[Games] StarCraft (PC)

Today marks the celebration of the long-awaited release of the full sequel to this game. With StarCraft II officially hitting store shelves in less than a month, it's a fun time to be a big fan of this franchise.

So I felt it fitting to revisit the past before we look to the future and celebrate why this game was so great in the first place. As much as the sequel promises new graphics, different gameplay and all that fun stuff, its truth worth can only be truly measured with a firm grip on its glorious origins.

I've been a big fan of real-time strategy games (RTS) since the Dune II days quite frankly, and the evolution and advancement of these games has been quite the fun ride thus far. But StarCraft really did something for me that not many games achieved at the time. I mean seriously, I enjoyed Command & Conquer and I got into Red Alert as well but StarCraft was a game-changer in so many ways. No wonder it took this long for Blizzard to come up with a sequel that is hopefully worthy of the name.

[Books] Wild Sheep Chase

Most of Haruki Murakami's books are pretty much one-shots - standalone stories of wonder and beauty. So when I discovered that there were actually two interconnected titles that act almost like a little franchise amongst all the other books, well, then I knew it would be worth getting into. But then again, I also feel that almost any Murakami novel is worth getting into.

Okay, maybe I believe any book written by Haruki Murakami is more than worth it. So there.

Murakami is a visionary writer who manages to mix contemporary character with worlds of wonder and situations that seem more like fantasy than mundane reality. Plus he is able to mix in elements of post-war Japan into this amazing tapestry of words that helps paint a clearer picture of what may be just beneath the surface of Japan's wounded psyche.

This book was striking for so many reasons and it certainly stands apart from the others even after almost three decades since its original publishing.

[Movies] Toy Story 3 (2010)

Like most geeks (and pretty much most people on the planet), I love Pixar and I'm quite the fan. There's just something about their combination of animation and humor that just gets me. Plus their movies naturally have some sort of lesson or message that they manage to present in a way that's not necessary overbearing or preachy. So yeah, that totally works for me.

When you think about it, Pixar was really one of the first to hit it bit with CGI-animated movies. Not only that, they also made sure to address a wider audience of both young and old moviegoers, thus increasing their appeal and marketability. So yeah, not only are they quality movies, but they're good for the studios and thus we're all happy.

Of all the Pixar titles, we always have to come back to Toy Story, the one that started it all in terms of their big screen features. It's hard to explain how this movie worked for so many people right out of the gate, but it did quite overwhelmingly. To day, it's the only Pixar movie to develop actual sequels and the characters involved have become some of the most iconic in popular culture. A lot of credit goes out to this movie and it seems only fitting that the Pixar folks make efforts to sort of tie up loose ends for these characters with this third installment.

[Technicolor Musings] Happy Pride You Geeks!

Naturally, I need to start with one big HAPPY PRIDE EVERYONE!!!

I'm writing this post in advance since by the time this actually gets published, I'll probably be recovering from a night of wild partying and celebrating with the rest of the LGBT population of Manila. Odds are high that I won't even be conscious, given how I tend to handle excessive amounts of alcohol in my system.

Beyond that strange but not unrealistic image of your Geeky Guide (that being me), I wanted to make sure I devoted this week's Technicolor Musings to celebrating this little Gay Pride Weekend.

And yes, I know that some of you are going to try and play the "this wasn't Pride weekend, it was just the weekend of the White Party" card, but then despite the complicated history, I'll always look at the last weekend of June as being about Pride and not just about a silly party. The meaning of an event tends to be in the eyes of the beholder or something like that so I think I have a write to celebrate my personal views on pride on this blog.

[Movies] Battle Royale / Batoru Rowaiaru (2000)

The world of Asian cinema is both beautiful and strange at the same time, depending on what movie you encounter. It's not often I encounter something I don't like, but then I do have an appreciation for many things.

Japanese movies in particular are quite a treat, but then I'm also a major fan of Japanese culture in general. Their creativity tends to go in directions I totally don't expect and I end up being continually surprised by the results. Whatever happened in that part of the world to result in such consistently out of this world ideas and talent, I'm not going to question it. Best to just sit back and enjoy the results.

As much as I don't tend to favor the more violent movies given they end up being shallow plot-wise, this was certainly surprised me. Then again. this is a Japanese movie and not some Western piece of trash put together by the likes of Michael Bay or something.

I don't know why it took me so long before finally watching this movie. Once I had gotten through it, I now better understand what everyone has been referencing in recent years and I regret having missed out on such an iconic movie.

[TV] FlashForward: Season 1

Despite best efforts, there's something that is bound to be lost during translations across mediums. While I never read the book this was based on, clearly something went wrong in terms of how this was brought from the page to the small screen. But then again, I have rather low expectations of Hollywood, what more network television.

Still, there are shows that start out somewhat strong and seem to have all the right elements in place for it to become something far greater and yet in the end things just go wrong. How to determine what happened or what made things go so wrong is a tad tricky, to say the least, since it's usually a combination of many issues coming together. It makes me start thinking about the whole Seconds From Disaster documentary show that tries to trace back the chain of events that leads to a catastrophe.

This is just a review of the show's first and only season though and not such a dissection. I'm sure to touch on what went wrong (like I could ever prevent myself from doing so) but this shouldn't be too different from my other posts. At least that's the theory at this point.

[Music] Happy Birthday Jason Mraz!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON MRAZ!!!

Thank you for your amazing music, your inspiring words, your positive outlook on life, your ability to show everyone just how beautiful things are and for reminding me and my partner about the importance of simple, honest love every single day.

[Games] Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (PS3)

As much as I tend to have a difficult time when it comes to platform-style games, I really fell in love with the Ratchet & Clank series when it first debuted on the Playstation 2. There was just something about the game that endeared itself to me from the start. Maybe it was the humor. Maybe it was the diversity of the weapons available. Maybe it was just that cute little robot, Clank.

Oh yes, I love Clank.

Whatever it is, apparently I haven't been alone in my love for the game franchise and the series has survived over the years and now the consoles. I was surprised to see not just a new game for the Playstation 3 but in fact a trilogy of them further expanding the universe of this strange pair. So yeah, I'm very happy to be able to continue playing the games in this franchise with the promise of even more titles to come.

[Books] The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

I was first introduced to Haruki Murakami in college. At the time most if not all of my reading interests were firmly locked within the realms of science fiction and fantasy. Trying anything outside of that seemed highly unlikely since I really enjoyed escaping to those far-flung worlds. So when we were made to read a variety of more contemporary authors, I soon realized that I had been missing a heck of a lot.

But of all the different authors I was introduced to during my college years, Haruki really stood out as something completely different. His style is deceptively simple in terms of words but amazingly complex in terms of concepts. His usual mix of the familiar with the strange and exotic is unlike any other I've read thus far and he manges to weave all these diverse elements together into a beautifully seamless whole.

So when it came time to try and explore his writings on my own, I relied on the recommendations of my professor at the time and picked up this particular book. I don't regret the decision one bit, no matter how expensive his books tend to be in most stores. While this wasn't one of his simpler books, it was certainly one of his most powerful and striking in so many different ways.

[Movies] Dragonball Evolution (2009)

I was hoping to post a review of Toy Story 3 right now, howe er given my busy weekend I'm probably watching the movie as this entry is scheduled for publish. So that review will have to wait for next week and instead we'll have a horribly campy one in its place.

When you decide to adapt a popular series or book or whatever into a movie, you certainly set yourself up for a major challenge. The fans will all have their idea of how the movie should be made, the kind of actors that should be cast or even the nature of the special effects that should be involved. Just as the old adage warns that too many cooks spoil the broth, diverse fan expectations can kill a movie even before it hits theaters.

When is Hollywood going to accept the fact that creating new movies is an acceptable risk? They waste a lot of talent and time on these adaptations that are often doomed to failure given the philosophies Hollywood has about how movies should be made. Those notions tend to go in direct contrast to what the fans want or expect and so yeah, things just don't work out well.

[Pink Scene] White Party Manila 2010

Hey you fabulous geeky queers out there - this is week marks the last weekend of June and you know what means. It's time for for the 9th annual White Party Manila at Malate! Mark the date - June 26, 2010. As always the Malate bars along with Task Force Pride have organized this year's big queer event.

As much as there's a theme for the year - this year being IllumiDANCE, the rule of thumb is to wear white, bring your gay friends and your fag hags and party until you drop!

And here's the official blurb from Task Force Pride Philippines:

Task Force Pride Philippines brings you "IllumiDANCE: The Lunar White Party"

Manila's 9th Annual White Party on Maria Orosa strip!

10pm Saturday, June 26, 2010,

Celebrate LGBT PRIDE under the brilliant full moon!

Come in your fiercest and most luminous white costumes and 

celebrate love, laughter and life in this annual and global celebration of PRIDE!

Donate and support Task Force Pride Philippines in making this year's Manila PRIDE in December the biggest, the bestest and the gayest PRIDE march ever!

Presented by:

eZ Lubricating Jelly

Frenzy Condoms

In Partnership with:

BED, Che'lu, Home, Lookal, O Bar, Silya , Smart Venue

For more info, visit www.taskforcepride.blogspot.com.

Look for TFP on Facebook: Task Force Pride Philippines

Follow us on Twitter: TFPManila

If you're curious as to catching the Geeky Guide and his wonderfully geeky partner, then feel free to try and look for us most likely around O Bar, Malate. See you there on Saturday night!

[TV] Will & Grace: Season 1

LGBT characters in network television remain to be somewhat few in number when you think about it, but our current progress now is definitely worlds away than how things were over ten years ago.As you trace back the development of gay roles on TV, you'll of course come across this landmark show given its amazing impact on network television and Hollywood at large.

Let's face it - in the beginning the gay character was trapped in very dated stereotypes and could perform no other role than comic relief for the most part. Come to think of it, a better example would probably be how gay characters are still depicted in local television and movies (Zing!) if you get what I mean. The point is that in many years past, the only chance for a gay character to exist in network television would be as a cheap plot device or shallow and insulting comic relief roles. It certainly helped characterize gay men as flighty and shallow and lesbians as overly masculine with a penchant for pants.

But the floodgates opened with this one show that pretty much everyone was betting against at the time. As much as the odds seemed against the production plus initial critical assertions predicted its quick demise, the show eventually proved them all wrong. Even better, this started a rather long-lived sitcom that survived for a full 8 seasons.

[Movies] The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

I tend to think of the Muppets as one of my "guilty pleasures" of sorts. It's something like Archie Comics - I can't imagine anyone who hasn't spent some time reading at least one Archie digest completely, but it's also not the kind of comic book that you tell friends that you read. It's just sort of there in our collective history and when you actually try to confront someone about it, they'll admit to it having read it in the past if not until today.


It's not like I'm not proud of my Muppet fandom, mind you. It's just sort of there and it's not quite the first thing that I ever rush out to tell other people about. It just doesn't come to mind for some reason until you get into one of those conversations with your friends about them. Then suddenly you're all going ecstatic about what you consider to be one of your favorite Muppet moments or dance routines or whatever.


And this movie definitely features one of my favorite Muppet sequences of all time. Sure, it's not quite the most complex routine ever depicted in a Muppet film but it's the one that I love the most above all others. Yes, I'm campy that way.

[TV] Pushing Daisies: Season 2

Mysteries and music make for an odd pairing, but that certainly worked for this particular TV show, I always felt. Plus there was the added element of magic and sweet little romance with the recently deceased but all these diverse elements came together to make for some very compelling television.

But as is the way of such non-mainstream television programs, the bar was set pretty high for the show and they had their work cut out for themselves in order to stay alive. Plus the horrible 2007-2008 Writer's strike abruptly cut short its first season, making this follow-up even harder.

I guess it was of little surprise that the show didn't get renewed given their performance in terms of ratings and estimated views, but I still strongly feel this show should have been given more of a chance. At least we'll have the memories to keep us company and all, but it's certainly going to take more than the touch of a magical finger to bring this show back to life some day.

[Social Networking] Why Giving Up Facebook Games Is A Good Idea

Image via Wikipedia

When privacy concerns over Facebook started to pick up after the OpenGraph annoucenment in April, I was one of those geeks out there who was a bit worried about how Facebook was doing business. Sure, I know I'm savvy enough to set the myriad privacy settings in Facebook to a level of sharing that I'm comfortable with, but I know not all my contacts are. Given the chances that access to them leads to access to me and the plain and simple fact that Facebook was offering our information to marketers around the world at our expense, I really needed to think about what I was doing.

While I didn't join the others on Quit Facebook Day last May 31, I have significantly changed the way I interact with the service. The main reason I remain on the site is the plain and simple fact that as a networking tool, it's hard to match. This is only because I have too many contacts (and not necessarily "friends") on Facebook related to my role as alumni representative for my high school class. So yeah, that sort of left me tired to the service, along with a few far-flung friends who didn't appear to be ready to jump on over to Diaspora or something.

So after the big announcement about simplified privacy controls, I felt a little better but still remained unconvinced that this would lead to everyone being smarter about their Facebook usage. Case in point, a friend of mine recently received an invite from a person who was not allowing anyone outside his network to add him. How weird is that, right? The challenges go on.

But beyond my decision to stay on Facebook, strip my profile of all likes and interests, cull my friends list of acquaintances that I didn't trust my data with and surf the site only using Google Chrome's Incognito Mode, I also made the hard decisions of quitting all my Facebook games.

It was the best decision of my social networking life.

[Books] Armageddon's Children (Genesis of Shannara Book 1)

I first got into Terry Brooks books at a young age - in fact he was officially my first fantasy author in my collection. The Shannara books were easy enough to get into and I enjoyed Brooks' light yet creative writing style and his inventive approach towards large-scale battles. Of course once I read Tolkien later on in life, I realized the similarities, and yet the Shannara books have always remained close to my heart.


Then came another Terry Brooks series of books - one that was eventually known as the Word and Void series of books. This featured a more contemporary fantasy setting with demons and their ilk fighting a secret war behind the scenes of our world. The books were a lot darker than the Shannara books and yet there was just something about them that really sparked my interest. So yeah, I definitely became a fan of that particular sub-series.


So it was quite the pleasant surprise that Brooks eventually wrote books that somehow linked these two universes together as one, which was something I had speculated to some degree when I first completed the books in both series. Thus it was probably inevitable that I'd try to read this link between the worlds.

[Movies] The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010)

There are certain shows that I tend to enjoy as "guilty pleasures", and perhaps this might just become the theme for this week. Getting back to the point, most of the stuff that I watch is decently sophisticated or intellectual and of course geeky. But there are those things that I take the time to watch because they're funny on a much more shallow level or something along those lines. Sometimes your brain just gets all beat up after a tiring work day and you so just want something simple and uncomplicated.

So the show that his movie was based on was definitely well-suited for this category of shallow viewable stuff. The show is based on caricature parodies of popular geek culture icons and full of vulgarity, obscenities, racist slurs and all that nasty good stuff. The show really didn't have much in terms of redeeming values or anything like that, but at it was a heck of a lot of fun in a very crazy way. And yet despite all this, I actually found the show to be a lot of fun and the kind of modern humor that just works for me on some ridiculously shallow level.

[Technicolor Musings] Gaydar Patch 2010-06

Image by Ko:(char *)hook via Flickr

Gaydar, or the unique ability of individuals to determine if a guy is gay or not, is not exactly a precise science. There's a lot of intuition and gut feel that goes into it and thus it's really hard to explain how it works. Believe me, as a geek I've tried to explain the pseudo science behind this when my friends ask but even my formidable geekiness is unable to distinctly quantify in words how it's supposed to work. Gaydar is just gaydar - it just works.


While I doubt today is going to be any different in terms of my ability to explain this concept, my partner has helped me come up with an alternate strategy. Today's entry will hopefully represent the first of a series of entries over time where I'll discuss possible tips and tricks to add to your own internal gaydar system of sorts along with necessary updates for which items no longer apply. Let's face it - as soon as the concept of the metrosexual became mainstream, a lot of older, non-updated gaydars started giving false positives. So yes, updates and software patches of a sort are needed!


So today we're touching on a few items to watch out for and those that can be forgiven a bit more for the straight guys out there who allow themselves to be dressed by their gay friends.

[Movies] The Muppet Movie (1979)

If I were to invite you to watch a movie where most of the primary characters are played by puppets, you'd probably assume that I was bringing you to a children's movie or something. It's only in recent years with animated movies have started to target more than just the younger audiences but when you get down to it, these guys did it first. 


Oh, and how silly of me to assume that these are just your run-of-the-mill puppets that we're talking about. These are the Muppets after all, a different brand of puppets all together. They're so unique that these days they even have their own YouTube channel. 


These crazy critters have been entertaining both children and adults for over 50 years now, depending on how far back you decide to trace their origins. Why exactly Muppet shows and movies have generally worked is a bit of a mystery when you try to think about things logically, but then it all becomes clearer as you watch more and of these adorable critters. At least that's my theory.

[TV] Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (2010)

Books are such marvelous things but given how much creative content you can fit into one, they end up not being too friendly to adaptation. Let's face it - book-to-TV movies are practically guaranteed to lose something in translation since (1) movies can only go on so long and (2) they're complete different mediums with different priorities and rules. Apples and oranges and all that jazz, yes?


In recent years, it has become more and more apparent that writers may stand a better chance of getting their message across by resorting to not just a single movie, but multiple ones. If they don't quite command that kind of a silver screen audience, then there's always the TV mini-series route to explore.


Why precisely Sky1 decided to start adapting the crazy, creative and clever works of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series into TV mini-series is a bit beyond me, but I'm definitely not complaining! Thanks to them, we've seen a variety of Discworld stories come to life on the small screen with greater and greater accuracy. They may not be the best shows in the world or anything like that, but they do remain highly entertaining to watch. And yes, it pays to be a happy fan boy too.

[Games] Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (PS3)

When a game is ported to other systems, you generally expect that the game will more or less remain the same across the different platforms. Usually developers mention that certain secret areas might change or bonus items will vary or other more cosmetic changes across the versions. If the system limitations will prevent the port, then you just leave it at that and start to feel the pressure to buy the appropriate console in order to get access to the game.

This has largely proven true for the games that I've played multiple versions of. The controls will change slightly given the specific nature of the console but the game and its story are pretty much intact. This has also been seen in console-to-PC translations of games like Final Fantasy VII, that went rather well when you get down to it. I can understand the need for certain things to change, but in terms of content, it really shouldn't shift around too much. At least that's how I see it.

Sadly, I first played the PS2 version of this game and it was a horrendous mess, so much so that I'm not even going to bother trying to formally review it. Thankfully the PS3 version of the game was a lot better, although I can't help but wonder why the bothered with the PS2 version at all.

[Comics] Blackest Night (DC)

I don't fully understand how it happened, but in recent years zombies have come back as a pretty cool plot device. Sure, zombie movies have been around since forever but if you tried tracking their popularity in recent years, you'll notice a sharp increase in zombie-related media.

I figured we were definitely headed in a strange direction when the comic book industry decided to embrace zombie culture completely, resulting in some pretty strange comic book stories, events and alternate realities. I think one of the more ridiculous outputs of the rise of zombie culture definitely has to be the Marvel Zombies storyline, complete with it's own official designation as being Earth 2149. But of course the fun didn't end there.

When DC announced this major crossover event, I was a bit annoyed and yet not at all surprised. Positioned as the logical conclusion to events that pretty much started during the SInestro Corps War storyline and continued with the introduction of the alternative color-coded corps in story arcs like Mystery of the Star Sapphire, Rage of the Red Lanterns and Agent Orange. All were meant to come into conflict with one another in what had been prophesied to be the "War of Light" as was ultimately fulfilled in this comic book event.

[Movies] The Hangover (2009)

There are just movies out there that you never imagine watching based on the synopsis alone. No matter how much hype here is or how interesting the trailers are, for some reasons there are just those movies that you can never seem to get around to see. Perhaps it's some sort of a subconscious thing - a part of your mind that rebels against the story concept and so you just ignore it over and over again every time you are faced with the opportunity to catch it.

And then one day you finally get to see it and you can't help but wonder what was holding you back before. That's just one of the many eccentricities of life, eh?

What does push us over that edge and make us watch movies like this? I mean seriously, we manage to avoid a lot of general buzz around it in the beginning. Then it takes that one conversation with a friend or colleague that totally changes your perspective or at least makes you think about seeing it again after months or even years of never taking the time to do so.

[Movies] The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000)

LGBT-themed movies tend to follow certain patterns and have developed their fair share of tropes and cliches. For example, a gay movie is bound to bring up AIDS sooner or later whether a character in the story reveals he has it or there's some AIDS-related charity event or strip-off. Or there's the duplicity around staying in the closet and using the coming out experience as a focal point for the story. They're not necessarily bad things to cover in a movie - it's just that statistically speaking, LGBT movies tend to obsess about topics like these a bit too much.

So when a pink movie comes along that tries an alternate track, it's certainly refreshing, to say the least. Plus it becomes an interesting opportunity to focus on the story more than the gimmicks, which can be a good and a bad thing depending on the strength of the plot. Sadly, this is also a common area of concern for LGBT movies since queer-friendly writers tend to typecast our movie interests to be related to romances, serious or otherwise. Just because we're gay doesn't mean we should be considered to be stereotypical women, right?

So this movie certainly became very special to a lot of queers out there and to some extent has become "required viewing" in some circles. I for one think it should be the kind of movie any gay man should see at least once in their lives to get a better appreciation for what we can be as homosexuals.

[Movies] Waking Ned Devine (1998)

There's something about British comedy that has always appealed to me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's definitely something good to be said about the unique style of more intelligent and often deadpan humor that has developed on that side of the world. Sure, there's the occasional sight gag or moment of slapstick silliness, but on the whole it tends to be a lot quicker than you'd expect and you need to be truly on your toes in order to keep up.

These movies don't often leave Europe and thus it becomes quite the challenge to get ones hands on them. Thankfully my boss is of British descent and thus it has become a new avenue for entertainment for me. We've been swapping movies here and there and the results have been pretty good for both parties, I'd like to think. I for one am certainly enjoying the results of this cultural exchange programs of sorts.

Besides, it's just plain fun to have other people to talk movies with.

[TV] Torchwood: Season 2

It always impresses me how British TV seems to be a lot friendlier to science fiction and fantasy programs than in the US. Beyond major mainstream science fiction shows like Doctor Who, many British science fiction and fantasy shows manage to make it as far as a second season while their US counterparts get cut off even mid-season. But that's life I suppose and there's not accounting for differences in taste across the ocean. I'm not saying the shows are guaranteed full runs all the time - but at the very least they're given a chance o grow and have a higher likelihood of reaching the second season. But I know it doesn't happen all the time - I'm talking about you, No Heroics!

Still, it's certainly a nice trend to notice and it's no wonder that a lot of good science fiction TV manages to emerge from the British Isles to fascinate the geeky world at large (this geek included). Of course I doubt anyone could have predicted how a show that's part Doctor Who, part X-Files, part Buffy and probably part Melrose Place would have managed to become successful, but it did, at least for a while.

And thus we come back to Torchwood, which a lot of people jokingly refer to as Doctor Who for adults given its post-watershed airtime. But it still did so with good British humor, and that's all that should matter over there, right?

[Games] 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)

There are those days when you feel like digging up a really old game and play it again. While this isn't as bad for PC games since there are a number of ways to get around compatibility issues between the old and the new systems but for console games it tends to be a lot trickier.

Let's face it - the really old games are tied to some pretty old console gaming platforms and if the machine itself is already dead, there's little chance you'll be able to recreate the old gaming experience. Sure, emulators are also available these days, but sometimes that's just not enough. Hence the continued market for updates to these games whether they are just blatant port jobs or the more interesting innovations of the original concepts.

This game was quite the surprise to me and my partner when we first saw trailers for the game online. Sure, it was a very old school concept but they had also found a rather new way of bringing it to life. So when an English version was finally released this year, well, we knew we had to have it.

[Comics] Civil War (Marvel)

Let me tell you an odd story.

I'm a big fan of Doctor Doom, you see, and the more recent changes in the Marvel Universe have also involved significant strides for our dear green-caped supervillain. Me in the OCD-like nature decided that I wanted to pick up those comics that feature the Doctor in the limelight, but in order to properly do so, I figured that I needed to revisit the major story arcs that have shaped the Marvel Universe in order for it to become its present form.

And thus began this strange side project of mine to try and read pretty much all of the major crossover events of recent history in order to be fully prepared to enjoy the recently concluded Dark Reign and Siege storylines to the fullest. Yes, I know how crazy this sounds, but it makes perfect sense if you factor in the odd marriage between my geekiness and my obsessive compulsive nature. Thus this was the first step in that effort.