Raithe

I saw Skyfall. Hm, I'm not totally sure what I made of it. There are a lot of elements that were quite good, some nicely developed characters, a nice way of showing how various people in MI6 connect to each other... But it seems a bit..odd that the whole story comes down to the "showing people why you need human agents as well as satellites and such", "Bond proving he's not too old for this" and a way of changing M over and introducing a new Moneypenny. Didn't we have Pierce Brosnan proving the need for human agents a couple of films ago? And for the third Craig film to already have people in-universe making the comments that he might be getting too old and needing to slow down and get out of the field.. I will admit, the reappearance of the Aston Martin from Goldfinger was a very nice move. Along with the M and Bond banter. Bond flips the eject button open "Are you going to be like this on the whole trip?" M rolls her eyes "Oh yes, go on, eject me then,"

The other side of influence is how much it should be linked to individual npc's and characters, and how much is linked to factions / groups... Or even some combination of both. If the Faction someone's a part of loathes the sight of you, how much does that effect individuals within the faction? heh, if you've done something that saved the mother/sister/love one of a faction member, how will that individual react to you differently compared to the rest of the faction? Will the perception of you by one faction influence another faction you haven't encountered yet? How global will reputation/influence be? As in, will everyone in the world automatically regosnise each and every reputation shift or will it slowly be known as time passes in the world? So if you do x action and save someone from bandits in y location, the Reputation gain is immediate to characters there, then once several days have gone by, villages and towns nearby will react to that Reputation change, then a week or so after everywhere in the country will be affected by that Reputation change..?

That was actually the cunning ploy where nearly all the EU created before the prequels is set AFTER A New Hope. WIth the most extensive stuff being in that 5-20 years post Return of the Jedi. The only real stuff set before A New Hope.. is set hm, 5,000 years before, 4,000 years before, and 1,000 years before. That let them leave the big hole for the prequels, and post prequels has let them fill in those gaps.

Or go scientific with your drinking and go for the Whiskey Cloud (although any booze can be used). Nothing quite says classy drinking like pouring a short of alcohol into a 2 liter plastic bottle, putting it under pressure, whipping the cork out and watching it vaporise.. sticking a straw in and breathing deeply....

I have to admit, they do seem partial to cancelling series that are built around an arcing story.. John Doe was a series that was close to my heart. And again, that ended on a particular cliffhanger and they cancelled it before answering any questions in a 2nd season. Threshold, similar. Odyssey 5.. boom, killed on a cliffhanger. Defying Gravity.. yet again, major story arcs in progression, and they kill it. For the non-story arcing but quite decent series.. Breaking In. Fox let it run for a chunk of episodes then cancelled it. Only to bring it back the next year, let it run 5 shows, then cancelled it once more..

Heh, maybe we should start the list of "favourite tv shows that were cancelled before they could go anywhere"... Although I think we've fairly covered Firefly already with these lists. +

Is it too soon for that one about the new drink doing the rounds? The Sandy. Although it turns out to be just a watered down manhattan.... Anyhow, I'm trying to push through the lingering man-flu. Spent an afternoon dismantling my mothers old motorised chair, then building the new one. Also made a start on some of those "learn Spanish cd's". Trying to pick up, recognise and pronounce in some semi-correct form some of the basic words and grammar... Interruptions of hacking cough really don't help said pronounciation....

As in, are you looking for info on this? The official Star Wars rpg line that Wizards of the Coast ran (when they did the Saga Edition) had a sourcebook that was all about the Knights of the Old Republic era. That had some general bumpf, character info and powers and feats of the time and era for both Kotor and Kotor 2 amidst a horde of other things.

I did see an interesting report a bit back, that actually the panic about Y2K was worthwhile, because a bunch of things did get fixed that would have caused problems if they hadn't been. Not end of the world, but still fairly significant ones. So if there hadn't been the panic, they wouldn't have been fixed... So it makes you ponder at times on how a good panic can achieve results.

Okay, for the brief history. 1st Edition M&M was basically connected to Open D20 source. 2nd Edition M&M was them stripping away a lot of the OpenD20 and creating more of their own, but keeping a lot of links to the original style. 3rd Edition is much further away from the d20 roots and is set up with a lot more "showing the bare bones" of the system as it were. They took a lot of the d20 stuff away, shifted the stats from d20 style and really pushed it out there. 2nd Edition is still good and worthwhile But some of the basic effects are more cloaked in style, rather then giving you the bare bones. (if that makes sense).

Was gifted Left4Dead 2 and have it on download from steam.. Although I guess this means I should figure out why my microphone isn't working at the moment if I start to play it much... After a week or so break from ToR I'm getting bakc into it, and pushed my Consular through to the end of Coruscant. Pondering whether to concentrate on act 1, or go back to my Juggernaut and deal with Hoth... Nothing new really on the horizons, alhtough waiting for Hitman Absolution to arrive at the end of November. Haven't really got the budget to try out XCom, so I'll be waiting for that on sales I think...

Now he turns out to be a stalker who pick pocketed you...

One of the things I like about M&M is how all the powers are based around effects that you add descriptors to, and include extras, flaws, and power modifiers... Which allows you to completely change the tone and style. The Damage power as basic is close range power that literally causes damage. With the right descriptor and quirk, it might be Retractable Claws, Psychic Axe, a super-strong punch, or a switchblade that can be disarmed.. Add the Ranged extra and potentially you've got a handgun, or generating neon cosmic blasts.. Throw in Homing feature and Burst / Explosion Area and you've got a missile or seeking fireball... You can ramp it up to full on Superheroes with Phenomenal Cosmic Powah! Or tone it down and it's perfect for gritty street level spies.. Or somewhere in between and Pulp 20's style.. Hell, if you twist it the right way it can work as a perfectly standard Fantasy Sword & Sorcery type game.. Or push it into silver age space madness and sci-fi elegance..

Mutants and Masterminds 3E. It's fairly quick once you get a grasp on it, and it's amazingly effective for the wide variety of things you can achieve with it.

I've had Lo Pan Style going around and around in my head so much I swear I'm going to have to put in Big Trouble in Little China on the dvd this week.

Working my way through a lovely bout of man-flu. Congestion headaches and all. When you can't read a complete page without being interupted by hacking coughs or a need to attempt to blow your nose.. You don't really get much done.

Firefly - What needs to be said about this show? Hookers and Cowboys in Space, with dialogue from Whedon... Babylon 5 - It had it's rough spots, but damn, it was the show that really pushed the idea of series long plots and not just episode of the week or season end/begin 2 parters.. That and the characters were bloody excellent. That, and the music (like Star Wars) just helped create such an evocative ambience for what happened in the show. Highlander - Again, started rough, but once they found their pacing it just worked (especially with Methos..) Blackadder - Apart from the very first season, which wasn't as smart or polished as the following seasons. MASH - For just how eminently re-watchable it is. Parker Lewis Can't Lose - It was pretty much ferris bueller's day off writ as a tv series with a touch more surreal elements... As for seventh place.. Brimstone. - a dead cop in hell for killing his wife's rapist is sent back to the world to chase down 113 escaped souls. And John Glover does a rather thoroughly brilliant Devil. hm, honourable mentions would have to be said for both Odyssey 5 and Threshold. Two sci-fi shows that were unfortunately cancelled with the 1st season shown. If they'd had time to grow their story arcs and start to pull in some of those winding plots that they both spent the first season establishing..I'm pretty sure they'd have moved up onto the list properly.

Was away from Friday through Sunday on a weekend work thing. Came back home to find no-one had actually thought to clean out the kitty litter while I was gone. Also, it seems my sore throat is now developing into more of a full blown flu-style thing. Joys for the start of the week.

And the odds of him actually spending any time in jail?

Well he shot that "Much Ado About Nothing" in his home in California. He joked one of the reasons they filmed it in black and white was so he wouldn't have to repaint his walls..

heh. I've actually had something similar said from my Le Grande Ex. It does not make it easier.

Have a form of working weekend coming up, a semi-casual discussion on work, company, personal aims, and some networking. Based around the idea of "get folks who have spent more time emailing each other and talking across the phone rather then in direct personal contact together" and with a game plan of "roughly sketch out time tables, then do some work stuff together and have a beer, then some more work and discussion, and some more beer, then a dinner with outside company contacts and more booze". So that should be somewhat interesting. But it's being an oddly paaced evening feeling right now. Organised things for my mother, so all her meds are prepped and assorted things are handled while I'm gone. I finished my replay of New Vegas yesterday, and finished a book I was reading earlier. Wrapped up a short crash presentation preperation on combating graffiti for a potential work pitch... Have that slightly disconnected feeling and not sure what to do. Not in the right mood to start a game, can't really get a frame of mind to figure out fresh reading, Nothing jumping out as a "this needs to be done now", and my mind keeps having odd wistful half-memories of an old girlfriends voice. Just very... ungrounded in anything in my life right at this moment sensation.

One surprising thing I've noticed, is if you take a cross-section of scientists by discipline - a bigger chunk of physicists and astrophysicists will believe in God (even if not as part of an organised religion), while a majority of chemists seem to be more secular / agnostic / athiestic.

Heh. Just noticed that the packet of strepsils I've emptied over the last two days has a "Do Not Use After : Nov 2004" tucked away on one end....

Watch out for the season finale. Supposedly, all the clues for what actually happens are in the episode. But so far (at least not when I last checked) no-one has successfully claimed to identify everything and identify exactly what goes on... Which means lots of theories up in the air...