Monday, January 30, 2012

2012's Lyrical Resolution Revolution: January Edition


I figure if I'm going to do this, I can't fail on the first month, right?!?  So here's what I have in store for January.  I wanted this song to reflect my re-institutionalization to song writing and I felt that this brings it out just right.   It reflects on what I learned and loved in the past about how things were and hope for how things are to come.  I pretty much feel that it shows not only maturity from my usual standard in writing, but also on how I grew as a person in my life.
So here's to the first song of the new year.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your written-verse pleasure: Seasons.
There was once a time in our lives, when we thought we were invincible // And there were times within our lives, when we wished we were invisible // And there were those times in our lives, which we thought were incredible // And there will be times that we’ll be tried, to either stop or to let it go
They’ll be a season where we’ll have to be tested // Will we make it today, or we doomed to yesterday // From the sins of our fathers to what fortune tellers call // To either live for the moment or experience old
This season – we’ll make the best of our time // Last season – we reminisce of our crimes // The reason – that we continue together // Next season – we’ll live like its forever // This season – // No reason –
There are times within our lives, where we go through a crucible // And there are times within our lives, where we go through such a spectacle // And there are times within our lives, to tame the bull or grab hold // So many times that we’ve been tried, to either step up or to let it go
They’ll be a season where we’ll have to be tested // Will we make it today, or we doomed to yesterday // From the sins of our fathers to what fortune tellers call // To either live for the moment or experience old //
This season – we’ll shine the light on our times // Last season – remember a sobering sign // No reason – we can’t continue together // Next season – will be better than ever // The reason – // This season – // Live in rhyme – // And reason –
There’s no rhyme – // And no reason – //  There’s just time – // And passing seasons –
This season – we’ll make the best of our time // Last season – we reminisce of our crimes // The reason – that we continue together // Next season – we’ll live like its forever // This season – we’ll shine the light on our times // Last season – remember a sobering sign // No reason – we can’t continue together // Next season – will be better than ever // This season – // No reason -

I sure hoped that you enjoyed this being the first of many songs to come from me this year.  Here's to living up to a resolution, being productive, and doing some good with my talents.

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...

Monday, January 23, 2012

WTF PEOPLE!?! Ninety's Nostalgia

Maybe it's just be turning thirty later this year, maybe it's because I think that that was the greatest decade that I lived so far.  But it just seem to me that there is an overflow of what I call "Ninety's Nostalgia."  That is to say that every kind of media that I seem to glance over is on the hook of reliving the whole Gen-X era.  Technically I am considered to be Generation Y, but that's besides the point.  The point is that everywhere I go, something from the 90's pop back.  It's neither good, nor bad, but it does bar the question, WTF PEOPLE!?!


Of course I'm a big fan of The Nostalgia Critic and this kind entertainment I approve of.  Hell, I might even approve of all those VH1 best of the 90's bullshit that come to show every know and then. (Then again, I don't know of anyone that ever watched VH1 after 2002.)  It shows all the stupid, stupid crap that was for the light of a better word, decent, at the time.  The good thing about those examples is that they don't just focus on the 90's.  Which is refreshing for someone like me that prefer variety.  The problem lies in those that dwell with the reliving it like some sick Peter Pan syndrome.  These are the ones that I enjoy just enough to get pissed off about.


One thing that I grew up with was the serge of all the cool crap that was on Nickelodeon.  It was the birth of original cartoons and content for a network meant for kids.  The original set of NickToons set the wave of what would make the network the juggernaut that it is now.  From Doug, Rugrats, and Ren and Stimpy; to Spongebob, Fairly Oddparents, and Fanboy and Chum Chum; it's totally meant to be for kids.  Then they branched out to different sub-stations if you will, which are Nick Jr., NickToons, TV Land, and TeenNick.  And as part of TeenNick, they have a block of programming that set aside tweens the whole back in my day mentality.  Four hours of 90's programming of the same crap that they fed me they're feeding them, and looking back at it, it was indeed crap.  And the bad part about it is that it's all the stupid crap, not any of the good stuff.  Seriously, Doug, Kenan and Kel, and Hey Dude; c'mon man!?!  That's like the filler before all the good stuff.  I rather be watching the current crap than the old crap.  Yeah, I know, Nick was on it's infancy, but that's what stood out. Bring back old episodes of Double Dare or remake Wild 'N' Crazy Kids, but not this crap.


And the isn't all folks, there's seem to be an influx of remaking every damn thing from back in the day.  Cartoon Network did a rebirth of Thundercats, NickToons is doing Voltron and bastardizing the different Dragonball series of cartoons, Hub is doing yet another variant of Transformers as well as a new generation of G.I. Joe.  Sure I used some 80's stuff in that, but it's still the same aspect.  Are we really running out of original ideas that we have to rehash stuff form our youth?  Have all the good ideas been taken?  Hell, even Haim Saban reclaim control of the Power Rangers franchise and what did he do with the current season/series of the show, bring back an original cast member (Bulk) to the cast.  Playing it up to the current youth and the young at heart like me.  It's just bizarre on how much we can cling to that past, that it becomes a Lazarus Pit of entertainment.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it can't be a primary source of new shows.  It's like the oldies of television when the oldies station add in new content from the next decade.


Speaking of which, there's a local radio station, and maybe there's others but I'm talking about mine locale right now, that plays 90's rock music on the weekends.  They call it "Edge of the 90's Weekend" and it happens every damn weekend.  The selection is decent for the most part, but still, it's the principle of doing it every damn weekend.  It's not really all that special if it's all the time.  Maybe if it was a once a month thing and I can enjoy a playlist of Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, Faith No More, and Limp Bizkit in between commercials in my weekend trek home from work.  Like I said, I understand the urge to relive our past, but to a point.  You gotta take it in strides. I just know that once I start to hear Pearl Jam playing on the oldies station, I am giving up and committing myself to the nearest old-folks home.


But that's just about does it for this WTF PEOPLE!?! for the time being.  It was a treat bringing in the new year with a WTF, and of course there will be more to come.  Next week, a song and maybe a Final Fantasy VII review.  Now that's something that the 90's got right.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Busy as Hell...

Figure I might as well tell ya now...  It's that time of year again where in my day job it's get busy as hell and to try to find time in writing takes up a whole lot.  I figured I try to make a schedule to fit in some posting, but damn, it's hard.  Between work, family life, and the added on task of doing my resolutions (I've been playing FFVII and actually reading, didn't even have time to write down any lyrics for January just yet), it's been pretty damn hectic.

So just to let you know, I haven't forgotten my commitment to the blog, and in fact, I'm trying to make right to make it more appealing.  I've been prepping a new look using WordPress (I truly recommend that format, nothing against blogger, it's just my preference) and hopefully within the next few months (by spring 2012) I've completely move my site over to the new format.  I'll still update stuff here, just using the blogspot.com domain versus using BootLeGsampler.com.  The reason being is that working with WordPress sites as a 9-5, I've come accustomed to how it can be greatly expanded.  I've even been thinking of doing some custom jobs for some friends of mine.  So if you wanna look into some decent semi-pro work done for a website of your choosing (yes, I know this is a shameless plug, but damnit it's my blog I can do whatever the hell I want), just email me and I can see what I can do for ya.  But until then, this is just an update on what's to come.  Actually, as soon as I'm done with this post, I'm gonna start with that lyric for the month.  It'll be a simple one just to see what I got under the hood still.

But as for now, I'm certain that next week, it'll be a WTF PEOPLE!?! post.  What's it going to be about?  Like I'm going to spoil that now...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Quest to Beat Final Fantasy VII: Pre 2012

In my effort to make good with my resolutions, I decided to post some updates on the blog giving my thoughts of what was the best game of all time 15 years later.  Final Fantasy VII was a groundbreaking success when it came out in 1997 and redesigned the RPG genre since.  Although they're have been critics that doubt that the Final Fantasy franchise is nothing more than just a lame emo-complexed love story, but I think they're engaging and yeah, they're confusing to hell with some of their story, it's still captivating.  But so far, let me just breeze though this to get to my main goal.  It's been a long way coming and I am determined now more than ever to finish that damn game before the end of this year.  


Of course to do so, I took the initiative and started playing it about 3 weeks ago, with a little time set aside to obtain my goal.  Also I'm going to try to get though this based off of memory alone, no GameFAQs, no outside saves to get me to the end, not even my old strategy guide from Brady Games.  It's all a la BootLeG from this point forward.  Here's my progress so far.  I'll give it to you in text form for now, still planning on recording my progress to video, another one of the many things I need to get going on.


So far I'm 21 hours into the game.  I'm in awe with getting my base characters revisiting them all.  Cloud, my swordsman with apparently more of a mysterious past than the meat in Wendy's chili.  Barrett, who all I can think of at this point in the story is a gung-ho hippie with a machine gun.  So he's spreading his message with fire power instead of flower power.  Tifa, who's along for the ride because she new Cloud before he became a member of SOLDIER and a complete tool, wanting revenge for her father's death.  Aeris (not Aerith, because dammit I'm playing it the way it was developed not how it was actually in the story) is the lovable Ancient who is the last of her kind trying to live a simple life.  Red XIII, who is a mysterious creature that wants nothing more than to just go home to his grandfather.  And last (but not least, so far in my game) is Cait Sith, a fortune telling cat riding on an overweight mog.  


The game took me (as in they took Cloud) to blow up a reactor with a rebel group full of disposable characters as well as Barrett and Tifa; and eventually led them to their death.  Along the way Cloud meets up with Aeris rescuing her from a tyrannical militant group subcontracted by the government, which is run by a major energy sucking corporation.  All I can say at this point is "how very pre-post apocalyptic this sounds."  Later to find out this super powered being killed the president and the rebel group is caught in the middle.  They escape and flee from the home city and is on a quest to track down Sephiroth, the main antagonist from bringing the end of the world because he thinks he's an Ancient that is bent on purging the humans from existence bringing a peace to his kind only genocide could provide.  In the mean time, my team is being man-hunted all across God's green earth trying to find the sunnuvabitch that is actually trying to kill everyone.  It's like if they made The Fugitive into an emo, semi-steam punk-ish RPG.


They go to a near by place called Kalm where Cloud eventually tells his side of the story and why he needs to bring Sephiroth to justice; being that he on a mission burnt down his and Tifa's home town of Nibel and killed her father in nothing short of a powertrip thinking that he was an Ancient because he read a book with his mother's name in it.  That, and he hears voices too.  From there they start going near and far tracking Sephiroth's path to no avail.  They find themselves in a place where Barrett's story start to unravel on how he caused so much trouble to his home town of Corel to the point where he was banished.


Along the way we meet with Cait Sith who is just wanting to tag along because he read the future and doubts his own abilites to tell such and want to see it though.  We get captured and thrown in jail only to be whored out as chocobo jockeys for our freedom.  Yeah, because prison is totally like that.  Barrett meets another person with a gunhand that wants nothing more than to just die.  So he kills him.  I'm certain the story could've developed that more but it's all backstory for a secondary character and that doesn't mean a damn for later on in the game.


Later on, we go to Red XIII's home and he has to make the decision to whether he should stay home and be a complete pussy whining about his parental issues, or continue to fight with us.  His grandfather (which is practically a hybrid of Modok and Bob Barker) tells him to go and continue to fight.  Why was this so important, because everyone needs a fuckin' backstory, that's why.


Now I'm currently in Nibelhelm, where it looks completely normal, outside of half the population is in black cloaks with tattoos based off of which one drank Sephiroth's Kool-Aid first.  Cloud's shocked that everything isn't burnt to a crisp and is starting to doubt his own recounts of what happened a few years prior.  They start their trek to the Mako reactor at the top of the mountain to see what the hell is going on.


And that's where I'm stopping at this point.  Join me next month for what I've done for all of January in playing and eventually beating Final Fantasy VII.  In the mean time, a normal post for next week.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...