This is where I go AAARRGHH! What happened to the post? Chopped right through the middle! Here's what it should have been:
Does it piss anyone else off how few good sci-fi movies there are? Ok, ok, tired, old & worn topic.
But it still escapes me why BladeRunner gets so highly rated? Atmospherics are good, nice little urban dystopia thing happening (and I want that eye stuff Darryl Hannah - Which makes me, girl or goth? Well, ones more common on/.) But relative to a book, there was only enough plot for a short story, not a full movie.
It's not all doom & gloom though, I'd just make a couple of additions: eXisTenZ - by David Cronenburg. Came out not long after The Matrix, which took the sting out of the plotline, but anything with guns made out of amphibian bones that fire human teeth is worth watching...
The Cube - borderline sci-fi, who's gonna survive etc.
And. That's two. Still, good movies.
Meanwhile, there's a couple on the list that I'll try and see soon, and I'm hoping there'll be a few more good reccommendations on here?
Does it piss anyone else off how few good sci-fi movies there are? Ok, ok, tired, old came out not long after The Matrix, which took the sting out of the plotline; but anything with guns made out of amphibian bones that fire human teeth is worth watching...
The Cube - borderline sci-fi, who's gonna survive etc.
And. That's two. Still, good movies.
Meanwhile, there's a couple on the list that I'll try and see soon, and I'm hoping there'll be a few more good recs on here?
A theory just tries to explain the facts we already know, so people will refer to the theory when they want to obliquely reference all the facts that the theory encapsulates, eg the whole 'the Universe is expanding' thing.
Til a better theory comes along, or too many facts contra-indicate the theory, it'll be used as shortform for the current range of known facts.
Why would the Open Source community be into it? If it's useful, and people hear about it, they'll use it. And since he's doing it for a client, it's got a headstart in that he will actually produce a working model, rather than one of those projects that never even gets to a beta version.
Why would the company open source it? First, they need the product. They need a working tool, and it's not something that is currently available (to their knowledge). So they are going to develop it, regardless of Open Source support to begin with.
But, that's all they need. It's internal, so they aren't going to sell it to anyone else. They wouldn't be losing any income.
It will need maintenance. It may need small, ongoing maintenance forever - somethings are like that. It sounds like original developer may not be available.
If they opensource the product when it's been developed, they haven't lost anything, they still have the tool they wanted. Meanwhile, on the principle maintenance costs just keep accumulating, and can add up to more than the cost of the original product over time (depends what it is of course), if it goes opensource, the maintenance costs get taken on by the other users as well. The company benefits from any improvement or maintenance that other users make to the product, with no extra cost to them.
the GPL is the "General Public License". The G stands for General, not GNU. I usually say "GNU GPL" to make that clear. You could take it as an achievement that there are many people who have a strong association between GPL & GNU.
And since this'll be my only contribution to the thread, Rant: GNU is only surpassed by "Free Software" as an unbelievably bad name. 'Free as in Speech, not as in Beer' is ridiculous. Most people will always think of 'as in Beer' primarily, and 'as in speech' secondarily, and actually, very few will even think of the second option at all.
Guh-Noo is far easier typed than said, (Gnu/Linux is just ugly, clunky & inelegent) furtherance of it's use, and that of 'Free Software', only works against widespead understanding (and therefore adoption) of the FSF's principles/Open Source.
Therefore, I hearby promise to NEVER use the terms GNU/whatever or 'Free Software', where I could otherwise use 'whatever' or 'Open Source'.
I'm a Pagan/Neopagan living in New Zealand.
(Confused? Well, yay for Google!)
We're such a small, spread-out community, I set up a site www.nzpagans.com to let people know about the various groups, shops, websites etc there for us.
There is a more well known international site, www.witchvox.com, but many people think it's only for Witches and Wiccans, and besides, it's good to have a more locally orientated site.
Problems with the site:
1. I'm doing it manually. I'm a moron. I'm gonna set up everything using PHP, mySQL etc eventually (soon? I've just been lazy...) because one of the points of a community site, is that the info is contributed by the community, and I'm not making it that easy.
2. Because I'm doing it all myself, and manually, it only gets updated every month or so. This is a major problem, as people tend to only regularly visit sites that change at least every week.
3. I have no message boards etc (how can I possibly think of it as a community site!!!). Originally my purpose was to direct people to the existing online groups etc, but having a community forum on a site itself, means people visit more often, and, since Yahoos Clubs & Groups merger, theren't aren't many nz pagan message boards anymore, only e-groups.
There's a bunch of stuff I should do on the site and haven't, but even if I'm doing a bad job, it's still better than me not doing it at all.:)
And, if I ever do get the site running as I wish, I was thinking of starting a site for Geek Pagans:D
There's a weirdly high percentage of us - the only big-name geeks I've found so far are Eric Raymond & the guy who created (co-created?) VRML but there's probably a few more...
Oh yeah, and critique's of site, design (what design?) etc are welcomed.
My error - actually, the US, (& 'everybody else') HAS signed the protocol.
But the George Bush said that the US will not be ratifying the agreement.
The protocol will only come into effect if 55 nations ratify it, including the countries responsible for at least 55% of the developed worlds emissions - and since the US accounts for 25% of those emission, it was a fricken big set back.
How about invading them? Of course it's never phrased as such...
Case in point: Kosovo. People were killing each other, but before the US & UN got involved, it was still less than in Northern Ireland. (And how would Britain and Ireland react if the US invaded Ireland or started lobbing missiles at London?)
Well, it'd almost be nice if this was a flame, but it's probably a typical example of how most people have no idea what's going on in this region.
So, am I going to correct that massive information deficit with just one post? Ha! You gotta be kidding!
Ok, random facts: Why are the 'Occupied Territories'/'Disputed Territories' known as the 'Occupied Territories'/'Disputed Territories'? Because the UN has been saying since 1967 that Israel should withdraw from them. http://www.un.org/documents/sc/res/1967/s67r242e.p df
About 3 times more Palestinians have died in this conflict than Israelis. About a quarter of them, children. The Palestinians have vastly less land available to them, they are poorer - many are living in refugee camps, after all.
I could say that it's kinda atrocious how one group of people are treating another, considering they know how it is to be treated that way, and worse. But I'd be living in Lah-lah land. People are not that nice, fair, or decent.
And yay, there's probably some people who will have gotten to this bit, and already decided I'm "a bad guy" so they can ignore me.
But it's not that simple. It's a war, with all the nasties of a civil war. It's in the best interests of Fundamentalists on both sides to continue the conflict, as it works helluva good in the popularity ratings.
Each side is gonna say the other side is THE BAD GUYS, because that's how wars work. If you don't believe it, people don't want to fight them.
Currently, the Palestinians are getting the worse end of the stick, but Israelis are not "THE BAD GUYS" either. It's just people - working, eating, caring for their children, getting on with life - on both sides, but until you realise that, there won't be peace.
A completely non-revolutionary idea, but still true.
Wilkommen to das 'free market'.
Das German Governen ist nicht fuer der corporate gefingerpoken und mittengrabben.
Der dumpkopfen whinen und complanen ist belongen in der kindergarten.
Keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets und offen der keyboard, lettum das officials makem up der own mindens, und relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten...
When I first stumbled out of the theatre at 3 am, chittering like a Tasmanian
Devil on amphetamines... I came to Slashdot, to share my hyper-jittery ramblings
with the world.
Luckily perhaps for the world, (and maybe due to my slightly 'altered state'*)
I couldn't find a topic on Slashdot for FOTR.
So I spent 3 hours buzzing out by myself in my room.
(Yes.
It was a work day - not that I recall much of it.)
(*Just a lethally potent combination of V (an Energy Drink), Vodka, and Fellowship
of the Rings)
How can I convey the emotions I felt?
It was Epic.
It was Legendary.
It was Big.
All other movies seem so small in comparison - plain and 2 dimensional
(don't nit pick - I'm being metaphorical because I know they are all
2 dimensional).
Perhaps it was the scenery, perhaps the story line, perhaps the otherworldly
setting so far removed from our everyday life...
When I reached home, I was consumed by a need to do *something*.
I wanted to see the movie again.
I wanted to see the next movie.
I wanted to run away with some Elves.
I wanted to go camping*.
I wanted to play with fire**.
(* Yes it was between 3.30 am and 6 am on a workday - but see what I wrote
further down about Middle Earth. I actually feel sorry for all the people who
don't live here....
** I have a fire staff. http://incendium.org/movies4.htm - but I was gonna burn
if I played while in that state...)
The scenery amazed. Yes there was CGI effects, but the real landscape covered
in the movie contributed to that whole 'big' feeling. The Shire, Hills, flatlands,
Mountains, Snow and Forests...
You do get that feeling sometimes...
If you go to the wilderness areas of New Zealand. Like the National Parks.
Watching dawn burning away a misty/ghostly veil over tussockland at dawn, or
tree-moss and ferns in the glowing in the green light of the forest.
You forget you're soaked through, have spent the night under a mere tarpaulin,
are carrying a horrible heavy pack.
I've lived here my whole life and still, sometimes it's purely mystical.
I didn't know if the movie would be able to capture that, but when I was watching
the movie, I was just filled with amazement because... I live in Middle Earth.
(Yes, I live in New Zealand. The movie was entirely made here (if you were
unaware...)
But I still hope that people in other countries sometimes... 'see a bit of Middle
Earth' in their homelands too.)
I am not in a position to debate departures from the 'Canon' of the book -
because I have not read LOTR, (long explanation, but I do read Raymond
E. Feist, Guy Gavriel Kay, David Eddings, David Gemmell, Sara Douglass, etc,
etc, etc...).
From what I have heard, Peter Jackson has stuck pretty close to the original
story, but has adapted and moved various details in order to better keep the
soul of the story intact in a very different, visual medium.
The characters - were all amazing, although Liv Tyler seemed a little too like
Liv Tyler rather than Arwen (although subtle effects like the 'elf glow' when
Frodo saw her first, and looking more human at other times - stuck in my head
for some reason), Gimli seemed like a good character - but he didn't have much
of a role in this movie, and Legolas...
Well he also didn't say very much - and yet I still came down with a rather
nasty elf fetish.
<waxing lyrical about male elves>
Yes, you heard me - til now I'd resisted that particular allure (it's almost
as bad/sad as the common Vampire or Dragon fetishes/obsessions) - but FOTR...
got me bad.
Grace, Nobility, catlike features - I'm put in mind of mind of the animals of
the wild such as Eagles, Stags, Wildcats and Panthers...
In other words,
Legolas is one fricken sexy beast.
As they say in Quenya* "Mano mardenna?" and "A helta ar caita
caimanna!"
(*see further down)
<negative gossip>
That isn't to say I'm completely associating the actor with the character -
Orlando Bloom was apparently kinda sleazy to a woman here in Nelson, New Zealand.
I don't know how drunk he was, but fairly un-good behaviour...:P
</negative gossip>
</waxing lyrical about elves>
What is the most awful thing about the movie?
Yep, the whole year till the sequel.
So, what do you do while waiting for the sequel?
I'm gonna go watch the movie repeatedly of course...
and get the Directors Cut from somewhere...
and finally read the damn books....
Oh, and there's also Sindarin, Quenya etc.
For those of you that don't know, Tolkien invented several languages for his
books including Sindarin, Quenya and also written forms of both... see http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_parl.html
for more info. The swords and other things in the movie have proper meaningful
inscriptions on them. So why not go totally geek and learn a near-pointless
language just because... umm, 1. you'll know something other people won't, 2.
it sounds and looks beautiful, and... 3. you clocked FFX already... :)
And what about Archery?
Way kickass... I'm getting a friend of mine is going to show me how to use an
(admittedly more modern-style) compound bow when he's next in town
Although, perhaps I didn't just get that from the movie:
I mentioned the archery thing to my Mother, she told me about a little
flat she'd lived in....
They had no TV, no money, but they did have a very long, thin, main room - and
a crossbow.
Hmmmm, and here I was thinking that was the sort of thing only my friends
would do?!?
She's said if ever get rich, I have to buy her a Crossbow...:)
Cool.
Okay, I'm ending the incoherent ramblings now.
I've got to find out when FOTR is next showing... :)
And this is precisely why I am up in arms about that kind of research: because, to them, I am "just a number."
Imagine, two people:
One of these people, knows your real name, and maybe address, but doesn't know anything about your likes and interests.
One of these people knows what sites you like, and what you're into - saye comics, online gaming and Jazz, but, they don't know your real name (maybe just a nickname, or a number)
Really, how much of who you really are is tied up in your name?
Which one of them actually *knows* you better?
We're online here, and I'm guessing more than a few of you know what it's like to *know* someone without having met them, even without them knowing your real name, so...
I'll leave that answer up to you.
Companies who sell you products, especially online - they don't know you like your friends do. (In hey, when friends do try to sell things to you, it can be a combination of amusing and annoying - "Friends don't sell friends Amway products..."*
* Not saying anything against actual Amway _products_ here...)
Look at Spam, one of the stupidest things about it, is how off target it is.
No, I do *not* want my penis enlarged, even if I had one... This annoys me almost as much as the basic fact that my email address is my territory, and they never asked me if they could come into it.
A website however...
is not my territory. The advertiser has been given permission by the webmaster to advertise there. If the content is something that may actually be relevant and interest me, I may click on it. This is good for the advertiser, the webmaster, and me.
And, even if I don't click - for some reason, seeing advertising that is related to a website I'm on or to my interests - is not as annoying to me as, say, something as offbase as the above mentioned bodily enlarger. YMMV.
If a company is paying attention to what I'm interested, and yet isn't invading my privacy by sending me emails, and keeping my name & address - or if I have said they *can* have them, not sharing them without my permission - then not only do I have a better online experience (re: ads not bothering me so much), but they benefit as well.
We may prefer no advertising at ALL. But, we have to accept that some of the basic costs of the websites that we like and enjoy, are paid for with advertising.
Any efforts made to make that advertising less annoying to me (and non-invasive of my privacy) are definately appreciated by me at least...
I am prepared to defend my boundaries (AKA territory) but as long as they are kept, businesses can co-exist on the web as much as they like.
And further to the point of territory, to make my perspective clear:
If you are naked or masterbating in public, or at work etc, people can take pictures of you, and send them to friends of theirs and yours if they wish (this doesn't mean you have to be happy about it).
If you are at, say your home or someone elses etc, then they are invading your privacy, as it is your (or a friends) territory, not theirs.
A website is not my territory, it is the webmasters, and if they choose to let advertisers onto their territory, then, their business.
So maybe you'll just have to think twice about masterbating there.
Or to be more on topic, If you're so smart, how come you didn't submit your application on time?
Before you jump to conclusions, I had to choke on that particular conclusion too - and ended up a healthy bit less confident.
Smarts does not equal Academic Success
So, why would it be any more unfair to filter students based on 'sortedness' than by 'academic intelligence'?
If you've got a deficit of either, your students are still going to fail Uni (or College, in the US).
Although, the smarter students may be more fun to teach...
Slashdot Mirror
This is where I go AAARRGHH!
/.)
What happened to the post? Chopped right through the middle! Here's what it should have been:
Does it piss anyone else off how few good sci-fi movies there are?
Ok, ok, tired, old & worn topic.
But it still escapes me why BladeRunner gets so highly rated?
Atmospherics are good, nice little urban dystopia thing happening (and I want that eye stuff Darryl Hannah - Which makes me, girl or goth? Well, ones more common on
But relative to a book, there was only enough plot for a short story, not a full movie.
It's not all doom & gloom though, I'd just make a couple of additions:
eXisTenZ - by David Cronenburg. Came out not long after The Matrix, which took the sting out of the plotline, but anything with guns made out of amphibian bones that fire human teeth is worth watching...
The Cube - borderline sci-fi, who's gonna survive etc.
And. That's two.
Still, good movies.
Meanwhile, there's a couple on the list that I'll try and see soon, and I'm hoping there'll be a few more good reccommendations on here?
Does it piss anyone else off how few good sci-fi movies there are?
Ok, ok, tired, old came out not long after The Matrix, which took the sting out of the plotline; but anything with guns made out of amphibian bones that fire human teeth is worth watching...
The Cube - borderline sci-fi, who's gonna survive etc.
And. That's two.
Still, good movies.
Meanwhile, there's a couple on the list that I'll try and see soon, and I'm hoping there'll be a few more good recs on here?
Well, it's kinda the other way round.
A theory just tries to explain the facts we already know, so people will refer to the theory when they want to obliquely reference all the facts that the theory encapsulates, eg the whole 'the Universe is expanding' thing.
Til a better theory comes along, or too many facts contra-indicate the theory, it'll be used as shortform for the current range of known facts.
Blah.
"How many times have I told you!
Don't make messes that outlast our civilization..."
Why would the Open Source community be into it?
If it's useful, and people hear about it, they'll use it.
And since he's doing it for a client, it's got a headstart in that he will actually produce a working model, rather than one of those projects that never even gets to a beta version.
Why would the company open source it?
First, they need the product. They need a working tool, and it's not something that is currently available (to their knowledge). So they are going to develop it, regardless of Open Source support to begin with.
But, that's all they need. It's internal, so they aren't going to sell it to anyone else. They wouldn't be losing any income.
It will need maintenance. It may need small, ongoing maintenance forever - somethings are like that. It sounds like original developer may not be available.
If they opensource the product when it's been developed, they haven't lost anything, they still have the tool they wanted.
Meanwhile, on the principle maintenance costs just keep accumulating, and can add up to more than the cost of the original product over time (depends what it is of course), if it goes opensource, the maintenance costs get taken on by the other users as well.
The company benefits from any improvement or maintenance that other users make to the product, with no extra cost to them.
the GPL is the "General Public License". The G stands for General, not GNU. I usually say "GNU GPL" to make that clear.
You could take it as an achievement that there are many people who have a strong association between GPL & GNU.
And since this'll be my only contribution to the thread, Rant:
GNU is only surpassed by "Free Software" as an unbelievably bad name.
'Free as in Speech, not as in Beer' is ridiculous. Most people will always think of 'as in Beer' primarily, and 'as in speech' secondarily, and actually, very few will even think of the second option at all.
Guh-Noo is far easier typed than said, (Gnu/Linux is just ugly, clunky & inelegent) furtherance of it's use, and that of 'Free Software', only works against widespead understanding (and therefore adoption) of the FSF's principles/Open Source.
Therefore, I hearby promise to NEVER use the terms GNU/whatever or 'Free Software', where I could otherwise use 'whatever' or 'Open Source'.
Cause it'll be a sad day when there's no more "Beat me up, Scotty"...
*Argh!*
Beam me up, Scotty...
(sorry - scary, warped t-shirts...)
We're such a small, spread-out community, I set up a site www.nzpagans.com to let people know about the various groups, shops, websites etc there for us. There is a more well known international site, www.witchvox.com, but many people think it's only for Witches and Wiccans, and besides, it's good to have a more locally orientated site.
Problems with the site:
1. I'm doing it manually. I'm a moron. I'm gonna set up everything using PHP, mySQL etc eventually (soon? I've just been lazy...) because one of the points of a community site, is that the info is contributed by the community, and I'm not making it that easy.
2. Because I'm doing it all myself, and manually, it only gets updated every month or so. This is a major problem, as people tend to only regularly visit sites that change at least every week.
3. I have no message boards etc (how can I possibly think of it as a community site!!!). Originally my purpose was to direct people to the existing online groups etc, but having a community forum on a site itself, means people visit more often, and, since Yahoos Clubs & Groups merger, theren't aren't many nz pagan message boards anymore, only e-groups.
There's a bunch of stuff I should do on the site and haven't, but even if I'm doing a bad job, it's still better than me not doing it at all. :)
And, if I ever do get the site running as I wish, I was thinking of starting a site for Geek Pagans :D
There's a weirdly high percentage of us - the only big-name geeks I've found so far are Eric Raymond & the guy who created (co-created?) VRML but there's probably a few more...
Oh yeah, and critique's of site, design (what design?) etc are welcomed.
My error - actually, the US, (& 'everybody else') HAS signed the protocol.
r otocol.html
But the George Bush said that the US will not be ratifying the agreement.
The protocol will only come into effect if 55 nations ratify it, including the countries responsible for at least 55% of the developed worlds emissions - and since the US accounts for 25% of those emission, it was a fricken big set back.
But, in Bonn, Germany, in July last year, 178 nations agreed with the protocol, and as of February 2002, 47 of the needed 55 countries have ratified it.
http://www.rso.cornell.edu/greens/kyotonow/kyotop
That would be a pretty vast amount of paper/trees saved.
7 ,00.html t alks/
Might actually help re: Greenhouse Gas emissions.
Nice to see that some parts of the government are doing something (even if it's not deliberate),
seeing as the Bush-Bot Mark 2 doesn't give a damn.
(Remember the Kyoto Climate Change Agreement - which everyone else in the world signed?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,52660
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/23/kyoto.
What games do you currently have by them?
And what were you going to buy?
How about invading them?
4 04,00.html )
Of course it's never phrased as such...
Case in point:
Kosovo.
People were killing each other, but before the US & UN got involved, it was still less than in Northern Ireland.
(And how would Britain and Ireland react if the US invaded Ireland or started lobbing missiles at London?)
*sigh*
The UN has still got peacekeepers in the area - and yeah, some of them protecting Serbians from Albanian guerrillas.
( http://www.guardian.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,448
Grrrr!
Yeah, I'm Grumpy the Bear...
Well, it'd almost be nice if this was a flame, but it's probably a typical example of how most people have no idea what's going on in this region.
p df
g lobe.html
/ news2001/amnesty100301.html
/ eduardoCohen.html
So, am I going to correct that massive information deficit with just one post?
Ha!
You gotta be kidding!
Ok, random facts:
Why are the 'Occupied Territories'/'Disputed Territories' known as the 'Occupied Territories'/'Disputed Territories'?
Because the UN has been saying since 1967 that Israel should withdraw from them.
http://www.un.org/documents/sc/res/1967/s67r242e.
Why do many Palestinines dislike the US?
You could just read this:
http://www.merip.org/media_outreach/CT-Harm-done-
Basically, the US is funding Israels occupation:
- Israel gets about a third of US foreign aid
even though
- Israel's GNP is higher than Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza combined.
http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm
(actually, most of the US's aid goes to military uses
http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/jul98/23_13_097.html )
What is one of the reasons Palestinians dislike Ariel Sharon?
He was Minister of Defence during a 1982 Palestinian massacre... gah, just look here:
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/palestine
About 3 times more Palestinians have died in this conflict than Israelis. About a quarter of them, children.
The Palestinians have vastly less land available to them, they are poorer - many are living in refugee camps, after all.
And blah, here's more.
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/palestine
And "Will somebody please think of the Children!?"
http://playgroundsforpalestine.org/
Ok, so that's not actually funny...
:(
I could say that it's kinda atrocious how one group of people are treating another, considering they know how it is to be treated that way, and worse.
But I'd be living in Lah-lah land. People are not that nice, fair, or decent.
And yay, there's probably some people who will have gotten to this bit, and already decided I'm "a bad guy" so they can ignore me.
But it's not that simple.
It's a war, with all the nasties of a civil war.
It's in the best interests of Fundamentalists on both sides to continue the conflict, as it works helluva good in the popularity ratings.
Each side is gonna say the other side is THE BAD GUYS, because that's how wars work.
If you don't believe it, people don't want to fight them.
Currently, the Palestinians are getting the worse end of the stick, but Israelis are not "THE BAD GUYS" either.
It's just people - working, eating, caring for their children, getting on with life - on both sides, but until you realise that, there won't be peace.
A completely non-revolutionary idea, but still true.
I still think that Police waving Poo-on-a-Stick at people would be more effective.
After all,
Batons, tear gas, water cannons
- I'd just get pissed off.
But Poo-on-a-Stick?
I know I'd run away...
Because argh! It feels like that sometimes...
Hmmm,
a plague wiping out all adults leaving the kids to fend for themselves?
Woah!
That's straight off The Tribe.
But hey, at least it can't be worse, right?
Ooops,
hold that thought!
Luke Perry? Jason Priestly?
Das German Governen ist nicht fuer der corporate gefingerpoken und mittengrabben.
Der dumpkopfen whinen und complanen ist belongen in der kindergarten.
Keepen das cotten-pickenen hans in das pockets und offen der keyboard, lettum das officials makem up der own mindens, und relaxen und watchen das blinkenlichten...
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/blink enlights.html
When I first stumbled out of the theatre at 3 am, chittering like a Tasmanian Devil on amphetamines... I came to Slashdot, to share my hyper-jittery ramblings with the world.
Luckily perhaps for the world, (and maybe due to my slightly 'altered state'*) I couldn't find a topic on Slashdot for FOTR.
So I spent 3 hours buzzing out by myself in my room.
(Yes.
It was a work day - not that I recall much of it.)
(*Just a lethally potent combination of V (an Energy Drink), Vodka, and Fellowship of the Rings)
How can I convey the emotions I felt?
It was Epic.
It was Legendary.
It was Big.
All other movies seem so small in comparison - plain and 2 dimensional (don't nit pick - I'm being metaphorical because I know they are all 2 dimensional).
Perhaps it was the scenery, perhaps the story line, perhaps the otherworldly setting so far removed from our everyday life...
When I reached home, I was consumed by a need to do *something*.
I wanted to see the movie again.
I wanted to see the next movie.
I wanted to run away with some Elves.
I wanted to go camping*.
I wanted to play with fire**.
(* Yes it was between 3.30 am and 6 am on a workday - but see what I wrote further down about Middle Earth. I actually feel sorry for all the people who don't live here....
** I have a fire staff. http://incendium.org/movies4.htm - but I was gonna burn if I played while in that state...)
The scenery amazed. Yes there was CGI effects, but the real landscape covered in the movie contributed to that whole 'big' feeling. The Shire, Hills, flatlands, Mountains, Snow and Forests...
You do get that feeling sometimes...
If you go to the wilderness areas of New Zealand. Like the National Parks.
Watching dawn burning away a misty/ghostly veil over tussockland at dawn, or tree-moss and ferns in the glowing in the green light of the forest.
You forget you're soaked through, have spent the night under a mere tarpaulin, are carrying a horrible heavy pack.
I've lived here my whole life and still, sometimes it's purely mystical.
I didn't know if the movie would be able to capture that, but when I was watching the movie, I was just filled with amazement because...
I live in Middle Earth.
(Yes, I live in New Zealand. The movie was entirely made here (if you were unaware...)
But I still hope that people in other countries sometimes... 'see a bit of Middle Earth' in their homelands too.)
I am not in a position to debate departures from the 'Canon' of the book - because I have not read LOTR, (long explanation, but I do read Raymond E. Feist, Guy Gavriel Kay, David Eddings, David Gemmell, Sara Douglass, etc, etc, etc...).
From what I have heard, Peter Jackson has stuck pretty close to the original story, but has adapted and moved various details in order to better keep the soul of the story intact in a very different, visual medium.
The characters - were all amazing, although Liv Tyler seemed a little too like Liv Tyler rather than Arwen (although subtle effects like the 'elf glow' when Frodo saw her first, and looking more human at other times - stuck in my head for some reason), Gimli seemed like a good character - but he didn't have much of a role in this movie, and Legolas...
Well he also didn't say very much - and yet I still came down with a rather nasty elf fetish.
<waxing lyrical about male elves>
Yes, you heard me - til now I'd resisted that particular allure (it's almost as bad/sad as the common Vampire or Dragon fetishes/obsessions) - but FOTR... got me bad.
Grace, Nobility, catlike features - I'm put in mind of mind of the animals of the wild such as Eagles, Stags, Wildcats and Panthers...
In other words,
Legolas is one fricken sexy beast.
As they say in Quenya* "Mano mardenna?" and "A helta ar caita caimanna!"
(*see further down)
<negative gossip> :P
That isn't to say I'm completely associating the actor with the character - Orlando Bloom was apparently kinda sleazy to a woman here in Nelson, New Zealand. I don't know how drunk he was, but fairly un-good behaviour...
</negative gossip>
</waxing lyrical about elves>
What is the most awful thing about the movie?
Yep, the whole year till the sequel.
So, what do you do while waiting for the sequel?
I'm gonna go watch the movie repeatedly of course...
and get the Directors Cut from somewhere...
and finally read the damn books....
Oh, and there's also Sindarin, Quenya etc.
:)
For those of you that don't know, Tolkien invented several languages for his books including Sindarin, Quenya and also written forms of both... see http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_parl.html for more info. The swords and other things in the movie have proper meaningful inscriptions on them. So why not go totally geek and learn a near-pointless language just because... umm, 1. you'll know something other people won't, 2. it sounds and looks beautiful, and... 3. you clocked FFX already...
And what about Archery? :)
Way kickass... I'm getting a friend of mine is going to show me how to use an (admittedly more modern-style) compound bow when he's next in town
Although, perhaps I didn't just get that from the movie:
I mentioned the archery thing to my Mother, she told me about a little flat she'd lived in....
They had no TV, no money, but they did have a very long, thin, main room - and a crossbow.
Hmmmm, and here I was thinking that was the sort of thing only my friends would do?!?
She's said if ever get rich, I have to buy her a Crossbow...
Cool.
Okay, I'm ending the incoherent ramblings now.
:)
I've got to find out when FOTR is next showing...
Namárie
And this is precisely why I am up in arms about that kind of research: because, to them, I am "just a number." Imagine, two people: One of these people, knows your real name, and maybe address, but doesn't know anything about your likes and interests. One of these people knows what sites you like, and what you're into - saye comics, online gaming and Jazz, but, they don't know your real name (maybe just a nickname, or a number) Really, how much of who you really are is tied up in your name? Which one of them actually *knows* you better? We're online here, and I'm guessing more than a few of you know what it's like to *know* someone without having met them, even without them knowing your real name, so... I'll leave that answer up to you. Companies who sell you products, especially online - they don't know you like your friends do. (In hey, when friends do try to sell things to you, it can be a combination of amusing and annoying - "Friends don't sell friends Amway products..."* * Not saying anything against actual Amway _products_ here...) Look at Spam, one of the stupidest things about it, is how off target it is. No, I do *not* want my penis enlarged, even if I had one... This annoys me almost as much as the basic fact that my email address is my territory, and they never asked me if they could come into it. A website however... is not my territory. The advertiser has been given permission by the webmaster to advertise there. If the content is something that may actually be relevant and interest me, I may click on it. This is good for the advertiser, the webmaster, and me. And, even if I don't click - for some reason, seeing advertising that is related to a website I'm on or to my interests - is not as annoying to me as, say, something as offbase as the above mentioned bodily enlarger. YMMV. If a company is paying attention to what I'm interested, and yet isn't invading my privacy by sending me emails, and keeping my name & address - or if I have said they *can* have them, not sharing them without my permission - then not only do I have a better online experience (re: ads not bothering me so much), but they benefit as well. We may prefer no advertising at ALL. But, we have to accept that some of the basic costs of the websites that we like and enjoy, are paid for with advertising. Any efforts made to make that advertising less annoying to me (and non-invasive of my privacy) are definately appreciated by me at least... I am prepared to defend my boundaries (AKA territory) but as long as they are kept, businesses can co-exist on the web as much as they like. And further to the point of territory, to make my perspective clear: If you are naked or masterbating in public, or at work etc, people can take pictures of you, and send them to friends of theirs and yours if they wish (this doesn't mean you have to be happy about it). If you are at, say your home or someone elses etc, then they are invading your privacy, as it is your (or a friends) territory, not theirs. A website is not my territory, it is the webmasters, and if they choose to let advertisers onto their territory, then, their business. So maybe you'll just have to think twice about masterbating there.
Re: "everyone except Crichton has an Australian accent"
Except for the ones with English accents...
If you're so smart, how come you ain't rich?
Or to be more on topic, If you're so smart, how come you didn't submit your application on time?
Before you jump to conclusions, I had to choke on that particular conclusion too - and ended up a healthy bit less confident.
Smarts does not equal Academic Success
So, why would it be any more unfair to filter students based on 'sortedness' than by 'academic intelligence'?
If you've got a deficit of either, your students are still going to fail Uni (or College, in the US).
Although, the smarter students may be more fun to teach...