Death's Bite - The Seeker of Truth

I was still strapped on the bed. I decided to stop struggling as there was no way to free myself. It was all in my head. Freedom lied inside. And I would find it no matter what obstacle I had to overcome.

Some doctor came along with a nurse.

"You are a disease...we cut your hand to give you an example", he said.

"I hate you", I replied.

He left a sinister laugh as he fed from my anger.

"That's it, give in to the hate, let it consume you, you are meant to be unhappy for the rest of your life", he said.

Then I understood.

"I do not hate you anymore. I feel sorry for you. I forgive you".

The moment I uttered those words his laughter froze into place. It gave wave to devilish anger and respite. His skin started burning and I could see his cells fleeing his body like ash. A scream of a burning man was the last thing I heard. Everything began to blur once more. Things started to float and time appeared to stand still. It was like I figured out a hole in the fabric of time and I was ready to jump through it. I closed my eyes.

I went back into trance again. I started to get used to mystical fumes appearing out of nowhere. I would find my paradise once more. But first I had to battle the fellow seekers of truth, other spirits that attempted to find paradise and failed, getting transformed into evil spirits that thrived on agony and spiritual pain.

I opened my eyes once more waiting to see the unexpected.

I stood up from the ground once more. The ground was gravel with a mix of rock and had a brown-red color. There was a small bush and a beautiful lonely tree. Half of its leaves were flying peacefully in the air. This small piece of land was surrounded by water. But it was not just water, it was red like a pool of blood. The only way to move forward was a small path towards a giant arch that oozed some type of energy sucking me towards it. A white tiger roared in the distance and a magical dagger made out of a dragon's tooth appeared in my belt.

I walked towards the door. There was a gust of wind hindering my movement. The familiar strange voice spoke through me.

"Wind, obey my command".

The gust turned into a slight breeze, a breeze that cooled my shoulders and washed away my problems. With renewed enthusiasm I reached the door, entering a cave.

It was pitch black but there was light in the end of the tunnel. I approached it and saw a weird creature with horns. It turned around. It had no eyes. Its eyesockets were filled with a dark blue aura. It marched towards me with intent. It jumped on me and threw me to the ground. I had never seen such ferocity, such anger towards a living thing.

The creature pulls a dagger and tried to stab me and drain the last drip of blood from my body. I was shocked and my heart rate rose so high I could hear it beating in my chest like a ticking time bomb. I pulled out my dagger and pierced him in the heart. It left a terrifying shriek and dissolved into the same blue smoke that came out of its eyes. I looked at the dagger. The blade was shining and I could see my reflection. I was 19 years old again. I would name it "heartpiercer".

I finally realized during my struggle that my left arm was back after getting cut off. But instead of flesh, it was made from a silver coated metal. Like one part of me that I did not want left my body and got replace by something unknown, uncomfortable, yet powerful and enticing. I felt sorrow for losing a piece of me but on the same time some relief and excitement for what this new thing could do.

That moment I once again felt peace. But that meant only one thing. Something was about to disturb it. I turned around and a giant bird with a huge metal beak, dark blue feathers and armor made its descend towards me, ready to snap me with its claws. I could see fire and seething anger right into its eyes. It clearly did not want me to be there. I had to face another reality once more. From paradise to hell.

As it touched me with its claws everything turned black and I fell. I fell deep down in the abyss like a lifeless body. I was not afraid.

A tear in the fabric of time.

Traveling through the thread of time is interesting. It can go extremely fast, like good moments and like your heart beats during love, but on the other hand when things turn badly, it your heart can stand still in time and space and not let you forget.

But every time you try your best to travel back and fix the wrongs in your life you end up creating a time paradox, an alternate reality and the tiger appears and claws the fabric, creating a hole in your life. 

A hole that you cannot mend. A whole that you do not know is there, but you feel like a part of you is missing.

I closed my eyes waiting for the next trip back to the harsh reality. Would it be war again?

In the blink of an eye I am on a boat. I still have my metallic arm, my dagger too. But I also have a shield. Like a mixture of the Winter Soldier with Steve Rogers. Why do I dream about that? Is it just because it is my favorite heroes or is it something deeper?

I look around the boat. We are 5 people. The leader in the front is strangely reminiscent of me. He is called Jaroslav. He talks about protecting the environment, protecting our values and standing by our beliefs. The woman next to me listens to him with admiration. I was not sure if she was a zealot or a true believer in whatever cause we had.

Jaroslav talks about this being a hit and run operation. Operation flashpoint. Cheezy, but I liked it. The boat was going fast, sliding between the waters as we were marching towards a gigantic whaling boat. He throws some packages to me. I check them out. C4. Plastic explosives. Things just got serious.

"You are our only hope. You are the only one that can take them down and claim back the Earth. You will blow them up and it will be glorious", Jaroslav said.

I nodded, thinking that for once I would do the right thing. I felt important, I felt that I could protect the people I loved and also protect the environment. I was a fool. As I said, ignorance is a fool's bane.

We reached the whaling boat. Jaroslav, Niko and Lars fired up the grappling hooks. They would act as my support. Liara would stay in the boat ready for extraction and Nina would be a scout.

Sirens echoed from the ship. They were on us. I had to rush towards the cargo and place the C4 in the key structural point and sink it down the blue abyss as a statement.

We rushed towards the steel door and I hammered it down with my metallic arm. I felt its power taking over me. It was a guilty pleasure. Gunshots were heard. We made our way towards the stomach of the ship. Enemy gunmen kept popping up from everywhere. In every room we lost a squad member. Every time somebody died, they turned into the same dark blue ash that the creature in my paradise had. Every time I plunged the edge of my dagger on someone's neck they gave me a brief look of satisfaction, as this was their plan.

I turned around and looked at my fallen comrades, ready to place my C4 and claim victory. They were wounded, borderline dead, looking at me with expectation.

"Place the explosives, claim victory, crush them. Finish your mission", they said.

But I noticed that dark blue smoke was also coming from their wounds.

And then it occurred to me. This was no different than the desert mission. Instead of having to blindly follow orders and kill innocent people just because mankind is supposed to fight each other I experienced the other side of things. That side of people that fuels them with fanaticism for the cause and another type of hate breeds inside them, completely crossing the line of what is worth fighting for. Who are you to judge who should live or die, who are you to judge the way that people should or should not be allowed to behave. Who am I to decide if killing innocents or killing the "bad" whalers is correct? I went from one extreme to the other. I was reliving my life in 2012-2014 all over again in a different context.

I don't want to be that person. I want to be a well balanced individual that fights through words, creations, determination and the willpower to create a sustainable environment for everyone, without being judgemental, discriminating, hateful and all the things I failed to assess growing up. Never take advantage of others and never base your own success trampling over them.

As Jaroslav drew his dying breath, I looked at him and dropped my dagger on the ground.

"There will be no more killing", I said.

His eyes turned blue and he left the most horrendous shriek, turning into the giant bird that brought me here in the first place and disappearing into thin air.

It was all a test. I was the seeker of truth.

I'm too old for this gasque

It's Saturday already.

Thursday and Friday went down fast. But everything you do here is a reflection of the vivid, fast-paced life you should expect when moving in a student city like Uppsala.

Thursday was really casual, with the exception of waking up in Silent Hill and waiting for a monster to attack you in any corner.

Welcome to Silent Hills..

We had our second GIS lab around 8:15, where the teacher just threw us a paper with instructions and we had to follow them and make a workflow model in arcMap. It was not that hard in the end but the info lacked cohesion at some points. I did good and had some nice collaboration with Isabelle and Cecilia.

I stayed a bit longer than normal to send the required files. Everyone left at around 12:00, which is the essential lunch break for Swedes. There could be a meteorite striking earth but they will have their lunch break. Remember that and respect it.

I went home and just did my homework, studied Swedish and finished my first "test" even writing my first essay in swedish talking about myself. Wow that is going pretty fast huh?

I chatted a bit with my angel because it's been almost a week since i saw her. I watched some CS:GO videos and around 30 times Captain America kicking the Winter Soldier into a van. I also listened to a lot of music, which has been a recurring trend since i moved here and i like it. I sent my angel the world's sweetest kisses and slept like a baby.

From dusk till dawn, it's Friday. I still need to pay the dentist. I wake up at 8:28, quickly get dressed and clean my fabulous new teeth. It's time to enter the Matrix again and pick up Marley.

Biking to the tunes of my random library i heard from Drums n Bass to Melodic Death to Pop. I struggle at the hill towards the GeoCentrum but i finally pretend to lock Marley. Cecilia is there and we greet eachother, me with a massive struggle for air and breathing. Heavy legs and the weight of 26 turbulent years on my back. A glare directed to Marley.

Snap back to reality, oh there goes gravity. I wear my nicest smile and regain my composure and enter the GeoCentrum. Oh there's Jaime, let's head up towards the Earth System's lab. Christian is there and he gives us a nice introduction to the Cryosphere lab.

I am together with Isabelle and a guy called Ahmed, who has not shown up for the master's program. So we have to do double the work compared to the others. Sarah is next to me. Isabelle is really easy going and smart and hard-working, i like working with her. Which is a stark contrast with how pretty she is, by greek standards of course.

After a barrage of questions and Christian accusing me of stealing Holger's wallet that was pretty funny, we manage to get to the lunch break around 12:00. I stay in the lab untill 13:00 to finish most of the stuff. Izie gets part one and i get part two.

I go out with Jaime and we head towards the professor in charge of our GIS project, Caterina. She is not there and i draw a sad face emoticon outside her drawing board. Jaime laughs and we continue making hideous jokes about the people that pass by, like the woman with the jelly butt. We eventually go to Rickard, the head professor of the course. He tells us with his usual soothing calm voice that we need to mail the Caterina and set up a meeting.

Going out the first word to come out of Jaime's mouth towards the other people waiting outside for the same reason is "Go home". I burst into laughter and we go in the GIS computer room to finish some exercise.

Actually Jaime did all of my work, which was to create a watershed map model of a lake basin around Kiruna. My map was tilted and horrible, and it had some weird flag-resembling drawing in the upper corner. I laughed so hard for the following hour with Jaime and we managed to make it look like some sort of map.

I thanked him for helping me because i was/am clueless and promised him to wash the dishes for the following 10 years, which was not probably a good idea. We go out and pick up his bike and Marley, who was still there sadly. Then i figure out he lives next to me in Gottsunda.

We bike together and he throws a million kg of sand from his bike. I get bamboozled but i soon understand, because he drags me through a construction site to get home. It's the same construction the three swedes took me inside in my previous adventures.

I make it home and by bread, a coke and cheese from Lidl for around 31 crowns. I'm living quite cheaply here so far, eating outside, having fun and drinking a bit. Stockholm is way more expensive, i made the right choice.

I sleep for a bit and message my russian angel for a meeting. Elizabeth can't go to the gasque so she has a pre-drink party at Flogsta. I message her i'm not going as i will meet my Vitalina at Pop...ehm Upplands to try and sneak in the gasque or something around 7.

I get up at 6:40, bathe until 6:44, get ready and leave the house at 6:57. Marley is my biggest bane, we make it to the Upplands nation around 19:15. I race inside and look for my princess.

Guess what, she is nowhere. I wander aimlessly and without purpose in the yard seeing boring people eating boring burgers. There is a girl that looks like her, i stare and my heart pumps faster with anticipation. It's not her.

I end up picking up a chair calling 4 times and sending an sms. I guess i never learn. You know it's soul crushing waiting for someone you like so much and being powerless to do anything. But call me an idiot, i don't care in the end, it will be worth it. She's finally there after 35 minutes.

I lay down clutching my face while she gets to me and gives me a hug. Damn you Vitalina for being so pretty, you wash all my trouble away in an instant.

We try to get in the gasque, but we have no invitation and we are not dressed formally. So we sit and have some fun in Upplands, then move to Varmlands, which is equally boring. We end up sitting in a table with two boring swedish women sharing half a Cider. There is a guy behind us in the table chopping paper and napkins into pieces like mad all night, some disgusting Jack Daniels bottles with candles inside and a woman dressed as a zebra behind me.

On the other side of the room at the couches, the most sad recollection i have so far from sweden. A guy with his girlfriend, looking so depressed and facepalming himself, while his girl is laughing watching at her iphone screen all the time. In the end she just leaves him, he waits for 5 minutes and then he leaves too with the look of a thousand wars and famine and plague in his face.

We have a great discussion with my angel and a lot of fun. Time flies by and it's around 10 now. I don't have to share what we talked about, it was mostly about our past, our future and the occasional "you make me feel happy and special" speech. Oh we had a great laugh about Mattias and his pervert hugs too.

Did i mention that she left her bike by luck right next to Marley? Of all the hundreds of bikes there. I get her safely home as she makes fun of Marley. We exchange hugs and i hope i see her again soon.

I get to Snerikes, where there is no entrance that day. It's empty and quiet, mostly due to the gasques around the city. I find Elizabeth and Catherine along with around 20000 men around them. There are a bit smashed, so i don't really bother. We sit, and i exchange a friendly hug with Elizabeth, because she is in the friend zone now, say goodbye and leave with Kostas, another greek.

We go to the line in Varmlands. Nikos and a swedish girl i don't care to remember join us, but the club is closing in 1 hour and i am not paying 80 crowns for that. I follow those two towards OG nation, we get in, we manage to get some beers and watch sad people dance to tunes unheard off by me.

I end up alone in the room below, sitting with a broad smile on my face watching everyone dance like they have no bones or their limbs are about to leave their bodies. It's just not my style anymore. I am past that phase. I casually drink my beer thinking about leaving. Then out of the dancefloor comes Danika and Natalie.

Danika is looking absolutely dazzling. I literally caught myself with my jaw dropping at times. We have some fun with Natalie, who is a pretty cool girl too.

Time for me to go though. I get Marley and reluctantly bike home. It's cold as usual. It's becoming a cliche, me saying that it pierces through my soul and bones.

But i make it home around 2 am. There are 2 things left to do. Say goodnight to my angel and tell her i had a great time. And send a message to Danika telling her she was the most beautiful woman in that room.

Goodnight Sweden, or maybe, Hej prepare for another busy weekend!

Godzilla (2014) review

It's film review day, and it's the King of the Monsters!

He is back with a bang, 10 years after the last Toho video release and 16 years after the abysmal 1998 film. But how does the big lizard fare this time?

He certainly looks intimidating and cool.

I was anticipating this movie for ages along with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and X-Men: Days of the Future Past and i must say i have mixed feelings from last night's screening.

Let's start with what was wrong in the previous movie.

• Terrible script. French secret service saves the day!
• Abysmal acting (save jean reno).
• Inept military (well that is not that far from the truth actually...at least from greek army standards).
• He can reproduce asexually, lay 2000 eggs, wreck havoc, hide into sewers, in buildings.
• He can dodge bullets, missiles, choppers, fish, idiots, photographers, his spawns like cheeto's and yet he can't escape the Golden Bridge.
• So pretty much everything.

So how does the new movie do?

You can either say that the bar was set high or low this time. High because of the previous film was so terrible that a good remake had to be done to wash this mediocrite off our mouths and low at the same time because you had to REALLY try to make a worse film than that.

Basic script goes like this without giving up many spoilers.

Giant creature was awakened, they used nukes to kill it, it was dormant untill 1999. It fed from the radiation and then it destroyed a nice nuclear plant in Japan, killing the protagonist's mother and leaving father crazy. Kid becomes a bomb defuser, follows his father 15 years later in the quarantine zone, the MUTO (massively unidentified terrestrial organism or something) awakes and wrecks havoc killing his father. Godzilla shows up, they destroy Hawai and then destroy San Fransisco, he kills stuff and then jumps back in the ocean.

It does leave a mechanic feeling doesn't it?

The film does well enough to build anticipation and cover the basics and set up a basic background for the monsters. However the characters portrayed are week. I have no lasting impression of them really.

Joe, the protagonist's father, is a man obsessed with finding the truth behind the alledged cover up of the military that caused his wife's death. At least he cries when she dies.

Ford, the protagonist, is a bomb specialist that returns home after 14 months of...ehm i do not remember where he was. He is shallow, cold, faceless, never cries, yet he has the leading role. Sounds like Kristen Stewart.

His wife. Not much to tell. I think her name is Elle, she is a nurse, she cries a lot and she cannot catch a break.

That mad leading scientist. Played by Ken Watanabe, i do not remember his name for the love of god. He looks constantly intoxicated saying his philosofical stuff every now and then at key moments. Oh and he is one of the reasons the MUTO is alive. I like the actor but the character lacks....character and drive and purpose.

Godzilla, the protag...oh wait. A movie about Godzilla and he feels like the peripheral figure or the supporting cast. He is great looking thanks to the CGI, making him believable and ferocious, a perfect anti-hero. He also has his amazing atomic breath back and it's pretty impressive! He is a bit fat though!

MUTO's,  the main antagonists. Bad monsters, they want to mate, reproduce and consume radiation. They put up a decent fight. I liked them as monsters, but i do think they looked a bit fake in the face. Sort of...metalic, mechanic.

The rest...nah i do not remember. There was the admiral and some soldiers, a Halo jump and a Megaton Bomb, some kid lost in the subway called Akio or something.

This is how Ford looks throughout the film.

It was a nice change to bring more massive Kaiju's to the party instead of Godzilla relentlessly destroying building after building in Manhatan. However as i said the film limits Godzilla to a supporting role, with more emphasis in the human drama, only there is none...Well there is, but the leading actor is meh... The director tries to present Godzilla gradually, a glimpse here and there, but he also reveals the MUTO's very fast.

What is the bottom line?

This is a step in the right direction definately. The CGI effects are great, the monsters are ferocious and believable, the script is basic but way better than the old one. Godzilla has a mission instead of destroying everything mindlessly. Though it's not all rosy, the cast is weak and Godzilla feels like the second actor.

Even if you are not a fan of the series and you want to go to the movies, i recommend this movie. It is not bad, though don't expect many 3d effects! I would love to hear your opinion!

Ratings:

Audio: 9/10

Script: 6/10

Acting: 4/10

Monsters: 8/10

Movie: 7/10

Only one week left for Days of the Future Past!

Watch out for the Rift

Before going to the movies to see the sequel of Captain America, which was a pretty good movie, but felt a bit long and tiresome with the 3d glasses on, i went to a local internet cafe in Kalamata (TheWeb Kalamatas) and i tried this:

The kid's expression gives you an idea.

The gamestation had a high-tech computer with a massive HDTV and the early version of the OCCULUS RIFT. So being tech savvy i had to try it!

It had a beta game of a Formula-1 game that was actually pretty cool, so here are my short thoughts on the machine.

Pros

• Fantastic experience, it trully immerses you.
• Moving your head around. Seriously, i was watching the sky and the buildings more than the circuit.
• Gives unlimited potential.
• Would be every mmorpg fan's dream.
• Was not as heavy or uncomfortable as i would have imagined.

Cons

• That version of the RIFT had low resolution (already updated to support 1080p though).
• Seemed like low fps, but it was a beta version.
• The hd version costs a fair amount, as would the whole gamestation.

And that concludes my thoughts on the OCCULUS RIFT. I think it's going to be a great next-gen tech and that we will see even more of those spawn within 2014-15. One more picture, and wishes of a great weekend!

 Shut up and take my money!