That little green mofo, he sure got da movez! (This will no doubt do all the rounds like the Dancing David Brent video did too but the power of Lucasfilm will no doubt execute order 66 and track down every instance of this video so that they can terminate it with extreme predujice.)
While you’re at it, this may raise a smile: A jedi shall not know what is love!
… a dragon named Bolgrot arrived in the eternal Province of Amakna. The young Rykke Errel was the only one with sufficient courage to face the terrible creature.
Instead of reducing him to dust as he could easily have done, the dragon prostrated himself before the young paladin and swore allegiance to him.
No, I’ve no idea what Dofus is about either but it’s an MMOG and it’s now available for free download so why not.
UPDATE: Not entirely sure what I make of it. Perhaps I was too drunk to tell! Pictures below.
I watched a little bit of Question Time last night. The first topic up for debate concerned the anti-smoking bill (or, rather, the okay-smoke-if-you-want-to-but-we’d-prefer-it-if-you-didn’t bill.) What surprised and, ultimately, irritated me was the audiences constant referral to peoples “rights”. One non-smoker said he recognised that smokers “have a right” to smoke while a smoker also claimed not just that he had a right to smoke but also had a right to “do anything” he wanted.
Excuse me, but do you realise what you’re saying? Have you considered exactly what the implications of your statements are? If smokers have a right to smoke then don’t I, as a non - or rather ex, possibly even occasional - smoker have a right to not be made to inhale your smoke too? Do I not have the right to be able to go to a public bar and not have to sit in a smoky environment? How can these two rights co-exist if they contradict each other?
Before this descends into a “should all smoking be banned” discussion, let me move onto the second claim made, that the speaker had a right “to do anything”. Oh come on, be serious! Do you really believe that? I mean truly, deeply, honestly believe that you’ve got a right to do anything? Do you have a right to kill anybody you like? Does that mean you’ve got a right to drive at whatever speed you want to on the motorway, on whichever side of the carriageway and in whichever direction you want? Think about your answer before you say anything. Of course you’ve got a right to remain silent instead of answering but anything you do say may be ripped apart and thrown back at you in pieces.
I’m finding that the notion of the rights that we supposedly all have is becoming more and more tenuous. It seems to be one of those concepts that we all cling to and appeal to but don’t have a firm basis in any sound reasoning. Consider this question – do we have a right to kill? I’m sure that the agreed answer is no, we don’t have a right to kill. Why not? Because we have a right to life? If this is the case, then surely a country or state that imposes a death sentence on anybody is depriving that person of their right to life? Okay, getting too close to another controversial subject. How about this; if I have a right to life then I must be free to go into a supermarket – or your house – and take whatever food I need? How do I justify this? Because if I have a right to life then you cannot in anyway prevent me from doing what I need to do to live i.e. eat.
Where do these “rights” come from? I’ve been in debates with Americans who always appeal to their constitution, which grants them their rights (including the right to freedom of speech and the right to bear arms). Yet the American Constitution does not apply here in the UK – a US citizen would no longer have the right to bear arms while residing in our green and pleasant land. That makes it seem as if rights are subjective because rights do not persist across borders and time zones. And if rights are subjective then murder, torture and suchlike could, feasibly, be acceptable.
There is no answer here – hey it’s philosophy! If I was still studying I’d be tempted to write an essay in the style of one of Plato’s plays and discuss the issue in Socratic dialectic (starting with the topic of a smoking ban perhaps - I’d have to name one of the characters Profumo of course!) But just think about it the next time someone appeals to a “right” to do something and ask yourself if they’ve got a valid point or, as Jeremy Bentham argued, it’s all “nonsense on stilts”.
Personally, I’ve got the right to go and get absolutely shitfaced in a smoke filled bar because it’s Friday night and I don’t care anymore! Have a good one.
So Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are collaborating on their third project together, a sci-fi film currently going by the title of Sunshine. As you may remember, we here at Stalker Towers quite enjoyed their last outing with the not-a-zombie flick, 28 Days Later. Hell - I own the DVD, a copy the screenplay signed by both director and writer ( albeit only in book form rather than an original, been on the actual set incarnation) and the soundtrack (which, by the way, has one of the sexiest tunes on it ever - In the House/In a Heartbeat ). So finding out about this new film has piqued my curiosity.
But here come my reservations. The films premise is this:
The Sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. Soon the crew are fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.
Admittedly, this is very little to go on but what it does bring to mind several other films. Unfortunately, most of them fall into the “not very good” category. I’m thinking in particular of
Having said all that, and bearing in mind that top notch sci-fi films are few and far between at the moment, if Sunshine avoids the above and follows the examples set in classics such as Alien, Silent Running or Solaris then it will be a good day for British Sci-Fi movies when it opens. And with the building blocks of ‘28 Days Later’ to build on, there’s no reason why it can’t avoid the pitfall of becoming a dire, life draining movies.
But there is one thing that has me feeling optimistic about the film and that is the film’s blog (thanks Daisy for pointing this out). It’s written by experienced blogger and broadcaster Gia, who’s husband is a the scientific advisor on the film and makes for some very interesting reading, especially to a film geek like me. (I was fascinated by the post about the amount of lights - numbering in the thousands - that they’re using on each set. The last short film I made used a total of about 10!) It combines nice little teaser facts about the Sun and the universe with some fascinating insight to life on sets. And I don’t mean in the manner of those sychophantic, information lacking behind the scenes documentaries filmed for E-Online etc. We’re finding out about Danny Boyle’s different coloured shoes, the caterers, the overall dull nature of filming, Cillian Murphy’s playlist… everything that a good blog is made of. It’s so much better than other movie blogs (like the amazingly poor Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy blog which seemed to only have about 2 entries) and is updated on a regular basis. And Gia’s personal site is worth a read too.
Cheers to Daisy for the heads up.
The only problem I have to date with the new Star Wars: Galaxies expansion “The Trials of Obi-Wan” is that every time I visit the new planet, Mustafar, I keep humming the tune to “Mustapha” by Queen. Well, that and the blatant disregard for any sense of continuity or consistency with the Galactic Civil War time period (a gripe that firmly places me in the category of ubergeek.) Oh and the blatantly cynical marketing tie-in with the imminent release of the Episode III DVD. But apart from that I’m quite enjoying it.
William Hootkins has died.
Star wars geeks might remember him best as Jek Porkins, the fat rebel pilot who died during the assault on the Death Star. He was a great character actor who had bit parts in lots of famous films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (as one of the CIA agents who recruit Indy at the beginning), Flash Gordon (as Munson, Zarkov’s ill fated assistant), Batman (as sleazy Officer Eckhardt who snitches on Jack Napier) and, one of my all time favourites, Hardware (as the incredibly creepy Lincoln Wineberg Jr. All together now “We all walk, the wibbly wobbly walk…”)
Last year he appeared on the London stage in an acclaimed performance as Alfred Hitchcock in the play “Hitchcock Blonde” opposite one time Bond girl, Rosamund Pike. Games fans might be curious to know that he provided most of the generic male voices for Everquest 2 and also did work on other games including Evil Dead: A fistful of boomstick and Crash Bandicoot.
Always sad.
Hellrunner is probably the toughest race I’ve done to date. It’s as exhausting as Tough Guy without any of the silliness or distractions of obstacles. The course itself has, apparently, been made tougher than last year by upping the distance to about 11 miles and putting more hills in the way. The weather was chilly, overcast and windless - near perfect conditions for running and despite not having done any sort of exercise for two weeks, I was looking forward to the race.
The multi-terrain course was a mix of moorland and woodland for the most part. The tracks we ran were obviously used to vehicles and were trenches more than paths, waterlogged and woody. For the first couple of miles, the slopes were gentle enough but quickly increased in gradient at about the same time as the surface became more sand than earth. The problem with sand is that it’s not firm and you have to work that much harder. I also find it makes my calves work harder and it wasn’t long before I started feeling them tighten up. The undulations started to become more pronounced and when we reached the forest, they became steep hills covered in loose rocks. The descents were just as steep and sure footing was required, especially if going at speed which I tend to do as one foot wrong was going to lead to an embarrassing mouth full of mud.
Leaving the forest (after about an 1h15m for me), a large sign announced “You are entering the Wetlands” and they weren’t lying. The Wetlands consisted of a bog that, while not on a par with the general consistency and stinkiness of Tough Guy mud, earned a 10 out of 10 for effort owing to the fact that it was knee deep – or thigh deep for some people. The race slowed right down at this point as people struggled to wade through the energy sapping terrain to the other side.
After another 5/10 minutes or so of running through woods I could hear cheering in the distance and, believing the finish line to be only minutes away, picked up the pace a little, finding energy reserves I wasn’t sure I had. But turning the last bend out of the forest, we found it was anything but the finish that confronted us. Instead we had a series of repetitive shuttle runs up and down sand dunes. My legs were protesting in agony and I wish I could say that I managed to run up each one but I had no power left in my legs and my calves were screaming so much that I was reduced to walking up the dunes. The torture over, we hit the last section which was mercifully flat and only a few minutes away from the finish and my last, customary sprint for the line.
My final time was 1h 35m 18s for the 11 mile course which I’m reasonably pleased with (despite the fact that I still ache two days later). I’m getting quite into this adventure racing lark and still have the (comparitively flat) Grim challenge to do in December. My mate, who has done the last couple with me (and habitually races in blue while I race in black so we shall henceforth be known as the Bruise Brothers), is touting the Karrimoor International Mountain Marathon as a challenge next year as it’s the granddaddy of adventure racing but I’m prepared to leave it for a while. Or at least until I sort my calves out!
I have already pre-ordered the new expansion pack for SWG so will be getting it tomorrow, one week early than official release (which means it will no doubt be full of bugs they’ll spend the next week hotfixing!). This preview by IGN is a week old and doesn’t really give away anything new that those bods who did the beta haven’t already told us apart from one thing: buildings will have windows. I don’t know if this means that existing building models will be changed or whether player buildings will now have windows too and I don’t know why I’m thinking “Coool!” but I am.
The screenshots on the article also make me want to get a better video card and a lot more RAM because they look sweet and far better than anything I ever see while playing. Check out the screenie of HK-24 (the assassin robot from Knights of the Old Republic) - marvellous detail.
There’s a lot of people on the official forums whining about this new expansion (what a surprise) and I have to admit that I would have preferred a different planet to be added rather than Mustafar but obviously it’s essential for the marketing bods to push the imminent release of the Episode 3 DVD (available on 31/10 folks!) and I can’t deny that the environments are looking particularly lush. They’re also hazardous to touch - the lava is instakill apparently. Wonder how soon that’ll get nerfed!
That awfully nice man, Trent Reznor, he of Nine Inch Nails fame, is auctioning several autographed guitars on eBay. They’ve all been used on stage during the last tour and are in various states of disrepair having been, well, all but destroyed during his on stage antics. All money raised is being donated towards the Hurricane Katrina relief fund.