Originally posted 18 February 2010 at 18:15.
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"On The Other Claw...."
Your Obedient Serpent
18 November 2019 @ 06:15 pm
Originally posted 18 February 2010 at 18:15.
03 May 2012 @ 05:55 am
One:
I've finally figured out my utter dis1 for DC's recent business model of resurrecting Silver Age characters who got killed off in the '80s and '90s because they couldn't sustain their own titles.
As I mentioned the other day, I don't like zombies.2
Certainly, remembering, as one example, the long, dragged, out "Trial of the Flash" that closed out Barry Allen's run months before he met his end in Crisis on Infinite Earths is not that far removed from having the fragrance of three-month-old sea lion carcasses waft unbidden through one's amygdala.3
At least when Marvel turns its colorfully-costumed characters into shambling undead mockeries, they're occasionally honest about it.
Two:
DC is releasing a series of prequels to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' classic graphic novel, Watchmen.
I reserve judgment on whether or not this is a bad move; really, I'm finding myself far too tickled by the outrage of the fandom (and Alan Moore) to really have many objections myself (and besides, one of them will have Darwyn Cooke art).
However, something occurred to me the other day:
Watchmen is older than most of the "old comics" it was based on were when it was published.
1disinterest/disappointment/distaste/disd
2I wanna shoo-oo-oo-oot the whole trend down!
3I have a dread suspicion that that storyline, which seemed to take forever at the time, might seem a masterpiece of snappy pacing compared to the "decompressed" storytelling of today's "decompressed".
01 May 2012 @ 08:58 am
Your Obedient Serpent has a coconut allergy. They don't normally do immunization shots for food allergies, but because coconut oil was so ubiquitous in the 1970s, they included that in my weekly cocktail of joy.0
It seems to have taken, since I don't seem to react to inadvertent doses of coconut in my cuisine; over the holidays, I had a big bowl of my sister's black eyed peas that (unknown to me) had been made with coconut milk, with no noticeable ill effects.1
On the other claw, it doesn't seem to have done a thing for my skin sensitivity, and as I've grown older, that's either started to increase, or I've become better at noting cause and effect.
The hell of it is that, near as I can tell, almost every brand of liquid soap and shampoo on the market contains at least one coconut derivative, and usually several. Cocamide? Cocamydopropyl? I can't believe it took me decades to twig that those were coconut derivatives. No wonder Head & Shoulders wouldn't touch my dandruff problem. I now use bar soap with carefully-vetted ingredients in both sink and shower, and a coal tar-based psoriasis shampoo that has nothing with the letters "coco-" chained together.
This winter, I found myself with another case of Badly Chapped And Cracking Skin on the backs of my hands. I'd assumed was due to cold, dry weather ... but as an experiment, I stopped using the Softsoap in the bathroom dispenser at work.2 Voila! My hands are happy.
Liquid soap is now pretty much off of my list. There are some that say "palm oil OR coconut oil", and Trader Joe's "Next To Godliness" gets cagey by listing "Natural and Plant-Derived Surfactants", but that's as close as it gets to "safe".
Yes, even that Doctor Whatsisname's Big Wall o' Text liquid soap that you can get at Whole Foods.
This isn't all about me, however.3 It's something I've noticed as a result of this:
Believe it or not, they don't label the ingredients of dish soap, the ubiquitous squeeze bottles of thick, brightly-colored goo that sits on every kitchen sink. Everyone uses it, even people with automatic dishwashers: those pots and pans won't wash themselves, after all.4
"Oh, but it's not for human consumption! It's not a cosmetic, or anything of that nature! We don't need to label things like that!"
I don't know about you, but it takes me longer to wash even one pan than it does to wash my own hands, or soap down in a shower. Generally, there's more than one pan -- and a if you don't have a dishwasher, you have to do all of your dishes by hand.
This means that a significant proportion of the population gets exposed to dish soap for substantially longer periods of time than someone using hand or body soap (unless you take a long, leisurely bath in a tub of soapy water).5
That's not even counting the people who wash dishes professionally at restaurants.
There's a better-than-even chance that I'll be moving into a place without a dishwasher when I finally get a place of my own. I guess it's time to invest heavily in rubber gloves. Nitrile, maybe.
Still ... what is everyone soaking their hands in these days? you may not have any allergies, but if something spends that much time on your hands, I think you should be able to find out what it is.
This is a big, nasty glitch in the regulatory system, and one that needs a-fixin'.
0For values of "joy" equal to "five years of weekly jabs in both arms with a mix of everything my system reacts badly to, from the ages of 11 to 16". And still, totally worth it.
1I was a little congested, but not unusually so, and given that my sister owns two big dogs ...
2I've compensated by making sure to wash my hands for no less than 45 seconds after every use. The friction and the action of the water contribute more than the soap, anyway.
3Although this is MY journal, and if you don't want to read about me, you're totally in the wrong place!
4I have an extensive body of empirical data supporting this hypothesis.
5Just keep the candles out of it, and nobody has to get hurt.
It seems to have taken, since I don't seem to react to inadvertent doses of coconut in my cuisine; over the holidays, I had a big bowl of my sister's black eyed peas that (unknown to me) had been made with coconut milk, with no noticeable ill effects.1
On the other claw, it doesn't seem to have done a thing for my skin sensitivity, and as I've grown older, that's either started to increase, or I've become better at noting cause and effect.
The hell of it is that, near as I can tell, almost every brand of liquid soap and shampoo on the market contains at least one coconut derivative, and usually several. Cocamide? Cocamydopropyl? I can't believe it took me decades to twig that those were coconut derivatives. No wonder Head & Shoulders wouldn't touch my dandruff problem. I now use bar soap with carefully-vetted ingredients in both sink and shower, and a coal tar-based psoriasis shampoo that has nothing with the letters "coco-" chained together.
This winter, I found myself with another case of Badly Chapped And Cracking Skin on the backs of my hands. I'd assumed was due to cold, dry weather ... but as an experiment, I stopped using the Softsoap in the bathroom dispenser at work.2 Voila! My hands are happy.
Liquid soap is now pretty much off of my list. There are some that say "palm oil OR coconut oil", and Trader Joe's "Next To Godliness" gets cagey by listing "Natural and Plant-Derived Surfactants", but that's as close as it gets to "safe".
Yes, even that Doctor Whatsisname's Big Wall o' Text liquid soap that you can get at Whole Foods.
This isn't all about me, however.3 It's something I've noticed as a result of this:
Believe it or not, they don't label the ingredients of dish soap, the ubiquitous squeeze bottles of thick, brightly-colored goo that sits on every kitchen sink. Everyone uses it, even people with automatic dishwashers: those pots and pans won't wash themselves, after all.4
"Oh, but it's not for human consumption! It's not a cosmetic, or anything of that nature! We don't need to label things like that!"
I don't know about you, but it takes me longer to wash even one pan than it does to wash my own hands, or soap down in a shower. Generally, there's more than one pan -- and a if you don't have a dishwasher, you have to do all of your dishes by hand.
This means that a significant proportion of the population gets exposed to dish soap for substantially longer periods of time than someone using hand or body soap (unless you take a long, leisurely bath in a tub of soapy water).5
That's not even counting the people who wash dishes professionally at restaurants.
There's a better-than-even chance that I'll be moving into a place without a dishwasher when I finally get a place of my own. I guess it's time to invest heavily in rubber gloves. Nitrile, maybe.
Still ... what is everyone soaking their hands in these days? you may not have any allergies, but if something spends that much time on your hands, I think you should be able to find out what it is.
This is a big, nasty glitch in the regulatory system, and one that needs a-fixin'.
0For values of "joy" equal to "five years of weekly jabs in both arms with a mix of everything my system reacts badly to, from the ages of 11 to 16". And still, totally worth it.
1I was a little congested, but not unusually so, and given that my sister owns two big dogs ...
2I've compensated by making sure to wash my hands for no less than 45 seconds after every use. The friction and the action of the water contribute more than the soap, anyway.
3Although this is MY journal, and if you don't want to read about me, you're totally in the wrong place!
4I have an extensive body of empirical data supporting this hypothesis.
5Just keep the candles out of it, and nobody has to get hurt.
30 April 2012 @ 05:06 am
I wonder how much of my disinterest in the zombie trend and its associated media and phenomena stems from having substantially more contact with dead things than most modern urbanites and suburbanites?
You want a lasting visceral reaction, spend some time working with a sea lion carcass so foul and decayed that seagulls won't eat it anymore.
That'll take some of the charm out of dressing up like a rotting corpse for a flash mob.
You want a lasting visceral reaction, spend some time working with a sea lion carcass so foul and decayed that seagulls won't eat it anymore.
That'll take some of the charm out of dressing up like a rotting corpse for a flash mob.
29 April 2012 @ 08:21 am
If you haven't heard, D.C. Simpson has a new comic, and a syndication deal with Universal!
It started last Sunday, and has been getting very good reviews. Thus far, it's got that same combination of charm and bite that characterized Ozy and Millie.
===== The comic starts =====
===== HERE. =====
clicky clicky clicky
Congratulations, Dana!
-- Athelind Long, Honorary Llewellyn
It started last Sunday, and has been getting very good reviews. Thus far, it's got that same combination of charm and bite that characterized Ozy and Millie.
===== The comic starts =====
===== HERE. =====
clicky clicky clicky
Congratulations, Dana!
-- Athelind Long, Honorary Llewellyn
27 April 2012 @ 08:16 pm
They'll regret the day they laughed at me!
They'll all regret it!
Beware the wrath of ...
DOCTOR HEDGEHOG!!
27 April 2012 @ 06:26 pm
Unbreakable.
One: It was early enough in M. Night Shyamalan's career that his name wasn't yet synonymous with "twist ending".
Two: The best twist endings recast everything you've just seen in a different light, and ideally, it should make even more sense in the light of the twist. Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense did that, but Unbreakable did it even better -- when it hits, both viewer and protagonist are overwhelmed by the horrific implications of the revelation.
Three: The twist -- and I won't spoil it here, on the off chance that a reader of my journal hasn't seen it -- relies heavily on the tropes of the comic-book superhero genre. I am intimately familiar with those tropes; superhero comics are My Thing. Despite that, I did not see it coming. I was utterly gobsmacked.
21 April 2012 @ 09:09 am
It's Saturday morning.
I am sitting in front of the television with a big bowl of cereal, watching cartoons.
It's not all that different from a Saturday morning 40 years ago, except ...
All in all ... Yeah, to heck with nostalgia this morning. More like relaxed contentment.
Did I mention coffee?
I am sitting in front of the television with a big bowl of cereal, watching cartoons.
It's not all that different from a Saturday morning 40 years ago, except ...
- Coffee!
- Laptop computer. I mean, seriously. This thing wasn't even a concept in 1972.
- Coffee.
- Vastly superior cartoons. Avatar: the Legend of Korra, the Thundercats reboot, Green Lantern and Young Justice vs. ... well, this.
All in all ... Yeah, to heck with nostalgia this morning. More like relaxed contentment.
Did I mention coffee?
14 April 2012 @ 08:56 am
Originally posted by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=91.7)
paka at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
paka at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by lupagreenwolf at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
lupagreenwolf at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by evieeros at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
evieeros at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by keladry_lupin at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
keladry_lupin at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by why_me_why_not at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
why_me_why_not at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by apiphile at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
apiphile at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by alizarin_nyc at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.
alizarin_nyc at More signal boosting for Internet Privacy.Originally posted by dameruth at It Never Ends...
dameruth at It Never Ends...Originally posted by jjpor at It Never Ends...
jjpor at It Never Ends...Originally posted by abbyromanaat Signal Boost
abbyromanaat Signal BoostOriginally posted by clocketpatchat Signal Boost
clocketpatchat Signal BoostOriginally posted by calliopes_penat CISPA is the new SOPA
calliopes_penat CISPA is the new SOPAOriginally posted by ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
spikedluv at CISPA is the new SOPA
spikedluv at CISPA is the new SOPAOriginally posted by velvetwhip at CISPA is the new SOPA
Here's their next move: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, would obliterate any semblance of online privacy in the United States.
And CISPA would provide a victory for content owners who were shell-shocked by the unprecedented outpouring of activism in opposition to SOPA and Internet censorship.
The House of Representatives is planning to take up CISPA later this month. Click here to ask your lawmakers to oppose it.
SOPA was pushed as a remedy to the supposed economic threat of online piracy -- but economic fear-mongering didn't quite do the trick.
So those concerned about copyright are engaging in sleight of hand, appending their legislation to a bill that most Americans will assume is about keeping them safe from bad guys.
This so-called cyber security bill aims to prevent theft of "government information" and "intellectual property" and could let ISPs block your access to websites -- or the whole Internet.
Don't let them push this back-door SOPA. Click here to demand that your lawmakers oppose CISPA.
CISPA also encourages companies to share information about you with the government and other corporations.
That data could then be used for just about anything -- from prosecuting crimes to ad placements.
And perhaps worst of all, CISPA supercedes all other online privacy protections.
Please click here to urge your lawmakers to oppose CISPA when it comes up for a vote this month.
Thanks for fighting for the Internet.
-Demand Progress
velvetwhip at CISPA is the new SOPAHere's their next move: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, would obliterate any semblance of online privacy in the United States.
And CISPA would provide a victory for content owners who were shell-shocked by the unprecedented outpouring of activism in opposition to SOPA and Internet censorship.
The House of Representatives is planning to take up CISPA later this month. Click here to ask your lawmakers to oppose it.
SOPA was pushed as a remedy to the supposed economic threat of online piracy -- but economic fear-mongering didn't quite do the trick.
So those concerned about copyright are engaging in sleight of hand, appending their legislation to a bill that most Americans will assume is about keeping them safe from bad guys.
This so-called cyber security bill aims to prevent theft of "government information" and "intellectual property" and could let ISPs block your access to websites -- or the whole Internet.
Don't let them push this back-door SOPA. Click here to demand that your lawmakers oppose CISPA.
CISPA also encourages companies to share information about you with the government and other corporations.
That data could then be used for just about anything -- from prosecuting crimes to ad placements.
And perhaps worst of all, CISPA supercedes all other online privacy protections.
Please click here to urge your lawmakers to oppose CISPA when it comes up for a vote this month.
Thanks for fighting for the Internet.
-Demand Progress
13 April 2012 @ 10:10 pm
You know, Friday the 13th is bad enough, but when I got in my car to head home from my carpool, the trip odometer read 66.6 miles.
I got home, went back into my room, and the thermometer read ... 66.6 F.
I'm at two decibeasts and counting.
I got home, went back into my room, and the thermometer read ... 66.6 F.
I'm at two decibeasts and counting.
26 March 2012 @ 06:13 am
This is one that's been popping up with increasing and irritating regularity, so I'd just like to state for the record:
"Versus"
is not a plural,
and its singular is not
"Verse."
This is more of a verbal error than a written one, thus far, largely because in writing, everyone tends to use "vs." -- but it's one I keep hearing more and more often, from people who should know better. "Pirates vs. Ninja" gets pronounced as "Pirates verse Ninja".
is not a plural,
and its singular is not
"Verse."
This is more of a verbal error than a written one, thus far, largely because in writing, everyone tends to use "vs." -- but it's one I keep hearing more and more often, from people who should know better. "Pirates vs. Ninja" gets pronounced as "Pirates verse Ninja".
Let's see what Your Obedient Serpent's Grammar Guide says about this:
Yes, both "Verse" and "Versus" can be abbreviated as "vs.", but they are not interchangeable!
Stop it at once. Where did you learn this?
Yes, both "Verse" and "Versus" can be abbreviated as "vs.", but they are not interchangeable!
Stop it at once. Where did you learn this?
24 March 2012 @ 10:14 am
Sing along!
Greeeeeeeeeeeeeen Lantern is in space, you see
FaaaAAAAAAR out into the galaxy!
Stars spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Coast City, just give me those nebulae!
... that last line needs work.
10 March 2012 @ 06:03 pm
Oh, to heck with them. They can get their own damned journals.
Some of'em have, actually, but I hardly ever read them. We're not on speaking terms.
And, jeez, the persona with the day job has a Facebook page. I don't even ... It's like I don't even know me, man.
08 March 2012 @ 01:38 pm
Songs and song titles make great adventure seeds. In the past, I've had GMs who constructed entire campaigns around albums by Jethro Tull or King Crimson.
It's especially appropriate for comic book games -- Stan Lee loved to play on pop music for his story titles. The right combination of words and the songs they describe can suggest entire, baroque scenarios. It's kind of like the way Silver Age DC (and Golden Age Pulp SF) editors would commission a cover, hand it to a writer, and say, "I need a story to go with this."
The questions to ask when you try this:
So, LiveJournal HiveMind, Your Obedient Serpent has the request lines open: give me song titles that you think would make good adventures, particularly superhero adventures.
Don't feel like you have to be obvious, but don't feel like you have to be obscure, either. "Eve of Destruction" is obvious; "Winds of Change", a bit less; "I Don't Like Mondays" sounds like a Garfield punchline unless you know the song and the story behind it.
Give me titles; if you feel like it, give me the scenarios that come to mind when YOU hear them -- or just toss them down as a challenge.
My players all read this, so I'm screening replies!
*"But that trick never works!"
It's especially appropriate for comic book games -- Stan Lee loved to play on pop music for his story titles. The right combination of words and the songs they describe can suggest entire, baroque scenarios. It's kind of like the way Silver Age DC (and Golden Age Pulp SF) editors would commission a cover, hand it to a writer, and say, "I need a story to go with this."
The questions to ask when you try this:
- What kind of scenario does the title suggest?
- Does it describe an event? An adversary? An ally or a victim? Just a general mood or theme?
- How much of the song itself can I lift to help flesh out the adventure?
So, LiveJournal HiveMind, Your Obedient Serpent has the request lines open: give me song titles that you think would make good adventures, particularly superhero adventures.
Don't feel like you have to be obvious, but don't feel like you have to be obscure, either. "Eve of Destruction" is obvious; "Winds of Change", a bit less; "I Don't Like Mondays" sounds like a Garfield punchline unless you know the song and the story behind it.
Give me titles; if you feel like it, give me the scenarios that come to mind when YOU hear them -- or just toss them down as a challenge.
My players all read this, so I'm screening replies!
*"But that trick never works!"
07 March 2012 @ 02:09 pm
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine posited a question in a locked post:
If you could go back and talk to your high school self for ten minutes, what would you say?
And this is what Your Obedient Serpent would say to his younger self:
If you could go back and talk to your high school self for ten minutes, what would you say?
And this is what Your Obedient Serpent would say to his younger self:
- Everyone tells you that you have to control your temper, but nobody tells you how. Well, here's the secret:
You are not your temper. Your temper is not you. It's a physiological response, not a personality flaw.
Nine-tenths of your "temper problem" is that when you feel that anger welling up inside you, you get frustrated at the anger itself, and that makes you angrier, and that makes you more frustrated. It's a feedback loop.
The next time it flares up, tell yourself, "This isn't me. It's my body. What do I want to do right now?" - You do not require a college degree to validate yourself as a human being, or even to "live up" to the (preposterously overinflated) intellect the standardized tests all insist you have.
You're not going to "waste your potential" if you don't immediately push to get a degree right out of high school. If you do because everyone expects it of you -- or because you have some comic-book, Reed Richards notion of being a SCIENTIST, in capitals, italics, and boldface -- you just might be wasting potential you don't even know you have.
You don't know it yet, but you're a very hands-on person. You don't know it yet, but you're a very outdoorsy person.
Yeah, you have lofty, long-term goals for yourself and for humanity -- but you really thrive when What Needs To Be Done is right there in front of your face. At this stage, that sheepskin isn't tangible enough to keep you going full-bore.
If you want fulfillment, if you want to do something that both applies your intellect and provides tangible benefits to humanity, you could do a whole lot worse than to enlist in the Coast Guard, become a Marine Science Technician, and stick with it, wringing every drop of education you can squeeze out of Uncle Sam while you save lives and protect the planet.
That got your attention, didn't it? I know what's really going on in there, better than you do right now. Whatever you think right now, you're not about Science for Science's Sake. You're not about Pure Intellect. Science isn't a goal. It's a tool. I know what you really want, and what you need if you want to drag yourself out of bed for the next thirty years.
You want to help people. You want to know that you've done everything in your power to make the world a better place.
You want the never-ending battle.
That brain of yours may never be Nobel Prize material, kid. You know it and I know it. It's still a pretty impressive piece of wetware, though.
You've got the lever.
Go find a place to stand.
23 February 2012 @ 06:02 am
The local radio station just did a phone quiz about "frauds and hoaxes", and after questions about Milli Vanilli and the balloon-law-chair kid, the grand finale was a question about the Y2K Bug.
So here's the take-home lesson: if you identify something that might be a problem well in advance, and spend huge amounts of money and effort trying to fix it before it becomes a problem, then, when it doesn't become a problem, it's obvious to everyone that it never was a problem!
Does anyone else have a problem with that?
You didn't succeed, code monkeys of the world: you defrauded everyone. Thanks for all your hard work!
This is a radio station in Silicon Valley, mind. I guess the classic rock isn't aimed at the code monkey demographic.
Parallels between this and the effectiveness of environmental regulations are left as an exercise for the class.
So here's the take-home lesson: if you identify something that might be a problem well in advance, and spend huge amounts of money and effort trying to fix it before it becomes a problem, then, when it doesn't become a problem, it's obvious to everyone that it never was a problem!
Does anyone else have a problem with that?
You didn't succeed, code monkeys of the world: you defrauded everyone. Thanks for all your hard work!
This is a radio station in Silicon Valley, mind. I guess the classic rock isn't aimed at the code monkey demographic.
Parallels between this and the effectiveness of environmental regulations are left as an exercise for the class.
21 February 2012 @ 06:37 pm
I will allow the possibility that corporations might be considered people as soon as I see one marched to the guillotine.
Parading its head on a pike is optional.
21 February 2012 @ 06:21 pm
I've added the following to the top of that post, and reprinted it here because it shouldn't just get lost in everyone's already-read backlog:
I am, in fact, keenly aware of the miscarriage of justice visited upon the creator of the Ghost Rider by the courts. In short: they've bankrupted a sick old man by ordering him to pay damages to Marvel/Disney, one of the largest multinational combines in the world.
I thought long and hard about seeing the movie after hearing about this, but finally came to a compromise:
I donated several times more than the ticket price directly to Mr. Friedrich.
That's a whole hell of a lot more effective than a boycott, by my assessment.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?
I am, in fact, keenly aware of the miscarriage of justice visited upon the creator of the Ghost Rider by the courts. In short: they've bankrupted a sick old man by ordering him to pay damages to Marvel/Disney, one of the largest multinational combines in the world.
I thought long and hard about seeing the movie after hearing about this, but finally came to a compromise:
I donated several times more than the ticket price directly to Mr. Friedrich.
That's a whole hell of a lot more effective than a boycott, by my assessment.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?
20 February 2012 @ 06:35 pm
I am, in fact, keenly aware of the miscarriage of justice visited upon the creator of the Ghost Rider by the courts. In short: they've bankrupted a sick old man by ordering him to pay damages to Marvel/Disney, one of the largest multinational combines in the world.
I thought long and hard about seeing the movie after hearing about this, but finally came to a compromise:
I donated several times more than the ticket price directly to Mr. Friedrich.
That's a whole hell of a lot more effective than a boycott, by my assessment.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?
Well ... I'm very glad I watched Ghost Rider on FX last night before seeing Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance [SoV] today. It makes for good compare-and-contrast.
I liked SoV, but stylistically, it's a very different movie, and seeing the first one the night before really underscored that. It's filmed and set in Eastern Europe, and ... well, you know how SF/horror/Action films from Eastern Europe are frequently a little ... off-kilter?
It's like that.
The directors also gave us Crank, with Jason Statham, so if you cross that frenetic energy with Eastern European surrealism and just a touch of the framed, compositional, comic-panel style of the first movie, that should give you some idea of the style
It kinda works.
Nicholas Cage was also a lot more ... NICHOLAS CAGE in this one. As in, the directors showed him the Nick Cage Losing His Shit video on YouTube, and said, "THIS. We want to see THIS!" The Johnny Blaze of Ghost Rider was far more sedate and underplayed than this Johnny.
That's right. You heard me.
The set-up opens the movie, so it won't be much of a spoiler: Johnny's bravado at the end of the first movie hasn't worn well after five years of playing host to the Rider. He's pretty close to the edge through the whole movie, and you know how much Cage loves stepping over that edge.
The effects and camera work are excellent. The Rider looks far more dangerous than he did in the first movie, and far more like a burning, smoldering ghost than clean white bones wreathed in cozy fireplace flames.
The plot's a bit pro forma, but sometimes, all a movie needs is a thread to hang the eye candy together and an enthusiastic performance or two.
Summary:
If you liked Ghost Rider, you may or may not like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. if you liked Ghost Rider, and also liked movies like the Resident Evil series and Priest, you're more likely to like this.
This is probably a Wait For DVD movie for most of Your Obedient Serpent's audience, unless you genuinely enjoy Nicholas Cage having the time of his life playing his favorite character and living up to all his stereotypes.
I thought long and hard about seeing the movie after hearing about this, but finally came to a compromise:
I donated several times more than the ticket price directly to Mr. Friedrich.
That's a whole hell of a lot more effective than a boycott, by my assessment.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?
Well ... I'm very glad I watched Ghost Rider on FX last night before seeing Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance [SoV] today. It makes for good compare-and-contrast.
I liked SoV, but stylistically, it's a very different movie, and seeing the first one the night before really underscored that. It's filmed and set in Eastern Europe, and ... well, you know how SF/horror/Action films from Eastern Europe are frequently a little ... off-kilter?
It's like that.
The directors also gave us Crank, with Jason Statham, so if you cross that frenetic energy with Eastern European surrealism and just a touch of the framed, compositional, comic-panel style of the first movie, that should give you some idea of the style
It kinda works.
Nicholas Cage was also a lot more ... NICHOLAS CAGE in this one. As in, the directors showed him the Nick Cage Losing His Shit video on YouTube, and said, "THIS. We want to see THIS!" The Johnny Blaze of Ghost Rider was far more sedate and underplayed than this Johnny.
That's right. You heard me.
The set-up opens the movie, so it won't be much of a spoiler: Johnny's bravado at the end of the first movie hasn't worn well after five years of playing host to the Rider. He's pretty close to the edge through the whole movie, and you know how much Cage loves stepping over that edge.
The effects and camera work are excellent. The Rider looks far more dangerous than he did in the first movie, and far more like a burning, smoldering ghost than clean white bones wreathed in cozy fireplace flames.
The plot's a bit pro forma, but sometimes, all a movie needs is a thread to hang the eye candy together and an enthusiastic performance or two.
Summary:
If you liked Ghost Rider, you may or may not like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. if you liked Ghost Rider, and also liked movies like the Resident Evil series and Priest, you're more likely to like this.
This is probably a Wait For DVD movie for most of Your Obedient Serpent's audience, unless you genuinely enjoy Nicholas Cage having the time of his life playing his favorite character and living up to all his stereotypes.
03 February 2012 @ 06:09 am
quixotic29 January 2012 @ 10:40 am
Dear Princess Celestia:
This weekend, I learned some very important things about back pain.
First: don't touch your toes to "work the kinks out", and most especially, if you have trouble touching your toes, DO NOT I say again DO NOT push yourself until you CAN.
IT JUST MAKES THINGS WORSE.
Second: if you're tempted to skip a shower because your back hurts, DON'T GIVE IN. Hot water does everything that touching your toes to "work the kinks out" DIDN'T.
Third: the evidence seems to suggest that using an exercise ball as a part-time office chair causes more problems than it solves.
Your faithful student, Athelind Long
This weekend, I learned some very important things about back pain.
First: don't touch your toes to "work the kinks out", and most especially, if you have trouble touching your toes, DO NOT I say again DO NOT push yourself until you CAN.
IT JUST MAKES THINGS WORSE.
Second: if you're tempted to skip a shower because your back hurts, DON'T GIVE IN. Hot water does everything that touching your toes to "work the kinks out" DIDN'T.
Third: the evidence seems to suggest that using an exercise ball as a part-time office chair causes more problems than it solves.
Your faithful student, Athelind Long
I feel: 
sore
sore24 January 2012 @ 07:23 pm
[Your Obedient Serpent would like to remind you that these laws aren't aimed at "pirates" and "counterfeiters"; they're aimed at cutting direct access between creators and their audience.]
Originally posted byelectricdruid at The fiasco continues
Originally posted by
electricdruid at The fiasco continuesACTA in a Nutshell –
What is ACTA? ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan, with Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada recently announcing that they will join in as well.
Why should you care about ACTA? Initial reports indicate that the treaty will have a very broad scope and will involve new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology.”
What is the goal of ACTA? Reportedly the goal is to create new legal standards of intellectual property enforcement, as well as increased international cooperation, an example of which would be an increase in information sharing between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies.
Essential ACTA Resources -
- Read more about ACTA here: ACTA Fact Sheet
- Read the authentic version of the ACTA text as of 15 April 2011, as finalized by participating countries here: ACTA Finalized Text
- Follow the history of the treaty’s formation here: ACTA history
- Read letters from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wherein he challenges the constitutionality of ACTA: Letter 1 | Letter 2 | Read the Administration’s Response to Wyden’s First Letter here: Response
- Watch a short informative video on ACTA: ACTA Video
- Watch a lulzy video on ACTA: Lulzy Video
Say NO to ACTA. It is essential to spread awareness and get the word out on ACTA.
Via Tumblr19 January 2012 @ 06:10 am
Okay, you know what?
I've Been Criminally Remiss.
I'm sorry. I had the "not afraid of pirates, afraid of creators" epiphany YEARS ago, and it's been in the back of my mind since the whole SOPA thing started up months ago.
And it's a meme that needs to be propagated. EVERYTHING I read, ESPECIALLY the opposition, keeps USING BIG MEDIA'S FRAMEWORK, and prefacing their opposition to SOPA and PIPA with "yes, online piracy is a problem, but this isn't the solution."
NO solution that Big Media pushes is going to be ANYTHING but an assault on small businesses and individual creators, because THAT IS THEIR PRIMARY GOAL. They WANT you to watch THEIR stuff. They CAN'T support you making your OWN stuff.
That IS and ALWAYS WILL BE their primary motivation.
So I need to make yesterday's post a Facebook entry, an FA entry, a DA entry ... maybe my frakkin' comics blog ... And, of course, write to my congressman and senator, and the congressmen and senators who AREN'T mine but are at the forefront of the fight against this crap, because THEY'RE using the same frame, too.
IT GOES AROUND THE SUN.
IT DOES MOVE.
I've Been Criminally Remiss.
I'm sorry. I had the "not afraid of pirates, afraid of creators" epiphany YEARS ago, and it's been in the back of my mind since the whole SOPA thing started up months ago.
And it's a meme that needs to be propagated. EVERYTHING I read, ESPECIALLY the opposition, keeps USING BIG MEDIA'S FRAMEWORK, and prefacing their opposition to SOPA and PIPA with "yes, online piracy is a problem, but this isn't the solution."
NO solution that Big Media pushes is going to be ANYTHING but an assault on small businesses and individual creators, because THAT IS THEIR PRIMARY GOAL. They WANT you to watch THEIR stuff. They CAN'T support you making your OWN stuff.
That IS and ALWAYS WILL BE their primary motivation.
So I need to make yesterday's post a Facebook entry, an FA entry, a DA entry ... maybe my frakkin' comics blog ... And, of course, write to my congressman and senator, and the congressmen and senators who AREN'T mine but are at the forefront of the fight against this crap, because THEY'RE using the same frame, too.
IT GOES AROUND THE SUN.
IT DOES MOVE.
I hear: Indigo Girls: Galileo
18 January 2012 @ 06:20 am
Yeah, everyone's doing it, but Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped.
You know, it's not about piracy or copyright. Those are lies. What Big Media is really afraid of, and what's really "threatening" their profits (which are, BTW, at a record high), is that the Internet makes it easy for creators to reach their audiences directly. I figured that out back in the Napster days, when Big Media emasculated MP3.com, and nothing has changed since then.
I call this "The Temple of Syrinx Hypothesis": "We've taken care of everything, the words you read, the songs you sing, the pictures that you plug into your eyes ..."
And the biggest threat to them is that some random schlub will find a guitar.
That video I linked to a few weeks back, explaining how the big media companies themselves were the ones most responsible for distributing the tools of file-sharing and torrenting and making sure people knew how to use them to get Dubious Bits?
This is why.
I'm going to say it again:
They aren't afraid of "pirates".
You know, it's not about piracy or copyright. Those are lies. What Big Media is really afraid of, and what's really "threatening" their profits (which are, BTW, at a record high), is that the Internet makes it easy for creators to reach their audiences directly. I figured that out back in the Napster days, when Big Media emasculated MP3.com, and nothing has changed since then.
I call this "The Temple of Syrinx Hypothesis": "We've taken care of everything, the words you read, the songs you sing, the pictures that you plug into your eyes ..."
And the biggest threat to them is that some random schlub will find a guitar.
That video I linked to a few weeks back, explaining how the big media companies themselves were the ones most responsible for distributing the tools of file-sharing and torrenting and making sure people knew how to use them to get Dubious Bits?
This is why.
I'm going to say it again:
They aren't afraid of "pirates".
They're afraid of creators.
I feel: 
outraged
outraged