I really enjoyed the Warcraft and Starcraft ministories in the game and I was happy to hear that books have been written that take place in those parallel worlds. One of these is Starcraft Uprising.
I am disapointed to say that the book sucks. It is like a fast forward screenwrite test, with ideas that are both boring and badly conceived. The entire book can be read online, but I've lost the link, but I tell you this: it is not worth it. And the action takes place just after humans discover the Zerg, but have no idea what they are, a prequel to the Starcraft storyline.
The first talks about Bush, very concerned about the "excessiveness" of the jail sentence for Lewis Libby, a vice-presidential aide tried and convicted for purposefully disclosing the name of an undercover CIA agent in order to harm her husband who opposed the war in Iraq and then perjury and obstructing justice. The sentence was 2.5 years in jail (a lot less than stealing something), but the president of the United States decided it is ... excessive. Hailed as a victory of justice, the whole trial was negated by this one action of president Bush. Who knows what this Libby guy has on him? I was incredulous at first, as I was yesterday when I was reading an article about banning superfoods in Europe, stuff like blueberries, salmon, spinach and soy. But it was the name 'superfood' that was banned, not the food itself, so I had reasons to be incredulous after all. But what about this? How can one stand and watch the whole media being grossly manipulated, the population lied to and sent to war on bogus reasons, then, when people get convicted for this, they get sprung out of jail by Bush! To tell you the truth I am still incredulous. I must have misread something.
The second article talks about the public perception of climate change in Great Britain. Apparently, 56% still think that global warming is a matter of debate. By the time they "think" global warming is a problem, they will probably be boiling in their own air conditioning juice. What does it need to make them see? Sinking of the British isles? A tornado in London? Hell freezing over?
A while ago I wrote an entry about the series I have been trying to watch to relieve by boredom. Here is a new set:
Blood Ties - this one is a collection of stereotypes like cops using only paperwork, cop made detective, tough cop love, vampire looking like a young Michelangelo and helping the police, etc. It looks and feels like a 1980 show and it might just as well be one, with new actors. Bottom line: stay away from it. It sucks ass.
Dr. Who revisited - the wife likes this show and I've come to enjoy it, too. It is is silly at times, yes, but also very serious sometimes. I also admire that is a truly British production, with a lot of satire and a real effort to keep it about England. There is also an offshoot of Doctor Who, called Torchwood which is fun, but infested by the "agency" or "bureau" or "cop/fire station" bug.
Jericho felt a lot like Lost, a series that I totally despised. The premise is similar: a bunch of Westerners are stranded in an isolated place and must survive. There is even that sort of musical bang after something new appears in the show. Also, the same "we are holier than thou" attitude. But the show does have a point, it has a script, makes sense, sort of, and is a lot better than Lost overall. The main story is that the US are attacked by a lot of nukes, apparently terrorist acts, and there are these people in a small and annoying town called Jericho that must survive the lack of infrastructure, power, the thieving gangs, warmongers from other towns, etc. Overall, a pretty nice show if you can stomach Pamela Reed, which I can, barely. A lot of American overdone morality and stuff so sweet that can lead to quick runs to the toilet, but overall, a nice watch.
Painkiller Jane is about a female cop that doesn't seem to be able to die. Based on comic books and using the same old and decrepit "secret group hunts another secret group" it is a show that sucks just as much as any. The only positive thing in it is Kristanna Loken :)
But now I am really out of shows. What can I do?! :-S
This video is hilarious just because it is so true. B movie legend Bruce Campbell is telling them as he sees them. Don't miss his upcoming movie "My Name is Bruce" in which he stars as himself battling demons! I can't find it anywhere for now, but I will keep searching.
Update: I found it, having been delayed for a year for redoing some scenes with extra budget, but it failed. :( I almost did not find it funny. Better luck next time.
Also, you might find useful the information that he played in all three Spiderman movies. And, as he says himself in another youtube clip, if he didn't name the hero in the first film, the entire franchise would have now been named "The Human Spider", while in the second, as the doorman of a cinema in which Spiderman did not enter, Bruce Campbell is the only person that ever defeated Spidey! :)
This man is just hilarious, watch this clip and all the Bruce Campbell Movies you can get your hands on.
Update: trust lawyers to screw with my blog. I had to replace the youtube video above with one from a live performance. Pretty much the same idea, only the interview was funnier and more complete.
I've accidentally stumbled upon Star Wreck, a Finnish film that parodies Star Trek and Babylon 5. The special effects are as good if not better than the original shows, the parody is cool and very funny and the fact that the film was made by some unknown guys in a makeshift studio gives it a lot of extra points. Not to mention that this is one film Danezia is very unlikely to comment on :D
What's even better is that the movie is freely downloadable from the net, so the major drive for the film was fun! When did you last see a movie made for fun, not money?
Update: Spoken too soon, apparently. After a while the film was released on DVD and removed as a download. But still, while it lasted it was cool.
All fans of Star Trek and B5 will love this.
You can also watch it here, but it's lower quality and maybe it will disappear after a while. Enjoy!
This is a video I've found randomly browsing the net. Previously I did search for it, but only on vague references.
What is it about? Steve Jobs gives a very cool speech at Stanford University, cool because it advocates following your heart and not settling on someone else's ideas of how your life should be. He basically goes in front of so many Stanford graduates and tells them that the things they learned there and stood by were nothing compared with the things they felt needed doing.
I really think that there must have been a lot of angry teachers after listening to Steve Jobs telling their students that he dropped out of college and that it was one of his best life decisions and that they should ignore all the brainwashing they had to go through to get to their graduation
I've just seen two movies: Sicko and Maxed Out, which describe, each in their own way, the issues arising from aggressive capitalism like the one in the USA. Some people are really quick to jump with the "oh no, it's socialist propaganda!" line and ignore the message, but, if you think about it, there is nothing wrong with some socialist propaganda now and then, since we are bombarded with capitalist propaganda every day in the form of ads and commercials and corrupt government propaganda.
I will make a (hopefully) short detour and talk about my perception of capitalism and democracy. I've always felt that there is something wrong with them, but could not exactly pinpoint it. Well, democracy is easy: the majority of people are idiots, therefore the rule of the people means you are lead by idiots. But capitalism? What is wrong with being competitive? Isn't that the only guarantee of performance? And then it struck me! Competition is not the problem, it's the performance! It's about one's definition of performance!
And now I return to the two movies, of which Sicko tells of insurance companies that pay doctors depending on how many people they refuse treatment to and Maxed Out shows how people are graded by the income they bring to the credit card companies, meaning that people with a high risk of being late on payments or even the ones that are not capable of paying are their main income sources, since they pay all those additional risk interest fees and late payment penalties.
Because this is grading performance. What it would be like for the police to try to catch mainly the people that will post bail and then run? What would it be like to have firemen being promoted on how little water they use? And since performance is now more and more defined exclusively in economic terms, who will inherit the world? The economic performers! banks, insurance companies, salesmen, marketeers, the ones that put everything into financial equations and care nothing about anything else.
The police and fire department, as brilliantly observed by Michael Moore in Sicko, are social services. In countries like the UK, Canada, France and even Cuba, getting professional medical help for your injuries for free (in other worlds universal health, health service socialization) is available. And doing great!
And now I look at Romania, I see the same thing that bothers be about America: everything is sold and bought. You need money to pay hospital bills, a lot of them not being covered by medical insurance, even if you have one; pharmacies payed by drug companies to sell their expensive products instead of for getting the right medicine to the right person; governments, no matter their political color, being bought and payed for by wealthy industrialists; banks and financial services effectively robbing you blind.
Oh yes, I agree, a socialist system does not work, but some services must be social. I would imagine welfare, health and education should be social services. The state should pay for them from taxes we all pay. No matter what company does the service, its income would originate from the state, rewarded by the real performance of their service: people not dying from poverty and disease, people cured from illness, people getting a high education and paying higher taxes because of it when their time comes.
But how can this happen in Romania? The government is so impotent and corrupt that it only does what large corporations, banks and political interests tell it to. And when people have had enough, here comes a superhero saviour, manufactured to look like the thing the people want by the very people that rob this country dry. I would hate to see Romania becoming a pale imitation of the US, a poor country with a cut-throat capitalism that benefits thieves only.
I have finally finished reading this book. I've tried reading it in Italian together with English, but after a while I've only read the Italian version. My first impression was that publicists do more than just print books. There were several passages that were missing from the English translation, for example. I also felt that they were related in that they were more aggressive against the idea of the Church. Although I can't say for sure.
I also had difficulty reading the book after seeing the movie. I've heard a lot of people describing the movie as a pale imitation of the book. Bullshit! The movie was great: the adaptation, the casting, the music, the directing. The only thing lacking from the movie was the political dimension, the battle between religious factions and the description of the political situation of the time. Which is a lot, but is not really relevant to the idea of the book.
So, if you have seen the movie, you might find it difficult to read the book. If you haven't yet, I suggest you read the book and certainly watch the movie afterwards. There is a certain magic when Sean Connery's accent overlaps with Ennio Morricone's music :)
Anyway, the book describes not only the murders and the process of finding the killer, but also a world where books are copied by hand by people who can speak Latin and Greek, but not the vernacular, the language of the people, then they are hidden in great libraries with access restricted by religion. A time where the inquisition's main purpose is to get rid of troublesome Christian cults with their own interpretation of religion, gathering momentum and followers just like a political party would. A world where the Pope and the Emperor have great powers and fight each other using any means necessary. A period when the universities are slowly replacing the abbeys as places of learning.
All in all it is a good book. I don't think the Italian language brought a lot more to the book. I was quite satisfied with the English translation and there isn't much word play in the original text. There are some passages where the author seems unable to stop listing items, making them tedious, but overall the style is easy to follow and the logic good. The end moral is that the pursuit of knowledge is more important that the knowledge itself and that evil lurks even in the most holly of hearts.
Oh, I am weak. I'd already decided not to download the game from various reasons. First of all I didn't have the greatest computer to play it on, then the fact that it would totally consume me and take me away from work or any intelligent activity; third of all, I didn't have the space. Well, the hell with it, I've taken the hard drive from another computer, deleted all the movies, downloaded the game and played it at lowest graphics. Luckily (or unluckily) I've finished it in about 5 days. Here is my experience.
I had huge expectancies regarding this game. Made by Arkane Studios, the brilliant makers of Ultima Underworld (AND NO! I DON'T MEAN ULTIMA, BLEAH!) and Arx Fatalis[blog entry], both greatly intelligent games, but in a Might&Magic universe (I've loved the might and magic series, even from Might&Magic 1 - AND NO! I DON'T MEAN HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC, BLEAH!). Also I have seen the videos of gameplay and also noticed a multiplayer mode, something like Counter Strike, another sick obsession of mine. So Arx Fatalis + Might&Magic + Counter Strike = the greatest games of all times!
Wrong! Actually, the entire game is like Arx Fatalis II, a project that Arcane Studios have started but never finished. The Might&Magic name is completely misused, since the game is quest based, without open spaces or branched game play. The fighting is pretty cool, but on my NVidia FX5200 it showed white instead of water when swimming, a transparent checkers board on the screen when using magic items and a white rectangle when animations were played. Maybe that last one is from a glitch in the DVD image.
That doesn't mean it is a bad game. Au contraire! the 3D engine is great and the feeling and the story are almost identical to Arx Fatalis. The interactions with the environment and some of the innovations are extraordinary. However the complexity of the game greatly diminished, kind of like the decrease in complexity one sees from the 1-5 series of Might&Magic to the 3D version starting with 6. The quests are real no brainers and there aren't many creatures in the game. Somehow, the electric flying demon-octopus had made its way all the way from Ultima Underworld :) but other than that you only have: goblins, Orcs, soldiers, tough soldiers, necromancers, leeches, cyclops, pao-kai (corrupted dragons), undead zombies, undead cyclops and undead pao-kai, a huge spider and a lot of small and annoying other spiders and ghouls (which are the most scary and dangerous if you ask me) in 10 levels of fun.
I mean, where are the undead goblins? I've never seen them in any game!
Anyway, some innovations deserve a lot of credit:
The rope arrow (shoot an arrow and climb the rope) which would have been even better without the bug that made me fall through walls or get stuck there.
The fact that you can pretty much grab anything and throw it in your enemy. The interaction with the environment (throw enemies off cliffs, into fires, into spikes, push coffins and statues and barrels on them, destroy wood supports or cut ropes to unleash hell on your enemies. This would have been great if you wouldn't have had to hit a ghoul several times with the coolest weapon you have to kill them, but you killed it instantly if you kicked it into spikes.
The way that the character evolves through your choices, making you an assassin, a wizard or a fighter depending on the usage of your points. Unfortunately you only win points when finishing quests, not when actually defeating enemies.
The head shot bonus.
The general dynamic of the game, which means smart monsters run when they are badly hurt, hide themselves behind obstacles if they can't reach you so you wouldn't just shoot them with a bow several times, etc.
Ok, spoilers follow! I will be telling the story of the game.
You are some magician's apprentice, before he sends you on a quest to carry a crystal to a friend, he implants you with a helper (a female voice) that gives you a lot of suggestions (too many if you ask me). She is also very sensual and making sexy remarks, so that means she has to be evil :-/ Anyway, you get to this city when the city is attacked by necromancers, they steal your crystal, you have to get the crystal back, find a skull, the necros take the skull, you have to get it back and the moral of the story is that... you are the son of the strongest demon of them all, imprisoned by the seventh dragon by using the very skull everyone has been after.
Now, you have options: purge yourself from the evil implantation in your head or not. Keep the good girl alive or not. Use the skull to imprison your father forever or to set him free. There are different endings for this, and the video below shows them all.
Very basic story, yes? A lot like the one in Arx Fatalis where you also were a pawn of ... everybody. And you also don't get any sex in this one. Plenty of violence though. The animations aren't very cool either. It seems as if Ubisoft bought the unfinished Arx Fatalis II and gave it a shine, then released it as fast as possible. Having morons like me playing the game without paying could also explain the lack of extra details.
My suggestion is to get the charm spell as soon as possible, as it gives you the opportunity to make enemies fight each other while you watch. :) Of course, assassin is cool, too, but I hadn't had the time to test it yet.
Bottom line: Not the greatest game ever, but still one to show everybody else how a game should be conceived and how important innovation is.
There is no clear formula for calculating the concept of success because success can only be defined from factors like goal and duration. For example, a guy might be considered successful in getting a girl, but a failure if the relationship does not work and they split up in terrible anger or grief. In the long run, it was not a good idea to get the girl.
The same theory can be applied to any problem. For example outsourcing. In the short run, the company wins, because they reduce the costs of employment. They might even win in the long run, but the money go outside the country, diminishing by a little the success of all companies in the same region. In this case, the long run might prove that making a united front is better than scattering the resources between competing factions. Or maybe not.
The other day I was thinking of oil. A friend of mine sent me this link to a site that talks about the coming of an age in which oil is no more. It is coming soon and it basically means a dramatic (and probably violent) scaling down of world energy output. In the same time, a Romanian minister declared that he intends to push for investments in the gas sector, like finding new natural gas reserves.
And something blinked. If the oil and natural gas are scarcer and the price is likely to go up very quickly and dramatically, wouldn't that mean that keeping the oil in the ground would be a far better deal? Why extract it now, when the US and OPEC are still managing to keep the prices to a decent level (through a lot of indecent actions)? Wouldn't it be better, in the long run, to wait until the price skyrockets and everybody else is left without? In the short run, oil companies and ministries make a lot of money from it, but in the long run, they could make a lot more. Yet the people that are in charge now probably won't get anything. So they greedily suck it up and sell it.
Now, since I've defined the problem, I should think of a solution. And I think the only solution here is this: people that have charge over the oil in the ground should be able to sell the rights to the oil once it has been extracted. That means that I could sell some guy the right to the oil underground, even if I am not extracting it. Maybe even a nice clause that if the oil is not extracted in time, the guy could get his money back with a considerable interest as penalty. I believe it could work, since the price of the underground oil is likely to increase in time.
Thus the oil in the ground is transformed into money, independently of the extraction process. The extractor will get a percentage of the price of oil, then pass it to the owner or find some other arrangement to sell it and split the profits with the owner of the oil. I think it's a great idea to make money from oil without burning it. The only drawback is that someone could invent a better and cheaper and cleaner energy source. Bummer! :)
I've come upon this PDF file that explains what an euphemism is. I moved then to doublespeak, which is already a highly talked and blogged about term (679000 googles) because it is a form of euphemism used by politicians and press to change the emotional impact of information or even distort its sense. Stuff like "Collateral damage" to replace civilian death or "physical persuasion" used instead of torture.
I had this idea to put a chat on the blog, kind of like the old school Bulletin Board System I had once. The fun I had back then, talking nonsense to so many people I didn't know... [rolling eyes].
Anyway, I took the advice of Blogger and used the chat from TagBoard. The other recommended chat was marked as bad by SiteAdvisor. The first thing I noticed is that it was a very simple site as well as a very simple chat: your basic iframe and some text inputs. The second thing I noticed is that most of the features were restricted to payed accounts.
Well, who needs them? Auto-refresh? I can make my own! Ban IP? What for? Filter messages? Why? But soon enough I got a spam message. So I went to the TagBoard interface and deleted it. Next day I got two. I deleted those as well. Then 4 appeared. Deleted. Then 8! I was kindda worried that they would progress geometrically. And maybe they did, but TagBoard has a limit of messages it keeps in memory.
I have no real evidence for this, but I can only think of one reason this spam would occur a few days after I enabled the account, and that is that the spam is perpetrated by TagBoard itself to force you into buying an account. Afterwards you would probably notice that the spam comes from a single IP, you would block it, and be happy. Also, I noticed that the iframe that they served me occasionally tried to open a popup. It fits into the general profile I've associated with them.
Therefore, the chat is gone. I only had like two messages on it anyway. People seem more interested in commenting (yeah right).
I will just summarise the series I've seen or came in contact with after the sad loss of Stargate :'(.
First of all: Ugly Betty (the US version). My wife watches it. It sucks ass! It's just like a gayified, pointless conveyor belt of clichees, mostly stolen from other clichee series of "romantic comedies". The only bit of originality comes from the original Colombian Ugly Betty. The premise: ugly girl with huge heart in the world of fashion. All possible violence or tension has been stripped off, though.
Next: Doctor Who. After having seen the wonderful reinventing of Battlestar Galactica, I kind of hoped that Dr. Who would be just as great. I haven't seen the original series, but this one is plain silly. I still watch it, but it's like watching Charmed. Lots of ridiculous comedy with a sci-fi twist. The premise is that an alien, last of his race, is travelling through time and space to ... watch history unfolding. He takes along Billie Piper, who is terribly cute, but that's about all that is good in the show.
Numb3rs! Now here is a show that is obviously planned from a recipe, but I like it. The premise of the show is that a brilliant mathematician is helping his FBI brother solve cases. And I swear my previous post about superhero mathematicians was written before I even heard of this show. The show has high quality values, both in police/military strategy, budget and human relationships. The math, though, is really basic, but it just had to be, obviously. I think of it as a science popularisation police show.
If anyone knows of a good sci fi show or at least a decent mainstream one, please let me know. I am in withdrawal already, torn between the loss of my fantasy world and the complete boredom of my real one. I don't even have time to fantasize! Boo-hoo!
I really enjoyed the Warcraft and Starcraft ministories in the game and I was happy to hear that books have been written that take place in those parallel worlds. One of these is Starcraft Uprising.
