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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
karl_moebius' LiveJournal:
| Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 | |
| 11:05 pm | The Iron Man (the live action movie) Comic-Con Trailer Iron Man! *djork squeal* It's not Green Lantern, but still!! |
| Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 | |
| 1:50 pm | Made of pure AWESOME  |
| Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 | |
| 10:53 am | From suicidegirls.com: Wil Wheaton's take on Comic-Con Wil Wheaton's Geek in Review: One Big Focus Group http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/2 My train ride to Comic-Con from Los Angeles was filled with Hollywood fucks, talking too loudly on their cell phones, bitching out their assistants, and trying to impress each other with how many scripts they had brought along to read. Oh man, I thought, is this what Comic-Con is going to be like? A bunch of industry douchebags who think we're just a big focus group of nerds? My fears appeared to be realized when I opened up McPaper, and read a story on page one of the Life section all about how Hollywood executives come down to Comic-Con to use the largest gathering of Nerds this side of Mos Eisley Spaceport as a giant focus group. The article mentioned something about a movie called Watchmen, which was about "a slain superhero." Oh for fuck's sake. Why not just call Star Wars a movie about "a captured princess"? I read my book (the 2007 Nebula Awards Showcase, for those of you scoring at home), turned on my noise canceling headphones, and did my best to lose myself in Dark Side of the Moon and the planet Mars. Hrm, come to think of it, that's what people have been doing with Dark Side of the Moon since it was released in 1973. Once I arrived at Comic-Con, my fears were put entirely to rest. My fellow geeks were everywhere: guys with ponytails and trench coats, mostly-naked women and the men who think they have a chance to score with them, and some of the most elaborate and awesome Transformers costumes I've ever seen. After suffering through the highest concentration of Hollywood fuckery I've seen in a decade, it felt good to be back among my people, even if the Hollywood fucks just thought of us all as a giant focus group and invaded our party as a result. This makes me wonder something: if we actually are a huge focus group, wouldn't they, you know, listen to us? We're not just a huge market with a lot of disposable income for you to exploit; we actually care about this stuff, and if you keep fucking it up, we're going to stop buying it. Think I’m bluffing? Go talk to anyone associated with Elektra. Or Captain America. Or Fantastic Four. Or Ghostrider. Or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Or Daredevil. It doesn’t have to be this way. Lord of the Rings proved that it’s possible to please the geeks and the mainstream audiences by simply serving the story that’s endured for decades, not making it “fresh” or “new” or “dumbed down by an industry fuck because he’s too stupid to understand it.” Now, it’s not entirely Hollywood's fault. It’s not that they don’t want to understand us, it’s that they’re incapable of understanding us. A studio fuck who wants to bury his face in a mountain of blow while two whores he picked up at the Rainbow Room spit on each other doesn’t live in the same world as a comic book geek who wants to bury his face in the collected works of Neil Gaiman while his girlfriend gets dressed up as slave girl Leia. For those executives, I present a very brief, very simple primer in understanding geeks: We want this stuff to be done right because we’ve lived it for our entire lives and know it better than any of you ever will. We’ve played with the action figures and written the fan fiction and crammed fifteen of our friends into the hotel room so we could afford to go to the conventions where we buy T-shirts that say HAN SHOT FIRST because, goddammit, this stuff is our lives. Before we could talk to girls, there was Princess Leia. Before we had cars, there was the Batmobile. Before we could find escape from the horrors of modren life in a bottle, we escaped into the pages of comic books and science fiction magazines. These stories that you buy and put on the big screen may just be numbers on a yearly accounting to you, but they are more than that to us. To us, they are something that brings us together and makes us part of an exclusive (and frequently stinky, unfortunately) club. For example, while I walked down the middle aisle of the convention hall on Thursday, I passed a huge Lucasfilm booth. A scene from Star Wars played on a giant LCD screen: Darth Vader tells Grand Moff Tarkin that he senses something he hasn’t sensed in a long time. Without even thinking about it, I spoke along with Vader as he said, “Obi-Wan is here. The Force is with him!” There were about two dozen Star Wars Geeks watching the scene. All of us unselfconsciously spoke the quote aloud, and then immediately grinned at the shared experience. How many of us do you think were really excited to find out that the Force is a fuckin’ virus? "Batman Begins, Sin City, and V for Vendetta worked because the actors never overwhelmed the characters, and the screenplays were all true to the source material that made the comics worth optioning in the first place. Hollywood faces its greatest challenge in the history of adapting comic books to movies with Watchmen. Many executives won’t understand what it’s about. Neither will their young, allegedly hip assistants they hired out of Harvard Business School. If Hollywood really wants to do this right, and really doesn’t want to fuck it up, my advice is to listen to the focus group at Comic-Con. I mean, really listen, because if Hollywood fucks up Watchmen, there’s going to be a nerd riot so terrifying, it will be like a thousand studio executives cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. |
| Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 | |
| 12:57 am | Powerthirst! Energy Drink; Japanese TV! 400 BABIES! |
| Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 | |
| 3:46 pm | So, I fixed my mother's computer today. And in the end, it was the power supply. It might have been fried before, but once I swapped out the guts for more modern guts, it just wasn't powerful enough to run the guts. Mom's ecstatic, I'm happy.... I'm slightly annoyed about it, really, because the next major thing that'll need to be replaced is the computer on the hot water heater, which seems to be a bit addled occasionally, so we'll have to have a plumber come out with the replacement computer and two or three hours worth of work to remove an increasingly senile streak in the water heater (please heat the water when the hot water level drops, you old bat!), and I need to make a note to get some more pants later on. *sigh* EDIT: and now there's a software error, and I probably need to reload the operating system. *siiiigh* |
| Friday, July 27th, 2007 | |
| 3:03 am | Money flowing through fingers... I hate when I have to replace things. Because that's money I often don't want to spend. I thought I was going to have to spend $13.99 for a 3 pack of boxers at J.C. Penny, since a few months ago I couldn't find the 2XL undies, they had disappeared. I found them today, and spent about $9 for a 3 pack of Hanes. Same with the briefs. The handles on my kitchen knives are... for a lack of a better word, unlaminating. The plastic texturized coating is flaking off (but otherwise the knives are fine) and a few of the chef knives have broken due to klutzy actions. So, I got a chef and a santoku, for about ~$20, and they're nice knives. They're not ceramic knives imported from Japan (which are very nice knives), but there pretty good for the cost. It also means that there's some extra care involved, so I need to get a pair of cheaper ones for mom to use and abuse. Once I put my hands on the knives, they balanced very well in my hands, and I just had to get them. I'm such a dork. I still have to get a new sharpener, a new stock pot (ours has developed a pin hole in the side, for some very odd reason, and as soon as I know if I should get the 13qt or 16qt model, I'll do that. I also need to get new sheets, fortunately, the store sells the ones I need, and they're literally across the isle from where I work. I just forgot them this time. Oh well, there's always later today... |
| Thursday, July 26th, 2007 | |
| 2:39 pm | $$$ So, I paid for my tuition ($490, +$30 because of a freakin' tuition increase in the last month), and... I could have bought all three books (used) for about $180, but I had to stop to get gas to drive up there, so I was short. But, however, I was right about thinking that the total cost would be close to $700, so... my instincts were right; it's just I didn't plan on a near empty tank up there. And after doing some searching, I found a great place to search for books, AddALL.com, which could have actually gotten my books for cheaper than the campus bookstore. Or from a used bookseller a-la Amazon, I could have potentially gotten it for a couple of dollars. Well, next semester I'll do that. So, I guess this is happy birthday to me, of sorts; a gift I give myself. I've signed up for an orientation next week (mandatory), I've located my two classrooms, bought most of my books (I'll get the other one on Friday afternoon before work), and now I just need paper, pencils, and the like. Last Tuesday marks the one month mark. So now I have less than a month before the start. |
| Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 | |
| 3:23 pm | |
| 6:20 am | I've finished it, and I have one sentence that really meant a lot to me: Look at me. |
| Monday, July 23rd, 2007 | |
| 2:50 am | Potter So, I got "the book". And I'll be reading it steadily over the next few days. One thing I would like to see is all the logistical/literary lessons writing a large book series applied to her next project. After all, the best way to become good is in the doing. Nevertheless, for the occasion, some linkspam: The ultimate sequels aka Asia loves you,哈利波特 (the Dojinshi actually looks... really good!) London greets Harry Potter for the last time |
| Saturday, July 21st, 2007 | |
| 12:47 pm | Potter... I got to see a major book release last night. People lined from one entrance to the other, the store handed out rubber bracelets each a different color and stamped with a different House name. I haven't seen anything quite like that before. In a new console release, the market the console is primarily aimed for comes to the store and waits. Wii people were often around my age, 360 people were mostly late teens/early 20's, and the PS3 were, well, they had a lot of money, to be sure. But Potter brought kids, teenagers, adults, some dressed up, some with just a flash of makeup in a very recognizable way. Some of my coworkers are disdainful of the book, for a variety of reasons, but... this is the only time I've ever seen anyone line up from such a broad group of ages and backgrounds for a book. Sure, promoting literacy, discovering books and the like. I'm all for this, but that people lined up waiting for a midnight release of a book is incredible enough, and should make even the most ardent critic pause a moment and consider the sheer amount of people that are reading now because of it. No more Potter books, and soon no more Potter movies, I wonder what will be next; there've always been attempts to do the same thing, and some haven't even gotten close, but in the end, no matter how 'good' or not they are, I am curious what all these people, after reading a series of books, will do next. Forge ever deeper into the jungles of the literary world, unbound by tests or reports to give to someone else? People are reading. For enjoyment. They might have been introduced by the movie, by the news, or by someone denouncing it, but they're reading it, and talking about it. A book! Maybe there is hope for the human race, after all. |
| Thursday, July 19th, 2007 | |
| 2:15 pm | Gamer Linkage... One game that I'm really excited, interested, and practically foaming at the mouth to watch is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. And it's about time that they moved away from WWII, and while Vietnam is still a touchy subject, and Korea is... all but forgotten, and earlier is too... un-modern for gaming. And Kotaku has some interesting news for the PS3 (as does WIRED) I still don't like the PS3; I'd rather get a Wii, or a 360, or even a PS2, since there's a ton of games for them all, and very fucking few for the $600 PS3. |
| Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 | |
| 2:45 pm | Interesting... Now, I don't tend to 'do' politics, or religion, because frankly, there are more important things to me. But this... is an interesting thing. Neocons on a Cruise: What Conservatives Say When They Think We Aren't Listening |
| Monday, July 16th, 2007 | |
| 3:12 pm | Taylor Mali on what teachers make The Impotence of Proofreading Like, y'know? |
| 1:15 pm | My Simpson Movie Avatar ( Read more... ) |
| Friday, July 13th, 2007 | |
| 3:51 am | The good and the bad + Derek's coming back from China, and Lijun (his wife) is coming with; their battles with byzantine Chinese red tape (for whom the Byzantines learned it from) is over. - Derek's going to want his speakers back, the one's I've been using for the past few years while he was gone. Blast! + I have enough money now to fully pay the tuition and buy all my books required. - and then I won't have any more money until next payday, in 14 days. - Gas is $3.15/gal here. + Mom bought the next book in the 1632 series, which is still in hardback - it's the last one for a while *whine* + I saw ratatouille, and I loved it. + I saw ratatouille, and chuckled quietly at the people waiting in line for the 4:30p (it was 3:25p) showing of Harry Potter, and went to a fairly empty theater and saw a great movie. - next week I'll try to see Harry Potter. Hopefully the crowds will have died down a little then. + I got holiday pay this paycheck. - I spent it on a phone refill and replacement water filters. - and I accidentally dropped the phone refill on the ground outside my car, went home, went back to the store... + but I found it as the lot cleaners were only two rows away and working their way towards me. - I saw an accident happen a few cars in front of me. + It was no one I knew, nor was it really that bad. Someone in a big black SUV was too close to a Jeep SUV, and they bumped off each other like bumper cars. + It's been raining virtually all month, our drought is over! - It's been raining virtually all month, places are getting flooding and declared federal disaster zones. |
| Saturday, July 7th, 2007 | |
| 2:22 am | Soo.... ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} may_lyn is alive, and in a lot of pain. It's triple digits there, which exacerbates her problems, and... oh for the want of a magic wand.Pat, her husband is working from 4am to 11p, because some jackass decided to cut off an armored truck in town, and to avoid trampling said jackass, the truck flipped. Pat was out of town on another truck, but down one truck and the same amount of orders means more work for him. Oh joy. May's in schedule for the MRI pretty soon, and I hope it'll show something minor, like a pinched nerve or something, buuut.... and they're worried about money. So, y'know, send good tidings, well wishes, and the like. They would be appreciated! |
| 1:39 am | This week's book, because I spent the book budget on a pair of computer games, and this one is a gift from my father: Mathematics and Sex by Clio Cresswell Book Description (from Amazon.com): Mathematics and sex may make odd bedfellows, but this fun, flirty look at the relationship between the two subjects shows that they are closely related. Revealing the ways in which math can help unlock the secrets of love, lust, and life's search for the ideal partner, this intriguing text covers topics such as dating services, dating as game theory, the mathematical logic of affairs, and the numbers behind orgasms. Math's answers to love's burning questions How much should one compromise in a relationship? Exactly what is it that is attractive in a lover? How many partners should one have before settling down? and What makes the infamous biological clock tick? are also revealed. I'm kinda curious... |
| Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 | |
| 10:14 pm | Transformers Oh.Em.Gee. Okay, so, it's not the cartoon, and it's not the cartoon movie, either. It's... Michael Bey Doing Transformers. So it's a lot like Pearl Harbor mixed with ID4 (of sorts). It's signature Michael Bey, Gunfights, Chase scenes, Explosions, Military scenes (of questionable accuracy), More chase scenes, a love story, a couple more explosions, and the little man beating the big overwhelming villian. Yet, I loved it. While the other movie is more character driven, this one's pure action movie. I liked it, and I liked that the robots moved so... fluidly, like in 'I Robot', only they're two stories tall, and some of the weapons are rather inventive. And yet, what I wasn't ready for was, oddly enough, the 'realism' of the picture. I'm used to the cartoon, where nobody dies, get's really hurt, and always manages to win/flee at the last moment. Transformers is a fun movie, and pretty close to the source material, and there is a loving attention to most aspects of it, but it's not all that deep. Shia LaBeouf does a wonderful job, and there's a ton of wonderful little touches that I loved, but at it's heart, it's a summer action movie. |
| Thursday, June 28th, 2007 | |
| 12:11 am | A new week... Two new books: The Rats, The Bats, & The Ugly by Eric Flint & Dave Freer Warp Speed by Travis S. Taylor |