February 2006

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Monday February 27, 2006 10:25:31 PM #

» Cognitive Consistency

» Causes and symptoms of Groupthink

Monday February 27, 2006 10:25:31 PM #

Agent of the Process

» A rock only rolls uphill while you push it. It rolls downhill on it's own. Your lucky numbers are 3, 15, and 27.

Let's Go Surfing

» Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace
via Many 2 Many

» Futurama Workplace propaganda poster

» Great, thanks to Mike at Progressive Ruin I now know that the Watcher action figure is coming out this week. How will I get anything done in the next 36 hours with myself so distracted in giddy anticipation of this fantastic thing. Yeah it sounds like sarcasm but sadly it is not.

Sunday February 26, 2006 2:11:55 AM #

» Interesting Battlestar Galactica this week (Downloaded - The Cylon POV episode). One friend over to watch it hadn't seen the new Battlestar Galactica before.... kindof a bummer that this one was the introductory episode for her since it was such a non-standard ep. I suppose it's not really a bummer, actually, what is it really that so naturally makes us want to evangelize to others the things we enjoy?

» Also saw the Patriot Act Episode of Justice League tonight. I always enjoy the Green Arrow appearances and the couple scenes with Speedy were good, but really I'd love to know why Bruce Timm has such a mad-on for Shinning Knight and Vigilante. Different strokes, I suppose. Still even a mediocre JLU is a great show. This episode also had Amanda Waller, who's just a great character. Good Stuff.

» Been also catching the 2004-05 season of West Wing, on Bravo. I didn't get a chance to see any of those episodes last year. Bravo, like three nights a week, has been doing 2 or 3 episodes in a row. Real neat to see that series in those larger time blocks.

» As long as I'm on a TV comment roll. I caught bits and pieces of a Galactica 1980 marathon on Sci-fi recently too. Oh my, Bad. Good-Bad in spots, but really in general you got to wonder what they were thinking. Time Travel, People turning invisible, Galactica Warriors fighting Nazi's, yeah Nazi's. The actor who played Mike Brady played a Nuclear Physicist on the show though, so that bit was interesting-odd at least. The "Viper Turbocycles" were cool too. (Are there any toys or models of those out there? If so I'd like one.)

» Read the most recent Alex Ross Justice #4. Beautiful comic. Can't wait for a collected edition on it.

Saturday February 25, 2006 5:07:22 PM #

» Saw the 1st Marvel direct to Video Animated Movie: The Ultimate Avengers. Eh. Pretty bad when you compare it to the source material. Marvel definently played it safe and targeted the little ones. Ultimate Avengers in 71 minutes doesn't manage to pull off as complex a story as JLU does with 22min weekly either. The animation is uneven but not horrendous, it was the dumbing down of the story that makes the DVD suffer. If you are hardcore, then you've already picked it up, but if you're on the fence or hearing about this for the first time, then pass on it (unless you've got 5 to 10 yearolds, they'd enjoy it and on that level I suppose it's not too bad a flick.)

Sunday February 19, 2006 9:51:13 PM #

» Got a Scarlet Witch, a Doc Ock, and the Michael Turner inspired Identity Crisis Wave.

As female Marvel Legends figures go, I think Scarlet Witch is ok. From a sculpt standpoint, she suffers as all Marvel Legends do from over-articulation. She does fill out the 80s Avenger lineup pretty well though.

The Identity Crisis figures are really quite bad. Heads are way too small arms and feet way too big. Doctor Light and Deadshot are passable and are 3rd string level character where it's not that big of an issue. Zatanna is somewhat more a disapointment as this costume would have been great done in a Perez style. Hawkman and Green Arrow (which I also got because I bought a case. Are completely horrible.) It's odd that DC recalled the Crisis One wave but still put out these. The paint issues on the earlier wave are much easier to overlook than the bad sculpts of this wave.

» Watched the Cyborg episode of Smallville this weekend and I have to say it was pretty eh. Here are my issues: One, we've definently seen the story story structure of this episode a hundred times on Smallville and because of that, it feels flat. Two: having Cyborg look like a model with no visible machine parts at all, really undercuts the whole lack of humanity, more machine than man pathos. This is not a Cyborg that has to hide his face from the public, as the writers themselves assure us with Lana and Chloe's 'Victor's hotness on a scale of 1 to 10' chit-chat. Three, Even the evil premise of Luthor turning Victor into a Cyborg doesn't work. After-all, he was in a car crash. He was going to die (I didn't miss a part about Luthor causing the crash did I?) and as far as these things go, he looks pretty good after the outcome. Anyway, by itself, not a bad hour of tv but within the context of the series: Eh.

» DC Battle Dice with pictures. Yeah, I'll probably get that Green Lantern Die throwing arm thing.

» Marvel Select should keep humming along at Diamond until 2007.

» Action Figure.com has some additional thoughtful analysis on the fate of Marvel Legends now that the license has moved to Hasbro. The one interesting tidbit is that Hasbro has made October the cut off date for the Toy biz stuff in the stores. That only leaves a little bit shy of 8 months for the 4 announced waves to release in Marvel Legends, never mind the spidey, X-Men and Fanatastic Four stuff. The author above places reservations on whether we will actually see Wave 15 because of that fact. My own opinion, and this isn't covered in the above article is that you'd have to wonder what the major incentive is for Toy Biz to release anything at all. I have know idea how the economics of this work, but since the company is likely to disapear entirely soon, there must be a point where the profits are going to be in the bank later this year and production of new product would seem to be too much risk.

For the non-toy collectors reading this blog, see all the minutia people like to get into about this stuff? The armchair quarterbacking and what not. It's not really any different than speculating about what changes will be made to a sports team's roster when a new coach etc. comes in. Ah the things we whittle away the hours with.

» There is a Marathon of Battlestar 1980 coming up on Sci-fi Tuesday (I think. Check your local listings) I haven't seen the show since it originally aired and have very scattered and limited memory of it. I have a group I'm watching the new Battlestar with so this travesty of the early 80's should be worth a heckle or two before the next new Episode of the current show.

Shirky's law: "equality. fairness. opportunity. pick two.". Interesting thought.

Saturday February 18, 2006 12:33:44 PM #

» Hmmmm... absolutely nothing to post today. Have a good day internets.

Tuesday February 14, 2006 11:04:32 PM #

Random Non-Sequiters

» Narrative? Mostly just a set of incidents I think. narratives abound and in hindsight are easily constructed. Act One, Act Two, Act Three, I think not. Incidents, like grains of sand dumped from a shoe accumulated after a lengthy walk on a dune.

» Language as a building material. The properties aren't fixed and once used for construction, most people won't agree on the outcome of the structure, it's appearance, meaning or soundness. Even the very foundation can collapse on a later interpretation of a turn of phrase. But oh what fun to build with.

» Movies only last 1.5 to 2 hours. Three hours if you have two armies of extras meet on a field of battle during a lengthy montage. Three hours however won't get you from pop tarts to lunch. 788400 hours is a big script. Time to look at improv. Who's line is it anyway?

Sunday February 12, 2006 11:01:03 PM #

» So I just watched this movie, What the Bleep Do You Know. It's kindof a "New Agey" Documentary intespersed with a fictional narrative staring the Deaf Actress from West Wing. There's some good stuff about perceptual models buried in it, and I think there's benefit to interpreting the world through models to a point. So in that, it's worth a watch. There's also some neat computer effects thoughout, so if you bend toward that, well then that's interesting as well.

Frankly though, there's alot of Steven Colbert's Truthiness at play in the film. By that I mean, there appear to be alot of things the documentary's participants *Feel* are true, that for justification seem to be wrapped in pseudo-scientific jargon to give them weight presumeably to audience members that are outside their thought club. If you have a bend towards science and away from organized religion but little actual grounding in either, the movie would probably work for you.

If you have a bend toward religion, well instead of the movie mumbo-jumbo about thoughts affecting reality through quantum states, you'll probably just boil that concept down to the power of prayer.

The movie does mostly eschew organized religion, but tries to include those with a religious bend by incoporating the concept of god into it's theories, if only mainly by grafting on a secondary definition to the word god, filled with their theories, thereby subverting its concept and simultaneously building off the word's cultural goodwill.

It's that activity that causes the big "eh" to rise in me over the presentation. The ideas themselves take a back seat to spinning additional meaning, changing direction of and taking advantage of preexisting language. For all the flashy graphics, if their idea is to change the direction of thought in a large number of individuals toward the answers presented within (which is scientific basis of thought away from from what the masses would traditionally consider the relm of religion) then they're mostly just going to reach the choir. Following that analogy, their song is ultimately the same, only the building they are singing it in looks cosmetically different.

Science and Religion both in search of answers. This movie makes an attempt to meld the two but chocolate peanut butter cups do not ensue. Within and by logic of the film, the problem with the one ultimately seems still to be the problem with the other to me. But as an offbeat film, I suposse it's neat.

Let's Go Surfing

» New JLU figures at Toy Fare:
-2nd GL Wave 3 pack with Katma Tui and Hal???
-The Ray, Addidas Hawkgirl and John
-The Demon Supes and Wonder Woman
-Huntress, Atom and Bats
-Shining Knight, Zatana, Bats
-Justice Lords: Flash, GL and Martian Manhunter.
-Cowboy Vigilante

» The Many (Not so different) Faces of Harrison Ford. From his recent Movie posters.

» Hasselhoff for Pepsi

Saturday February 11, 2006 12:09:41 AM #

» Lex Luthor, Darth Vader, name a villian, you can't have a hero without creating someone to personify everything that hero stands against. Oddly enough the good villians tend to be very similiar to the hero. It's generally what makes the rivalry work. Except Elmer Fudd to Buggs Bunny, the whole concept breaks down with Elmer, but then again Elmer's a terrible villian, not nearly diabolical enough. Daffy makes a much better foil for Buggs don't you think? Similiar in alot of ways. Daffy's his own worst enemy though, just lets himself get all wound up by Buggs. Rabbit Season, Duck Season.... BLAM. All wound up. BLAM.

Thursday February 9, 2006 10:45:46 PM #

» So like, it's February in Michigan. It's very cold, but oddly enough there was sun today. Sun is good but it was very cold.

» So um, like, what's up with the middle east and the cartoon thing? I know nothing about Denmark. But seriously... that's like, wow, pissed at Denmark, burning down embassies, rioting. Serious iss-ues.

» So like, I totally had this mega filling Pizza Hut Meat Lovers pizza and like soooo many breadsticks at lunch today. Seriously, like um there is probably an entire field in Kansas that is totally flat right now from all the wheat that must have been scythed down to make those sticks. That's all I'm saying. Like I'm still full. Crazy bread dog. Word.

So like that's all for this blog entry. Gotta bounce, turn some pages, count some sheep. Rack some zzzs. Peas. Piece. Peace.

Monday February 6, 2006 7:05:03 PM #

"Why can't you just do what you're asked!"

Nice.

Sunday February 5, 2006 10:09:46 PM #

Superbowl Commercial run down:
• McDonalds' Hampster on a bench = Cute.
• Disney's I'm going to Disney World. = Well Done
• Harrison Ford reading the places you'll go = WTF Bud Lights around the office = eh
• Wopperettes = eh
• Sierra Mist Airport Wand = eh
• Bud Light Magic Fridge = ok
• 16 Bocks = eh
• FedEx Dinosaurs and Caveman = Awesome (6:47)
• Bud Light Bear attack = ok
• V for Vendetta = cool (6:50)
• Puffy Diet Pepsi = suck Brown and Bubbly = WTF
• Good Morning America Natallie Hollaway = Let it go for G sake
• Spock Alieve = Not bad (6:58)
• Ameriquest Fly Shock = cute
• Bud Light Roof Fix = Not bad
• Jackie Chan Diet Pepsi Stunt Double = eh
• Cars = Pixar's finally going to put out the suck
• SBC and AT&T Network = Who can keep all these phone name changes straight. What's up with that.
• Budweiser Lamb Streaker = cute (7:13)
• Mobile ESPN Sports Heaven = technically interesting but overall eh
• Careerbuilder.com Monkeys sales down = cute
• Cadilac Runway model and liquid Escalade = Who needs a vehicle like that.
• TomKat in MI3 = Crap that I'll probably go see even though I know it's crap
• Dove Self Esteme Fund = WTF I mean really WTF???
• The Evidence = How many CSI shows do we need? I get it already, if you kill someone, they catch you using DNA... enough already!
• Disneys the Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen = Wow. No words.
• Ford Escape Hybrid with Kermit Singing It's not easy being green = NICE! (7:26)
• Micalob Light Bear Tackle = Nice (7:27)
• Desperate Housewives w/Shaq = clever
• Go Daddy Strap = eh
• Poseidon = Yeah another bad remake
• Fusion = Why are all our rocket scientists working in shaving research. Isn't this issue solved yet.
• Overstock.com = eh
• Sprint Phone Crime Deterent = Funny! (7:56)

Rolling Stones doing the Windows 95 theme song Start Me up. It's interesting to watch this just on the off chance that one of them might have a heart attack or something.

Watching the Stones sing I Can't Get No Satisfaction is uncomforatable. I keep expecting a Pfiser logo to pop-up on th screen.

• Ameriquest Turbulence = cute
• Motopebble = neat
• Sharpie Retractable = odd for a Superbowl, I know one person that will find it interesting though.
• Budweiser young horse = ok
• Nationwide Fabio = eh
• Hummer Little Monster comercial = creepy (8:50)
• Careerbuilder I work with Jackasses = now they're just over milking the idea
• Sprint Benny Hill song = odd
• Degree Stunt city = eh
• Emerald Nuts = eh
• Fidelity Paul McCartney = dumb
• Bud Stadium cards = clever eh
• Pirates of the Caribean II = eh
• Master Card Old McGyver = not bad
• Mobile ESP short commercial = eh
• Honda Truck flap girl = cute
• Herestobeer.com = no idea what brand... not going to look it up either
• Outback = lame

My picks 1st place FedEx Dinosaur/Caveman, 2nd Place Sprint Crime Deterent, 3rd Place Ford Kermit (I like that song)

Let's Go Surfing

» Steven Colbert Interview at the Onion (1/25/06)

» Cool Deathstar/New AT&T logo mashup.

» Law and Order Valentines

» Copper - A Step by Step. See how the artist, Kazu Kibuishi, creates the web comic Copper.

» Katamari vs. Mario Go!

» More Young Avengers Marvel Legends Boxed Set Pics

Thursday February 2, 2006 10:23:36 PM #

Random Non-Sequiters

"Listen. I can say something to you, Denice, but all I've done is make the air move. I've caused no sensation in you; you cause whatever affect is achieved, based on how you interpret what I've said."
- Trent the Uncatchable to Denise Castanaveras
The Long Run, Daniel Keys Moran

Not the first time I've done that quote on my blog. Probably not the last. If the above doesn't make sense, try the below:

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me."
Anonymous childhood chant

Interpret intent not words. Of course intent interpretation is only as good as the workable personality models the intentee can apply to the intentor. (I'm pretty sure that intentee and intentor aren't real words, but you can get two effects when you make up words. One it becomes pretty clear if someone is paying attention to what you are saying because either they correct, question or at least look quizitively at what you said. Two if they aren't paying attention, they snap into the conversation as their brain tries to process the new language. Either effect is useful. In the case of a negative on the former, one can shut-up or change the topic, in the event of the later, one recaptures the audience.)

"If you want something understood by the most people, keep it simple."

The converse of that works too.

'If you want something understood by the least people, keep it complicated.'

Who are you.
What do you want.
Why are you here.
Do you have anything worth living for?
JMS Babylon 5

Who, What, Where, Why, How. The basic journalistic questions. They go in the first paragraph so that people with short attention spans can get the gist of the story without having to read every newspaper article and miss their TV shows.

"Who Benefits?"
Batman in Brian Meltzer's Identity Crisis

Don't know why something is happening even though any sane person would lose their mind analyzing the situation rationally? Start the mystery like Batman and figure out who benefits from the status quo or the change. This is easier to do the more facts you get and the better model of the situation you can build.

'Influence, Inform, Express, Entertain.' Four different type of paragraphs. Four different reasons I could be talking.

"Multi•pass"
Leeloo, The Fifth Element No meaning whatsoever. Just fun to say.

"Multipass!"

"Nobody Listens."
- Trent the Uncatchable
The Long Run, Daniel Keys Moran

I don't spell check and my grammar, sentence and paragraph structure on this site leave alot to be desired. Most times I forget to go back and reread a post to see if it makes sense. Sometimes I type the word "Fnck". Flip the "n" over... I don't have a problem with the word myself, I just type it that way to slip it past overzealous work censorship programs and for the benefit of those that are sensitive to that sort of thing.