Research papers are hard, Part II

So, I'm feeling loopy and inundated with medieval facts and personages:

Muslim Soldier: Allah Akbar!
Peter the Hermit: /spams Consecrate
Muslim Soldier: It's a twap!
Muslim Soldier begins to flee!
Urban II: /cast Mind Flay /yell LOL n00b lrn2pray

Research papers are hard

So you don't get any actual content, just this new video. In America.

Game designers: retarded, or subversive?

Seriously, who the hell names their alien antagonist the Kha'ak?

Back to basics

Nothing but a burst of nerdy awesomeness and classical irony here...



Be sure to check out all the other vids by spiffworld, overall they're excellent, and even those non-gamer nerds out there should be able to appreciate the WoW videos, they're quite well done! And after that, check out the musician's website, replete with downloads aplenty. Especially Re: Your Brains and Furry Old Lobster. So. Good. Thanks to Hans and the EoE boards for finding these.

And in case you were looking for an odd mix of humor and abhorrent corporate behavior, here is your daily dose of irony.

Finally

Also, Gizoogle. It's not as dirty as it sounds, it just translates sites into Ebonics or something. Like, if you do my blog through it, you get this. Bizarre.

Christmas break: More interesting than it sounds!

So basically the reason for lack of recent posting is that, upon returning home for the holidays, there was pretty much nothing interesting to write about (with the exception of the below movie reviews)! Battlestar took a week's hiatus for Thanksgiving, our own Thanksgiving took a few days' hiatus due to illness, and since then my time has been consumed (quite pleasantly, I might add) by sleeping, eating, the Daily Show and Colbert Report, gaming, comps research, and hanging out with Poke, Hans, and the occasional Stella. So basically, all my time has been amply filled with amusing distractions, but none of it is particularly journal-worthy.

One thing that might merit mention is some new music...Hillary's infusion into my collection has been a superb addition, adding such instrumental oddities as Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Four Tet, and string versions of the Beatles and Coldplay songs. It's amazing how much Coldplay can be improved by focusing on the melody.

My most recent musical find is Myndflame. Sharp-eyed readers may note that yes, that is in fact one of the people involved in the Illegal Danish series. Yes. And did you notice how the music in those was good? Well, the Admiral played some of his other stuff over Teamspeak recently, and it's surprisingly good techno. So, for early Christmas, I picked up two of his albums, and I am not disappointed!

Battlestar has been catching some flak lately, from mid-season doldrums to accusations that the show is slowing down or losing quality. First, I think 90% of these accusations are unfounded (see an example of such foolishness, as discussed on Andy's blog). Secondly, and much more happily, fans of the show should listen to the Roundtable Podcast released last week. As a warning, it's 3 hours long, but that really only adds to it because you get to hear them becoming progressively more drunk on wine as the night goes on. It's an interesting look into the show, the actors behind it, and what they want out of the show. And Ronald D. Moore and other address precisely some of the issues others are worried about, especially with the show dragging on for too long. And if you've seen Firefly, listen for a familiar voice on the podcast.

I'm in ur space bubbles, transporting ur symbolism

So, yes. Though the opinion of the group was split, think that The Fountain was an excellent movie. Perhaps a bit heavy-handed at times, but overall the symbolism was actually pretty subtle and beautiful. The fact that the whole thing was done without CGI still impresses me, though I can see how most of it was done. It gave it a very surreal feel to many parts, which is interesting given that it was probably more grounded in real images than it would have been with CGI. I can see how some people would be disappointed with it - it was not as...epic as the trailers made it look, but it's still incredibly artistic. And I think that to not enjoy the beauty and the story to at least some extent would only be possible if one had never known what love is like.

So, today (technically yesterday) was Thxgiving, and after that movie, I'm mostly just thankful that no one I know has brain cancer (knock on wood). There are many other things I'm thankful for, and as for the people I'm thankful for, you know who you are. I'll just leave it at that, because putting it in words always seems to cheapen it somewhat.

This year also marks the second year that Dad has made good use of my vacation insomnia...you know how most people get up really early to make it to all the good deals on Black Friday? Well I just stay up all night and then go out and buy things for cheap. This year, I'm waiting until Office Depot opens up at 6am and going to purchase some cheap Mp3 players and surge protectors/battery backup supplies. Exciting, I know. But, it gives me an excuse to stay up all night, blogging and gaming, and to feel nary a guilty twinge for it.

Oh, and since I realized that I only posted the textless version of this earlier, here is the second in the series:

Casino Royale, OR "Oh my god, I'm still cringing in empathic testicular pain"

So, I'm home for the break - that's the next six weeks, for anyone keeping track. While much of it will probably be spent hibernating and doing research on medieval Spain so as to not have the worst winter term ever, I shall definitely be up for stuffs and/or things with folks in the DG area. Such as, movies! There's a small army of them that I want to see, and one has already been checked off the list, quite to my satisfaction.

THINGS I LEARNED FROM CASINO ROYALE:

-Parkour is even more impressive when done amidst explosions
-Half-blind asthmatics can be villains too!
-When detonating a bomb by remote, ensure that said bomb is not, in fact, attached to your own belt loop
-Wanton destruction in third-world countries is funny! Oh wait, our government already knew that
-Poker can be vaguely exciting under certain circumstances
-Venice, LOL

And finally, two reasons why I will never be able to sit in a wicker-bottom chair again:
1) I won't look as good at Daniel Craig while naked in one
2) SWEET MERCIFUL CHRIST, HOW CAN ONE MAN DO THAT TO ANOTHER?! I mean, yes, yes, torture's terrible, in any form. But what man sinks to the level of sack-tapping? That violates the Guy Code. Not cool, half-blind asthmatic bad guy. Not cool.