Personal Post: A Not 100% Serious Idea to Start a Religion/Church For Money

Yeah. Back with a post here. Since it isn't a review or a discussion that fits with what E-Vac Station was specifically made for and is more personal... yeah. Posting here. 

Future Plans for the Blog

Time to talk about the blog. We’re over a year old (started in late March of 2013… bad times) and we’re not over 200 different posts. The total views for the page have currently reached… over 3000. That’s not a huge amount, but it’s a lot more than I ever expected. Though I’m also speculating that at least 40-60% of those are repeat viewings because I think blogger calculates each view, not each person. Meaning if you come here more than once to view, say, a different post, it’ll count as two views to the site overall.

Movie Review: Lucy... What Has Science Done?

A week out until Guardians of the Galaxy to basically tie up the summer movie drought. It hasn’t been ALL bad though, as this week we got a strange little piece that is worth a quick look I can review pretty quickly. No, it’s not Hercules. I wish that had been more interesting, but I’ve seen almost no promotional material for it and reviews are panning it pretty broadly… safe to say I’m going to be missing that. That leaves us with Lucy, starring the always fun Scarlett Johansson and… a bunch of other people… and Morgan Freeman. 

The Avatar of Tomorrow... TODAY: Predictions, Speculation, Etc

A post drawing connections from the Avatar series to real life and predicting possible ideas for the future of the franchise that touches on religion, technology, history, and that juicy racism. 

Movie Review: Dawn of The Planet of the Apes: You'll go Bananas!

First, I’m well aware that I still owe a Legend of Korra-based post (it’s coming). I also know that a review of Rogue Legacy is on the way. That was just delayed because I needed a break from playing it. (It’s good, but frustrating). But a movie review is quick, simply, and only takes 2-hours of commitment and less repeating the same tedious bullshit simply to find a slime-monster and then find it again so I can kill it dead. So here’s my review of Dawn of The Planet of the Apes… with many barrels of monkey puns! 

Game Review: The Wolf Among Us - Among Good Games

A long awaited review of The Wolf Among Us, a game by TellTale, the lovely bunch that brought us The Walking Dead… the good one. With that intro out of the way, let’s discuss the game. 

Supreme Court and the Supremely Divided Decision

Well, ballocks. I was hoping I could avoid anything “controversial” in my posts for the week. Especially with this somehow making it on the blog as my 100^th post. I was hoping something fun, entertaining, or celebratory. Review Korra, Rogue Legacy, and maybe do a character digression. But the Supreme Court had to do a thing and people had to get either elated or indignant about the whole faffy mess. So I suppose I’ll throw my hat into the balancing act that is an abortion/birth control discussion (because that’s what this is going to be about).

Legend of Korra - A New Season Begins

A "first impressions" of Legend of Korra - Book 3: Change...

Post Moving Update #1 - The Job Hunt and Training

Well… it’s been a little over a week. And while I’d rather be playing a game, editing a video, or going to my non-scheduled, but still mandatory observation for my new part-time job… I feel like crap. Allergies hit me harder than a Falcon Punch to a point where I couldn’t really breathe at all last night and I couldn’t keep down my breakfast this morning. So let’s talk about what’s new and different since I moved back to the hometown.

E3 2014 Recap

For those who haven’t been keeping up on my Facebook page, I’ve been able to follow E3 in great detail this year. The bonus of not having a job at the moment is the free time to write and watch E3 live. The bad news is currently not having money to get any of these games. Luckily most of them will be come out late this year or early next year… though that does leave Summer rather high-and-dry. So let’s discuss what was good, what was bad, and who the metaphorical “winner” of E3 2014 is for the year. 

Game Review: Mario Kart (Another One)

Lots of review inbound for the next week. Let’s start off with a short, fast, and simple review of Mario Kart 8.

Film Review: X-Men: Days of Future Past

It’s review time! Review time! And while I unfortunately never made it to Godzilla to get that checked out and reviewed, I did make sure to go and see X-Men: Days of Future Past this weekend because… well… it’s a big project with a lot of moving parts that does need some analysis. So we’ll talk good, we’ll talk bad, and we’ll talk about the nuts and bolts of this film and if everything is functioning properly. Let’s dive right into the mess that is the X-Men film franchise and see where this movie fits in.

Game Review: Mark of the Ninja Hits the Mark

I do believe I have a love-affair with stealth games. Something that doesn't seem quite like me, given that I spend most of my times in bright, colorful action games racing through waves of dudes or robots in the least subtle ways possible. But there's something intriguingly beautiful about a game you have to slowly pace your way through to find the least circuitous path to your goal without being caught or engaging in fights. So, today, we review a game I meant to get to a LONG time ago, but only just recently picked back up and played.

Political Post: Increasing the Minimum Cost

I've been seeing this on the news and Facebook a lot lately. And rather than respond to every post I see in regards to it, I feel it is just better to write a blanket statement here. If this starts debate, fine. But I'm airing my opinion here and now on the matter because I feel like people aren't looking at the bigger picture. This is probably the first political post I've done in awhile, and it's on the idea of raising the minimum wage.

Personal Post: Swimming In Uncertain Waters

Before I begin I just want to say that if something in here inadvertently offends or upsets any individual parties mentioned, I apologize in advance. This isn’t meant to offend, as this is me expressing my thoughts on a recent chain of… things… happening and I have always found it easier to write them down rather than think and dwell on them. My heads a jumbled mess and it’s absolute ballocks to try and make sense of it when the ideas are just plain thoughts.

Review: (Not so) Amazing Spiderman 2 (For the Love of God, Don't Watch This Movie)

So… this will be a first. A review for a thing BEFORE it’s released to the public. What are we reviewing this week? It is my genuine pleasure to present to you… the review… for Amazing Spiderman 2.

Personal Post: The Next Level

*exasperated sigh*

... You know, I had something else planned for this week. Something fun and enjoyable. Talk some Smash Bros. Write some stuff for my novel/short story idea that I’ve been wanting to write for nearly a year but have been hitting road blocks. Hell, I might have been able to do some light Dark Souls discussion. But… something else has come up and, like every other time before, I want to work it out in the way I do best, write it out. So… yeah, let’s get this over with so I can do something fun again. And, yes, I feel the need to write this because if I don’t, this will gnaw at me until I do and distract me from getting stuff done.

Personal Post: Bucket List 2014

Happy B-Day to me. To celebrate, a post about all the things I want to do!

Film Review: Captain America: Winter Soldier

I won’t even bother with a long drawn out intro for this. Here it is, the Captain America: Winter Soldier review.

Table-Top Review: Boss Monster

Get ready to throw down some face-downs and get your game on with this amazing kickstarter success story, Boss Monster. 

TV Review: Hemlock Grove

You know what I haven’t gotten around to doing in quite some time? You’re mother. But she’s busy being kind of a bitch, so I think I’ll get to reviewing some shitty television show on NetFlix instead. But not just any TV show. This is one that was released recently, so not a retro review. And this is also one that is a “NetFlix” original, meaning that you won’t find it anywhere else (except for streaming sites that have everything else). What is the review of the day? Why, none other than Hemlock Grove. 

Movie Review: The Grand Budapest Hotel (and TMNT Trailer)

It’s time for a review of Grand Budapest Hotel… warning, this film had a fair amount of Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, F. Murray Abraham, Adrian Brody, Jude Law, and Edward Norton… but most importantly is Willem Dafoe. If that doesn’t convince you to see it, then probably just stick to reading the review.

Chasing Ghosts or Chasing Dreams?

 Personal writing time. Boy I don’t know where to begin.

Review: Super Mario 3D World (The WiiU Game)

(also meant to be published sooner... again, stuff happened) 

It’s-a me, Aaron! And I’m here for another review for a game (we’ll get a movie in here again at some point). This week it’ll be Super Mario 3D World for the WiiU and the WiiU alone. Haven’t done a WiiU title in a while.

Review: Contrast

(Please Note, this was intended to come out much sooner... stuff happened)

It’s review time!  And for the first time ever, a game that was released in 2014! Yay! What’s the game for the week? Contrast, the humble indie title that was free on PS4 during launch (which I got on PC because fuck Next Gen consoles). This will be a short review so we’ll probably talk about something else as well, don’t know what yet, let’s go!

Nintendo and the Online Fiasco

I haven’t posted much in a while and a couple of recent things done by Nintendo have happened that I wouldn’t mind having a good rant about. The two things are related to their online services and the public reaction to them. For those wondering, yes, I’m talking about the Pokemon Bank and the recent new that Nintendo will be dropping their Wi-Fi connection service for the Wii and DS.

Elder Scrolls Online: First Impressions

I haven’t done a review (or a post) in a long time. Today will change both of those by giving out a review of my brief experience with the Elder Scrolls Online beta.

Character Digression: Pokemon Culture Part 2

We’re back with another Pokemon Digression in lieu of a specific character discussion. Why? Because we can (and I never got around to a full character discussion). This week we’ll be discussing some newer Pokemon (going as far as Generation II) and seeing where this goes.

So That Was Fast

It’s time for a new personal aside. I haven’t done one about the job in a long while and that’s mostly because I was in that adjustment period in which I am starting the new one and learning the “necessary” information to do it “effectively.” That said, I’ve been at the new place for roughly a month with at least two weeks under my belt of actually working after two weeks of training (of which I probably needed more). So now that I’ve been here for a bit, I feel I can start talking about it and figuring things out from there.

I don’t like it. I left HyVee not because of the people or even, necessarily, the work. It’s just not what I wanted to do with my life and I didn’t want to stay there longer and end up being stuck there for years because I couldn’t get into the field I wanted. Namely, I want to do something creative or in relation to creative fields. It was basically customer service, which is nowhere near where I want to be and the job I have now is basically customer service. The only difference here is that unlike HyVee, I can’t go in back and work on production, caterings, or be on a grill and let other people deal with that. Here, all I can do is basic customer service… and that’s not anywhere in my interest of things to do.

And, you know what, I could handle customer service if it was on a product or service that I had working knowledge in. HyVee was simple because I liked food and I liked to cook (at home at least) so learning and gaining knowledge of that material was actually really simple and somewhat enriching. But at TransAmerica? We handle insurance, specifically (where I’m at) life insurance. I have little interest in how that works nor any need to learn it outside of my job (which is still only temporary and ends at the end of June). Therefore, outside of being at TransAmerica (currently) having working knowledge of how insurance works does me no good. It’s the same level of useless to me as it is to know all the names of the Naruto characters.

What drives me insane the most is the amount of bullshit red-tape that our job has too. So much has to be done a certain way to the right people on particular cases and if not we have to send stuff back and demand things be done that certain way or we can’t do anything. And I get a lot of this has to do with the law and state regulations. But a lot of it makes it difficult for anything to get done at an expedient manner. But a lot of that also falls on the agents we have to deal with on a regular basis.

For starters, guys, when you are getting life insurance, fill out all the paper work necessary (and there’s a list for our products at least on our website that will tell you all the forms needed for a given product in any state). And when you fill out that paper work, be as honest and open as possible. The information you share will be classified, so hiding it only hinders the process and makes it impossible for us to actually do our job at any reasonable rate. No one will judge you on whatever information we find out, so don’t waste our time.

Next, be patient and (to agents) develop a good relationship with the clients. Agents get freaked whenever they have to ask the clients to come back and sign something or verify something because there’s some underlying logic that any time they have to go back to a costumer, there’s a chance the costumer will just say, “Fuck it. I don’t want this anymore.” And then they get no commission for the time wasted. And while I get that, such a thing wouldn’t be a problem if you developed good relations with the client so they are happy to come back and work with you.

But, mostly, the job isn’t fun in any sense of the word. At least, at the old job, for as bullshit as the work was and for as asinine as the management of the store was, we had moments at work I could uncharitably call “fun.” And I get work isn’t supposed to be fun, but having moments where fun occurs makes being at a dreary place you grow to hate more bearable than it not being fun at all. And due to a lack of genuine interaction with teammates, I don’t really know anyone there I work with beyond what they teach me about what I’m doing. Making me feel rather alone while I’m there. At least at HyVee there as interaction with your co-workers in the department. Here, there really aren’t moments like that. If I’m going to be on a team, I want to feel like a team and not whatever the hell this really is.

Thank Christ this job is only for another five months, but at the same time… Oh Christ! Five more months of this bullshit before I can pack it in because of a bullshit Temp-Contract. But I’ve learned quite a bit from this experience. First, Temp-Agencies, while providing a great service aren’t necessarily reliable for getting you the job you want to do or getting you something within your actual skillset. Yes, I can use computers. And yes, my job uses computers. But in no way do my computer skills actually impact this job in any real way. But thanks for trying.

So come May, I’ll probably be looking for something else (if I haven’t already by the time this goes up). And I’ll diligently stick harder to the field of interest I have rather than settle for some Temp-Agency bullshit that sticks me in another job that offers me nothing in what I want to do. If only I could go back in time a month and tell my past self that you shouldn’t just jump ship so eagerly when you don’t know what kind of stuff you’re jumping into. But here I am and now I have to jump back out and into something else entirely. This will likely be the song and dance for at least the next year until I know what I can actually get.

Not going to lie, I have a slight interest in the field of teaching. Teaching would help me better learn how to handle children so when I eventually have some of my own I’ll be “somewhat prepared” for it. I would love a tech-job that actually is about dealing with tech and not just using tech for an otherwise non-tech job. I’m all for avoiding retail, but working in a game store (video or tabletop) would be just fine for me since that’s something I at least give a shit about. And, as we all know, I’m still fascinated by the idea of a writing or creative job (writing being either journalistic or creative too). But that one has been hard to land anything in because that’s not a job that’s exactly easy to find.

But… yeah. Back to this again. I’m sure the guys at Hy-Vee would love for me to come back, but I won’t. Come back after quitting and realizing that I didn’t go to greener pastures, but pastures that were, in fact, just a slightly different shade of brown? It’s not so much that I’d be embarrassed as that I would just not want to go back and be stuck with that mentality of “I can’t do better.” Which is why I’m going to work harder to find something I can enjoy and be passionate about, and not just because it’s a new job that isn’t what I’m currently doing.

Now I’m tired of writing this. So I’m going to go play a game after a long day of work and then tomorrow will begin the hunt. 

Is Nintendo Doomed? Another One of These Discussions

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk… more than usual, in fact, about Nintendo being “doomed”. Sales are not as good as they wanted. Their expectations have lowered A LOT and speculation as to what happens next has been the only thing in discussion within the game industry. Why? Because nothing else is really happening. There’s nothing new or exciting happening on the other consoles, so let’s focus on the one potential tragedy that is occurring at the moment. You want to talk about it? Okay. Let’s talk.

Drown in Flames of a Bioshock Infinite Review

The seed of the prophet shall sit the throne, and drown in flames of a Bioshock Infinite Review

Character Study: Learning Japanese Culture from Pokemon

So it’s another character digression episode this week. And (at the time of writing) I can’t think of a specific character I want to do. You have some characters who are easy because they are direct representations of something with little room for interpretation. Sort of like how Dr. Robotnik is basically a symbol of big corporations and human society infringing on wildlife and ruining the homes of creatures that live there. Some characters are a tad too complicated or I don’t know enough about their world (yet) to make a distinct interpretation of them. I’d love to do an episode about Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, but I want to do a little more research on the character and the world before stepping into that proverbial minefield. Or there’s Bastion, which I’ve been attempting to do a post on because it’s such a rich and interesting world with a surprising level of depth that there is some interpretation to a lot of it. But… there’s a lot of explanation that is required for various parts of that world that would take up a vast majority of that post.

Star Wars: The Search for More Ideas

With recent rumors that the next Star Wars will be delayed because of arguments about the scripting, I’ve had a bit of a Star Wars kick. Not enough to pick up movies, but I watched the Clone Wars original animated shorts that took place before Revenge of the Sith and I’ve been doing something thinking. I’m on the side of the fence now that thinks more Star Wars cannot be good in the hands of people like Lucas or Abrams. Not because they don’t have some level of talent or creativity, but because I don’t think they’re approaching the Star Wars universe in the right way.

The Dog, the Man, and the Walnut: Original Piece

Instead of my usual shenanigans, I decided to post a creative writing piece I just randomly threw together. Before I begin, I want to point out that Martin Luther King Day is reported to be the day with one of the highest suicide rates… that in mind, here’s a depressing story you might enjoy in lieu of my usual character analysis. Happy MLK Day!

Spin Off Spree

I was writing an article about games I’d like to see Nintendo branch out and do. But during the writing I noticed a particular theme going in some of my suggestions and realized it’d make more sense to do an entire piece on that concept and explain why Nintendo, of all companies, is the only one that could pull it off successfully and even provide examples of success (some of which are Nintendo owned) to show why this needs to be done.

Character Analysis: Wonder Woman: Take One

I’m doing another character analysis, but this time will be a bit different. Usually I take a piece of a story (be it the whole thing, an aspect of the world, or just a character I like) and analyze how it has relevance or meaning. But this week is different because I’m going to point out how drastically important a certain character’s existing characterization is and how it is being completely ignored by a large creative body… potentially… This week’s Monday Character Discussion is going to be about Wonder Woman

Objection? Ace Attorney Dual Destines Review

Here we go, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destines review.

Review: Hobbit Desolation of Smaug

I suppose a review for something is in order. I haven’t finished Dual Destinies yet, but it’s close so expect that within a week. Instead you’re getting The Hobbit: Part 2: Desolation of Smaug: The Revengence.

Waluigi, Another Character Analysis

Last week we discussed Ant-Man/Hank Pym and I think that I’m confident in saying we don’t have to worry about topping it. Good as it might have been, still not that hard an act to follow. Let’s leave comics books this week because I’m sure I’ll enrage someone with another attempt to discuss comics without having encyclopedic knowledge. But now that we’ve introduced men into the character discussion for the first time last week (unless you count my rant about Walking Dead’s The Governor) we’ve broken new barriers for mankind.

Turn Around: A Farewell The Old Job

Today’s post, we’re talking about my old job. Hoo ray!

Looking Forward: Games of 2014

2014 is here and it’s time to reveal my top ten games I’m most excited for in 2014. There are plenty of games I wanted to make the list like Persona 5, Shovel Knight, and even Elder Scrolls Online but while all those are indeed interesting and have my attention, the top five here are games that I’m MOST anticipating to play (barring the announcement of a new StarFox of F-Zero).

Looking Forward: Films of 2014

Films are starting to get less interesting for me anymore. The lack of being able to interact with the story in any meaningful way makes the medium less compelling to start with. Not to mention the fact I still can’t fathom how their budgets get so ridiculous in comparison to games, which have MUCH MORE work to do in comparison. That said, while film is becoming less relevant to me, I still enjoy watching them now and again. Unlike my top ten games I’m looking forward to in 2014, this list had a much smaller pool to work with because there aren’t as many that look as good.