30 September 2008

My avatar on the Official International GunZ Forums* used to be this. I picked it from a generic list.

*Do not confuse with GunZFaptor

It's been raining a lot these days. I don't know why, but I find a thunderstorm in the dark lovely. There's something energetic about them. It's the parched, consistent sunny days that I find depressing. Or maybe I like them just for the sake of being different.

It's something I wonder about a lot. After watching all those cartoons with superheroes and cool children who saved the world and all that jazz, for SO MANY FUCKIN' years (not to mention the literature I've ingested about teenaged detectives and Clark Kent in high school) we all want to be special. I've heard (on the internet, of course) that some girls in the US identify as lesbian to set themselves apart from the rest. On the internet there are always dumbshits who try to discover something new about a game, or make up some original new joke or meme.

Do we believe in a god so we can feel special? Do we identify as homosexual to feel special? Do we get horrendously good at a game so we can feel special? Do we defy authority to feel special? Do we hug our mothers to feel special? Do we blog to feel special (hah, that one's easy)? Because, you know, if we were trying to be smart just to feel special, that'd... well so what? *introspective philosophical look*

*peels off snot from nose*

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Mmm. I have a BIG bunch of bananas from the banana tree in my garden. Anyone willing to come over to study and eat my bananas before they ripe? They're not as good as the ones in India, but its still... UNLIMITED POTASSIUM

GunZ Machinima. Now that I'm not going anywhere this December (boop), I can concentrate on writing a script, though I think filming, to be realistic, will have to be staggered over 2009 in small bits. I really hope I can squeeze it in; I don't know how time-consuming normal polytechnic life will be.

Voice actors will be needed. Currently I have a few people from GZF on my mind, maybe Perception from Drama alumni, and the Pebble Fappers if you nabs are interested. I promise its not going to be a bunch of jargon and "I will defeet you" "You can't win" "I am power ranger" "MEGAZORD CUM TO ME" Yeah, real drama. Or at the very least it will be a good try.

So! Back to the script. Right now I'm looking at thematic elements and what I can do with an autistic sniper and a surrogate parent. Right now the only thread in this fabric (ooh, a metaphor!) is that I want the sniper to eventually make a conscious decision to stop killing needlessly, despite that he has been doing this for a long time (autists resist change).

Also, I want him to go up against a guy who uses air magic. Kekeke.

Anyway, research materials:

A list of Autistic/Asperger's Syndrome Internet Communities

Best way to write autistic character - go find what what they're like. Medical practitioners and Wikipedia can only tell you so much.


Since the machinima will be set in a postwar world (according to official lore, this is when plenty of young dumbfucks go out into the world looking for adventure, yay) it seems right that I at least have one major character who's military disciplined. So to find out what soldiers are like, I shall read:

Judge by Karen Traviss
Republic Commando: Order 66 by Karen Traviss (she writes solid military characters; I think she served in the British Army herself if I'm not wrong)
Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills by Charles Henderson
(Apparently a real account of Carlos Hathcock's work, a Vietnam War sniper who shot an Vietcong sniper through the enemy's scope and set a record by sniping someone with a machine gun.)
The Ultimate Sniper: An Advanced Training Manual for Military & Police Snipers by Plaster, Maj. John
Sniper: Training, Techniques and Weapons. by Brooksmith, Peter
Moar books that have been cited in Wikipedia
I'll probably have to order some of these books online. Prolly going to see whats best and just buy one or two.

Plus moar internet resources (Currently most of these are Western sources, I wonder if Asian snipers had a different approach to sniping):

Are You a Veteran?
Are You Looking for a Veteran?
German Sniper Training Film
An article about sniping in World War I (by a French sniper)
Another article (about sniping)
Vietnam War Veterans Forum
Another Veterans Forum

Asian Sources (Maybe the Ceylon/LTTE conflict? Korean War? Japanese vets? Even Chinese? No, I don't want to hear about Lim Bo Seng again)
Indian Military Forum

Things I remember about Vietnam
Seeing red dirt rising about 5 miles away and feeling the ground shake
(B-52 carpet bombing)
Carrying and shooting a 90MM recoilless and then putting the fire out behind you.
Burning feces with diesel fuel was my first job over there(from the latrine)
Seeing gun ships using GE mini-guns and then going to count the bodies and watch the bodies bloat lying in the hot rice patties.
Taking a bath in a creek and then the guys coming off patrol says there is a dead gook in the water upstream.
I will never forget the real hero that carried the chain saw and cut a landing zone in the dense jungle to"Dust off"the wounded.
Then carrying the dead ( guys that I had talked to an hour ago) to the new perimeter.
Hearing and seeing phantom F4s coming in to drop napalm 50 yards away.
Having artillary "bracket" your position so you could call for help if you are overrun. This was almost as scary as being overrun.
And nothing is as fun as riding in a chopper 2000 feet up with no doors and lots of turbulance.


Feel its time I stopped lounging around in GZF listening to better people. But yeah, a lot of this will have to wait until after O Levels.

Osht its raining right nao. :D