Everyone Is a Sith: G8 [chat]

Saturday, July 12, 2008

G8 [chat]

Much like the real G8 we will spend the week talking about things and accomplish nothing by doing so.

84 comments:

Roscoe said...: the new Astrobase Go shirt is..

well..

it's made of Yes.; July 7, 2008 at 7:59 AM
_J_ said...: I still have not seen the episode from Sunday Night.

The previews contained both T and A. Presumably the episode did as well.; July 7, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Mike Lewis said...: best episode ever.; July 7, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Mike Lewis said...: hot transformers slash; July 7, 2008 at 10:01 AM
Mike Lewis said...: hot transformers slash is not safe for work.; July 7, 2008 at 10:01 AM
_J_ said...: Well now I really want to see it.; July 7, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Roscoe said...: it's an Epic episode.; July 7, 2008 at 10:32 AM
_J_ said...: Obama is now the abortion president.; July 7, 2008 at 10:34 AM
Roscoe said...: Does this mean there must be fireworks?; July 7, 2008 at 11:04 AM
_J_ said...: If by "fireworks" you mean "exploding abortions" then, yes.; July 7, 2008 at 11:12 AM
Roscoe said...: .... go back to last week's chat thread. read towards the bottom. and know fear.; July 7, 2008 at 12:05 PM
_J_ said...: ow.; July 7, 2008 at 12:08 PM
Roscoe said...: yeah.

And yet.. as I was telling Mike... some of those lines are wonderful for Lolcattery, or other repurposing.

"There Must Be Fireworks."; July 7, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Roscoe said...: enjoy the Blooms, by the by?

traitorous bastich. fargin' icehole.; July 7, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Roscoe said...: the T-shirt subscribers got a bonus Brock Samson Blood Judo shirt.; July 7, 2008 at 12:47 PM
_J_ said...: "enjoy the Blooms, by the by?"

It was enlightening...in a way.; July 7, 2008 at 1:07 PM
Roscoe said...: zuh?; July 7, 2008 at 1:28 PM
Roscoe said...: also, can I just say.. w/ regards to your deeply held desire for a unified Post Title structure?

Wouldn't it make sense to title posts according to what they're dealing with, and not what they're targeted at?

i.e. Evolution being a post on linguistics, and not so much Evolution?

Feer me pointless needlin', yar!; July 7, 2008 at 2:10 PM
Mike Lewis said...: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 will run on Sci-Fi Channel this winter.; July 7, 2008 at 3:02 PM
_J_ said...: "i.e. Evolution being a post on linguistics, and not so much Evolution?"

This is why I hate English Majors.

One of my philosophy professors told me to never psychoanalyze dead philosophers. We have their writings, we have historical accounts on their lives. So when we look at their writings we need to focus on those things and not delve into things we fabricate.

Which is what English majors do.

If it weren't for all those damn trees the English majors would be able to see the forest. But...those fucking trees just keep blowing things.

Colbert says that he doesn't want to do the voice of Dr. Impossible because he doesn't want to do the voice anymore. And then we try to figure out why he doesn't want to do the voice anymore.

If only those fucking trees would get out of the way...; July 7, 2008 at 3:59 PM
Roscoe said...: Man, I just took the words you wrote, and read them.

if you want, I can actually go to your house tonight, and physically read them aloud to you, and show you WHY your post is entirely about language, and your interest is split between the inciting cause, Evolution woes, and the procedural function, (why those woes are), which is ENTIRELY linguistic, and has NOTHING to do with Evolution.

Now.. when the full focus of two thirds of the post is about how we speak, and the last paragraph tries to explain how you got to that from reasoning why Evolution is misunderstood..

Then it only reasons to say you've mislabeled your post.

One of your philosophy professors told you to do precisely what I did. Don't read into the why, but read into what was being said. And what was being said was Language. How language is used shapes how we interpret and understand or misunderstand a topic.

It's basic New Criticism, and it's the absolute avoidance of intentionalism.; July 7, 2008 at 4:03 PM
_J_ said...: It was mostly about the last paragraph.; July 7, 2008 at 4:18 PM
Roscoe said...: No, it wasn't. This is where I needle you over your naming structure now.

If the rant was over the last paragraph, it would be primarily focused on talking about that problem. It's not, in so very many ways.

Now, that's not a problem, if it's designed to spark discussion.. or even backpatting and rounds of harrumph-agreement... but that's not what purpose you put forward on the blog. You want others to be able to search it for topics, for google hits, and in general, be academic and not casual about this.

You see my point, yes? You can't commit to your own fiats...; July 7, 2008 at 4:25 PM
_J_ said...: "If the rant was over the last paragraph, it would be primarily focused on talking about that problem. It's not, in so very many ways."

Sort of like how if Planet of the Apes was about Nuclear War it wouldn't have included that hour and a half of people in ape suits running around.; July 7, 2008 at 4:33 PM
_J_ said...: NBC Buys Weather Channel, vows to do something about that music.; July 7, 2008 at 4:55 PM
_J_ said...: Scott, things aren't as happy as they used to be down here at the unemployment office. Joblessness is no longer just for philosophy majors. _Useful_ people are starting to feel the pinch.; July 7, 2008 at 6:25 PM
Unknown said...: I hope it doesn't fuck up weather.com too much. Because, I use that pretty extensively.; July 8, 2008 at 9:24 AM
_J_ said...: Weather.com was awesome before they FUCKED the map feature with that new and improved "Doesn't Actually Work" technology.

So now instead of there being an animated weather map there is a big box where the animated map ought to be.; July 8, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Unknown said...: heh, I just need the hour by hour and the 10 day forecasts. I don't really care enough about weather outside of that.; July 8, 2008 at 10:08 AM
_J_ said...: I like to be able to see the radar, etc. myself rather than just see a box on a page which says "rain". Cause anyone can type anything in that box. But faking the picture requires photoshop skills.

And OBVIOUSLY no one at Weather.com has anything remotely resembling photoshop skills.; July 8, 2008 at 10:30 AM
_J_ said...: New Diablo III Art. New rampant fanboy bitching about color.

I hope there is a rainbow monster, and Diablo is chartreuse.; July 8, 2008 at 11:12 AM
_J_ said...: So last night I got a Blind-Seers Icon which allowed me to finally wear the Hatefury Mantle I've been holding for a while. And it was interesting to watch my view of WoW change based upon my getting that new item.

We hadn't raided for a week and so was frustrated with the game. Then we didn't wipe in the instance and I got a new item so I found the experience to be enjoyable and eagerly anticipate the next raiding opportunity instead of feeling frustrated.

Interesting.; July 8, 2008 at 11:26 AM
_J_ said...: Spell Haste vs Spell Damage for Warlocks

If you enjoy math check out the first post in that thread.; July 8, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Roscoe said...: J, you wanna hit up Hellboy this weekend?; July 8, 2008 at 12:44 PM
_J_ said...: Hellboy looks like shit in the same way that Pan's Labyrinth looked like shit.

One of the things Mikey enjoys about FFVII is that the world looks "lived in"; the characters, world, and action all compliment one another and there is an organic chemistry between all of the components. So the world portrayed seems to meet the style and requirements of the little trapezoids and parallelograms of the characters.

Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy 2: Curse of the Jew, however, look like SHIT because they place visually interesting and "icky" creatures against sterile backgrounds. The characters do not appear to exist within the world so much as they are standing in front and to the sides of it. There is no harmony or continuation between the characters and the "world" so much as there are backgrounds, and noticeable gap, and then the creatures.

And I'm not paying to look at that for an hour and a half.

Dark Knight, however, is for watchin'.; July 8, 2008 at 1:03 PM
Roscoe said...: you're fucking with me, right?

You've READ the Hellboy stuff, and realize that's the point of the series.

That this stuff doesn't quite belong?

I mean.. that IS Mignola's stuff. Juxtaposing bizzare and slightly creepy with mundane. Amazing Screw On Head is the exact same, filtered through the absurdism of a Period Peice.

Beyond that, it's HELLBOY. One of the few good Comic Book movies.

Yeah, DK sounds good too... but.. you're off your rocker on this one.; July 8, 2008 at 1:08 PM
_J_ said...: "That this stuff doesn't quite belong?"

It's not that so much as the visual style. The movie looks like people standing on a sound stage.; July 8, 2008 at 1:18 PM
_J_ said...: Um...:

Clinton, who has vowed to campaign for Barack Obama, then suggested that POWs could lose their cool at any moment.

“It’s just like if you know anybody who’s ever been a POW for any length of time, you will see you go along for months or maybe even years, and then something will happen and it will trigger all those bad dreams and they will come back, and it may not last 30 seconds,” he said.

Do we think this is a good strategy? "McCain: He'll probably have flashbacks to Nam and kill us all."; July 8, 2008 at 1:29 PM
Roscoe said...: I deeply, DEEPLY disagree. did you watch Hellboy?

the Original one? Becuase it looks pretty much the same to me. and .. yeah.. deep disagreeement.

Either way, I'd totally watch both. But making that argument.. and then bringing up Dark Knight.. with it's DEEPLY out of place vehicular scenes... .. meh..; July 8, 2008 at 2:37 PM
_J_ said...: It's interesting that someone could disagree with that.

I guess part of it could deal with the degree to which a given observer buys into the illusion. I think Hellboy looks like a bunch of assholes in rubber suits standing in front of things. To not see it as that...

And it's not even the assholes in rubber suits so much as the "creatures" do not mesh with the world they are portrayed to inhabit. The characters and creatures look estranged from that reality stylistically. It's not that they are "out of place" due to the comparison of a big demon thing next to a truck. The truck looks like background and the big demon looks to be standing in front of it as if on a soundstage.; July 8, 2008 at 3:18 PM
_J_ said...: Lost Vikings 2: Call of Proskater, Jedi Academy incomming.; July 8, 2008 at 3:32 PM
_J_ said...: Howard Wolfson joining Fox News.

Whore.; July 8, 2008 at 3:58 PM
Unknown said...: they aren't supposed to mesh with the environment. That is the intention. The creatures are from another dimension, I for one would expect it to be odd for them to look natural in an environment such as earth.; July 8, 2008 at 5:49 PM
Unknown said...: expect = consider; July 8, 2008 at 5:50 PM
Roscoe said...: If I understand him correctly... it's less that.. which is what I thought as well..

and more that the entirety of the background looks out of place to all the actors.

I can kind of see it in some parts.. but.. I'm not convinced.

His issue is less that the characters stand out as unnatural, and more the backgrounds stand out as noticably false.

and.. I don't quite agree, because the human centered scenes never felt that way... anyways.; July 9, 2008 at 7:32 AM
_J_ said...: "I for one would consider it to be odd for them to look natural in an environment such as earth."

I'm not talking about some sort of Lovecraftian disconnect between the creatures and the world they inhabit. I'm talking about how the creatures do not appear to be existing within the world so much as they are standing on a soundstage in front of a background.

If a Pan's Labyrinth character or a Hellboy character were crawling in a tube full of shit? The character would not be covered with shit. OR they would be covered with shit in a manner which was aesthetically estranged from the rest of the tube.

Maybe that's a better way of saying it. The creatures appear to be laminated, in a loose sense of the word. It's not the case that they are never covered in crap but rather the manner in which they are sometimes covered in crap does not mesh with the world in which they are purported to exist.

Like in the trailer for hellboy 2 when that blue thing is walking down the tube? The tube looks dank and musty. The blue thing looks like a pristine rubber costume.

And it's not the sort of stylistic estrangement which communicates a natural disconnect between the alien beings and the world which enforces a sense of disharmony. It's just bad design. It looks phoney.; July 9, 2008 at 9:43 AM
Unknown said...: I don't see the same disconnect you do then. I enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth and the original Hellboy, without having any thoughts of it looking phoney.; July 9, 2008 at 9:55 AM
_J_ said...: "I don't see the same disconnect you do then. I enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth and the original Hellboy, without having any thoughts of it looking phoney."

I think it is interesting that two people can look at the same movie and see two different stylistic things.; July 9, 2008 at 10:07 AM
_J_ said...: Youaredumb.net took on Tycho.

Youaredumb won.

It made me happy.; July 9, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Unknown said...: I wouldn't exactly say that youaredumb won... If you throw a rock at someone, and it hits them, and they keep on walking... did you really win?; July 9, 2008 at 11:10 AM
Roscoe said...: two things to note on your analysis..

one, Plenty of scenes in the first Hellboy with Ron shaking debriis off himself, dust, whathave you.

two.. this one's a bit more interesting, becuase it's analysis.
The "pristine costume" thing intrigues me.. because.. it's kinda true to Mignola's style. His characters are icons, in the sense that they are presented images representing the character. They interact with the things around them, but the important features are the use of shadow and light, and the recognizablity of the image. And to make that work, you present your main characters as brighter, as seperate from the cobwebs, the grime, the filth of the various monster folks.. ...

blergh.. I'm not making this thought clear at all..
but in some sense what you're knocking seems to be.. in my eyes, a stylistic choice that matches the source material...

And.. I'm not sure I agree with the grounds you level the charge.. which. you know.. helps..; July 9, 2008 at 11:29 AM
_J_ said...: "They interact with the things around them, but the important features are the use of shadow and light, and the recognizablity of the image. And to make that work, you present your main characters as brighter, as seperate from the cobwebs, the grime, the filth of the various monster folks.. ..."

That's EXACTLY it. To draw attention to these creations they are shot and depicted to be seperate from the background. They do not blend in with their surroundings, the surroundings are meant to merely provide a backdrop for these creations.

When I was little I bought these action figures of something...I can't remember what...but the packaging could be cut apart and taped together to make little stands. But the figures, when placed on those stands, never appeared to dwell within them. The stands were just a backdrop to accentuate the characters.

And that's what these movies look like to me. We have all of these well-designed characters and they are placed in front of these backdrops. But there's no harmony between them.

It's jarring.; July 9, 2008 at 12:06 PM
Roscoe said...: yeah.. and here's the thing... I wasn't talking about the movie there.. becuase.. I don't quite see the movie DOING that.

I was talking about the comic.. in a terribly unclear and unspecific way.

But that doesn't happen in the comic.. because the background is near non-existant or shadow. Even when it does though, the reader fills in those details unconsciously.

and.. I still don't quite see what you're seeing in Hellboy.. I understand it.. but.. I don't quite see it.. sometimes.. but you seem to see it throughout the majority of the film.. which I don't..

I dunno. there's a conversation to be had here.. but I think I'd need to conduct my half in person, becuase it's muddled and cyclical.; July 9, 2008 at 12:20 PM
_J_ said...: Maybe we should just talk about how Batman Begins was silly and pretentious. At least we agree on that.; July 9, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Roscoe said...: agreement gets us nowhere.

what we NEED is something we both HATE and disagree about.

like barns.; July 9, 2008 at 12:29 PM
Roscoe said...: or we need to elect a scapegoat to hate on.

so someone is forced to defend themselves.

Like Mikey.

I'd say Caleb, but I gather Caleb defends himself with flailing limbs and frightening quickness.; July 9, 2008 at 12:30 PM
_J_ said...: It's funny because she had a miscarriage.; July 9, 2008 at 12:33 PM
_J_ said...: I don't hate barns. I just measure hate in barns, the standard unit of hate measure.

Do we both hate Ctrl Alt Del?

OH.

how about hating web comics we used to read which now suck? Like GPF or PVP or MegaTokyo.; July 9, 2008 at 12:34 PM
Roscoe said...: I'm okay with that.

I still read PVP.. and it swings good and bad...

but the adventures of LOLbat and his hated nemesis Monsieur Jongleur are kinda funny.; July 9, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Unknown said...: I blame it all on dreaded continuity.; July 9, 2008 at 1:02 PM
_J_ said...: And the inability to "Garfield" things into a non-temporal existence.

With whats-his-name and chesty-mc-red-head married they lose all the opportunity for those dating sorts of jokes...but now we get marriage jokes!

Oh, oh humor. Oh marriage jokes.

Stupid PVP.

And then we have Megatokyo...which has taken Gundam's "if you miss an episode you don't know what's happening" and multiplied it by Piro's stark-raving emo multiplier of...what's the most emo number?

How the fuck is that asshole still be emo? He draws a webcomic for a living, he has a kid, he's married, and he's still on the verge of cutting himself with his wacom tablet.; July 9, 2008 at 1:14 PM
Roscoe said...: I still enjoy Brent and Jade.. and Cole. But Francis can just fade away now.

Scratch, Kirby, and the eventually returning Skull are where the fun is anymore.; July 9, 2008 at 1:29 PM
_J_ said...: Why doesn't everyone have a cup. And when they go out for food they can use the cup to hold their beverage.

No more paper cups at fast food restaurants. No more cups at T.G.I.Shitholes.

Everyone just has a cup, and they use it.; July 9, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Unknown said...: Well hell, why don't well carry around a bowl, plate, and silverware too while we are at it.; July 9, 2008 at 3:38 PM
_J_ said...: I'm saying!; July 9, 2008 at 3:41 PM
_J_ said...: Isn't it odd that rather than expect everyone to carry around their own eating utensils we've constructed an industry that mass-produces them? That we continually create paper plates, styrofoam cups, plastic spoons knives and forks so that people can use them once, throw them away, and dump them in a landfill?

Rather than have every person use one spoon throughout their life we prefer to mass-produce plastic ones for one-time use and then abandon them to an indeterminate number of years in a landfill.

How is that not absurd?; July 9, 2008 at 3:46 PM
_J_ said...: During tonight's raid I learned that one of our healing priests has the following macro on his bar during every raid:

/target quid
/cast flashheal

Cause I often have things beating the undead shit out of me.

So much laughing resulted from this admission on his part. So much...; July 9, 2008 at 11:52 PM
_J_ said...: Biba Golic is hot.

Like, SUPER hot.; July 9, 2008 at 11:57 PM
Roscoe said...: While affixing labels to 3-ring binder dividers, I read that macro as Target Quid, Flash(something).. and assumed it was an emote..

and thought.. huh.. You've made a friend.. or an epic enemy... and that's an odd emote to add..

then I re-read it. now I'm dissapointed.; July 10, 2008 at 8:12 AM
_J_ said...: Trying to explain port numbers to people who do not understand network heirarchy is an interesting process.; July 10, 2008 at 11:24 AM
_J_ said...: In WoTLK Druids will finally have not functionally useless rez ability.; July 10, 2008 at 4:08 PM
MA17 said...: Lich is a great word. The OED says it's a corpse [duh], but that it referred to the body in general [as did corpse, incidently]. The most interesting thing about lich is that it could also be used to refer to appearance and form, and is probably the origin of the word 'like' [similar]. Awesome.; July 11, 2008 at 4:03 AM
Roscoe said...: Isn't the OED like the ancient tome in Renatta's class?

Wouldn't it stand to reason, then, that the OED could likely be used to turn one INTO a lich?

... also? This gives me a wonderful image of the undead Valley Girl.; July 11, 2008 at 7:53 AM
_J_ said...: Man, what line of etymological research doesn't end with "of or referring to corpses".; July 11, 2008 at 9:54 AM
_J_ said...: I think Freud would be a lot more compelling to people if instead of saying that everything is a penis or vagina he had said everything was a tootsie roll...or vagina.

Tootsie rolls are awesome.; July 11, 2008 at 1:26 PM
Roscoe said...: DKR or Heckboy 2 - Flapjack Lust tonight/this weekend?; July 11, 2008 at 2:31 PM
Unknown said...: What is dkr?; July 11, 2008 at 2:58 PM
Roscoe said...: excuse me. Dark Knight.

new Batman. I'm bored-frustrated-tired at work, and it's screwing with me memory; July 11, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Unknown said...: That isn't out yet, doesn't come out till next week.; July 11, 2008 at 3:32 PM
_J_ said...: Today my job regressed to doing little more than drawing pictures of our network heirarchy and banging my head on my desk.

The internet is a cloud. The Cable Modem is a square. The Firewall is a rectangle.

bang. bang. bang.; July 11, 2008 at 3:39 PM
Roscoe said...: you know.. that explains a LOT about your postings today.; July 11, 2008 at 4:07 PM
_J_ said...: I think I finally managed to piss off our server guy.

Me: MAKE IT WORK!
Him: NO, FUCK YOU!
Me: Mmm..lead...NOM NOM NOM
Him: Pinwheel!

I want to go home.; July 11, 2008 at 4:36 PM
_J_ said...: Warhammer Online start chopping:

"in order for the game to be ready for launch, certain sacrifices had to be made, including nixing four of the six staring cities in favor of one for each faction, and getting rid of four of the classes that they just couldn't make work."

WoW killer, indeed.; July 11, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Caleb said...: So, J, at this point we have 9 days until it has been a year since we've seen each other. Does that thought bring to you a sadness similar to the one which I feel?; July 12, 2008 at 1:27 AM

Everyone Is a Sith

Saturday, July 12, 2008

G8 [chat]

84 comments:

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