Clearance, Clarence?
My family moved from my hometown – then back – when I was too little to remember any of it. For the next 18 years or so, I lived in the same place. I moved some of my stuff out before my accident, then moved it all back in, and lived in that same place for another 10 years or so.
Since I finally moved out of my parents’ house, I’ve lived (for more than 6 months) in 4 additional places, and moved all my stuff 4 times. This doesn’t count the stuff that’s still waiting to be collected back in my hometown.
This is why, extremely painful though the very thought is, there are 114 paperback books and a few hardbacks piled on my living room floor, looking for new homes. This is the beginning of a serious ‘stuff’ reduction. I don’t have room for it all, and most of it I haven’t blown the dust off in years. I don’t have the room to enjoy any of it.
(For example, I have an excellent collection of unbuilt plastic model kits. For the last several years, I have not had the workspace to build any of them, nor a place to display them if I did. Yes, a fair proportion of those are going to good homes as well.)
When I realized that composing this year’s Christmas list consisted partially of considering where things might even be put, I realized the time had come. Hello, treasures. Either you’re In… or you’re Out.
Animals for the Ethical Treatment of Us
Question for those more familiar with the subject:
In “serious” works where the sentients are anthropomorphic animals, do they keep pets?
Would Zannah have a kitty? Or a dachshund? (She did have a Targ plushy in that recent picture.)
Just wondering.
“I summon: Mecha-Lawyer Zeta!”
Ever notice how superheroes are reactive, not proactive? Batman doesn’t hunt the Joker down for his unpunished history of crime, but for whatever he did yesterday?
In a related vein, here’s a Power Rangers question for you. Knowledge of the show is not required; here’s a synopsis of a standard episode.
Space witch Rita Repulsa sends a 10-foot rubber monster to the town of Angel Grove as part of her ongoing plan to capture the city. (I can’t remember the reason.) The Rangers must overcome a plot point usually related to teamwork, friendship, or trust to defeat the critter.
Before it can expire, Rita throws one of an endless supply of magic staves from the moon to the monster’s position; the staff explodes and revitalizes the monster, increasing it to 100-foot size. Property damage ensues as it rampages. The Rangers summon their five-piece giant robot, and melee the giant; more property damage, from both sides, occurs until monster is vanquished.
Question:
Misty Technicolor Memories
It seems that actor Chris Pine is up for the part of Captain James Kirk in the upcoming Trek movie. Among other named participants are Zoe Saldana as Uhura, and Zachary Quinto as Spock. Looking pretty good, so far.
“You’ve wrecked my childhood!” is a phrase oft heard on the Internet, when the new remake of a favorite property comes along. Most recently, some Transformers fans screamed it to anyone who would listen. I can’t help but think that these people show a disappointing level of perspective; who over the age of 20 hasn’t picked up an old book, or the DVD of an old movie, and discovered that it just doesn’t speak to them the way it did all those years ago?
I recently acquired the first season of “Battle of the Planets“: an anime import about a team of bird-costumed super-ninjas in a rocket-jet fighting a high-tech criminal syndicate. It suffered from translation; the translators were forced to make massive cuts of violence and teenage-level plot points while adding in footage of a cute robot and space travel. Imagine that someone had told you that, for Freedonian broadcast, classic Trek had to be cut to 30 minutes per episode, never leave Earth’s solar system, and ditch the pointy-ear guy.
I loved “Battle of the Planets” when I was 8. I made paper airplane versions of the hero’s razor-edged jet boomerang, tinfoil helmets, and beach towel capes. Finally seeing it again all these years later was fun, but I couldn’t help but admit that I was no longer able to appreciate it the way I once could, and that was okay. The upcoming live-action movie will probably be a tiny bit more mature; and I won’t complain at all about all the things they got “wrong”.
Or at least not very much.
Wacky Chinese game companies
The Chinese online role-playing game “King of the World” has banned male users for playing as female characters. Female users must verify their gender with webcams in order to continue playing their avatars.
The general response so far is:
1) This is stupid. Role-playing game, hello? Must I also be tall and skinny to play and elf?
2) This is even more stupid. What about androgynous-looking males – do they get a pass? What about people with the brains to get a female friend in front of the webcam for the verification? What about people with no webcam?
3) This is kinda creepy. Women are not barred from playing male characters – so in other words, this is solely to ensure that female avatars have female players. The only people to whom this could matter are people whose masturbatory fantasies or upcoming stalking plans depend on the object being the desired gender.
My WoW characters are split about 50-50, but it does happen that the most active ones are female. This is more coincidence than planning. OTOH, I don’t eroticize my World of Warcraft, either. No random messager’s getting cyb0rz3x off of me!
No point in being grownup if you can’t sometimes be childish
Monday night Starr was working on her laptop, so I wanted to put something on the TV that she didn’t have to watch. I ended up putting on the 20th anniversary DVD of “The Five Doctors“. Starr got sucked into it anyway, and at the end stated firmly that there was something about style and feel of the Who of the 80’s that she rather appreciated.
I don’t want to just sit and bash the new show – it’s not my position at all. I am quite the fan of the Ninth Doctor, and the recently-aired (here) episode “Blink” is one of the franchise’s finest. But I get what she’s saying, and I’ve been trying to pin down what it is that I miss. Is it a certain innocence about the older show? The rampant charisma of Tom Baker? The shinier, more futuristic TARDIS interior of the period? Or should I chalk the whole feeling up to nostalgia on my part? I’m not sure.
For those who abstain from BitTorrenting, I greatly look forward to opinions on the end-of-season three-parter. After that, I look foward to series four next year. At least I’ll be caught up this time!
There’s a cold that’s been going around. For the past three days, I’ve been ill. Tonight… I’m VERY ill.
