| State of the Goat 2009 |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|01:10 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | 10th anniversary, account settings, best buy, blurb, find friends, holiday promotion, international voice posting, my guests, paid accounts, rich text editor, spam, stats, txtlj, userpics, volunteers | ] |
It's been a momentous 12 months here at LiveJournal. We crossed a capital T at Ten years young. And, like most precocious pubescents, we celebrated turning double digits by publishing our first book! Needless to say, we've experienced some major changes, both inside and out. Before we recap, we'd like to thank you for bearing with us as we've struggled through ungainly growth spurts, identity pangs, and, yes, the occasional blemish. We hope you'll continue to stand by us: We're gaining wisdom with maturity.
Stuff you liked
- Back in February, we placed a call for entries for our ten-year anniversary anthology in
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) lj_turns10. In December (less than a year later!), we officially announced the publication of Live Journal: The First Decade. Featuring an inspired collection of writing, photographs, and artwork from the pages of LiveJournal history, the book has been selected by Blurb.com as a top staff pick! We are proud to have played host to so much talent over the years, and we thank our contributors for sharing their extraordinary work.
- We all love quirky surprises, but not when it comes to managing our account settings. This year we streamlined settings into one central account management area. No more pouring through FAQs to figure out how to control privacy settings, modify notifications, adjust mobile settings, or update contact information!
- Being users ourselves, we realize our own mothers couldn't find us on LiveJournal based on our usernames and userpics alone (*heaves heavy sigh of relief*). But since there are times when we actually want to be found, we created a search tool--Find Your Friends--to help locate people by email address (it's in the Friends drop-down menu).
- Spam counter-attack: The war against vicious malware and spambots reigns eternal, but we've been making serious inroads to ensure your online security. We've established new protocols, such as requiring email address validations. We've grown more savvy about ferreting out suspicious behavior. We've added features, like whitelisting, to help you protect your communities. Our valiant (i.e., overworked) spam avengers (a/k/a the LiveJournal ops team) are standing on red alert so you can sleep safely at night.
- After an intensive beta, we launched My Guests at the end of the year, which lets you see who's been hanging around your journal. A number of you have even discovered secret admirers (not all of whom are creepy)!
- Last, but by no means least, we want to thank our volunteers for providing invaluable support and feedback. Their Herculean efforts enable us to answer your questions more efficiently, identify spammers, reduce abuse, and deliver better features (through tireless testing). On behalf of the staff and the larger LiveJournal community, we are truly grateful for their diligence, intelligence, loyalty, and passion.
You got your fix
- We recently debugged a number of the oustanding issues with the rich text editor so your entries look great regardless of whether you know html. You can read more about text editors here.
- In response to user demand, we brought back international voice posting. For more info on voice posting, read here.
- At long last, we revived TxtLJ with Verizon. For more info on TxtLJ, check out the FAQ.
Paid features you enjoyed
- In December, we introduced My Stats, which provides detailed data on who's been viewing your entries as well as statistics on commenting, RSS requests, friending history, and more. Despite a few early glitches, the response has been extremely favorable.
- This year, we launched and improved Notes (i.e., the feature formerly known as Alias), which lets you add private comments on friends and commenters (it's in the Profile drop-down menu). This way you won't be caught red-faced when you strain to remember details about that wonderful LiveJournal friend who sent you a birthday vGift. For more info, read the FAQ.
- When we first announced View friends pages by date, we thought it would be a quiet, minor enhancement. The rave reaction floored us, which made us all very happy. We gave it a fine tuning in February of 2009, so it's even better!
- How embarrassing! It appears pingbacks have gone back to the shop for service. We’ll keep you posted.
We didn't know just much you liked pingbacks until it went in for service. It's back and, judging by your irritation when it wasn't available, this is good news. FYI, pingbacks send instant notifications (via screened comments) whenever someone links to one of your entries on LiveJournal. For more info, read this entry in paidmembers or check out the FAQ.
Mixed reviews
- The search is still on. Some of you have reported getting more comprehensive results for keyword searches using the new Yandex search engine and like the ability to search within content categories (like entries or comments). Others have not been satisfied with the relevancy of search results. Please be patient. We're still tweaking this product.
- This past December, we wanted to try out a new holiday promotion. Given the crap economy, we decided to offer our Paid/Permanent users a stack of $10 coupons to send to Basic/Plus users for paid account upgrades. We hoped you would like it. And some of you did, but many were disappointed that we didn't offer Give More as well. We want to thank you so much for letting us know. Your input will help us plan better in the future. Just FYI, Paid/Permanent users can continue to send out coupons through January 15th. Coupons can be redeemed through January 31, 2010.
- We were pretty excited about Your Journal Your Money, which allows Paid/Permanent users to earn extra cash by displaying Google ads to Basic/Plus and logged out users. A number of you tried it. Some of you really like it. Others, not so much. (Just FYI, Paid/Permanent users who do not participate in this program will not view ads on journals. Participants will see ads on their own journal, but won't see them on other journals unless they specifically opt in.) For additional details, visit here.
- We relaunched m.livejournal.com, our mobile app. While it offers a nicer UI and enhanced functionality, some of you think we can do better on load times. Like most of us, it's a work in progress. You can customize your mobile settings here. For more info, please read the FAQ.
Missing Inaction
- We shudder to bring up the neon purple elephant squatting on our heads, but, yes, we didn't give you those a la carte userpics. We've been making radical improvements to our backend in order to support them. But no excuses. We know you want them. We cringe every time you mention them. We're sorry we dropped the ball on this, and we promise to do our best to get them to you in 2010.
Stumbling points
- Back in early August, we experienced outages related to a series of DDoS attacks. We are proud to report that we were down a total of one hour over the course of a few days. We thank our heroic ops guys for getting us up sooner and more consistently than any of our less fortunate social networking friends. We apologize for leaving you temporarily stranded.
- A couple of months back, we offered a free, unrestricted vGift, which induced a snowflake cookie avalanche. This resulted in backed up/delayed notifications, which, in turn, led us to reboot systems, rendering scrapbooks unavailable. It took a while to shovel free. Apologies for the inconvenience. We learned a valuable lesson that should keep us calamity-free in the future (fingers crossed while knocking on wood).
- That darn Best Buy ad. First off, we're sorry about the audio auto-play (we got it turned off as quickly as possible). While it's true that we'll continue to show this type of ad to accounts that normally see them (never to Paid/Permanent accounts), we'll make sure the sound defaults to off moving forward. We promise to do our very best to keep ads to a minimum on LiveJournal, while keeping a roof over Frank's head.
Full steam ahead!
As we plunge headfirst into the next decade, we want to take a moment to look back and thank all of our employees, both past and present, who have worked so hard to create our unique and magical universe. We couldn't have made it this far without you: Your contributions brighten our path everyday. We also want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to each and every one of you. Whether you've been around for ten days or ten years, your humor, intelligence, talent, and creativity are what makes this the most vibrant global community on the Internet (the best place on the Web, in our humble opinion). Here's hoping that 2010 will be the greatest year yet! We thank you for joining us as we embark upon another glorious decade of LiveJournal history! |
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| A long time ago, it was just after lunch... what happened? |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|03:51 am] |
 Steam and a friend of mine are trying to destroy me. During their recent holiday sale, the now-classic game "Knights of the Old Republic" went on sale for under ten bucks. The basis for the FFN character "Lewis" called me up, knowing I'd been between computers when this game was in its heyday, and suggested I get it. I did, not knowing the path led to the dark side...
Not only is it a time-sucker, it makes me upset about the prequel trilogy all over again. It says something when a game that looks this primitive when compared to current games sucks me in more than a multi-million dollar trio of films could (for more on this, put up your shields vs. inappropriate language, adult humor, and gags about keeping people in basements, and click here). Granted, it's a video game and by definition (at least for me) is more immersive than a movie. However, even the minor characters that should annoy, like a Twi'lek tween, have decent enough backstories that they don't grate on the nerves like a caffeinated Gungan might. It's got a ton of flavor that enriches the Star Wars universe, and I'm not even a third of the way through the game!
It does have some quirks that are kind of unique to its version of Star Wars, partly from being a d20-based video game (which adds to the nostalgia for me) and being a role-playing game (as much as a video game with speech-selection trees can be):
1. Jedi can be a lot more practical about defeating enemies. Yeah, I've got the Force and can wield dual light sabers and all that, but I'm going to chuck a few grenades at that guy in the cape to soften him up, first. Then I'm going to shoot myself full of chemicals to enhance my strength, dexterity, and other attributes, flick on this energy shield, make sure my cybernetic implant is jump-starting my brain, and strap down these goggles that help me skewer anything that movies. And I'm wearing armor, so you can just chuck those brown robes down a garbage chute. I like this kind of Jedi. If they let you use force powers on things like mines, the game would be a laugh riot of creative ways to gain experience points.
2. People aren't allowed to be morons, for the most part. There are some attempts at humor (I'm thinking of "Romeo & Juliet" mission where everyone meets at the end for a little sit-com spit-taking), but they aren't intrusive. About the most odd behavior I've seen is from the head baddie, who ordered the destruction of a planet (which translates to the bombardment of the capitol city) to take out one Jedi, but he's supposed to be an uber-villain so I'll cut him some slack for lacking finesse or a sense of proportion.
3. It's an RPG, so the whole "good vs. evil" thing gets a little wonky. Killing innocents will definitely get you "Dark Side" points, but tearing through someone's house, destroying his droids, and looting every container you find is, it appears, tolerated. At least, after resolving the kidnapping dispute, neither the homeowner or his now-grateful daughter requested I return any of their stuff... which is fine, because I took the occasional hit from his robots' weapons (which I also looted).
#3 hits on something about role-playing games that you always have to feel out be it on a computer or at the table: What bits of the game will feature the technique of the bully? Or, in more common terms, what will the DM or computer game deem a "punishable offense?" Looting in "Fallout 3" is regulated by who owns it, whether or not they're alive, and whether or not they deserve to have their stuff carried away. Human Dungeon Masters will often apply karmic price tags to lifting things, sometimes by sticking you with a crucial Paladin or lawful Cleric NPC who spots your every infraction, or worse, just making you paranoid that the dagger you looted from the guy who tried to kill you at the inn will get you accused of murder if you don't find a way to destroy it down to ashes before the sun comes up.
This is also a game that rewards different skill sets, which a lot more RPGs of every stripe are trying to do these days, almost as a game of "spot the hidden lever." KOTOR will place groups of enemies conveniently near power conduits or gas-emitting vents that can be activated from other rooms (I imagine the guild that made these standard in most places went on to make installing guard rails around long drops into reactors against the law in most parts of the "Star Wars" universe) if you have the right skills. It almost seems that games are punishing brute force, which makes me think we're headed down into "Tomb of Horrors" territory, where if you don't see what the designer had in mind, your might as well start re-rolling your entire party... which is, of course, why you need to bring more snacks to bribe the DM (this is the real-life equivalent of having a "save point," or pretty near to it). :)
Back in the real world, we also have snow. Lots of it, at least for recent history 'round this part of Missouri. Others have much more, so I'm grateful to get away with the scant foot or so we've accumulated. So is the wife, who's enjoying a few more days off from school... though it made me think I could take a few hours off from tending our son and getting stuff finished to play my "Star Wars" game, since I'll have more time tomorrow to work... yeah, that's it...
So I'll tend to my delusions and offer this to help bring down everyone else's productivity:
- Pong. A classic game, now available (to those handy with tools and electronics) in a physical form.
- "Can it run Crysis" is still a meme for questioning the power of a computer. I never had much reason to want to play the first-person shooter, but someone is making a MechWarrior modification for it, and it looks very good. The mechs walking underwater is particularly spine-chilling for some reason.
- So which is more important to you? Your significant other or your Orc statue?
- If you have a few minutes and a phone handy, you might get a laugh exploring the Nestle Crunch hotline. I forgave their use of the word "funner" after hearing the selection on "cooties."
- Yes, it's my second UK tabloid post in one day, but they've apparently discovered creatures in the ocean that have escaped from a Mario game.
- Here's a little puzzle-platformer in an interesting art style: Where's 2010?
- John Travolta is starring in a new action film. This is the trailer. It almost seems a parody, like the "McClain" films from "The Simpsons," don'cha think?
- "Simon's Cat" has had a crossover with the popular YouTube kitty, Maru in "Overseas Visitor". Cute.
- How about an Asteroids-style shooter where you add onto your ship with the bits of your defeated enemies (careful where you place the thrusters)? It's Captain Forever, and it's pretty addictive and Vectrex-y. |
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| APIU to Guide Team Strigoi |
[Jan. 7th, 2010|01:26 pm] |
Team Strigoi a Northern Tasmanian based Ghost Finding Team has enquired as to whether APIU would be able to guide them around the infamous Willow Court and Royal Derwent Hospital grounds when they are down here soon. APIU have accepted and the walkthrough will be taking place on the public roads and footpaths of the site whilst educating Team Strigoi about the sites rich History, Culture and Paranormal Encounters. If Team Strigoi would like to investigate the interior of these buildings APIU will give them the relevant contacts to organise a legal Investigation. I’m sure Team Strigoi won’t be disappointed in what the site has to offer. 
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| I watched "Heroes." That might have been a mistake... |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|11:43 pm] |
 Oh, "Heroes," it seems so long ago that I was smitten with your first season. It was pretty well-scripted, it had mystery, a relatively small cast, a cool villain, and a nifty catchphrase. Since then, things have gone hideously wrong. Our cast keeps getting too big to keep up with all of the arcs, which doesn't matter anyway because the arcs either don't make sense or are abandoned without any resolution. The budget for the program is shrinking, and the FX guys don't appear to be able to convert their visuals to the "less is more" school of filmmaking (I'm always reminded of the huge battle between Peter and Sylar which was reduced to flashing lights as seen under a pair of closed doors). We lost the very cool "Future Hiro" and we're left with "perpetual innocent nerd Hiro." Characters keep making all the wrong decisions, and somehow Claire (the Cheerleader needed to Save the World) has become my least favorite part of the series. With the near constant addition and jettisoning of minor characters, the refrain of everyone with powers "being connected" becomes almost a running gag. Also, in this particular episode, they tied up Ray Park for almost all of the time he's on screen. Unless Ray is known for doing things on camera that can be carried out from a seated position, I don't think they were maximizing his potential. I'll be truly amazed if this series gets another season, because I can't see how someone could follow it and be satisfied with the result.
NBC has also made me feel old this week. When I quizzed my wife and sister-in-law, their first guess for how long "Law & Order" has been on the air was somewhere just over a decade. It may seem that way to some, but NBC just ordered the twenty-first season of the show, which breaks the previous record for longest-running primetime drama, which was held by "Gunsmoke." I used to watch L&O quite often, mostly during the Jerry Orbach era. Then I saw "The Wire," and L&O didn't seem as interesting to me any more. Plus, almost every long-running cop drama is running out of new and original ways of killing people and misdirecting the police as to who the killer is. It also doesn't help that if you know how acting contracts usually work, the people with speaking parts of more than three lines most likely will be seen again breaking under pressure in an interrogation room or in court. But I'm bitter. And old. And it's cold outside. And there are people who can vote that have never been without Law & Order... it boggles the mind...
Oh, and to all cop shows: No more chimeras to make DNA evidence a red herring, okay? You've all done it a bajillion times, and it's getting to be as cliche as the emergency tracheotomy with a click-pen.
I still haven't been able to get away to see anything at the cinema, I fear, as my comments about the first missed snowfall were heard by the Snow Gods, and they're busy making sure what fell doesn't melt while more flakes force me to go out and shovel out the driveway. We're supposed to get even more on Wednesday, so I need to get out and join the panic to purchase milk and bread (it's a community bonding thing). So I'm re-reading the "Ringworld" series of novels instead. I hadn't read "Fleet of Worlds" (the prequel to the whole thing) before, and I'm in the middle of "The Ringworld Engineers," which I last picked up in Junior High. And as I read, I'm wondering why this isn't a TV series? One could easily make it a version of "Stargate," using the problems and settings in the novels, adding new ones, and never having to worry about running out of places to go, since the area of the Ringworld is in the trillions of miles. "Halo" fans would probably at least tune in once or twice to see the "arch" in the sky, and like the first novel, you could reduce the cast to a bunch of regulars you could count on one hand. It seems a perfect setting for an ongoing series, with or without a "Lost"-style mystery arc, and since most of the aliens are hominids, those who designed Star Trek's "Forehead of the Week" could probably be recruited to handle the makeup. Plus, as we noted in a previous entry, it has flying cities, and flying cities are always awesome.
So while I go see if we have enough ice melt to free the vehicles later this week, enjoy the following frost-free items:
- A domino physicist has built a Lego-based creature to place his dominoes. However, it does remind me of the old "Domino Rally" sets with its "Domino Dealer" (though the Lego machine appears to dispense larger-sized dominoes).
- Here's a Cockatiel that apparently has a beef with a 'Chocobo' can. I grew up owning Cockatiels, and I can't recall one being as single-minded about a task as this one.
- How to annoy others in conversation for the rest of the year (and I honestly don't know which way is "correct").
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on the subject of Daleks.
- If you're good controlling penguins with archery equipment, then you'll easily master Penguin with Bow Golf. And remember, you can fire while in flight.
- Here's a handy page of advice if you're ever called upon to perform typographical design work (like a newsletter or other thing your manager asks you to do that isn't in your job description) and make it look pretty good.
- Combining the power of knitting, geeky subjects and meerkats, we get NiftyKnits. I mostly post this because I love the Locutus one.
- The "winners" of the 2009 Darwin Awards have been voted into office, commemorating those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.
- Simple sword-swinging mayhem is to be had in Puppetwars. Use your mouse and/or keyboard to propel your blades into your opponent, earning cash for upgrades. |
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| What Willow Court Does to People |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|05:00 pm] |
Over the last few days I have been talking to Marion a German Photographer she has been in Tassie for 2 years and its finally time for her to return to Germany.
In one of her emails she made a breif summary of her work and feelings towards Willow Court which really hit home for me because I also feel this way as starnge as it is (and I know I'm not the only one.)
"to be true, I feel and felt really attached to that place....difficult to get it out of my mind, thinking I am not really done here but have to go cause my flight to germany will be in about 14 days. I have to go back to germany, but I will never forget walking over broken glass and possum poo searching to find traces of the forgotten people wich were living here..."
LOL Its so true!!!
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| No Go for Ward C Investigation :( |
[Jan. 4th, 2010|12:30 pm] |
Looks like an APIU Ward C investigation is a no go for a while due to escalating costs. The Derwent Valley Council has stated that we need minimum insurance requirements for the utilization of this site are as follows. Plant and Equipment insurance, Workers Compensation Insurance, Public Liability Insurance to a minimum of 10 million, Professional Indemnity Insurance. We would also require an Occupational Health and Safety Strategy (Risk Management Plan) and a Site Security Plan.
A bit disspointing considering we have been allowed access into several National Trust buildings and other private buildings without all the insurance etc.
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| See ya, Dave. Hey, Matt. |
[Jan. 2nd, 2010|03:08 am] |
 No spoilers, I assure you (at least, not direct ones. I shall remain cryptic) about David Tennant's final episode as the current Doctor. He will apparently be coming back for a paradox episode, though I hope he complements Matt Smith's Doctor rather than reminding me how much I liked Tennant more. Happily, Smith, for the little time he has in this episode, doesn't do poorly at all. However, he gets less than 5 minutes to "recover" from being David Tennant, but he manages to poke fun at himself, make a few of the usual regeneration comments and give a cry that might become his "allons-y!" Not bad for a new guy. If you want to see more of him, there's a (spoilers ahoy) trailer up on YouTube for Smith's run which begins in the Spring.
As for the episode itself, I'll say I liked it better than part 1 overall. They save a few surprises for the end, though there's also plenty of "rather silly" going on throughout. I'm still trying to decide if there was an homage to "Red Dwarf"'s Starbug or not. They also left unresolved the question of how (I mean, come on, it's got to be "how") the Doctor will eventually get more regenerations. Also (and this may only make sense once you've seen it, and it's not a spoiler, so no worries), was it me, or did a lot of people on Earth appear to stand in the same place for the better part of 24 hours? Like in front of podiums, in kitchens, etc.? Anyway, it was a decent send-off to Tennant, and his last line was quite enigmatic; it kind of makes regeneration seem a bit more poignant than before.
So happy 2010! Feels about the same as '09, but I haven't messed up any checks or other forms requiring dates on them yet, so we'll see how that pans out. So while we still don't have space missions to Jupiter or two suns in the sky, there were far worse fates out there. :) And speaking of "far worse" (though not all, I hope), here's a look at upcoming films with a geeky flavor in 2010. "Hot Tub Time Machine?" Hmmm...
So what does 2010 hold for us? Well, more ps238, definitely. I had to make quite the hole in the schedule for our family addition, and I think everyone for sticking with me on that. I'm shifting back into gear, and rest assured the show will go on. As for other projects, there's still no word on continuing "North 40" at WildStorm, but they haven't said "no," so fingers crossed there. If not, I have an idea for two graphic novels, done in a "quick-n-cute pencil sketch" format, which will allow me to create the visuals more rapidly, yet in what I think is an appealing style. I've got the first one outlined, and it's got the Wife Seal of Approval(tm), so we'll see how it goes. If I get it going, it'll most likely appear on the web first, then go into print form. It's a young girl vs. time travel saga, complete with a wasteland barbarian and a few mutants to play with.
So while I get all of that underway, here's the first batch of links for the new year:
- So if you've already invented the universe, you're ready to complete Carl Sagan's recipe for apple pie.
- Revel in this amazing D&D gaming lair. It has that "first edition" vibe, don'cha think?
- "Gaming Paper," maker of large-square graph paper (a review of their product is here), is sending out a free D&D mini with each order this month, and they're holding a drawing with three cases of minis as the prize.
- For a more "skills" based contest, here's one to design a devious dungeon room, though prizes and judging have yet to be worked out, it appears.
- Turning to sci-fi, I always wondered why there were never any injured stormtroopers.
- Not so much a game as a particle effects time-waster, Fire Work Out is a way to have a mouse-clicking fireworks display that keeps score.
- Forget a doormat that says "go away." This is how you keep people out of your house, myself included.
- i09 ran across a live-action teaser for a Star Blazers movie. Even if you're not a fan of the anime (or the hairstyles), the scenes of the ship firing are quite impressive.
- Battle Egg is a... well, you have this egg with a gun, and you upgrade it as you shoot down incoming enemies. What? Isn't that how eggs compete for survival?
- Some might argue that C3P0 gets this title, but this may be the Most Useless Machine Ever.
- Does your street lack a bike path? Bring one with you.
- Here's a darkly humorous aim-n-shoot game, Pill Cannon. You're a one-armed robot shooting pills that keep humans alive, dosing them as they appear on the playfield. Be sure to do well, as they're running short on tombstones. |
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| Thélema |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|12:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Wachs Lyrical. Paradise. | ] |
Last day of the year.
How sweet and interesting and kind of 'fucked.'
Before cleaning and all the ’stress’ of choosing hairstyles, outfits, boots and parties, I’ve at least figured out some resolutions for the new year. These are, that being: WEAR HATS, FALL INTO LIKE and READ SOME BOOKS. Some other things too but those are still private or rather : I'll unveil my ’plans’ as they happen.
Hope your tonights really kill and glow.
Big kiss2es across oceans and across my living room.
SEE
YOU
IN
TWENTY
TEN
xx
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| Eddie Izzard: Dressed to Triffid |
[Dec. 31st, 2009|12:12 am] |
 The BBC has created a miniseries remake of "Day of the Triffids" (clips and images can be seen here). The original is regarded as a classic B-movie based on a novel by John Wyndham. It's been years since I saw the film, so going into the new version, all I recalled was that the Triffids were carnivorous plants, almost every human gets blinded, and the plants make some kind of weird knocking noise to let you know they're coming to eat you. It's not a spoiler to say this holds true for the show; these things are pretty much established before the opening credits, I think. So how was it?
1. Eddie Izzard makes a good villain, but I don't think he should be the head villain. Early on, it seemed like a dream come true for Eddie. He was getting to say lines that he would only utter in an ironic sense in his standup comedy. I also have to wonder if there weren't several inside jokes with the rest of the cast, seeing that the hero is named (naughty word warnin') "Masen,*" and Eddie's first sidekick is named "Hilda." He's at his best when it appears that he's only looking out for number one. When he starts taking on more, ah, "responsibilities," it doesn't allow him to be a think-on-your-feet scoundrel anymore.
* Yeah, yeah, he was Masen in the novel, too. It's just that it reminded me of James Mason, one of the only two impersonations Eddie can do.
2. The script tries to accomplish too much, too quickly. There are a lot of tropes in this show that we've seen in other post-apocalyptic stories, and they seem to whiz past before we can get invested in them too much to really care about their effect. I think they're mostly commentaries on various forms of community, sacrifices for safety/survival, and the corruption of power, but it's kind of strange to see so many in one production. The opening act of chaos and confusion is very powerful, which is kind of a pity, as the adrenaline doesn't seem to crank as high again.
3. I think we needed to know a little more about the Triffids. Mason is an expert on the things, having studied them his whole life, and there are others who should be well-versed on the creatures. I wouldn't have minded a little more behavior exposition about them to give some added tension. For example, if they hunt by sound (and they might, we're never told), characters' attempts to move silently could keep suspense high or give them goals (setting off car alarms to distract or confuse the plants, for example). Also, for carnivores, the Triffids didn't eat a lot of their victims (though I know that budgets and broadcast standards probably played into that).
4. Episode two, near the latter minutes... listen for the Wilhelm scream.
Overall, I'd place it higher on the geek-o-meter than the ITV series "Primeval."
But speaking of other global threats, it looks like the Russians are going to take out an asteroid that could fly too close for comfort. As a fan of "Stargate," the fact that the asteroid is named "Apophis" makes me worry that we should check that the core of the thing isn't made of Naquada first.
Russia also has a cool thing going that's been making the video rounds lately, namely a series of "versus" animations for a snack chip of some sort. Basically, they're stick-figure fights between celebrity or movie character archetypes. Some include (a slight warning that some subject matter might be a bit on the violent side, but it's stick-figure stuff, so... there you go):
- Luke Skywalker vs. Neo
- Superman vs. a wall
- King Leonidas vs. Chuck Norris
- Frankenstein's Monster vs. D'Artagnan
- David Blaine vs. David Copperfield (the ending on this one is exceptionally unexpected)
I have no idea what the chips are supposed to be like, but if they keep making these little featurettes, I hope they sell a lot of them. :)
Wired has posted it's 15 most influential games of the decade, and it's not a bad list. I'm not sure I'd put "The Sims" at the top, but I never got sucked into that one. I would have included "Mass Effect," "Fallout 3," or "Elder Scrolls: Oblivion" as a representative of where RPGs are going. Also, since they have "Portal" and "Half-Life 2," I would have just tossed the entire "Orange Box" in there to reflect "Team Fortress 2"'s casual team-shooter genre (which includes "Left 4 Dead," I think).
So, unless you have something else to do, like congratulate Sir Peter Jackson on his knighthood (and apparent weight loss since LOTR), may I suggest the following:
- I think this is only a prototype, but it needs to be real and for sale. Now.
- And along the same lines, I'll never think of Batman the same way again.
- Here's 101 new uses for everyday things. Though I don't think I'll be shaving with olive oil anytime soon, it's good to know I can.
- Wheel It is a Russian puzzle game. Try to attach the various-sized gears to the available hubs so every tooth-festooned wheel turns.
- While I haven't watched a lot of PBS Kids (I'm sure that'll change as Joshua notices the TV), but I can't believe I missed the "Car Talk" guys making an appearance on "Arthur." They look a tad disturbing, though...
- And now for something completely different: a Nebulon-B Medical Frigate made out of Lego.
- A gallery of actors 'Now and Then'. Gads, I feel ancient.
- Lastly, a penguin sledding game, Avalanche. Try to time leaps, acceleration and braking to catch fish and outrun a wall of deadly snowfall (which engulfs your friends at the finish line after each level, but they should have brought sleds, too). |
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| Spicy sweeties good! |
[Dec. 29th, 2009|01:55 am] |
 Time to shill for a Christmas gift the wife found for me: "Yummy Earth" brand "Organic Hot Chili Pops." I'm one who is wont to toss some "Dave's Insanity Sauce" in the ol' chili pot (or, at least, in my own bowl so nobody else eating with us has to go to the emergency room), and these suckers come nowhere near that level of heat. I'd put them at highest around Taco Bell "fire" sauce, but the burn is variable from lolly to lolly. Anyway, you can find them here, though you kind of have to hunt for them (they're the third row of photos down, under "lollipop pouches" in the drop-down menu). At the moment, they're only available in 15-unit bags, and you get a mix of "Chili Lime Lambada" and "Chili Mango Mambo." One participant in our holiday gatherings enjoyed how the lime one tasted with his beer, and I liked having them in the car as a little pick-me-up for the duller parts of the drive (the ones without snowbound cars). Anyway, I really dug this stocking stuffer and hope I don't get sick of them anytime soon. They're also only 22 calories apiece, so I hopefully won't expand my waistline too much over the coming months...
With little going on in movies or TV, here are a few items: Kevin Bacon is going to be a superhero villain in an upcoming film, "Super." His character "The Crimson Bolt" is the alter-ego of a former drug dealer named "Jacques." His actions inspire a man to become "The Crimson Bolt." Why does this sound like something thought up by Ben Edlund, father of "The Tick?" The other item that piqued my interest was Peter Jackson's announcement that he's working on a post-apocalyptic film where cities fly and do battle against each other. I predict at least one slow-mo jump from one floating city to another, with about 50/50 odds that it will be a parkour-style jump or via a car.
Thanks to eagle-eyed commenters for the edit. But I would have liked to see Bacon in a super-costume, darnit. :)
Odd "D&D" news (or at least, "D&D-like") from what I believe to be a Chinese website promoting a new online game. From the Google translation, I see a lot of D&D-esque words like "Illithid" and mention of what I'm guessing is either a realm name or the fact that part of the game takes place in a British suburb called "Chelsea Heights" (it's on page 2). The second page's picture of a kid with a flintlock shooting what appears to be a sea troll over the head of what appears to be a pretty powerful cleric makes me wonder what other oddities were in store on page 3... and I was greeted with mention of "Canadian pets." I know odds are high that meaning is being mangled, here, but I kind of hope not. :)
And on an "around the office" note, I'm hopefully going to be test-driving a new office chair soon. Some might remember my raving about the AK-Octane, which appears to be out of production. My current AK's cushions are losing their "cush," and one of the arm rests has begun to disintegrate from the bottom up. Rather than buying another new chair, I'm trying something different. I've found a cheap (yet antique) set of legs and manual swivel chair mechanism on eBay, and I'm going to graft the seat and back from a wooden "school board" chair liberated from a now-defunct educational building. Tossing a few "skateboard" castors on it, I'm hoping to have a pretty sweet "new" old chair. The screw mechanism going into the leg assembly does wobble a bit, but some research tells me that its vintage (possibly from the late 1800's) is pretty much doomed to wobble, being old and made of cast iron. If it ever fails, I'd have to replace it with steel, but I could keep the legs. Sadly, no parts are made to fit the old hardware for the purposes of stabilizing the thing (the screw is larger than the current 1-inch or "acme" swivel chair standard), but I read that as long as I don't abuse it, it'll probably work for a few more decades before becoming unusable. I'll post some pics if it comes together as planned!
The rest isn't about chairs, but you might like it nevertheless:
- DJ Earworm has released his 2009 'United State of Pop' mashup, compiled from Billboard's top hits for the year.
- Though I'm sure it's been done before, here's a very good Star Wars/A-Team mashup.
- Puzzles and magnetic fields are the basis of Magnetic Moment. Arrange magnets and objects to propel and guide a ball to its bucket.
- This is either genius or madness: Tuper-Tario-Tros is a combination Tetris/Super Mario game. Press your spacebar to switch between making a plumber jump and fitting together falling blocks.
- An interesting gallery of Nautilus designs. Captain Nemo has quite the array to choose from.
- The singing could use some work, but there are a few clever couplets in the Battlestar Rhapsody (if you haven't seen the new "Battlestar Galactica," spoilers ahoy).
- This next one gets a "violence 'n' bloody stuff" warning. There's a new trailer out for the upcoming Aliens vs. Predator game (note no "vs. Space Marines," as if they weren't a threat... a pink, squishy, screaming threat). The movie series might be a disappointment, but this looks pretty good. And Lance Henrikson does the voiceover.
- And lastly, some eye candy gaming with Perpetual Blaze, a game where your ship is your weapon, making whoever you smash into explode into gatherable particle effects. |
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| Vergiffenis |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:16 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Moby. Shot in the Back of the Head. | ] |
See you tonight at the Boxing Day Rave at Neutral,
pre-Party at ours at 21:00 you know who you are.
Happiness to you in the shape of whatever it is you love. And
wear something saucy tonight so that I can compliment you.
With
affection,
NDT.
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| Always two, there are... |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:45 am] |
 I was hoping to have a Sherlock Holmes review, but snow kept us at home this Christmas day, so it's postponed for the time being. For what it's worth, "Ain't it Cool News" seems to think it's decent enough, and, thankfully, both reviews do mention Holmes using his genius to solve a perplexing mystery. If that's included, then I'll most likely come away satisfied.
But I did get to see the Doctor Who Christmas Special, and without giving anything away, I can say a few things: I'm sorely going to miss Tennant, though he's bringing his Doctor to a close that feels complete rather than abruptly interrupted. But on a completely different note, I think this is the first episode of Doctor Who to mention a sitting U.S. President by name and use audio clips of his speeches as part of the episode's dialogue. And while I'm somewhat up on my UK politics and the views expressed about America via their topical comedy program(me)s, either someone has an overabundance of expectation regarding the U.S. President's effect on the worldwide economy, or the scriptwriter was being sarcastic (perhaps making a sideways dig at views held in Britain?). But either way, it was odd seeing (sort of) a "real" politician in an episode of 'Who, since normally the politicians are fictional archetypes made to either get killed by someone taking over or they are whoever is taking over, but in disguise.
Anyway, a good cliffhanger, and I can't wait to see how they follow up the tantalizing final few minutes on New Year's Day.
Normally, this would get a place in the linkdump, but I can't get it out of my head. This is UPular, (in case that kills your 'net connection, here's a YouTube link) an ambient mix-song created by snippets of the Pixar movie, "Up." For those not familiar with the work of the tunesmith, "Pogo," he started out with this ditty called "Alice," and his latest effort was either commissioned or endorsed by Pixar itself. Though just meant to be a soundscape (picking syllables that just hit notes rather than form a musical verse), I keep wanting to sing along somehow.
Now I have to go dig out my poor Honda, entombed in unassembled snowmen. While I frost my goatee, here's a video-heavy linkpile:
- Presented as a sort of religious tract is this amusing guide to the Creation of the World of Grayhawk, the D&D campaign setting. See how many of the old gaming supplements you own from which they pulled the artwork.
- A Christmas-themed (but still challenging) puzzler: Light Up the Christmas Tree. Rotate the wire/channel bits to get power to every light.
- If you're out in the ice and snow, be very careful, or you might wind up crunching your fenders on YouTube.
- Last post, UK comedian Bill Bailey generated a techno remix by making a comment on a news quiz. Apparently, something talked about in one of his concerts actualized in real life. I wonder if he's that kid Ron Howard portrayed in "The Twilight Zone," but instead of being overtly malicious, he went into comedy?
- I think I need one of these Star Trek webcams. That way, I can pretend there are little people in the ship that fear my wrath, like in the original series episode, Catspaw.
- In a similar vein, someone in Japan has constructed models of the USS Enterprise-A, Battleship Yamato, and Voyager as working remote-control submarines. I almost want an in-ground pool now...
- Two engineers try out Christmas Laser Beam cats. Pew-pew, indeed.
- This strikes me as a "Grow" game combined with an offbeat "defense" game: Tetraform gives you the power to click on an enemy followed by your planet (not recommended) or another enemy ship to make them attract each other until they collide and explode. Works well for missiles, too. |
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