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| Monday, December 28th, 2009 |
mistborn
|
2:46p |
David Gemmell Legend Award, Updates, THE SPEED OF DARK
First off, a note about the David Gemmell Legend Award. Named after the late, great UK writer of heroic fantasy, the award is in its second year and seeks to showcase novels "in the spirit or tradition of David Gemmell's own work" (for what that means, see here). Titles are nominated by publishers and then whittled down by online voting from fans. This year Tor has nominated both WARBREAKER and THE GATHERING STORM along with 11 other deserving books, making for a long list of 60 titles from all nominating publishers. Online voting on the long list of nominees has just begun and will continue through the end of March. At that point they'll tally up the top five vote-getters and start a new vote (vote totals don't carry over from the first round). I made the short list last year with HERO OF AGES (which wasn't even out in the UK at the time) and expected to get soundly beaten by Joe Abercrombie's LAST ARGUMENT OF KINGS, but instead the final nod went to BLOOD OF ELVES by Andrzej Sapkowski. Anyway, if you'd like to vote on the 2009 book you feel best fits the criteria, you can do that here. The committee has also started two new awards this year, the Morningstar for best newcomer and the Ravenheart for best cover art.
In the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotations I discuss the Lord Ruler's final message as well as Sazed's memorization skills and Breeze's nobleman status. New annotations go up every Tuesday and Thursday. If you haven't checked out the annotations before, they're like the director's commentary on a DVD—I discuss my books chapter by chapter, and so far I've talked about ELANTRIS, MISTBORN: THE FINAL EMPIRE, and MISTBORN 2: THE WELL OF ASCENSION. I'll also start posting WARBREAKER annotations sometime in the next few months, possibly before I'm done posting the MISTBORN 3: THE HERO OF AGES annotations. I figure that the dedicated fans who come to my website deserve some good bonus content, so here you go!
In this week's Writing Excuses episode I discuss tragedy with Dan Wells and Howard Tayler. Why write tragedy, and how to do it well? Give the podcast a listen.
By the way, my agent, Joshua Bilmes, also represents the talented Elizabeth Moon, and he wants help tracking down a mystery. Elizabeth's book THE SPEED OF DARK sells far more copies in trade paperback in the Salt Lake City area than anywhere else in North America. Why is that? What Salt Lake-area fans/booksellers have been recommending the book to all their friends and customers? Joshua is dying to know. |
grrm
|
12:52p |
Just a Reminder
The end-of-the-year book sale ends when 2009 does. So there's only a few days left to pick up signed hardcovers of INSIDE STRAIGHT, TUF VOYAGING, and WINDHAVEN at bargain prices. (See my post of December 8 for details).    Going, going... |
grrm
|
9:56a |
Life Is...
... meaningless and full of pain... but sometimes it gives you an unexpected gift. The Giants game was a disgrace. Bill Sheridan has to go. How he could destroy the Giants defense in a single year, when he had all the players Steve Spagnuolo had and then some, is a mystery for the ages. And the Jets... well, yeah, I'm glad they got the W, but really... call me old school, but I believe a team should play hard every week, no matter what. What Caldwell did was a disgrace. A nice late Xmas present for Gang Green, sure, but all the other teams contending for the AFC wild card must be steaming, and Peyton and the other Colts first-stringers looked none too happy on the sidelines either. I would not be the least surprised if the Happy Horseshoes make an early exit from the playoffs after this. Disgraceful. Meanwhile, back in the Meadowlands, I can only hope that the final Jets home game in Giants Stadium has a happier result than the final Giants home game. Current Mood:  disappointed |
| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
popejeremy
|
11:31p |
I’ve Been Replaced By Steely Dan — or — Synthesizers Killed My Dog
I haven’t even seen Avatar yet, and already I’ve read several reviews which have said the same thing:
When all was said and done, the question I was left pondering was this: At what point does a film cease being a “film” and transmogrify into an “event”-or (if I may turn the cynicism up to “11”) a glorified 2 ½ hour infomercial for a video game? Yes, Cameron has perhaps “changed” the game, regarding the purely technical aspects of filmmaking and movie presentation. But is this ultimately for the good of the art form? When I think of my all-time favorite films, there are two things that they all seem to have in common: heart and soul. And you do not a need a pair of 3-D glasses and IMAX to experience that.
Every single technical advancement in human history has been decried by cowards as a loss of innocence. Apparently, the movie is a heretofore unseen technical achievement, and is therefore The Devil. Why is this sort of agony such a predictable response from humans? Do we simply hate the idea of growing up that badly?
Originally published at Ergotism. You can comment here or there. |
cyfis
|
7:33p |
WoW-related
No wagons were involved, just sayin'. The thing about going back to play a game, any game, you haven't played in awhile is that you don't start from 0 and get the nice, helpful tutorial to remind you which buttons do what, so it takes awhile to remember things like "shift-T is taunt", "ctrl-T is the other taunt", and "why did I set up the UI to be so schizophrenic?". Also, new instances are full of interesting learning experiences, such as "that gauntlet was supposed to be done in 2 parts". I still maintain that low level LFG is full of stupid. Current Mood:  amusedCurrent Music: Fighting of the Spirit |
| Sunday, December 27th, 2009 | |
dr4b
|
2:18a |
volleyball and stuffs
So, today I went to Tokyo Gaijins volleyball. It was... eh, not the worst I've ever been there but it wasn't particularly great either. I guess it's just that I don't really feel like I fit in socially there (which isn't that big a deal as I'm not there to make friends, I'm there to play volleyball), and it gets more frustrating when they seem to think they should play around me, and never set me, and so on. But at least I got to run around a decent amount and so on, which was the point, I wanted exercise. We had 15 people, so just two teams the entire time. It was mostly Japanese people though, which isn't too weird as it's the holidays now, but... On the way there I stopped off in Akihabara to print out some 2L prints of photos from my last day of school yesterday (but couldn't find a reasonable frame for what I want to do; I think I'm going to handmake a photoboard to hang up here), and I got dinner at the kaitensushi place at the top of Yodobashi, which wasn't so bad, probably because it was too crowded for them to be condescending. Funny part: on the way out of Yodobashi I hear a "Whoa, Deanna" and it's one of my 3rd-year girl students from the JHS. I swear that in my 9 months working at Arakawa #7 JHS, I had never run into a single student of mine outside school -- well, not outside a 4-block radius of the school, at any rate (I don't count seeing them walking to/from school, or having seen some of them riding their bikes near school, or the one or two times I saw a student or two at Oku station on my way home). So seeing her and her mother in Akihabara was a pretty crazy coincidence. Anyway, after volleyball I came back to Akabane, and was starving, so I got dinner at McDonald's since it was kinda late. I got a Chicken Tatsuta sandwich, which is... I dunno, it's like a weird Japanese kind of fried chicken. I didn't particularly like it though, to be honest. I've been watching DVDs and playing PP and looking at train maps for the last few hours. Trying to figure out a good Seishun 18 trip to Obama City -- right now I'm vaguely looking at also seeing Matsumoto Castle and Hikone Castle (and Lake Biwa), as that would add Nagano, Shiga, and Fukui prefectures all to my visited list. Trying to figure out a good train path that also doesn't totally screw me if a train gets stopped due to snow. I was originally thinking it'd be fun to run the Hokuriku again but I think that might be pretty far out of my way. You know, I didn't realize Maibara is actually in Shiga prefecture -- I've been through there twice, but never actually left the station, so I'm not sure I count that as a prefecture I've been to. |
| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
cyfis
|
1:58a |
Happy Holidaything
It's generally a little mystifying as to what people *do* over holidays, except not go to work/school, but hey. - The key to actually getting the 3.x WoW update to not bug out was to "run as admin", which was a little weird since my normal profile has admin privileges. Ah well. The new LFG is kind of... well, horrible, actually, since there's no negotiation between parties before starting, you don't get the (one hopes) questions about "hey, are you still interested in going to [blah], we have xyz", you just get a group and go. "I'm not tank specced so be ready to heal the DPS" is not what I want to hear halfway into the first pull. Starting the final boss fight by jumping off the 40 foot drop so everyone is at half health, while those who didn't ran down and aggro'd all the adds was also, I feel, a poor plan. Cloth feels awfully squishy when your party is of the Leeroy persuasion. On the plus side, it is sorta the Wheel O'Instances, if you set it on "random" and just click Go, which tickles something in my peculiar sense of humor. And you get a blue-quality item out of the bag, which is random? Tailored to class/spec? PS. Why is Alexstrasza handing out free mounts? Not that I'm not appreciative, but... PSS. Lower level Spi regen is less horrible that I remember. Maybe they got around to fixing that. Current Mood:  sleepyCurrent Music: Bones - Bring On The Wonder |
| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 | |
dvarin
|
8:14p |
Curse you, square-cube law! |
grrm
|
6:01p |
Merry Christmas
Here's hoping all my friends and readers have a merry Christmas. And you other people too. Current Mood:  happy |
dvarin
|
1:28p |
[Movie] Avatar
Not as bad as I'd thought it'd be. I mean, sure, it was a standard/predictable story, but it was very pretty. Overall, the message I got out of it was, "The writer wants to be a 10'-tall blue catperson with a mystic nature connection." Which, I can't really blame him for. I was planning to make my next D&D character a Razorclaw-shifter Druid, after all. :) I'm happy they managed to sidestep the "why does everyone speak English?" problem. Although they more than made up for that with their numerous other problems. Like, if there's an area containing enough interference to knock out flight instrumentation, how the %!@#$ does it permit radio communication? And how does it permit the Avatar connection, which must have incredibly high bandwidth requirements? Also, the conclusion itself makes no sense--I mean, there's no way that they won't just come back in 12 years, only this time with enough force to knock out the entire planet. Especially since no one is going back with them to represent the natives' side. There were also a bunch of highly unlikely things, but nothing that couldn't be explained by Protagonist's Luck. And I was amused by them calling the mineral Unobtanium. :) Vaguely disappointed that the chief bio-anthro-eco-xeno-WTFever-ologist got killed, but not entirely surprised since this storyline sometimes requires a Pacifist Sacrifice, and none of her lackeys had really gotten enough characterization to qualify. Actually, characterization was a persistent problem--it felt like the movie spent a lot of time rendering the environment in 3d super-high-definition, but only bothered to pencil-sketch the characters. Even the protagonist and first-tier characters were barely fleshed out, and the rest of them were just a scribble. And yes, I realize that it's an action movie, but even an action movie doesn't have to be as glossy as that. |
eclesis
|
1:39a |
|
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
buoren
|
7:10p |
Divested of CitiBank
So, last year when I heard about the bank bailouts and how CitiBank was handling it, upset, I decided to divest myself of any business with CitiBank. Today I have finally finished that. Shortly after I made that decision, I went and closed my bank account with them, opting for a local credit union. Today, I finalized the paperwork for the refinance, which takes me out of the grasp of CitiMortgage, in preference for a (relatively) local lending company. My loan went from a 5.625% 5/1 30 year ARM to a 4.375% 15 year fixed mortgage. My payments only go up something like $400 for that. I'm totally ready when the inflationary period comes. Yay. |
| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 | |
dr4b
|
1:32a |
If you are a terrorist, please do not read this (Seattle Flights)
I'm taking my usual United 875/876 back. Just bought the tickets. Sick of debating about it. Jan 12, 2010 United 876 Departs Tokyo: 5:30pm Arrives Seattle: 9:09am Feb 23, 2010 United 875 Departs Seattle: 1:38pm Arrives Tokyo: Feb 24th, 5pm I do not know exactly what other plans lie in the middle. There WILL be a week or so spent in Philly/DC so I can visit my family and see my father's grave (in theory, I should probably time it for around Jan 26th so it'll be one year) and so on, but I don't know exactly when. The other likely weekend trip at some point is San Francisco since I didn't get around to it last year. In the meantime, if anyone wants stuff from Japan, or wants to see me while I'm in the US, let me know! Or better yet, if you know some kind of short contract work I could do while I'm over there... well, I guess in theory I should really be working on writing my book while I'm there :) (And for the record, yes, this means I don't think I'll be working in Yokohama in February. I just think it might be better for my mental health to come back to the US for a longer trip.) |
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 | |
dr4b
|
11:56p |
Bleh
Today was a day off, so I spent it doing nothing. Well, nothing except going frantic about what to do about going back to the US. Ugh. Worrying about a job for next year sucks. It'd be nice if I could come back to my current school, but that gets complicated. (They want me back and I want to come back, but the entire ALT dispatching thing is what makes it difficult, since we don't know what company will have Arakawa ward.) I left the house for a few hours to go get dinner, ending up at Heiroku, and then at Ito Yokado to try to find some stickers to put on some final papers at school. But I couldn't really find anything I liked. Also, I got tachiyomi sniped at the bookstore -- I was looking through some magazines, and decided I wanted to get the recent issue of Koshien no Hoshi, since it pretty much covered EVERY player I was a fan of this past year (down to having an interview between the Naokis from Nihon Bunri). So I stopped reading it and picked up another magazine to look through, and while I was reading an article about my Hosei baseball crush Kisho Kagami, some other dude picked up the Koshien magazine and started tachiyoming it -- and he took it and it was their last copy! DOH. I guess I'll pick it up somewhere else, since I only got halfway through reading the aforementioned interview, too. Bleh. |
| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
cyfis
|
11:24p |
FF13 Initial Impressions
Some initial stuff before moving the detailed babbling to the gameblog: -Was not able to get 1080p to work over component for some reason, so I'm running 1080i, which occasionally has anti-aliasing issues, but it's still a gorgeous, gorgeous game. Scenery, characters, UI, music, everything. -Am not, however, used to the camera controls, which feel rather more twitchy than FFX. I think they should've scaled back the camera angle a bit so more of the screen is visible and you don't have to rotate it so much. -FF13 has one of those combat systems like Minstrel's Song where there's no concept of a persistent resource like MP, and your HP recovers fully after each combat. I always prefer these kinds of systems (either that or the method of regening MP during combat) because each encounter can then be interesting and you can use your cool powers instead of it turning into an attrition management puzzle. "I got this really neat spell but can only use it twice or I'm OOM the entire dungeon" is not that great. -That said, you only directly control one of your party members in combat, while the rest run on AI. This I'm less crazy about, but I can't comment on how well it works because I'm not yet at the point where I'm being overwhelmed by skills. The basic idea is that you set up several different tactics preset packages and can swap between them whenever during combat, so it's less annoying than the FF12 gambits thing, but more action-y than FFX. So far combat isn't all that hard, though you have to have a fast reaction time due to the way the ATB thing works. With Haste up it's a different story though. -Character advancement is not through traditional levels, but a "sphere grid" kind of system, where you level your characters' individual specs (see tactics roles thing above) instead of the character as a whole. -The ATB does not, as far as I've been able to determine, have a "wait" mode. This is sometimes a little frustrating when you're trying to target AoEs. -Plot-wise, yes, it does remind me of FF7. Maybe FF10, too, when you first start. This is not a bad thing; Squeenix does like its technomancy. Lightning is totally awesome, and everyone seems to have taken cues from Advent Children. -Load times are pretty much nonexistent, just a bit of loading when you Load from the Menu screen. I haven't installed this to the HD, so I assume it's even faster if you do. Strangely, there is no "Load" menu option, though there is a "return to Title Screen" function. Current Mood: sleepyCurrent Music: FFX - To Zanarkand |
ketsugami
|
7:25p |
I'm off to NY for the holidays. Should have regular internet so you can reach me in the usual ways. |
grrm
|
5:55p |
Odds and Ends
SUICIDE KINGS is out in hardcover (see below) and BUSTED FLUSH has been released in mass market. Meanwhile, I've delivered the additional content -- three new stories -- for the first volume of this storied series, WILD CARDS itself, which Tor will be reissuing later in the year. Since the first volume was historical in nature, telling the story of the wild card from 1946 to 1985, adding some original material to cover some of the "lost years" seemed like a natural. The three new tales: -- "Captain Cathode and the Secret Ace," by Michael Cassutt, -- "Powers," by David D. Levine, -- "Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan," by Carrie Vaughn. No publication date yet. You'll know when I do. As for FORT FREAK, the twenty-first volume in the series that WILD CARDS began, first drafts are all in, I've given the usual editorial note, and the writers are all off revising. This one looks to be a lot of fun. The Class of 2009 is doing some great work, and the old-timers ain't half bad either. On other fronts, Gardner Dozois and I are very close to delivering our original cross-genre anthology STAR-CROSSED LOVERS, to Pocket Books. We're waiting for some minor revisions from one writer. Once those are in hand, the book will be delivered. Only it's not STAR-CROSSED LOVERS any longer. Pocket's sales force did not like that title, so the anthology has now been rechristened SONGS OF LOVE AND DEATH. Got a great line up of writers for that one, including Diana Gabaldon, Jim Butcher, M.L.N. Hanover, Peter S. Beagle, Marjorie Liu, Jacqueline Carey, Carrie Vaughn, Robin Hobb, Neil Gaiman, and many more. Everybody's talking about AVATAR, which I haven't seen yet... but I have been going to movies. While the crowds queue up for Cameron, I've been catching up on some of the other films now in release. I enjoyed THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, and liked INVICTUS as well, but the one that really impressed me was ME AND ORSON WELLES. The guy who plays Welles should get an Oscar nomination for that performance. As usual, I am way behind on my Xmas shopping. Where does the time go? Current Mood:  busy |
grrm
|
5:01p |
Now On Sale
Today was the official publication day for the latest Wild Cards book, SUICIDE KINGS. Run, don't walk, to your favorite bookstore and getcha copy now. And hell, while you're there, get copies for all your friends as well. All you Xmas shopping in one swell foop.  Current Mood: chipper |
popejeremy
|
5:27p |
It’s Not As If We Can Look This Stuff Up Or Anything
President Obama is now saying that he didn’t campaign on the public option, so it’s not such a big deal if it doesn’t go through. The only problem is, he did.
This incident strikes me as the first time President Obama and Candidate Obama are in direct opposition with each other. There was much sturm und drang over his decisions on Afghanistan, and the hippies all felt betrayed. Too bad for them. Candidate Obama campaigned on escalating the war in Afghanistan, so his decision was exactly what we should have expected if we weren’t wearing Hope Colored Glasses.
But his current rhetoric on health care is different. He did actually say one thing during the campaign, and he is now actually saying the opposite when it counts.
Change!
Originally published at Ergotism. You can comment here or there. |
| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
grrm
|
11:42p |
Giants Crush
Well, that was fun. If only every game was like this... (Maybe it is, if you're a Colts fan). These were the Giants I remember. The swarming aggressive D, the sacks, the knockdowns, the hurries, the interceptions, runners tackled at the line of scrimmage. And on offense, long time-consuming drives ending in touchdowns. Eli looked terrific, spreading the ball around. Nicks, Smith, Manningham, and Boss all had big catches, and even Derek Hagan scored a touchdown. The running game was back, especially when Ahmad Bradshaw had the ball. The O line opened gaping holes, and the D line was so relentless that our wafer-thin secondary was never threatened. Yeah, these were the real G-Men. I have no idea who those clowns in the Redskins uniforms were. That fake field goal the Skins tried at the end of the first half had to be one of the most bizarre plays I've ever seen. Watching Steve Young talk about it in the postgame was hilarious. I do feel sorry for Jim Zorn, whose postgame press conference was... well, obviously, no one ever taught the guy Coachspeak. Poor guy is not long for D.C. But it was a great win. Now we need two more like it, coupled with a Cowboys loss. (Or a Packers loss, maybe... but while I know the G-Men have the tiebreaker over Dallas, no one has ever mentioned who wins a tie between New York and Green Bay). Next week, the Panthers. Who beat the Vikings yesterday. Let's hope the real G-Men show up. Current Mood: happy |
mistborn
|
6:09p |
WARBREAKER at GoodReads, B&N, and Romantic Times
Over at the Book Smugglers they've posted a guest spot from me on my favorite reads of 2009. As I've said before, I was sad that unlike a lot of you I didn't get to rush out and read a new Wheel of Time book this October. On that blog I share a list of what I did get to read instead.
There's been a lot of love for WARBREAKER recently. It's the December discussion topic for GoodReads' fantasy book club, and I'll be participating in the discussion there in January. The book also got the #4 slot on Barnes & Noble's book clubs Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novels of 2009 list. (They discussed it back in July; see my Q&A thread there). But the biggest news is probably that WARBREAKER has garnered a nomination from the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Awards for Best Epic Fantasy of 2009. (See the full list of nominees here.) So far that's five fantasy novels out from Tor, five Romantic Times award nominations, and two wins (ELANTRIS and HERO OF AGES). Wow! If you don't know what all the fuss is about, I hear that Borders is a good place to buy WARBREAKER right now—they are the most likely chain to have copies in stock. (You can check your local store's inventory at the link.) Or of course check the list of stores that have signed copies.
In this week's episode of the Writing Excuses podcast, Dan, Howard, and I talk about antiheroes. Familiar with The Talented Mr. Ripley? Howard isn't.
In the most recent annotations for MISTBORN 3, I talk about Sazed putting on his metalminds and Spook's romance with Beldre as well as the death of Bilg. Don't remember Bilg? Umm . . . Oh, and I also put up an annotation for "Defending Elysium" (but be sure you read the story first). |
cyfis
|
1:56p |
Still in Memphis
Why is it still in Oregon?! Why has it been shipped from Portland to Portland? Wrrrrryyyy. *ahem* - From lunch conversation with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ketsugami: "Kingdom Hearts is a licensed game that doesn't suck. I wonder when they'll make KH3?" "Disney owns Pixar now, does that mean that we'll get a WALL-E world?" "...actually, come to think of it, Disney owns Marvel now too." "Sephiroth vs WALL-E vs Wolverine! Fight!" Current Mood:  anxiousCurrent Music: E Nomine - Mitternacht |
buoren
|
9:44a |
avatar (no spoilers!)
I went to see Avatar with E yesterday in IMAX in 3D. Aside from the weird disorientation I always feel watching a movie in 3D, I had a marvelous time. The basic premise is that a human corporation wants to do mining where an indigenous population of feline humanoids live. Jake Sully is sent in using an alien body as an avatar in order to help with negotiations. The special effects were gorgeous, and the vistas and biology were fascinating. The story was pretty epic. For some, it may be a little preachy; the nature-meld and Iraq comparisons were a little ham-handed. However, watching this movie was a lot like having mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. It's not particularly new, even when Wolfgang Puck makes it (trust me, I've had it...), but it's still delicious, and sometimes you just need comfort food. Me, I was happy eating mashed potatoes, stuffing, and macaroni and cheese for four days straight for every single meal, so... take that as you will :) |
cyfis
|
8:57a |
Spoodlemonkey
Since I don't pay attention to these things, I didn't notice that it was 2x exp weekend in Aion, and leveled rather faster than I wanted to. I realize this sentiment probably comes off as heresy to the grind-minded occupants of the latest kMMO craze, but I mean it - I would rather do quests at my level than power through optimal grind zones, and mobs stop dropping loot if you're 10 or more levels higher, meaning you can't find a party for quests you're too high level for. I fail to understand this design decision - in WoW you're allowed to run lowbies through instances if you wanted to and get them cool loot. Maybe they're afraid that it would kill low-level partying? Anyway, Aion is a much more gear-dependent game than WoW, so I almost always prefer money or gear rather than exp for quest rewards. I suppose if I were worried about leveling past the range at which you can do certain quests I could always go jump off a few cliffs. -Getting lucky with weapon drops helps immensely with combat efficiency - most of my ability to solo elites depends entirely on the Black Claw Chieftan's Staff I was lucky enough to get on a farm run. Armor matters somewhat to a melee character, but nothing really beats the ability to smack things down really fast. -Reached Morheim. Morheim is the first lowbie zone subject to groups of random gankers who come in from the Rifts, but the victims will usually warn of their location in time for you to port home or just hide in a corner until they go past. Also, snow appears to be a recurring theme in Asmodian locations. -Unfortunately, I missed a bunch of group quests back in Altgarde and will have to go back and LFG for them. Fortunately, I've also discovered I can solo heal BC groups as a Chanter as long as the group isn't of the Leeroy persuasion, so it probably won't be that bad. -Acquired regen Mantra. It ticks slower than Word of Revival, but they stack; the cast time penalty from Rage Spell is irrelevant when your regen takes care of all the in-combat healing for solo encounters. -Played a bit more with the crafting system. It's sort of worth it if you really wanted a good item for the slot, as making your own (including grinding fees for raising skill; might I mention that the skill raising is painful and debilitating and about as interesting as watching grass grow?). You can get it for maybe about 20% cheaper than AH prices if you wanted to collect your own mats and fight the RNG to make it proc a green, and the base mats at this level are pretty cost-negligable. Made 4 sets of Silver Earrings, 2 of which proc'd green, which will then get turned into Rose Quartz Earrings once I figure out where to get some Rose Quartz. Fortunately you can use stuff you've soulbound to make other stuff (though I think the new piece of gear will still be soulbound). -Found a quest with a poor lovelorn Asmodian (keep in mind these guys have blue skin, claws, and their eyes glow red and stuff) who wanted to pick a present with which to court a girl. The choices were a pair of earrings or an ornate Cube (cubes = inventory bag), at which point my RPG instincts took over and immediately said "more inventory space FTW". - Unrelated: Awhile back I signed up to MyAnimeList to track what I was watching, but eventually found it kind of pointless as harinezumi does a much better job of obsessive cataloging. What amuses me is that, almost a year since I stopped updating, I am getting e-mail notifications of people commenting agreeing/disagreeing with the review I once wrote on Code Geass R2. Must be because it's gotten localized recently or something? It's mostly one-liners, but I'm amused at the one guy who went on at length about why I am interrogating the text from the wrong perspective deluded and wrong using points I already covered in the review and maybe not realizing that it's been over a year and I no longer care one way or another. I am terribly sorry to have offended your fanboy sensibilities, mea culpa. Current Mood:  artisticCurrent Music: Ed Van Fleet - The Fire of Joy |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
cyfis
|
7:51p |
Movie Thing: Avatar
I should realize by now that Rotten Tomatoes and I do not share common opinions all that often. Went to see Avatar (no, not that one) with the usual suspects. The CGI is very pretty, action scenes fast-paced without devolving into incomprehensible blurs, and some of the scenery pieces absolutely gorgeous; the florescent plant life and floating continents, in particular, were a joy to behold. The key to making spectacle, I feel, is to not go to great lengths to explain it but just show what you're going to show and let suspension of disbelief do the rest. And, as improbable as the weird biological network thing they were going on about is, I find the concept to be quite cool. The plot, on the other hand, was so full of moral dissonance, double standards, Hollywood logic, and wall-bangers that I had to turn my brain off about halfway through, and not in a sorta-good "I'm enjoying the explosions of a cute popcorn movie" way. I was warned that it could come off as racist, but I am not even sure who it's racist against, since the factions appeared to be a contest between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Stupid. In a nutshell it's The Last Samurai but dumber. I could go into detail, but it's not really worth my time. Let's focus on the floating continents. Yay floating continents. PS. One day, I would like for an adventure hero's introduction to the mystical native society to be instigated by some craggy, tough, bearded giant instead of the obligatory blue-skinned space babe. It would be the greatest love story never written. Unrelated: There's a certain specific point at which you introduce rice to egg when making home-made fried rice without the convenience of a restaurant cooker, which is about when the egg is tough enough that it's not trailing streaky yolk all over the pan, but not completely solidified, so that it clings slightly to the rice as you fry it together. This comment brought to you by observing teppanyaki. Unrelated II: Apparently jRPGs suffer from a lack of evolution. I'll get back to you on that one when I've stopped laughing. Or no, wait, I'll be busy playing FF13 in all its linear glory and suffering through the agony of being forced to not make choices. The horror. Wake me up when one of those revolutionary non-linear games delivers the same quality of story/character development as a good jRPG. Current Mood:  thoughtfulCurrent Music: 奥田美和子 - 青空の果て |
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