/writings/

Official blog and geeky manifesto of The Ruku

A piece of advice for those who don’t deserve it

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NB: Might do this as a video on my YouTube channel. Will post here for the lazy fucks who can’t be bothered reading or would prefer something more humourous as opposed to callous and snarky.

The complete defeatist attitude in people these days is fucking insane.

There’s a saying I heard many a moon ago that you can’t help those who won’t help themselves…Or something like that. It was about me, so I decided to tune out and play Team Fortress 2 until they were finished bitching me out.

Thing is, the more I encounter people who fit this description, the more I want to throw my hands up and say “fuck it, you’re on your own”. In this entry, this is where I do that. A nice big “fuck off” to people who I can’t be fucked encouraging, helping, or generally being of any service to. Sure, we can still talk, just don’t expect me to play advice columnist because frankly, you won’t help yourself, so what’s the fucking point?. Whether you’re too set in your ways, too stupid, or too proud to take any advice into consideration is beyond my knowledge.

So keep making your excuses, keep saying “it’s too hard”, keep saying “I can’t do anything”. Fuck off already.

The real kicker is this: I am one of you. I am a nearly-25 year old whingy emo douchebag who cries at the end of movies(okay, one. Terminator 2, which was badass, so I feel I’m forgiven by manly men everywhere) who thinks constantly “why do I bother? I’ll never achieve anything I set out to do” and yet, I have achieved most things on my bucket list and set out on doing some more this year.

Me, someone who indulges in “Depresso lattes” almost on a monthly basis is telling you how pathetic, defeatist and fucking annoying you are. Wow, you really must suck.

A depresso latte: Like this, but black and garnished with the tears of emo cuntrags. At least, it's staying black until something darker comes along

Shit, there are some people out there who I was very close to, who -last I checked, all but fucking homeless with pretty much zero income. You know what they did? They weighed up their options, put on their adult pants and fucking got on with it. You’re not about to be trumped by some hobo, are you?

This guy is better than you.

So where do I get off telling you how to do things? I’ll explain via an example: 2009 was a shitty fucking year for all involved in my circle of friends it seems. I went through two relatively messy breakups, lost a friend, my father was diagnosed with major depression and had to stay at a mental ward in Sydney, had one of my relatives pass away and got into a metric fuckton of debt, in order to get out of a metric fuckton of debt. You know what I did? I had my moment, and kept on keeping on. I sat down and -with tears in my eyes and The Cure playing on Windows Media Player, I wrote, thought and reflected.

You know what I realized? In spite of all the shit that was (and sometimes, still is) going on, life isn’t that bad. I’m still (kinda) young and it’s not the end of the world just yet.

If you’re depressed, seek help from a professional. If you’re fat/unhealthy and aren’t too happy about it, go on a diet and/or exercise, if you don’t have a job, find someone who will hire you and lastly, If your life is indeed that shit that it’s “not worth living”, make it into something that is. I could go on giving advice to you shitsmears, but at the end of the day, if you do nothing, you’ll achieve nothing. That’s really all you need to take from this.

Also, don’t assume the “making something from nothing” maxim is something I’m pulling out of my arse. There are various situations where some average schlub managed to become a self-made person.

In saying this, I don’t have all the answers. If I did, I’d be writing this knowing millions of people will view it, not just the three or four who will click the link on Facebook. What you should do is start questioning what you want out of life and go and make it happen. Whinging to a text box on MSN doesn’t do shit, especially to me.

In closing, a message for those who do deserve help? Keep up the good work and keep on keeping on. Don’t take this as a completely selfish “I don’t give a fuck about anyone but myself” stance. I think Bioshock is the closest I’m getting to becoming an Ayn Rand enthusiast…

….At least until I’m loaded enough to build an underwater city.

Themetastic!

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Yeah so… updated the look of /writings/. The plain one I had was… well, plain. Not really good for reading, either.

Starting to like this theme already. Also, threaded comments! huzzah!

Real update whenever I get off Guild Wars or Torchlight. You do realize the next blog will be a review of one of those, right?

Ruku’s Picks: YouTube Edition

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Seeing as I’m totally on my way to being TubeFamous (and because I’m far far too lazy to do a real update), thought I’d suggest a few other YouTubers out there. Some you’ll know, some you might not know, regardless, all are worthy of Ruku’s Seal of Approval:

Shut up, I'm a comedic genius

Michael Buckley/BuckHollywood

Michael’s the host of the ‘What the Buck’ show, which focuses mostly on celeb gossip. He also has two other accounts (BuckNews and Peron75) which he also posts to.

Tessa Violet/MeekaKitty

‘Meekakitty”s channel could be easily described as a bastard child of skits, personal vlogging with a dash of some good old-fashioned randomness and editing trickery.

Nick/Arthur40TwoDent

Found this guy through Angry Aussie. He’s done travel vlogs, personal vlogs, reviews and music videos -Most notably, four very creative videos for the song “Drive” by Johnathan Coulton. Awesome stuff.

Wayne Gladstone/Gladstonew

Yeah, okay. If you know me, you saw this one coming from a mile off. Gladstone is the host of the hugely popular web show ‘Hate by Numbers’, a columnist for various comedy websites and the owner of the website Kafka Lives in Maine. While his channel is mostly HBN-related, there’s a few other gems in there worth watching.

M.A.Ludwig/JudeMaris

JudeMaris mostly dabbles in original music pieces and photo restoration, with the occasional personal blog for variety. Being a photoshop geek myself, I find her photoshop work really interesting. She also has a bunch of stuff over at her other channel, TheBlueOracle

Well, it’s nearing 2:30am and I have to pretend to have a day job tomorrow. So I’ll call it here. Be good, kiddies! Don’t make me come over there!

Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking

Heavy Metal Vegan Cooking is pretty much what it says on the box: A vegan cooking channel, but smattered with the awesomeness of metal. Even Dethklok would be proud of this one.


Movies That Should be in 3D

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Ahh 3D. Bringing our old-hat 2D films to life via the use of cinema trickery and goofy glasses which inexplicably get goofier as the technology improves. It’s certainly a novelty someone should experience at least once. That way, instead of retelling stories of life experience and passing on knowledge to their grandchildren, you can tell them you saw Avatar and how you felt you were actually there… Or something like that.

Shut up Grandpa, nobody gives a shit

Despite my apprehension when things are remade and remastered (though, I’ll certainly turn a blind eye if someone out there can make a Max Payne movie that isn’t tragically shit), there are just some films out there that were meant to be in 3D. What’s the point of using this technology if all you’re going to blow it on is Tim Burton movies and a movie which could very well be described as Pocahontas-meets-Fern-Gully on Steroids? Hollywood, if you’re listening, here’s some suggestions.

Back to the Future

A series of movies which made DeLoreans look awesome, Michael J Fox a household name (well, beyond “that guy in Family Ties” and later, “that guy with Parkinson’s”) and gave its fans a bunch of catchphrases which I’m sure will be passed on to later generations. I mean, calling someone a Butt-head is timeless, right?

Why it should be in 3D:

This one’s a no brainer. Despite bring nearly 30 years old now, the Back to the Future movies still pack a visual punch which completely complements the dialogue. There is no way you can convince me that a 3D upgrade of this is a terrible idea. I mean, you have a time-traveling vehicles, hoverboards, skateboards, cowboys, indians and of course, Biff Tannen.

"Wow, it's like Biff's actually there! ...Oh wait"

Why it shouldn’t be in 3D:

I could gush all freaking day about these movies, but let’s face it. Hoverboards don’t exist yet and it kills us. Having Back to the Future 2 in 3D will only add insult to injury.

On the upside, 2015 is only five years away.

Star Wars

Going with the “movies I grew up watching” theme, if we’re going to be seeing hoverboards and DeLoreans flying at our faces, why not the Millennium Falcon?

Why it should be in 3D:

I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before. With all the whoring Lucas does of his beloved franchise, he didn’t think “wait a second, we could just re-re-re-release the original trilogy in 3D” until after the release of freaking Avatar? Come on.

If you need convincing, think about the films for a minute. How many damned spaceships fly at the freaking screen in just the original Star Wars trilogy? About a million? Case closed right there.

Why it shouldn’t be in 3D:

Should we be encouraging George Lucas to keep whoring out Star Wars? Besides, if the original trilogy is released in 3D, we all know the prequels aren’t that far behind.

The Matrix

Despite spawning two kickass-yet-mediocre sequels and responsible for a metric fuckton of “bullet time” sequences in every damn conceivable format ever (I’m pretty sure they’re trying to bring it to FM radio now), The Matrix is a film which has firmly lodged itself into the collective minds of every sci-fi nut since it’s release.

Sure Keanu Reeves has a limited range of emotions but damnit, that film kicked the ass off of anything else released that year… Except for maybe Dogma, which also features a trenchcoat wearing hero. Does anyone else see a pattern here?

There are no Snoogans

Why it should be in 3D:

Not to keep fellating Back to the Future here, but “Think McFly! Think!”.

Tell me this wouldn't look awesome in 3D

The movie is already practically in 3D with all the bullet time and Matrix code going on. They may as well take that one step further and project Neo in all his bullet-dodging, kung-fu’ing, trenchcoat wearing glory onto your damn eyeballs already. Hell, even Reloaded and Revolutions would be worth seeing in 3D. Car chase, anyone? How about the humans raging against the machine at the battle to save Zion?

Why it shouldn’t be in 3D:

While I did say the sequels would be worth watching in 3D, they still won’t make any god-damned sense.

Watchmen

I’m sure I could mention other films in it’s place, like the equally good Sin City, but Zack Snyder’s Watchmen is by far my favourite comic book movie and one of the better movies that came out last year. While not even as half as well known as say, Spider-man or X-Men, the comic and the movie still manages to keep hold of a loyal legion of fans. The only disappointment I had with it is that I didn’t get into comics until recently.

Why it should be in 3D:

While there’s not as much to work with for 3D presentation as some of the other movies I’ve mentioned, it has it’s moments. Like the entire damn opening scene. Even the rest of the movie is enough to work with, if they play their cards right. Like you wouldn’t want to see Rorschach saying “Tell me what you see” inches away from your face.

Why it shouldn’t be in 3D:

Well… This could also be inches away from your face:

Serenity

What happens when you get a TV series by Joss Whedon canceled before it’s prime, lots of rabid fans and their unwavering support and a charismatic male lead who could easily out-badass Han Solo without trying? The space western movie Serenity, based on the TV series Firefly.

Serenity would be the Generation Y’s equivalent of Star Wars, right down to the story formula of “bunch of cocky rebels take on huge empire”. In fact, despite the fact I’m a huge Star Wars nerd? Totally prefer Serenity. Excuse me while I sit back and watch every sci-fi nerd’s head explode from that statement.

Why it should be in 3D:

In continuation of the “This generation’s Star Wars” theme, Serenity also has its fair share of space combat and firefights. Not to mention the complete clusterfuck of awesome which happens on Miranda. There is no arguing that watching Serenity in 3D would be a memorable experience.

Besides, we all want to get just that bit closer to Summer Glau

Why it shouldn’t be in 3D:

As it was based on a TV series and as much as Whedon did certainly try to make the movie as stand-alone as possible, you still need to know the basic gist of Firefly to understand what’s going on and frankly? You’re not going to be able to marathon even the key episodes of the show and then expect people to watch a two hour movie without some sort of discourse…. Or toilet breaks.

Saved from the cutting room floor: How a Canadian is responsible for my group of fictional housemates

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You guys know I have a web series, right?

Ok, so it’s still in production, but it’s happening. The concept of this is both exciting and fucking scary -with a bit of that freshly-peed-your-pants feeling of relief, warmth and slight burning sensation.

And to think that ‘Hell is Other People’ was an abandoned script still under the name ‘Housemates’, which I kept on my hard-drive and was written around the same time as a few other abandoned projects which I thought were complete drivel. Naturally, I kept it from everyone, thinking it wasn’t good enough.

The other projects I’m still positive will never see the light of day. Well, one or two might… But one step at a time.

I’ve always had a big interest in doing creative things. This interest pretty much overtook any aspirations of “getting a real job” I ever had, so much so that I’m pretty sure that so long as I had something else keeping me going, I could stay in shitty minimum wage jobs for the rest of my life. Perhaps not the standard definition of “suffering for one’s art”, but hell, being a ‘Nocturnal Shelf Technician’ doesn’t exactly pay the bills.

However, the hardest part was starting. Especially solo. While I’ve always been able to come up with ideas, fleshing them out was insanely difficult. Self described ‘words man’ or no, putting a fully realised idea onto a page may as well have been rocket science. My other problem was trying not to completely rip off the works of people I enjoy. While I have plenty of housemate horror stories of my own, the book and movie “He Died With a Felafel in His Hand” and the well-known Brit-com series “Spaced” was (and still is) a major influence. In fact, “Housemates: Episode One” I wrote with the following in mind:

“Like Spaced, but with the homage-o-meter turned up to 11″

Naturally, I eventually adopted my own Tim, Daisy, Mike and Brian. Though admittedly, quite a few people I know personally wouldn’t be left out in a slow-motion mock gunfight, or talking about the chaos theories involved in the “Star Wars” trilogy.

I eventually decided I didn’t like how much like “Spaced” it became, so like everything else I’ve written up to that point, the original episode one of ‘Hell is Other People’ was abandoned, along with an incomplete episode two.

That is, until a gorgeous Canadian lass by the nane of Diana came along and told me it wasn’t shit and to keep going with it. She pointed out where to bring in the funny, and take the funny and make it funnier. Once all was said and done, I showed it to a few other people who also gave it the thumbs up. Then I moved onto the later episodes until I had essentially, an almost fully realised “season”.

Months later, I’m organising the first official rehearsal for “Hell is Other People: Episode One”. While other people certainly had an input in it’s creation and by no means to I intend to discredit anyone on the production crew, but “Hell is Other People” wouldn’t exist as much more than an idea without Diana’s input. For that, I have the upmost gratitude, respect and lots of thank-yous for her and what she did.

Diana, if you’re reading, on behalf of the cast + crew, thankyou. I owe you big time.

Something else to add to the resume: Beta tester.

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Can't argue with the classics.

Did this in a new WordPress plugin that Sally over at Antimatter Charge has designed called ‘Chibipaint for WordPress‘.

‘Chibipaint for WordPress’ allows you to draw images right onto your wordpress blog, via the “add image” prompt.

It’s still in beta, but still worth a download. Especially if you’re not like me and actually talented at drawing

For now, fear my Trogdor fanart, as it goes forth and burninates!