Ringworld and kabobs
A poster on websnark this weekend pointed out exactly what’s bothering me about the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds trailers; they make it look like a run-of-the-mill disaster flick. Instead of concerning invading aliens, most of the scenes in the trailer could be cribbed from any asteroid impact – tidal wave – volcano – invading commies / killer bees / killer tomatoes / plague-carrying R.O.U.S. – movie.
Finally finished Ringworld’s Children. It was substantially better than The Ringworld Throne, and had an interesting bit at the end that nevertheless seems somewhat implausible for a Larry Niven novel. Still, two months to finish a single genre hardcover is a depressing record for me, and the Public Library isn’t much happier about it. 🙁
Scientifically implausible, with spoilers
A low-tech solution
In last Saturday’s Doctor Who, a spaceship has crashed somewhere in London, and the Doctor doesn’t know exactly where. His cunning plan is to ask around, but his companion Rose is disappointed in him: “Not very ‘Spock’, is it: just asking? I think you should do a scan for alien tech. Give me some ‘Spock’! For once, would it kill ya?”
If only Enterprise was still on, and we could somehow have a crewman refer to an alien as “one of those mindless killer ‘Dalek’-types”. Then the circle would be complete 🙂
You don’t know the power of the geek side…
Eric Burns, of Websnark.com:
“I’d like to go into depth on the Jedi philosophy, on the core of Hubris that led to the Fall of the Jedi Order, on the nature of denial and of ossification, and on the ways that Qui Gon Jinn represented, thematically, a break from all that in his methodology which led step by step to the next three movies and the redemption of the Jedi in the Expanded Universe. I would. And I’d like to show how David Willis has highlighted this succinctly. I even accept that if I did so, I’d never, ever get laid again. Somehow, this thesis would cling to me like lack of hygiene and even geek grrls would pause upon seeing me, say “well, no. Not him,” and move on.”
Instead, he just points us to this “Shortpacked!” comic. Which is freaking hilarious.
Oh, and I’ve stumbled upon a site with more remixes of the Doctor Who theme than any sane soul would ever need.
6079 Smith W, reporting
Wired Magazine reports that researchers are developing a system that could tie your DVDs to your fingerprint, requiring that you authorize each playback with a fingerprint scanner built into your player.
And once they do that, the MPAA has sold me their very last g**d*** DVD.
Get some green colour
Cute flash animation, with a dangerously catchy tune. A little unpolished, but it’s not like I could do better.
Re-Animator! The Song and The Animation
“Move your dead bones, bones, bones…”
EDIT: I’ve discovered the creator. This is her LJ post about her creation.
Go to 110% on the reactor
Some of the interesting points of the weekend…
Friday night I got to see Carbon Leaf! Or hear them, at least… outdoor concerts are fine until the sky clouds over, the sun goes down, and it’s suddenly 50 degrees. I was huddled under a blanket for most of their set.
Saturday night I played Star Munchkin in a dark, smoky coffeehouse with three complete strangers until 2 am. For some reason, this strikes me as the opening to the all-geek version of “Faust”.
Sunday our friend Laura was with me on the way to pick Rain up for lunch when we happened upon a nasty two-SUV accident that had happened seconds before. Laura has some medical training and hopped right out to see if there was any useful first aid she could supply, while I made myself useful by calling 911. Response arrived within seconds it seemed, and while we can’t say for sure, it looks like everyone escaped with treatable minor injuries, even the three whose vehicle rolled a few times.
And, this morning I’ve done my King Kong impression again by climbing up on a building’s roof to mess with the antennas. I need to get a doctor’s note excusing me from that, or something.
Oh, frabjous day!
Today it is my unbirthday! Following Lewis Carroll, raininva and I have decided that having two birthdays a year is funner. Hers is in November, but she picked today for mine. We are going to a Comedy Club tonight and she gave me a very nice clothing accessory Tuesday night as a present.
Last night I managed 90 minutes on World of Warcraft. I am totally a geek because I’m enjoying smelting and engineering more than I am killing stuff. I made level 10 with my gnome mage, and moved to another page of my map for the first time (but then moved back, as I have lots of unfinished quests where I was). I also replaced a dead headlight and re-aligned one that I installed improperly a few months ago. I like my little Hyundai, but it’s not great design when I have to pull the battery to get to one of the headlight lamps.
I woke up to 70 degree temperatures and sun, which makes it hard to be grumpy even when I do have to get up before 10am. I really needed the quiet night last night; my social life has been cranked up to 11 lately, which is nice, but a little overwhelming. The 1.5 hours of video-gaming was a present to myself. Lord knows when I’ll finally finish Halo 1, Jedi Knight II, Elite Force II, NOLF, BloodRayne, Tron 2.0, ./Hack, Robotech: Battlecry, Red Faction II… okay I’m going to stop working out this list because it is depressing me 🙂
Congrats to yubbie & colleenk, and nius & rainbowsaber, on their new housing developments! (Ouch. That was unintentional, I swear.)
Since everything’s all Star Warsy right now, here’s a pair of websites you should visit:
Pink Five: two of the funniest fan films I’ve seen, easily up there with Troops as fan classics. The third film should be out soon, and they posted a production blog which includes the lead actress’ reaction to meeting a fan dressed as her! I want a Pink Harvest t-shirt or button or something.
A lot of people have heard of this one, but Darth Vader’s blog has the distinction of not only being funny, but damn well written. The entry about Qui-Gon actually sent chills though me with its ineffable appropriateness. I found myself nodding, and saying to myself, “Wow… that makes sense.” And the blog even has an RSS feed.
Okay, back to working.
Reviews and a design challenge
Quick review of the Hitchhiker’s Guide movie:
You should probably go see it if you like any of the other versions, or you like SF comedy. Sure, they took a lot of stuff out. (Cutting 3 hours of radio play down to 90 minutes will do that.) Sure, they changed a lot of stuff. (This was a practice Douglas Adams himself was quite fond of.) But if you go with an open mind and don’t insist on a copy of one of the other Hitchhiker’s media, you ought to have a good time.
Quick review of last Friday’s Enterprise:
Plot? Who cares? Space battle scenes with a certain class of starship… *happy sigh* (There’s some other eye candy too, for het-male or compatible formats.)
In all seriousness… I wonder how a 21st-century costume designer would design a believable futuristic military uniform that would provide eye candy for het-females and compatible? Bill Theiss tried showing some leg in the men’s “skant” uniforms for TNG, and the design died a quick, ignoble death. It’s an interesting question.
