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Messages - Skar

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46
Movies and TV / Re: Castle
« on: April 02, 2009, 05:27:56 PM »
Quote from: Fellfrosch on April 02, 2009, 06:49:13 AM
Trust me, ... WHILE WATCHING IT.
Whew.
Quote
Though this reminds me, in a roundabout way, that I just bought a Conan board game and I keep meaning to call you to set up a game night. As a fellow Robert E. Howard fan I think you'd love it.
Oh, that sounds entirely too awesome. Please do call me.

47
Movies and TV / Re: Castle
« on: April 02, 2009, 06:30:56 AM »
Quote from: Fellfrosch on April 02, 2009, 12:07:29 AM
I'm actually watching this right now, Skar. Awesome.

Crap.  I think that means I spoilered you.  I am sincerely sorry.  I'm usually so far behind on these things that I've never had to worry about spoilage.  I didn't even think this time.  But that's no excuse. Again, I'm really sorry.

(writes "Don't spoil shows for people, dummy" on an index card then staples it to his left eyebrow like an eyepatch, text inward)

48
Movies and TV / Re: Castle
« on: April 01, 2009, 11:43:19 PM »
Just saw the latest episode.  I liked it still.  Didn't wow me but didn't squander any more potential.

I must say, though, that the writers have a tendency to be a little lazy.  For example.  There is no way in hell you could carry even a much bigger rug than the one they find the body in two blocks without noticing that it had a lumpy 180 pound 'thing' in it that feels like nothing more than a human body.  Give me a frackin' break.

And I'm sorry, but I just didn't buy that the wife would confess because the detective laid out a plausible sequence of events that implicated her, just like the last several perps, one per show.

PLEASE give us just one perp who says, "&*^# you.  I want a lawyer," and clams up.

Huh, I find that I may not be enjoying these shows as much as I think.  I'll still watch the next one though.

49
Books / Re: Robert Heinlien and the rest of the so-called 4 greats!!
« on: March 27, 2009, 05:38:12 PM »
Where does that list of 4 greats come from?


50
Movies and TV / MOVED: Robert Heinlien and the rest of the so-called 4 greats!!
« on: March 27, 2009, 05:37:11 PM »
This topic has been moved to Books.

http://www.timewastersguide.com/forum/index.php?topic=6582.0

51
Everything Else / Re: In Utah for a couple weeks
« on: March 27, 2009, 05:33:36 PM »
We'll be having dinner or lunch together at some TBD time and place.  Right...?

52
Movies and TV / Re: Castle
« on: March 25, 2009, 07:44:43 PM »
It did feel like the "writer angle" didn't have much to do with the plot.  Which makes it just another police show which happens to have a writer tagging along for no real compelling reason. 

Castle is definitely losing his "bad boy" cred.  All we see of his personal life is him being a great dad with every indication that he has always been such.  Refreshing to see in TV land but at odds with the billing of the show and it hasn't added much.  It's gone from interesting to simply "pleasant to watch."

However, I enjoyed it and will definitely watch the next. It still has possibilities.  I too am looking forward to an overarching plot.



53
Site News / Re: exciting stuff
« on: March 23, 2009, 09:44:15 PM »
OOOOOOH! Where?  I want to seeeeee.

54
Writing Group / Re: Modern Language in Fantasy?
« on: March 20, 2009, 11:17:11 PM »
I have found that most people who say it doesn't fit the story simply don't want to hear the F-word in their heads and use its supposed anachronism as a convenient reason that doesn't imply that they're prudes.

I personally have nothing against prudes and think that more of them should own up and be proud of their prudishness.  The world needs more prudes and more people who will stand up and be counted for their beliefs.  Two for the price of one on this issue.

55
Writing Group / Re: Modern Language in Fantasy?
« on: March 20, 2009, 08:41:51 PM »
Modern language in Fantasy only bothers me when it's anachronistic either physically (Ookla's 'rockstar example) or culturally (pop culture phrases mostly).

I read most fantasy as though it were, essentially, a translation anyway.  English words being used for the actual words of same or similar meaning.

Physically anachronistic words bother me less than culturally anachronistic ones, mostly because I gloss over them more easily.
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Which brings up an interesting question.  There has always been 'pop-culture' and I'm willing to bet that included pop-culture phrasing.  For example, at the court of Louis 14th I'm sure there were phrases in use that were very trendy with a lot of immediately contextual meaning.  Those phrases, in the literature of the time had a very different meaning to contemporaries than they carry for us moderns.  We don't 'get' them at all.

So, to be honest, in any fantasy world there would also be 'pop-culture.'  Should that be expressed by modern pop-culturalisms?  Should the author go to the trouble of creating a pop-culture from which to draw the trendy phrases his young socialites use? Or should the author just let all that go and write clean prose for every character?

56
Brandon Sanderson / Re: Official Fan Art Thread **Don't create new threads**
« on: March 13, 2009, 10:58:13 PM »
Nicely done MKing.  I actually quite like Vin's "stiff" posture.  Since she is not actually "flying" like Superman but rather channeling straight lines of force on which she pushes and pulls like a pole-vaulter or someone on stilts it makes a lot of sense to me that she'd maintain a pretty stiff posture much of the time, for control's sake.

I like!

57
Movies and TV / Re: Castle
« on: March 13, 2009, 05:53:45 PM »
I watched it.  I enjoyed it.  I hope it goes somewhere interesting.  They exhausted the "copycat killer copying the author's books" schtick in the first episode.  But they did set up for ways in which the author can actually contribute to invesatigations.  I have high hopes.

58
Everything Else / Re: Fairness Doctrine
« on: February 19, 2009, 10:30:46 PM »
It'll take more than a common-sense no brainer like saying no to the "fairness doctrine" to make up for the other things President Obama is doing in my book.

But it is a hopeful indicator that he won't go whole hog left like he promised in his campaign.

59
Everything Else / Re: Fairness Doctrine
« on: February 19, 2009, 06:05:44 AM »
Quote
which is a rather different thing
I concede that on the face of it, it looks like a different thing.  But I would like to suggest that when it falls to a single organ, the government, to decide what is and is not 'controversial' as well as what is and is not an 'opposing' viewpoint, it's not different at all. Imagine the FCC declaring abortion a 'controversial' issue (it is) and that the 'opposing' viewpoints consist entirely of whether  a fetus should or should not be aborted as late as the third trimester. It's an abuse of power that was directly foreseen by the founding fathers and guarded against.

Quote
Opposing viewpoints on issues are already widely and freely available, just not necessarily in the exact same news sources (though they often are).
Which is why any pushing of the 'Fairness Doctrine' looks to me like nothing more than an attempt to squash opposing viewpoints while striving to give the opposite impression to the gullible.

60
Everything Else / Fairness Doctrine
« on: February 19, 2009, 12:30:07 AM »
Fairness Doctrine

I was afraid that President Obama would cave to the other Dems on this issue, but apparently he's standing firm.  Good for him.  What really blows me away is that it gets debated at all.

What part of "Use the government to dictate what the people and the press can and cannot say." sounds like a good idea to these people?

Is there a reasonable argument for the fairness doctrine that I'm missing?

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