About MeThe following information about me is in alphabetical order by topic in case you're looking for something specific, and if you feel I have left anything out that you would like to know please feel free to contact me, and ask. Active Cycle: I'm usually active during the day due to my numerous responsibilities, but have been known to stay up late enough to see tomorrow morning. It really depends on what is happening on any particular day. Age: 35. My birthday is on September 19th (National Talk Like A Pirate Day), and I was born in New York, Watertown in 1976. Thus my zodiac signs are both Virgo for the month, and Dragon for the year. Body Type: Medium frame body with a few extra pounds. I used to exercise every day during my high-school years, and did around 600 weighted sit-ups a day at my peak. Of course the obvious eventually happened, and after my back injury I was prevented from doing ANY exercise for quite a while (1995-2002). I doubt I'll ever be as iron hard as I once was, but I have made substantial gains with treadmill and weight exercise without endangering my back. I currently walk 3 miles per hour uphill for an hour every night, and hope to eventually reach my treadmill's max speed. Degree: Masters Degree in Community Counseling Psychology, and a minor in sociology. I find people fascinating, and I care about others and the human condition in general. As such when I was first introduced to Psychology, and learned that it was so much more than that crackhead Sigmund Freud, I loved it, and haven't looked back since. That said, Psychology was not my first choice when I went into college. I had originally planned on being a Genetics Engineer, but later on I turned away from that goal with interest in being an English major. That too changed as I realized what few jobs I could get with an English degree, and then turned to Psychology. There are numerous psychological theories about behavior, and how to perform therapy, but most of them focus on the past, and involve little planning for the future. I strongly feel that self-obsolecence (no longer being needed) should be every psychologists ultimate goal, and anything less than that is hypocritical. That is why Solution Focused Therapy is my therapy of choice, and you can (CLICK HERE) here to view a short video about it.
Drinker: I do not drink alcohol as alcohol is poison, and I do not seek to poison my body. I could care less if you drink alcohol or not. Just don't offer me any, and don't try to spike something and hand it to me. I mainly drink a TON of water, and usually have caffinated soda when eating at restaurants. Drugs:I do not do drugs for the same reason I do not drink alcohol. I do not wish to poison my body. You also have to look at the long-term effects drugs can have on a person, and sometimes even their future children. I've never seen much point in it myself. If you really want to "feel good" there is something you all can do that costs nothing at all, and won't damage your body; masturbate. =) Ethnicity: White/Caucasian. I've always thought it funny that not even albinos are white, and yet "white" people are given a designation that no more fits them than a brown skinned person being called "black." Why we continue to categorize each other based on skin color is beyond me, and even more so when such a system doesn't work in the first place. Eyes: Dark blue or hazel depending on the lighting. I'm also sensitive to sunlight, and try to avoid being in it for any length of time as it hurts my eyes badly. Typically I'm not seen without sunglasses when outside a building. Fashion Sense: I wear comfortable clothes, and that usually means a T-shirt and shorts despite the weather. This is due to my body being well adapted to cold, but poorly adapted to heat. As such I can handle very low temperatures with little or no protection (wearing shorts in the snow), but I'm prone to dehydration and overheating. I very rarely get dressed up for anything, but can be convinced otherwise when need be. Food: I like hot/spicy food, and especially hot/spicy meat. As such I'm a great fan of Asian and Mexican restaurants, and try to find a buffet of either of the two whenever possible. Free Time: If I have free time I'll work on Zarrakan. What else? =) No really, I have other things I do in my spare time besides Zarrakan; video games, reading, watching movies, shopping, drawing, role-playing games, painting, on ad-infinitum. My interests are many, and have been developed over years of isolation due to Asthma, and moving from place to place with my Army stepfather and Mom. However, Zarrakan remains my main focus, and this is perhaps because it embodies all that I am interested in. Habitat: When I was younger and significantly less healthy Mom would clean the house every day so that I would not have an Asthma attack from dust or other allergens. After many years of this her "need for clean" has rubbed off on me. As such, everything has its place even though my habitat is crowded at times, and may seem a little haphazard in organization. Hair: Dark brown, but does become lighter if I allow myself to be exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time. I've often thought of dying my hair a different color, but the warning labels on hair dye are a real turn off. Have Children:No. Height:5 feet 6 inches. We're all of medium size in my family. Humor: My sense of humor largely depends on the situation at hand, but I have been known to be witty, grim, or vulgar at times. The following review I did of Martian Gothic: Reunification by Talonsoft should give you a good idea of what my sense of humor is like: Going to the discount section of a PC games store is a lot like Russian Roulette. You don't want to spend a bunch of money on over priced video games, but you want as much bang for your buck as possible. There's a problem though; are the games in the discount section there because they're old, didn't have much of a following, or just plain suck? You never know the answer to that question, and perhaps will not know until you actually buy the game, and play it. By then its too late. They have your money, and the return policy is for the same game. =P
I knew I was taking a chance when I bought a game that is agreed "sucks donkey dong" by the gaming community, and has gotten a rating of 50% out of a 100 at most game review sites. But hey, I'm a sucker for horror genre games, and really love such games when it's pulled off correctly (IE: System Shock 2). "It can't be that bad," I said to myself. Little did I know what video game horror lay ahead for me. First off, you really want to like this game. I mean, YOU REALLY WANT TO LIKE THIS GAME. It starts off great with a spooky soundtrack, and an equally good movie sequence, but it quickly goes downhill from there. Lets talk about the interface; the game only works with the keyboard, and has no mouse support. Now some of you may be saying "Yeah, so?" Well, in this age of mice it bothers me because I've gotten used to having a keyboard mouse combination for games. I've found the combination to be very efficient, and helps greatly in racking up kills in Unreal Tournament, and other first-person shooters. If I wanted to go back to just using the keyboard I'd go buy Doom, and play that. Not having mouse support in any game younger than Doom is inexcusable, and just makes the game harder to play than necessary.
Perhaps the game designers did that to make the game more horrific,but I think its just horrible because your only other weapon besides the limited ammunition guns is a wimpy kick that wouldn't stop a flea let alone a neck munching zombie.
Next up on the monster list are these trimorphs. As near as I can tell there are only three of the things in the game, but they are positioned such that they can't be avoided, and the damn things are completely unfazed no matter what/how many times you shoot them. Oh yeah, almost forgot. They have the Touch of Doom that kills you upon ANY contact with them. How do you take care of a trimorph? Well according Martian Gothic's setup you do it by flushing them out airlocks, or trapping them between blast doors.
The trimorphs are also significantly faster than you. Thus the only way to get away from a trimorph is if you have a head start, and even then they'll probably still kill you. At the very least they should have given the players the option to dismember the zombies with an ax after they're down so they don't get back up, and give the fall down/get back up nonsense to the trimorphs. If you think that's bad, lets talk about the game's perspective. The entire game is done with static pre-rendered backgrounds that the characters move around on. This is similar to games like Nocturne, and The Blair Witch Trilogy which use the concept to give a game a "movie-like" feel with minimal onscreen interference like ammunition, equipment, health bars, et al. The end result is a game that feels more like an interactive movie than an actual game, and if done correctly can be quite spectacular. The difference is Martian Gothic does a poor job of it. There are many instances within the game in which you can't see your character, or even more importantly can't see the wandering monsters. As such two circumstances often pop up; You'd be attacked and mauled by something you can't see, or you'd run right into a monster during a scene change.
Next up are the characters; Karne, Kenzo, and Matlock. Part of a horror anything is being able to give a damn about the characters involved, and hope they survive. No such luck here. For one thing, its not like they have seen zombies before, so the expectation is that they would freak out to some degree once dead bodies start getting up off the floor and begin attacking them. Nope. Not them. They all seem to be on prozac, valium, and various other narcotics because they take on the situation with such a "ho-hum, zombies are trying to eat me, whatever" attitude. It's kind of hard to care about them, when they don't seem to either.
a DISEASED ROTTING ZOMBIE BODY. Instead, Kenzo maintains his ever-present dopey smile, and deadpans "Oh, what am I doing." You have to hear it to get the full effect, but trust me when I say he sounds like he just got off a five hour drug-a-thon. Another thing is that since they've all been infected with the alien virus that turned everyone at the Mars base into zombies they can't come near each other without mutating into a trimorph, and then its Game Over. "Stay alone, stay alive," an actual phrase in the game, is an interesting concept, but really annoying when you can't combine your forces. Worst of all is the save feature; you have a limited number of them, and you can only access them at computer terminals that are usually everywhere except where you are. Thus if you have the audacity to get killed because your drugged up slow moving weak kicking limited ammunition gun toting faulty aiming character was killed by immortal zombies or an invincible trimorph, well sucks to be you. Chances are you'll have to walk all the way back to where you were again, shooting immortal zombies and wasting precious ammo the entire way just to get mauled by another invincible trimorph. To cut the story short, I could not beat the game with cheat codes AND a walkthrough. I finally gave up after the 57th trimorph mauling, and traded it in with the other games I beat at Electronics Boutique. The moral of this story is simple; don't play Martian Gothic: Reunification. I wish I could sue Talonsoft for wasting my time, but that's largely my fault for not giving up sooner. Ideal Place To Live:The actual location isn't important as long as the people are friendly, and I have cable modem access. =) Income: Presently $23,000 annually, but since I have a Masters Degree in Community Counseling Psychology it won't be long before I start making more. Languages: English and Latin. I've never liked learning new languages, and have always believed everyone should learn English (the language of science), and be done with it. Location: Clarksville, Tennessee, United-States. I've lived here for 22 years thus far, and would like to leave as soon as possible. I generally like Army cities as my stepfather was in the military for most of my life, and as such have almost never resided outside of one. However, Clarksville is a different matter since the wages here are low, and the cost of living is higher than many other cities in Tennessee. Additionally, Clarksville's local government is the "old boy system" at it's worst with exploitive fat bastards trundling in and out of office to the tune of "I'm in to money." So your stay here probably won't be profitable unless you're part of the local crime syndicate.
Music: The music that I like is fairly broad, but it all has one thing in common; little or no lyrics. I firmly believe that music is something you FEEL not listen to. Thus, I generally don't like lyric dependent genres such as Rap, Rock, or Country. In contrast, I like most electronic music (Techno, Acid, et al), and Video Game Music (Atmospheric or Soundtrack). Money: I absolutely HATE spending money, but I LOVE to buy things. As such a usual visit to a store will have me wandering around for long lengths of time picking things up, putting them back down, thinking about it, and picking them back up again ad-nauseum until I finally reach a decision about buying or not buying. As such it is not uncommon for me to go to a store, and buy nothing at all. Movies: I like movies from all genres, but I'm especially fond of Horror movies. Other movie genres are fairly easy to set up since they primarily rely on environment; If you have a Science Fiction movie throw in some lasers and space ships, or if you have a Fantasy movie throw in some dragons and knights in shining tinfoil. In contrast Horror movies require mood in addition to environment, and that's what make them special. It's easy to throw somebody in a rubber Alien suit, and have a bunch of characters get munched up, but it's very difficult to convey the proper mood, and make the audience afraid. As such, a properly done Horror movie is always a treat. Name: Andrew James Carvin. Occupation: I'm unemployed. Isn't our economy great? XP Being the Author of Zarrakan is itself a full time job as my duties include writing, editing, drawing, website maintenance, promotions, running demos of Zarrakan, purchasing supplies, purchasing merchandise for resale, advertising, and outsourcing jobs. Of course I love it or else I wouldn't have kept up all these years, and it serves as a central facet/hobby for my life. So if you ever meet me do not be surprised if I talk about Zarrakan a lot. I am after all my own greatest fan. Parties: I usually don't go to parties unless there is something that the party goers are actually doing; Role-Playing Games, watching movies, board games, et al. The point is that they need to be doing something besides getting drunk and puking on each other for me to be interested in going. If not, I go anyplace else, or stay home.
Pets I Don't Have, But Like: Cat(s), Bird(s), Reptile(s), Ferret(s), and Fish. I like cats and birds. I think they are exceptionally cute, and wish I could have them as pets. However, I cannot be in the same room with cats or birds for very long without having an Asthma attack. Reptiles are a different matter, and I have had many lizards over the years, and one snake. Reptiles are very cute, make excellent pets, and are easy to care for. The only downside to reptiles is that they usually require live food, and this means keeping live bugs or rodents available for them. As a result, you often have to take care of their food when they are not eating it.
In Greek mythology, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture, but to me she was a constant companion from 1996 to 2000. I would usually have her draped across my shoulders, sitting in my lap, or snuggled around my feet while I was at home. She liked to climb, hide under my dresser, and would often "talk" to me in hisses, wheezes, and squeaks. She was a beautiful pet to have, but suffered from the finicky eating habits associated with her species; Ball Python. Ball Pythons are lovably docile, and are much like having an animated pet noodle. Unfortunately, this docility tends to make it hard for them to eat as they can become afraid of their food. Some Ball Pythons starve to death after hatching because they refuse to eat, or may eat once, and then never again. The ones that do manage to become regular eaters prefer only to eat under certain circumstances; Aphrodite preferred using the left window side corner of my room to catch her prey. She would rarely try to eat a particular rodent again if it fought back, and escaped. Ball Pythons can live up to 30 years, but it is not uncommon for them to die far short of that because of their eating habits. Thankfully Aphrodite did not die a slow withering death of starvation like most of her kin, but she still passed away in her sleep in 2000 due to a respiratory infection.
Since I had one room to myself at my parent's house (Mom and Craig) I would often shut my bedroom door, and let them run around while I worked on homework, updated Zarrakan, played video games, or watched movies. They sleep most of the time (around 20 hours a day), but when they're awake they like to have lots of room to run around in. So it was also around 2001 that I got them a large 5 story ferret cage to play in while I was gone. Like most ferrets they found delight in anything that made sound, and had an especial fondness for plastic bags which they would crinkle around in, and play peek-a-boo with. We would usually hang any plastic bags that we did not need at the top of their cage, and they would shred them turning the top level into a plastic streamer jungle through which they would play their games of tag. Squeak was always the more mischievous of the two, and you would have to keep an eye on her to make sure she was not climbing on top of something. She enjoyed pushing things off of other things, and then listening to the result. I would often have to chase her around the room to try to keep her from breaking my possessions. Snow was more laid back, and rarely did any climbing due to her larger size. The ferrets loved the attention of anyone who picked them up, but for reasons we did not understand Snow hated my wife (Alene). She would try to bite her whenever Alene tried to play with her, or pick her up. Both ferrets were finicky eaters, and were rarely willing to try new things, but Snow was usually more enthusiastic (fatter). The ferrety joy was not to last forever though as ferrets tend to not live long past seven years. Squeak fought cancer for three weeks before succumbing in early December 2007, and Snow would die quietly in her sleep much later in September 2008. As per our family's tradition they've been cremated, and their ashes mixed so they can be together forever.
Pets I Don't Have, And Don't Like: Rats and mice. They may seem cute, but they're not, and doubly so if you've ever had to take care of the nasty little things. Rats aren't as bad as the mice, but they stink, and crap and piss all over the place at a constant rate. Mice do the same, but they're also cannibalistic little bastards who will not hesitate to eat each other, and other rodents. A perfect example of this was an evil little orange mouse we had in an aquarium in the backyard. It was one of many mice that I had bought for my pet snake Aphrodite (died in 2000) that she didn't eat right away. We eventually named it Hannibal because it was such a vicious little creature. It killed and ate anything I put in the aquarium with it; gerbils, mice, and rats. I couldn't get Aphrodite to eat it either because it bit her the first time she tried. I finally had to drown Hannibal so I could store extra rodents for Aphrodite without them being eaten. Mice are evil! =P
Politics: I never really keep track of politics because politicians continue to do all sorts of things that piss me off. They are not scared of the people they are supposed to be serving, and thus only serve themselves, and anyone else who is willing to pay enough. As such they continue to flush America down the toilet by allowing; -Appalling healthcare system that is nearly nonexistent compared to most other countries, and greedy HMOs/Insurance Companies that actively kill their constituents through denial of services. -Predatory outsourcing that has almost completely eliminated the high tech jobs that were supposed to save this country, and has destroyed the manufacturing base that was once the backbone of American economy. -Rampant illegal immigration that is rapidly eating up all the jobs left, and straining our social service programs to the breaking point. -Shrinking educational budget, and the dumbing down of our schools/colleges to cater to the lowest common denominator all but making it impossible for future generations to compete on the global job market. I could list more, but it should be apparent that America is rapidly becoming a 3rd world shithole, and I'm thinking about immigrating to Canada or France. Punctuality: I'm always either on-time, or early, and I expect the same from others. Nothing is more annoying than having to wait around for someone who should have already arrived. Quirk: Most people have four sinuses; two frontal and two maxillary. I was born with only one left frontal sinus, and you wouldn't know it unless I told you. What this means is that my sense of smell is at least 75% below normal, and my sense of taste is also below normal. As such I cannot enjoy the smells and tastes most people enjoy without there being an overabundance of them. Of course, this gives me the solitary benefit of being fairly immune to nauseating smells. However, it also prevents me from detecting harmful allergens that I may unknowingly be exposing myself too. You can imagine the trouble that causes. =P Religion: I am an Atheist. In its simplest somantic definition Athiesm means "A" (Anti) Theism (Religion), and thus an Athiest is someone who not only does not follow a religion, but is against all religions. However, this is not to be confused with a lack of personal conviction to a moral standard. The following definition of Atheism was given to the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203, 83 S. Ct. 1560, 10 L.Ed.2d (MD, 1963), to remove reverential Bible reading and oral unison recitation of the Lord's Prayer in the public schools.
There really is not that much difference between an Atheist, and your average religious person. By default a religious person has to disbelieve any religious trappings of any other religion that they are not a part of. An Atheist simply disbelieves one religion further. I used to be a Christian myself, but as a philosopher I slowly arrived at the realization that all religion is nonsense dreamed up by long dead stupid people who had no idea how the real world worked, and thus made stuff up to explain it. Religion is proven to be crap by far more than that, but there are already books/videos published about the subject; Books God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens God - The Failed Hypothesis - How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist by Victor Stenger The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins The Greatest Show On Earth by Richard Dawkins The End of Faith by Sam Harris The Portable Athiest by Christopher Hitchens Videos Deliver Us from Evil by Amy Berg F for Fake by Orson Welles Metanoia - Human Resources Metanoia - Psywar Relentless - The Struggle For Peace In The Middle East by HonestReporting Religulous - 2008 by Larry Charles Stupidity by Albert Nerenberg The Atheism Tapes by 116 Films The God Who wasn't There by Brian Flemming Zeitgeist: The Movie - 2007 by Peter Joseph Zeitgeist: Addendum - 2008 by Peter Joseph Zeitgeist: Moving Forward- 20011 by Peter Joseph I suggest you redeem yourself by reading/watching them, and I'll recommend more books/videos as I read/watch them. I long for the day that humanity is no longer hindered by the mental shackles of religion, and humanity reaches its true potential as a positive force of change for the better. Religious Service Attendance: I would not be caught dead in a church unless it was completely unavoidable. As I mentioned I'm Atheist. =) Residence: I currently live in a trailer for $125 a month plus ultilities. Role-Playing Games: Zarrakan is my main concentration, and thus what I'm best at, but I have also learned how to run Palladium Books System Failure, Risus: The Anything RPG, Steve Jackson's Munchkin card game, White Wolf's Changeling: The Dreaming, Vampire: The Dark Ages, Vampire: The Masquerade, and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Later on as I start to read the rules for the various RPGs and board/card games I've collected over the years I'll be able to GM those as well. Interestingly enough, I still don't know how to run Dungeons and Dragons even though it was the first tabletop RPG I ever played. =) Of course, beyond being able to run Role-Playing Games, I'm also a Role-Playing Game designer through my efforts with Zarrakan. As such I have an intrinsic understanding of Role-Playing Game mechanics that most GMs (Game Masters) don't have, and often use such knowledge to my advantage while running Role-Playing Games. I recommend playing Role-Playing Games run by GMs who are also Role-Playing Game designers whenever you can as they are often more fun and involving than Role-Playing Games run by other GMs. Smoker: I don't smoke, and have never wanted to as I have Asthma. It's a filthy cancer causing habit, and just being around cigarette smoke can set my Asthma off, or give me a headache. Of course, smoking to me is like religion. If you want to do it that's fine, but don't offer me a cigarette, and don't expect me to stay in the same room while you light up. Television: Most of the shows on TV are crap, and I refuse to pay for it. I have not watched TV since 2007, and things have only gotten worse from what I hear. I watch movies via Netflix, and various online shows via private websites/YouTube. Temperment: I'm very easy going, and get along well with people. =) Video Games: When I play video games it's usually to unwind after a prolonged work period, and thus I have little patience for simulation games. I primarily like first-person or third-person shooters (FPS's or TPS's), but I also like Role-Playing Games (RPG's), and real-time strategy games (RTS's), and like it even more when I can find video games that belong to the horror genre. While I'm not able to "dodge 500 bullets and then put a bullet between your eyes at 400 yards with a pistol" like most game clan members do I can reasonably hold my own most of the time. Additionally, I'm an excellent loser in that no matter how many times you hand my ass to me I'll still come back for more with a smile on my face. =) Want Children: Yes and No. I would like to eventually have children of my own (two), but do not want to have any until I can reasonably support them. I've always believed if you don't have enough money to take care of a child then you have no right to be reproducing. Work Hours: I'm unemployed. Isn't our economy great? XP |
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