how to brew their drinks

Another bar was in Tragga, which looked like a lot like the pics
Their Bar had the an upper class look
However, when it came to their drinks, it wasn’t fit for a bar

The last bar I visited, Acheron was its name
an interesting place that wowed me on looks
however, I found myself falling for their tricks
and woke up outside in an alleyway in the bar

villanelleDownload

Tuesday Mumbles: Autism in Media/Hollywood Autism

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following is based on my own opinion. If you feel offended or triggered by my articles, do not take them personal.

Happy Tuesday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

When I posted my poem from college “Ode to Asperger’s“, I got some comments from people who managed to say they empathized with the poem. I have to say to those people thank you on that. This time, we’ll talk about something that I’ve been hearing about from time to time: The portrayal of Autism in media.
Folks are a bit curious in what ya boy’s talking about? Well I’ll tell you I’m not ragging on autistic people in media, but more how media portray autistic people better known as “Hollywood Autism”. Whether they’re good or bad, they can become annoying when folks use those as the typical examples. This is something personal for me because ya boy here, is a high-functioning autistic (also known as Asperger’s Syndrome) and I’ve seen media portray autism as those types of stereotypes.

First, I’m sure you’re wondering “What’s wrong with portraying autistic people in a positive light?” Nobody has a problem with that, unless it’s a positive stereotype is favorable beliefs held about a specific group (eg. Asians being skilled in math). For Autism, that’s the “savant stereotype” that portrays autistic folks as some super genius. Such examples of that trope can be found in movies like Rain Man, where Dustin Hoffman’s character Raymond is autistic and able to be a master mathematician. Another example that really is stretching it is portrayed in the movie The Predator in which the character Rory McKenna not only is able to decipher the Predator’s tech and alphabet, but its hinted that it’s an evolutionary benefit. Seriously?! What kind of crap is that?! They think that because people are autistic that they are all super geniuses? Not every autistic person’s a savant and I can bet not every autistic person can master a language that fast. Though there is another trope and stereotype that exists and boy does it it get ya boy angry.

The second, and more common that irks me is what I would call the “Mongoloid” trope. In some media, it portrays them as someone with the mental capacity of a child but with the body of an adult (even as strong or stronger) which usually ends up making them more pitied and makes the belief that autistic people cannot live a functional life regardless of the situation. One such example of this is the character Lennie from Of Mice and Men. The portrayal of the character ends up having his own unknown strength that harms animals and people. The next example I found was from a movie called The Black Balloon, a film made in 2018. Charlie Mollison is portrayed as very autistic as he does things commonly portrayed such as inappropriate behavior in situations and meltdowns. Though not really trying to portray this bad, it ends up making the character pitied than treated as anyone. Though this trope can be a bit disturbing and can end up viewing those on the spectrum as helpless and unable to be productive in society.

By now, you’re asking me “so is there any good portrayals or should we just give up?”
I would say that maybe it’s not as easy to portray autism. I mean, you do have some portrayals in media that show autistic people that’s not the Hollywood variant. It’s varies from person to person and isnt’ something that is typical between people. After All, that’s why it’s called the autism “spectrum” for a reason. However, there are some good examples that show autistic characters that are not the Hollywood variant. Such examples varies between media, but Julia from Sesame Street to Billy from the 2017 Power Rangers movie I and many others out there found to be good examples. It may take some time (and a fine comb) to find that good medium that portrays autism neither as some next step in human evolution or some curse that makes us unproductive in society. Also, as a person on the spectrum as well, I would love to see media portray autistic people as no different than anyone else out there. I can guarantee ya boy’s not some next step in human evolution or a drain on society. Ya boy’s still gonna be ya boy.