Bringing Sci-Fi back to SyFy

The science fiction geek inside of me is squirming for the new shows that SyFy just recently announced!  While the cable channel still has a few reality shows slated, which are cheap and easy to produce (and the masses gobble them up!), there are several scripted series that look great!

To start with, there are two novel adaptations, Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clark, and Ringworld by Larry Niven.  I have not read either yet, but wouldn't mind adding another Clark book to my shelves, so I'll have to make a book run this weekend.  I'm always concerned with book adaptations though, because of the tight budgets that the producers will have to work with.  But these two series have simply been waiting their turn for the big screen.  Kubric had originally thought about adapting Childhood's End before 2001, and the old SciFi Channel had talked about producing Ringworld almost a decade ago.  I'll be tuning in for both of them for sure!

There's also:

Orion, with a female relic-hunter set during an intergalactic war 

Sojourn, a detective in space

Infinity, the typical tale of a spacecraft hurdled into deep space and encountering new planets and life forms

Dominion, to take place after the movie Legion (Remember the Angel theme?)

Clandestine, following bandit stowaways on a coalition ship pretending to be officers

There are a couple others that include fantasy creatures and post-apocalyptic settings, and while those don't fit into the Sci-Fi genre, I'll accept them any day over Ghost Hunters...

Lastly, I wanted to point out a reality show that I actually am interested in - the current working title is Cosworlds.  It will of course focus on cosplayers, but I fear that the general TV viewers will still look at them as adults who never grew up.  Yes, that's exactly what cosplayers are, but somehow that's still a negative trait to have in society today.  Hopefully Cosworlds will portray them in an entertaining, but professional light.

These new shows, along with a few previous seasons (Even if they were cancelled), gives me hope that SyFy will be going back down the road that they started on.  Here's to a sci-fi filled future on television! Cheers!

Sugar and Zombies - Not Very Nice

What happened to Zombies?  They were originally reanimated corpses that were mindless monsters with one purpose – to eat your brains.  I didn’t want to go anywhere without a machete by my side just in case an outbreak occurred.  I didn’t stock up on water and canned foods for Y2K, I stocked up to prepare for the zombie apocalypse!   

But now….they’re….they’re cute. Yes, cute!  I do not want my zombies cute!  Add in some comedy, and that’s fine, as long as the zombies stay horrifically gory.  Shawn of the Dead and Zombieland rocked the zombie comedy genre.  And in video games a little dose of silliness like in Lollipop Chainsaw is welcomed.  But good god, do not make zombies huggable!

Not Huggable.

Who doesn’t want to pinch the cheek of the zombies in Plants v. Zombies?  And while I am still known to panic and almost run into lava to avoid the hiss of a Creeper in Minecraft, I still don’t find that face all that terrifying.  Give me a shot gun and a horde of the undying mobbing me in Left 4 Dead, and I’m happy.  Give me a smiling dancing daisy and some garden plants to kill zombies floating on balloons, and I’ll down a few drinks and then swap to something like Silent Hill 2 to make me petrified. 

Cute AND Dumb - Just makes me want to snuggle!

Because fear of the unknown is what gives us the horror genre in the first place.  But for some reason our society cannot handle that kind of fear any longer, since we are replacing a decomposing face with a cute green one (and please, don’t get me started on how we replaced Nosferatu with a sparkly, stalking love interest…).  I hope that The Walking Dead stays strong and steers our society back down the road of fearing the undead.  Because I swear, if my future children are falling asleep snuggling with a stuffed toy zombie, I’m not sure whether I’ll high-five my husband for our child-raising skills, or sit my child down in front of a Romero film and make them fear these creatures.  Hopefully I won’t have to make that decision…

Actually, I'll just make the decision to bring my child to a Zombie Crawl.
A+ in parenting, sir!

When Gameplay Causes a Rage Quit

I have a confession - I never finished the first Bioshock, meaning I never played Bioshock 2, and I remain conspicuously silent when my friends talk about Bioshock Infinite (although it looks amazing!).  I also never finished the first Assassin's Creed, even though period games are right up my alley.  There are other games that I played less than an hour before abandoning them, such as Dead Rising 2 (apologies to my friend Mike who gave it to me).  The reason I've quit numerous games never to pick them up again has one simple answer: Sucky Gameplay.

A game could have the most amazing storyline, captivating characters, mind blowing graphics, the works - but if something sucks about the gameplay, I just can't enjoy the rest of the game.  It's a fault I wish I could work around, because I'm missing out on some epic games!

Bioshock is the one exception that I know I'll pick up again even after rage quitting years ago.  So what's my complaint?  The damn map system, and it's use during quests:



See those red arrows?  Those designate the different levels that stairs will lead to.  And somehow my brain couldn't process it.  Combined with numerous quests that made you RETRACE your steps to pick up items, making you follow the damn red arrows, I gave up.  I navigated it once, and I was not doing it again!  Petty reason to quit, I know. 

Assassin's Creed is another game that was ruined by its gameplay.  I understand I'm playing as an assassin, trained to blend into a crowd, or hide in a barrel of hay instead of running through the streets GTA style.  But I never liked playing stealthy characters (I have a lack of patience), so I was doomed from the start.  I'm not saying I run into every encounter Leeroy Jenkins style, but I could put in the Sims if I wanted to sit on a bench as people pass by.  Plus playing on a console instead of my PC didn't help because while I was walking slowly within a crowd, I would suddenly jerk around, thus alerting the guards to my presence (damn you third person perspective on a controller!). 

Ok, so both of these reasons for quitting are pretty ridiculous excuses, but not as bad as refusing to go back and replay part of Skyrim because a dragon glitched and I can no longer enter Winterhold...er...um... *cough* 

Yeah...I'll stop there before this gets too embarrassing and I have to hand in my gamer card.  But for all my mediocre gripes about amazing games, I'm proud to admit that I've never gotten close to raging on this level:

Hollz Does Art - The Red Star Comic Series

I was recently introduced to The Red Star series, and instantly fell in love with the storyline and the stunning (and revolutionary for the time) artwork!  I'm debating cosplaying as Makita in the future, but more on that later...

For my very FIRST attempt at drawing a person, even a comic, I picked Maya, since her features were simple and her eyes downcast.  I'm not a fan of too many lines on a character's face in comics, so while I don't know what my own personal style will be once I start creating, I know that I want to keep it simple.  When I looked at this illustration of Maya, I was encouraged by the minimal lines, and wanted to give it a try. It was much more difficult than I imagined! Remember that I'm teaching myself how to draw, and have had no formal training - so I'm definitely looking for some advice and criticisms here!

I didn't tackle shadows/shading at all, which I should have done to make her more dynamic.  Also after numerous attempts, I gave up on her mouth, and went with a simple red line.  I added minimal color, since I've only sketched in black and white up until this point, and didn't feel comfortable with too much.  I found it difficult to match the proportions correctly, so I ended up with some funky lines, especially on her jaw line and coat buttons. 

I plan on coming back to this same image a few months down the road after I've had some more practice.  In the meantime, I think I'll try some realistic drawings first, then once I get the lines right I can add my own style to incorporate it into a comic.  But for now, I don't think this is too shabby for a first attempt:

The Original Artwork

Drawing by Hollz

Current Level: 1
XP needed for next level: 1300
XP Gained from Maya Drawing: 200
Total XP from drawings to date: 700  

Hollz Reviewz: LIMBO

I've become quite the fan of indie games these past couple years.  Not only do I enjoy supporting the "little guy" but these developers produce enjoyable games that are completely unique.  Because most Indies start off as a small pet project, they are not afraid to take risks with game-play, art design and story line.  And I found a perfect example of what an Indie game can do!

I bought Playdead's LIMBO last year during one of Steam's Holiday Sales.  I was intrigued by the seemingly simple gray-scale graphics, and playing the game as a small child looking to find his sister.  It only takes a few hours to complete this side scrolling puzzle game, but it's far different from anything I've played before.  I became immersed in a world where everything was out to get me, and the noir setting ensured that my spirits stayed dampened. But even in such a disparaging world, I felt like the guardian of this small hopeful boy, and I had to see him through to the end.

I always enjoy vulnerable characters more since I'm able to sympathize and connect with them (because I admit, I'm not built like a space marine).  Evoking emotion is difficult when all you have is a silent silhouette, but I became so attached to this little dude that Playdead actually had me cringing each time I failed a puzzle.  You see, the game was set up so that it would take multiple tries to complete puzzles to advance in the world, and if you don't succeed, the young boy experiences a death ranging from a simple rag-doll fall to being torn to bloody pieces. 

Another aspect of the game that tore at my emotions was the dreaded 8 legged creature that somehow pops up in every fantasy-themed creation.  The tension that I felt over keeping the boy alive was amplified when the first legs appeared.  

Nope nope nope!

When I finished the game, I ended up just sitting still, staring at my computer screen.  The ending is up for interpretation, and with my imagination running wild throughout the game, I had to take some time to process the adventure I went through with the little nameless boy. While the game was never scary, it will continue to haunt me for some time.  It was money well spent, and I will be sure to replay this game again in the future!

Hollz Does Art, Part 1

Welcome to the first post in Hollz Does Art - where Hollz teaches herself how to become an artist!

I could never draw.  Maybe I could when I was a child, back when criticisms never mattered.  But as soon as the first kid laughed at my art project, I stopped all together.  I even purposely drew outside the lines to prove that I was not an artist, so no one would expect anything of me.

What a horrible attitude to have!  I decided to turn that around a few months ago, especially when I started to get a comic book idea in my head.  How could I produce my own comic without connections and without drawing skills?

So here's where I started - my very first drawing:

I drew the first thing I laid my eyes on - my computer speaker.  Then I expanded out, moving towards more of a cartoon style instead of realism:

I wonder if I could have gotten into one of those mail-in art schools with this drawing?

Q-Bert, one of my favorite classics!

Let me know what you think, and I'd love any tips!  I'll update with new drawings in a couple weeks.

Total XP from drawings to date: 500.  XP needed for next level: 1500.

Make Good Art

Do you need some inspiration to follow your dreams?  Maybe to record a song, or to submit your story to a publisher?  I know how hard it is to not only take the first step down the path you want to be on, but to STAY on that path until one day you finally wake up and say "I made it!"  

It's this video that helps get me through the day at work - I'm working for the paycheck, like most of us, but I long for the day when the paycheck comes from doing something I love, something I created.  I know I'll get there one day.

It's this video that motivated me to teach myself to draw (more on that in a later post).  I always told myself I sucked at art.  Any art.  I swore that I could mess up a stick figure!  But that negative thinking simply bleeds into other areas of your life, and I'd never become an artist if I simply complained about it.  So I picked up a pencil and I've been drawing ever since.

There's always room for improvement.

It's this video that reminds me to create at least one piece of art a day, whether it's my practice drawings, a few words in a journal, or even just a wildly vivid idea in my mind.  

It's this video that will keep me on the creative path - and I hope it keeps you on that path as well.