Updates at a Shocking Rate

Yes I've read two more books and already wrote up my remarks. Utterly shocking I know.

All in all, I found Stardust to be charming but with a pout I say abbreviated. Little was left untold, but ... but- still so smoothly done that you still want more, please. It’s wrong to hope for some of the teaser tales to be built upon later, like how Tristan was almost a town bard, about the Fellowship of the Castle, and Yvaine saved them from being enslaved by goblins. All of which are told in passing, to have the reader yearn for details that would have made the book delay its point unfortunately and bloat it into the vicinity of 700 pages. Most people hate unnecessary details, but I hate being teased.

I could almost say that you could hand this book to a middle schooler, but I don't think most parents would appreciate the one use of the 'f' and seeing a little 'f'. Relatively small part in the story, but hey its there.

Son of a Witch by contrast would have more meaning to the philosophical high school student or collegiate. Intrigue still runs afoot in Oz, and Liir is in the thick of it surprisingly. The most modern Victorian fairytale of all is what Maguire writes in his own unique voice. Wicked was a scathing satire, and Son picks up the pace but drops off the observations. There is still a lot to say here, and with Maguire, there is no hint of where the story will eventually lead you unless you read ahead.

Updates and Considerations

For the first time since October, I have made some posts in my Book Log. Reviewed the Iron Tower by Dennis McKiernan and the Runes of Elfland by Brian Froud and Ari Berk. Two posts hardly make up for the lax attitude I've taken about the log. Because I've yet to post a true review of any of the Wheel of Time books since Shadow Rising and I'm on Crown of Swords. Somewhere I know I made a handwritten review of the Fires of Heaven... and I really shouldn't delay with making my thoughts on a series since they can easily be confused with each other's events.

In any case, need to do something about those books in particular and put up my movie reviews of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the Goblet of Fire. The mini-rant I did on Goblet doesn't count in my opinon. Not to forget the seven other book reviews I have set up as drafts in the Book Log either... I'm such a slacker.

I'm really excited about being in a RPG. I had the chance to back in high school, but having limited transportation and personal issues with the DM prevented me from taking part. I was always facinated with the books, the illustrations and the detail that went into the most mundane seeming things.

The first game is going to be Earthdawn. Its the one game that both my husband and one of his friends have the most material on. I've already gotten a couple characters rolled up for it before from when we thought about starting a game that never happened. But new chances deserve new characters. Unfortunately can't afford new dice either but I think three sets are enough.

I'm pretty set on T'skrang. I'd thought about maybe troll, but I don't think I'd be able to play the honor aspect to the hilt as I'd wish when I get more familiar with how to play. There is a difference with being aware of what happens and having expereince with it. After last night's reading through spell descriptions (decided on a caster class since for whatever reason I feel more comfortable with that than melee) I'm deciding in between wizard and elementalist. I can't really bring myself to nethermancer, I have no gut reaction to it at all. Sorry no links to the discriptions, the only site I was able to find with them was a geocities site- b l e h!

But I guess I'll have a character sheet up before the end of the weekend. I suppose I'll even post it up here. :)

Monkey Loving

Real Monkey Love.
*giggle*

Odds Bodkins and Ends

After much thought and discussion with my husband, I fully agree with this review.

Just as the impact is settling in on the audience -- Quick! On to the next scene. Director Mike Newell and screenwriter Steven Kloves move the story along in the spirit of a Blackberry-addicted thirtysomething, leaving little time for depth or nuance.

Which is truly a shame, this is a beautiful film. But characters get relegated to a two-dimensionality that they weren't even treated to on paper. But I'll save the biting words for the review.

An issue that I see around the conference center often is companies (stock market, medical, lawyer, etc.) and their presentations/spreadsheet data. Business is sensitive to current data like rising bread dough is to temperature. If it gets old your bread isn't as soft and high as it normally would be. So often I see confidential reports and numbers on the PowerPoints and PDFs that I print out. The files can be large, and the assistants don't always have enough time to run the first print job themselves. I get left with a USB drive and instructions.

It's fine to spend millions of dollars protecting a network from hackers — but what about all that data that goes walking out the door every night? What about those laptops left in taxis, or the whiz-bang cell phones left on airplanes?

I have to say, I have executives run in here and be more likely to leave their crap behind than the senior members of the club. Glasses, cell phones, and yes, even the thumb drives if I didn't remind them. Seriously, besides integrating all information to one universal device to keep track of- the only solution I see to keeping the data in the barnyard is to have a meltdown circuit that can be triggered by IT personnel once the device is registered lost.

I'm privately seething, Memoirs of a Geisha has been moved to December 23rd while Narnia still holds on to December 9th. *pouts* But the Ain't It Cool people are so cool they have already seen LW&W and given it a shortie review.

In closing, the discussion I mentioned at the top led to talk about maybe another Batman movie. Rumor mill has Mark Hamill pinned for the Joker role.
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My husband gave me the eyebrow to ask if I knew why HE would be in the running for it. I stiffly replied that Mark was my Boy since I was about six. As a kid I know I must've watched Return of the Jedi every day for two months when I got it on VHS (black cover edition)... I don't know how mom didn't say a word to me for my obsession. But Hallmark finally ponied up the slave outfit Princess Leia ornament. I can't wait to catch this half-price.

Speaking of casts- I'm impressed with this Narnia reproduction of Peter on a rearing unicorn.

While I was also browsing AIC (which I haven't been to in MONTHS), I saw the dreaded Bloodrayne siren. I've denounced it since I saw the lead actress's photo. Such a shame. But this note got me cracked up.

He actually hired real Romanian Mafia owned “whores” for this decadent scene involving Meatloaf’s character. “They were better than actors. We looked for local Romanian actresses, but there they are all from the theater and act very broadly. For 150 euros a piece the whores would be naked and do as they were told. It was better.”

Squirmy Bundle of Excitement

No I'm not being crass. IT'S TOMORROW NIGHT!!

Penny Arcade is even in the spirit.

And I happen to think this tee is really nifty.

This black tee has a front screen that features the beautifully intricate Beaubaton™ crest

Intricate indeed, nifty I say!

I promise I'm not really a fan whore ... not a bad one anyway. S'not like I go around in the wire rimmed glasses with capes and wands and stuff. I'm all under the radar. I just keep telling myself that but my midnight showing tickets say otherwise I think. O_o

Long long rant.

I feel crappy atm.

Mostly little stuff, I'm sure I'll be over it in a few hours. I can't help thinking of my pillow and the blanket I just washed last night. The best thing for getting over yourself is a cup of tea but the tea they have here is pretty crappy in my opinion.

In short, yesterday was so wonderful having to deal with today in contrast makes me want to howl and bawl. Wah. We had a wonderful time on a date with each other and watching movies, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to be specific. It wasn't at all what I expected. Amusingly enough, later that night we were watching the Sopranos. On top of that, we got in contact again with one of my husbands good friends which put us in good humor. I hope we can get together with them sometime, they're great people and we don't really socialize that much.

Today, one of the employees from S&S tore my shirt a small bit on one of the swinging doors- my favorite and I'm hoping I have enough skill to hem it back in. He also was looking for equipment to take back to the main office and tried to take the projector I needed to setup since John had already run home. It was all a minor misunderstanding, but I think I'm just in an irate mood today. But the guy got at least the projector he needed and I got the other set up. I wish Fedex would come and pick up all the boxes that are holing me in my office.

Wish I could've slept more, except for the needing to make sure that hell doesn't break lose here. Sweet lord I deserve some vacation. Thanksgiving will be the closest I can come.

So holidays are coming and my mothers family does the name-in-the-hat so only one person gets a gift rather than everyone try to go broke with presents for everyone. I think my grandfather has my name again and wants me to call him... probably to take care of my name for me. Mom asked if my husband wanted to be a part of it too. We are ok, just gift giving and tips are kinda out of the budget. Its nice of her to think of him. Proper at the very least.

I'd rather be able to afford to send her flowers on her birthday than having to think about Christmas gifts. A person's birthday is more important. Especially when most of the time there is some sort of scale between two people when you exchange gifts. You either break even from the deal. Or you don't. I'd rather sentiment was expressed, getting together for a small party for lunch/brunch/dinner or whatnot. That's the spirit of the season to me. Making cookies, having fun. Presents are important to kids. Adults think more of, "I could really use some more towels or a new set of kitchen knives". Really Christmassy.

The only good part is more paperwork hasn't come in the email yet. And I've got my letter ready to mail out, I got to work on time, I have a lunch, I dropped the bill in the mail with the Netflix and speak-of-the-devil they received the two other ones from last week finally. Now if only I could get the apartment cleaned up and they would stop drilling the tennis courts here at work.

At least I'm a lot less irate now. Partially due to having gotten a little shipping snafu off my chest to my boss. Sometimes the Front Desk likes to leave packages in my office after hours for me to take care of on opening up. They're supposed to use provided forms to make sure there is no miscomunication on any of the details. I haven't seen a single one used. Instead I have this lovely note taped to the box "UPS GROUND, Jane Doe, Room 123, account 123456, MC on file, FRONT DESK". The box has a label on it with someone's address. I can only 'assume' that its to the destination. Nothing else has been indicated.

I call front desk, and they said they remembered it but they didn't note any other instructions or provide the file on it. All on me. I notify my boss and gently let her know that-I don't mind so much they don't use the forms so much as if I send this to the wrong place...it doesn't go to them.. no, it comes back on us. Amazing how understandingly that conversation went.

I doubt anything will come of it, but letting a person higher up on the pole know that things aren't working sometimes diverts the crap when it comes downhill. What else can I do? I at least did the stuff to back my behind from getting scraped. Otherwise I don't really care.

I almost hope it goes to the wrong place. Almost.
Just like it almost puts a smile on my face.
Oh wait.. never mind. :D
Hopefully the rest of the day is quiet, then I'll be happy. It is payweek afterall.

Rounding Up

Ortho McNeil is cautioning users on the Ortho Evra patch. The patch form exposes women to 60% more estrogen than the pill and can cause an increased risk for blood clots. Since the patch has such a concentrated dosage, the body absorbs more estrogen at a continuous rate that the body can't dispose of quickly enough.

Amazing that medications approved three years ago take this long to release information on long term risks.

I would like to say that our movie theatres here on the Atlantic are the cool since this is a HUGE city. But apparently not cool enough to have Kiss Kiss Bang Bang anywhere near us. Closest theatre is in a seperate city. And I haven't been able to find a review anywhere actually evaluating the movie. It all seems to be the same reworded and reworked cack of "I'm paid to go to the movies here is the premise and omg Val Kilmer is playing a gay man."

No one is stripping down this movie and I'm deeply concerned. The last couple of films that Val was in was Stateside and Mindhunters, both of which while being well done- contained very little and certainly did not feature Val for more than fifteen minutes. I don't want to be dissapointed again. I realize bit parts like that are profitable for the man, but god I hate movies that headline an actor that is hardly playing a character with any screentime. I'm sick of it. And that is what I want reviewed ladies and gentleman... and I'm not seeing it!!!

Google Atom Feed for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Culmination

Another news entry.

I finally finished Lord of Chaos last night. I think it's one of my favorites so far. It seemed like the Fires of Heaven was the Empire Strikes back of the Series. It had split people up all over the place with new plot creating and twisting on itself- it was hard to keep up at times with all the people and directions they were going in. In contrast, LoC was wrapping up a lot of the loose ends into an obvious direction and in general was moving the plot along instead of trying to create more. It was very fun to read.

I was just reflecting on how Eye of the World was a really different book than the rest of the series. It was mostly concerned with a mostly Indiana Jones feel with the race to the Mountains of Dhoom. EoW could very nearly stand alone, like the plot for a TV show. The rest of the books by contrast require being read back to back or with the assistance of quicknotes in order to keep up with the more subtle subplots.

I have been working heavily in Maya lately, and I'm happy that my modeling skills haven't suffered. But I am reminded that there are still many more ways to create a shader- specifically metallics. The problem being with many substances is that they interact with light in principal ways that are not naturally constructed. They have to be tied in with specialized light networks. I've already made many realistic shaders from clever Photoshop manipulation, but any light tricks would have to be aligned to the camera direction nodes to maintain accuracy. That's more of a pain than I would want to do every time I want to make a crystal or silver texture.

I can't wait to go into character modeling again, I have such exciting ideas to play with the Cloth engine.

A Thousand Pardons...

I feel like a neglectful parent, I not only forget to wash the pot, the boxers, but I also haven't updated in almost a week. Good news being that lately I've enjoyed watching the first season of Highlander a lot more than I thought I would. And also have been collaborating with my husband on a website for the Chronicles of Spellborn. Yes it's another MMO, but I'm rather enchanted by the Fable-esque graphics style and the unconventional approach to the common mold of MMOGs.

Part of this rant has been MOVED since it is long and slightly off topic for this section. Click for the game rant.

I'll publish more here as I'm allowed to on the progress of the website. I've been excited about a lot of the themes and have been doing my best to try and come up with new graphics to replace the standard banners and signatures. I'm so glad I quit WoW. I wish I could stand to drink normal coffee since they say it doesn't affect your blood pressure like they first surmised. Sodas still do though. Bummer for the coke and pepsi drinkers.

There was even some evidence that women who drank lots of coffee -- four or more daily cups of regular or decaf -- faced a slightly lower risk for developing high blood pressure than those who drank little or none. Winkelmayer said that may be because coffee has lots of antioxidants, substances which are thought to help protect the heart and reduce risks of cancer.

Worse Than I Thought

My first experience with copyright protection was back two or three years ago when I popped a rock cd in my computer intending to listen to it since my cd player was unavailable. It popped up with a little screen telling me that in order to listen, I had to use their player they had- or else. I was outraged, money I paid to listen to music only on cd players? I'm thinking it was either Californication or Sevendust, I could be wrong. It might have been Human Clay. But regardless, with how few CDs I owned.. it tee'd me off.

I consider the draw that Sony has done to go beyond insult and injury:

Although resembling a virus, Mr Russinovich found the hidden files had come from an anti-copying system called Extended Copy Protection (XCP) developed by UK software company First 4 Internet. About 20 titles are thought to be using the XCP software and in May 2005 Sony said more than two million discs had been shipped using the technology. XCP is just one of several anti-piracy systems Sony is trying.

From here.

The Inquirer has an editorial up of Charlie Demerjian's reactions to the product:

[The CD] tells you to consult the EULA when you want to copy the disc. Which madhouse did we step into that now means a CD needs a EULA...and none of the CDs I own have a EULA on them. So, at Best Buy tonight, I tried to consult the EULA... It wasn't on the CD package, not on the shelves near by, and the blue shirted aisle trolls had no idea what I was talking about. No, they could not provide me with one, I did ask though.

Both articles deserve a good read so you can get a grasp of the heat and breadth of the issue at hand. First article from bbc.com would be your meat and go to the inquirer for your potatoes.

I hate to quote again, but this is the icing on the cake:

Say you want to remove the Sony stuff. According to no less a source than The Washington Post, the bare minimum you have to do to remove the rootkitted DRM infection is give up your privacy. If you go to the Sony page, here, you have to give Sony your email at the very least, and according to the WP story, Sony then grills you about your reasons for not liking being rootkitted.

Brilliant! Tick off people even more after you've sneakily installed 'anit-piracy' software deep in their computer and denied them being able to listen to the cd or recoup their money when they are dissatisfied. Brilliant, I say!

I Call ...

Splenda
Those of you that used to avoid aspartame or saccharin from products like Equal or Nutrasweet that switched to Splenda... you're consuming the same category of stuff under a different name. Its all still chemicals tricking your tongue at the expense of... well- we don't know. Your diet cokes, your zero calorie, your low carb, your ice cream, sweetend with Splenda.

I'm not going to try and bandy that its absolute, this chemical causes this and has x chance of giving you cancer or organ failure because the truth is hard to find out there in the world that is colored with so many opinions and opinion-facts upon those editorials.

Interesting fact "pre-approval research is rarely published. It is only available from the FDA by filing a Freedom of Information Act request". From:here.

Do your own research people (click the links here or type- clicking synonyms inside pages don't bring up complete results):
Sucralose/Splenda chemicals
Aspartame chemicals
Sacchrin chemicals
Cane sugar
Carrageenan

What brought this on? This article with this hilarious comment :

George Pauli of the FDA. "You can't be absolutely certain about anything, but when the FDA approves a substance, it has a reasonable certainty that no harm will result," he says. "I'm confident about their safety."

Because the FDA is failsafe you know. Its immune to lobbying or gifts to push products along. And the research is always through to the last chemical breakdown to test toxicity.
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.
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SARCASM people!

Will add more pages later of actual scientific research on sugars (natural), artificial sugars, and alcohol sugars. So you can draw your own conclusion.

Things I Wouldn't Buy

All That I Am - Carlos Santana Despite the fact that "I'm Feeling You" also features Michelle Branch, the big capital words of CONTENT/COPY-PROTECTED CD mean I would NEVER buy this. I would go out of my way to never buy it or go to iTunes. The content protection is crap and violates one of my rights as the purchaser. To be able to have a personal backup copy not meant for distribution or re-release- only in case the cd screws up, I still have it and haven't wasted money. I refuse to fund the mistaken idea that people that listen to these things on computers have to install third party software or not at all. I refuse to let my intelligence as a consumer to be insulted.

Star Wars Trilogy DVDs - Because its the King Size bar Holiday edition. Which means it really isn't the candy bar you wanted to buy in the first place when you saw the name of it on the wrapper.

I bit on the VHSs.. I got what I wanted- the original that I feel in love with as a kid for the first thirteen years of my life. I'd seen these since I could remember when I was four years old. I bit in high school on the VHS versions where he got to add stuff he couldn't before. Ok, didn't massively change the plot, was mostly cosmetic, good for some giggles (The Hutt as the slug instead of as the public faced human stand in, bigger bangs, more tentacles from the Sarlac, etc).

But I firmly believe that going back a second time was a mistake to just mess with faces of key characters and such was crap. We only went and saw the prequels to indulge you Lucas- not because we liked Hans Christian or Natalie Portman or (though Liam was really the only noteworthy performances out of it all... I lie- Yoda). And it certainly wasn't to get eye-raped by that retarded Jar Jar Binks *shudders*. Lucas has had enough of my money and not giving in return (Five years of poor cinema in the prequels and you give us only fifteen minutes of Darth Vader???). For shame, for shame. The dream is gone now that its done.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DVD The best I can call this is an assult on my senses and sensibilites. Why Johnny, why? When Tim said dark and closer to the books, I thought he was telling the truth... not putting you in the Beetlejuice/Candyland horror of a factory and calling it artistic. You did the best you could, and I know Tim is your buddy- but god it looks like someone took the community playhouse and put the maddness of Alice in Wonderland to it. I would probably have to be heavily inebriated to watch this.

iPods - Overhyped, overpriced, oversexed, media-money-shoted marketing. There are so many MP3 players out there, and the iPod is big because of marketing and all the Apple lovers out there are shoving it out like a *censored* "look look what we did! Mommy mommy! Look Apple made a big thingie! But it's tiny and sexy! ooh ooh!" iPods weren't even first. But we all knew what was going to happen the first time we saw the catchy match-moved monochromatic dancers prance across our TVs. Not unexpected at all. But I'd rather get a Sony. Nano (credit card sized) meet the NW--E405 (small pack of gum). Sexy.