Some people here just love to have fun, myself included. Don't take anything too hard. We're just playin' around :)
This thread is getting far more use than I expected. I've actually had some thoughts I'd like to share in a rather philosophical vein, but I haven't had time to put them into words yet. It's fun to see what this thread is actually being used for.
Heard on the radio today that Curiosity found riverbed gravel. I thought that was pretty stinking cool--signs of plentiful water in the eons past.
As Warbler says, you can swing your arm all you want as long as you don't hit someone else. Abortion, to me, hits the unborn child in the face. Your free will should not extend so far as to reduce that of someone else's.
now with linx!see furst poast.
*Ender pretends he didn't read that last post*
iff anywun needz to no how to mak prefect otemeal read the furst poast.
I come to this thread just for laughs!
DuracellEnergizer said:
I say we need a "Nude Photos of Whoopie Goldberg Threat" thread.
Fixed. In this case, were patmat to start it, it would be accurate. He could force us to do anything...ANYTHING!
The thread where we can argue about things that are truly indefinable, then ultimately give up. I think our morality discussion could be carried on here.
Where's my welcome?
These are pretty impressive. I'm impressed with how you've been able to get some of these; some are very complex.
Inspiring! Obviously incomplete (as you noted in the description), but what you've done continues to amaze me! I love that Mace goes alone and that Palpatine's face will be revealed! You are a man of some serious talent!
Excited! As was said in the other thread, regardless of how great they are, they certainly are an important part of Star Wars history and deserve preservation. I especially enjoy the bizarre bits of the 97 ANH, such as the strange looking Jabba and Greedo's even lamer first shot (they're all lame, but it looked a little better in 04). Plus I hear the color are very nice in the 97 SE. Best of luck :)
We await your clip with great anticipation :)
STENDEC, I'm glad to hear about your project and look forward to its completion. I've been hoping for a nice NTSC version of the 97 SE. I've got a couple of other versions, but it'd be nice to have a higher quality version for this American :) Good luck.
I really enjoy the opening to this new version of your experimental edit. I recommend it to anyone. Some of the other changes are quite interesting as well. This is a fantastic edit, and though I know daneditor plans on doing more to it as sources improve, as it stands now, it's a pretty fun take on ROTJ.
Harmy, might I suggest that you announce your desire in the title of the thread? If you state there that all mistakes or misses be sent via PM in the title, more people might notice. I know a lot of people, especially newer folks, simply go to the last page to read, and probably miss a lot of announcements on the way.
TV's Frink said:
A hat that won't pick up the check.
ALOL
An alternate ending to Calvin & Hobbes (not truly by Bill Watterson).
It's funny, but...then again, it's too close to reality to be funny.
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-how-to-cook-oatmeal-the-right-way/
Left is to hot.midel to cold.the last is juuuuuuusssst rite!
Finished Children of the Mind, the last book in this part of the series. Yes, other stories exist in the Enderverse, but this is the last to follow the escapades of Ender the Xenocide (that pejorative title will come in useful soon in my near one-sided conversation). This book is the slowest of all four. Not that it's a bad thing. The first two thirds were most interesting, and deal with what makes a person a person. Card's ongoing efforts to theorize LDS doctrine in the framework of science fiction continues to be fascinating.
MOLD, TOXINS, AND OTHER SPOILERS ;)
Ender is split into three persons. Yes, three. Actually, that happened at the last book, but is really explored here. The idea of a single basic entity, what is essentially the basic soul that guides each life form, through a bizarre accident in supralight travel, now controls the original Ender, plus his self-concept projected into young bodies identical to his evil brother and altruistic sister. His aiua (the soul) cannot continue to control three bodies, and ultimately lets go of the elderly Ender and the noble sister, thus completing the formerly evil incarnation of the brother and making him again a complete combination of good mastering the evil side, as the original Ender was. What happens to the other bodies? Well, the elder Ender endures no longer. The young sister instead adopts a different aiua, that of Jane, the computer entity, now filling such vast expanses that she can use computer processors, shares space with the intelligent trees of Lusitania, and occupies a human body which provides her with the greatest joy. Sound weird? It is. But I enjoyed it.
The theme of the dangers of xenocide continued. Some parts were fascinating, some dull, some unbelievable. Overall, I still liked it, again from the perspective of an older adult (actually, this is the book I remembered the least about from my last reading, and I wonder if I never completed it all those years ago--I thought I did but...). In the end, there were several questions left unanswered, particularly the nature of a planet of sentient creatures who communicate via genetic manipulation and who altered Lusitania and various other worlds in such a manner that it nearly killed the inhabitants and resulted in the truly bizarre fauna/flora (that slash means not that there is some of each, but that all the organisms can actually qualify at one point or another as either). The new incarnation of Peter, no longer merely occupied with Ender's baser nature, has a promising future ahead of him, include the potential recovery of Ender's memories and thus perhaps continuing as Ender. The relationship with the world of Lusitania and its own colonies might ease vs. the Starways' Congress is yet to be fully answered. But for years, this was supposed to be the last book. In the afterward, OSC admitted that he is planning on answering these questions and weaving the Shadow series back into the Ender line. I'm not sure how this will happen, but we'll see.
NO MORE SPOILERS
So with that, I return to the Shadow series following Bean, living in normal time, not traveling for years at near light speeds to preserve his youth, living on earth and the future of humanity. As I look back, I feel more forgiving of Xenocide at this point, and really did enjoy the moral dilemmas, in spite of a few plot nitpicks. Children of the Mind was interesting in its own way, and I look forward to reading the more earthbound part of the universe.
OKAY, MORE SPOILERS
A final thought, again preferring Ender over Bean. Ender did something terrible--he destroyed an entire sentient species. He bore guilt for it for the remainder of his life. It changed him, and in a more pacifist way, he again changed the universe. He gives up his identity as Ender, because he's become known as Ender the Xenocide. But all his crimes were done without knowing what he was doing.
And then there's Bean. Bean was nearly as culpable in the horrible act that Ender was. Bean commanded a sizeable portion of Ender's ships. Bean was the backup if Ender failed. Bean gave Ender the final idea (stupid!) about how to destroy the Formics. And Bean, with his ridiculous intelligence that surpassed even Ender's, inferred that Ender's game was really Ender's mission, that it was real, that they were really killing the buggers. And he did nothing to prevent the deaths of every living creature (except for one last hive queen). Ender bore the blame of their deaths, and suffered for it the rest of his life. Ender's nobility was supreme. Bean, with the full knowledge of that mistake, never felt an ounce of guilt for what was done. Julian Delphiki was really Bean the Xenocide. Of course, Bean's storyline is my Enderverse PT equivelent, so I guess I don't have to get too hung up on that.
I'd go for a 2.1 AVCHD. I don't have a BD burner, but I do have a player. This is my format of choice, but I'm waiting for the final product :)
So let's all make the most successful film of all time. What plot points, special effects, or characters are not original, are not clever, but instead are tried and true methods to appeal to dumb masses?
I'm thinking of the following:
Story must have lots of explosions. Explosions must always be in slow motion. Someone should always walk away from said explosions, but must be too cool to look back and observe the damage done.
Characters should always include a nerd, a black guy, a tough girl (not love interest), another girl who always manages to catch the wind in her hair and orders the nerd around, and an arrogant white hero.
Gravity need not be consistent or cooperative.
Any additions?
Watched Saving Private Ryan recently (yes, it was edited for content, and I'm pretty sure they did a good job, as it wasn't nearly as graphic as I remember in my youth when watching R movies without guilt). An excellent and powerful movie. The message is important and striking. I also have Band of Brothers and The Pacific edited, so I hope to watch those soon.
Actually, I wanted to see Band of Brothers last night, but my wife talked me into watching the movie my father-in-law had loaned us: Battleship. Previews looked dumb, but I gave it a shot. If I could pick one word to describe the flick, I'd have to pick "cliches." Let's see, alien invasions aren't that new, but it's what you do with it that makes it interesting. This felt much like a Transformers ripoff (not that those movies are any good or very original IMO--didn't even make it through the second). Aside from the cliches and predictable lines, it was too far outside reality to be enjoyable. I mean, sure, I come to a Star Wars forum because I love a space fantasy, but I don't watch a film about real naval vessels for a fairy tale.
The planet in question is 22 lightyears from earth, meaning that our little signal would take 22 years just to get to the planet. From there, the aliens would have to construct ships that cannot even travel as fast as light. But let's assume they somehow found a way to travel faster than light, well, they wouldn't yet know of our existence till our signal got to them.
Okay, so let's assume we are dealing with such intelligent beings. Their weapons are relatively crappy given their capacity. Their projectiles (designed to look like the pegs from the boardgame) are rather weak and have no homing abilities. Their little spinning things that tear everything up were not particularly impressive for such alien tech. A massive gun shooting an alien 6 feet from you would destroy your ears and organs as well as knocking you off the ship. The aliens can place a giant shield over Hawaii, but a couple of our surface to surface missiles can take out their ships. Their ships don't really float on the water and don't hover either; they hop from place to place! They were invisible to our radars, but couldn't detect us in the dark either. The aliens are morons because they only attack if they determine something to be a threat (conventiently coloring it red or green to signify dangerous or safe). A ship fires a warning shot...they destroy it. Another prepares to attack it...they prepare to destroy it but another fires on it...so they destroy that one instead. The third ship again prepares to attack, but decides to turn away...and they ignore it. Minutes later, they destroy Hawaii highways. The aliens are too dense to actually get that they are being drawn in a particular direction. Arg, I don't even make sense as I try to list the crap from that movie. Cliches like arrogant male becomes hero, girlfriend is authority figure's daughter, two lines that I called, slow motion explosions, old men on the museum battleship Missouri walking in slomo in their moment of glory, the servicewoman who is tougher than most of the guys, avenging the lost family member (who was an idiot to provoke a response in the first place), and on and on and on. Was there anything redeeming in it? Well, they tried to mimic the nature of the game for a few moments with the guessing and firing on a coordinate ("Tango 13!"). Part of the implausible storyline, but at least it had a bit of charm to it. For that alone, I promote this movie from being a complete turkey to a turkey with stuffing in its rear.