Skyline

I was looking out the window and thought "that's an interesting looking sky out there". And then I eventually went out and photographed it.

Nice cloud effects going on...


And on the other side of the hill it's already in darkness (the camera showed a brighter blue in the sky than what it photographed).


Other pictures can be seen in the Skyline album.

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If only it was that "Portal"

Next up on the crappy movie viewing: The Entrance! No... The Opening! No, no... The Hole! That's it, it's a Hole.

The movie starts with us being introduced to a bunch of characters... no, hang on, I lie. The movie starts with a bunch of characters, who we are not introduced to, who go around discussing some thing like we are supposed to already know who they are and what they are talking about. Then the leads come across a painting of a giant fingerprint and due to it being so amazing, they start seeing scary ghost children. There's no hope for them then.

This movie really is a complete nothing. As in nothing happens that marks it out in any way as original piece of horror fiction. I was reminded of The Grudge and The Ring, in that even the American versions were much better than this, but the movie boils down to 'see bad thing and die'. Yeah, as I said, nothing original of note.

Actor wise we have Michael Madsen (why?) and Nicholas Brandon (briefly). Leading is Jenna Zablocki and Michael Muhney. Never heard of either of them, but it looks like he's got a big career. Not sure why he was in this either then, as he mainly seems to be hired due to his ability to stare in a slack-jaw manner. [Were they all friends of the director or something?]

Not a good movie, not even a watchable bad movie. A blah movie, and best forgotten.

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Sheer Craziness!

And I'm a part of it!

I've a big fan of Order of the Stick. Being D&D-based comic, while self-aware character PCs, and more than a large dose of humour, with good story telling, it's a great read, and free on-line.

Mostly...

Not every comic in the main storyline is online, some you can only get if you get the collected books.

And then there are the stories you can only get in print-only form, being the PCs origin, the bad guys origin, and the collection of other OotS comics (including a fantastically funny take on the 3.5-ish OotS vs the new 4ed OotS).

However...

Some of the books are no longer in print. They are just too popular. And so, Rich Burlew has started a Kickstart project to get monies to get them back into print. Well, just one, and if the money came in, more could be put into print.

Pledgers broke through the lower limits of the costs within... the first day, I think... no, wait, it took two days. And now, about 9 days into it... originally Rich asked for $57k... currently rocking (at time of writing) $270k UPDATE: Over $300K!

This is the biggest comic-based Kickstarter project ever. And is in the top 10? 15? of all time.

And, as I said, I'm a part of it. Already have the books, but there is stuff there for those people as well. (And while I'm incredibly tempted to get a complete signed set, fortunately other people already took those options so I can't spend that large amount money.)

I'm Kickstarting Order of the Stick, won't you?

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The Third Jihad

So this is a thing that is happening. The New York Police are showing The Third Jihad to new officers to scare them in the ways of Muslim. Time for me to see it then.

In this movie, we see the push of Muslim leaders of radical Islam to strike out violently and with any and all means. Within 50 years, Muslims will be in the White House. They even have evidence of a manifesto. Is radical Islam a problem? Yes. Is it to the scale implied by the movie? Not yet.

And it may not be. But it won't be going away by itself. This does show that radicals are far more active than most of us, and doing is going to trump not doing every time. And if the rest of us just sit here... then yeah, they are going to take the world. [I don't know what the tipping point will be, but that is definitely an 'if', not a 'when'.]

Really, watching this, you can see why Christians have Fatwah Envy. According to this movie, the Muslims push on anything that offends them, and society steps back saying 'sorry'. Christianity wishes it could do that so freely. And if Muslims rise to power, we'll see how quickly they stick to the 'there is no separation of church and state' line they so often quote.

But, you think the idea of Sharia Law taking over can't happen here? It's already been practiced, not with the force of law, but with the force of culture. In that case, the woman got away, but in how many cases have they not?

I don't see radical Muslims being as potent as this movie would have us believe, but radical ideology of any kind is very powerful. And a powerful enough idea will change the world while the rest of us dither.

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One Two Three vs 1 2 3

One Two Three is a movie about some bad guys taking a train carriage hostage. It becomes Garder vs Blue, but they play it smart, the characters don't take risks, and intelligence and strength of personality wins the day.

1 2 3 is a slick movie in which John Travolta rants on about different things, while Denzel Washington plays someone that has his role in the movie shifted about so he can be the hero even though it makes no sense.

Twenty-five years separates the two movies, and a lot of difference of how movies are made. One Two Three is about story and characters. 1 2 3 is about actors and fast cuts to try for a sense of excitement. There's a lot of similarities between the two movies, and you can tell where the second references the first. But there are a lot of differences in style and the motivation of the plot. As you might be able to guess, One Two Three is simply a lot better.

Hollywood has remade a fair few films. Just stop, Hollywood. Just stop.

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Got the wrong message

I was sent (via mass email style from someone I know) a story that is supposed to bless me with god or something. It's about a boy who has potato chips and goes out to have lunch with god.

[Interestingly, some versions have him meet an old woman, some an old man. Yet for the man the smile is still described as 'pretty'. Make of that what you will.]

He meets with an old man, shares his meal with him and think he's met god. As had the old man.

The take away message is: "Have lunch with God........bring chips." Um, what?

Actually, the take away message is given in the paragraph before that: "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a
life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Embrace all equally!"

That message is actually nice, and speaks to people being with people, making a connection, and how touching it can be.

So why bring religion into it? Why not just have the boy going to the park and having lunch with someone, making them smile, without thinking they are god? Is that impossible?

You don't need religion as a reason to get together. But that message never seems to be the one communicated...

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Congratulations America, you won

The internet has now closed down, thanks to you.

So SOPA/PIPA got cancelled. And in retaliation (it's hard not to read it as causation, which is does indeed look to be), Megaupload got tackled by the Feds and shut down. (More or less.)

And recently, FileServe decided to kill all its links and kick users off. Or maybe not. Or maybe just the US people. Certainly something happened to it that pissed off a lot of people. (My account is still there, didn't have any files uploaded to it.) Whether this was all due to FS being scared or preemptively cleaning house so it can't disclose people/data to the government, who knows, and it doesn't matter.

Because, you know what... US, you win. Thanks guys. Due to "Big Entertainment"(tm), file hosts are running scared, and people who legitimately use and rely on that form of distribution to get their creations/business out there have been totally screwed. Just because the entertainment industry can't stand the idea that someone might download a copy of [insert whatever crappy movie title you like here for your own amusement]. Yes, there is a piracy problem, but this isn't the way to address it. SOPA/PIPA wasn't. ACTA isn't. Shutting down file hosts won't be.

But they think it is, and now they have won. So, congratulations. Money has brought the win again.

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