darth_ender

Px8f

Warbler said:

better question: why are you posting this now instead of after Thanksgiving?

'Cuz it's my thread and I love Christmas and I see no reason why we need to put limitations on when we can talk about Christmas stuff...

...especially when what I'm doing is advance preparation. ;)

Calling all Brits, calling all Brits!

So out of curiosity, where is the British Father Christmas from?  I keep reading that Father Christmas is from Lapland, Finland, but is that just a Finnish tradition, or is that how he seen in the UK as well?  Obviously over the years, Father Christmas and Santa Claus traditions have conflated to be virtually identical, but is this something that still distinguishes him?

G-7h

I seem to remember a friendlier Trident.

P-4e

P-4f

To illustrate my above idea, I have a few suggestions:

Tagge: It is possible, however unlikely, that they may find a weakness and exploit it.

Vader: So what are you going to do?  Sit around like a bunch of old nannies and let it happen?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x310zrv

Motti: This station is now the ultimate power in the universe.  I suggest we use it.

Vader: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  While your powers die, mine will flourish.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x310zrv

[same clip but later]

Tarkin: Vader!  Enough of this!  Release him!

Vader: So beeee it!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x310zrv

[same clip but a bit later]

Standing with Tarkin as the Death Star approaches the Yavin IV rebel base...

Vader: Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  I...am...victorious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw9bny88OuY

Imperial Officer: But they're so small they're evading our turbolasers.

Vader: Attack!  Demolish!  Devour!  Burn!  Grind them to dust!  Go forth and death be thy destination!

[this would obviously require some delaying tactic, likely reversing a playing the footage back and forth a few times to accommodate the lengthy dialogue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkeoqVP4N9g

Vader's TIE fighter spins out of control.

Vader: What's this?  How dare he.  How dare he!

[no clip available]

There're tons of fun lines available.  I do encourage you to check it out.  It's a fun cartoon and worth buying anyway.

I agree with Warbler. However, since you are not planning on listening at present, please, if you feel yourself starting to slip into suicidal thinking, immediately go to the hospital. If you were injured in an accident, you wouldn't think twice about spending a few days in recovery. Suicidality is no less an emergency than a critical injury, and I'm sure your job would understand. We'll never get that cut of ROTJ if you don't get help ;) 

I do encourage you to try to be a bit more aggressive with me.  Put me on the defensive.

S-3h

I know you don't believe in God, but perhaps you might accept some sort of fate.  I am an RN as you know, and I believe I told you all that I recently moved to my preferred area of mental health.  I deal with suicidal patients every day I work.  Today at our hospital, we had a skills fair where we were supposed to present material pertinent to our floor to staff from other floors for their education in order to broaden everyone's understanding.  In my position (remember, I was recently promoted), I am educator for my floor, and therefore I am the one who presented my floor's material to the rest of the crew.  The material I presented today was, guess what?...suicide risk assessments.

In other words, this material is very fresh in my mind, so reading that you did this truly has me concerned.  But I also feel as if I am obliged to share with you the material I have been presenting.

First, do you know what the number one risk factor of suicide in a patient is?

One or more previous suicide attempts

You are now considered part of the high risk population.  Furthermore, substance abuse is a common comorbidity.  I have a feeling, whether you care to admit it or not, that your substance issues are in fact a large part of your depression.  You may say now, "I will never try that again," but you are not yet addressing the root cause of your problems.  You are actually very likely to try again, and men are far more likely to succeed in their attempts than women.

Please, I've said this before, you must get help.  Obviously your work is important to you, but you need to take the time off and get to the hospital.  First, address the alcohol withdrawals.  They can be life threatening, and you clearly are dependent.  Then stay in the hospital at receive mental health treatment.  There are medications to help you stay sober, medications that can help you fight depression, there is therapy...there is help to be had.

You are a person of fine talents, a great future.  I like you a lot, but more importantly, there are people who love you.  Think about how your actions affect your loved ones.  Think about the reason you have to live.  Please, get help.  Do what's right.  You owe yourself and your family and friends that much.  You can't wait any longer.  Get help.

Best to you my friend.  You are in my thoughts and prayers, for what that's worth to you :)

Sorry, wasn't in a position to reply when I read this, then forgot about it.  I probably won't be able to make more than a move a day either, but I'm up for a game right now.

I wasn't really enjoying Dejarik in such a format anyway, so I'm okay not playing it.

Glad to hear from you.  Haven't heard from you for a while, though truthfully, I'm not participating here much myself.

So I'll make the first move as you suggested.  But I'll try a different strategy I've never utilized before, which will likely cost me dearly, but I want to spice things up.

R-4h

Great reviews.  I've read all but the PT EU, and I pretty much agrree with what you said. Might have to give Labyrinth of Evil a try now.

My kids were watching The Flight of Dragons today, a fine old Rankin Bass cartoon.  The villain in the movie is an evil wizard named Ommadon, voiced by none other than James Earl Jones.  While an enjoyable baddy, his character is obviously quite different from Vader.  I imagine a number of lines could be used from the cartoon to voice Vader in your edit to quite comedic effect.  Listen to some of his lines and delivery and I bet you could find places to sneak them into your edit.

http://youtu.be/Uw9bny88OuY

TV's Frink said:

darth_ender said:

I don't disagree. Don't post there of course. But why is the principle of using such pics wrong?

 I said it was wrong?

 Well, you said, "Yep," in response to bkev who said it was "misplaced emotional appeal," hence my question about when emotional appeal is acceptable and when it's not. 

I don't disagree. Don't post there of course. But why is the principle of using such pics wrong?

moviefreakedmind said:

Well this isn't an emotional problem but it is certainly a predicament. I'm in a position where I'm going to need to quit the job that I started just 3 weeks ago because I absolutely HATE it! (for reasons that I won't go into detail). In spite of hating the job, I do really like and respect my co-workers and superiors, and feel bad that I've ultimately wasted their time by quitting after the training. Not to mention that they'll also have to go through the process of interviewing and hiring again once I leave. I will give them a two week notice but am having trouble motivating myself to do that even though I know that it's more courteous to give the notice as soon as possible because of how uncomfortable that will be. It's a strange situation, but the one thing I know for sure is that this job is already a huge detriment to my physical and mental health and it absolutely MUST be quit as soon as possible because it is a horrible experience.

 It may be hard, but you have to do what you have to do.  Try to end your employment amicably, help them know you don't mean to be unreliable, and let them know you appreciate them.  Put in your two weeks, or even three or four so they know you are doing your best not to shortchange them.  Tough it out a little longer and you haven't burned a bridge while still getting out.  Good luck!

bkev said:

I'm not Frink, but it bothers me some too and here's my two cents.  It's not the picture that's offensive.  It's the usage of it as a pro-life statement. The avatar in this case is meant to represent the person's beliefs, and therefore, advocate for them.  Though more of a positive reinforcement than some pro-life advocates I've seen - for example, Earth Day pro-life protesters used blown-up pictures of dead fetuses in San Diego, and it was uncomfortable to walk past and out of place at the event - it's still a misplaced emotional appeal.

Just my two cents.

 When is emotional appeal misplaced and when is it not?  Not sure why I'm even on this kick right now, but I remember while at the University of Arizona, week after week different folks representing different ideals would use emotional appeal to try and drown out common sense.  As I've said in the politics thread, there were numberless opponents to the Iraq War, and in order to tell us to "Get Out Now!", emotional appeal was thrown all over the place, showing hundreds of empty boots on the mall, gory stories of American soldiers committing heinous acts (though by far in the minority), unfairly attributing every single death to George W. Bush...are these well placed emotional appeal?

Maybe you might argue that they're not particularly graphic, unlike abortion pictures.  Okay, so let's look at more graphic imagery.  How many pictures of naked Jewish corpses stacked and ready to be burned have you seen?  Have you ever seen the footage of the Saigon execution?  Have you ever seen footage of the inhumane Tutsi slayings at the hands of the Hutus in Rwanda?  How many images have you seen of murdered Middle Easterners at the hands of IS?  Have these not stirred emotions in you?  I guarantee, they have been used for emotional appeal?  Were they misplaced?

You see, when you abort a fetus, whether you like it or not, it's messy business.  And pretty early on, it is easy to see that you are not killing a blob or a prawn, but a very underdeveloped human child, with fingers, toes, a head, a heart.  It may be graphic, but it's also reality.  Some people find the thought abhorrent.  Then why might it be inappropriate to use the image of an aborted fetus as a representation of why a pro-life proponent might be misplaced emotional appeal?

And so this remains on topic...

COME BACK TO US TRIDENT!  WE CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU!!!  WE ARE NOT WORTHY OF YOUR PRESENCE, BUT WE NEED YOU!!!

Maybe now he'll feel loved enough to return.

First you lose your mascot, now you lose your team.  This is indeed disappointing.

http://www.yahoo.com/movies/even-anthony-daniels-thought-the-star-128342604122.html

Tony Daniels should join our site!

DuracellEnergizer said:

I finally got around to reading the novel a number of years back. It was alright, but this is one of those rare cases where I find the movie vastly superior to the book. I donated my copy to a thrift store afterward.

Tried to read the Lost World novel after that, but I just couldn't get into it. I eventually gave up and, as with the JP novel, donated my copy to a thrift store (Truth be told, this has happened to all of the Crichton books I've bought and tried to read; the guy's style just doesn't do anything for me.).

I actually really like Crichton's writing.  His medical background clearly shows through and probably leads to a dry feeling, not to mention the philosophical ramblings of a major character that expound on Crichton's theories, but I have a medical background and tend to be quite philosphical, so perhaps such things appeal more to me.

I have absolutely no desire to see Jurassic World -- none whatsoever. I don't think I need to go into the reasons why; I've stated my grievances with modern Hollywood more than enough times by now.

It's a shame because this is the first film that I feel captured the magic of the original.  It's not quite as good, but I certainly enjoyed it tremendously.

Neglify said:

I have a very similar origin-story as you do. I fell in love with JP when it came out, read the book when I was 13, read Lost World as soon as it came out, saw the movie and was disappoint, etc. I actually like the book The Lost World better than Jurassic Park. It's a smaller story, which meant more depth into characters and less sub-plots to keep track of. The first book gets really convoluted and messy, especially in the finale. The movie is far superior in terms of plot and structure.

 While I'm not sure if I like it better or not, The Lost World is surprisingly good for a sequel, and is no less than equal to its predecessor.  It's a shame the movie decided to rewrite so much of the story.  The only fairly close match in scene was the trailer/cliff scene, which is also probably the main scene I like.  Even then, that particular scene upsets me because two characters are so determined to save the baby dinosaur, then the guy who comes to save them and works so hard at it is the one who ends up in a dino belly for all his hard work.

Well, I'm sad that my thread that was started just to call them on their silliness was locked as well, but I guess it's moot anyway since they hopefully won't be straying out of their own threads anymore.  Thanks for enforcing it, Jay.  It was definitely due.

I truly loved dinosaurs as a kid.  I remember seeing the first Jurassic Park film when I was 11 years old.  Boy, was that a good scare for my young heart, and a dinosaur lover's dream come true as well!  I've read Ender's Game more than any other novel, but next in line would be Jurassic Park.  It's excellent fiction.  Lately I've been re-exploring the franchise, rereading the books and rewatching the films.  I just have to put my thoughts out there.

Warning, spoilersaurus ahead!

Actually, I don't know how many spoilers I will really include, but there will likely be some.  And though I have many thoughts, I'm tired and won't likely be as wordy as I often tend to be.

After watching the first film, I delved into the book and loved it!  I was amazed at how different the film and book were.  The plot seemed only the same in the very essentials: old man creates dinosaur theme park by resurrecting dinosaurs with ancient DNA found in fossilized mosquitoes.  The characters in name are the same, but appearances, personalities, ages, relationships, etc. are drastically different.  Heck, a lot of characters who live and die had even changed.  But I loved them both for their different takes on the story, and ultimately the message is the same.

When The Lost Word came out, I read the book immediately, two years before seeing the film.  If I thought the first film was unfaithful to the source, nothing made me change that opinion more than the contrast with the fidelity of the second film.  The only similarities there were that Malcolm goes to Site B on a different island.  There is so little in common, and truly in the end the message is something else entirely.  In the book, a competing genetics company sends in a small team to obtain dinosaur genetics to boost their own research.  This is the same company that prompted Nedry in the first film/book to steal for them.  And the leader of this team is the same man who hired Nedry, Lewis Dodgson, who is a much slimier bad guy than ever shown on film.  However in the movie, the bad guys are actually Hammond's nephew and other company folks who have wrested control of the company from him and are trying to financially save the company by taking the dinosaurs back to the US.  The plot is so different that it is hard to appreciate, and culminates with the stupid San Diego mayhem that never existed in the book.  The movie is such a letdown after such a great beginning to the series that I can hardly stand it.

That's all I have energy to share now.  Anyone else want to talk about the franchise, or perhaps just about dinosaurs in general?  Note the very flexible title.

I personally like ham and pineapple pizza.