The updated edition of The Writer's Tale reveals that Russell T Davies was approached to create a musical version of Torchwood, with music provided by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus from ABBA. Although the idea never proceeded beyond the initial concept stage, the Swedish duo are apparently fans of the show and were keen to take part.

My brain cannot comprehend this. Just...no...

My stress levels are EPIC.

I literally did not know it was possible for me to feel this much stress.

Not in a good place. Not in a good place AT ALL.

You know what? I have had all I can stand.

Another film I reference endlessly in my daily life, and possibly one I’ve seen so much that it has lost what shock value it had for me the first time. Instead, it remains as an impossibly smart, endlessly funny satire of the culture of American excess and its inevitable downfall. Who knew a movie made in 2000 about the 80s could be ahead of its time?

Adapting a Bret Easton Ellis novel is no easy task, proven by pretty much every movie based on his work. Mary Harron was able to provide us with a very rich and successful movie by removing much of his superfluous squick and focusing in on the essence of what makes his stuff work. And that is a deeply cynical, harshly funny look at the decaying soul of American capitalist culture. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m most certainly a capitalist at heart, but I’m not blind to its problems, nor to the way people have a tendency of twisting it to their less than noble purposes. What Harron was able to find in Ellis’s deeply flawed work is a man who is in a position to see the emptiness of his culture but is unable to escape the emptiness himself. And thus, the emptiness becomes him. The abyss stares back into you, indeed.

This film certainly wouldn’t work without Christian Bale’s fantastic performance. He plays the character perfectly. The emptiness, the doubt, the horror, the insanity. All of it is there. Unfortunately for Bale, he seems to have settled on glowering, raspy, shallow performances, but this movie shows his aptitude for incredibly nuanced and terrifyingly real psychological characters. Connecting to his future work, one can easily see that Bale’s Patrick Bateman is no other than a Bruce Wayne without a Batman to escape into. This is Dexter without offering the audience an easy way out to cheer for their hero.

And so we follow his descent into madness and the horrifying fantasies of narcissism, misogyny, and rape, borne from jealousy and sociopathy. It isn’t an easy movie, and it’s definitely a disturbing movie, but it’s also scathingly funny. And the whole movie isn’t made easier by its incredibly ambiguous and dark ending, in which we find Bateman spiraling deeper into the darkness that grasps his soul, only fed by the complete disinterest of his fellow man. At the end, he’s completely at a loss as to whether or not he has any control over himself, and if he actually did follow through on his darkest desires. So, did it happen or not? Does it matter? When it comes to killing a lot of people, isn’t it the thought that counts?

I didn’t even talk about the perfect touches like the soundtrack, the fashion, the incredibly clever, very quotable dialogue, the fantastic supporting performances, and the detail of 80s upper class culture. Heck, you can even spot the Club Kids in one scene. All of this makes the movie even better; a nightmarish look into a world that seems so far from ours, but is actually fighting for a hold on our souls. After all, it’s hard not to be jealous of the charmed life of Patrick Bateman.

...of 4am-noon shifts.

I'm kinda loving it.

Oh, darn it, forgot I was going to mention this: Back in October, I believe, I went to First Monday down in Canton. If you've never heard of First Monday, it's like the world's largest flea market. A lady makes homemade soap and sells it there, so I'll go sample her wares on occassion. Stuff lasts forever.

Anyway, on the way to Canton is the smallish town of Wills Point. Right there off I-20 (and you'll have to pay attention to the billboards because I can't remember the exit number) is a gas station/restaurant/smoked meats store called Robertson's. If you've been through Oklahoma or Texas you've probably heard of Robertson's because they have the best beef jerky on the planet.I mean, this stuff is just killer. Anyway, they have a website here. You'll balk at the price, because $28 for a pound of beef jerky, I must be crazy, right? The stuff will last you a month. Give it a try.

Because it was/is fun in friendshipper's LJ. :)

As you guys know, I'm pretty new to fandom culture, although I've been a fan of many tv series, book series, etc. Before Stargate Atlantis, I never read or wrote fanfic; before I joined TarValon.net, I had never participated in a fan community. But I know a lot of you are interested/involved in fandoms; I'd love to see the questions you ask, and if you post this meme in your journal, I'll ask you questions, too!

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Just one question, please, but it can have sub-parts.

Question can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

My fandoms:
TV Series: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Leverage, Castle, Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (I would say the Original Series, but I'm waaay out of touch with that one, so no), Veronica Mars, LOST, Sanctuary, Dollhouse, and now thanks to my sister, Burn Notice (only halfway through S2 right now, but by the end of the week...). There are other shows that I watch but that I don't know enough about to call myself a fan: Torchwood (have only seen series 1), Mad Men (only part-way through S2), Big Love (still haven't seen season 3), and Carnivale (never completed watching S2).

Books: The Wheel of Time series

Why am I not writing any more movie reviews in this journal this year? Why, you ask? Well, lemme tell you. Because I just got finished watching all interminably soul-deadening two hours and nine minutes of HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, and, I just...I can't even...I don't...I...

*sigh*

Just kill me now. Just DO it. End it, already. PLEASE MAKE THE CRAPPY MOVIES STOOOOOOOPPPPPPP.

Turns out that after a year's worth of doing virtually nothing but critical essays, slipping back into this whole blogging-about-life-in-general thing is turning out to be a wee bit harder than it looks. Of course, it would probably make things slightly easier if my life consisted of something other than waking up to a blaring foghorn of an alarm clock every morning at an hour so ridiculous that the very SUN has said "screw this noise, I'm gonna hit the snooze alarm for a half hour longer", peeling the cat off my skullcap, stumbling aimlessly into the wall next to the bathroom door, cursing my stubbed toe in several languages (including a few not yet invented by humans), and dragging my sorry ass into a shower only to discover to my horror that it was FRIGGIN' FIVE FRIGGIN' DEGREES FRIGGIN' FAHRENHEIT outside all night long, which means that the water pipes have had a good several hours to get nice and ice-cold, which of course lends itself to all manner of unintentional comedy when I am stupid enough to step into the shower, half-asleep, under a rain of water which the crazy people who do the annual polar-bear dives for charity would probably classify as "cruel and unusual punishment".

And yeah, it's pretty much all downhill from there. In addition to all of my other cold-related miseries which had me singing the "Woe Is Ozy" song pretty much all last weekend, I now have a NEW humiliation to pile on top of it. At some point over the weekend, my near-constant snuffling and hacking and wheezing and sneezing and huurking and plorfing and fnerging and blatzing and all of the other noises I was generating, managed to spread the wealth of germs gestating in my lungs and nasal cavity across my upper lip as well, such that, when I woke up and peered suspiciously at my (usually only MILDLY-terrifying) visage in the bathroom mirror this a.m., I was greeted with a huge honking cold sore on said lip, staring defiantly back at me and sneering as if to say "YOU WILL ALWAYS BE HIDEOUSLY UGLY AND DEFORMED FOREVERMORE, YEA VERILY, GET USED TO IT". I mean this thing was the size of freakin' KANSAS, and there it was, throbbing merrily away and threatening to swell up so large that it would proceed to swallow up all other remaining features of my face, turning me into The Amazing Walking Face-Pustule Boy. I could already hear my phone ringing off the hook, from the fine fellows at Barnum & Bailey Circus, calling eagerly to inquire as to whether or not I'd be willing to quit my day job, sleep on a straw pallet, and travel 'round from city to city along with all of their other menagerie of assorted freaks, the better to scare the living crap out of impressionable young circus-going children in the heartland. I could be a sort of cautionary tale, sandwiched in-between the Bearded Lady and the Guy With Gills Where His Ear Holes Are Supposed To Be. Awesome. I emptied about a gallon or so of Blistex on to my face and proceeded to go in to work, where I was greeted all day long with stupefied stares of complete revulsion, as my co-workers took one look at my Leprosy Lip and desperately flailed in the opposite direction, wishing to hie their as-yet-germ-free selves to the adjoining zip code as quickly as possible.

2010's gonna be a GREAT one, peeps. I can tell already. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go detonate my face.

Not only did I have an assignment due the first day but I also have four reading assignments and a short story to write by Wednesday.

One of my programming classes has an assignment that involves me learning an entirely new language to program it in which is due in a week.

My psych class has a reading assignment and just let me know I have to do six hours of field research with an instructor/T.A. over the course time on top of everything else.

School has been actively open for all of 10 hours now.

Awesome.

Warning: empress_ehvul, yelenia, you might want to skip this entry - it's all about Atlantis Season 5. :)

I just watched Stargate Atlantis 5.13: Inquisition for the first time. Truth be told, when I was watching SGA this past summer, I skipped a couple of episodes, and I couldn't even watch the end of the series until much later in the year. Some of the writing was very bad, some of the stories ridiculous (Brain Storm, ohmigod), and I was put off by the mishandling of the Jennifer Keller character by the writers (a rant for another post, coming soon). So it ended up that there were a couple of episodes I hadn't seen. Since I'm still in Austin, I decided to finally watch them, especially since I can do so now without being heart-and-soul wrapped up in the series as I was last summer.

I originally chose to skip Inquisition because it was a clip show, and I hate clip shows; I wanted to get on with the main plot line (that desire came to a screeching halt after "The Shrine" - again, 'nother rant for 'nother post). I just never got back to it. At the moment, I'm working on a post-season five SGA fic that will be upwards of 60K when completed, and a chunk of its plot hinges on politics of the Pegasus galaxy. I needed to watch Inquisition to know what that episode added to the canon of Pegasus politics. So today I did.

I didn't hate it, but I have one major complaint. Teyla and Ronon barely had any lines in the entire episode, and the "Coalition" treated them as if they were the same as the Atlantis people from Earth. True, they're aligned with Atlantis and hold a position in the city, but their people are of Pegasus - the Satedan diaspora, in Ronon's case, and the Athosian's in Teyla's. It seemed strange that the coalition didn't want to address their choice to work with Atlantis, didn't want to give them a chance to speak, etc. And the fact that Teyla and Ronon were so completely and utterly silent through the whole episode just... that was very strange and out of character, especially for Teyla, who had in other episodes expressed very strong and very complex opinions about the politics of her galaxy. She and Ronon in their own ways put Rodney in his place when he says that Pegasus is better off with them there than not (which is, obviously, not entirely true).

The episode would have been far more interesting to me if the Coalition and the trial had been part of a truly fair process, and if Ronon and Teyla, as residents of the Pegasus Galaxy, had had a stronger role in the trial. I think the episode writers bypassed a chance to deepen the characters of the two Pegasus residents, choosing to try and fully justify the presence and legitimacy of the Atlantis expedition in the Pegasus galaxy rather than face the more subtle issues.

I loved Joe Flanigan's performance in this episode. I've seen a lot of reviews speak of how off-putting John Sheppard's arrogance was in response to the trial, but episodes in the past have shown that Sheppard's instincts are very, very good. I'll take it as canon that he smelled a rat from the beginning - secret tribunals and proceedings, for one thing - even if it was Woolsey, not him, who figured out what was really going on. In those circumstances, John Sheppard would be less focused on upholding his responsibility for his actions in Pegasus (and we KNOW that he does indeed feel the weight of those actions, despite what he said to the court) and more focused on getting his team out of a bad situation.

Watching the episode did change a few things I had planned out in my story. For one thing, Woolsey made an absolute commitment to the Coalition in regards to participation by the Atlantis expedition in Pegasus politics. What does that mean for Atlantis back on Earth? Will the IOA/SGC choose to honor that commitment and return Atlantis to Pegasus, or will they decide that the commitment is null now that the city is no longer located in its "home" galaxy? I'm glad I watched it; it's given me a lot to think about in terms of the series and in regard to my fic.

Now I have to work up the courage to watch "Identity", which I skipped entirely. I have a post that I've been wanting to write called "The Problem With Jennifer Keller". I need to write it and get it out of my system. The gist is that I don't hate the Keller character; I love Jewel Staite and in fact was very excited and happy to see her in SGA. I was completely sold on the idea that she hooks up with McKay - I read ahead of watching the episodes, I admit - but the writers failed so completely to sell the relationship and then just... mutilated the Keller character to a point that I couldn't find her at all believable anymore. Anyway, that's a post-rant for another day.

"Optimism: a cheerful frame of mind that enables a tea kettle to sing though in hot water up to its nose."

Mom has had that on her fridge for who knows how long. It came from a fortune cookie, I think. I have always liked it.

Of course, it's predicated on the assumption that one considers the noise a tea kettle makes as "singing", as opposed to an annoying whine/drone or an ear-splitting shriek. :)

But anyway. I still think it's a great little saying.

So I already have two assignments, the day before school.

Both are for my fiction writing class.

1 - Bring your favorite single sentence from any literary work, preferably fiction though.

2 - Write ~700 words on why I think fiction is important/why I want to learn about fiction.

Second one is easy as I'll go off about video game story writing but the first one... well...

The only thing I could think of was:

"Stick 'em with the pointy end." from A Game of Thrones.

http://netninja.com/2010/01/02/iphone-meowmania/

http://netninja.com/?p=5870

A few months ago at Ignite Portland 7, a few of us on the balcony were comparing silly cat-related iPhone apps.  My takeaway from that discussion was Meowmania (iTunes link). 

Meowmania does one and only one thing.  When you touch the screen, a spinning cat head appears and meows.  That’s it.  No real point.  Buuuut… the sounds from that app really set off our cats.  There have been a number of times that I have put the phone down for the cats to see.  They get mesmerized by the spinning heads and occasionally even touch the screen to kick off a new one.

Tonight, I was finally able to catch it on video.  Here is a 1m:46s YouTube video of the most expensive cat toy ever, as they poke at, bite, and kick around the iPhone:

iPhone + Meowmania = most expensive cat toy ever is a post from: Netninja.com

If you liked this post, you may also enjoy:

1. LJ Comments
2. Pricey Kitty Novelty
3. iPhone Geocaching
4. My iPod Video Speculation
5. Macworld Predictions

One of the things I am really enjoying about my Xbox is 1 vs. 100.

( about the game )

Anyway, it's good, clean (if you mute the assholes or only play with friends), massively multiplayer fun -- and last night I was in the Mob! \o/
Didn't win anything, but it's cemented my addiction.


Also, now that it's the new year, Echo Bazaar is back from its holiday hiatus! Echo Bazaar is a turn-based, browser-based game that uses Twitter for identity authentication and social interactions. As for the story...Victorian-era London is the fifth city, they say, to have been spirited away to the Bazaar by mysterious means (in London's case a vast quantity of bats relocated the city). You start off as a prisoner in New Newgate Prison, which is located in a large hollowed-out stalactite.

As you progress, you pick up bits and pieces about the bigger picture -- the "Traitor Empress" and her consort stay in the Shuttered Palace all the time; people don't stay dead, but can't ever go back up to the surface; there are remnants of the mysterious Second, Third, and Fourth Cities for those who search; spies tattoo secret messages on their skin; Hell is nearby; and devils, Rubbery Men, Clay Men, and intelligent rats all inhabit the Bazaar and the Fifth City alongside "regular" people.

It's got a very creepy, dark aesthetic, but lightened by a sense of humor. I'm impressed with the amount of story you can pick up on, and how compelling a story it is when you only get such small pieces of it at a time.

( A few choice quotes: )

I really only have one big quibble about the game, and that's the lack of a dedicated player forum or discussion area. You can check limited info on people you follow on Twitter, and invite anyone whose Twitter username you know to do partnered social actions with you; there's even a PK area called "The Game of Knife-and-Candle," but there's nothing like a chat room, or a forum, or even a wiki to collect some of the various scraps of information. The way I described it to someone on Twitter was that everyone plays their own lonely game, only brushing up against the games of others. I wish there were more connection.

I imagine Twitter is not going to be a feasible advertising medium for a long time, either, if the game-playing population grows significantly. People I follow on Twitter were already noticing the spam after the first initial burst of activity, and while I do want the game to be popular, I don't want to have my Twitter peeps inundated with unwelcome spam.

One obvious solution is, of course, to get all of them hooked as well -- so, go check it out! You may also want to say hello to the Masters on Twitter; feel free to tell them @ancalime sent you. :D


And to round out this games-related post, I just finished playing Shadow Complex this afternoon. I'm starting to understand the complaints about how Nolan North is in everything recently -- I didn't mind so much when it was Prince of Persia and Uncharted, but I seriously could not remember the main character's name for most of Shadow Complex and called him Nate the whole time. It didn't help that his girlfriend looks a little like the early Elena character designs.

Nate-clone aside, it's a pretty fun game, your basic Metroid-style running, jumping and collecting powerups. The general idea is that your girlfriend takes you hiking and you just happen to stumble into the secret base of this crazy organization that wants to take over America and turn her into an empire. Some of the powerups are unavoidable, but some you have to search for, including passkeys to access the awesome helmet that makes you invincible if you move slowly, and the shotgun that kills everything smaller than the mechas in one hit. Needless to say, I went for the 100% completion and was having a blast running around, shooting things, and punching people in the face (especially satisfying in power armor) by the end of the game.

My main complaint about the gameplay is that Nate Jason can only move in two dimensions, but the environments are all very detailed and three-dimensional, which includes having enemies come in from upstage at various angles. It can be very tricky to a) figure out which pixels are background/foreground and which you can stand on, and b) find the right direction to point your gun at upstage enemies in order to hit them.

I also honestly would have preferred it if the woman were the hero and had to save her boyfriend instead of the other way 'round, but that's hardly surprising in game culture, and it is still an enjoyable game even so.

The Copenhagen Zoo wanted a mobile advertisement that would attract attention. So what did they do? They wrapped a bus with an anaconda!