Thursday, July 14. 2005Tuesday, July 12. 2005Monday, July 11. 2005Thank you, Popcorn Bandits
I've been watching "House, M.D." all season, and for some reason found myself inexplicably drawn to the character of Dr. James Wilson, played by one "Robert Sean Leonard".
"What is it about this secondary character that I like so much?" I wondered. It all came together this afternoon whilst I read Danny's review of Dead Poet's Society. IT'S NEIL PERRY! You see, "Dead Poet's Society" was the first movie I ever watched where I realized there was more going on here than some moguls and actors trying to make a buck. People have stories they want to tell, and some of them choose to do so via the Silver Screen. In the character of Neil Perry, I finally looked deeper than the $3.50 admission price and saw another human being's pain bleeding through the screen. This movie completely changed my life, in both my attitude towards movies as previously discussed, and in my attitude towards poetry. Some of you may find this hard to believe given my history of posts thus far on the current incarnation of the Homestarmy blog, but until I saw DPS, I never cared for poetry. I thought it was a silly waste of time. After watching it, I even went so far as to start a Dead Poet's Society at Dixie Middle School. It never had more than 5 members, but it's how I got to know Susie Turner, and it's where I first learned to enjoy both reading and writing poetry. I recommend Danny's review to any of you who enjoyed this movie. I've seen this movie enough that I completely wore through 2 VHS copies, and now own it on DVD (in fact, it was the first DVD I ever purchased), but I still enjoyed reading what he had to say. Monday, July 11. 2005Potterphiles Unite!
Well, Friday you'll find Daboo, Wren, and me - along with a bunch of other Potter-geeks - partying hard at the Barnes & Noble in Bountiful. I've yet to find my ideal bumpersticker (Dumbledore for President), so I feel comfortable that for once, I won't be the geekiest person around. I finally decided to re-read The Order of the Phoenix, since I made credible progress on The Art of War (mostly due to riding TRAX to the office). I'm two chapters in, but Rowling makes for a much faster read.
It's funny how easy it is for some authors to suck me in. There's a certain something to their writing that makes me feel like I'm a part of the action. I think some might call it Quality. However, L.E. Modesitt has this power over me, so I'm not sure that Quality is really the reason. On the other hand, the large number of Potterphiles out there makes me think that saying Rowling's work is Quality makes sense. I find it very fascinating to see adults on the train surreptiously reading something from the Potter collection. I first heard about Harry right around the time the third book came out. I was working at a bookstore, and the store manager put up a poster promoting the first and second books (which at the time were only available in hardcover). I thought that was kind of interesting, and bought all three when The Prisoner of Azkaban came out. (At the time, I rarely took home much of a paycheck. I had a nasty habit of buying books without reading them.) I was enchanted. When word of the fourth installment's release date (in the summer of 2000) arrived, I was planning a trip to Tijuana to visit some friends and would actually leave town that day. So I worked a couple hours early that morning. It was crazy to see all the kids lined up outside the store, waiting for The Goblet of Fire to hit storeshelves (for the brief moment before it landed in their grubby little hands). On my way out, I picked up a copy of the book and the book on tape. I left the book at home for my roommates to read and listened to the book on tape during the twelve hour drive. I'm sure there are some people in Southern California who still wonder what all the ruckus was about as I screamed and shook my fist at the air while driving 80mph down the freeway. When the fifth book came out, it took me a whole day and a half to read it. I probably would have been able to accomplish the feat in about half that time, but sleep interfered as it so often does (right, TML?). If I ever meet J.K., I'll be sure to thank her for releasing this next book on a Saturday, so I can spend the whole weekend locked in a room gibbering about muggles, dementors, giants, and half-bloods. Well, in the meantime, I must get back to Hogwarts. Monday, July 11. 2005D&D Nights in the near future
This Monday night, Danny Lasko will probably be attending our campaign to see if he would be interested in taking over as full-time DM. Of course, it's also going to depend on the group dynamic (i.e., "What everyone else thinks"), but I'm not attached to being the DM in any fashion. I also think it's a good idea to have other people ready to step in and DM in case the current DM can't make it, and I see no reason we should have to sacrifice members of the party to have a DM.
Additionally, this weekend I will be picking my family up from So. Utah. As much as I enjoy D&D, I'll only have my family up here with me for 2 weeks, so I will not be playing on the 18th or the 25th. Sorry. :'( Friday, July 8. 2005From "Atlas Shrugged". . .
"Do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement.
"Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top. The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire. They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes, thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them - while you'd give a year of your life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them. "They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors. They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear. They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors - hatred? no, not hatred, but boredom - the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing boredom. Of what account are praise and adulation from men you don't respect? "Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?" -- Dr. Robert Stadler, to Dagny Taggart in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Friday, July 8. 2005Thursday, July 7. 2005Getting Sports
I don't know if anybody here knows this, so I'm going to let you in on a secret. I like sports.
I like the camaraderie. I like the competition. I like the passion that goes with it. I like watching it. I like reading about it. I like listening to it. And despite what my physical appearance may suggest I like playing it. What I don't like, is the increasing evidence that the people who run sports, just don't get sports. Now I know that sports has turned into a huge business, and I'm okay with it, but it still bothers me when the people who are running the sports leagues, etc. don't get the first thing about what sports is about. Take for example the NHL. Because the two sides were so busy squabbling about inconsequential things they all lost track of the sport and have now missed an entire season. To top it all off Jeremy Roenick, actually came out and told fans they could kiss his gluteus maximus if they had a problem with the league being on strike. But more recently what's upset me happened during the Tour de France. Now a lot of sports have unwritten rules, or code of ethics. For example hockey has a code of honor that dictates when it's okay to start a fight and when it's not. In cycling there is an unwritten rule about not wearing the Yellow Jersey, which goes to the overall leader of a race, when it was obtained due to a crash. In one of the final turns of Tuesday's fourth stage, overall classification leader Dave Zabriskie became involved in a crash, which allowed Lance Armstrong to become the overall leader. Later that day during review of the Race, Team Discovery Channel, for which Lance is riding this year, noticed that had there not been a crash, it was actually to close to tell if he would have been able to make up the :02 deficit, to get the yellow jersey. So prior to the start of the fifth stage Lance made it known out of respect for Zabriskie and the situation surrounding the crash, he was not going to ride that stage wearing the Yellow Jersey. Once again people who run sports, but don't get sports, would not allow this homage to occur. They forced Lance to change his mind and wear the Yellow Jersey. For all the sports can mean on the field, it's really too bad that people off the field don't get it. However, it is good to see that in this day of the spoiled, prima donna athlete (re: Jeremy Roenick, Terrell Owens, 95% of all NBA-ers), that some athletes still get it. Thursday, July 7. 2005Executive Order
I'm sorry, but I have to put a moratorium on the nickname Muffy. For those of us who are corrupt and have soiled minds, there are bad connotations. It has been proposed that Sgt. Muffin be turned in for Wren until a true nickname or nom de plume surfaces.
From wikipedia: The true wrens are members of a New World passerine bird family Troglodytidae containing 55 species. A troglodyte means a cave-dweller, and wrens get their scientific name from the tendency of some species to forage in dark crevices. They are mainly small and inconspicuous except for their loud songs. These birds have short wings and a thin down-turned bill. Several species often hold their tails upright. All are insectivorous. Only one wren, Troglodytes troglodytes, known as the Winter Wren in North America, also occurs in Europe, where it is commonly known simply as the Wren. According to European folklore, the Wren is the King of the Birds. Long ago the birds held a contest to see who could fly the highest; at first it looked as though the Eagle would win easily, but just as the Eagle began to tire, the Wren crept out from under the Eagle's tail feathers and soared far above. The wren's majesty is recognized in such stories as the Grimm Brothers' The Willow-Wren and the Bear. The small, stump-tailed Wren is almost as familiar as the Robin. It is small and mouse-like, easily lost sight of when it is hunting for food, but is found everywhere from the tops of the highest moors to the sea coast. Its movements as it creeps or climbs are incessant rather than rapid; its short flights swift but not sustained, its tiny round wings whirring as it flies from bush to bush. It is a bird of the uplands even in winter, vanishing into heather when snow lies thick above, a troglodyte indeed. It frequents gardens and farms, but it is quite as abundant in thick woods and in reed-beds. When annoyed or excited its call runs into an emphatic churr, not unlike clockwork running down. Its song is a gushing burst of sweet music, loud and emphatic. It has an enormous voice for its size. Individuals vary in volume as well as quality of song. The song begins with a few preliminary notes, then runs into a trill, slightly ascending, and ends in full clear notes or another trill. At all and any season the song may be heard, though most noticeable during spring. At night, usually in winter, it often roosts, true to its name, in dark retreats, snug holes and even old nests. In hard weather it may do so in parties, either consisting of the family or of many individuate gathered together for warmth. Wednesday, July 6. 2005Saturday Read-alongs
One of my "things worth doing" is to get other people to experience things that I've previously enjoyed; to share the experiences that have made my life better.
In this vein, I'm considering a once-monthly "Saturday Read-along". The idea is to pick subject matter that you could burn through in a day, then to meet somewhere and take turns reading it aloud. Pete says he's in, if we can ever get him on a Saturday where he's not playing that "Devil Game". Anyone else? Wednesday, July 6. 2005Tuesday, July 5. 2005
Things Worth Doing, part I: Why? Posted by Ancient of Days
in Gathering Darkness at
22:54Comments (6) Trackbacks (0) Things Worth Doing, part I: Why?
Have you seen "Once More, With Feeling" (an episode of Buffy, somewhere in the 6th season)? Or maybe Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings"? Or perhaps you've read J. Michael Straczinsky's graphic novel "Midnight Nation"? Read Asimov's "The Gods Themselves", or Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game", or Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"? Each of the above, in some way, sits in my memory as a source of truth; an example of what I expect when I sit down to watch TV, or a movie; when I pick up a comic book, or a S/F novel; when I read a poem. Is that a bad thing? Writing this article, I find myself thinking about a lot of things: the nature of time; my arch-nemesis, "sleep"; the creative process; my thoughts and feelings regarding elitism; the concept of "intellectual property"; the value of entertainment in society. I'm probably not going to be able to tie all of that into a coherent article in one shot, but here's some things to think about. We have a limited number of hours alloted to us in which to do. . .well, EVERYTHING. OK, by this point, all of you should be familiar with my feelings on sleep. If you're not, well...PAY ATTENTION! Sleep is the enemy. More accurately, time is the enemy. There are so very very many things in life worth doing, that I find myself unable to even enjoy sleeping because I lie in the state between waking and dreaming, filled with frustration at the prospect that I'm simply wasting time. Curtis accused me of being "picky", and this is true. Given an infinite amount of time, I feel supremely confident that I would never actually grow "bored", because I want to know *everything*. I want to experience all that is worth experiencing, and there simply isn't time for it. Thus, anything that is of less-than-excellent quality that consumes my time is a source of bitterness and frustration to me, because those are minutes and hours I'll never "get back." Therefore, in an effort to expand my little Cult of Personality, I will be using this blog as a forum to spread my disease. I'm going to share some "Things Worth Doing", and maybe you'll all start seeing things a little more...hurriedly. :) Tuesday, July 5. 2005
New Gallery Section Posted by The Mad Giggler
in Gathering Darkness at
22:52Comments (-1) Trackbacks (0) New Gallery Section
There is now a gallery section for the Homestarmy website. It's available from the frontpage or by clicking here. There is a webcomic/manga in the works, and the first page should be up later this week.
Sgt. Muffin, I need an email address from you, so I can forward your username/password combo along. Oh, and don't get too attached to your current nickname. Tuesday, July 5. 2005DUN DUN DUN dun da DUN dun da DUNNN
Spoilers, if you haven't seen Revenge of the Sith
Okay, so admittedly I'm the farthest thing from an expert, or even a true fan, that is possible in our current reality. I can't remember the first three (or middle three?) movies. I have a fuzzy memory of some Eewoks (is that even how you spell it?) moving about in a way eerily reminiscent of the Oompah Loompahs, and I seem to remember some blonde pretty-boy whining a lot. Some screaming of the word "NOOOOO!" was done. I remember some really awkward hairstyles. So when I tell you that I liked the Revenge of the Sith, keep in mind that my opinion can be valued at slightly more than gravel, but slightly less than nice smooth stones. That said, I liked it. Sure, there were some boring moments. I was personally bored by many of the battles and interchanges, because I had some idea of how things were going to turn out, and my mind requires a slightly greater challenge in order to stay really focused. But somewhere between the killing of innocent children and the severing of three (3!) limbs in one blow, I got excited. I thought Darth Vader's transformation was done really well. Anniken was too pretty for me to really envision the change in my own imagination, so I was excited about that part. On a side note, who the crap lets someone they love roast slowly to death with three severed limbs, falling slowly but inevitably toward a lake of fiery lava? I mean, sure, Obi-wan didn't want to kill Annikin. He loved him. But come on! Letting him die slowly and in unbelievable pain is somehow more soothing to his conscience? Sure. Whatever. Anyway. I'm told that multiple viewings are necessary to make a final decision by those of you who are real fans, but I still liked it. Maybe even enough to watch those original three again someday. Friday, July 1. 2005
Classic Moments in Gaming: Football Posted by The Mad Giggler
in Gaming at
18:19Comments (-1) Trackbacks (0) Classic Moments in Gaming: Football
I know, another article about sports. Daboo and [nameless one] will resort to skimming at this point, no doubt. Anyway, since the NBA finally wrapped up its season (for all of 1 week), it's time to start getting ready for football (as Sideshow already noted). I've been playing some NFL 2K5 in the evenings to get my mind prepared for all the worn-out cliches about to hit the airwaves. Sega's entry in the video game football genre lacks the pizazz of hearing John Madden proclaim "I love this game" two or three times a minute, but it makes up for it in other ways (see price tag). And I get to hear about the value of tearing a page out of War and Peace - it doesn't make much of a dent.
"Flag on the play." To move more into the vein of Classic gaming, I have to say that Pat Summerall will go down in history for his work on the Madden football franchise. Sure, just mentioning the guy means I have to be careful not to sound too much like Bill Simmons (ESPN's Sports Guy - who's had some great jokes at Summerall's expense), but it's impossible to talk about video game football without mentioning all those classic lines delivered in the early (and not-so-early) Madden games. I think I can say with complete honesty that I've never heard a more exciting monotone. "Uh-oh. There's a man down." This is one of my favorite Summerall lines. There used to be an exploit in these games where you could move your guy around after the whistle was blown and tackle players on the opposing team. I remember all those times when the game was on the line, and my opponent's quarterback just couldn't be stopped; so I would go after the QB with a lineman. \*Badly garbled crunching sound\* and. . .wait for it. YES! I have successfully played the Cobra Kai card. This game is mine. All those real NFL players out there can be thankful I'm not the opposing coach. "Boom!" While cheating was good for a laugh (especially when playing against friends who would get surprisingly angry to see their star QB in the locker room for the rest of the game), it was far better to win the game as the clock is winding down. This may be why Adam Vinatieri is my favorite NFL placekicker. \*cough\* Taking home the Lombardi trophy on a last second field goal is great, but for trash-talking purposes, it doesn't seem to compare with that drive-killing interception in the red zone. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails like driving all the way down the field, knowing the win is in your grasp, only to see Ty Law pluck the ball out of the sky. Let me know if you want any more lemon juice in the paper cut, AoD. |
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