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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
nuadha_prime
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11:19p |
Polls are fun!
OK. I am being a bit silly with the polls now. I know. I am having fun. Indulge me a little. Poll #1502511
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14 Best Cyborg/Robot Bad Guys |
nuadha_prime
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11:10p |
Daleks and The Borg
Comments in my last few posts have brought up the statement by a few that Daleks are being over-used in the new Doctor Who series. I love the Daleks, but I have to admit that 3 out of four finales being about the Daleks combined with two stories mid-season on Daleks ("Dalek" and "Daleks in Manhattan") is too much. Since I am prepping ideas for a new League of Quantum Gentlemen game for Ambercon this year and now can re-watch season 4 through Netflix, I re-watched the finale. It occurred to me that the over-saturation of the Daleks is like what happened with the Borg in Trek. However, I have to admit after re-watching the finale that they managed to do something that Trek failed out. The Borg lost its threat and by the time it was on Voyager, they weren't a bid deal any more. They over-used them and in doing so they removed all tension about them. In "Best of Both Worlds," the Borg were an extreme threat and I remember when it came out being on the edge of my seat wondering how the Federation could possibly stop them. (I also remember waiting and waiting for the second part and wondering if Riker would be captain in the next season.) In Doctor Who, they manage to keep the Daleks a scary threat. When the heroes hear "Exterminate!" broadcast from the coming fleet of ships and you see the panic on their faces, it reminds you: Earth can't do anything to stop the Daleks. Earth needs a Doctor. So, it could be worse. They may be overusing the Daleks, but at least they haven't neutered their threat. |
jkcarrier
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8:25p |
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professormortis
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7:47p |
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professormortis
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7:23p |
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professormortis
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6:49p |
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professormortis
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5:32p |
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paladine
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2:02p |
Well,
...since the library is going to be closed for the rest of the week, now is the best time to wish you all a Merry Christmas...  ...Superman vs. Batman-style. Current Mood:  good |
ajasont
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6:41a |
Tuesday Tough It Out/Tabs
SINUS UPDATE I'm feeling better, only about 25% crummy this morning. The worst part now is that last night I was at my parents' house to celebrate Dad's birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad! More on this in a second.) and couldn't have one of the fabulous Manhattans he makes because I'm still on amoxicyllin (sp?) and want to be healthy for Christmas. Then I'm supposed to go to an annual work function called Beer & Bowling where I might have one beer this year (depending on how I feel) and probably will only roll one game because I don't want to wear myself out. Being sick sucks. And this time it was pretty bad and I'm a little older so I just want to take some care and do this right. I know it sounds like whining, but I want to enjoy my vacation a lot while I'm off. I've books to read, stories to write, movies to watch and the lovely Mrs. Ajasont to entertain. She's taken such good care of me while I've been sick. I love her more than anything. DAD When I was a kid, my brother and I would tease our friends that Dad was older than he looked and we added 20 or 25 years onto his actual age at the time. (Yeah, my parents were very young when I was born. No big deal. I'm 42 now, the age we stopped teasing Dad about being old, I think.) Our friends were almost always willing to buy in because my dad did the coolest things, being only a little older than us. He had the best time at Halloween to the point where neighborhood kids would come over and ask if Dad could come out and play. I've talked about how much he's influenced me in my life before and I never say it out loud often enough: I love my Dad and he has helped shape me into the person I am. He's the example I use when raising my son, and he is a really great grandfather. I imagine there'll be some cutthroat cribbage games on Christmas with the three of us and his brother. So, Happy Birthday a day late here, Dad. I love you. READING STUFF So I mentioned books. Went to the library last night and picked up Mike Carey's third Felix Castor book DEAD MEN'S BOOTS. The blurb inside compares it to Jim Butcher's work, but it still reminds me of John Constantine. Then I picked up Mark Frost's (I think) latest book THE SECOND OBLIGATION, which looks very cool and probably a movie eventually. You remember TWIN PEAKS, right? He was the second chair creator on that show behind David Lynch and wrote a couple of really fun adventure books called THE LIST OF SEVEN and THE SIX MESSIAHS. He's also written THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED, but I haven't read that one. So I'm setting aside Ray Bradbury's DANDELION WINE for January, as well as an anthology of new SF short stories from SOLARIS to try and read these two books in a month or so. Got a stack of comics to read, too. Dunno when I'll get around to those. WRITING STUFF Yeah. Not much update here. Thanks everyone who saw me in the LJW article in the paper or here. Suffice to say there's more to come. You're reading The Long Range short stories aren't you? Stop in and comment here or there to let me know what you think, will you? Current Mood:  busy |
nuadha_prime
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12:38a |
Woo-Who
Season 4 of Doctor Who and Season 1 of Torchwood have been added to Netflix instant view! I still haven't seen the season finale of Torchwood season one and have been itching to re-watch the Library episodes of season 4, so this makes me very happy. To celebrate.....another poll! Poll #1502073
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9 Best New Series Doctor Who Season? |
professormortis
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1:43a |
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| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
dewline
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10:44p |
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jkcarrier
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6:06p |
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nuadha_prime
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4:23a |
Star Wars Episode One Review
I ran a Star Wars RPG over the weekend, ignoring the prequels. That's right. Only the original trilogy was canon. This reviewer catalogs all of the complaints that went through my head while I watched them. |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
nuadha_prime
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10:41p |
The reason for the poll....revealed at last!
I was looking something Firefly related up recently and while I was in wikipedia read this about Firefly: In 2005, New Scientist magazine's website held an internet poll to find "The World's Best Space Sci-Fi Ever". Firefly came in first place, with its cinematic follow-up Serenity in second.[69] Also, as of May 2007, it was the most popular science fiction show amongst users of tv.com.[70]
The follow-up film, Serenity, was voted the best science fiction movie of all time in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans.[73]
Firefly was later named as number 25 on TV Guide's list of "The 30 Top Cult Shows Ever".[74]This is mind-blowing to me. I figured it had to be a fluke. I love Firefly. Like everything else Whedon does, it is amazingly fun and has some great characters. However, "#1 Space Sci-Fi of all time?" I figured it had to be demographics of the poll. I figured that Firefly is the new shiny show. (Shiny!) I figured that if you asked a bunch of sci-fi fans about my age, you would get a different response. I was guessing Babylon 5 or Doctor Who, amongst my friends. (B5 missing from the list really was a complete error on my part!). I also posted a similar poll on a RPG forum I visit (for Savage Worlds) and remembered to include B5 this time and not include Quantum Leap. The results were Firefly in first place with 16 votes with 2nd place as a three-way tie between B5, Doctor Who and Star Trek (9 votes each). I just don't think of Firefly as great Sci-Fi. Call me old fashioned, but I want some aliens in my sci-fi. I want some weird science stuff in my sci-fi. Firefly had revolvers, machine guns and cattle. Sure there was spaceships and the occasional hover-train, but tech and aliens were mostly absent. I love it as an action-adventure show with sci-fi elements in the same way that I like the new BSG as a drama with sci-fi elements. (Hell, the new BSG has made me think of BSG as a drama so much that when making this list I forgot to list BSG even though the original BSG would be my #2 choice after Trek.) Even if I did think highly of Firefly as a sci-fi show, it didn't last long enough in my mind to compare with the likes of many of these other shows. This isn't to say it couldn't have been great. The worst part of the show is that it ends just as story arcs are starting to build and had the show gotten more that a partial season, I think it would have been great. I think it would have been even better than Buffy or Angel. However we will never know. That said, Firefly has 18 episodes. About half or more of them are great and none are stinkers. Lets say it has 10 great episodes. Hell, lets say every one was great. I can name more than 18 great Star Trek episodes. I can name more than 18 great Doctor Who episodes or 18 Farscape episodes. Firefly was great for while it lasted, but how can 18 episodes make it better than the wealth of greatness we get in these other shows? Someone said it in the comments here or at the forum (I don't remember which). They said that it may be the fact that it stops just as it gets really good that makes Firefly stand out in our minds as great. It had a short and fantastic run. I remember getting to the last disc of the series and my ex and I trying to not watch them....to pace out the last few episodes. We couldn't do it. The last episodes of the series are also the best. We had to watch..."just...one....more," and then another and another. That last disc was watched in one night. We had no self control. The bitter-sweetness of that last episode making us scream for more. I think that if I liked Serenity more, maybe I would still be screaming for more. I liked Serenity but it wasn't, IMHO, as good. It made me OK with the fact that, if we have a choice between seeing Firefly go the way that Buffy went with diminishing quality or letting it end here....just let it end. At this point, it is like if Buffy ended on season 4 and we never had to see the trio of evil. If the show ends on a high note like that, we glorify it in our mind and it becomes even better as we ache for more. If we give it time, it would have had a bad season and that would taint the whole series. For the record, I have admitted that my love for the original Battlestar Galactica is no doubt linked to it only getting the one season. I grew up imagining how great it would have been had we gotten a season two. (Don't mention Galactica 1980 in response to this. Just don't.) I wanted to see where future adventures would bring the brave crew of the Galactica and I instead just glorified the one short season I got. I watched it again and again and long before Richard Hatch started writing his "Galactica: TNG" books, I had already outlined a series myself. I started creating a Galactica RPG in high school, shortly after I started playing RPGs and knew that if I could revive one TV series, it would be that. "'cuz it was the greatest series ever." I re-watched them all a few years ago after getting them on DVD and have been re-watching Trek the last couple years. I realized something now that I am not pining away for a new series. BSG is good, but having a short good series does not make it better than the long good series. Please go gentle in the comments. These are only my humble opinions. I love Firefly too! I really do! Oh god....I am going to have an angry mob of brown-coats at my door with pitch-forks now, aren't I? :) |
| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
jkcarrier
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1:08a |
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| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
nuadha_prime
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11:51p |
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jkcarrier
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11:31p |
Spooky!
Via Neil Gaiman's blog: http://us.akinator.com/ You think of a person (real or fictional) and it tries to guess their identity. It's scary how quickly it can zero in on the answer. The closest I've come to stumping it was with Eddie Murphy...it guessed "Tracy Morgan" at first, but eventually got it right. |
professormortis
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10:01p |
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jkcarrier
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8:30p |
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andrew6
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11:03a |
Andrew Foley has a Twitter account? May God have mercy on us all. Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter |
ajasont
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11:12a |
Sunday Sickness
The last twenty-four hours have been spent with fever and chills curled up in the fetal position in bed. I had intended yesterday to spend time writing. I've got a tight deadline and I had blocked out the time to get the work done. I woke up feeling sort of achy and with a slight sinus headache. Nothing new and I'd hoped that I was still able to avoid my annual sinus infection. No such luck. Immediately after eating breakfast I was shivering and my head was pounding. My doctor is open until noon on Saturday so I made the call and went over to see whoever could help me there. "Do your ears hurt?" the physician's assistant said looking in the right then left. "No," I said. "Well, they should," she said. "The right one's pretty red and inflamed. I'm surprised." "I feel crummy though," I said. "Achy and feverish. Chills and all that." "Your teeth hurt?" I frowned. "Yeah," I said. "Well, you're lucky you came in today," she said and pulled down the nifty computer thing that's supplanted old-fashioned patient charts. "Wow, it's been a long time since you were on antibiotics." "Which is why I came in today," I said. "I didn't want to take any chances. I've had these sinus infections before and I didn't want to wait until Monday when it was a hundred times worse." "Good," she said. "Which pharmacy do you use?" And so I ventured out into the cold Kansas air and drove myself, hunched over and shivering like I was having a grand mal seizure, across town to the pharmacy to get the pills that would make me better. I came home and crawled into bed, even though I wanted to watch the University of Kansas men's basketball team take on the one team we've never beaten, the Michigan Wolverines. Instead I dozed in and out of sleep, chilled and warmed and just generally being a pain in the ass. I had a terrible nightmare, the first in years, that I think might make a good story later on. At least something good might've come out of it. I also missed the work holiday party last night for the first time in ten years due to being sick. At one point I thought I might be well enough to go, but then I started shivering and went to bed early. Mrs. Ajasont kept me from making a stupid mistake and decreed I wasn't fit to go anywhere. I love my wife and she takes exceptionally good care of me, even though I often don't take her advice. She's a saint in many respects when it comes to caring for the dramatic, silly, pain in the ass, very sick person I become. She gets frustrated with me, and rightly so, but still cares for me. I have to thank her for that. She's the reason I can sit up straight today and type at the computer. I still feel crummy, about 50% of normal, but I don't ache any more and the fever seems to have broken. Now I need to get writing and see what comes up. |
plasticfarm
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8:01a |
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| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
jkcarrier
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7:14p |
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_earthshine_
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1:49p |
Go Buy Fiction!
How can you get some cool short stories, support (like with actual money!) a dedicated freelance artist (not me), and check out the creative work of one of my long-time friends, all in one fell swoop? Go buy this book. 9 short stories by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fairmer, 216 pages, delivered to your door for less than $20. Cake. (Sorry i've been posting so much, but this was important! Also apologies to fairmer if my quick-n-dirty cover selection and intro don't do her work justice. However, the site will let you copy the anthology, change the cover/intro and even collection as you please, and make your own! Pretty neat, huh?) Anyways, go share the love. It's the holidays 'n' stuff. Current Mood:  stokedCurrent Music: (more cafe music) |
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