On Wii

So, today Nintendo revealed the actual name of their upcoming console - Wii! As in "wee." Everyone else who has commented on the title has seen fit to provide the related pronounciation by listing the English slang word we used as 7-year olds to describe the process of urinating. I suppose I had to do that to keep in their great company.

Seriously, I have, in the past twenty minutes since discovering this news, read about five blogs or news articles written by or quoting a dozen or more jackasses who are analyzing why Wii is a bad name and why Nintendo will fail.

And they're all wrong.

GameCube was a stupid name. It took a broad idea (gaming) and put it into a shape (cube) - the shape of the system. It was very childish and I hated it. As a matter of fact, I'm still bitter at Nintendo for their support of the system. The GameCube never really hit its full potential - being either a truly wonderous Zelda game or any kind of lasting party game in the same vein as GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64. But I owned a GameCube.

And I will own a Wii.

And so will you, your cousins and your friends. Why? Because the console's concept is innovative, even if the name strikes you as childish, stupid, cryptic or ... well, revolutionary.

I like it because it's simple. "Wii." Say it ... say it out loud. Go on. "Wii." One syllable, three letters. It's what we were gonna convert any other console name to - NES, SNES, N64, GC, PS, PSX, PS2, XBox. Wii. It's already there! See?

So stop detailing the failings of Nintendo's marketing strategies and start harrassing them for not releasing any details about the actual console or release dates or launch titles. Dammit, we know the name and we've seen the controller ... show us the rest already!

New Home on the Web

Soon enough, I'll have a new home here on the Interwebbernet; actually, BanjokerFilms will have a new home. The new website will be up and running soon, though with minimal content. I'll have a project-related blog on that site for updating people with information about my productions, thus leaving this blog open for a return to more personal insights into my life.

I'll keep you updated on that progress.

For now, I've hit a few snags in production:

1. NYU has just stumbled across a 6 month old accounting error on their part, leaving me with a $4,000 debt that must be paid off by graduation - in three weeks. They fuck up and I foot the bill. Makes sense in that S&M way. They like inflicting pain upon their students (the source of their income - willing little "education bitches," I think is the term) and the students don't mind being bound and gagged while NYU steps on their testicles with stiletto heals wrapped in ridiculously high numbers representing years of debt to partnered or affiliated banking institutions. I'm really no different - I'm simply hoping that the bruises will heal soon, because summer's coming up soon and I can't have people seeing the signs of abuse I've taken from my educational Masters. Wow, I can't believe I let that metaphor go so long. I'm really sorry about that.

2. Film Department Beaurocracy. 'Nuff said.

3. My funky ass schedule. I don't feel I'm waking up early enough to accomplish all the things I really should be getting done. If I told you when I have been waking up, you'd probably come to my apartment and silently creep to the side of my bed, awaiting whatever you feel is the appropriate rising time (be it 5AM or 9AM) with a shotgun on your lap; when that time comes, you'd then see fit to awaken me with a sure start - the sound of both barrels unloading into the cement ceiling (apartment complex - cement everywhere ... cheap flooring, too!). You'd probably be helping me out.

I don't know how to close out this post, so I'll make it easy on me and not fret over the finesse of my finale.

Um ... bye.

A Taste of the Insane Art of Home Buying

As research for future residence possibilities, I began to search for homes in the Los Angeles area online. Little did I know that searching for a home in a place you cannot conveniently visit is one of the most ridiculous and painstaking tasks that one will ever perform.

Without a firm grasp on the subdivision of the city into towns and communities, it's nearly impossible to narrow down your search, except to avoid areas you are certain are not what you're looking for. In an effort to avoid alienating anyone who might happen to be from one of those areas that frequents this blog (highly unlikely - but why take chances?), I'll avoid stating which areas I seek to avoid. However, I have no idea if that makes other areas any better.

Perhaps the biggest problem I have with the search is that when I narrowly define what I'm looking for (and to avoid ridicule from friends and family, I'll not state what my preferences are in a home) in a residence and specifically define a town or community, I get almost no returns. Or alternatively, if I use the same specifications and put "Los Angeles" as the general "city," I get 1,000 returns ... none of which are anywhere near what my specifications were.

As I've come to understand it in my limited experiences, home buying is an unscientific art where you search randomly for a place you might possibly want to inhabit for a certain period of time (one year to the rest of your life, perhaps). However, that doesn't mean that I can't expect that when technology offers the possibility of [more] easily finding the type of environment I'm looking for, that I shouldn't expect it to do just that. While I can expect to be disappointed that one house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, but only a driveway and not a garage (just examples, not specifically what I'm seeking), I think it's perfectly acceptable for me to be completely pissed when a specific search for a 2+ bedroom, 1.5+ bathroom single-family home returns a condo with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath in a "unit" (which is not what I expect when I seek a single-family "home").

I want a stand-alone house, with grass and a driveway. I want at least two bedrooms, and I would prefer two bathrooms. I want a newer house in a nice community, where, if we eventually choose to have kids, I wouldn't mind them growing up. I want to be near young people, but not in the middle of a campus. I want a basement, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and a second floor. To be perfectly succinct, what I'm seeking is a "taste of home."

I hate urban life. I hate not having a car. I hate the bleakness of the Northeast. I hate the attitude of New York. I hate being in an apartment, and more importantly I despise the enclosed confines of our one-bedroom unit.

All-in-all, I feel like a caged animal seeking to be released into the wilds.

It's a daydream. A fantasy. Something I won't have for ... well, for a while.

But I want it nonetheless.

An Update Out of Sheer Boredom

So, I'm progressing with my project and will be casting soon and bringing aboard more principle crew. There's not much to report, so I haven't written anything of any great value as of late. However, I thought it would be good to point out that, at the moment, a friend of mine who is studying abroad in Italy is designing a site to house all of my film-related content on my website. As soon as I have something to show you, I'll point you in that direction.

On a personal note, the weather is really fucking with me ... my nose has begun to get stuffy after nice days, and my mood sinks considerably when it gets cloudy after several days of nice weather. For as much as the medication helps control the range of the mood shift, it can only do so much. Considering how I deal with my bouts of depression (self-pitying nostalgia), I'd say I'm really not a depressive who requires a great deal of observation.

What I do need is a car ... I absolutely need to be able to leave here on a whim and go driving.
If there's any one thing that's hurting me at the moment, it's the feeling that I'm caged up - not in this apartment, but in this area. I'm tired of having only so many places to go. I long to drive for hours on end, exploring other areas of this state that currently serves as my residence. A car would make life considerably better for me. And if not better, at the least, it would make life easier.

Currently, between my hours of script breakdowns, equipment rental research and location scouting, I've been playing through GTA III and watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. While perhaps not the high life, it's most certainly keeping me from smashing my head into a wall in an attempt to alleviate the stress of what I'm trying to do (if you hit it just hard enough, you'll knock yourself out and awaken with only a light headache - note: this may or may not lead to some type of permanent damage).