Jennifer and I had decided that tonight, we were going to cool off after work by going to a bar a coworker had told me about last Friday. The bar is called Barcadia, and its claim to fame was that it had a number of classic arcade machines in it. The machines looked like a decent selection on the website, including the original Mortal Kombat. It sounded like fun, so we decided to give it a try. We stopped off at District 7 first to have some dinner, and then made our way over for dessert and drinks. Jennifer in particular was looking forward to their fried oreos.

Were we impressed? Well… no.

When we drove up, we noticed right away that the only parking at the place was valet parking, which we wanted to avoid. After looking around for a minute or two, we parked on the street near the bar and walked over. As we approached, we noticed that the crowd was significantly younger than us. We went in, ordered our drinks, and I walked over to play some games. I ended up playing a few games of Mortal Kombat, plus other games like Star Wars, Robotron:2084, and Popeye. The machines weren’t in great condition; several had monitor issues and the controls on some weren’t very responsive. Star Wars in particular had nonfunctional buttons and was out of alignment. In addition, it wasn’t clear whether or not the machines were supposed to be on free play. I had asked for quarters at one point and was directed to a change machine, but when I walked around several machines had numerous credits in them. As I was closing my tab, I heard the bartender who directed me earlier tell someone the machines were supposed to be on free play.

As for the fried oreos we got? We were not impressed at all. The vanilla ice cream that came with them was a generic single serve vanilla ice cream cup that would be at home at a Chinese buffet or school cafeteria. The oreos themselves were, well, fried oreos, but were okay at best.

As we were leaving, Jennifer looked around at the crowd, and commented that it was “douchebag central”. I couldn’t help but agree; the place was pretentious and the average person there was ten years younger than us, looking to hook up. It really was not the kind of place we liked, and if it wasn’t for the arcade machines, we wouldn’t go in at all. We shrugged our shoulders, and decided that it was not some place we would go back to.

Ah, well. It’s a shame, but it was worth a try. We figure that from now on, if we want classic gaming and drinks, we’ll go to Joystix for their “Pac-Man Fever Fridays”, where we can have drinks in their nice little lounge and have the run of the entire showroom of games. :-)

I had mentioned something called “Project DK” on my Twitter a couple of times. I guess now I can finally say what it was… not that it was anything important, mind.

A while ago, I had decided to get back into writing fiction. Mind you, I haven’t really done any since high school and was a bit out of practice. I had a couple of stories knocking about in my head, but didn’t know where to start. That problem was solved when out of nowhere, a story came to my head, waving its arms, and going, “Me first! Me first!” My only concern was that it was a fanfic, and I really didn’t want to get started working on someone else’s characters. Still, the idea wanted to be told, so I sat down and wrote it.

The end result was a Mortal Kombat fanfic called “Dracula Killer”. I knocked it out in a couple of hours, with Jennifer giving me advice and editing. Once I was done, I sent it on to Crow and ]{0MBAT for their thoughts. They, plus Jennifer, had pretty much the same opinion.

“It’s great. What happens next?”

Well, crap. I honestly had thought the story would end there, but they wanted to see more.

So, a couple of nights later, Jennifer and I were at dinner, and with her help I brainstormed an expanded storyline for the story. I thought it through, and then began working on the expanded story. Over time, I had gotten the page count doubled and wasn’t even anywhere near halfway through. Unfortunately, I hit a bit of a creative stumbling block: the new game.

I apologize if this is a spoiler, but a big part of the setting/tone of the story depended on the Outworld invasion of Earthrealm (from Mortal Kombat 3) being rather sudden and mystical. As the story for MK3 explained, Kahn opened a portal over an unnamed city and used his magic to claim everyone’s souls, except for the chosen warriors. However, screens from the new game showed that it was, in fact, a full-on military invasion. The thing that ended up killing it was watching a video today, where kombatants were fighting on a rooftop, while the city burned around them and a dragon and a helicopter had a dogfight.

Based on that, the premise I had wouldn’t work anymore. The only way I could see it working is if the method Kahn uses to invade Earthrealm was changed in the new timeline, as this story takes place in the old timeline. (Mortal Kombat is starting a new continuity the same way Star Trek did: time travel changing the past.) Otherwise… no. It won’t work. So, I decided to bite the bullet and submit the original version of the story on MK Online.

If you want to read it, you can do so here.

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Just keep in mind that it’s written under the assumption that the person reading it will be familiar with Mortal Kombat. :-)

Honesty is the best policy.

Jennifer and I had dinner at TGI Friday’s tonight. After dinner, we each ordered our own dessert. After we were done…

Jennifer: “That was delicious. And I was NOT sharing. … just kidding.”
Me: “No, you weren’t.”
Jennifer: “No, I really wasn’t.”

Poe’s Law, anyone?

Sometimes, on Twitter, I’ve been known to take something the official Mortal Kombat Twitter account says and make a wild unfounded rumor joke about it. Well, apparently in God of War, Kratos has something called “Quicktime moves” that he can use. A new gameplayer for Mortal Kombat featuring Kratos was released today, and @MK_MortalKombat retweeted someone noticing the Quicktime moves were in there. My response?

“Quicktime moves? OMG MK IS COMING OUT FOR MAC.”

I thought it was funny, until @MK_MortalKombat retweeted it, commenting, “No. :p” Well, crap. Now I have to wonder how many people out there actually thought I was being serious…

Why not remake Braveheart with Arabs while you’re at it?

http://www.racebending.com/v4/blog/akira-adaptation-courts-white-actors/

I don’t even know where to go with that, other than what I said above. Really. It just seems like an incredibly stupid move. I mean… will they even be called Kaneda and Tetsuo anymore? What about Akira himself? What’s the damn point, other than to make it interesting to American audiences who won’t want to see the foreigners or subtitles… oh, right.

Never mind. After all, they’ve done the same thing with Let the Right One In and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

I went ahead and put it on the wall where I had put the “YOU’RE NOT PAID TO THINK” poster my friends Sean and Corinne had given me for my birthday. That and my Mortal Kombat II advertisement poster are now out in the hallway outside my office. Personally, I think the new poster looks good where it’s at. :-)

Several months ago, I had made a post talking about a trailer for a new Mortal Kombat movie that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Starring Michael Jai White as Jax and Jeri Ryan as Sonya, this trailer (popularly referred to as “Rebirth”) was a completely new take on Mortal Kombat, with a more realistic urban setting, and characters such as Reptile and Baraka reimagined as deformed and/or mutilated insane humans. It later came out that the trailer was the work of a director named Kevin Tancharoen, who financed it himself and was making it as a pitch to Warner Bros. to make the next Mortal Kombat film. The trailer was definitely controversial, but also was very well-received. Even Ed Boon liked it, but he said that it probably went too far. The trailer was soon pulled off YouTube, and nothing more was heard from it. It was pretty much assumed “Rebirth” was dead.

As it turns out, we were wrong.

A report over at Bloody Disgusting is saying that Tancharoen is getting to helm a Mortal Kombat ten-episode web series, under the Warner Premiere brand. Michael Jai White will be returning as Jax, though there’s no word on whether Jeri Ryan will be returning as Sonya. She’s not listed in the article, and I didn’t get a response to my query on Twitter. In fact, it’s not even certain yet that it’s based on “Rebirth”. It’ll start filming in Vancouver next month.

If “Rebirth” is anything to go by, I think it’ll be really good. While I hope the series will be based on “Rebirth”, I’m fairly doubtful it would be, simply because it’ll be in wide circulation on the web… and “Rebirth” was definitely a pitch for a hard-R film, complete with gory deaths. Still, while it was a very different take on the Mortal Kombat mythos, it was also VERY reverential to the source media, and it showed that Tancharoen knows his stuff. There’s no word on a release date, but I would imagine it would probably be this summer, especially after the new game hits stores.

I’m definitely looking forward to it. :-)

Changes have been happening in my work life.

A month or two ago, it was announced that a company called Robbins & Myers would be acquiring the company I work for, T3 Energy Services. While I had been through acquisitions before, most of the time it was T3 doing the acquiring. The only time I was on the acquired side was when I started at T3; I had been working as the IT guy for a company called Walker Bolt, and their parent company was acquired in late 2001. I moved from Walker Bolt to T3’s IT department, and a couple of years later Walker Bolt was sold off. It was going to be interesting being through it again…

… or it would be, if I was going to stick around for it.

A couple of months ago, a former coworker contacted me. About a year and a half ago, the VP of process improvement at T3 was offered a job at a company called Kem-tron. Since then he’s become the president of the company. Also, said former coworker, the manager of pressure control engineering at T3, went over to Kem-tron as the VP of engineering. They contacted me, and asked me if I’d be willing to come work for them. I went over and interviewed with them, and gave it some thought. After thinking on it, I decided to accept their offer. I start tomorrow as their new IT person.

Leaving T3 has been rather sad for me. I’m going to miss my coworkers, and it’s been great having a boss who’s so good to work for and looks out for his employees. Also, as I’ve put it in the past, working at T3 has shown me exactly where I went wrong with Walker Bolt. However, things are definitely changing at T3. Many of my now-former coworkers (especially in the corporate side) are leaving. Also, after the acquisition is finalized, the IT department is going to be moved to a new office at I-45 North and FM 1960. While this would have been nice had I still been living with my parents, it would be a 40 mile drive from my current home. I’m personally done with the long commutes.

I’ve been working up until the end, too. Even now I’ve got my T3 laptop sitting next to my monitor here in my home office, and am working on some database maintenance that needs to be completed by the start of business tomorrow. Still, first thing 8 AM, I’ll be at Kem-tron reporting for work and learning about my new job. I’ll be doing all of the IT work for them. It’s a much smaller company, but it’s definitely growing, and if I’m lucky I’ll end up with an IT department of my own.

It’s been a wonderful run. I’d been at Walker Bolt for two and a half years and T3 Energy for nine. However, it’s time I moved on. I’m hoping for the best to those I leave behind, and I’m looking forward to what challenges lie ahead. :-)

It’s kind of funny how some things begin.

Back in 2001, I was hanging out in an IRC channel called #mortalkombat. It was being run by an alliance of sites, one of which was a site called MK5.ORG. Back then, the future of MK was pretty uncertain; no one really thought that another MK game would come out. Then, near Christmastime, Midway announced they were making Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, the fifth fighting game in the series. One of MK5.ORG’s founders, Scott Howell, knew the game would be at E3, but neither he nor Joey Schorr (the other site founder) could go. So, he asked if I would go, provided I covered the game for the site. I said sure.

I don’t think any of us expected me to become a central figure to the site. However, I ended up being one.

The years since have been great. Once Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance came out, we became Mortal Kombat Online. We became the top ranked Mortal Kombat site. We ended up releasing exclusive news, like the first render from Mortal Kombat: Deception and the revelation of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. We’ve been to many Midway media events. We’ve been to several E3 shows. We’ve done live online chats with the development team. It’s been a blast.

However, lately, I’ve been finding myself with less and less free time. I’ve got a wonderful girlfriend that I spend my life with. My job has gotten far busier. I also have projects of my own I want to pursue. They may not be as popular as MK, but it’ll be my own work, and not my extolling the virtues of someone else’s work.

So, effective today, I stepped down as MK Online’s webmaster, and have moved myself into a purely technical role at the site. Others (namely ~Crow~ and Tyrant-Cenobite) will take over the site’s day to day operations.

I have to admit I’m a bit melancholic. It’s something I’ve been meaning to do, and the site is in good hands. Plus, I want to give my projects the time they deserve. On the other hand, MK Online has been a big part of my life for the past nearly nine years. It’s a bit hard to walk away from it, even if I don’t plan on going anywhere. Still, I know it’s for the best.

So, what are the projects I’m working on? I’m keeping them close to my chest right now, as I don’t want to jinx anything. I hope to announce something within the next couple of months, however. We’ll see.

In any event, I enjoyed my time as MK Online’s head honcho, and am proud of my accomplishments over the past several years. I’m thankful for the opportunities afforded to me, and all in all… I’m content, and glad the site is in good hands. :-)

In my last post I had mentioned that we have our home theater set up for watching movies at home. We’ve also changed how we watch movies out as well. Up until a few weeks ago we would catch movies at the AMC over at Gulfgate or (in one case) at the Cinemark in Pearland. However, Jennifer pointed out a better option recently that we’ve started to take advantage of.

Pearland has two movie theaters (that I’m aware of). One is the aforementioned Cinemark at 288 and FM 518. The other is a “Premiere Cinemas” further east down 518. A couple of weeks back, we decided to go see Resident Evil: Afterlife at the Premiere Cinemas for a change. It’s a much older theater; it reminds me of the old AMC (like North Oaks 6) or General Cinemas. However, the price for an adult ticket was $4.50. So, for (less than) the price if one ticket at the Cinemark, we both got to go and see a movie. :-)

Of course, it’s not perfect; there are obviously no IMAX screens and they don’t support 3D films. (The posters for Jackass 3D had notices that said “in 2D” on them.) However, it’s not often a film comes out that I want to see in IMAX and/or 3D. For $4.50 a ticket, this theater pretty much provides us the best value for the money. We may end up seeing more movies out as a result.

It’s nice to know we have another good value method for watching movies. :-)