Total non sequitur of a blog entry... even for a blog entry...
I understand that massively multiplayer online gaming is an excellent way to escape the stress and pressures of the day-to-day so-called "real" world...
=)
I'm more of a twitch player, y'know? Doom, Quake, Jedi Knight, Medal of Honor... I'm into stripping down to the R-complex and running after other people in space stations or mines or secret labs and taking shots at them with a rocket launcher. I don't have the patience for building a character...
Hrmmm...
That last sentence might've been what people in the therapy biz would call a breakthru...
Right.
Anyhow... These days I don't have the patience for that, y'know? Amassing wealth and collecting items and having to choose from four dozen spells while backing up my guild brothers with my battle axe...
Sounds like fun, tho, don't it? =)
Keep on keepin on~
Saturday, May 06, 2006
a voice on the T...
I'm a little fuzzy now if it was this morning (Friday) or Thursday morning that this happened...
On the red line from Central to Park Street, the train was leaving Kendall Square station. Over the P.A. the driver's (I assume) voice comes on: "GET A REAL JOB!"
I looked up from my bookybook - THE EYRE AFFAIR (A Tuesday Next Mystery) - and quickly around. It was a crowded car, passengers standing, seats pretty much all full. I only noticed two other people who reacted to the... umm... order? Both seated on the opposite side of the car from me. One was a flight attendant, 30-something, blond hair magically still knotted up after some making-up on the T, uniformed and travel bag at the ready. The other was an older fellow, bearded and balding... Kind of... professor-looking. The woman looked a bit shocked. The man did a kind of Spock eyebrow thing, raised angled eyebrow, y'know? I was sort of half-laughing and we saw each other and he smiled and shook it off.
Random.
I did just (finally) get my hair cut last week, so, what else could I do? I quit my job.
Heh. No, not really. Not that I wouldn't like to, cuz anyone who's met him will agree, my boss is a jerk, but honestly, he can't get anything done without me. I can't just up and disappear.
Umm... Of course I don't mean Joe... The other guy, HE's the jerk.
Heh.
I wonder what that was about. Was it directed at a co-worker on the platform at Kendall? To a friend who'd just gotten on or off the train? The result of an unfortunate accidental pressing of a button during an exchange over a walkie, or during a spontaneous bit of self flagellation?
And, regardless of the reasons behind or origin of the amplified remark, will anyone in earshot of the command go out and change their life as a result? Will some Glen or Glenda who makes good in a big way a year down the line relate a story to Leno or Oprah or Jesus and Friends about how, when he was at the lowest point in his career, in his life even, and was considering throwing himself onto the rails of the Boston MTA, a voice spoke to him, and told him to...
GET A REAL JOB!
...and it turned his life around...?
Keep on keepin on~
Oh. I texted and saved the car number for myself. Not that it will probably ever matter, but I do these things sometimes. Sorry, no LOST connection - 01865.
On the red line from Central to Park Street, the train was leaving Kendall Square station. Over the P.A. the driver's (I assume) voice comes on: "GET A REAL JOB!"
I looked up from my bookybook - THE EYRE AFFAIR (A Tuesday Next Mystery) - and quickly around. It was a crowded car, passengers standing, seats pretty much all full. I only noticed two other people who reacted to the... umm... order? Both seated on the opposite side of the car from me. One was a flight attendant, 30-something, blond hair magically still knotted up after some making-up on the T, uniformed and travel bag at the ready. The other was an older fellow, bearded and balding... Kind of... professor-looking. The woman looked a bit shocked. The man did a kind of Spock eyebrow thing, raised angled eyebrow, y'know? I was sort of half-laughing and we saw each other and he smiled and shook it off.
Random.
I did just (finally) get my hair cut last week, so, what else could I do? I quit my job.
Heh. No, not really. Not that I wouldn't like to, cuz anyone who's met him will agree, my boss is a jerk, but honestly, he can't get anything done without me. I can't just up and disappear.
Umm... Of course I don't mean Joe... The other guy, HE's the jerk.
Heh.
I wonder what that was about. Was it directed at a co-worker on the platform at Kendall? To a friend who'd just gotten on or off the train? The result of an unfortunate accidental pressing of a button during an exchange over a walkie, or during a spontaneous bit of self flagellation?
And, regardless of the reasons behind or origin of the amplified remark, will anyone in earshot of the command go out and change their life as a result? Will some Glen or Glenda who makes good in a big way a year down the line relate a story to Leno or Oprah or Jesus and Friends about how, when he was at the lowest point in his career, in his life even, and was considering throwing himself onto the rails of the Boston MTA, a voice spoke to him, and told him to...
GET A REAL JOB!
...and it turned his life around...?
Keep on keepin on~
Oh. I texted and saved the car number for myself. Not that it will probably ever matter, but I do these things sometimes. Sorry, no LOST connection - 01865.
Friday, May 05, 2006
TV: DR. WHO is Good...
I just watched the DR. WHO episode from last week on SciFi, "Father's Day," and I hafta say, it is one of the best little time travel stories I've ever seen, heard, or read. It's a very smart, tight, and sweet little tale.
The episode begins with this Doctor's first Earthmonkey sidekick, Rose, telling the Doctor about her late father. She only knows him thru bedtime stories told by her mother. She described his kindness, responsibility, and brilliance, as well as the romance of their courtship and marriage. After explaining how she never really got to know her dad, Rose persuades the Doctor to arrange some low-key visits to moments in her father's life, including his wedding to her mother and the last day of his life, the day he was struck by a hit-and-run driver. Her mother had told her that he was alone when he died - he was found dead some time after the driver sped off - and Rose wants to change that. Not to save him from death, but simply to be there when he does pass away, to hold him, to let him be with someone who loves him in his last moments. However, when the Doctor gives Rose this chance, she finds she cannot resist rushing to save him.
HelLO!~ McFLY-yy!
As Philip J. Fry could have told her, "Duh, your actions upset the flow of Time." But y'know, we've gotta suspend disbelief or we won't have a story. =)
In order to heal the wound created by Rose's interference, the cosmos dispatches a legion of Tommyknocker-esque spacetime antibodies, dead set on sterilizing the damaged area, specifically, humanity on Earth in the year 1987. When the Doctor returns to the TARDIS, presumably to jump to a point in time when he could return its flow to its correct path, he finds that the tesseract is gone! The police box interior is simply... an empty police box. The Doctor is NOT pleased to find himself trapped with the monkeys, but what's a Timelord to do? He and Rose regroup and rally to protect a small group of survivors in an old chapel, but without the TARDIS, they can do nothing to change and fix history...
While the Doctor brainstorms, Rose gets to know her parents better, and worse...
I really fell hard for the obligatory "no man is an island" explanation of the significance of the life of an average, "unimportant" fellow doing his own little thing day after day for as long as he does it. The Doctor also expresses his admiration and even envy of these simple lives compared to his long-lived and adventure-filled own.
The Timelord science that governs this damage to the timestream, its cosmic treatment, and possible undoing is pretty simple and clever, with any rough edges hidden behind the word "Paradox." =) I very much appreciated it.
As Rose and the Doctor do their best to protect her parents from the mindbending truth of the cause of the wound, never mind Rose's identity, her father starts to put it all together on his own...
Frack, I really can't go on anymore without totally giving up the really fun bits of the story, but I will say those fun bits are classic, timeless (*groan* I know!), even.
In general, I've seen most of the SciFi broadcast episodes of this incarnation of the Doctor and find it to be as much fun as Tom Baker's stint back in the 80s. Honestly, I lost track of the Doctor in the bewteen time, sampling the post-Baker Docs in random episodes and TV movies on PBS.
I'll keep this episode saved on my replay a while. If anyone of my friends who reads this is interested, and is local, maybe I can have you over for a viewing before my saved-up OCs and SMALLVILLEs force me to kill it. =)
Keep on keepin on~
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
zombie shuffle...
I was in Davis Square Saturday night to catch LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN (a TON of cool noir fun) at the Somerville Theater. While I was waiting outside the theater for my friend Glen to show, I noticed that there were an unusual number of the undead in the people traffic in the area...
Even for Somerville.
I let myself get caught up in the zombie watching and didn't think to disturb any of the shambling corpses with questions as to their purpose or destination. Really, tho, what would've been the use? They're dead, they're ALL messed up, right? On top of that, I'm an EEjit for not snapping a few digital shots! I must've just been out of it, or caught too off guard by the spectacle and appreciation of it all.
And of course there was the danger of exhibiting independent thinking and behavior that would have marked me as one of the living, and thusly, a potential snack of brains tartar...
I got in maybe 15 minutes of zombie watching before Glen arrived and we went into the theater to hit the movie. I told myself that I'd definitely blog and/or google about the resurrected sightings, but curse my poor memory, I didn't think of the dead-alive "Thriller" video re-enactment again until I click-stumbled across a reference to it in the blog of hepcat gamer Russ...
...a friend of designfemme, with whom I've had the distinct FPS pleasure of exchanging virtual RPGs and Force shoves at LANbangs thrown by Mr. designfemme, aka Jeff.
From Russ's blog, I found links to photos from the event, with links off to a zombie mobilization website at halfwaytohuman.com, featuring reports, photos, videos, and a zomblog (check out the craigslist "Missed Connections").
Would've LOVED to have lurched w the crowd, altho I would've needed some help reanimating myself properly. I wish I'd known about this beforehand. Don't know if the halfways knew, but I think it would've been the most perfect thing to fill a screening of Ed Helms's ZOMBIE AMERICAN short film at the IFFB with some corpseriffic brothers and sisters, don't you?
Thanks to Russ, Christina, designfemme, George Romero, and Simon Pegg for sharing and contributing to the goodness of the zombie nation... =)
Keep on creepin on~
Even for Somerville.
I let myself get caught up in the zombie watching and didn't think to disturb any of the shambling corpses with questions as to their purpose or destination. Really, tho, what would've been the use? They're dead, they're ALL messed up, right? On top of that, I'm an EEjit for not snapping a few digital shots! I must've just been out of it, or caught too off guard by the spectacle and appreciation of it all.
And of course there was the danger of exhibiting independent thinking and behavior that would have marked me as one of the living, and thusly, a potential snack of brains tartar...
I got in maybe 15 minutes of zombie watching before Glen arrived and we went into the theater to hit the movie. I told myself that I'd definitely blog and/or google about the resurrected sightings, but curse my poor memory, I didn't think of the dead-alive "Thriller" video re-enactment again until I click-stumbled across a reference to it in the blog of hepcat gamer Russ...
...a friend of designfemme, with whom I've had the distinct FPS pleasure of exchanging virtual RPGs and Force shoves at LANbangs thrown by Mr. designfemme, aka Jeff.
From Russ's blog, I found links to photos from the event, with links off to a zombie mobilization website at halfwaytohuman.com, featuring reports, photos, videos, and a zomblog (check out the craigslist "Missed Connections").
Would've LOVED to have lurched w the crowd, altho I would've needed some help reanimating myself properly. I wish I'd known about this beforehand. Don't know if the halfways knew, but I think it would've been the most perfect thing to fill a screening of Ed Helms's ZOMBIE AMERICAN short film at the IFFB with some corpseriffic brothers and sisters, don't you?
Thanks to Russ, Christina, designfemme, George Romero, and Simon Pegg for sharing and contributing to the goodness of the zombie nation... =)
Keep on creepin on~
Super Mario Brothers LIVE!
Check out this re-enactment of level 1 Super Mario action! =)
And, in other "live action" Super Mario news...
Can you believe that there IS actually other "live action" Super Mario news...?
Some teens in Ohio constructed and placed some power-up boxes in public spaces around their town for April 1. Unfortunately, their inspired work caused a bit of alarm.
The same kind raised by a recent MI-3 promotion... But I don't think anyone's being held or penalized for the newsstand shenanigans...?
Thanks mucho to Paris Jen and Gordie for pointing me to the video! It warms the heart to see today's kids honoring and appreciating traditional videogame values.
Keep on keepin on~
And, in other "live action" Super Mario news...
Can you believe that there IS actually other "live action" Super Mario news...?
Some teens in Ohio constructed and placed some power-up boxes in public spaces around their town for April 1. Unfortunately, their inspired work caused a bit of alarm.
The same kind raised by a recent MI-3 promotion... But I don't think anyone's being held or penalized for the newsstand shenanigans...?
Thanks mucho to Paris Jen and Gordie for pointing me to the video! It warms the heart to see today's kids honoring and appreciating traditional videogame values.
Keep on keepin on~
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)