I’ve moved!
Please visit http://jessicalum.com/blog to view my new blog site.
Forget my birthday (in any case, when you’re past 21, every birthday is another sore reminder of approaching middle-age); this news is bigger:
1. I stopped losing hair. This is excellent. I’m no longer afraid of getting a haircut and terrifying the hairdresser when all my hair suddenly strips from my scalp. Shrieks of horror ensue. I still have a random white halo-like streak in my hair. People say they like it, citing Storm and Rogue (attractive, but mutants, nevertheless). I’m not sure about it, but I’m just happy to have hair, especially since hair-loss is NO LONGER AN ISSUE. YES!!
2. My blood counts, red and white, are almost completely normal, according to my complete blood culture. I’M HEALTHY. Considering. Nevertheless, my red and white cells, my lymphocytes and hemoglobin are all within normal range for the first time in several months.
My body has recovered from radiation treatment.
From Perry Bible Fellowship, by Nicholas Gurewitch
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/lost-comiccon-panel.html
The Lost crew and producers announced a few tantalizingly vague pieces of info about the upcoming 6th season of the ABC series.
MMph!! The giddy fanboy inside me was itching to be there today, but alas…I forgot to get a pass to Comic-Con…again.
Anyways, after a partial rewatch of Seasons 1 and 2, and taking the Season 5 finale into account…the more I can’t shake this feeling that Lost is all about a game. You’ve either won…or you’ve Lost. Plus there’s always that dichotomy of symbolic colors, black and white, the pieces of backgammon, the dialogue between Jacob and his darkly-clad adversary, and of course, the pivotal character of John Locke, who absolutely loves games…
So when Lindelof and Jorge Garcia assure that the audience would feel cheated if the last 5 seasons turn out to have “never happened” when the detonated H-bomb alters the timeline…I wouldn’t be surprised if the series headed in that direction; after all, if it’s a game, you can always find loopholes. You can always cheat.
My dream of writing a killer screenplay was crushed.
Alexis Bledel stole my life and Post Grad screenwriter Kelly Fremon stole my story.
What, UCLA?
Yeah, that’s right. That’s filmed AT UCLA, right outside Royce Hall, the building which hosted many of my English classes. (Territorial growl) That’s my school, beezy.
Okay, okay, I’ll admit. This is a pretty cliche story idea anyways.
Here’s the IMDB summary:
Ryden Malby graduates from college and is forced to move back into her childhood home with her eccentric family, while she attempts to find a job, the right guy, and just a hint of where her life is headed.
I envisioned my yet-unwritten screenplay (still waiting to get some screenwriting software and my brain back from chemo/summer-rot) as somthing similar, though minus the stupid romantic subplot. I mean I guess that’s part of post-grad life, even for me, but I think reeks too much of corniness.
Sigh. I guess I’ll start working on a TV-spinoff now.
And in the meantime…this gave me a silly cover-letter idea that has the same probability of floating as this film does in the box office this summer. Um, in my opinion, it’s not the best time to make a film about struggling college students at a time when few of us (the target audience) have jobs and money to spend on frivolous trips to the movie theater to watch frustrating movies that remind us about our own dilemmas.
Yo, FILM INDUSTRY! We’d rather spend our money watching films like Harry Potter that reminds us of our earlier adolescence Harry Potter, or inspires us for the future like Star Trek. Or heck, even Transformers 2, so we can go braindead for a solid opiate-like 2.5 hours.
Well, at least that’s what the box office says.
By the way, if you haven’t read Roger Ebert’s Transformers 2 review, please do.
Here’s a taste:
The movie has been signed by Michael Bay. This is the same man who directed “The Rock” in 1996. Now he has made “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Faust made a better deal.
My inner English major (nerd) is screaming “OHHhhhh BURNED!” right now.
Anyways, cheers.
I just received a bill from UCSF today.
Thank God for insurance.
My mom said that our house cost $40,000 in 1977.
Yep.
Well, I have to figure out something soon for insurance. I lose coverage under my parents in a little over a year when I turn 23. Unfortunately, I can’t just have any ol’ insurance…I need someone who can authorize a referral to a specialist. I also need to find an employer/someone to marry me who has Kaiser insurance, otherwise I will probably be rejected for coverage with my pre-existing condition.
Other options…go into debt to save my life? Refuse treatment and accept the inevitability of my death to save money?
There are some less extreme options out there, but they really require a lot of $$$ which I personally don’t have, and my parents are on a fixed retirement income now. Not like we were particularly affluent to begin with either; my mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was a schoolteacher.
Ugh…as if having stage 4 cancer wasn’t hard enough already.
Fortunately, I’m pretty asymptomatic right now. No more stupid fevers, no more medicine at the moment (YESS!!!!). I’ve been feeling well enough to get depressed over other things, like the lack of jobs that I’m finally well enough and qualified to hold.
Debbie Downer, Wah-Wah.
Happy Video Games Day, everyone!
Yeah, who knew there was an “official” Video Games Day. But heck, if there’s a National Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 12, why not?
In case you didn’t know about today or forgot to plan festivities, there’s ANOTHER video games day on September 12. Yay!
Today was also special because at 12:34 am and 56 seconds, it was 7/8/09. Get it? 12:34:56 7/8/09. Although nothing else particularly magical happened.
I’m spending a quiet Video Games Day at home. I began the day by beating Wesker again on Resident Evil 5.
[Sidenote: I think that's probably the 5th time I've shot him with rocket launchers into that volcano. What a terribly cliche defeat (Darth Vader, T-1000, Gollum, Kazyua Kazama); I wonder if he'll come back as an angry "I used to be beautiful" attitude like that one villain in the Punisher: Warzone (don't watch that movie). He was shirtless when he fell in...and I'm sure volcanic lava isn't best for the (infected) skin.]
Anyways, as a humble, slightly more public celebration, I wanted to celebrate some of my favorite often overlooked video game characters.
- Mei Ling and Otacon from the Metal Gear Solid series.
(Uh, in this one, Mei Ling has that wierd stereotypical “Asian girl” accent–not clearly Chinese or Japanese, and most likely not authentic. It bothers me a little.)
Before the recent days of auto-save and checkpoints, we used to have to call Mei Ling and Otacon to save the game. And let’s face it, save points are probably the most important parts of the game. Without them, we might as well be playing an arcade game. Mei Ling and Otacon aren’t just any ol’ save point either–Mei Ling is most known for sharing short proverbs and bits of wisdom at each save–and in Hideo Kojima’s spirit of meta-video gaming, even suggests that perhaps one day people will be able to participate in “interactive movies”–which is essentially what video gaming is these days. Otacon functions both as a save point plus quirky quotes and support crew for Snake. He is even more involved and developed as a character in the story lines of both Metal Gear 2 and 4. He often suffers heartbreak and bad luck in his romantic life, and proves to be a father-figure to Sunny and a loyal friend to Snake. - Moogles
Kupo! Moogles are among the most consistent recurring characters in the Final Fantasy. And they serve as the most adorable save points in the series. Awwww… - Mario’s Mushrooms
Uh, yeah, these aren’t exactly characters in the traditional sense, but hey, it’s got eyes. These little status boosters come in handy for gamers like me who lack in hand-eye coordination, a handicap that proves extremely difficult while playing older platformers. - Lulu, Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X is all about leading lady characters. Tidus may be the main character, but the women really run the show. Yuna, the main leading lady, and Rikku, her cutesy and scantily-clad gal pal often take the limelight, but Lulu is probably the least annoying women in the game, and thus my favorite. She’s a very strong feminine figure who is poised, thankfully more mature, and maternally protective. She is a little dark, but is full of kindness and love, especially towards Yuna and her romantic interest and husband, Wakka. Though she ultimately (if I recall correctly) retires to a quiet, domestic life as a wife and mother, she remains a consistently capable, powerful character. And just look at her–she’s smokin. - The Computer, Portal
Portal wouldn’t be half as eerie without the increasingly disturbing narration by the computer. The computer isn’t completely an antagonistic force throughout the game, but it certainly isn’t quite as good a friend as the good ol’ Companion Cube. In any case, that ending song is just too catchy!
Anyways, the list runs dry for now. More to come on that in September.
Ubisoft is opening up a new studio in Toronto.
Read about it here.
Hire me? Ah, I’d be so down to move to Canada. If I could get citizenship/marry a nice Canadian boy, all of my health insurance worries would be but a thing of the past.
Speaking of insurance worries, my birthday’s soon. One more year and I lose medical coverage under my parents, which means if I can’t find a job with benefits, I will have to pay for that $8000/28 pills for chemo or that $72,000 radiation treatment out of pocket. That certainly takes the happy out of the birthday.
Yep, that’s my cost of living.
HEY HUMANITY, PLAYSTATION 3 IS HELPING YOU OUT!
(Okay, apparently this is really old news, but hey, I’ve only owned my PS3 for a humble 5 months now.)
Folding@home is a project created by some fine folks at Stanford University in order to simulate molecular behavior, specifically how human proteins fold. Uh…or something like that.
This vid does a better job at explaining everything:
From what I understand in layman terms, the PS3’s processor is crazy fast, much faster than the average PC, and can basically be considered a supercomputer [edit: when several work together] (I love you, Sony). This helps speed up the folding simulation so researchers can sooner and faster understand how those evil molecules that trigger diseases like Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis and cancer.
Owners of supercomputers,or more commonly, of PlayStation 3s/regular computers can help out by networking their hardware to the Folding@home folks.
Here’s some info on Folding@home and how to hook up your PS3 to join the cause:
http://folding.stanford.edu/English/FAQ-PS3
Folding@home is accessible through the “Life with PlayStation” application under the network icon on the main screen. Once the software is installed and updated (this took me about 10 minutes to download), you can watch Folding@home go to work.
I just started my account today.
If you go hit the triangle button while on the Folding@home channel, select “Current Channel”, then scroll down to “Identity”. Under this option, you can create a username and join a team.
If you’d like to join my team (TEAMLUM) enter this team number: 167872.
THANK YOU, SONY for making such an unnecessarily powerful, beautiful piece of machine. I’ve always been a bit of a Sony loyalist, so Sony’s unfortunate lackluster sales in the past few years has been disheartening.
Microsoft played it smart by purchasing and developing great game titles exclusive to the Xbox 360, especially multiplayer/online titles like Gears of War and Halo 3. Xbox marketed heavily towards the main gamer demographic: male gamers in between 18-32. Microsoft’s investment in great games with its gamers in mind came at the cost of cutting corners on its hardware. The Xbox 360 console has been plagued by the red ring of death and even more so by its slow tech support, customer service and repairs.
Nintendo invested in a new sort of motion interactivity with the Wii, which they marketed to non-traditional gamer demographics: the young family and women. However, Nintendo really sacrificed in the graphics/hardware department as well, and didn’t bother developing either HD DVD or Blu-Ray technology. Nevertheless, Nintendo put out a truly innovative package that has changed the face and feel of modern gaming.
Sony, on the other hand, had very big plans … perhaps too grand. Sony really put out an excellent piece of hardware, spearheading the Blu-Ray revolution and creating a console that allows room for expansion, improvement, and well…stuff like Folding@home. However, Sony’s vision is a little beyond the average consumer’s needs–as was its price.
Nevertheless, Sony has proven itself a true technological visionary through its use of Folding@home.
To top off all of its claimed social and scientific contributions, Folding@home just looks fantastic. There’s a really cool graphic that shows all the blips where people are running Folding@home all over the world. The east coast is pretty hot right now, along with some pockets of insomniacs like myself on the west coast. Much of Japan and Seoul, South Korea are lit up as well. Possibly one (??) in North Korea? What’s interesting about this whole display is that it is really telling of global affluence as well..huh, maybe that could be the next PS3 project.
In any case, I’m a pretty proud owner of my PS3 right now.
[Thanks, Stanley]
I’m not sure what PS3/SCEA means by this, but hey, I’m down with the cause, and I’m down with SCEA.
This showed up in a google search for PS3. Sadly, there was no explainer when I clicked on the link.
