Avatar
Let me start by saying that no person able to see the movie Avatar on the big screen should miss the opportunity to do so. Imax is better. Imax 3D should pretty much pop your geek gland's clutch. Seriously. Go watch this movie if you already haven't. The story is excellent and very well told. Sure, some stuff is telegraphed. But I am sincere when I say that I wish I had written it.

That said, you can still put it on the back burner and simmer until it is reduced to wild elves Vs. Warhammer 20 K.

The parallels are basically that. Next time you feel froggy, break out your wild elves rules for just about any FRPG or just use Warhammer equivalent rules. Then put them up against Warhammer 20 K rules, Humans.

That's what the last 20 minutes of the movie turns out to be. It's more involved than that, and I won't give any spoilers. But interpersonal relationships, tactical considerations, personal quirks and character flaws or strengths play pretty strongly during this combat.

But those facets really represent themselves throughout the entire movie. Look, it's a great story. You want to see it, if for no other reason than to remind you why you love Sigourney Weaver. And if you don't love Sigourney Weaver,* then see it to be amazed at the fact that the story is exactly as long as it needs to be, even though that length is 2 hours, 40 minutes. It's worth watching it for that long.

There's lots of little details that are really well thought out, and add just that little frisson of realism to it. The character personalities are consistent. The visuals are...

...are you still here? Go see the damn movie!
Sheesh!

---

*And if you don't love Sigourney Weaver, what the Hells is wrong with you?

Back

Holidays are over. Yay!

I like to read in bed. I don't sleep as much as my wife. So it'd be nice to have a way to read in a dark room. Solution: eReader!

But which to get? The Kindle? Well, it doesn't have WiFi. But I don't even know if I need WiFi. But it does seem to have the best 3G coverage, so there's that. No touch screen, only 2 gig of storage. But that's 1500 books. I don't know if I've read that many in my entire lifetime. The extra storage would be nice for MP3s, but I have an iPod and a G1 phone, holding 8 gig and 16 gig, respectively. If I want music, I have those. Besides, music would just burn the battery faster.

As for no touch screen: one of my pet peeves is a screen with fingerprints on it.

But they use the hard sell. They have at least one web site that has an "independent review" of eReaders, in which they celebrate Kindle and just talk about other devices a bit. Supposed review from consumers seem to actually be their own ringers, posting poor "reviews" that refer to another, earlier "review," agreeing with the negative review, as quickly as 2 minutes after it's posted. Hard sell turns me off. Oh, and there's also the post touting how wonderful Kindle is, saying that they got it on the 25th of February, 2009. The posting date of the review is 13 February, 2009. Apparently, they also got a time machine. That's a review I'd like to have read.

So the Kindle looks like it'd be good enough for what I want, but I don't want to reward that kind of marketing with my business.

Meanwhile, the Nook lets you share your books and has WiFi, with free browsing in any Barnes and Noble. But the nearest one to me is in a place to which I hate to drive, the Nook book selection is smaller, and has poorer 3G coverage. Then again, it has coverage in my home, which is good enough. The screen size is the same as the Kindle's.

Then there's the Sony Touch. I like that you can jot down notes with a stylus on it. It has some features I like and some I don't and blah blah blah and my head is swimming now.

The important question is this: which of them will let me buy electronic copies of my game books, assuming such things are even available?

Hmmmm... let's check Amazon first. Nope. Not in B&N either. Apparently, WOTC doesn't dig eBooks.

Bastards.

I don't know. I'm going to Borders today to see if I can handle a Sony Touch and figure out what to do next.

Worse to worst, I may be able to pick up another Munchkin game.

Apostrophe

People.

Please read, learn, know, and follow this simple instruction that should have been taught to you in Third Grade.

It probably was. 

Consider this a refresher.

And thank you in advance. My headaches are going away already.

I hope.

Encore

Bravo. Just...

Bra-freaking-vo!

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1331

Augmentation

Are you Gods damned kidding me?

Part of me is appalled.

Part of me wants to know where I can get this done.

Relax, family members. I've as much inclination to have this done as I have of getting tribal ritual scars. If I'm going to brand myself as coming from certain subcultures, it'll by by social interaction, not advertising.

Now... if other people want to do this, that's fine with me. It looks kind of neat. But I think it might mess up my chances of getting promoted to Big Kahuna of Major Corporation Inc.

So... it's not for me.

Demographic

According to this page, 60% of all gamers in 2008 were males, and the average age was 35.

Okay.

Pandering to a demographic is how media thrives.

That's probably why the game Bayonetta was made.

Guys like explosions, guns, action, fighting, and, let's face it, hotties. With that in mind, this game has it all... perhaps in quantities best described as "too much." Seriously... a pistol strapped to a boot heel? Just kicking the victim isn't enough; the heroine has to be able to shoot them at the same time? I had to input my age just to log into the game's home page.

And this is Sega; the game company that brought you Sonic the Hedgehog. Remember him? He ran around at high speed collecting gold rings, and also cartoon and comic book franchises. He was kid-friendly, and nice.

You didn't need to input your age to see him.

Now Sega is all about the boobies.

I'd be too embarassed to play this game to find out if it's any fun or not. I considered taking a cold shower after watching the "teaser"* film.

In fairness, I shouldn't assume it's all just sex-and-violence-and-more-sex. It might be really, really fun. It might have amazing game play, with challenging bosses and environments that add an enjoyable element to the experience, with an intriguing story line that hints at a dark history, giving an ultimate goal of redemption and hope.

I'll never know. They sell it with T&A, so it's likely just another excuse to push soft porn to lonely thirty-somethings. That's not worth my gaming dollar.

---

*Har!

Gasp

This is awesome.

Here I was feeling smug because I've got Windows 7.0 Ultimate, 64 bit, installed on my system and I'm now seeing all 8 gigs of RAM I have, and then I see that and know what I really want to have.

Oh. Yeah. I'm doing entries again. I've been distracted.

...sorry.

Hybrid

I caught this video from Weregeek. It's pretty much what "cool" watches when it wants to see something more cool than itself.

Electric violins? They've always equalled cool. They're somewhere between electric guitars and Eddie Van Halen.

This is a classic example of said coolery.

As an added bonus, the drummer's name is "Meytal."

 

Well

Who'd have thought it? Yawns are so contagious, chimps can catch yawning from other chimps... and even from animations of other chimps.

I thought this was interesting. I told my wife about it. Her response was immediate and deflating: "You can make dogs yawn." She wasn't being mean... she meant that any person can evoke a yawn from a dog. She wasn't saying that I am so boring, that even dogs will fall asleep when in proximity to me. That is what I tell myself.

"That's because dogs think they're people... or vice versa" I replied. And then I yawned.

"See? It's so contagious you're doing it." 

"No, I'm yawning because I'm tired. I found this because I Googled 'yawn.'" Why did I Google "yawn?" Because I yawned. I wanted to know what really causes a yawn. I still don't know because I was distracted by the stupid chimp animation.

What I really want to know is: if they wanted a realistic chimp in the animation, then why are all its teeth so straight and white? Have they never seen a real chimp?

If not, how do they know what one looks like when it yawns?

This post has gone nowhere. Thanks for reading it anyway.

Fame

This is how you know you've made it big. Not that Bowie needed any kind of additional indicator; it's pretty much been well established that he's surpassed the mere "idol" stage. But it's still nice to see.

I'd think it was, anyway.

Oh, and here's a Google image search for the little beast. I don't see much of a resemblance.