Raithe

The Great Gatsby. It's a beautiful film, strongly acted, some incredible sets. But yeah, by the end of the movie you pretty much loathe all the characters in it bar one.

How. Do. I. Make. It. Stop? Wash it out with.. oh, maybe this? http://youtu.be/PxygOy3cEMY

Well the sun has come out today.. My mother's birthday, so there's that to deal with. Sitting down to push on with some work this morning and it's been one of those: 5 minutes of work, doorbell goes. Back to work, 5 minutes later, the phone goes. Back to work. 5 minutes later, something sets the dogs off. Back to work. 5 minutes later, the doorbell goes again.. Still, I was talking to my sister the other day and had that whole conversation in regards to mom's birthday: Me: "So, any idea what you're getting for mom this year?" My Sister: "Not a clue." Me: "I thought I'd keep it simple and get her the blu-rays of Les Mis and The Hobbit, you know what a fan she is." My Sister: - narrowing of eyes - "Oh, you bastard." Families. It's always important to keep the love flowing...

I wouldn't call it a problem with writing in a foreign language. I constantly find myself reusing phrases in follow-on sentences. Which is an incredibly bad writing habit I have to force myself to double check whenever I write something longer then a paragraph...

Righty-ho folks, I recently backed Posthuman Studios kickstarter project for their Transhuman Player's Guide.. Which means I get a free pdf copy of the Sunward and Rimward pdf's and hack packs... Now since I already have copies of those, is there anyone out there who'd like one or both of them? At the moment I've just got the coupon codes for Sunward and it's hack pack to be used at DriveThruRPG, and in the near future I'll be getting the coupon codes for Rimward and its hack pack. So if you're interested, drop me a note. For those simply curious: http://eclipsephase.com/game And they actually put the Core Rulebook out there for free when they started the game line.. So if you want to glance at a lightweight html version of said Core Rulebook: http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7127699/EP_lightweight/ep.html

As Wals says, context can be an important thing. On the General Lee and Dukes of Hazzard, it worked.. but in other situations it can scream out on the links to racism. Although how much that gets developed due to racist groups using it, or purely it's historical context.. I can also see it for the way it represented a group of people who felt they had the right to withdraw from the Union because they disagreed with it's policies. Which always raises up a few interesting questions...

Well that and the Green Lantern Corps does tend to suck. As pointed out in a rather delightful io9 article.. Reasons Why the Green Lanterns Are the Universes Worst Protectors

There are times when friends can just be so..helpful. A gathering of friends where no-one actually understands your work, so to a certain extent they rip it to shreds. All due to being concerned about you. Due to that mix of not understanding it, or considering it basic common sense anyone can do that consultants just make up buzz words for to justify their fees, or pretty much considering it in that pseudo-science area, or for a dozen other reasons. All elements pushing that "imposter syndrome" feeling right up with the "i have no clue what I'm actually doing and making it up as I go along" sense... Combined with the gathering where you happen to be the sole single person in a group of them who turn up with wives, husbands, significant others with new kids and/or fresh pregnancies... Which of course reaches the point where they start making couples plans together and you're kind of stuck on that outskirts wondering where the hell everything is going... Yes, I'm really feeling all the confidence and capability of the world on this morning where the rain is pissing it down and the skies are incredibly grey..

Heh, I've got a nice copy of the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China and making your way through the seven different works (while interesting) can be very awkward with the way they were written. It's that combination of the structure in how they were each written (which is different for each one), compounded by the style of translation..

To follow on from my comment in the book thread..

Remeber that the play was originally intended to be performed by actors in massive battlesuits. And the swords are missiles. Great fething missile barrages. I can never read Hamlet, or watch an adaption without getting flashbacks to the old black and white St.Trinians and the 6th form girls doing the Hamlet Soliloquy as a slow-strip show.

Being somewhat scattershot today. My mind seems to be in one of those odd "churning fast without getting traction" times. Lots of useful thoughts starting to half-form, but when I try to focus on any they kind of slither off. So decided to change track and deal with some other things and see if not focusing on them works better. Also, something keeps setting the dogs off so there's the chorus of barks every now and then. All of which the cat is sleeping through, so I guess that's a blessing.

If you like your sci-fi reading somewhat thick and slightly twisty, L.E.Modesitt has done a bunch with some interesting ideas. You just have to double check you aren't picking up his fantasy writings (which are still good, but can be a little different to his sci-fi).

For those delivery moments..

Haven't played any games in over a week. Dang it. I need to get back to UFO and finish that off.. and I still need to sit down and run through some Makeb on TOR...

Well the weather turned from a nice and sunny weekend, to a seriously pissy downpour overnight and this morning.. For some reason I got pretty much no sleep last night, so I'm running through today on about 2 hours worth of dozing and some serious tea...

What's funny is that they're going to make a sixth. Actually, the sixth is out now, and they've already shot most of seven..

To wander on the general amusement.. http://youtu.be/BYep0P9mVmI

For the lazy sunday afternoon viewing - Bullet To the Head. A somewhat silly Stallone film. I'd say your standard action feature fair. Some violence, some amusements, a little flash of sex appeal, and some solid performances from those involved. It's a call back to the "Red Heat" style of films from the 80's. He plays a New Orleans assassin who ends up teaming up with Sung Kang's DC cop as they track down the people behind their respective partners deaths. Jason Momoa playing the main heavy in monosyllabic athletic killer style, Sarah Shahi as Stallone's daughter, and Christian Slater as a sleazy lawyer type. Punches through the standard numbers of corruption in the Big Easy, the odd couple style hookup, and a few set action pieces. Although the dueling axe fight is quite nicely done.

At least it didn't linger the week.. I managed to get to sleep around 3am. And then something decided to wake me up around 6ish. So since it was a sunday I decided to say sod it and linger in bed a bit. Of course, then the cat decided to be a noisy begger and wander in and start jumping around my bedroom.... For some reason my mind's gone a bit circular on some random Pathfinder stuff that I glanced at, and I caught an advert for NTSF-SD:SUV which looks just a wee bit mad. "National Terrorism Strike Force - San Diego: Sports Utility Vehicle". Looks like some 15 minute episodic pisstake of all those crime procedurals, with a very strange Kate Mulgrew leading the cast, and an amazing collection of guest stars. I might have to track down an episode to watch. Hm, too many birthdays this month, I'm running on the edge of broken budget...

Star Trek into Darkness. We get what we expect from a J.J. Abrams film. Great Visuals (with lots of lens flare). Solid acting (with some odd dialogue). Insensible plot with glaring holes. Cumberbatch pretty much steals any scene he's in. Hell, his intense stare at Kirk through some glass as he's piloting that gunship thing probably out-acts half the rest of them. For the way they wrote his character, he pulls it off incredibly well. Focused, intent, dangerous, arrogantly confident and supremely capable. Unfortunately, for me that writing also lost out on a few other things. (Not to put any spoilers out) But frankly, where was the force of presence that could inspire men and women to follow him? Where was the guiding charisma that could pull people into his field and let him lead them on? I recognise they were highly focused on him in that "solo" role, so I can semi-understand why they didn't really have it shining out. But it should still be there in how he is with the crew on the Enterprise when he interacts with them. Heh, although I really liked how one reviewer put it - "Seeing Benedict steal all those scenes makes me realise what a good actor Martin Freeman is, for being able to hold equal screen time with him on Sherlock and not letting him dominate." The whole "Kirk regress, and let's do the same character arc and growth from the first film again" was a little pointless. Actually, I know we have this whole image of Kirk being this incredibly wild and rebellious, break the rules officer.. But if you watch the original series, he wasn't. Apart from the Kobyashu Maru test, he was pretty much a "follow orders" guy up until he has to go bring Spock back from the dead.. He might flex them a bit, but he never really went wild and broke them. For the other consideration (sorry, my mind is running on weird Trek trains now), but as the commanding officer he couldn't really nail any of the women under his command, and he was always on those "5 year missions". Of course he'd flirt with most of the women he met who weren't under his command. Plus, pretty much all the women he did seduce in the show.. he did it to save his ship, save his crew, or get information from said woman in an effort to do one of the two mentioned things. He really wasn't that great a womaniser..

Heh, Posthuman Studios ran a kickstarter for some Eclipse Phase rpg related matter, asking for $14,000 to develop out the Transhuman Player's Guide.. and ended up with a bit over $100,000. They put in a couple of stretch goals that included "pay the freelancers 15% more".

And the simple truths..

Urf. Well I think the worst of this week's horrible flu is over and is slowly departing... Just feel incredibly drained and need to get some energy back this weekend. That and hope my sleep cycle isn't too twisted up from the nights stuck awake and the days stuck dozing in and out.. Enjoying the fresh cup of tea and trying to figure out what needs dealing with on this sunny weekend.

To jump back to what I said earlier: Although to be fair, a cub scout leader and mother of two actually did engage the attackers in conversation in an attempt to talk them down.. Technically she jumped in to check the pulse of the soldier, not realising the attackers were still there, then when she stood up found herself face to face and ended up confronting them in a nice verbal exchange... And according to a fair few reports, other people actually stood in the way of the body to prevent the attackers from further slicing it up. Sure, they might not have jumped in to wrestle the guys with knives and a revolver.. But they still apparently did shield the body.