Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
The shows and movies I like (or don’t).
Nifty randomness of the day: seeing Neil Gaiman quote and promote Jason Webley (by way of someone posting the video to Eleven Saints).
Nifty plan for the afternoon: three movies have been rented (Clerks 2, Scoop, and Slither), much warm finger food has been purchased, and the couch has been covered with an electric blanket so we’ve got a warm place to sit as we spend a quiet evening at home.
This week in my History 101 class (covering everything up to 1500), we’re looking at Ghengis Khan, Kublai Khan, and the Mongols. The professor spent a few minutes talking about the Mongol’s invasion techniques, which were simple but could be fairly ruthless: if armies surrendered they’d be treated fairly well; if they fought, they’d often be razed to the ground and completely destroyed. After summarizing this, he commented, “really, they were pretty close to the Borg.”
I chuckled, and there was a moment of quiet while he took a sip of his tea. Then one of the girls in the class slightly timidly asked, “…what’s ‘the borg’?”
Sigh. I’m getting old.
Things have been a bit quiet around here lately. Sorry ’bout that (since I know you’re all heartbroken over this turn of events). While I’m not at liberty to divulge details (or even broad hints, for that matter), suffice it to say that the past few weeks have been…stressful. However, it looks like the universe has decided to take a break from throwing curveballs, and I, for one, welcome our new stress free overlords look forward to returning to the usual day-to-day concerns.
Prairie’s birthday was this past Friday, and we had a very pleasant day of relaxing at home, with one short jaunt out to see Flushed Away, which was hilarious and well worth seeing. Here at home, we watched Monster House, which was also extremely good (and wonderfully, surprisingly creepy at times), opened presents, and had a very good strawberry cream birthday cake (with chocolate covered strawberries on top, even). A few pictures have been uploaded.
Thanks to the answers to one of my last posts, and with many thanks to Jer‘s discount code, I’ve created an account with Dreamhost and will be moving my sites over that way…hrm. As soon as I can, actually, given that I’ve got this next month to do it. Oh, for the days of copious free time (whenever those days were, I think it’s been a few years since I had more than one or two such days in a row). Update: After having lain fallow for the past year or so, serving only to redirect to this address, djwudi.com is now up and running as a photography gallery. One domain down, two to go…
And I think that about brings us up to date. School continues, as does work, without much of any great note on either of those fronts. Prairie and I are continuing to work on nailing down the details for a trip to Alaska right around (technically just after) Christmas, and we’re also doing what we can to assist a friend in planning their move to the fair town of Seattle.
So, there we are. Some small amount of actual content. It had to happen at some point, right? ;)
“Alive Alone” by Chemical Brothers, The from the album Exit Planet Dust (1995, 5:16).
Shows that Prairie and I (either together or individually) plan on doing our best to keep up with this season (though, admittedly, our schedules will be busy enough that it may occasionally be difficult):
Desperate Housewives (ABC): I missed the first year of broadcast (though Prairie often gleefully filled me in on some of the more outrageous moments over IM sessions before she and I moved in together) and had to catch up via DVD before season two started. Season two hooked me, and we thoroughly enjoy watching the weekly over-the-top shenanigans on Wisteria Lane (and I get to tease Prairie about being the perfect [i.e., non-psychotic] mix of Susan and Bree).
Mondays:
Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi): I’ve babbled about it often enough that this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Still hands-down the best show around (admittedly, I pull from a very small pool, but it’s really good). Prairie and I are just about done watching Season Two on DVD (I’d already seen it via BitTorrent while it was broadcast, she waited for the DVDs to come out), and now I’m BitTorrenting Season Three as it appears (I know, I could get them legally via iTunes, but…[sigh]…the quality still just isn’t quite there). The season premiere? Oh, so very good.
So that’s the TV plan for the next few months. A lot more than I used to do, and all subject to being preempted by school, work, or other major life events…but it’s nice to have some downtime every so often.
“An American in Paris” by San Francisco Symphony Orchestra (Seiji Ozawa) from the album Panorama: George Gershwin (1977, 18:01).
I’ve not read either of Chris Paolini‘s young-adult fantasy books, Eragon or Eldest (presumably there will be a third at some point, as these are billed as being part of the ‘Inheritance Trilogy’), but I saw a trailer for a movie adaptation of the first book, to be released this Christmas season.
A couple things caught my eye in this trailer: firstly, both Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich star. So far, we’re off to a good start.
The third, though, was a decidedly unusual (in my experience) take on dragon’s wings. In general, dragon wings are presented as structurally similar to a bat’s wings: a thin flesh webbing over a skeletal framework. If there’s any variation at all, its rarely in the wings themselves, but rather in the physiology of the beast itself, with the two most popular variations being either a six-limbed creature (forelegs, rear legs, and wings as a separate set of limbs, generally just behind the forelimbs) or a more bat-like four limbed creature (with the forward set of limbs doubling as both forelegs and wings).
| Six-limbed dragon | Four-limbed dragon |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Personally, I’ve always been partial to the four-limbed variety as to my mind, even though we’re dealing with a fantastical creature, it feels more “accurate” for the universe we live in: I can’t think of any naturally occuring six-legged creatures outside of the insect realm; all mammals or reptiles I know of are zero-, two-, or four-limbed (and while it’s been years since I’ve had any sort of biology, I believe there is evidence that all such creatures are genetically four-limbed, and it’s just a matter of whether any of the limbs have evolved into not developing, as with snakes).
(As an aside — one of the strongest disappointments I had with the last Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was the lack of any screentime for the Chinese Dragon during the first challenge in the TriWizard Tournament. While only Harry’s dragon got any ‘hero’ time, we at least saw the miniature versions of all the others, however they were all fairly traditional dragons. I was really looking forward to even a glimpse of a Chinese style dragon, but was sadly denied. Pity, that.)
The upcoming Eragon, while using the more common six-limbed physiology, uses wings of a type I’ve not seen before. Rather than the bat-wing style, they look very much like bird’s wings, complete with feather-like patterning…however, they still appear to be skinned, not feathered.
Under the cut are a few screengrabs I took from the trailer that illustrate the wing style:
Two quick thoughts on the season premiere of The Amazing Race (which I may not watch any more of, but we figured we should at least watch the first one since they started off here in Seattle):
(That said…I’m not honestly sure that I’d know the best way to get to I-5 from Gas Works off the top of my head, and I live here in Seattle. Don’t drive much, sure, but I do live here.)
Did anyone else notice that with the two eliminations in the first show, they managed to eliminate all the Middle Eastern countries right off the bat? The Muslim friends were the first to go, then the Indian couple. And you all thought Survivor was racist!
“Flexible/Just Can’t Get Enough (Hot S)” by Depeche Mode from the album Fifth Strike, The (1990, 6:27).
Scifi.com has started posting the new short ‘webisodes’ leading up to the Battlestar Galactica season three premiere! Looks like there will be ten of them, and at about five minutes each, that’s enough for one full episode once they’re all taken together. Of course, they take place between seasons two and three, so if you haven’t seen season two yet, they’ll be chock-full of spoilers. Beware!
“Cabin Fever” by Muppet Treasure Island from the album Muppet Treasure Island (1996, 2:18).
If anyone else in the world were to stand in front of a few hundred thousand people and ask them to throw money at them — and not just a little money, but nothing smaller than a ten, fifties are preferred — they’d probably get very soundly beaten. If you happen to be named George Lucas, though, you can get away with it again and again and again…
Also today… a follow-up on something we’ve been telling you to expect for quite while now. 2007, as you may well be aware, is the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars‘ debut in theaters. You’d have to be stupid not to know that Lucasfilm is going to have big DVD release plans with which to celebrate the anniversary, and we’ve been telling you that was the case for many months now. Indeed, during our last visit to the Ranch for the DVD release of Episode III, producer Rick McCallum confirmed that a box set of all six films was going to happen eventually, and animation director Rob Coleman even let it slip that the puppet Yoda from Episode I had already been replaced with a new CG Yoda to match Episodes II & III for the “future” release. T-Bone over at Star Wars Universe recently speculated about this box set, and we’ve been quietly checking in with our industry sources on it as well. Well, we’ve confirmed it: There IS a big, ultimate, 6-film Star Wars anniversary DVD box set planned for 2007. There will be more changes to the films, and there will be LOTS of new, never-before-seen special features – all the good stuff that was held back by Lucasfilm from the original Trilogy DVD release a few years ago. Think deleted scenes and more. We don’t know if good, genuinely-REMASTERED versions of the original theatrical editions of the films will be included or not (though how you could call the set “ultimate” without them, we don’t know). We don’t expect high-definition versions yet, as those formats are just too new. We don’t have ANY other details for you yet, so please don’t ask. But as you consider whether or not to purchase the “limited edition” DVDs due on 9/12… we thought you should know that more IS absolutely on the way next year. ‘Nuff said for now.
(via Scam City)
“Coin-Operated Boy” by The Dresden Dolls from the album The Dresden Dolls (2004, 4:46).
This could be interesting (more so on the off chance that they actually film on location), if true:
Charlize Theron is attached to star in “Battle in Seattle”, reports Production Weekly. Theron’s boyfriend, Stuart Townsend, wrote the film and will be making his directorial debut.
Set in 1999, during the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, an eclectic group of demonstrators, including environmental activists, doctors, anarchists, attorneys, eco-terrorists and just plain folks, brings the city to a state of near-chaos, and chases the WTO straight out of town.
(via 
seattle)
“The Graveyard” by Webley, Jason from the album Counterpoint (2002, 6:38).
Finally…another entry in the Vegas weekend! I just keep getting further behind…
Update: Xebeth reminded me that I’d forgotten a key part of the evening — Bite, the topless vampire show! The end of the post has been updated to correct this grievous oversight. Believe me, the erotic rock angels should not be forgotten!