Friday, November 26, 2004
Sweet. I'd heard of this, and thought it was a scam. But, it seems it is legit. So, if you want a free desktop pc, sign up here: http://www.FreeDesktopPC.com/?r=12380912. Please use my link, as my getting it will be dependent on you signing up for one of their offers. Pretty nifty deal. If you want to sign up at http://www.freeipod.com and do sign up for an offer with my link, I think I could make it up to you and scratch your back if you scratch mine. Anyhoo, please do!
Monday, November 22, 2004
Ahh, late-night conversations with roommates instead of sleeping. Good times. Among the topics of discussion tonight:
What would life be like if we lived two hundered years ago? How awful would it be not having even the basic sanitation and sewer systems we have now? Time travel would be cool, but that would be unbearable - I don't know what I would do. And what would I do without the calling of computers and such? I'm sure techies like me existed back in the day. What would I do two hundred years ago? Andrew proposed "Alden the cartographer." Hehe. Then I could put sea monsters right off the French coast, just waiting to gobble up all those disgusting French folks. (Yay for randomly-inserted excuse for French-bashing.)
How have people changed as a result of the increase in literacy? From an oral culture, to a manuscript culture, to a printing culture, to an internet culture? What are the roles of message-boards, instant messaging and blogs? No longer are people only writing the most important things. Indeed, written words have gotten much more mundane (ie: this site). The publisher could soon be obsolete - especially once publishing costs become negligible. Their role as filters-of-shit will be taken over by newsgroups and more free, open-source type people.
What else have I been up to this past week? Well, I have finally found a good mix of rock/classical music. First it was Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but that wasn't as good and didn't lead anywhere. Then it was rekindled when Chad introduced me to Nightwish, and continued when Amazon recommended Rhapsody, and now Luca Turilli. Hehe, some of it reminds me of Dungeons & Dragons type stuff, a bunch of the songs have some guy in a deep voice talk about heros vanquishing their foes and evil and whatnot. What I'd expect to hear in a video game. All the more awesome.
I also finally started reading CrossGen comics. CrossGen is a new-commer to the comics business. Started with a guy wanting to make a completely coherent universe. Marvel (Spiderman and X-Men) and DC (Batman and Superman) make up the the two biggest companies in the industry and had had some serious continuity problems. This resulted in DC destroying their universe and starting anew (you can read about hyper-time here. Interstingly enough, the inventor of hyper-time is one of the bigwigs over at CrossGen). All their titles are meant to be seperate stories, so you don't have to buy all the titles to know about your favorite character, as the Marvel and DC loved doing to us. Certainly makes it a lot easier. On with the review! So far, after two issues of their first four titles, things are looking pretty cool. The stories definately progress much slower than Marvel's (I haven't read any DC, and the only Marvel I've read are Exiles and Age of Appocalyse story-arcs, so bare with me). Not much has happened, or at least it doesn't seem like much. The story in Scion seems to have made decent-speed progress, but it's definately not as fast as something-happening-every-issue Marvel. These stories are going to be very drawn out if they keep this pace. The artwork doesn't feel as good as Marvel's. It just isn't as soft, and very (too?) detailed. Not to mention they do some really weird (all the titles do, despite different pencilers) things with the male chest. They draw the pecs smaller and high-up, then draw muscle-laden ribs (baby-back style). This is really weird and doesn't seem anatomically correct at all. Although Marvel's Exiles art in recent issues has been disappointing too, it still has the Marvel feel which I like. Some of the neet little tie-ins between titles, like how the main characters get their sigils (sigils grant the super-powers) is pretty cool. I look forward to seeing how else they relate them. The few fight-scenes they've had have been short - partially because they only have a few people fighting, but that's more weird than anything else. I think they can do as good a job developing characters as Marvel has, though (it seems) there will be less of this done through in-battle-banter. I really liked when Exiles had an issue devoted to a character's background, but it seems that would not be too much of a change for the CrossGen titles. Crossgen is much more about the individual characters, I think I will get to know them really well - especially since they claim they will not be black-and-white heroes. I'm sure I'll keep you all updated on the situation.
Happy pre-Turkey-day shopping!
"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill." - CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed"
PS. Man, Nwabudike is such a bad-ass name. It just rings of awesomeness, I'm so jealous.
What would life be like if we lived two hundered years ago? How awful would it be not having even the basic sanitation and sewer systems we have now? Time travel would be cool, but that would be unbearable - I don't know what I would do. And what would I do without the calling of computers and such? I'm sure techies like me existed back in the day. What would I do two hundred years ago? Andrew proposed "Alden the cartographer." Hehe. Then I could put sea monsters right off the French coast, just waiting to gobble up all those disgusting French folks. (Yay for randomly-inserted excuse for French-bashing.)
How have people changed as a result of the increase in literacy? From an oral culture, to a manuscript culture, to a printing culture, to an internet culture? What are the roles of message-boards, instant messaging and blogs? No longer are people only writing the most important things. Indeed, written words have gotten much more mundane (ie: this site). The publisher could soon be obsolete - especially once publishing costs become negligible. Their role as filters-of-shit will be taken over by newsgroups and more free, open-source type people.
What else have I been up to this past week? Well, I have finally found a good mix of rock/classical music. First it was Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but that wasn't as good and didn't lead anywhere. Then it was rekindled when Chad introduced me to Nightwish, and continued when Amazon recommended Rhapsody, and now Luca Turilli. Hehe, some of it reminds me of Dungeons & Dragons type stuff, a bunch of the songs have some guy in a deep voice talk about heros vanquishing their foes and evil and whatnot. What I'd expect to hear in a video game. All the more awesome.
I also finally started reading CrossGen comics. CrossGen is a new-commer to the comics business. Started with a guy wanting to make a completely coherent universe. Marvel (Spiderman and X-Men) and DC (Batman and Superman) make up the the two biggest companies in the industry and had had some serious continuity problems. This resulted in DC destroying their universe and starting anew (you can read about hyper-time here. Interstingly enough, the inventor of hyper-time is one of the bigwigs over at CrossGen). All their titles are meant to be seperate stories, so you don't have to buy all the titles to know about your favorite character, as the Marvel and DC loved doing to us. Certainly makes it a lot easier. On with the review! So far, after two issues of their first four titles, things are looking pretty cool. The stories definately progress much slower than Marvel's (I haven't read any DC, and the only Marvel I've read are Exiles and Age of Appocalyse story-arcs, so bare with me). Not much has happened, or at least it doesn't seem like much. The story in Scion seems to have made decent-speed progress, but it's definately not as fast as something-happening-every-issue Marvel. These stories are going to be very drawn out if they keep this pace. The artwork doesn't feel as good as Marvel's. It just isn't as soft, and very (too?) detailed. Not to mention they do some really weird (all the titles do, despite different pencilers) things with the male chest. They draw the pecs smaller and high-up, then draw muscle-laden ribs (baby-back style). This is really weird and doesn't seem anatomically correct at all. Although Marvel's Exiles art in recent issues has been disappointing too, it still has the Marvel feel which I like. Some of the neet little tie-ins between titles, like how the main characters get their sigils (sigils grant the super-powers) is pretty cool. I look forward to seeing how else they relate them. The few fight-scenes they've had have been short - partially because they only have a few people fighting, but that's more weird than anything else. I think they can do as good a job developing characters as Marvel has, though (it seems) there will be less of this done through in-battle-banter. I really liked when Exiles had an issue devoted to a character's background, but it seems that would not be too much of a change for the CrossGen titles. Crossgen is much more about the individual characters, I think I will get to know them really well - especially since they claim they will not be black-and-white heroes. I'm sure I'll keep you all updated on the situation.
Happy pre-Turkey-day shopping!
"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill." - CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed"
PS. Man, Nwabudike is such a bad-ass name. It just rings of awesomeness, I'm so jealous.
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