The Eccentric Realist

Once you've seen it, you can't really forget 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle, and Russel. Gorillaz has been around in my life for almost as far as I can remember. Damon, of course, has been making music for a pretty long while, but this little project which has grown to a critically acclaimed band started around with a strange album which nobody could really define. It had elements from punk, rock, but all in all its style was pretty alternative to what everybody was listening at the time. They began in 1998 but I remember it was 2001 when they caught my attention. Of course, I was five years old and I was really attracted to the animation style, but as I grew up, and after  Gorillaz  came  Demon Days and  Plastic Beach , and in between those, a bunch of B-sides albums, remixes, singles, and even a dub mix of the first album, and in each of them you could notice a pretty distinct style, which begs the question, what defines Gorillaz? Heraclitus told us that no man ...

Writing is a great art, in the sense that all you really need is a place to put down your ideas. Sometimes the execution is bad, though, and though you might be the next Shakespeare, you're coming across as the next Dan Brown. With that in mind, it should always be in your best interest to refine your skills. Here's how. 5: Using the passive voice This one is big enough to merit its own post. Does the subject in your sentence perform the action, or is the action performed upon it? Although there is a lot that is affected by this aspect in itself, the way to fix it is pretty simple. Here are a few examples. Passive : It is believed by Mexicans that ghosts can speak with us. Active : Mexicans believe that ghosts can speak with us. Passive : I was bitten by the puppy. Active : The puppy bit me. The passive voice can be useful every once in a while, most of all if you want to keep the emphasis in the action, or if the actor is unknown. Otherwise, you ris...

So, Bethesda is making announcements, teasing with their #pleasestandby what could be a new Fallout game or remaster. Considering that it's almost Fallout 3's 10th anniversary, this is a pretty strong possibility. These games are some of the finest examples of storytelling that you could possibly find in any medium, so it's a good thing to learn about its inspirations. It'll also help you calm your anxiety while you wait for tomorrow's trailer. Chinatown (1974) We're starting off with something quite different here. Directed by the crook Roman Polanski, and starring Jack Nicholson, it's more of a neo-noir film rather than the post-apocalyptic theme that you were probably expecting. If you've played through the quest The White Wash , though, then you'll find more than a few references concerning the movie.  A Boy and His Dog (1975) Now, this movie's based on a series of books by Harlan Ellison, a very prolific aut...

Read part 2 here Freedom is a curious thing. When you can write about anything, you might as well be able to write about nothing. This is where prompts come in. If you can focus on a certain style, or genre, or plot device, then you might find that it's exactly what you need to stick to a story, or poem, or what have you. Without further ado, here are 20 prompts that can help you out. Your first line has 20 words, the second one has 19, and so on until you finish with one word A story that takes place in a single room No narration, only dialogue Death's greatest mistake Mix two very different genres Write a story in 100 words or less Start and end with the same phrase Apocalyptic but happy Rewrite your favorite story Everyone but your protagonist can speak Any action in the story is decided with you flipping a coin A failed experiment Write a story without using any pronouns Make the simplest of actions suspenseful An ordinary person in an extraordi...

It's not uncommon nowadays to hear about the 80-20 rule. Left unexplained, though, it's hard to see how it would apply to your situation, or any situation for that matter. The Pareto distribution can be used to explain both human activities and natural phenomena, which is, in fact, how it was discovered, as Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 80% of the pea pods in his garden came from 20% of his plants.  Economist. Gardener.  How does this distribution work? In order to avoid getting into the more complicated mathematical aspect, I'll explain it as such: The square root of the input in any given system generally produces 50% of the output, and in that half of the output, if you take the square root of the input, you will find, again, that it produces half of that output. If you have 10,000 employees, 100 of them do 50% of the output, and even then, 25% of the total output is made by the best 10 of those hundred employees. This means that the bigger the inp...

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson is, if not one of the greatest thinkers of our time, one of the more notorious. He's a professor of psychology from the University of Toronto, currently on a world tour for his book: 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos , which is based off a popular response he gave on a Quora question about the most valuable things everyone should know . Years later, after becoming a Youtube sensation, he decided to refine his answer into 12 rules which can help anybody lead a happy, wholesome life. The book is currently a #1 Amazon national and international bestseller, so at the very least, his ideas are being heard around the world. Since his explanations tend to delve deep into Jungian psychology, Nietzsche's philosophy and biblical references, we're going through each of them in a simple, more digestible manner. 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back This one's pretty straightforward. Posture can affect biological processes that ...