I'm no average woman and I don't have an average woman's interests. In this blog I hope to share my interests with the readers, so expect posts about society, computer games, literature, movies and TV ... and a few others, probably.
You might have realized yesterday was an important day in Germany. While the day the Berlin Wall fell is not a holiday in my country (for historical reasons, you see, decades before the Nazis burned the synagogues on the same date), it still is a day to be celebrated.
I have my own story to tell about this day. I’ve never lived in the GDR (which basically ceased to exist when the Wall fell), but I have quite some relatives who did. When my father’s family fled from Eastern Prussia during the last year of the Second World War, some came to the northern part of Germany (close to the border to Denmark, where my father grew up) while others stayed in the eastern part (which later on became the GDR).
Anyway. One of my grandaunts was about to celebrate her birthday (her 65th birthday) in the middle of November and so we were organizing to get a visa for most of the older relatives living in the GDR. It was difficult and we didn’t expect that many of them to be able to come.
Then, about two weeks before my grandaunt’s birthday, the wall fell and suddenly all her relatives could come for a visit. It was a great party, as you can probably imagine.
But even for people without any relatives in the GDR it was a great day. Before it, nobody ever believed it would happen, the two German states would ever grow together into one. It was a dream, of course, for many people, but not one that could ever come true. (Very much like a dream in which you can fly – it can be great, but you won’t be able to fly any time soon in real life.)
Then, suddenly, people were climbing the wall, they started to tear it down. Within days the GDR ceased to really exist, because the border no longer existed. And not only did Germany grow back together into one country, Europe opened up to the east, countries like Poland or Hungary could become part of the European Union.
Today, Europe is much bigger than people ever expected it to be when the European Union was planned. In essence, it all started in the summer of 1989 when Hungary opened its borders, but the fall of the Berlin Wall became the most remembered situation connected to it.
Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell and two German states started to merge into one. It’s still not done completely, but we’re getting there. And twenty years ago the Cold War ended for good. That’s a good thing all by itself.
Only very recently, I bought a game called “Blood Bowl.” It’s an interesting mixture between football (Australian Football, probably) and war.
The computer game is adapted from a tabletop game created by Jervis Johnson and published by Games Workshop. It features various races from the “Warhammer”-universe and is indeed a mixture between strategy and sports game.
The rules as a such are easy: two teams, one ball, one goal (getting the ball to the touchdown zone of the other team). In this aspect, the game resembles American Football (or rather, because of the violent game play the rougher Australian Football). Two teams of ten players face each other on a playing field (or, as some may call it, a battlefield). The ball (looking like an American Football with spikes) is kicked off by one team, then each tries to get the ball and make it with the ball (which can be handed over or thrown) to the opposite side of the playing field, where there’s a touchdown zone.
But in addition to the sports tactics themselves, a lot of other tactics can be employed, such as foul play (which might result in the fouling player getting sent off the field – still, the fouled player will be out of the picture for quite a while), bribery (of the referee or a member of the other team), the use of (forbidden) potions and so on. It’s indeed very much like professional sports these days … just kidding, of course.
I have yet to try out the various races and find the one I’m most happy with. Currently, I’ve tried out lizard men and humans, but skaven (some sort of man-high rats) and chaos (beast men of various types) sound interesting as well.
If you scroll down a bit (or check yesterday’s posts), you’ll probably come across remarks about the game download I did while writing and publishing those posts. Should you wonder about what happened, here is the story:
I estimated the download time quite well, the download was complete around eight o’clock yesterday evening. But it somehow went wrong, because I couldn’t start the game afterwards. So I uninstalled it again and downloaded it once more this afternoon. Unfortunately I forgot I was still downloading something and pulled the plug from my wireless LAN. Because of this, I had to start the downloading again.
The download is still running while I write this (but it’s almost finished at 97%). I just hope everything works out this time.
Third time’s a charm, or so they say. Maybe I can finally investigate about the crystal skull this time…
Edit: No such thing as luck, I've uninstalled the game for good this time.
Well, as I have been neglecting this blog for quite a while, I’m right now doing an update on the two crusades I still follow. This post is about “Killerspiele.”
The discussion in the media has died down quite a bit by now. But then, elections are past, so the politicians don’t have to swing opinions for the next four years any longer.
The last non-politic initiative to ban “Killerspiele” has not fared that well, though. A citizen’s group ordered a huge container in which people were supposed to throw their games, in order to have them destroyed later on. The container was huge, so the three to ten (depending on whom you ask) games that were actually thrown inside did look quite ridiculous. Not a real surprise, though, because the people in Stuttgart (where this took place) are well known to be closefisted (and computer games cost around 30 euro each in Germany).
Public awareness has shifted from the whole thing, there are other, more important problems right now (with the economic crisis and all that). But the basic problem still remains. The basic problem is that people above a certain age usually have no experience of their own with computer games. Therefore, if an ‘expert’ comes along and tells them something is like this or like that, they just believe it. And most experts questioned regularly on the topic have their own, prejudiced view on computer games (or their own interests at heart).
As long as this does not change, people will think all computer games are inherently evil. And as long as that happens, I will not give up my crusade on “Killerspiele.”
Should you, by chance, check out the link lists of this blog, you might realize there’s a new link faaaar down there. It’s the link to my new blog.
After I’ve realized I wasn’t born to write a soap opera, I’ve buried “Surely not Barbie’s Diary” and started a blog about writing instead. So, if you’re interested, check out “Writer’s Blog” right now. Admittedly, I’ve just one post up there at the moment, but others are sure to follow.
New post might occur suddenly in this blog as well – you’ve been warned!
Yes, I’ve had my birthday in the middle of it all. I’m 35 now, have been since the middle of October.
It was a nice, quiet day I spent with my family. We had fun, we were talking, there was some cake, but I didn’t do anything special. I never do on my birthdays. When I feel like it, I do something special every day … because every day is special. It’s not the date, it’s what you make of it.
35 years on this planet, that’s quite some time. The strange thing is I don’t feel like it. I’ve spotted the first white hair (and yes, despite being a natural brunette, my hair actually turns white, not grey) around my 25th birthday. So I’ve never really seen any of them (one here one there, natural highlights, you might call them) as a sign of my growing age.
Okay, I’ve already update books, movies and games, but not my own life. There have been quite some changes, too.
In October my burn-out came back with a vengeance. I actually screamed at my colleague for nothing and had a little breakdown afterwards. As this happened on a Friday, a mere two weeks or so after I’d been on vacation, I decided to rethink the whole thing. My colleague, who didn’t get too angry at me for my screaming, also told me to think about my work again. If it really got me down like that, ate away on my mental and physical health, it wasn’t worth it.
So I went to the doctor the Monday afterwards, went to my temporal employment agency right afterwards and got down to business. My job will officially end at the 15th of November, until then I’m on sick leave. I actually have a date with the job agency tomorrow at eight o’clock a.m.
My ex-boss wasn’t happy about it, of course. I told him that very Friday, but he probably thought I’d rethink it during the first two weeks of sick leave and come back. He was quite upset when he learned I was not coming back, but then, the happiness of my former boss is not my main concern, my own happiness is.
On a lighter note, my glasses decided to quit it after a life of ten years at the end of September, too. Now I have completely different glasses and look completely different with them. And, finally, I’ve managed to get a new haircut, too. So now I’m really set for a new life and a new job. 35%, unbelievable!
I’ve also played some computer games since the end of September. So, with the game still downloading (currently, I don’t think it’ll be finished before eight p.m. today), what have I been playing recently?
Quite some role-playing games, as it is. I’ve been reinstalling “Hellgate London” some time ago, I’ve been playing “Divinity II: Ego Draconis” as well. Then there’s been “Venetica,” a German title. Lately (only last weekend) I’ve reinstalled “Drakensang” as well (also a German title, based on DSA, known as “Realms of Arcania” in other countries, as far as I know).
In addition, I’ve played some casual games, mostly hidden objects games, still my favourite. I’ve also finally managed to finish “Dracula: Origin” which is quite a good adventure.
Then there’s “The Sims 3,” of course.
Why that many role-playing games? Well, maybe it was time to get the sword back in hand and get ready for combat, because of the other things that have changed in my life. But more about that soon. 30% and rising…
So, while I’m downloading “Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull” (disappeared with all other installed games when my main-board croaked in April), I’ll start with my first update. What have I been reading?
A lot. Okay, I can see that’s not what you’d call helpful.
Let’s start with the books currently still under work or planned for:
Preston and Child: Cemetery Dance (a new case for my favourite FBI special agent Pendergast)
Dan Simmons: Drood
Dan Brown: The Lost Symbol (in German, my father’s already finished with it)
Cleo Coyle: the last three of her Coffeehouse Mysteries (“Decaffeinated Corpse,” “French Pressed” and “Espresso Shot”).
Now on to the books I’ve read between the end of September (when I wrote about Dexter) and today.
Cleo Coyle: the first four Coffeehouse Mysteries (“On What Grounds,” “Through The Grinder,” “Latte Trouble” and “Murder Most Frothy”)
Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt: “Dracula The Un-Dead” (sequel to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”)
I’ve also read a couple of German books that were non-fictional, but I won’t list them here, because they’re probably not out anywhere outside Germany. I might mention one or two of them in other posts, though.
I read Cleo Coyle’s first novel and got really hooked (even though I’m not a coffee drinker and there’s loads of information about coffee in there, in addition to the murders). When I’ve finished the last three novels still on my ‘to do’ list, I’ll be through with the series this far (although there’s going to be another one published this month, from what I’ve read).
“Dracula The Un-Dead” came as a surprise for me. I saw the German hardcover edition at my local bookstore and decided to order the English paperback over amazon. I didn’t really think it would be any better than the sequel Freda Warrington wrote years ago, but I was wrong. The story features almost all of the original characters (except, of course, for Quincey Morris, who dies at the end of Stoker’s novel), but tells what became of them. It’s centred around the son of Mina and Jonathan Harker, young Quincey who is mentioned at the end of the original novel. And it features one of the most interesting vampires I’ve ever come across (and, this time, I don’t mean Dracula himself, but his worst enemy).
Well, I think that covers most of my reading material since September. But as the game still is downloading, I might as well continue, so expect more soon.
Believe it or not, I’m still alive. Things have been changing recently, some for the better, some for the … well, not so good. Anyway, I have not forgotten about this blog, I simply couldn’t work up the necessary energy to write more posts. But that’s going to change from now on, promised.
First of all, I’m going to give you updates on what I read, watched and played lately, afterwards I’ll try to give you an update on my regular crusades, too. (You know, “Killerspiele” and “Size 0”).
Arkham Asylum is the place where the many super villains of Gotham basically have their second home (or maybe their first). It’s the place where therapists try to cure them – usually to no avail. “Arkham Asylum” is also the subtitle of a new game set in Batman’s universe. And it’s the place where the whole game takes place, too.
I’ve waited for this new game for a long time, ever since I saw the first pictures and the first trailer. Of all the DC heroes, Batman is my favourite. And he makes a great character for a computer game, because he doesn’t have any supernatural powers. (Now, I’ve enjoyed playing “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” a lot – despite the fact that it’s a pretty bloodthirsty game. But then, we’re talking about Wolverine, the guy with the sharp blades protruding from the back of his hands.) But any being with supernatural powers, be it alien, divine or mutant, means thinking around the bent. Wolverine doesn’t have to worry about a few people with MPs … Batman does, despite the protection of his suit. And, as a gamer playing “Arkham Asylum,” so do I.
The Joker is caught – once more – and Batman is taking him back to Arkham. No, that’s not the end of the game, it’s actually the intro sequence. The first thing that came to my mind while watching it was ‘Why the hell is that guy so happy about it?’ This thought was closely followed by ‘Wow, someone really went overboard with the security measures here.’ I soon learned that nobody went overboard with the security measures, of course, since the Joker breaks free and disappears inside the Asylum. No wonder he was in such a great mood – he wanted to get in, after all.
The intro sequence is quite long and partly interactive, even though the interactive part merely is following the guards who take the Joker back inside the Asylum. Still, there are some quite interesting moments, such as the meeting with Killer Croc on the way down (that guy’s huge and has quite some teeth…).
There’s basically three things to do during the game: walk or run through corridors, fight Joker’s henchmen (and various madmen) and solve riddles or problems.
Quite some problems stem from the fact that the Joker controls most of the Asylum, including the intercom (meaning a lot of voice-overs all over Arkham Island). Quite often only an air vent or a gargoyle high up on the wall provide a way onwards. The fighting consists mostly of close-quarter combat (against unarmed enemies) and guerrilla tactics (against armed enemies, as Batman is not bullet-proof). I found the inverted takedown (an upgrade you can buy with experience points gained from winning fights and solving problems) quite useful in these situations. Just get on a gargoyle, wait for an enemy to walk by underneath, drop down, grab him and hang him up by his ankles. Quite useful and terrifies the rest of them.
The riddles are usually create by the Riddler (who else, seriously) and usually quite cryptic. There’s always something in the area, though, which is connected to the riddles. In addition there’s challenges like ‘destroy 5 Joker’s teeth’ (referring to the gadgets always hopping around in the corridors). There’s also Riddler Trophies hidden around (green question marks), tapes with interviews of the various inmates and the Chronicles of Arkham, cryptic messages left behind by the founder of the asylum. They are not necessary to continue the game, of course, but provide additional content and additional experience points.
The controls of the game have been converted quite well (even though I have to admit I prefer the combination of mouse and keyboard to the game controller in this case) – “Batman - Arkham Asylum” is a multiplatform title with the pc-version being the last to come out. Bad for me, as I don’t own an X-Box 360 or PS III. I installed the English version of the game (it’s a multilingual DVD), mostly to get the original voices. You don’t get to hear Mark ‘Luke Skywalker’ Hamill a lot these days – and he gives a great Joker (and has for about 15 years now…). In addition, quite some jokes are only funny in the original language.
I’ve only seen about 30% of the game yet, but I really like it already and I will continue to play until I’m through.
Elections are coming um, next week on Sunday we’re electing the new members for the Bundestag (the German parliament). And, as always, the “Killerspiele”-debate comes up again.
In addition, there have been some things happening lately – violence that resulted in the death of a man trying to help, another student running amok in his school – that have, once again, sparked off the whole debate.
It’s always the same faces you see throughout the debates on TV – people who usually speak about the whole topic without knowing the slightest bit about the actual games.
Even after almost three years – that’s how long my blog’s been running now – the actual debate as a such has not changed the slightest. Whenever there’s someone killing or maiming people and the person is a teenager or in his twenties (no women accounted for so far), it’s immediately the fault of the “Killerspiele.”
Yes, most of them do have something like “Counterstrike” on their computer. But, to be honest, I’d be more surprised if a boy that age didn’t have such a game on his hard drive.
One thing is strange, though: all people running amok during the last few years were members of a Schützenverein (shooter’s association would probably be the right translation). As not everyone in Germany is allowed to own a gun, becoming a member of such a club is the only way to learn how to handle a gun (something you don’t learn from a computer game) and how to actually shoot with it (aiming with a gun is completely different from aiming with a mouse). Despite the fact that those amok runs would not have been possible without the amok runners being members of a Schützenverein, not one politician has ever demanded to shut them down. Strange, isn’t it? Or, maybe, it isn’t. The older members of those clubs are most likely to vote for the politicians always going on about the “Killerspiele.” So why alienate those who will most surely vote for you?
On the other hand, the politicians still have to learn one fact: it’s not just a small group of underage nerds who play computer games, it’s a large group of people at voting age (getting bigger and older every year) who do it.
Usually I don’t get to watch much TV before eleven a.m. I’m either working in the morning or I’m sleeping in (while on vacation).
After a few days on which I rose early – in one case didn’t sleep at all –, I have to admit that I didn’t really miss anything. Early morning shows (morning shows in general) aren’t exactly something to be thrilled about.
But then, I can’t say there’s a lot to be thrilled about on TV. Every now and then there’s a good magazine, an interesting series or a movie worth watching. Apart from that, it’s enough to provide a background noise, but nothing else.
That is what TV has basically been for me, ever since I moved out of my parents’ home. I live alone and the TV provides me with some noise, with a background sound. I listen in to it when something seems interesting, but I’m not watching TV with concentration.
When I was a kid (about the time the dinosaurs walked the earth…), the TV program seemed so interesting. I was really waiting for most of my favourite series to begin and I was always thrilled when I was allowed to watch the evening program with my parents. When I had my first TV, was allowed to watch in my own room (that was around the time we got cable), there were so many interesting things I wanted to watch. But today… Somehow the interesting parts are missing.
The TV program isn’t what it used to be … or maybe it’s just a question of how long you’ve watched TV already. Sooner or later there’s just repetition.
I have to admit that the TV series completely passed me by. Even though it was shown on German TV not too long ago, I somehow managed to miss it. There was another series I found interesting running at the same time, so I didn’t watch it.
About a week ago, I stumbled over the fourth book of the series and went through it within a few hours. The novel encompassed everything I really like about a book: suspense, some blood, humour (even my favourite, the dark variety) and a world full of interesting characters.
I managed to get the other three books soon afterwards and even sacrificed one night’s sleep to finish one of them. And I really wish now I had watched the TV series…
I instantly found the character of Dexter interesting and compelling. I do have a very big soft spot for villains, anyway, and, apart from being a killer, Dexter isn’t really a villain. He merely uses his killer instinct to punish those who slip by the law. And isn’t that something a lot of people have wanted to do at some time or another?
Dexter doesn’t think of himself as a ‘true’ human – and I’d like to disagree about that. He might be missing out on empathy and his feelings are probably buried so deep you won’t get them out with any normal means, but he’s still a human. Maybe he’s even more of a human than most others – whether you believe in the bible or in Darwin, aggression and murder (think of Cain and Abel) have been with us since the beginning. Even chimpanzees are capable of murder … really makes you think, doesn’t it? (And yes, I mean murder, the planned killing of a member of your own species. That’s not just hunting.)
In addition, his relationship – as ‘artificial’ as he might think it is – with Rita and her children is more than just a show. Especially after he realizes Astor and Cody have the same ‘Dark Passenger’ inside (due to the trauma of their drunk and violent father) and need training. He takes care of them (and of Rita), in order to keep them on the ‘Harry Path’ (meaning away from pointless murder, prison and a death sentence). If he truly had no feelings and were not human, he’d just let them become the killers they might become without his help. So his foster father was right, he really is a good boy – in his own way.
I also found the idea quite interesting to have a serial killer work for the police. Dexter is a blood-splatter specialist, working with the forensic team, while his sister Deborah (well, foster sister) works as a cop, following her father’s example.
Dexter knows how not to be caught, he knows what the police can find out and thus what to avoid. He knows how to kill slowly (something his victims practically deserve, being what they are) and how to dispose of the body in a way that keeps him out of trouble.
Unlike in the TV series (from what I’ve read on TV.com), Dexter only kills once or twice throughout each novel, giving him a lower body count. And I like the fact that the books develop the story quite nicely. Since you’re always inside Dexter’s head (sharing, as it were, the space with the Dark Passenger), you know, hear, feel and see what he knows, hears, feels (despite his own words, Dexter does have feelings) and sees.
I’ve been discovering Dexter rather late, but at least I discovered him. And sooner or later I’ll find a way to watch the series, too.
Yesterday evening my TV croaked - which meant I had to find some other sort of entertainment until tomorrow, when I’m going to buy a new one. Luckily I must have foreseen it, because I actually went to an electronic market during my lunch break yesterday and bought two movies. One of them the third part of “Underworld” - “Rise of the Lycans”.
Believe it or not, I actually had planned to see the movie when it came to theatres, but somehow I never got around to it. Then I thought “to hell with it, it’s the sequel of a sequel and won’t be any good” (although I actually liked “Underworld: Evolution”) and left it at that. But today, standing in front of the shelf and looking at the new movies out on DVD, I saw the cover and thought “okay, it’s probably worth it, in addition I could do with some ‘evil’ vampires instead of those twinkling ones.” So I bought “Rise of the Lycans” and “Watchmen” (will watch that one today).
As my TV decided to completely croak yesterday, I picked up the DVD, put in the DVD-drive of my computer and watched it.
Having seen “Underworld: Evolution,” I knew what was going to happen to the young lovers, of course, but the whole development of story was new to me - as to everyone else. We learn in the second movie Lucien was in love with a vampire - with Viktor’s daughter, no less. And we learn she was killed in front of his eyes, executed by sunlight. We see this scene in the second movie, in fact, as an explanation for Lucien’s hate of the vampires. Of course he would hate Viktor, hate the man who killed his true love.
The whole relationship between werewolves (the children of William, brother of the Elder Marcus and first werewolf around), Lycans and vampires is a difficult one. And with the third movie, we get an explanation for it. Werewolves are turned once and stay ‘animals’ until they die. Only in death they return to their human form. Lycans, on the other side, are something between werewolf and human. They can change at will - not necessarily at full moon, but certainly then as well. And all of them come, through the generations, by Lucien, by the first of all Lycans. This, basically brings him up to par with William (the first werewolf) and Marcus (the first vampire). At the same time, Lucien can control and command the werewolves as well. He does so in various scenes of the movie. This puts him in one line with William (who, theoretically, might have been his father … we never learn about who fathered Lucien - who was born a Lycan). And, in essence, we also see what the child of Sonya and Lucien would have been - in the second “Underworld” with one character being both Lycan and vampire. Viktor could - at the cost of his daughter’s life - postpone the moment both bloodlines come together again (as they sprang from the same bloodline, William and Marcus being brothers), he could not keep it from happening, ultimately.
But now to the most important thing: did I like it?
Yes, definitely. I loved the movie from the very first minute. The look was at the same time familiar (after two movies set in the same world, though a different time, you recognize the way the werewolves look, the way the vampires act and so on) and unfamiliar. It’s a much earlier period. Viktor is ruling, probably for the last time before he gets reawaken in the first movie.
What I liked most about the first two movies was the leading female character, Selena. A strong, dangerous woman, a vampire, but not a vamp. A soldier who believes wholeheartedly in her mission - until she learns about the betrayal.
Viktor is another character I liked - in a way - since the very beginning. He’s an easy guy to hate, in the movie, like so many characters played by Bill Nighy. But there’s also something behind him, some kind of reasoning for all his actions. It was nice to see it, in the third movie.
Lucien was yet another character I thought interesting from the very beginning. From the first movie, he showed clearly he didn’t see himself as an animal - and didn’t allow any other of his kind to act like one, if he could stop it. Seeing him turn from a slave into a leader of an army (of both werewolves and Lycans), made his character even more interesting. He gains his freedom, at least thinks he has killed his slaver (but Viktor survives, of course), but he loses his reason for fighting in the first place.
Which brings me to a fourth, a new character. Sonya, while being mentioned in the second movie, has never been seen alive before. We see her only in Lucien’s memory, at the moment of her death through the sunlight. Sonya does resemble Selena, in some ways. In looks - because that is the reason why Selena was turned instead of being killed - and in actions. But she’s a different woman. She acts differently in many ways, she fights differently (only logical, pistols were not around in the twelfth century) and she lives (in so far as a vampire lives) differently, too.
The enslavement of the Lycans, too, is an important point. They all, save for Lucien, came into being simply to serve the vampires, to be their protectors, their workers, their property. It was only logical they would, one day, turn against their tormentors. But for that, a powerful, strong and intelligent leader was necessary - Lucien. And for Lucien to become that leader, he had to have a reason - Sonya. The treatment of his ‘children’ he was forced to watch did do something to motivate him, too, but knowing he would never be with his true love without being free of the chains of slavery certainly was a major motif.
You might realize I really liked this movie, as this is the first post in a long time. I hope I might go back to blogging regularly now. I certainly will have more time for it during the next weeks, as my summer vacation of three weeks starts at the 31st.
