Gromnir

Its not splitting hairs, its using the correct terminology to refer to the correct thing correctly. I Am Legend isn't a remake of Omega Man anymore than Omega Man was a remake of The Last Man on Earth. All three are different adaptions of the novel (with differing levels of fidelity to the source). Nosferatu (1922) and Dracula (1931) are both adaptions of the Bram Stoker novel (the 1931 movie via the Hamilton Deane stage play), but Dracula (1931) isn't a remake of Nosferatu. However the Werner Herzog 1979 Nosferatu with Klaus Kinski is a remake of the 1922 Nosferatu but the 1979 Dracula with Frank Langella is a new adaption of the stage play that 1931 Dracula was an adaption of so it is neither a remake of either the 1922 and 1979 Nosferatu films or of the 1931 Dracula. Based on your argument - that anything that adapts the same material is a remake - The Dark Knight is a remake of Batman (1989) which is a remake of Batman (1966) which is a remake of Batman (1943) despite having little in common other than the fact they're adapting the same character from other media. not to put too fine a point on it, but what in the hell are you doing? is a category that the razzies folks is utilizing. am suspecting that the razzie folks would laugh themselves apoplectic if the "winners" o' one o' their awards argued with any seriousness that the reason their movie/performance did not deserve mention were 'cause o' mislabeling. and yeah, is a category that will indeed have fuzzy gray areas 'cause it is meant to limit an artform. is a category no doubt imagined into existence by folks whose closest brush with scientific method were listening to a bunch o' nerds discuss the plausibility o' lightsabers during their time at usc film school. and most pointless and ill-considered is that you is arguing with vol in an attempt to get him to see the validity o' the categorization in question. find self arguing serious with vol over what is largely nonsense has happened to us once or twice and is always embarrassing. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

jupiter ascending is a live action anime film. HA! Good Fun!

our email says beta will be available the Week of january 17. has there been confirmation o' january 17 elsewheres? HA! Good Fun!

is kinda unfair as we see so few new movies each year, but the first movie that came to mind when we thought o' razzie-worthy titles for 2015 were jupiter ascending. am one o' those folks that will walk outta a bad movie. first such film we abandoned early were firebirds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwS7MuNCwFs we made it to queen bee exposition and then walked outta the theatre for jupiter. am not regretting having done so. HA! Good Fun!

Hi Gromnir "waves " I'm glad you are back, I have missed your insight. Why would you feel tired after a holiday? why indeed. jet lag? old age? HA! Good Fun!

we did see new star wars in a rather... retro theatre in kauai. have had better sound and video experience at "movies in the park" venues, but it were quaint. thought force awakens were fun, but am gonna admit some confusion and a few concerns. am not certain why rey gets a big hug from leia-- had they ever met? am also gonna concede that we believe the director/writers worked a bit too hard to avoid making the female protagonist a damsel in distress. admitted, if rey had been written as annoying and immature as were luke in new hope, we doubt we woulda' much liked her. double-standard? dunno. Gromnir were mighty young when we saw new hope, so am doubting we were too bothered that luke were immature... or that he needed be saved from sand people attacks, or tie fighters, or drunks in a bar, etc. am also gonna admit that we were curious as to what lord voldemort were doing in the star wars universe. were an initial reaction, and possible unfair, but it were an honest and genuine reaction at seeing the villain's wizard o' oz routine. as an aside, we believe bioware deserves recognition. the manner in which the kanadian game developers payed homage to the original trilogy for kotor were more artful than we saw in force awakens. we weren't over-bothered by seeing same/similar approach utilized by jj, but bioware manipulation were not a distraction. bio developers intentional borrowed plot devices, locales and characters from episodes 1-3 to make their star wars game, but bioware's recycling were less... crude. sure, 'pon reflection one could see just how much kotor borrowed from the star wars films, but in the moment it did not feel like we were getting same story with a different title. we have become increasing critical o' bio in recent years, but seeing new star wars film reminded us that kotor were a clever and entertaining storytelling... even if the gameplay aspects were kinda lacking. HA! Good Fun!

unlimited time suggests immortality, so we would likely invest our unlimited resources to discover a way to kill our self. HA! Good Fun!

today we returned from our yearly vacation to hawaii. typical we go to the islands in early december. this year we went later and stayed longer. am exhausted. am gonna take a nap. perhaps need a vacation to fully recover. ... am not expecting sympathy. HA! Good Fun! ps we dont genuine go to the "islands" anymore. we got a functional standing reservation for kauai. is likely another sign o' advancing decrepitude that we like kauai so much better than oahu, big island or maui.

showing confusion. is not the deep philosophical questions that is being addressed. reach answers to the philosophical questions should be personal but is sadly less personal given all the silly exposition and bad writing in ps:t. thematic questions shouldn't be answered direct with crude exposition that were all too common in ps:t. we has noted such multiple times. converse, chekhov shows a loaded gun in act 1 o' o' the seagull and we can expect to discover why... but again, this should be axiomatic. nonek examples were not regarding symbolism or theme or extended metaphor. nevertheless, unanswered questions don't doom a story, particular one original intended to have expansions and sequels. in spite of the "rule" that all questions should be answered, most writers make exceptions, but such stuff is exceptions. "The mark of a great game, it births more questions than it answers." is nonsense. is bass ackwards. is bad writing. HA! Good Fun!

volsense is funny. this is an nfl thread, so we make obvious comparison 'tween nfl and ncaa. recognize the money the nfl makes while ignoring who runs the league and enjoys profits from nfl tv contracts would be ridiculous. roger goodell and the nfl works for the nfl owners. well, guess what, ncaa fills similar role. the individual universities realize that a single entity to negotiate media contracts and enforce rules benefits everybody... well, benefits everybody save for texas and notre dame and a couple other universities that got enough cache all by their lonesome. ncaa makes lots o' money for the benefit o' individual universities, and most universities is still losing money from their sports programs. HA! Good Fun!

actually, it didn't... not really. majority o' that money goes to individual schools... is misleading. $908 mil of $989 mil is expenses and payments to Universities. $70 mil has been allotted for the new concussion program. the $40 million lawsuit is being appealed, so is not counting as a loss... yet. most money the ncaa brings in is media rights/tv revenues which is then paid to conferences and schools. HA! Good Fun!

If I ever had two thousand bucks to spend on a set of kitchen knives this would likely be my pick oh, we don't use them as kitchen knives. we got one o' those walnut surfaced magnetic knife racks so we can stare at the MACs while we use our cheap wusthof blades. ... am only kinda joking. HA! Good Fun! ps edited out picture

am admitting that by the time we get a response to a customer support ticket, we has near forgotten we sent the ticket. weeks-often many weeks- pass and we be accustomed to the broken whatever such that when the predictable non-response to our ticket arrives, we is initially surprised before our "oh yeah, now Gromnir remembers..." reaction. haven't yet learned to stop sending tickets is, we suspect, our genuine problem. definition o' insanity and all that? keep performing same action and expecting different results, at least in a newtonian universe, is insane. HA! Good Fun!

well, yeah... as a general proposition the system persists because o' the socialist notion that there is value in making sports scholarships available in spite o' the fact that many o' those sports do not generate revenue. w/o such we would have men's football, men's basketball and baseball... and only at a handful o' schools... which would violate title ix in a Big way. we "steal" money from rich citizens to build highways and schools too. perhaps it is wrong, but unraveling the system requires major changes. paying players money or allowing 'em to get money from the use o' their image, even if you agree such is necessary, would require major changes to all college sports. such difficulties is why most universities and pundits suggest more moderate solutions such as providing some kinda fixed additional amount to the scholarship benefits o' players from the revenue generating sports... which still runs afoul o' many title ix roadblocks, but isn't as much o' a dead end. HA! Good Fun!

That is a strange analogy. but lord knows we ain't gonna nerd duel over what folks think is questions o' ps:t or star wars. regardless o' your personal answers, the notion that good writing leaves more unanswered questions is bass akwards-- is complete untenable. now perhaps you don't agree that ps:t had any unanswered questions o' import. fine. am not gonna try and change your mind. HA! Good Fun!

Indeed. PST leaves unanswered questions primarily because you want to ask them and seek them out, and because it elicits actual thought about the subject matter. and it fails as often as it succeeds. the questions a reader, as with all literature be it digital or print, should be questions 'o why rather than what. seek out answers to novek's posited questions has no answers w/i the game, and they ain't philosophical quandaries existing beyond the scope o' the art neither. ps:t is our favorite game, but we wouldn't call it best... and the writing is often amateurish and crude. is heavy on exposition and dime store philosophy while leaving many practical questions unanswered. we can question and wonder the value and meaning o' ravel, but we is not left wondering what happened to her or the reasons she cursed/blessed tno. the major questions gots answers w/i the context o' the game. you not need secondary sources or imagination to find answers to ravel. sure, you can argue what was author intent and makes up theories 'bout symbolism til you turn blue in face, but is answers w/i game that is no doubt why ravel were a favorite character o' MCA, who stated that he found ways to add her to all subsequent black isle/obsidian games. and again. it takes no art or skill to create questions and then fail to answer. the notion that questions raised should be answered is considered axiomatic w/i the craft, though as with all such "rules" it is broken as often as not. is there reasons other than choosing to leave up to imagination to fail at answering novek questions? no? if is simple some vague notion that unanswered leads to greater enlightenment that guides one to suggest that more unanswered questions is better, then: fail. if gonna break "rule," one need understand and have reasons for breaking. can be specific 'bout the usefulness o' a particular unanswered question? fine, but silly notion that unanswered is better is contrary to reasonable outcomes desired w/i the art. HA! Good Fun!

most college football programs make very little money, and that money typical goes to support other athletic departments. for an out of state student such as Gromnir was, the average yearly costs to attend Cal is ~$60k. how many $60k jobs can your average college jock find nowadays? and 'course we is talking 40 year investment rather than 4, yes? additional, for student athletes serious about an nfl career, the coaching and training they receive from professional coaches also has considerable value. various schemes suggested to pay players is economical challenging for most universities and impossible for a large %. ~25 of 228 d1 programs break even each year... though obvious the numbers change a bit. and dont even get us started on title ix problems. and am suspecting that in spite o' some recent litigations, the average player would not wanna be treated as an employee. we got no real issue with letting players market themselves, but is also a bit problematic... and likely pointless. for a $60 jersey, the university itself makes very little money. is forbes and cnbc articles that claim anywhere 'tween $3 and $5 for university on sales o' jersey. obvious can't give player all profits for selling a Georgia or Texas jersey, so let's be magnanimous and split that in half. for sake o ez math, call $2 per jersey. the thing is, even they typical star player ain't selling that many jerseys. may seem like lots, but it actual ain't that great. tebow were kinda a recent high watermark with about 1500 per year. most other star players come nowhere near that... oh, and don't forget you is likely now paying attorney and agents and other folks to handle the money side. and again, most Universities don't make money, and for the most part, the money the Universities do get goes to support other athletic programs that don't generate revenue. is not that paying star athletes will create a new revenue stream. pay stars means take away from women's lacrosse and swimming and track. HA! Good Fun!

it did, many times. you gave examples where it did such. *shrug* writers do rely on the imagination o' the reader. is not same as leaving unanswered questions. give limited or no physical description o' some horrific or mythical beastie? sure. let reader fill in such details is much different than filling in story. HA! Good Fun!

being able to imagine countless nameless one lives is not leaving questions unanswered, but we will put it in nerdish: leave question o' luke skywalker parentage unanswered woulda' been better? the pieces the writer puts forth should all fit together. leave gaps is lazy or mistake. is impossible to say with certainty that your imagined resolutions would be superior to the author if he had bothered to put forth the requisite effort. regardless, is the writer's job to craft the story. if is superior by leaving "more questions than it answers," then there weren't no point to having the writer put pen to paper. coulda' left nonek to imagine the whole damn thing and call it Genius. "once upon a time, a man awoke in a morgue with the realization that he had cheated death hundreds and perhaps thousands o' times..." 30 the end whatever call it a day. HA! Good Fun!

caution and quick feet is our choices. that being said, Gromnir doesn't have a family. we have lived in a few rough neighborhoods, and while we never particular feared for self, having a family to protect would change our self-defense calculus. a baseball bat next to the bedstand has been our go-to weapon o' choice for confronting burglars, not that we need such nowadays. we have never owned anything that we valued enough to kill somebody to retain, so am doubting we woulda' ever swung our bat at anybody in anger. our sister became ill and lived with us a number o' years and before we moved to our comical safe neighborhood, we did have a large & noisy dog to protect her when we weren't around. if we had kids and a wife and we couldn't have a big dog, we would at least consider a gun. a knife? can't think of a situation we would want a knife. is hardly an ideal home protect weapon, and for any other scenario we is gonna use the "caution and quick feet" option. the ridiculous small possibility of being attacked after we has happily surrendered our wallet, class ring and computer (our shoes and suit is likely gonna be our most valuable possessions at any given moment, but we ain't yet been threatened for our shoes) to the person robbing us does not make us want to purchase a knife. if we is attacked before we have a chance to surrender our goods, a knife woulda' been pointless in any case. however, we do have the full damascus series o' MAC knives. gorgeous, no? HA! Good Fun!

"The mark of a great game, it births more questions than it answers." can't express how much we disagree. for good story, all major questions should be resolved and conclusion, while inevitable and perfect in retrospect, shoulda' been evoking surprise and wonder in the reader. am not a huge fan o' the ambiguous resolution, but that is the one case we seen for leaving an unanswered question. regardless, with possible single exception, for good story, all questions should have answers. a game, with an anticipated (but failed) sequel due to insufficient sales is gonna have unanswered questions. however, as often as not, such unanswered questions is a result o' lazy writing or cut content. kotor 2 were not made better 'cause o' mysteries surrounding hk droids. such questions were intended to have answers in any event. game did not become superior 'cause answers were brutal amputated. no doubt can see the slippery slope ahead, yes? we will observe that in recognizing the excessive (but necessary?) exposition and philosophy-for-dummies approach o' ps:t, a few questions initiated in game were unanswerable... but that were a function o' the setting as much as bad writing. outside o' a philosophy primer or textbook, is not the job o' writer to specific ask the reader consider meaning and value. reader should discover the questions for themselves. regardless, we cannot disagree more 'bout the birthing o' questions. takes no skill at all to birth. to raise and nurture such questions... to surprise reader with the maturation o' forgotten or seeming inconsequential questions... well, that takes skill and art. HA! Good Fun!

the problem with grad rates, as you can see from the bootleg article, is that there is multiple methodologies that is used simultaneous by universities often to obscure. GSR (graduation success rate) is the current favored method for individual years as it recognizes, for example, a player being drafted by an nfl team before graduation, but more accurate penalizes schools for transfers. (in the past, a mid-season transfer would not counted til subsequent year, if ever.) this is what leads to so much confusion and consternation as one can see from bootleg that the gsr for san jose state for academic year 2012-2013 were 51% and in 2011-2012 sjsu were tied with Cal at a paltry 48%... in 2010-2011, sjsu had foodball grad rate o' 44% which were second worst in all of ncaa football (http://www.scout.com/college/stanford/story/1273612-the-bootleg-s-2013-graduation-rate-analysis http://www.scout.com/college/stanford/story/1183346-the-bootleg-s-2012-graduation-rate-analysis ). APR is sorta/kinda a tracking of GSR over a 4-year span. *shrug* confusion is expected. how can grad rates be low but apr high? is reason why bootleg and other sources post articles as APR is frequent inexplicable. however, one thing is certain: Cal should be embarrassed. we saw an academic advisor a total o' one time while we were at Cal, so am not surprised that things has only gotten worse. even so... is particular appalling when looking at disparity 'tween student body grad rates v. football player grad rates... and when grad rates o' black football players is further highlighted, one wonders how such inequalities is allowed to continue. is shameful. yeah, at public schools you got far less tracking o' students-- success and failure is individual responsibility. "why should football players get special treatment?" is a valid argument. special tutors and programs to ensure football player success is kinda frowned 'pon by the hippies at Cal. even so, is no reason for seeing +95% grad rates for student body as a whole and only mid-40% grad rates for football players. recruit such athletes with an expectation that more than 50% will fail is utter unacceptable to Gromnir. HA! Good Fun! ps we solved mystery of sjsu high apr. sjsu student-body graduation rate, as a whole, is not much better than the football team. apr considers the disparity 'tween athletes receiving financial aid and the grad rate (GSR) o' the school as a whole as viewed over a 4-year span. thus sjsu poor grad rates for football players is not an ncaa concern as football players is faring little worse than the ordinary student at sjsu.

am forgetting from whence hurl did matriculate. san jose st. rings a bell, but if that is incorrect and we give offence by making such a suggestion, we apologize. http://www.scout.com/college/stanford/story/1399111-the-bootleg-s-2015-graduation-rate-analysis am embarassed to admit that from an academic pov, the public universities in CA do a rather poor job o' educating their football players. is perhaps not complete fair to compare elite private universities to publics, but the disparity is often appalling. HA! Good Fun!

only time we lock our door is when we go outta town for at least a couple days. am honest not even certain where our keys are. use garage door opener to access our home on extreme rare occasions we lock door during business trips or vacations. when we eventual decide to sell our home, to provide a real estate agent with keys we would likely need have a locksmith come out to our home to re-key the locks. *shrug* "crime" in our neighborhood amounts to kids taking golf carts for a joy ride and leaving 'em stranded out at the back lakes. is frequent suspicion o' drug use by teens, but by the time security arrives, the ne'er do wells is near always gone. heck, even drunk driving is "punished" by no more than an escort home or to the entrance gate, followed by an appropriately (inappropriate) stern warning. HA! Good Fun!

10% is on the low end of many surveys, but keep in mind that extremism is not easy to define. the reason the % is so frightening high is 'cause when respondents is asked 'bout the appropriateness o' violence 'gainst civilians or suicide bombings, or similar such examples, muslims is far more likely to respond in the affirmative than followers o' the other major religions. is ok to use violence to prevent foreigners from burning the quran? is ok to use violence to prevent foreigners from burning the bible? etc. the ordinary follower o' islam might not concede that using violence to prevent such sacrilege equates with being extremist. the surveys/studies we has seen that show inordinate high percentages o' muslim extremism is resulting from a fundamental difference regarding the appropriateness o' violence. the thing is, am not certain how useful such studies is. compare protestants in rhode island to muslims in syria is, perhaps, giving a distorted perspective. might be better to compare folks with similar educational, economic and cultural backgrounds, yes? lebanon might be an ideal location for such comparisons as ~40% o' the population is christian. is those christian militia groups in lebanon any less tolerant o' violence than the muslims? dunno. islam is the most popular religion in a part o' the world that suffers from endemic poverty, substandard education and a rather limited appreciation o' the value o' personal freedoms. as such, the correlation 'tween islam and extremism does not surprise us in the least. HA! Good Fun!