within a lonely coffee house

After some thought, I decided to repost this today...at least I think I posted a draft of this before.

within a lonely coffee house

1967

I look out to the tables

from my place upon the stage.

One sits in the middle of the crowd,

empty

with a mug of coffee

and a stein of beer.

Odd.

The tables are a lustrous brown

a plastic like glaze

and a few chips here and there.

She sits in the corner

cup of tea in her hand.

A smile crosses that angelic face,

and I know

This is my muse.

The iPhone in my hand and I exchange a look.

“Paper is so cliché”

And I begin:

It wasn’t long ago that I was sitting on a train,

little black book in my hand

writing.

It wasn’t long ago that I looked up

up from that book

and saw it.

A pond, a blue pond

it was somewhere between Jackson

and 48^th.  In a place no one,

no one at all

would expect to find it.

Yet there it was.

Every day I would get a glimpse.

A puzzle,

A mosaic,

piece by precious piece it came together.

Finally, I understood.

Three years passed on that train.

Life

Death

Love

Loss

Hate

Apathy

All together.

All apart.

Yet that pond sat unchanged.

A man once asked,

How is this possible?

This isn’t how the world works.

I replied:

Correct, it isn’t.

If it is not possible,

then you change the world.

I looked up

to a filled table

with stein and mug in hand

and a single tear

flowing from

a blue pond.

How Castle Met Chuck at the Event in Hawaii

It seems to me that Mondays have become the new night for good television writing, or at least good geek television writing.  But, to be honest it isn’t all good.

How I Met Your Mother:

Now into it’s sixth season HIMYM is still one of the funniest shows on TV and it looks like we might finally meet the mother this season!  The way there are two plots playing out at the same time this season is a bit of a departure for the series away from an episodic format but it is definitely for the better.  If you like the show you are sure to love the new directions for the series and if you didn’t watch it before WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?  Three words:  Neil Patrick Harris

Chuck:

It’s a classic story geek works at electronics store, geek gets government computer downloaded into his head, geek meets girl, they get together….wait…one of these things is not like the others.  This season Chuck is searching for his mother, played by Linda Hamilton!  Sarah Connor is Chuck’s mom!  Like…dude!  And if a 54-year-old Sarah Connor sounds campy or inept wait till the last five minutes of this last episode then ask yourself if you would like to meet her wearing liquid metal or sporting an Austrian accent.

The Event:

Had this show come out three to four years ago it might actually be good but for the here and now it’s bad, really bad.  The writing occasionally has a high point where the watcher is left with an “I MUST WATCH!” feeling but it is quickly killed by very bad acting.  When Sarah Roemer, who is best known for either roles in “Fired Up” or “Disturbia”, is the highlight of the acting talent.  Enough said.  It’s like watching the third season of “Heroes” but with the addition of copious amounts of really bad “LOST” fan fiction.

Castle:

Nathan Fillion, smart writing, murder and mayhem.  What more could anyone ask for from a TV series sporting an all-star crew and some of the least known yet best acting talent to grace ABC’s surprisingly reality-light TV schedule.  The show has yet to become formulaic but it has been my worry since day one that it might take that turn and on occasion it has only to make a twist in the last half of the show that completely refreshes the algebraic formula that many crime shows suffer from (I’m looking at you CSI who’s idea of change is bringing in the Beibs for an episode).

Hawaii Five-0:

When FOX’s action behemoth “24” left the air I’m not going to lie, I cried a little.  Where was I to get amazing suspense, debatably good drama and verging on gratuitous violence?  I thought it might be from AMC’s “Rubicon” but it is more drama and artful diplomacy than the action adventure my inner Bauer required.  “Hawaii Five-0” fills the gaping whole in my heart.  Written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci who have been involved in practically every great thing to come from J.J. Abrams or Michael “EXPLOSIONS!!!” Bay, well there was “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” but they admit that was a mistake.  I can barely begin to describe how amazing this show is.  There are a few weak spots in this first episode but overall the show has some serious potential for greatness.  Think “The Shield” meets “24” with a hint of “The Unit” but all on network TV.  My only regret for the show is that Shawn Ryan of “The Shield,” “Lie to Me,” and my new favorite FX show “Terriers” is not involved in the program but perhaps give it a few years and some contract negotiations and “Hawaii Five-0” might find itself at the top of Emmy nominations.  I really can’t laud this show enough, as long as it can stay fresh and doesn’t suffer from the oh so terrible sophomore slump this will be a show to rival the popularity of shows like [shiver] “American Idol” or the now amazingly well rated [DOUBLE SHIVER] “Jersey Shore.”

This season of TV seems like it might be one of the best since the WGA strike, let's just hope there isn't another one any time soon.  I think most of us can agree that reality TV needs to go the way of game shows and every program created by Joss Whedon aired on FOX. 

"Halo: Reach," showing that Bungie still has it...sort of

I had been planning on making a better effort to post here, at least daily, but what was supposed to be a quick post of Tuesday kind of took over my spare time.  Two words:  “Halo: Reach.”

The gameplay is classic Halo, if it moves and isn’t you shoot it.  But, Bungie did add some changes that make the game infinitely better.  Now your SPARTAN has “abilities” as in cloaking, sprinting or (my personal favorite) the jetpack.  These all make campaign and online much more interesting and require a more intelligent level of play than simply running for the nearest rocket launcher and firing till all you hear is clicking.  Case in point:  on one mission in campaign were you are blessed with the use of a jetpack it suddenly becomes much easier just to jet above a ferocious alien with a giant blue sword running at you than emptying a half-loaded magazine into him and praying.

Oh and then there is the plot.  To sum it up in one sentence it is good, really good, but has a few problems.  There are some plot holes a Covenant super-carrier could fly through and some previously released Halo canon was simply ignored (like the fact that only three SPARTAN-3’s are alive in the Universe and some items that are major spoilers).  It’s just that, and feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you don’t feel like reading some Geek-Rage™, it isn’t that hard to make sure that everything fits correctly.  They could have all been SPARTAN-2’s and had the armor abilities, it is a military planet with major amounts of tech, and it wouldn’t be inconceivable.  It just leaves me disappointed in the abilities of the Bungie staff having smart story telling, and frankly has me worried about what their next game is going to be, being as that this is the final Halo coming from the dream team.

Online is amazing, simply the best experience I have had with or without friends on my Xbox since Halo:  Combat Evolved was released.  The balance system has been fixed since “Halo 3” and the $60 price tag has, so far, kept the airwaves clean of whining seven-year-olds that swear more than Rahm Emmanuel when he sees the presidential approval ratings.  There is also a new feature for customizing what type of people you would like to play with, which may also be why I have yet to come in contact with the main reason why I hated playing Halo 3 online.

On the achievement front the game is fairly easy.  Beat it on normal and legendary and play probably about 20-hours worth of online and you will have your 1000G.  With that said, the inevitable DLC achievements that will come with map packs are probably going to be just as annoying as some of the “Halo 3” and “Gears of War 2” do X number of Y on Z map(s) achievements that devs seem to be so fond of.

In summary, this game is a definite buy if you own a 360, which you should (like really if you don’t have one go to Best Buy right now and fix it, it’s a moral and ethical imperative).  It’s an instant classic that shows just how far gaming has come since you first stepped out of a cyrotube and shot Captain Keyes just to see how long you could last.

Gameplay- 9.0

Graphics- 8.5

Plot- 7.5

Online- 10

Replay value- 10

Final Grade- 9.0

Thoughts and Memories

Metal burnt

Earth melted

Spirit reigned supreme

Through fire flame and destruction

They gave their all

Sacrificed life, the ultimate freedom

That others may live

Nine years ago today an attack that I think few are able to fully comprehend occurred on American soil.  It was not a nation-state that assaulted our shores but a radical group, one bent on the destruction of Western civilization as it has been known for the past 500 plus years.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare through the play’s title character speaks, “For some must watch, while some must sleep / So runs the world away.”  On September 11, 2001 many were watching over those who were victims, both in body and spirit.  The heroes of the tragedy will little be remembered as the years pass.  The firemen, police officers, and civilians that laid down their lives to save all they could will, inevitably, one day be forgotten.  Their names lost to history, their service but some half-remembered dream.  Nine years ago passengers on a jetliner, people who at any other time may have been nothing more than a name and social security number when their lives were done stood up against evil men and sacrificed their own lives to save others.

These heroes all waved goodbye to their family that day not knowing it would be the last time they would see, hear or speak to them.  But, in the end I have no doubt that they knew that at some point they would be reunited in a better place.

In my mind September 11^th will not be remembered as a day that America showed herself to be vulnerable to other, that we suffered a great loss that we may never fully recover from as a nation, rather I see it as a constructive force.  It brought us together like nothing save possibly Pearl Harbor or the American Revolution was able to do.  I remember members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican, singing “God Bless America” on the steps of the Capital after the events took place.  It didn’t matter that two weeks before these men and women may have been close to hating each other for their difference in ideology, it only mattered now that they were American and all felt the same need to help a nation in mourning.

The simple truth is, the terrorists didn’t win then and they haven’t won now.  We are still standing, still that shining beacon of freedom and liberty that our Founding Fathers saw this country as being.  And so long as we remember the sacrifice which has been made to keep this country secure and its people safe we will remain as such.