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Reviews of movies, tv, and, far too rarely books.


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Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 03:01 pm Gaming Woes...
Current Mood: curious
Man, what the hell is up with the PC version of Devil May Cry 3?

I check the requirements on the box and not only do I have a system that exceeds to required system specs...it's better than the recommended system specs. Which makes you think that it'd run smoothly? Nope. There are points in the game where no matter what you graphical settings you have it on, even at the lowest resolution and detail...the game chugs along like it's in slow motion. (This...btw...includes EVERY BOSS FIGHT. ) I've downloaded the two patches available and from what I can tell, it didn't have any affect at all...In fact, I think it made things worse by having the full motion videos look like crap and run slowly too.

What's even worse is the controls. I've got what basically amounts to a Ps2 controller that works with a computer. For some reason, when you set the controls so that the left analog stick moves your character around...it instead splits the movement controls between the left and right analogue stick, so that up and down on the left moves you back and forth and up and down on the right stick moves you from side to side. So basically I'm stuck playing the game using the buttons on the control pad for attacking, etc. and using the WASD keys on my keyboard for movement.

The hell? I mean seriously, the hell? It was made by the same people who did the port of RE4 for the PC and that was pretty much a perfect port. Gamepad works fine with it and the graphics run smoothly. So what is the deal here?
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[info]paladine
Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 01:43 pm Cruise/Life
Current Mood: lethargic
Tags: , ,
W and I went on a cruise for our one-year anniversary, and I think it may have been the most wonderful thing in the world. The weeks leading up to it were just so stressful in every way that it made having that little break from the real world so much better.

Carnival definitely deserves its reputation as the McDonalds of the high seas or whatever the saying actually is. In general, everything was lovely, but it did get annoying having the staff try to sell us things at every turn. Not so annoying that I wouldn't do Carnival again if there were no other cruise line leaving out of Galveston, though.

Port of calls were Progresso and Cozumel. We did an excursion to Chichen Itza in Progresso. In general, I wouldn't recommend doing excursions through the cruise lines because the prices are jacked up, but Chichen Itza was two hours away, and we read that the ship will wait a bit for official excursions that are late (whereas people are just screwed on non-ship excursions). I've never been to any Mesoamerican ruins before, so it was pretty spectacular. In Cozumel, we just wanted to walk around and shop, so we didn't do anything through the ship. It was all pretty easy. We didn't end up buying too much--I got a red dress (of dubious quality on closer inspection *sigh*) and we picked up a couple bottles of tequila. One was just regular tequila that W swears is better quality than anything he had in the US and one was a creamy coffee-flavored tequila. I've never seen the latter in the US. I used my Spanish a lot and discovered it's still pretty strong for tourist purposes even if it's pretty crappy for conversational purposes. There was only one time where I tried to say something and realized I'd just said complete nonsense. People also must be used to speaking slowly for tourists because I've never had an easier time understanding spoken Spanish than in Cozumel.

Neither of us were ready to come back when we did, but fortunately we still have Friday off work. We spent a bit of time in Galveston (W wanted to tour the Elissa). I wish I'd gone to Galveston before Ike, so I could really understand pre- and post-Ike Galveston. The rebuilding seems to have been pretty quick in the main parts of town. The historic district looked very intact, but one store had the Ike watermark taped to its front. I believe the watermark was taller than I am!

Unfortunately, our house still has a flea infestation. It's very tiring to deal with. When we got back, we were besieged with them and I thought the flea infestation had gotten much, much worse. But I think they may have just been hungry because today hasn't been any worse than before. Or maybe the vacuuming yesterday helped (the one plus side to a flea infestation is that our house hasn't been this clean since the big Passover cleaning). We still have no clue how the fleas got into the house, especially since our duplex neighbors say they've seen no sign of fleas. We're going to flea bomb while we go see Bruno to hopefully buy us some peace while we make arrangements for a professional to come in. We've tried vacuuming, bombing, and carpet powdering to no avail. It's time for a professional!
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[info]zuleikhajami
Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 01:51 pm Yeesh...
Current Mood: exhausted
Apparently I had a nightmare so bad last night I was actually yelling for help for real. Woke up Dad.

Also having one of those days where I'm in really, really bad mood. The kind where you'd like nothing more than to punch the everloving shit out of something. Not fun. Especially since I'm worried that I'm going to end up blowing up at somebody and it'll be over something incredibly stupid.

Fun.
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[info]paladine
Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 01:00 pm Oh dear
I have come to this conclusion from twitter this week:

Misha Collins and Nathan Fillion need to meet.

Edited to add:

From [info]ontd_startrek
WHAT THE FUCK, KARL URBAN? I just don't even know what to say except for... LOL.
Photobucket
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[info]sparky77
Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 10:08 am Pulpwork Press Update For Friday, July 17th, 2009
Current Location: Brooklyn, NY
Big news this week as we announce our first open-submission anthology, AMAZING ALTERNITY STORIES! Check out the blog for a word from the editor, Tom Deja, and our submissions page for the guidelines.

And just as a reminder...our message board is up and running, so feel free to stop in and say hi or start a discussion on any of our fine titles!

Finally, if you've got the time, spread the word about PWP to your friends!

http://www.pulpworkpress.com/
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[info]dferguson
Jul. 17th, 2009 @ 08:38 am change
Current Music: The Caveman's Valentine
I'm so ready to be done with this moving our stuff downstairs phase and get on to the being on vacation phase. I don't even care so much about the moving our stuff back upstairs phase that comes after vacation. Still a lot to do first though so I'd best not wish for time to go too fast...

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[info]assmonkeydiary
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 11:42 pm Hi.
Okay, so I am sort of vaguely opposed to Sherlock Holmes reimaged as an action movie, but RDJ! Jude Law! Rachel McAdams! And considering how much flirting Holmes and Watson are doing in this trailer alone, I think I am going to enjoy this movie. Seriously...

Watson: Holmes, does your depravity know no bounds?

Holmes: No

And also Holmes steals Watson's clothes.

And Jude Law looks adorably dorky. And RDJ looks like RDJ.

Seriously people, start writing the porn now. Thank you!

And I've been randomly showing this to people today, but everyone needs to see this. It's the sneak peak for next week's episode of Leverage and I really think it is proof that the writers on that show totally ship the Paker/Hardison/Eliot OT3.

I had other things to say, but I am way too tired to remember what they are.

A word of advice though. Pizza and licorice though both very tasty should not be eaten one right after the other.
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[info]sparky77
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 10:35 pm (no subject)
Oh, and: new neighbors.  This time, the girl's a moaner.  Greaaaaaaat.

Here's the thing: I havne't returned my lease to my landlord yet.  Theoretically, it started yesterday.  I'm paid, definitely, through August.  I like my apt and I'm far too lazy to really want to pack up and move, but another round of neighbors I want to punch in the throat?  Idk.

I've spent more time looking at Marketing Research masters programs then I have studying for my marketing research TEST that happens in 10 hours.  Should probably fix that.

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[info]earthdotprime
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 09:01 pm (no subject)

I think my marketing research prof thinks that I'm smarter then I really am.  He'll see, after I bomb the test tomorrow.  (I know the material, I am just terrible at tests.)

Invited myself to a mormon-viking wedding.  It will be the awkwardest thing to happen all summer.

Boulder is finally too hot to wear pants.  I forgot that my credit card was still in my jeans pocket, though, tripped over my pants on the floor, and snapped said credit card in half when I stepped on them.  Whoops.

Shut up, Christophe.  I'm totally going back to work now.
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[info]earthdotprime
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 11:46 am Dreamscapes
Current Mood: complacent
Tags:
Well, it’s been a while since I had a dream that was weird enough to write about. This morning, however, it seems that the Gods smiled upon me and let loose into my brain one helluva strange one.

Okay, like many dreams I’ve had of late, I was in college again. In fact, I think I had moved back in with an old roommate. But this isn’t the important thing. The important is that while I’m at college, we hear word that an alien invasion is about to happen. And when the time comes, a swarm of these alien ships, which look like spider-y versions of the 1950’s War of the World’s spaceships, gather in the skies over my college. A squad of army helicopters gather to meet them. Myself and several hundred other people are gathered in the parking lot of my dorm looking up at what is sure to be an epic battle. The leader of the army helicopters starts shouting at the alien ships over loudspeakers on his copter, saying such wonderfully jingoist things as “FUCK WITH AMERICA AND YOU DIE!” Also, considering I watched The Howling II that night, he may have punctuated it with one of those patented Reb Brown “YEEEEEEEAAARGH”’s. And so the fighting begins, a massive dogfights. Lasers, explosions and god what else fills the cloudy night sky, yet at no point does myself or anyone else try to hide.

Then, suddenly, a huge face appears out of the clouds overhead. I hear someone shout “IT’s JESUS CHRIST!” and everyone rejoiced and the day was saved etc. etc. Then we got to looking at that face and it hits us that this was not, in fact, Jesus Christ coming to save us from alien invaders but…Will Wheaton?

Then, suddenly, a weird laser light show comes on and writes some message in the sky, I can’t remember the exact words but the gist of it was that this whole alien invasion was just some elaborate publicity stunt to promote a new DVD release for every single Star Trek series ever. We in the crowds below were surprisingly not annoyed by this.

So, we quite returned to the dorm, where I stopped at the vending machine. I attempted to get a soda from it, but it wouldn’t accept any of the dollar bills I fed it because…they were covered in scotch tape. (What?) So, I headed back to my dorm, possibly to get my hands on some not covered in scotch tape money and, like many dreams I’ve had about college, got lost. And strangely, like many dreams I’ve had about college, wound up in the bathroom. Which was gigantic.

And then I woke up…and really needed to pee.
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[info]paladine
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 09:19 am all my old writing back from the dead
Current Music: Beck - "Devil's Haircut"
Tags:
So, back in the late 90s I was writing a novel, working pretty intensely on it, but I got derailed during a prolific period of messing around girls. I revisited it from time to time, mainly working on revisions, but mostly it just sat in the computer waiting for my hard drive to die, which it did sometime around 2001.

And the novel was gone. A lost relic that I didn't have the patience to re-create. A ghost that haunted subsequent novel attempts because my writing was better back in those days. Why was it better? I'm not sure. Maybe because I was in more pain. Maybe because I tortured myself into feeling bad when I didn't work hard enough on it. Maybe because of the acid I was taking that flipped open lots of locked doors in my mind and started making me see the beauty of visual details and little actions in a way I hadn't before. Maybe all of the above.

And I never expected to see it again. I tried writing another novel, but I got put off by all the giddy violence in the story, so I started writing my current novel, that was an antithesis of that one in terms of violence, but which borrowed heavily from themes and relationships I was playing with in the 90s novel. I didn't mind stealing a little from my old novel since no one was ever going to read it. Including me.

Of course, you know what happens next, but I didn't. While moving everything from our second floor down to the first floor this week (in preparation for our new floors), I found a stack of 3.25" disks. Being the cheap bastard that I was back then, they were the old Microsoft OS disks that I had erased and repurposed as backup for my files. So I brought them into work (where I have a machine that can read them) and took a look.

The lost novel was there. Only a few chapters of the radically-rewritten second draft unfortunately, but it looks like all of the files from the unfinished first draft. Also there were tons of stories and poems and plays that I'd written over the years, losses not as tragic as the novel, but still interesting for me to look at with a more mature eye (I was such an open wound as a young writer).

Finding the novel yesterday put me into a state of physical shock. I had chills, mild nausea, and felt like something was spinning around inside my skull. I got out of the office, took a walk, drank some tequila, and felt better. But now I'm in a huge connundrum.

Reading the chapters last night, I can see that the second draft of that novel is so much better than the first draft of my current one. I'm in love with the voice and the characters and bizarreness. The voice especially is something that's been challenging me with what I'm writing now. A huge part of me wants to just hit the pause on the current project, and see if I can still write the old one. But if I do will I ever come back to it? Part of me says that I need to finish the first draft of the current one before I start playing around somewhere else, but it's sooooooo tempting. And then there's the issue of the similarities between the two. Both follow musician boys fucking around at playing god (the old one playing in Christianity's sandbox, the new one in Hinduisms). Probably not a big enough deal to completely abandon either one, but I'll have to make some cuts to both of them to avoid some of the smaller details.

I'm feeling both very joyous and very angsty about all this, but I'll tell you, seeing my old writing again definitely makes me feel more like a writer again than I was feeling last week, and that confidence can't help but be a good thing.

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[info]assmonkeydiary
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 02:13 am (no subject)
Bunny project my ass.
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[info]earthdotprime
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 01:30 am FYI
I am in the process of doing some lj housekeeping in order to keep my friend's list mananagable and me sane(ish). As always, I am happy to have everyone around here and honestly I rarely lock anything. As always, feel free to add me or remove me or add and remove me multiple times in one day if it makes you happy.
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[info]sparky77
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 01:20 am Doctor Who - The Crusade (1965)
Tags:
The serial that the BBC would not release in the Middle East... )
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[info]drownedinink
Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 10:55 pm (no subject)
I finally have a slight break in the schoolin's, and do I call friends or encourage relationships or leave the house?  No!  I sit in my bedroom and watch Netflix!  Sometimes, I check Facebook.

People that I was coming to think of as my friends have been ignoring my phone calls/emails/texts since getting back here.  I'm not sure what to think of that.  (Other than, y'know, "crap.")

Netflix!
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[info]earthdotprime
Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 10:18 pm Shoe woes!
Current Mood: annoyed
Oh! Why does nothing fit?!

The Melissa shoes arrived today, which was quite fast considering that I ordered them on Friday and got my tracking email yesterday.

I had worried that I got the wrong size (I bought two different pairs in a 37). Well, I think I got the right size... if my right foot didn't appear to be a half size bigger. D:

The black slingbacks are cute and fairly comfortable. However, my right foot is just a little wider than the shoe so the edge of the shoe is digging into what is the equivalent of my knuckle on my pinkie toe. Blah. I can't even pretend that they are wearable. I'll definitely need to return the black Ultragirl peep toe shoes (oh, they are the ones with perforations) .

The second pair of shoes I got were a pair yellow Zen Girl with detachable bow (they are also slingbacks with peep toes). These shoes don't hurt in the same spot as the Ultragirl, but the Zen Girl shoes are very tapered compared to the Ultragirl so my big toe on my right foot feels like it's going to get crushed on top of my smaller toes. Not much fun for walking in the long run. Pooey. I'm half tempted to keep them anyway, but that's probably really stupid of me.

I also wanted them to be bright yellow. They are a more subdued yellow than I expected.

Maybe I should sell them on eBay instead of returning them?

I'm disappointed. Overall, they are quite comfortable. And very strangely, for shoes made of plastic, they smell really nice. I'm not making this up. Even K* was a little addicted to the scent of new Melissa shoes.

Well, I guess the next time there's a sample sale of Melissa shoes in NYC I will have to go. Alas, there was just one two weeks ago. I think I'll have a bit of wait until the next one.

P.S. I took pictures of the shoes just for fun. I'll post them tomorrow. It's getting late and I'm very sleepy so I'm closing down soon.
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[info]countlibras
Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 09:14 pm stuff and leverage
I had a massive attack of fatigue (that's the only way I can describe it. I'm fine. I'm fine. And then I just can't get up and end up sleeping 20 of the next 24 hours. IT SUCKS!) and missed lunch plans today which is I am very, very sad about. And it also just sucks because I can barely think when it's happening. Fail, body, fail.

My dad and I are going to see Harry Potter at some point in the next week. I'm not really all that excited about seeing the movie, but I just think it's adorable that my dad is such a big Harry Potter fan. He has THOUGHTS too. They are not as hilarious as his thoughts on Gilmore Girls (Pro Luke, Anti Chris, against Rory dating anyone ever), but they are pretty awesome.

Everything and Everyone involved with this post are awesome

I CAN TALK ABOUT LEVERAGE NOW!!! )
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[info]sparky77
Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 03:48 pm Our Hero? Night Part III: Bulletproof


Read more... )
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[info]professormortis
Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 04:58 pm Congress sux
I've decided to stop reading anything that has to do with health care in the US, since it now seems all but certain that the "reform" will inevitably be just a measure forcing everyone to get health insurance one way or another, with little done to actually change our horrific system or offer a feasible alternative to it. Maybe they'll still make it illegal for insurance companies to deny care based on medical conditions...if we're lucky, but anything more than that means the Soviet Union has won, as is my understanding. Instead of hoping for a miracle, I'll just focus on emigrating to Canada or getting married to a Dutch or Swedish man for my long-term health care needs; like I said before, that's all more practical than expecting anything substantial from the politicians I did my part to vote into office.

On a related note, why does Congress keep up the pretext that they actually represent the interests of the voters in any shape or form? Let's change the nomenclature in Congress to reflect the obvious reality, so instead of, say, Senator Reid D-NV, let's have Senator Reid D-Health Insurance Industry. Another example: Barbara Boxer D-CA should instead be Barbara Boxer D-Defense Industry. Various representatives can openly stand for pharmaceutical congolmerates, wealthy religious special interest groups, the oil industry, and so on. It would at least make matters much clearer and far more simple for the vast majority of Americans. Plus, maybe if we drop the pretense, they'll be kind enough to let us have a representative of our own in Congress someday.
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[info]drownedinink
Jul. 15th, 2009 @ 02:44 pm Otakon July 17-19
Current Music: Stand Alone Complex soundtrack-"Access all areas"
For everyone going to Otakon this year, Owls Mirror Studio is going to present a panel on July 18th from 8:15-9:15pm in panel room 2. Just peek at the flier below, with cute kitty artwork by Keevs!

Also, the Owls Mirror Facebook fan page is located here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Owls-Mirror-Studio/91463524912

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[info]happybluebunny

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