Get yourself Ringu, it's much more scary and has an actual plot. The charcters are better developed and all around I find it more enjoyable.
But I'm just some white guy in Ohio. Clearly the asian american guy who bought the rights and made the decisions on how to badly screw up the remake knows what film audiences want.
The Grudge (also licensed by the same no-talent ass-clown) was much better in it's original form as 4 films (Ju-on: Curse 1 & 2, Ju-on: Grudge 1 & 2).
Now with spelling fixed (sorry about the grammar).
Donaldson has a tendency to really make you love or hate his work.
I enjoyed the Magic Kingdom for sale (and I think I may have read one of the follow ups) so I decided to start in on his series "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever".
Early on you have the main character being a bitter person and when things seem to get better for him he rapes a woman. This put me off, but I kept reading and I got to see the wonder of the creation the story world was. Even at the end I still hated the main character. Anyone you were rooting for or loved/enjoyed the character was killed somewhere in the first trilogy.
Donaldson's giants were possibly the most enjoyable creatures I have ever read in a fantasy setting.
I pop open the next book and discover they have been genocide behind the scenes. I almost stopped again. Then I find he meets the daughter that is his from the rape in the first book. So I hope to go his character has learned and can make some decisions that are not going to get everyone killed.
I gave up on that series after the first book in the second trilogy. I don't even think I finished it. Maybe some day I will go back and read them again, because when Donaldson was able to make you feel the magic, wonder, and joy of the world it really was so worth reading. The downside was he really can pull you into a deep pit of despair.
Donaldson has a tendency to really make you love or hate his work.
I enjoyed the Magic Kingdom for sale (and I think I may have read one of the follow ups) so I decided to start in on his series "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever".
Early on you have the main character being a bitter person and when things seem to get better for him he rapes a woman. This put me off, but I kept reading and I got to see the wonder of the creation the story world was. Even at the end I still hateed the main character. Anyone you were rooting for or loved/enjoyed the character was killed somewhere in the first trillogy.
Donaldsons giants were possibly the most enjoyable creatures I have ever read in a fantasy setting.
I pop open the next book and discover they have been genocided behind the scenes. I almost stopped again. Then I find he meets the daughter that is his from the rape in the first book. So I hope to go his character has learned and can make some decisions that are not going to get everyone killed.
I gave up on that series after the first book in the second trilogy. I dont even think I finished it. Maybe some day I will go back and read them again, because when Donaldson was able to make you feel the magic, wonder, and joy of the world it really was so worth reading. The downside was he really can pull you into a deep pit of despair.
I think the one thing in Totoro that sums up the spirit of Ghibli films is one scene outside. The camera settles on a butterfly doing it's butterfly things for just a few seconds. It is just the kind of thing a person might notice and pay attention to for a few seconds before getting on with the task at hand.
LG makes a drive that does everything. I've had one since they released the first one. The first drive died in 3 months so it was replaced by newegg, replacement was the new released model and has performed well for the last year.
"Take for example Stark. Yeah, he had a heart condition. But instead of any real stories about what people with heart conditions do, it was "Argh! Dr NastyAwful has pushed a button that causes my armor to, I don't know, make my heart become a hackneyed plot device!" Yeah, I know this is fantasy, but after the fourth or fifth time didn't you start to go "Jesus, just die already!""
I seem to remember a few times (areound when he went from the old bulky can looking armor to the more form fitting one with the round containers on his hips, I think that was in the 70's) that a few times Stark did more then "Oh, this is the biggest one I ever had. You hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you honey.".
Go to a better book store. The good ones will have the Manga in it's own section and the graphic novels/comic collections in their own section. I think it makes sense even though they are "the same" to many people. You have 2 different but sometimes overlapping audiences.
"I generally enjoyed the later books, except for the great cop-out ending, and the "Surprise! Random gratuitous pr0n!", which was just weird (Clarke claims that those bits were Gentry Lee's fault)."
I think I agree with that, most of what I thought got in the way was stuff like the whole "you must have sex with our daughter to populate the ship" bit in the one where they get taken, and I found the way people acted in the one where they send a colony too "dead on" for what I was hoping to enjoy as a good adventure (humans are scum and screw up everything they toch). I guess the last one did a good job because I felt something ( also want some quality brick to the head time with Thomas Covenant) but most of it was anger.
As for the plot of the first book, we get disaster films that are about that level of depth. Some of what the explorers encounter on Rama in seem like events from a disaster film.
I'd love to see a film of Rendezvous with Rama. Great exploration story and much better then recent disaster/exploration films. Just dont make any of the awful follow-up books into movies.
"The USA certainly gets points for having roadside supermarkets FULL of fireworks!"
Not everywhere. Some states or cities completely ban all firworks (with an exception for licensed pros on July 4th) or do not allow the sale of fireworks above a certain size to no-licensed people.
I think people are trying to justify Monster brand cable purchases for 3 foot optical connections. Since the main selling point and main excuse I hear from the devout followers of Monster Cable is that their plastic optic cable reduces jitter that would otherwise rape your pets if left unchecked.
The new Duck Dodgers series while not being perfect often hits quit high on the quality IMO. I think it is because the people doing it care about the show and the ideas. Making something funny and smart can be quite tough. If the team working on a show does not care enough about it or is being drivin by someone who only cares how they can bank on the recognition of the title, then it will suffer.
Now judges just need to worry about powerfull politicians saying loudly "Who will rid me of this activist judge". The nutjobs urged on (not oficially) by politicians and talk radio hosts go out and start dealing with the "activist judges" thus the lifetime appointment is much shorter and he can be replaced with someone who goose steps to the party line (whichever party is in power).
Paper can be made from other materials with higher yield and quality then tree pulp. Hemp for instance, grows like a weed and provides useful products. Also for people who think everyone who is pro hemp is just a pothead, there are types of hemp plant that do not produce useful amounts of THC.
Astromechs seem to have a electronic "genius" gene. In a recent star wars campaign I was playing, my Astro mech with a starship gunnery skill of 2 (means it rolls 2d6) was told to create a distraction by firing the ion cannon into the opposite side of the hanger from our group. Somehow the lucky little bastard managed to roll a 26 on 2 dice. The resulting explosion from whatever he hit took out half the potential persuing tie fighters (damaged the launch system) as well as got most of the guards away from the ship.
In "Splinter of the Minds Eye" (Allen Dean Foster) Luke's saber has the variable length feature, but he only shortened it. I think they have a maximum length designed to be what we see on screen.
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Get yourself Ringu, it's much more scary and has an actual plot. The charcters are better developed and all around I find it more enjoyable.
But I'm just some white guy in Ohio. Clearly the asian american guy who bought the rights and made the decisions on how to badly screw up the remake knows what film audiences want.
The Grudge (also licensed by the same no-talent ass-clown) was much better in it's original form as 4 films (Ju-on: Curse 1 & 2, Ju-on: Grudge 1 & 2).
Now with spelling fixed (sorry about the grammar).
Donaldson has a tendency to really make you love or hate his work.
I enjoyed the Magic Kingdom for sale (and I think I may have read one of the follow ups) so I decided to start in on his series "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever".
Early on you have the main character being a bitter person and when things seem to get better for him he rapes a woman. This put me off, but I kept reading and I got to see the wonder of the creation the story world was. Even at the end I still hated the main character. Anyone you were rooting for or loved/enjoyed the character was killed somewhere in the first trilogy.
Donaldson's giants were possibly the most enjoyable creatures I have ever read in a fantasy setting.
I pop open the next book and discover they have been genocide behind the scenes. I almost stopped again. Then I find he meets the daughter that is his from the rape in the first book. So I hope to go his character has learned and can make some decisions that are not going to get everyone killed.
I gave up on that series after the first book in the second trilogy. I don't even think I finished it. Maybe some day I will go back and read them again, because when Donaldson was able to make you feel the magic, wonder, and joy of the world it really was so worth reading. The downside was he really can pull you into a deep pit of despair.
Donaldson has a tendency to really make you love or hate his work.
I enjoyed the Magic Kingdom for sale (and I think I may have read one of the follow ups) so I decided to start in on his series "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever".
Early on you have the main character being a bitter person and when things seem to get better for him he rapes a woman. This put me off, but I kept reading and I got to see the wonder of the creation the story world was. Even at the end I still hateed the main character. Anyone you were rooting for or loved/enjoyed the character was killed somewhere in the first trillogy.
Donaldsons giants were possibly the most enjoyable creatures I have ever read in a fantasy setting.
I pop open the next book and discover they have been genocided behind the scenes. I almost stopped again. Then I find he meets the daughter that is his from the rape in the first book. So I hope to go his character has learned and can make some decisions that are not going to get everyone killed.
I gave up on that series after the first book in the second trilogy. I dont even think I finished it. Maybe some day I will go back and read them again, because when Donaldson was able to make you feel the magic, wonder, and joy of the world it really was so worth reading. The downside was he really can pull you into a deep pit of despair.
Or send you a memo.
I think the one thing in Totoro that sums up the spirit of Ghibli films is one scene outside. The camera settles on a butterfly doing it's butterfly things for just a few seconds. It is just the kind of thing a person might notice and pay attention to for a few seconds before getting on with the task at hand.
Ran was King Lear not Hamlet.
LG makes a drive that does everything. I've had one since they released the first one. The first drive died in 3 months so it was replaced by newegg, replacement was the new released model and has performed well for the last year.
PS/2 is still a computer. PS2 is a game system.
What no Michael Swanwick? In the drift I think might have been a good addition.
"Take for example Stark. Yeah, he had a heart condition. But instead of any real stories about what people with heart conditions do, it was "Argh! Dr NastyAwful has pushed a button that causes my armor to, I don't know, make my heart become a hackneyed plot device!" Yeah, I know this is fantasy, but after the fourth or fifth time didn't you start to go "Jesus, just die already!""
I seem to remember a few times (areound when he went from the old bulky can looking armor to the more form fitting one with the round containers on his hips, I think that was in the 70's) that a few times Stark did more then "Oh, this is the biggest one I ever had. You hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you honey.".
Go to a better book store. The good ones will have the Manga in it's own section and the graphic novels/comic collections in their own section. I think it makes sense even though they are "the same" to many people. You have 2 different but sometimes overlapping audiences.
"I generally enjoyed the later books, except for the great cop-out ending, and the "Surprise! Random gratuitous pr0n!", which was just weird (Clarke claims that those bits were Gentry Lee's fault)."
I think I agree with that, most of what I thought got in the way was stuff like the whole "you must have sex with our daughter to populate the ship" bit in the one where they get taken, and I found the way people acted in the one where they send a colony too "dead on" for what I was hoping to enjoy as a good adventure (humans are scum and screw up everything they toch). I guess the last one did a good job because I felt something ( also want some quality brick to the head time with Thomas Covenant) but most of it was anger.
As for the plot of the first book, we get disaster films that are about that level of depth. Some of what the explorers encounter on Rama in seem like events from a disaster film.
I'd love to see a film of Rendezvous with Rama. Great exploration story and much better then recent disaster/exploration films.
Just dont make any of the awful follow-up books into movies.
"The USA certainly gets points for having roadside supermarkets FULL of fireworks!"
Not everywhere.
Some states or cities completely ban all firworks (with an exception for licensed pros on July 4th) or do not allow the sale of fireworks above a certain size to no-licensed people.
I think people are trying to justify Monster brand cable purchases for 3 foot optical connections. Since the main selling point and main excuse I hear from the devout followers of Monster Cable is that their plastic optic cable reduces jitter that would otherwise rape your pets if left unchecked.
The new Duck Dodgers series while not being perfect often hits quit high on the quality IMO. I think it is because the people doing it care about the show and the ideas. Making something funny and smart can be quite tough. If the team working on a show does not care enough about it or is being drivin by someone who only cares how they can bank on the recognition of the title, then it will suffer.
Something like
Luke: "R2 hold my space-beer."
Luke: "Hey Yoda! Watch This!"
R2: "beep-beep-chirp-boop" (you are doing it)
Yoda: "Doing it, you are."
Now judges just need to worry about powerfull politicians saying loudly "Who will rid me of this activist judge". The nutjobs urged on (not oficially) by politicians and talk radio hosts go out and start dealing with the "activist judges" thus the lifetime appointment is much shorter and he can be replaced with someone who goose steps to the party line (whichever party is in power).
Paper can be made from other materials with higher yield and quality then tree pulp.
Hemp for instance, grows like a weed and provides useful products. Also for people who think everyone who is pro hemp is just a pothead, there are types of hemp plant that do not produce useful amounts of THC.
Astromechs seem to have a electronic "genius" gene.
In a recent star wars campaign I was playing, my Astro mech with a starship gunnery skill of 2 (means it rolls 2d6) was told to create a distraction by firing the ion cannon into the opposite side of the hanger from our group.
Somehow the lucky little bastard managed to roll a 26 on 2 dice. The resulting explosion from whatever he hit took out half the potential persuing tie fighters (damaged the launch system) as well as got most of the guards away from the ship.
Beats me, I just post here.
I think they want AO to be kind of like X was for film, but without being relegated to just pornography.
In "Splinter of the Minds Eye" (Allen Dean Foster) Luke's saber has the variable length feature, but he only shortened it. I think they have a maximum length designed to be what we see on screen.
Don't forget the 4-6 hours of law and order.
Crap, I mixed up The Phantom with The Shadow. Never mind.
Given it's name.
Maybe it clouded all the mens minds at E3 and thats why they "didn't see" it.