This is why you should all read Wigu. It’s kind of like a cross between Calvin & Hobbes, and, uh, I dunno, The Big Lebowski? King of the Hill? Little kid + ubergoth sister + infinitely shallow materialistic mother + good-natured redneck father who writes porno soundtracks for a living and can bench 450 + Topato Potato, Hero of Butter Dimension 360 who will defeat you with the pain of one million well-placed jabs and perhaps with a clever marketing scheme.
Also, about a ~week ago I seem to have acquired a new niece. Girls are kinda rare in my family, and I’m feeling a vague sense of ~paternal (what would be the equivalent word for ‘uncle’) pride. Lemme know if you wanna see the pictures.
Also, I finished watching the first season of Lost, and wow. Okay, my standards are pretty high, and this a damned good show. I don’t think I would change *anything* about it. I am still in shock that it airs on network television. I don’t understand how anything this good could be on ABC. It’s the best drama I’ve seen since Six Feet Under. Actually, I think it’s as good or better than Six Feet Under. It isn’t the best thing I’ve ever seen, or the second coming of the Earl of Sandwich, but it is pretty damned good. It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard about it. I’m not even sure I could tell you what the major themes are; it’s deliciously complex. Watch the re-runs, or find an, uh, friend who recorded it. Then watch the second season with me this Fall.
It’s been Weekend of the Sequels at Casa de Hierophant, as I settled in this weekend with Scream 2 (which I realized while wandering Blockbuster that, freakishly, I’d never actually seen, only convinced myself that I had, since I’d seen 1 and 3 and liked them so much) and Aliens, the directors cut (with like 40 minutes extra stuff that I’d never seen).
Both exemplify opposite approaches to the horror genre. Scream 2, like practically every other teen-slasher flick ever made, is an Idiot Plot. If any one of the characters had the sense of cabbage, it would be a short, dull flick. But I’ve always liked the Scream movies for their self-conscious approach to the genre, and it did not disappoint.
Aliens is, of course, a seminal work (and does actually get a shout-out in Scream 2 as a sequel that surpassed the original, completing the Circle of Self-Reference), and origin of such classic lines as “I say we take off, nuke the whole site from orbit…. only way to be sure.” and “Game over man, game over!” Unlike Scream, Aliens is not an Idiot Plot - it’s the other kind of action/horror movie (distinct from the various subgenres of suspense/horror, which are much lower-key), in which a bunch of perfectly competant and rational people are just totally overwhelmed. It, too, masters the genre, and does it with Cameron’s characteristic flare.
In conclusion, I like horror movies. And now I have the odd desire to make next week the Week of the Trilogy with Scream 3 and Alien 3.
Hey, look, is that a planet? I don’t know.
Remember when I said that the attempt to seize Justice Souter’s house to build a hotel under Kelo had more or less died?
Well, that may not be entirely true. The story continues in other fora, and though there’s nothing in particular that I can post, it does seem that something is happening. Stay tuned.
Back from the beach. Mmmmm…. beach.
I have much doom just waiting to be flushed out and posted. Like my shrimp dip …Of DOOM. But first I have to get it right. It’ll be based on the shrimp dip I had at the beach, only with more DOOM.
Gas Powered Games has recently announced for a 2006 release a new RTS game: Supreme Commander. Why is this particularly interesting news? Because it’s designed by Chris Taylor, who created Total Annihilation. TA is, despite my preference for turn-based games, probably the best RTS ever made. And he considers SC a spiritual successor.
Hopefully, though, it’ll have fewer dead-useless units. Because, yeesh.
Bill Frist, whom I’ve occasionally described as, well, an idiot, is nonetheless doing The Right Thing: splitting with the White House’s moronic stem cell policy to endorse removing the restrictions Bush erected in 2001.
Unfortunately, the White House is using a disgusting trick - they’ve flooded Congress with five other stem cell bills, none of which permit the sort of research necessary to fully explore the potential of the field, in hopes of dividing support. Just sickening.
I am now convinced that the worlds of nerds are converging… I am at work doing a bit of research online for an alloy system I am working on. It is a 16 Cr, 5 Ni, 1 Mo cast steel. To overcome various obstacles I’ve seen before, I input the search string “cast steel 16-5-1″. Google returns, among many useful links, this link to some CCG fansite.
So… The Matrix Online is consolidating their servers, going from nine to three. Probably due to a lack of subscriptions. Which is probably due to TMO challenging Star Wars Galaxies for “MMORPG most eager to take good ideas and drive them into the ground”.
TMO could have been neat, too. Alas. What is it about the MMO market that makes it so hard to get right? More to the point, what is it about the MMO market that makes companies so eager to shoot themselves in the foot? Speculate.
Star Wars: Empire At War might be a game for those who want vast armies to control. If I read it right, its one giant battle that spans the major planets in Star Wars. Unlike Rebellion, the only other successful SW RTS, this one will allow for battles on the ground as well as in space. Anyways, I thought I would point it out, even though it will not be released until early next year.
Today’s winner for Blog With Narrowest Focus That Still Manages To Amuse Me (Because I’m A Grammar Nazi Too, Despite All The Capital Letters Today): Literally, A Web Log. Subtitle: An english language grammar blog tracking abuse of the word “literally”.
I love the internet. Now if only someone would get cracking on my other three peeves: apostrophe abuse, “10 items or less” express lanes, and the word “irregardless”*.
* Note: Irregardless is NOT A WORD.
Approximately a million years after the Hermit first recommended this movie to me, I finally watched it. Not much to say, only this: Sure, the mythology’s a bit off, the lighting is bad, the camera work is only so-so, and the soundtrack is utterly forgettable.
But! It has Christopher Walken as the (angry) archangel Gabriel. Go watch it.
Continuing, after a natural vitamins for dogs
long hiatus, my ongoing list of ways to be more like me: books.
This is not a list of my favorite books. This is a list of books that have had a substantial impact on the way I view the world. More than that, it’s a list of books that I think most people should be familiar with - I’m not going to say that reading these books will make you smarter, more rational, more interesting, increase your sex appeal and boost your net worth into the seven-digit realm. But I’m not not saying that either.
This list is subject to additions as things occur to me.
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