To escape from the increasingly acerbic tone in some of the other discussions ...


Who has seen Avatar and how did you like it?


Eri

I did! In 3d... my first 3d movie. I loved it. I didn't care that the plot was kind of formulaic, it was still very entertaining.

My sister did, she said she liked it, but, after 45 minutes or so she said she was getting sick from the 3d portions of it, so, she had to look away from it.

But, with Chuck back on and Lost's final season coming the 2nd, it should be a fun couple of months. I miss Juliette and Sayid, but, I think they are dead. A funny theory of mine about what happened to them after they set off the nuke is they become "blue glowies" like Star Wars and run around as the whispers on the island. But, I am more sure they will go about their lives thinking something is wrong, and then head to the island by other means.

I love the tough guy on Chuck, forgot his name. He played Jayne on Serenity. He's my favorite actor on that show. Of course, I really like the characters at Buy More too.

ya, Adam Baldwin. Captain awesome had a fairly prominant role in the last few episodes they touched on from the end of last season. The I decapitated a bear lie was classic as well as the other lie what really happened was Casey got really drunk and exposed himself had to bail him out of prison. Later in the episode Casey brings wine for a get together, Ellie takes it and says you had enough John.

Yeah! Good episodes! Captn Awesome is doing a great job having a little nervous breakdown. :) I bet Ellie gets brought in on the secret... maybe Morgan too.

Morgan and Ellie are definately figuring things out a bit. Suspecting things are amiss. Sicking Jeff and Lester on that new girl and Chuck to spy on them hehe. It is shaping up for some good television with the main plots, with all the side plots.

Morgan and Ellie are definately figuring things out a bit. Suspecting things are amiss. Sicking Jeff and Lester on that new girl and Chuck to spy on them hehe. It is shaping up for some good television with the main plots, with all the side plots.
I absolutely loved how the Buy More geeks started that fight club. God, that was funny!

My sister did, she said she liked it, but, after 45 minutes or so she said she was getting sick from the 3d portions of it, so, she had to look away from it.

I agree that the movie could have used more frequent breaks. As it was it was rather exhausting to watch and every now and then I just had to close my eyes a while just to rest. I am not sure why it was so much more tiring than watching a regular movie but I guess it has something to do with the 3D effects.

ind, they were awesome (though I did not care much for the times when something was put 'in front of' the screen. And having subtitles was really weird too :))

Also, the first time I saw a wide shot with the giant tree in it, I immediately thought (well not quite immediately, the first thought was wow!) about how that was what the Plane of Growth with Tunare's Tree should have looked like, and also the entrance to the plane, instead of that silly tower with a sponge on a stick on the top level of it.


Eri

The plane of fear portal was pretty dang cool. Plane of mischief was like imagine this is just sitting in a dragons horde. I thought the tower in wakening was ok, just the portal itself blew..... similar to the portals into Tov, exactly how does a big dragon fit into that room and not get stuck at humanoid sized door?

The 3 d effect is basically caused by taking another roll of film and splicing it over with a slight gap, frame for frame. But, it seems that is going to be the way of things for awhile. Some say it is similar to certain kinds of epilepsy with the certain lighting schemes can set you off, with the lighting schemes of that movie, since it has effected so many people the same way, I would tend to guess that more people are just susceptable(blah spelling), not neccessarily epilepsy, just sensitivities to lighting.

On another note, kinda like the motion issues with wolf form in eq, or other illusions, the bobbing effect off levitates and stuff. Could be a good combo of things which made it so tiring, like the constant bombardment of effects.

I did ok with 3d Avatar. First 3d film I ever saw and I loved it. We got there late and had to sit in the very front, and even with that, I didn't mind. It was just stunning. I was afraid I might get motion sick or something but I never did.

IMAX 3D.

Visually spectacular.

You really need to turn off your brain for this movie.

"How does it feel to be a traitor to your race?" line was hilarious.

I did not stick through the credits...

But Roger Dean sure as hell deserved one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Dean_%28artist%29

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c4/Arches_Mist.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Yessongs_Awakening.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/Yessongs_Escape.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/ff/Yes_Fragile_inside_left.jpg

http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=roger+dean&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&start=0



"I'm flying through a 3D Yes Album cover", crossed my mind several times.
Which is probably why I liked it.

Have you seen the "Perchance to Dean" episode of The Venture Bros., by any chance?

Not to change the subject but I'm playing Dragon Age. Wow! What a spectacular game. It's a single player RPG. Very dark theme. Great story! It's like being inside a novel.

Not to change the subject but I'm playing Dragon Age. Wow! What a spectacular game. It's a single player RPG. Very dark theme. Great story! It's like being inside a novel.

Nothing wrong with changing the subject. In fact the title of this thread says it all: And now for something completely different. It should be expected that topic drifting and even the occasionally mad topic galloping occurs :)
The idea was using this thread to keep the discussions light, free of politics and other contentious subject and focussed on fun things is appreciated. Mentioning that you found a great game, or book, or movie is just what is needed more!


Eri

As a woman what I especially like about Dragon Age are the relationships you build with various NPCs. Get's a little spicy at times... A bodice ripper, fer sure! The elf who tries to assassinate you, whom you later can seduce, is quite a charmer.

Ya, Neverwinter Nights was like that where you could work on relationships with the Npc's. Didn't really go anywhere but, it was interesting as a side plot trying to seduce Aribeth or something. The brothel in the campaign was hilarious, when a halfling turned up missing for a month and they found him missing in the basement with nothing, but, a smile. I can not really remember though but, I think if you got anywhere the screen would go dark for a minute or so.

I am kinda debating seeing Alice in wonderland, they have it featured in 3D, which I am not really fond of forcibly renting the glasses. I like Tim Burton's style, for the most part, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory kinda rubbed me the wrong way though, you can usually tell right away if he has a hand in a flim. Like Big Fish, I did not realize he was involved in it until I seen the movie styles, then it wasn't surprising.

Also, not a big fan of Imax formatting, seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Apollo 13, a few years back in Imax at Nasa in Huntsville, just wasn't impressed by it, but, then again, things like high defination and bluray do not impress me either.

IMAX 3D is like 15$ here, and includes glasses.
Since regular tickets regular theater prices are 10$, and IMAX itself is worth the 5 extra premium, I would say that the glasses are free.

3D didn't add all that much to Alice in Wonderland. It turns out much of the movie was originally filmed in 2D and later converted to 3D, and on occasion it showed. (I happen to prefer 3D anyway; it just wasn't as impressive in this movie as in something like Avatar, which was designed to be 3D early on.)

I saw it in a non-IMAX theater, by the way.

I briefly played Neverwinter and didn't care for it that much. Dragon Age blows it away.

There's a brothel in DA too, you have the choice of asking for men, women or "surprise me". :) The last option is always amusing.

ya, I understand that sentiment about Neverwinter Nights. Once you realize the game is basically diablo, and the game revolves around spamming complete heal potions with no drawbacks, then, it starts to suck. Or in my case when I was playing a ranger, the 2 corrupted dragon fights, when you got feared from their auras, if, you made sure to run to a certain spot, when you broke out of the fear aura, you would be in a spot where they wouldn't path to. Then, it would be a simple process of bowing them down, I never tried a pure caster, that could be fun to blow them away like that. Ranged combat in that game was pretty horrible though.

Although, Hordes of the Underdark was pretty fun and interesting from what I remember, up until you augged out your weapons made them vorpals and stuff with all the cash you aquired, since cash was kinda meaningless, beyond the complete heal potions, finding your true name, the demons true name, your true love(probably Aribeth). Some world editor stuff was pretty fun.

That part kinda blows about dragon age is I hear of it, but, I can not seem to find out about the gameplay styles to much so how would that go?

changed here to hear......

Here's a little video clip of my favorite NPC in the game: Zevran, the sexy Antivan Crow. These are cut scenes from the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGipTTdj7gM

Although Oghren's drunken chatter is a close second:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0nl_ubvTg8&feature=related

That is kinda the problem looking into Dragon Age, ever video I found, minus the ending seems to be all about the grey warden's hooking up with each other, which I kinda get since it seems relationships with other party members is an important aspect of the game, and side humor. Some of the other things I seen is it looks like World of Warcraft/ Dark Age of Camelot's engine with more impressive graphical capabilities, kinda makes me wonder besides the relationship angles, are little numbers going to fly off the side of the screen? Platforming and puzzle solving, beyond the relationship angle? Would all I really be doing is mashing sinister strike over and over?

There's quite a few puzzles, but not much you can say about them without giving away their solution.

Overall, the neatest thing to me was the story. It was a very complex, dark story and the cut-scenes were an integral part of it. I wish I could erase it out of my memory and start over, I was just totally awed by the story. It felt like a fantasy adventure novel, it was that complete and the characters were that good and well developed for the most part. As you dig into it you learn more and more stuff, some of it on the periphery of the story, but it just serves to get you more deeply involved. I did love the development with the party members.

I just learned that Tim Curry and Kate Mulgrew were two of the voice actors they used. I thought Flemeth's voice sounded familiar.

One of the really neat things is finding out how the various PC origins fit into the story. They all make certain things in the story more important. So for instance, if you start as a Human Noble then certain events at the end are going to take on a much different meaning than if you were a city Elf.

y biggest criticism is that it does take about 100 hours to do entirely, which isn't so good for replay although I think I might be able to skip a ton of stuff... I'll have to look into that.

Oh nuts, just erased my whole reply. -- oh wait... weird there it is. Well, here's another one.

In a nutshell, there's lots of puzzles to solve. Some extremely long and involved. Not much to say about it because it'd give a lot away. One of the puzzles you run into is how to resolve various conflicts of major events happening in the game. There are multiple ways to end things and it took me awhile to figure out the obvious way isn't always the best.

But the star of the show is really the story. It's extremely well developed and cohesive. It's novel sized and the characters are well done. I didn't realize it until recently but Tim Curry and Kate Mulgrew are two of the character actors. It kind of reminds me of George Martin's novels about Fire and Ice, very dark, very well developed characters. That's what makes the relationships with the NPCs so much fun, they have a lot of depth. Maybe it's a girl thing but I loved the romance stuff they added to the game. I'm disappointed that the expansion isn't going to have that. Whaaah!

I only wish I could erase it all from my brain and start over!

I was comparing the stories in WoW and in DA. The WoW one is horribly disjointed and really hard to follow. I just finished the Lich King novel... bleh! I want my money back. It's just as hurky jerky and nonsensical as it is in the game. I would've thought they would take the gaps and stuff out of the novel that you have in the game, made the characters a little deeper and interesting but no, it just blew.

The DA story really holds together comparatively and the characters are very complex. Even the main bad guy has motivations that are completely understandable and you can sympathize with and the good guys, not so good when you know all the facts.

One thing I have to give WoW credit for is their music score. It's really awesome and very extensive. I extracted it from the game into my mp3 player. Hmmm... maybe I can do that with the Dragon Age music too, it's very good but not nearly so extensive as WoW's.

Problem is, Arthas, is a complete dumbass. Once you understand that part, that he has to be led around by the hand, because he is a complete dumbass. Hence the reason why the Lich King Ner' Zhul wanted him, his youthful vigor and fighting attributes. Kel'Thuzad combined with the Lich King would be something terrible to behold. Anub'Arak would have been interesting as the lich king, who knows what horrors from below he could unleash. Plus, if Kel'Thuzad decided Ner'Zhul wasn't particularly needed........

Slyvannas, both in life or death, was never really corrupted, she was under control for awhile by the lich king, after Arthas killed her and raised her, until Illidan broke portions of his spell on the scourge. She despised losing her elvanity(if that is a word or something) as well as her warmest parts of her soul. Honestly, Arthas really goofed on this one, instead of giving her an honorable death, just as he did by helping Illidan get the skull of Guldan, transforming him into a demon, nearly crushing Arthas later, nearly becoming the lich king resummoning the burning legion and all that. But, with the forsaken in the weakened state they were in, would have fell eventually to either the scourge, the alliance, or the horde, which is the reason she joined in name only the horde.

Had her plans succeeded prior to the battle of Undercity with the Varimathras coup, she either A, would be in control of Azeroth completely. B, finished off the lich king. C, when the lich king regained his full strength, handed Azeroth over to Ner'Zhul in a handbasket with a what do I do now complex for Ner'Zhul.. Slyvannas would have been the best story though, as it was with her lore in wow with her missions with the Royal Apocethary. The horde lore was like go clean up the mess with the burning legion from 7 years ago. Now she is in everyone's doghouse.

The Dreadlords were basically dumbasses, kept Ner'Zhul on a short leash anyways, far to confident in their own superiority, with their own agenda. Ner' Zhul was out of options basically.

That is the problem with the Warcraft lore, is it all happens within days of each other. Well, that and space orcs........

Oh noes! Everyone is leaving Chuck! I hope Colonel Casey comes back, he's soooo good!

Damn, I am watching that episode online now..... I doubt it, probably a set up, Casey's story has been lagging this season.

Edit.... Now, that I finished the episode, Yes, Casey will be back, at least this season at some point. There has been some talk about Anna coming back as well, hers was a budget cut. They definately hinted they maybe taking the show on the road, which would be a shame. At least to me I rather like all the meaningless little plots with the buy more characters, awesome and ellie, so much fun stuff with their already existing show. The Chuck/Sarah love angle has gotten way to stale, as well as the random Jill, Hannah, and the sandwich chick Lou. Sarah just rocks as a character. I wish they would do more with Casey, they started season one good with him, but gradually dropped off with him, but, he really needs more screen time, I would say his role for the rest of the season would be "consulting" Chuck.

But, Nbc has been on the fence about cancelling Chuck every season, extending seasons and so on since it started. If it was not for the five dollar footlongs with subway, we might not have had this season. Which is sad, because it is one of their highest rated shows, in a crappy time slot.

But, Nbc has been on the fence about cancelling Chuck every season, extending seasons and so on since it started. If it was not for the five dollar footlongs with subway, we might not have had this season. Which is sad, because it is one of their highest rated shows, in a crappy time slot.

Which means, according to TVTropes, that the suit in charge of it at NBC is not the one who originally coined the series, and who can not be expected to take proper care of somebody else's good idea. (After all you only impress the other suits with successful shows of your own).


Eri

I used to watch Chuck because it came on before Heroes, then towards last season, I was looking forward to Chuck and just DVR'ing Heroes for a later time. When Chuck did the iconic "I know Kung-Fu" at the end of last season, I was very hyped for this season, but I think they sort of ruined part of the mystique by adding the "I can't flash under stress" bullcrap. As for Casey, I agree - Adam Baldwin is a sexy, sexy man. If you want a look at him as a young'un, check out Independence Day.

Anyone grab Dragon Age: Awakenings yet? I think I'm going to wait a month until Steam has a good deal... I felt like an idiot when they released their Dragon Age package about a month after the original release date. It included all the stuff in the Collector's Edition as well as the first DLC for ~$35. Besides, I'm playing through Final Fantasy XIII right now and I have both God of War 3 and Heavy Rain on the back burner. Plus, next month Splinter Cell FINALLY comes out... and the world will stop for me for a few days when that happens...

Or full metal jacket.... Ya, I was disappointed in the way the flashes worked for the I know Kung Fu stuff. It would have been much more interesting had those been permanent.

Quote"Which means, according to TVTropes, that the suit in charge of it at NBC is not the one who originally coined the series, and who can not be expected to take proper care of somebody else's good idea."

Exactly, Nbc has a pretty weak lineup. Not great lead ins for the Conon O' Brien fiasco(I heart you coco), pretty much since E.R. went off the air.

quote"God of War 3"

This. But, I don't really want to buy a new Tv and a PS 3(with no backwards compatiblity with ps 2 games anymore) just for it for some weird reason, God of war 2, I blew through in just about a day, like the Force Unleashed, that was about 6 hours. Way to many video games nowadays like that, very little replayability value.

But, I am morbidly curious about Dragon Age, seems for what I have have seen so far, on youtube to be Neverwinter Nights(replace the Creater race with dragonspawn, Aribeth and Aaron Gend romances, as well as the mercs like Sharwyn, Linu, Daelan, Tomi, with the relationships in Dragon Age....) with slightly different graphics with richer textures than World of Warcraft. Perhaps Oblivion, as well, not to hot on the first person shooter style of camera play any more. The New Prince of persia, as well as the up coming Prince looks to be somewhat fun, less so on the New Prince with the one on one fighting.

IAnyone grab Dragon Age: Awakenings yet? I think I'm going to wait a month until Steam has a good deal... I felt like an idiot when they released their Dragon Age package about a month after the original release date. It included all the stuff in the Collector's Edition as well as the first DLC for ~$35.

I am definitely going to wait for a better deal. After reading the rave reviews here I did look for it but it is sold for prices between 50 and 60 euro here, or somewhere in the 100 to 120 dollar range I think. For that price one of the developers can personally fly across the ocean and hand deliver it to me. In a silk wrapped package.
So I am going to wait till it is sold at a more reasonable price once the next big thing comes along and the shop wants to move old stock to clear shelf space.


Eri

Palamin, Dragon Age: Origins is worth grabbing if you haven't picked it up yet but if you've waited this long, you might as well do a wait-n-see until Steam or EA does a package deal with the expansion and the accumulated DLCs. Being able to (optionally) kill Janeway, Tuvok and Tim Curry are enough incentive for me to play. Plus, I've turned into a little bit of an achievement hound so I've done multiple play throughs already.

Honestly when it first came out I was hesitant to grab it because I really thought it was going to be another Mass Effect (which bored the crap out of me), but it turned out being much closer to the old Baldur's Gate series, which I loved.

For shame! Mass Effect was the best game I'd played in a long long time. ME 2 was pretty damn awesome as well. DA was definately good, but not quite as good as ME.

Oh...hello everyone!

I hated the ME series, was way too "KOTOR" for me (I didn't like that game either). Plus the fact that every single character I met barfed up a phone book's worth of information whenever I said "Hi" didn't help.

Anyone grab Dragon Age: Awakenings yet? I think I'm going to wait a month until Steam has a good deal... I felt like an idiot when they released their Dragon Age package about a month after the original release date. It included all the stuff in the Collector's Edition as well as the first DLC for ~$35. Besides, I'm playing through Final Fantasy XIII right now and I have both God of War 3 and Heavy Rain on the back burner. Plus, next month Splinter Cell FINALLY comes out... and the world will stop for me for a few days when that happens...
Not yet. I just started playing DA:O a few weeks back. I LOVE THIS GAME! I wanted to get one more character completed... take a week off from gaming... then I'll get Awakenings.

Do you have a link to this "Steam" place?

Wait a minute... "Tuvok". Which VO does he do? I'm trying to place him... can't quite do it. Is he the narrator? Duncan's voice?

Speaking of DA:O, I had a total rogue moment recently. I've played through a few times so I'm pretty good, I am playing on nightmare level. I was traveling to Denerim alone, figured I'd cleared out all the baddies nothing to worry about, but there was one group of bandits left that shows up later in the game. I was able to handle them solo using stealth, dirty fighting, concentrated crow poison and standing behind objects to avoid the archers. That was a gaming moment that felt very, very rogue.

The combat is really, really rough when you first start playing. It took me quite awhile to figure out the combat system and what sort of gear to use. I have a couple of friends just starting the game and they're having a lot of issues getting past certain bosses. One just gave up on the Circle of Magi... I guess he couldn't get past the end-boss. For the most part, unless you use a very tedious method or play the dwarf noble (and know what to do), you're always rather poor in this game. So you can't really afford to down too many potions. And even if you could, there's a cooldown on them so you can't rely too heavily on them. Although I confess I could never make it through the duel with Logain without using health poltices and that always feels like cheating to me. Maybe that'll become my next personal goal...

quote"I am definitely going to wait for a better deal. After reading the rave reviews here I did look for it but it is sold for prices between 50 and 60 euro here, or somewhere in the 100 to 120 dollar range I think. For that price one of the developers can personally fly across the ocean and hand deliver it to me. In a silk wrapped package.
So I am going to wait till it is sold at a more reasonable price once the next big thing comes along and the shop wants to move old stock to clear shelf space."

Yea, I understand that completely, with boxes of chocolates as well, or whatever you like to snack on like maybe some American things that might be hard to come by in Europe that are quite nice, like Cadburry Eggs. The subject at hand though,(I really need a thread on piracy and various media outlets/intellectual properties thread to debate on), are the results Valve is receiving for their left for dead series of video games.

The debate amongst the video game industry and "piracy" is Valve is finding when they drop their prices by 75% on the Left for Dead title is the sheer volume of product they are producing is actually making them 15% more profit, than selling at typical retail prices, cutting out all, but, the most hardcore of "pirates", by providing a cheaper, better service to consumers.

Some other stuff goes on, of course, but, that is the short summary, the video game industry is arguably shooting themselves in the foot, when they can provide cheaper titles, more volume, particularly amongst the larger studios that could provide a large library of games at affordable prices for consumers to mass consume. World of Warcraft and Chinese subs rings a bell on this one. Come to think of it, probably Starcraft and Korea as well.

Which reminds me, before I post the link, Steam is having a sale on Everquest Underfoot or seeds of destruction I forget which, for new accounts for like $2.50 all expansions enabled to that point. Now, as an example as a former Everquest player...... I would have to purchase for my old account, Underfoot at full retail price, and a month subscription(well, that part optional I suppose). But, for $2.50, I get a month free all expansions........ Which is related to what I said above already.

http://store.steampowered.com/

You can find some old, but, fun games on this site for dirt cheap been meaning to try civilization as a different source of real time strategy games I like to play.

Oh...hello everyone!
Hey Aidon, where have you been?

/maybe now would be a good time for me to start a thread about the dog that attacked the woman who was openly breastfeeding her baby at the climate change protest...

Tuvok was the snooty leader of the elves (I fed him to the werewolves).

Oh! Yeah, now that you mention it I do recognize his voice. Only appropriate. He does seem to play roles that require pointy ears.

Hey Aidon, where have you been?

/maybe now would be a good time for me to start a thread about the dog that attacked the woman who was openly breastfeeding her baby at the climate change protest...

*growls menacingly*

The one (semi) official rule for this thread was that it was to not contain politics and only adress issues that we find fun (movies, books, games, etc.)

The point is to escape all that discussing/arguing/general crankyness from the other treads.


Do not force me to break out the wet noodles...


Eri

Hey Aidon, where have you been?

/maybe now would be a good time for me to start a thread about the dog that attacked the woman who was openly breastfeeding her baby at the climate change protest...


I've been pretty busy...I'm half-way through the second semester of my second year of law school, working at the family law office, and preparing to get married in August. My spare time is sparse =D

Tuvok was the snooty leader of the elves (I fed him to the werewolves).

He deserved to be kibble.

For once we all agree on something! Zatharian, or whatever his name was, definitely deserved to be an ex-elf.

I always want to take a big eraser to those Dalish elves faces...

Ok, I'm not sure I like the direction Chuck is taking... the Buy More crew is what makes that show.

7 Common Survival tactics that'll get you killed (http://www.cracked.com/article/18370_7-common-survival-tactics-that-will-get-you-killed/)

ya..... I hate how I am pretty much calling out the general story direction at the moment and being quite accurate, particularly the Casey "consulting". Chuck will run, maybe not next episode, soon though, probably with Casey in tow this time, unlike last season with Sarah. With Shaw and Sarah chasing......

On another subject has anyone tried out that Dante inferno game?

Fun with Unicode!

http://☃.net
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/✄

I'm a bit of an armchair survivalist (ie: I love reading about the stuff) - and I've never heard any of the myths on that site, Pana. I mean I've heard them in the sense that I've heard that you should do the opposite in many occasion (like the snow), but not that you should specifically do the myths listed on that site.

And Chuck - it's turning very "Japanese anime romance," the type which generally drives me insane. In romance animes, they love extending the love drama by making the boy or girl unable to confess their love; then they dance around that confession for 50 episodes. Chuck is turning into something similar.

They have been doing that love angle for quite awhile now. Even so far as the near sex with chuck and sarah. Which incidently turned into a safer sex debate.

I'm a bit of an armchair survivalist (ie: I love reading about the stuff) - and I've never heard any of the myths on that site, Pana. I mean I've heard them in the sense that I've heard that you should do the opposite in many occasion (like the snow), but not that you should specifically do the myths listed on that site.
Really? I'd heard a few. Perhaps the survivalists know better already. The punching the shark in the nose one and sucking venom out of a wound are classic, well the last one anyway. I guess where I live we hear about sharks a bit more than other places. But hey, when faced with a shark what are your options anyway? Punch it in the nose or... scream like a little boy? And screaming underwater just is futile anyway.

And Chuck - it's turning very "Japanese anime romance," the type which generally drives me insane. In romance animes, they love extending the love drama by making the boy or girl unable to confess their love; then they dance around that confession for 50 episodes. Chuck is turning into something similar.
That's an old TV trope too. Remington Steel... even way, way back... I remember "Get Smart" and the way Agent 99 was hot for Agent 86... or was it the other way around? Just get it on already! :lol:

Sharks I've generally heard eyes or gills (better yet, I've read the 'when not to go into the water' avoidance). I believe even the Mythbusters did an episode on how to defend against shark bites, and even though I think the Mythbusters are diving more and more into entertainment rather than solid factual foundation, I think their test was simply "can you find the eyes/gills" and it was a "yes".

And the romance thing - yeah, I know it's old schtick, but it seems more... pushy? this season. If this was E.R., Sarah and Chuck would have had sex and broken up five times by now. Get it out of your systems and move on to another plot line, dambit!

By the way, Torchlight is $5 on Steam this weekend. Made by the team that created the original Diablo games.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/

Tried Torchlight a while back, and the graphics were well done and consistent, but there just wasn't enough to draw me into the game.

By the way: Blizzard just came out with a new patch for Diablo II this week. It includes better support for higher resolutions among other stuff, like respecs.

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20758

I ordered Awakenings. I hope I get to punch Arl Howe's kid in the nose a few times.

y one disappointment with DA:Origins is that I didn't get to taunt Arl Howe more. I would've liked to have called him a lot of names and then killed him slowly. A cut-scene where he begs for mercy would've been gratifying too. This *is* the six-fingered man of the game. Instead, all I got was a last feeble curse from him. "Maker spit on you... I deserved more." Yeah, that's right, you deserved more pain and mockery before your filthy blood leaked out all over the floor. Oops, sorry I was channeling my human noble there. I don't think my Dwarf noble is going to care all that much. Although Bhelen... now there's a interesting villain. Hard to really hate someone with progressive ideals who wants to get rid of the caste system but he's such a slime!

Which brings me to what I love about this game... other than Arl Howe no one is really just a villain. Every bad guy is also a good guy and visa versa (yourself included). Their motivations are complicated and interesting.

Honestly I didn't know who to root for with the dorfs. Both the rulers seemed like putzes. I was satisfied with Howe, mostly because Tim Curry gives me warm fuzzies.

Tim Curry is definitely awesome-sauce. I just wish we got to hear him more. Overall the voice acting is just incredible in this game. I really like the Loghain actor too. Anora's voice is just annoying though, maybe I just hate her voice actor because of what a bitch she was on the first play-through. It only occurred to me recently I could double-cross her, I don't have to follow through on what I say I'm going to do.

I haven't really figured out Anora. I recruited Loghain once and tried to talk to him about her but I didn't really get a lot more insight from him. She is willing to sell out her father if you tell her the right stuff, but then she wants to protect him too. It just seemed a little inconsistent to me. Surely she must realize there was a pretty good chance we'd kill him.

Seen Clash of the Titans, the new version today. At times I really enjoyed it. Aside from a few storyline details they changed around, it was ok. Hit and miss on a few themes. Sad times though, Bubo showed up for 5 seconds, only to be left behind in the movies words, the out with the old in with the new kind of thing, except they might as well thrown him in the dumpster afterwards. Which was sad to me because of the fond memories I have of that little guy, Bubo was creative direction that worked the first time around.

It was a 3 d film....... supposedly, but, the majority was 2 d. That did not quite work out very well, needed to go one or the other. Side note..... medusa was pretty hot, which is weird that I might want to get down with a snake chick.

Hey, it's cool. Fictional character I've wanted to get down with include a bi-sexual assassin dude. Now in reality I wouldn't ever but as long as it is fantasy, sure why not!

I finished Awakening. I enjoyed it although it has some issues the original didn't have. First, no romance options, but I knew that going in. Although the apostate mage does "love" you, he just stops snapping at you when you click him.

The plot feels somewhat unfinished and you leave the game unenlightened as to several characters you meet. I did some investigation and found out one of them is mentioned in one of the Dragon Age books that's a prequel. The other one... just disappears and you don't know why she was there in the first place or what her motivations were.

Then the "story board" at the end was screwed up with my character that I had where Alistair dies. Suddenly my character is off gallivanting around with Alistair who must have risen from the dead.

Lastly, they added rune crafting which is neat. Unfortunately what isn't neat was the user interface. It is a total mess. I'd be embarrassed to ship a product with such a lousy implementation.

I played through it twice but don't really feel like I want to play it again. It isn't as replayable as the original.

Ya, bioware likes to do stuff like that with the immediate sequel to the video game, like Shadows of Undretide. The second sequel, usually the third in the set is the kickass version. Like in Hordes.

quote"The plot feels somewhat unfinished and you leave the game unenlightened as to several characters you meet. I did some investigation and found out one of them is mentioned in one of the Dragon Age books that's a prequel. The other one... just disappears and you don't know why she was there in the first place or what her motivations were"

Bioware is really bad about this. At times playing Neverwinter Nights I would try to do certain things for interaction to the game world I would play in. Usually about the only thing that would happen would instead of killing Aribeth, she would be hanging in prison. Although, I never tried to bring her as a henchmen for the Morag fight, maybe I could have sprung her from prison setting her loose to redo her life. Or things like wearing the amulet daelan or linu gave you, sharwyn's belt, tomi's ring, seems to imply they met you at some point, no previous relationships are inferred. Even the Enserric Longsword, the sword that talks and stuff, quest dropped for it.

Or sometimes a different plot device, like trying to cozy up to the Valsharess, after she tries to cozy up to you, so, rather than fight a war, simply cap her when I get the chance, but, then again, she is pretty desperate by that point to finish off the rebels. I would like them to flesh out alternate choices for main plots. Might be nice to betray everyone at the end for my own devices.

quote"Then the "story board" at the end was screwed up with my character that I had where Alistair dies. Suddenly my character is off gallivanting around with Alistair who must have risen from the dead"

I had this happen with Nathyrra once during the Meph fight, but, then that was the only time I seen her corpse standing as well, not in the traditional death on the ground sort of thing, but, then, I bane one rounded her as well, probably just bugged out lol....... She betrayed, I capped her and Aribeth, tried to res them, and got nothing. The ending story board was she felt bad about betraying me at the end and devoted her life to helping others in the underdark.

Also, again with Aribeth in hordes(sigh, to much Aribeth in the plot at times), seems to imply that you went on to have a relationship with her in certain endings, but, she is a spirit in a non corporeal body...... Or other stories like deekin, Vhalen, or whoever else might be enjoying their time in the frozen wastes of hell, or the reaper may have been kind enough to allow transportation of them but, no mention in the ending.

Also, in Awakening if you're comfortable with the combat system and don't make a retarded build, the combat will be too easy. Apparently the game makes all the normal bad guys level 25 but you'll be way higher level than that not long after starting (they level you up really quickly). I played on Nightmare level and the only thing that I couldn't do was the Blackmarsh Dragon, but my tank was a brand new NPC without good equipment at that point. And I did Blackmarsh first, instead of a little later. I just leveled up a few more levels and went back and kicked it's butt.

When I played my Dwarf tank, it was even worse. She was just awesome, although Ogres for some reason always picked her up and played a few rounds of hoops with her... although it didn't hurt her at all. I never saw a character that got picked up and dandled by ogres so much as that Dwarf did. I assume it's a size related thing.

It was slightly more challenging on my rogue character because the NPC tanks aren't quite as good.

The end-boss was pretty tough on nightmare. At one point I had lost 2 party members but they give you an ability to bring everyone back fully healed during that encounter.

Bioware screwed up the little slide-show at the end in the original Origins too in some cases.

I felt like the characters in the original were not so mysterious and unexplained as the ones in the sequel. In fact, now that I know a little more I really wonder about their motivations and wonder if my character really understood what was going on correctly. I think if they did understand completely they probably would support Loghain, maybe not agree with him 100% but would probably not hate him so thoroughly and think he was a traitor to the king. I really like that about the game. The plot is so well developed and the characters are complicated.

ya, Bioware does that in other games as well with the sequels and stuff, sometimes they do not quite think through the effects of their combat systems. Or they plain just low ball the starting point. Or handing out a few to many items like candy......

Bioware has lots of good ideas in their games. Sometimes just the implementation is off a bit. Eventually, they will release the best game ever, every small crack and crevasse, angle, or what have you will be covered. Your actions however small will have large game changing effects, for good or for ill, ones that you will be able to see the effects of in game.

It could be so simple as saving Snow White from the wicked Queen, something so small and trivial as that, but, the effect maybe while Snow White gets her happily ever after, she is neglectful of her people she rules who suffer greatly, and you will be able to interact with those sort of storylines effecting the outcomes well beyond just those 2 options. Where as helping the evil queen will lead her people into an age of peace and prosperity.

It will not just end with the standard fare, of good guy saves the princess, evil dude saves princess, main plot. You will see side plots becoming main plots and so on. Alot of work will go into those sorts of things.

When I first started playing dragon age I found the combat was very difficult and my friends are finding it that way too. Then I read up a little, made better builds and learned to use the tactics better and it got much easier. Now it's too easy!

Items aren't the issue in Dragon Age, they're very parsimonious with good items and money.


It could be so simple as saving Snow White from the wicked Queen, something so small and trivial as that, but, the effect maybe while Snow White gets her happily ever after, she is neglectful of her people she rules who suffer greatly, and you will be able to interact with those sort of storylines effecting the outcomes well beyond just those 2 options. Where as helping the evil queen will lead her people into an age of peace and prosperity.They already do that in Dragon Age. You'd be surprised. Sometimes the do-gooder choices don't result in good outcomes in the longer term. You sometimes need to be a little ruthless in the face of opposition from your party. There's a lot of shades of grey, which is why I particularly love this game and that's also what makes it replayable. You wonder how things would have worked out if you'd made a different decision.

There's this one moment where you are faced with a Brother of the major religion in the land, he's been helping you out to find this relic but now he intends to release information about this very holy relic. You are concerned that this relic will be abused but you can't persuade him to keep it under his hat. So you're given the choice of killing him. Which is a fun thing to do, actually, the cut-scene is pretty funny if a dagger sticking out the back of someone's head is funny. But if you do so there are quite a few party-mates that'll react very badly, one that will even attack you. And even though it's just a minor-ish plot element, the outcome of that decision is presented on the storyboard at the end. Of course, if you know this, you'd be wise to leave the Churchies at camp and take a more amoral bunch.

problem is Pan,with that scenario, under my idea for in game effects for a small trivial thing like that, which is basically the same quest for the mirror and the illithid in hordes of the underdark, and you can turn right back around a betray the illithid on that deal, which effects the ending however you want to do that. Under my idea, I want to give far more depth to the game for something so small, under that scenario, since they are obviously asking around for someone to bring this artifact, that could attract attention from other groups, who will in turn want this artifact, often times haranguing you and your compatriots for it on the way back for resolution, counter offers, thieves, including some of the oldest profession method as a means, assassins, violent/non violent means and so on.

Giving it to the churchies could cause them to abuse it which would attract more attention for other groups, who might try to liberate that relic from them, or otherwise preventing the misuse of that artifact, at times looking to abuse as well repossessing this artifact. Trails of false leads, each group repossessing such artifact getting the same treatment with the constant need to prevent other wrong hands for getting onto the artifact, at times being one to three steps behind who has it, where is it going. Rather than list all the various scenarios for that small subplot, I would have, which is about another 20 or so, it might roughly take 50 hours of gameplay just messing with the who, what, where, and why just for resolution for that small subplot because of all the various scenarios taking place. I really want alot of depth in the storylines.

They are on the way to doing so, it is just going to take time for video game developers to get to that point.

Yeah but, come on, can you imagine how long it'd take to produce a game that had that sort of variability in it? They'd be working on something like that for a century! You can do that sort of thing in the main plot but secondary plots not so much.

I do enjoy the secondary plots but I notice that if they're too lengthy I'm kind of wishing they'd let me get back to the main plot line. Novels do that too, like Martin's Fire and Ice series. That guy has so many plots going, I don't think he's every going to finish the danged series.

Ya, it would take awhile, depending on how well they conceptualize prior to the building phase, particularly if they decide to add into the story later. It would be lots of content in a persistent world. Say like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, if you want, you can just run around car jacking people, shooting people if you really wanted with no story line resolution, gambling, flying, boating, driving missions, vigilante missions, pimping missions, gang wars for territory, etc. To an extent Elder Scrolls Oblivion offers a similar exprience, this lady friend of mine liked just running around with her daggers on her rogue.

You would be able to do something like that both with the main quest..... maybe some crossovers into the main points of the storyline..... as well as later after the main plot is finished. WTf after all that work I put in getting the churchies the relic, going through the main plot and they just pwn the darkspawn at the end after I basically cleared the way for them! Then, they run off to take over another country or something to enslave an entire culture with their brutal methods......... The story would just be starting Pan. Sure it might be take awhile to program it, run and execute the scripts, debug and so on, but, it would be well worth the video game to really squeeze it all in, and there would not be to many "red shirts" in game.

I just want to jump in with a quick comment:

Defense Grid.
Check it out. Seriously.

If you liked Plants vs. Zombies - or any type of Tower Defense game really, you'll like Defense Grid.

heard about it. Could you describe it stormy?

Warcraft battle.net is infested with bots last time I played, plus a diablo glitch causing problems on battle.net as well with some dupe bug.

You would be able to do something like that both with the main quest..... maybe some crossovers into the main points of the storyline..... as well as later after the main plot is finished. WTf after all that work I put in getting the churchies the relic, going through the main plot and they just pwn the darkspawn at the end after I basically cleared the way for them! Then, they run off to take over another country or something to enslave an entire culture with their brutal methods......... The story would just be starting Pan. Sure it might be take awhile to program it, run and execute the scripts, debug and so on, but, it would be well worth the video game to really squeeze it all in, and there would not be to many "red shirts" in game.
Well, that's what expansions are all about, no? Plenty of work to be done there from the Dragon Age story. In fact, the Awakening expansion fits very nicely (except for a few unexplained things) in what you thought was a completed plot-line, the Darkspawn horde being vanquished and an elder god killed, only not quite. And a whole new set of moral dilemmas to resolve.

I kind of work on the story line in my mind afterward and I can just imagine what the other Grey Wardens in different countries would say as to how you *should have* dealt with issues, probably not how you actually did deal with it.

Not neccessarily Pan on what expansions should all be about. Depending on the structure and writing of the game material, it does not mean you have to have resolution from the previous game for various concepts from that game. Depending on how the game is structured, you could have alot of depth to explore in various genres.

Defense Grid is a tower defense game, the towers are very well balanced, I couldn't find a single "uber tower" in the whole lot. There is a half-hearted attempt at a plot, but it really doesn't hurt the gameplay at all. There are quite a few maps (15 or 20 I think), some which follow the "set path" style and a few that have a limited "build the course" template.

Found some true facts about John Casey.

John Casey doesn't iron his clothes. He screams at them until they're scared straight.

The only time Casey had a kids' meal was when he ate a baby goat.


God created Eve out of Adam's rib, because that's all that was left after Casey was done with him.

Casey demanded that NBC stand for: Nothing But Casey

While captured by the us government, prisoners had a choice of waterboarding or having "the Casey" unleashed upon them. They all choose waterboarding

There is no natural selection theres just a list of species that Casey allowed to breathe

Casey's doesn't drink his coffee unless it punches him in the face first.

In the dictionary, if you look up "John Casey" a fist pops out and punches you in the face.

A tank ran over Casey's foot, but it quickly apologized and bought him a beer

Some people wake up in the morning. John Casey opens his eyes and the day is allowed to start.

John Casey runs a full marathon in the morning and warms up by kicking your ass


John Casey doesn't have hands. He has two gun-holding receptacles.

The original draft of Moby Dick started with: "Call me John Casey." It ended on page one, when Casey kicked the whale's ass.

When John Casey plays Duck Hunt, the dog never giggles. Ever.

John Casey once met Chuck Norris. And came out on top.

When Colonel Casey growls, Darth Vader's respirator abruptly stops for 10 seconds, regardless of dimension, galaxy or time

Jennifer Aniston really kicked Brad Pitt to the curb because John Casey made him look so nerdy. Unfortunately, even Jennifer Aniston isn't hot enough for such a sexy beast as John Casey.

When Chuck Norris goes to bed at night, he checks under his bed for John Casey

there are more.....

I just want to jump in with a quick comment:

Defense Grid.
Check it out. Seriously.

If you liked Plants vs. Zombies - or any type of Tower Defense game really, you'll like Defense Grid.

I bought it off Steam. It gets challenging pretty quickly with the way you have to set the mob path by using the towers. I've tried this level 3 times and failed, though I'm getting closer. :p

LOL! Love the John Casey quotes. I think Sten would approve of John Casey... in fact, maybe Sten *is* John Casey in another life.

There's a wonderful quote in dragon age when the bard in your group catches Sten playing with a kitten. Sten says, "I was helping it train".

Here making a Casey joke on the fly.

As the result of a bizarre time traveling experiment, John Casey was sent back into the Jurassic period, to which in his rage, massacred the dinosaurs, barehanded. After such exertion he then went into hibernation and was awakened by the sound of a Crown Victoria as it was being first assembled.

Incontinence through the ages (http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/whoopi-goldberg-with-poise/)

Now that is funny.

My hubby got me the Complete Recordings for the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy as birthday present. That is 12 hours of sometimes silly, sometimes operatic and mostly just awe inspiringly epic music over 10 CDs (and 3DVDs one of which is double sided)

Apparently it is very hard to get and on the expensive side but worth it in my opinion. Without distraction of the movie and sound effects (sometimes you find that the sound effects really have added to the music though) you realise just how magnificent and incredibly wide in scope and detail the music for these movies is. And with almost twelve hour length it is not like you are running out of music to listen to anytime soon...

Definitely beats a lingery set for birthday present ;)


Eri

hah. Morgan and Casey are awesome together as a duo, Casey tears, yep Casey getting misty about Morgan, and the downlow, haha. Although Morgan and Sarah over the orange juice was hilarious as well. I wonder what they are setting Ellie and Awesome up for in the future.... cause that could go a couple ways. Side note, it is looking good for season 4!

Yeah, not sure how much I'm going to actually like Chuck and Sara being together. Looks like Capt Awesome is in danger! Oh noes! At first I thought the mysterious dude at the African camp was going to be a little extra-marital temptation for Ellie.

organ in basic training should be interesting... Funny they keep referring to Pendleton, it's just up the road a piece from me. :p

Ya I don't think they will shoot scenes at pendleton. The Ellie and Awesome story should tie in to the season finale I think, which prior to the order for 5-6 more episodes, was supposed to end with Shaw's death and chuck and sarah getting together as the possible finale. Kinda sucks as they have to shoot each episode as if it was the last like that for every order. I bet to shake things up for some quick ratings a major character will die to try and secure another season.

Ugg.... the latest Lost episode was pretty crappy. Sure it had alot of carnage and stuff like that. But, yet again, the writers are very good at making alot of things happen without telling us anything...... or things like closing a bulkhead door with the bomb in it without anyone needing to die....... but, hopefully Kate bleeds out..... ya umm..... wishful thinking. It basically turned into freaking highlander........ there can be only one.

I can't imagine I'm going to like the Lost finale. I bet it's going to boil down to something stupid, trite, overused like Good and Evil doing battle over the fate of the world. Bleh, I bet I will hate it.

I always love these weird mysterious shows, like Twin Peaks, but never really like how they wrap up. I'm always hoping from some sort of things that makes my head explode with wonder but is still kind of believable.

Or Kate, the triangle with Sawyer and Jack for her love. And Jack, suddenly after getting 40+ people killed, well more than that honestly considering the others deaths, figures things out...... I am sure they will attempt to tie it in to Hinduism with the Brahmic cycle of rebirth, as their respective trinity. Hurley being the Brahma canidate, Jack as the Destroyer, Sawyer as the preserver.

But, I got to take offense to Sayid as a suicide bomber..... that was just plain wrong.

Anna Woo! WooHoo!

"So you are leaving me with appliances, lumpy housewives..... my favorite.... Jeffster best duo ever!

side note.... that ending was predictable..... bad guy hits water after being shot....... of course he is still alive if you haven't recovered the body......

Yeah, those two characters are awesome! I love how Morgan turned down Anna. Hee hee!

the grey's anatomy season finale was quite interesting.

I want to punch a kitten over the lost finale.

I want to punch a kitten over the lost finale.Actually it was a pretty good and satisfying conclusion, though I was hoping for metaphysical not religious themes.

I think finale's are just almost always bound to disappoint, especially when it the show was bizarre like Lost or Twin Peaks.

One of those things where you should enjoy the trip because the destination turns out a little disappointing.

I wouldn't have minded the ending so much as a conclusion so much as the other important plot points left unresolved. I am not exactly talking about getting knocked up on the island or polar bears either.

Such as the man in black, we see a curious young lad who is special, exactly what, we do not know. Neither does it tie up Walt. Then, we have good ole Jacob, mindlessly following orders, after seemingly being portrayed as an omnipotent being. When really he was a ignorant jackass. We see the man in black curiously approaching and doing well joining a society which is then wiped out for delving to close to the origin of the island.

Then, after exacting his vengeance for the loss of his hopes, dreams and ambitions as well as what seemed to be his friends for that act, he is then effectively cursed for a couple thousand years because Jacob is mad that the man in black killed their mommy because she was the protector driven by insanity and a need to protect the light of the island to prevent it from doing who knows what, and effectively preventing her son from achieving his dreams ambitions and curiousity of life outside the island.

I'm going to keep my eyeballs peeled for explanations of the ending. I have to admit it left me pretty confused, but I haven't exactly been fanatical in my following of Lost.

I'm going to keep my eyeballs peeled for explanations of the ending.Just rewind a bit. The entire season is explained pretty clearly in that final dialogue during the last 5 minutes.

Sure, there are still open questions and elements of the plot that are never resolved, as palamin states, but this isn't the kind of show that can be summed up in a neat little package with a shiny bow on top.

Besides, the best endings are ones that you can still ponder the day after.

The flash sideways, were largely a diversion under my interpretation. They were all dead eventually, some earlier, some later than others. It was similar to a limbo before they passed on to their respective afterlife. Which these events had to awaken themselves to their surroundings to realize who they were, what they had been through with each other. Largely from Jack's point of view, given Penny was in the ending, but, not Nadia, as jack had no clue about her, nor ever met her on screen. But, people like Michael who was damned for his actions, or Ben and Ana Lucia who were not meant to move on quite yet as they still had to come to terms with things.

Plot devices like there must be a captain of the dutchman, there must always be a lich king, there must be a protector of the light. Although, they did mention why there must be a lich king at least, however crap of a device it was. But, it would have been nice for some additional closure on some other plot points, like why must the man in black not be allowed to leave the island.......

What about Walt? Did he get off the island and never return does that mean he didn't die?

When exactly did they die, on Flight 815? Or later? A bunch of these folks didn't know each other and characters like Widmore didn't show up until much later, so not sure why they would even be in on a pre-moving-on-to-real-death fantasy thing.

When exactly did they die, on Flight 815? Or later?It's all explained in the last 5 minutes.

They all died at different times, some before Jack (as shown throughout the series, and he dies in the last 10 seconds of the final episode), some long after (such as the ones that escape in the plane, and Hugo and Ben who stay on the island). Everything you saw on the series minus the second timeline in the last season happened just as described.

But eventually, maybe 50 years later, they're all dead, and come to the purgatory they've created for themselves (by setting off that bomb), which is the second timeline you see throughout the last season. As explained in the dialog, this is not reality, and doesn't exist in any particular point in time. In this purgatory, they have to wrestle with their issues and right their wrongs before they can have that moment of clarity and move on and ascend to the light. Desmond speeds this process along for some of them, whereas others stay because they haven't finished the process.

If you're familiar with the Christian concepts of heaven, hell, purgatory, climbing Jacob's ladder, and so on, this is essentially an exact copy of those ideas. It's no coincidence that we have "Jacob," a church as the nexus, and the themes of light versus darkness.What about Walt? Did he get off the island and never return does that mean he didn't die?It's one of the open questions. We're told that there are "souls" like Michael trapped on the island, maybe because they can't atone for what they've done, and it is apparently a place that connects heaven, hell, and the physical world, but beyond that it's up to interpretation.

And if events happened exactly as revealed, i.e. they weren't dead all along, then what the hell was the island about? It seems less explained than ever. And why would setting off a bomb create a purgatory?

aybe I'm over-thinking this. :p

And if events happened exactly as revealed, i.e. they weren't dead all along, then what the hell was the island about?The show never explains exactly what is, except that it's a connecting point, and a buffer zone, between earth, heaven, and hell. They make it clear that without the island, all hell would literally break loose, and imply that people would be unable to reach the light, stuck in purgatory forever.And why would setting off a bomb create a purgatory?In one of the episodes, Daniel explains that he we woke up and wrote down equations, which show how a nuclear bomb set off under the right conditions could alter time and space, and that he thinks he did set off such a bomb.

Still doesn't make a damn bit of sense to me. I guess I need to be drunk.

quote"What about Walt? Did he get off the island and never return does that mean he didn't die?"

No, he died eventually. He was not shown is all, or he was never awakened. The more curious question might have been, what made Walt special. The man in black was special to. Richard never showed up either, but, then, he lived at least 100 years. Why did Walt appear soaking wet to Shannon, the temple perhaps? How did Claire see Kate off island, did the temple do this?

Quote"In one of the episodes, Daniel explains that he we woke up and wrote down equations, which show how a nuclear bomb set off under the right conditions could alter time and space, and that he thinks he did set off such a bomb."

It did very little actually, just set the same things in motion is all. Sayid remarked the last time he heard of concrete over eveything was chernobyll.
All it did was negate the energy like Daniel said.

quote"When exactly did they die, on Flight 815?"

They died whenever. But not on the crash, well whoever survived anyways.

quote"then what the hell was the island about?"

The island was a cork......

I still don't understand. :p Maybe I just wasn't into it enough.

I still don't understand. :pHere's a rough outline from what I can remember:

The island is a buffer zone on Earth between heaven (the light, where souls go) and hell. The light has a protector Jacob, and someone trying to kill him (the smoke monster, Satan, who has inhabited Jacob's brother's body).

Jacob knows the smoker monster is going to kill him eventually, so he starts bringing people to the island to look for candidates who can replace him. He brings Flight 815 there in 2004 to start testing the candidates on it. Technically this is explained as a malfunction of some giant electromagnetic reactor that the Dharma people built, when Desmond forgot to press the button that keeps it stable.

Then comes the first few seasons, where they do stuff on the island. They leave, but realize what a mistake it was and come back around 2007. Ben has to move the island at some point to protect it, causing time warps, one of which brings some of the main characters to the 1970s when the Dharma initiative was building the reactor which caused the plane to crash in the first place.

They try to blow up the construction site with a nuclear bomb to prevent all their future events from ever happening and to restore the timeline. It appears to blow up and they're thrown clear, but they see they were only moved back to the future (2007, at the point they came to the island) and nothing has changed. Juliet is the first to die, but posthumously, she remarks that it worked.

What they did was not to change reality as they expected, but to create a new place, where all of the closely bonded people there will go after they die. Meantime, in the real world the smoke monster tries to destroy the island and leave, but fails and is killed. Some of the remaining main characters are killed in the submarine. As his final act, Jack saves the island by replacing the stopper that keeps hell at bay. Hugo and Ben stay to protect the island. A few others escape on the plane they used to get there the second time. Jack is wounded and seen stumbling through the bamboo field, only to collapse and see the plane leave as he dies.

(this is the point in time when the credits roll)

Now, a long time has passed. Hugo and Ben have served as the island's protectors. The five people who escaped on the plane have lived out their lives. But, eventually, they all die. Their souls go to the place they've created for themselves, which is a type of purgatory where they have to address some final issues before they meet up, reacquaint, and ascend to the light. In this purgatory they take the form of their former selves, because this was the most important time in their life. This is the alternate timeline we see in the last season. Most of them confront their demons, climb Jacob's ladder and ascend to heaven.

Ok, thanks for the explanation it sort of makes sense. I probably would've been happier with a less metaphysical ending, you can make anything happen if it's magic or religion. A cop-out for writers, IMHO.

Ok, thanks for the explanation it sort of makes sense. I probably would've been happier with a less metaphysical ending, you can make anything happen if it's magic or religion. A cop-out for writers, IMHO.Well, it's a metaphysical show, so I expected a metaphysical ending.

However, what we got is a thoroughly religious ending, which I agree was a little disappointing given that the series was not religious in the slightest up until then. They could've redone the ending with similar nonreligious themes.

It was still satisfying, though, and a nice way to conclude the series. One of the very few TV shows that was actually worth watching.

Tuda - having never watched Lost, your explanation has cemented the fact that I never want to watch Lost.

Well, a sudden topic shift but this made me laugh:

http://verydemotivational.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/129175041246468236.jpg

I am not sure if I suggested this before or not (and it is too hot here to bother looking it up. Going to help myself to a large glass of something cool and liquid and not move for the next several hours as soon as I post this).

A cartoon (Anime actually, if you can look past the stereotypes of that label) that I can recommend watching is Princess Mononoke. An engaging story that manages to rise above the disney cliches, well drawn characters and action sequences and stunning use of computer generated landscapes plus a wonderful score. It is longer than the average holywood movie (and even more so than the average holywood comic and not aimed at mentally stunted 6 year olds) but worth the sit to watch it if you ask me.

Another movie I can recommend is 'Le fabuleux destain de Amelie Poulain'. Again wonderful music and a funny little story that does not demean its audience (too much). It might be mistaken for a romantic comedy but it really is more like a fairy tale romance. Finding it may be a bit difficult in the USA (probably in the european art movie imports due to the fact that a few glimpses of bare breasts are shown).


Eri

Hollywood Video and Blockbuster are going out of business.

It's going to be hard to find tangible videos in the US at any rental places for awhile. Regardless of whether there are titties or not.

ya, we had a large chain rental place go out called Movie Gallery. Has to do with some subversion of the first sale doctrine and the intellectual property laws and stuff behind the scenes. Basically, all the stuff in the 80's the movie industry did not like with vhs and rentals.

then some other things like video game industry trying to whack gamestop and places like that. Crap like Assassin's Creed 2.

ninjavideo and similar sites being axed as well this week by the feds.

Hell, there is not a place to even purchase cd's anymore within 50 miles of me anymore. Ok so, 40 miles. Well, unless you count Wal Mart and their 50 copies of the miley cyrus cd they keep in stock.

That's the power of the Internet.

Netflix and downloading is responsible for killing brick and mortar rental.
Only took what, like 10 extra years, longer than it should have.

Serves them right for moving into mom and pop rental store areas, killing them with 1.50 rentals for a week. Then jacking their prices up to 5 bucks for overnight, with 5 buck late fees.

Netflix will soon be raising their prices, rest assured.

That is kinda the problem, netflix signed that deal with movie companies so they get their share of the downloads and stuff. Problem is with the torrent piracy issue and things, the movie theatre is also dying. Of course, Hollywood loves do exaggerate the issues at the theatre, what with the high prices at the theatres. What they are releasing is utter crap as well.

That also goes into how crappy the United States networking is. Right now, to get any kind of progress, usually means a spending bill for a sweetheart deal to improve the infrastructure of network speeds. pretty much there is no real reason to improve upon the infrastructure, for telecommunications corporations. don't want to get into this to much, but, it is interelated to many different fields on a much larger issue.

Well, I don't really understand what you are saying.

I am able to download all the **** that I am interested in.
And have access to download mainstream movies, even before they are in theaters. Which I am just not really interested in.

But will if the occasion strikes me.
A friend of mine was all hyping The Runaways movie just the other day to me. I never heard of it, was not yet released. But friends watched it.


The question is if we can distribute content for nothing, why are we still paying for distribution?

Production(yes) will always need to be paid for, I understand that. But why pay for something when there is no cost to it?


I mean like what's the deal with ITunes. 99 cent a song, 20 songs still cost the same as a CD, but with no CD. What are you people thinking? It costs them less than 99 cents for the whole album.

But apparently you people are still buying. Good for you. I'm not.

Arrrg...Distribution is free for me.

I mean like what's the deal with ITunes. 99 cent a song, 20 songs still cost the same as a CD, but with no CD. What are you people thinking? It costs them less than 99 cents for the whole album.Actually it costs them about 80 cents per song and it's not all that profitable.

Also, the price you pay for a CD has nothing to do with the cost of the physical medium or transportation cost, which is negligible.But apparently you people are still buying. Good for you. I'm not.Yes, you're stealing.

You're stealing mostly from bad people, but it's still stealing.

We can't have a society built around stealing, for obvious reasons.

Vintage ads... pretty unbelievable these days

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/entertainment/2010/06/10/vintage-ads-thinking#slide=1

Funny translator: http://funnytranslator.com/

Sentence in: When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Result: When in Rome, howling like wolves.

quote"Actually it costs them about 80 cents per song and it's not all that profitable.

Also, the price you pay for a CD has nothing to do with the cost of the physical medium or transportation cost, which is negligible."

I don't quite think you get the concept of micro to macro economics, as it relates to volume, but, then I have a heavy background in manufacturing. Hint, take a good look at Free Realms. Or World of Warcraft and all the little glamour pets, mounts, mountain dew battle bots. How about Everquest with Station Cash. League of Legends and their hero packs. All the DLC's on xbox live as well as playstation network on the playstation 3.

quote"Well, I don't really understand what you are saying."

Has to do with the entertainment industry versus various mediums, if you noticed places like ninja video and various torrent sites are shutting down because of many reasons as well as live streams from networked television. The industry claims they are losing alot of money in sales because of the ease of use, streams, torrents and so on. It is very long and confusing.

quote"Arrrg...Distribution is free for me."

No it is not, very cheap yes depending on frequency of use long term volume you consume. It does cost electricity, internet service(bandwidth charges and overages), equipment cost(computer) and so on. But then, I am trying to sorta explain that to Tuda as well micro to macro.

Actually it costs them about 80 cents per song and it's not all that profitable.

Care to break that down?
Or share the source of your information.

Care to break that down?
Or share the source of your information.http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/04/23/itunes_store_a_greater_cash_crop_than_apple_implie s.html

As with CD sales, most of the money goes to rich white middlemen, not to the artists or people who responsible for creating the music, or even to the retailer.

"For each $0.99 song, we estimate that Apple pays $0.70 to major labels, which own over 85 percent of the market, and $0.60 to $0.65 to independent labels, which drives an average price per song of approximately $0.69," he explained. On top of that, of course, are Apple's network fees, transaction fees, and general administrative expenses associated with operating the iTunes Store.

Hargreaves calculated the network fees at $0.05 per song, which includes the delivery fee, and the hardware and software to facilitate delivery. "Operating expenses are likely less than $0.05 per song, based on the relatively small number of employees we believe work on iTunes," he wrote.
5 cents to distribute a 99 cent song.
The majority is still just paying middlemen and suits at the record company.
That is not a real distribution cost, like you implied.

It costs double(10c) the distribution cost to do the transaction, ie get paid...
(keep in mind this cost does not scale, that is, an album of songs would cost the same 10c)

The artist is making 9 cents per song (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/).

/shrug
That's what I said.

If Betty Crocker were trained by Stephen Hawking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGKSdQJrIWY

I SO want this book. :)

If Betty Crocker were trained by Stephen Hawking:
Cooking and chemistry go really well together as well. Have you ever been to El Bizcocho (http://www.ranchobernardoinn.com/bizcocho/)? They had (have?) a chef there who practices molecular gastronomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy). A friend of mine recommended it a few years ago but I haven't been to SD since.

Actually yes! My company has their xmas party there every year. The food is really good. I didn't realize they had MG items on the menu because we always have a fixed menu for the party.

I've been kind of into the MG thing myself a bit. I bought equipment to do home sous vide: a PID controller, a very large rice cooker and a foodsaver. I was toying with the notion of buying a smoking gun... but decided to hold off on that. I'd love to have more toys... but they get a little pricey. The anti-gridle looks like fun. :) The sous vide stuff is really fun and very convenient. Nothing like a cheap cut of steak cooked to about 131' for several hours, then quickly seared. It's perfect from edge to edge. No need to buy expensive cuts!

Another fun sous vide thing is eggs.
http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/science_of_cooking/eggs_sous_vide.htm

But wow! The equipment that guy in the video has! And the staff! Where'd he get the money for all that just for writing a book?