P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.

Flowers for Algernon is a heart-aching story about a Charlie, a mentally-handicapped 32 year-old man who wants to be smart. He can read and write, and works hard to learn so that he can become smart so people will like him. He works are Donners bakery where Mr. Donner gives him 11 dollars a week plus all the food he wants. When approached with the opportunity of a lifetime – the chance to be made smart intelligent – he feels that his ship has come in. He takes the opportunity and is given a second chance at life, becoming smarter by the day.

His intelligence eventually surpasses that of the scientists that granted him the chance, and he starts to understand the world in a way no one else can. He is eventually ostracized due to his high intelligence, and he finds that he is now more lonely than he was before the operation. Sadly, when Alergnon, a lab mouse that had the same operation done to him, suddenly deteriorates, George is struck with the fact that the same could very well happen to him.

I didn’t know what to make of this book at the beginning. The writing was childish and hard to read, riddled with typos and horrible spelling. In many cases it reminded me of the recent LOLCats Internet meme. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it, you don’t want to know. I was drawn in though, and the transition between sub-standard intelligence to brilliance happened so naturally that I didn’t even notice.

The novel then follows Charlie as his intellect explodes, and his emotional self tries to catch up. In many ways it reads like someone who’s growing up at an exceptional rate. Daniel Keyes does a fantastic job of getting across the pain and trails that Charlie has to go through. The only thing that really irritated me was the involvement of alcohol, and the weird side-effects that is left in its wake. I know that it was a required plot-device, but he could have just left the one incident.

Reading about Charlie’s eventual mental demise and knowing that he can do nothing to stop it is heart-breaking. You watch as he tries desperately to continue reading in hopes that he can retain some of his knowledge. You see how the woman he loves is pushed away for her own good, despite the obvious pain on both parts. Charlie starts to lash out at the world for reasons he doesn’t understand, because he has no other outlet. He becomes frustrated and angry at himself, and it only becomes worse as the deterioration continues.

The novel really makes you take a hard look at your own life and take stock of what you really have. We see a man who had so little given the entire world, only to watch as it is slowly taken away from him. It also points out that though mentally-handicapped people may not have the intelligence of the average person, that are still people that should be treated with love and respect. A lot of important questions and observations are made in this book, and considering it was written in 1959 (the original short story) I’m impressed with how many social norms were brought into question. It isn’t shocking to know that this book has been and is continually banned in places across the world. The truth can be a harsh light, and not everyone wants to look right at it.

I’m glad I had the chance to read this, and I’d read it again in a heartbeat. I’m 42 years past it’s original release date, but it’s still topical.

8.5/10

What happened?

First of all, they went through a drastic re-design which I am, for the most part, a fan of. The problem with this is that they changed it all so much I was utterly lost as to where to go. A better Idea could have been to have a transitional layout to let people get used to things before making a final switch. Not a requirement, and it’s possible that they did indeed do this. Like I said, it had been a while since the last time I went.

The second part was that I couldn’t figure out how to access my zone. All that hard work of mine, and I couldn’t access it. I still can’t figure out how the heck to get to it from the 9rules site. The amount of user info that’s left on 9rules is my username, email, and password; none of which can be changed from the 9rules website.

As it turns out, the entire “community” portion of 9rules has been completely removed. If you want to change your information, whore your wares, or do anything the old 9rules did, you now have to go to Chawlk.com. That is, in essence, where most of 9rules went. It’s still in a transitional stage, so the site isn’t totally finished, but it has everything the older 9rules had, with an updated look.

All of the user-submitted content, voting, friending, point-usage, and anything else that they used to offer has been moved off site, leaving only approved posters rolling up to 9rules.

So where’s the rule-breaking?

I had no idea any of this had happened. Granted, I’m not a regular member, so I had no idea this was coming. That shouldn’t of happened though. At the very least some sort of press release, newsletter, or cursory email should have been sent out telling everyone that they were going through a complete site reformation. I, as a member – and on some level a customer/consumer – should have been notified that these changes were occurring.

On a side-note, they also break a couple design rules by forcing me to go to another website to change my information. This wouldn’t be so bad (OpenID floats to mind) except for the fact that there is absolutely no mention of this other site, and I had to go digging around to get the link. My old bookmark to my profile actually redirects me to the new site, which in and of itself is a jarring experience. Redirecting people without telling them is a no-no!

So what do I think about it all?

So what do I have to say about the new 9rules, even after all my pseudo-bitching? I like it. I like that 9rules now features premium content, complete with posted site submission dates and a review process. Sure that screws me from posting my little posts on their site (Chawlk still allows it though, so all is not lost) but I’m glad that I can’t. At least now I know that 9rules will feed me with information from reliable sources. I’ve already found a couple of contributors that I want to add to my ever-growing RSS store on Google Reader.

Chawlk on the other hand needs a little work. I’m aware that It’s in a transition stage, so anything I say now may not apply in a month. First off, I love the “Chawlk is…” at the top of the page, though the refresh button really isn’t needed for that. The User page is the same as it was on the old 9rules, which makes me a little sad. Sure it’s neat that they have a Twitter, Last.fm, website RSS, and Flickr feed hookup, but it makes for a rather convoluted looking page.

Have a look at mine: It’s just too busy. Everything is so big, that once you start pumping in content it gets bulky and too much for me to bother looking through. A possible option for them could be to separate the last.fm and website rss combination. put the last.fm on the left beneath the Twitter box, and possibly move the Flickr over to the side as well. I don’t know what the Flickr section looks like because I haven’t really used Flickr, not have I tied Chawlk to my Flickr account. The end result is an empty section that never finishes loading.

I’d also suggest making things a little smaller. You don’t need each RSS entry to be an inch tall. That’s just a waste of space, and actually helps detract from clarity. It’d be nice if they allowed you the ability to hook into other social networks such as FriendFeed and Pownce.

Ending thoughts

The new 9rules is a great improvement, as far as I’m concerned. Stripped out all of the crap and just left the lean, delicious high-quality content. Accessing your user info is a bitch, and a friendly link in the user window would be a great asset.

The newly-formed Chawlk needs some work. As it is everything that 9rules discarded, I can’t help but feel that that’s exactly what it is: discarded. It feels lower on the quality scale, and I hope it doesn’t continue that way, otherwise the whole thing will probably go belly-up. I’m reserving saying to much about it as it’s still being worked on at this point. It needs work, I’ll leave it at that

Mr. Muller, let me show you and endless trail of sunsets. Let me save you.
Excerpt from The Electric Church

Our anti-hero, Avery Cates, is a gunner: a gun for higher, assassin, hit man, or all-around kill-for-cash sort of dude. He’s 27 and doesn’t know how he got as far as he did. He’s hired by the corrupt upper-class to stop an up and coming religion: The Electric Church. Rumors have been spreading that the EC has been forcibly gaining converts, but due to regulations the SSF (The System Pigs, as they are lovingly referred to) can’t legally do anything about it. They call in Cates to try and assassinate the head of the EC.

I found it really difficult to get past some of the dialog in this book. There was simply that much swearing throughout it that I found it hard at times to actually get into specific scenes. I can understand having some, or even moderate amounts of swearing, but when you have at least one a sentence for an entire page, it gets a little old.

Another problem I had was how shallow much of the book really was. There was a lot of depth put into how crummy the world has become, but very little is put into those who exist in it. The population of the slums is described – repeatedly – as “The Gray Masses.” I could deal with that, but even the main characters lacked the depth I usually expect from them. You had a dude with mental powers, a super tech, the anti-hero, the smooth criminal, and the git’r dun twins. Honestly they couldn’t have been much more cookie cutter if they tried. Even the antagonists were straight-forward. Evil bribed cop, sketchy church, The Fuzz, The Sociopath, the list goes on. Everyone was so… typical, that it really got to me. The only character development happened near the end of the book, and it was too little too late for me.

My complaints aside, it was an entertaining read. The internal banter of Averys’ mind put a smirk on my face more often than not. The repeated idea of “of course this is happening, because my day hasn’t hit rock bottom quite yet” is completely at one in The Electric Church. I enjoyed the fact that even as one action scene is toning down, another one is coming around the corner to kick the bejesus out of Avery.

It’s also interesting to read the subtle transformation that Cates has throughout the book, and though I say I saw it coming, it was still well done. I also appreciated that by the end of the book, the only thing driving Cates was spite. It’s not often you read about how the main character is going to finish what they started “just be-fucking-cause.”

If you’re a fan of the Cyberpunk genré and don’t want anything too dark and depressing, this is a pretty good option. It’s not the best example I can think of for Cyberpunk, but it was an enjoyable read. I don’t know if I could do it again simply because of the curse-dense dialog and shallow development of the characters.

6/10

Track Listing:

1. Fell In Love Without You
2. This Is For Real
3. It Had To Be You **
4. Last Night **
5. Calling All Cops
6. Can’t Finish What You Started **
7. The Conversation
8. Broken Heart **
9. Hello Helicopter **
10. Where I Belong **
11. Point Of Extinction
12. Antonia **
13. Even If It Kills Me

**Clear Favorites

Their newest album doesn’t really introduce much new, other than a couple slower piano tracks and a slightly softer feel. MCS know what their sound is and they don’t really seem to want to step away from it too much at the moment. I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing, though I think that at this point you could start to find their music exhausting. My only complaint with MCS is that they sound pretty much the exact same every song. Sure you change up the words and the chords, but it’s all the same. This is also a great aspect though because you know what to expect and so a returning fan knows what they’re getting themselves into.

I also have to note that “Last Night” sounds eerily similar to The Starting Lines “Photography”.

My bitching aside, “Even If It Kills Me” is a solid album. I did notice that “Even If It Kills Me” seems to be a little slower, a little softer, and a little more toned down then its brethren, which I wasn’t fully expecting. I really liked the step into different territory by going with a couple piano-driven tracks, which bring about a totally different feel to what would be a purely typical album by them. The whole album seems a tad more reflective than the others, which is always a good thing in my mind.

I’m still not sure what they were trying to accomplish with this album. Did they mean to make it sound more reflective? Or was that just a side-effect of something else? Where did the piano-driven songs come from? Why the detachment from the norm? I have a feeling that the whole group just wanted to aim for something different, but didn’t want to step too far outside the comfort-zone that is their sound. I can’t blame them, but it does make what could have been an amazing (or disastrous) album, and settles it into the ‘pretty good’ category.

7/10

The downside to the game right off the bat is that there are only four cases, unlike the original version which had five. Other than that, this game features many subtle improvements that should not be overlooked. For starters the cases featured are much longer, and in my opinion have better overall stories in comparison to the first one. I didn’t find myself agonizing over useless conversations as much in this addition to the series, though that still continues to plague the series. On top of that, this one did feature more decision points where you are literally grasping at straws as to what the hell to present to what person to progress the story. As a result, you will end up saving and reloading. A lot.

The major feature added to this game are called Psych-locks. Basically, a Phych-lock (which are introduced fairly well, given the outlandishness of the game) allow you to know when someone is lying, and provides you with a sort of mini-game where you break people down. It’s like cross-examining, but ouside of the courtroom. Fun and painful all at the same time I can assure you. The flip side to the game is that every time you screw up, your health is injured and so it forces you to be very sure of what you’re saying first.

The other feature added into this game was an HP bar of sorts. This generally makes the game harder, because there are many ways to lose your HP, but very few ways in which to gain it back (successful Psych-lock breaks, and moving onto the next day). This does add a bit of an edge to the play, because there is more at stake then before and your health does not refresh between court sessions.

The stories get a bit more out there, and I’m personally wondering how many times they can personally include Mia in the cases. Thankfully these Turnabouts were far more engaging than the first installments’, and I look forward to playing the third to see where they go with the writing. Having said that, there are grammatical and spelling errors to be found in this translation but I didn’t really notice that many, and so I personally didn’t care. This really comes down to how much of a Nazi you are for it. The characters seem a bit more animated (and violent) which helped with the grueling task of having to interrogate everyone.

Totally worth playing, and doubly so if you’re a fan of the first one. My only problem is that there really isn’t much in the ways of replay value. As a result I would say rent it, but unless you plan to do nothing but play this game, chances are you wont have enough time to do so.

Buy it and keep it on your shelf like a good book. You can always replay it way down the road when you’ve forgotten everything!

8/10

The movie Juno is about one Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) and Paulie Bleeker (the ever master of awkward pauses, Michael Cera) and their joint child-making. The movie takes place during the nine months of Juno’s wonderful adventure through pregnancy, and her interaction with the adoptive couple Vanessa and Mark Loring (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman).

Admittedly, not the most accurate portrayal of someone being pregnant that I’ve ever seen, but the movie uses the pregnancy as more of a means to an end rather than the focus. Juno (the girl) is apparently unable to carry on 80% of her conversations without busting out a (admittedly very funny) one-liner. Putting that aside, the rest of the movie is quite solid and worth every penny I spent on it. Juno maintains a good pace and has fantastic closure at the end, something that I have found lacking in recent films that I have viewed.

I do have to say though that I’m pretty sure the movie was written with Michael Cera in mind. No one else could have played his character better. I am sad to think that he has unfortunately type-cast himself to being “the awkward guy”, what with doing it so well. Shockingly though, his roll is only a minor one which I appreciate because it allows the focus of the film not to be distorted with his role.

The other thing that I have give mention to is the soundtrack to this movie. It’s a solid collection to begin with as it sports such artists as Belle & Sebastian, Kimya Dawson, Buddy Holly, and even Sonic Youth. What makes the album that much better is that after you have seen the movie you can tie so many of the songs to cute moments within the film. That is really what makes this soundtrack shine, though it’s pretty solid standing on its own and it even offers a cover of one of the songs direct from the movie featuring Michael and Ellen themselves on the guitar and vocals. It’s cute, if not a bit off sound-wise.

Totally worth seeing, and I implore everyone to watch it. It’s one of those movies that will mostly go under the radar from daily viewing, but is an complete and utter gem. Solid acting, cute story, and a wonderful soundtrack make this movie absolutely worth it. I plan to own it the second it comes out onto DVD.

9/10

The premis of the game is straight-forward. You play Phoenix Wright, Rookie Defense Lawyer. There are five cases, each increasing in difficulty and length. The characters are generally one dimensional but entertaining none the less. It does provide a fair amount of satisfaction ripping witness testimony apart and making them weep like recently-kicked children.

The gameplay is fairly simple. It’s basically a point and click adventure. You go to locations, look for anything you can use as evidence, interview people, then co to court. When in court you rip apart witness testimony using your wits and any evidence you’ve collected. You will also learn to hate the Prosecution and their constant objecting to everything you say. Von Karma is the worst for this, and I wanted to reach into the game and throttle the creep. You also get the option of either clicking or saying “Take That!” “Hold it!” and “Objection!” There are so many times I wanted to yell objection where sadly, objection-ing is not an option.

Sadly the novelty of the court room wears off around the fourth case. Probably because the fourth and fifth cases take for freaking ever. And so much talking. Jesus Christ so much talking. By the end I found myself skipping more and more of the testimony just to get to the point. This leads to two other issues: The game is completely linear, and even if you know who did what, you still need to go through the process. Yes I am aware that this is how real court rooms function (loosely at least) but even still. It’s a game, and I’m not a retard. There is also a shockingly small amount of areas where you can actually lose the game. On top of that, you can’t start the next court date until you’ve finished your “investigation.” This can lead to many boring times spent wondering aimlessly within the games environment looking for that one thing you forgot.

All in all though, great fun and I look forward to playing the rest of the series. It’s worth picking up if only for the fun of yelling “Objection!” really loud.

8/10

Much of the movie revolves around the Vietnam War, and the protests that went on during the time. All the characters are pulled into differing sub-cultures and left to their own devices, and are let to play out their lives with what they’ve gotten themselves into. It demonstrates what people are capable of when they feel the need to work for something. It displays people in their best and worst moments without much in the ways of compromise, and shows that people aren’t perfect nor do situations always work out glowing. It does glaze over one or two areas that probably could have had more explaining, but you cannot realize this during the film and it probably isn’t worth dwelling over.

I was captivated throughout the movie, though I could say that some scenes could have been cut a tad shorter or removed simply to save time. There was little point to some scenes other then to demonstrate a characters inner feeling(s) at that moment. In some cases this is deep and truly moving, others it just seems like they needed something to help separate scenes. Having said that, Prudence probably could have been left out of the movie as she didm’t really do anything for it. She felt more like a song que and a side-kick throughout the film and hence a filler character.

The music is completely comprised of songs from The Beatles, but re-sung by the characters in the movie. It contained stunning visual effects and a solid flow. Some of the more… outlandish scenes were a little strenuous on the eyes, and let me tell you that on a digital projector those scenes tended to be both stunning and blinding. Don’t take that the wrong way, they were amazing and original, but wow. If thats what acid trips look like, count me out. As the movie progresses, the visual effects and ques become more obvious to the watcher, and helps integrate the viewer into the characters lives. Helping them to see what the characters see. Mr. Kite’s musical scene was … amazing, terrifying and utterly mind-shattering all at once.

If you enjoy musicals, this is a complete must-see. If you don’t like musicals, screw it and watch it anyways. It’s a well directed film with impressive direction and plays out smoothly. It’s a simple movie about love and what people are willing to go through for it, and the hopeless romantic in me glowed from watching it.

Oh, and I will be picking up the soundtrack for this as soon as humanly possible.

8.3/10

I digress.

An Unfinished Life features Morgan Freeman as a maimed black cowboy, Jennifer Lopez as a woman in an abusive relationship, Robert Redford as Jennifer Lopez’s child’s hyper-bitter grandfather, and Josh Lucas as the local deputy.

The premise of the movie is as follows: Lopez is in an abusive relationship, and after yet another attack, her daughter convinces her mom that it’s time to go. They take off to the only place Lopez can think of: Her daughter’s dead dad’s dads place. This isn’t the first place I would think to go when trying to escape domestic abuse, but whatever. Lopez and gramps don’t get along, but they try for the sake of the (grand)daughter. There is bonding and realizations met, confrontations and animal rescue, and old cowboys. Oh and some guy gets a coffee glass to the face for being a dick.

The over-running theme to the movie was not the abuse as one would think, what with Lopez staring in that role. It actually centres around the Grandfather trying to get over himself, and bond with the family he has; mainly his grand-daughter (played very well by Becca Gardner).

What shocked me about this movie was how toned-down it was. Maybe I was just coming off an over-reaction high, but the movie stayed fairly believable throughout. The abuse-topic was low-key and believable (and as a result, Lopez and Lucas feel like minor characters), and the grandfather/granddaughter connection theme wasn’t overstated. Ironically the abuse topic tends to be more of a plot device to demonstrate that there are bigger things to hate in the world then your ex-daughter-in-law. Morgan Freeman played his usual role of wise black guy, and his sub-plot was also used as a bit of a plot device in the gramps/kid line.

What made the movie worth watching to me was the climax, if you wanted to call it that. I won’t give away what it actually was, but I will state that much like he rest of the movie it was very toned-down. I was expecting some big scene where everyone’s yelling and the camera’s all blurry, but that isn’t what happened. It lasted all of two minutes and left me moved on a deep level. It was stunning in its brutality and simplicity. It ended much like many scenes like that would actually play out. What I mean is … have you ever been in a situation and imagined the ending? It’s insane, contains ninjas, and enough explosions to ruin the atmosphere. When it comes to that situations resolution it’s very small, but still effects you on some base level.

That’s how this movie ended for me. It was a slow movie, but I managed to stay awake and interested, and it ran from 3-5 am. That’s gotta say something for the movie. It was believable (for the most part) and the ending was simple and honest. That’s why I really liked it. Plot devices aside (and this movie has a bunch, 9 at my last count) it has some honest and powerful scenes if you’re willing to actually watch the movie from beginning to end.

7/10

On the weekend I went out with Theresa and four others (sister, roomie, and the boyfriends) to one of the only things to do in North Bay. You really only get four options: Drink, have sex, go to the mall, or go to the movies. Well you can mix and match those, but that’s basically it. Regardless, we went to the movies.

This is where I saw Good Luck Chuck.

Now I’ve heard people saying that either it was good, or it sucked dirty, smelly anus. The bell curve for this movie and the people who watched it vs people who liked it leans towards people whom I tend to agree with. This was not a good movie. Having said that, this was not a bad movie either.

Dane Cook isn’t funny. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking with it. He’s not a bad actor as it turns out as he manages to play his on-screen persona well enough. You can pretty much repeat that last sentence for everyone in this film with the exception of Jessica Alba’s stoner brother, who fails at acting and acting like a stoner. All the characters were utterly 2-dimensional (even the breast-enhancement girls), so if you were looking for character development of any sort you will be sadly disappointed.

The premise was pretty cut n’ dry: Man is cursed never to be happy with a girl, man falls in love. Man tries to break the curse and scares girl. Montage to guy getting girl back, with a happy ending kiss. When you think about it, you can swap out the “guy gets cursed” with “guy is ugly,” “guy is shy,” and so on and so forth. The process is pretty much the same thing. If you were looking for an epic, intriguing, dynamic, or otherwise interesting plot you will be mad for spending your dimes.

Now I’m trying not to bash the movie completely so I’ll say that I went in expecting nothing, and I got a few laughs out of it. I could have done without seeing a man masturbating into a grapefruit, but you can’t win them all. The movie is fairly gag-heavy, which gets tiresome after the 90th time. Like I said though I did laugh at some points and I’m generally hard to impress with gags, so there’s something that shines in the movie.

I’d say acquire the movie temporarily to view it, and if you can avoid spending money on it, all the better.

4/10