![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
That's right, the game I've been working on for the past month is finally done. I hope it's short yet sweet for everyone who plays it:
Area 50.5
Enjoy!
Area 50.5
Enjoy!
Add to the pile
Fac Ut Gaudeam
Akril's Textpile
17 August 2007 @ 01:32 am
Maybe it's just me, but the Bookworld in the Thursday Next series seems to continue acquiring characteristics that make it resemble the Myst/Riven universe...
( slight spoilers )
And by the way, when I said that someone dies every ten minutes in The Trouble on Chromius, I was underexaggurating. I counted the number of casualties, and on average, one person is killed every six minutes. And a lot of these deaths seem to happen the same way: the scene cuts to a room somewhere, someone enters the room to find someone already in there, and within five minutes, one of the two is killed by the other. It's like rooms are a cause of death in this story.
...and I'm almost finished with Area 50.5. It should be done within the next two weeks, with luck.
( slight spoilers )
And by the way, when I said that someone dies every ten minutes in The Trouble on Chromius, I was underexaggurating. I counted the number of casualties, and on average, one person is killed every six minutes. And a lot of these deaths seem to happen the same way: the scene cuts to a room somewhere, someone enters the room to find someone already in there, and within five minutes, one of the two is killed by the other. It's like rooms are a cause of death in this story.
...and I'm almost finished with Area 50.5. It should be done within the next two weeks, with luck.
25 April 2007 @ 09:02 pm
It’ll be a while before I can post a lengthy synopsis/photo rampage, though.
Instead, let’s just pretend that I didn’t completely put off that entry on Dimension of Miracles that I said I was going to post a year or so ago and that I got sucked through a time portal to this day a week after I said I’d post an entry on the subject.
DoM was an interesting read. It contained a lot of interesting, wordy philosophical discussions (here’s an excerpt from one of them that talks about God), and some typical quirky Sheckley concepts (like the “personal predator” one). Some parts seemed slightly dated, but in most cases, a quaint charm has remained in most of the segments. I think I prefer Sheckley’s short stories to his novels, though (even though I’ve only read one of the latter so far).
So…did H2G2 rip off DoM or didn’t it? Being exposed to H2G2 first and much more fond of it, I’m a tad biased, and I’d be tempted to say that the “Earth being literally constructed by an outside entity” theme has probably appeared in more places than DoM and H2G2. One source says that it was a common theme in the fifties and sixties, although it doesn’t list any examples. Perhaps the accepted theory that Adams wrote H2G2 before reading DoM is true, or it could be yet another case of cryptomnesia or coincidence that people misinterpret as plagiarism.
That’s pretty much all I have to say about that, except for one last thing: despite what the text in the fifth paragraph on this page states, there are no robots in DoM. There's an insecure god, a shapeshifting alien that lives by consuming itself, talking dinosaurs, a sentient city and a man who is commissioned to make planets, but again, no robots. What gives? (I had a good laugh at the second entry on the page because I brought one of Mr. Brown’s books on my trip (Space on my Hands))
Okay, that’s enough pretending.
Instead, let’s just pretend that I didn’t completely put off that entry on Dimension of Miracles that I said I was going to post a year or so ago and that I got sucked through a time portal to this day a week after I said I’d post an entry on the subject.
DoM was an interesting read. It contained a lot of interesting, wordy philosophical discussions (here’s an excerpt from one of them that talks about God), and some typical quirky Sheckley concepts (like the “personal predator” one). Some parts seemed slightly dated, but in most cases, a quaint charm has remained in most of the segments. I think I prefer Sheckley’s short stories to his novels, though (even though I’ve only read one of the latter so far).
So…did H2G2 rip off DoM or didn’t it? Being exposed to H2G2 first and much more fond of it, I’m a tad biased, and I’d be tempted to say that the “Earth being literally constructed by an outside entity” theme has probably appeared in more places than DoM and H2G2. One source says that it was a common theme in the fifties and sixties, although it doesn’t list any examples. Perhaps the accepted theory that Adams wrote H2G2 before reading DoM is true, or it could be yet another case of cryptomnesia or coincidence that people misinterpret as plagiarism.
That’s pretty much all I have to say about that, except for one last thing: despite what the text in the fifth paragraph on this page states, there are no robots in DoM. There's an insecure god, a shapeshifting alien that lives by consuming itself, talking dinosaurs, a sentient city and a man who is commissioned to make planets, but again, no robots. What gives? (I had a good laugh at the second entry on the page because I brought one of Mr. Brown’s books on my trip (Space on my Hands))
Okay, that’s enough pretending.
26 March 2007 @ 07:35 pm
That's the message that was on display on a local church marquee. I think my first thought in response to it was, "But...wasn't Douglas Adams an atheist?"
They're making a movie out of "The Mist"! [warning for the easily offended: naughty language and icky descriptions] Of course, I guess this means that very few of the horrors are going to be left to the imagination...and they're probably not going to use a Siamese cat to make the noises for the giant spiders.
Speaking of which: why am I not surprised that the first science fiction story ever recorded has giant spiders (15) and bald moon men (23)?
I'll be gone most of April because I'll be in Ecuador and that little chain of islands off her coast. It should be interesting.
I've been reading a field guide to the birds of Ecuador to familiarize myself with the avian residents, which isn't as easy as it sounds: the field guide that lists the birds of fairly small South American country is more than twice as thick and has pages 25% larger than my field guide to the birds of the entire continent of North America. That's biodiversity for you.
They're making a movie out of "The Mist"! [warning for the easily offended: naughty language and icky descriptions] Of course, I guess this means that very few of the horrors are going to be left to the imagination...and they're probably not going to use a Siamese cat to make the noises for the giant spiders.
Speaking of which: why am I not surprised that the first science fiction story ever recorded has giant spiders (15) and bald moon men (23)?
I'll be gone most of April because I'll be in Ecuador and that little chain of islands off her coast. It should be interesting.
I've been reading a field guide to the birds of Ecuador to familiarize myself with the avian residents, which isn't as easy as it sounds: the field guide that lists the birds of fairly small South American country is more than twice as thick and has pages 25% larger than my field guide to the birds of the entire continent of North America. That's biodiversity for you.
12 October 2006 @ 06:11 pm
After three months, I seem to have more or less completed the main body of writing for the ubersecret project of some interest to King's Quest fans that will be unveiled exactly four weeks from now. Approximately 423 pages of 14-point font, single-spaced text of flaming death!! Hopefully my faithful betas will be able to withstand such a monstrosity.
In unrelated news: older science fiction stories are well-known for their hit-or-miss predictions of the future. In the X Minus One story "The Map Makers", a crew member on board a spaceship is blinded in an accident, and as he is resting in sickbay, the ship is forced to go into a hyperspace jump, which causes the senses of everyone aboard to become sickeningly distorted. When the jump begins, the scene switches to the sickbay, and the blinded crew member lets out this horrible, terrified scream -- not a macho bellow of pain and outrage, but a scream of a man who is truly and utterly horrified (at the 12:58 mark). When one of the attendents tries to comfort him, he starts moaning, "My eyes...my eyes..." in this pitiful, fear-stricken wail (13:16).
What does this have to do with predicting the future? Well, the memory of that visceral scream and that anguished repeated line kept coming to mind as I was reading the latest batch of Harry Potter Summary Execution Entries... My eyyyyeeeessss...
In unrelated news: older science fiction stories are well-known for their hit-or-miss predictions of the future. In the X Minus One story "The Map Makers", a crew member on board a spaceship is blinded in an accident, and as he is resting in sickbay, the ship is forced to go into a hyperspace jump, which causes the senses of everyone aboard to become sickeningly distorted. When the jump begins, the scene switches to the sickbay, and the blinded crew member lets out this horrible, terrified scream -- not a macho bellow of pain and outrage, but a scream of a man who is truly and utterly horrified (at the 12:58 mark). When one of the attendents tries to comfort him, he starts moaning, "My eyes...my eyes..." in this pitiful, fear-stricken wail (13:16).
What does this have to do with predicting the future? Well, the memory of that visceral scream and that anguished repeated line kept coming to mind as I was reading the latest batch of Harry Potter Summary Execution Entries... My eyyyyeeeessss...
28 July 2006 @ 10:27 pm
"One leg of my bed is hanging out into space! It's...it's DANGEROUS up there!"
Something that the Mac enthusiasts don’t tell you is that if you love ancient Mac games and you want to reinstall them on your new computer and you have no way to transfer the files, you are pretty much screwed.
Apparently, newer Macs can’t read floppies of a certain age. Your only options upon inserting one of these disks is to either eject it or initialize it (that’s not the verb you’d associate with rubbing out every iota of data on the disk, is it?). PCs may be the evilest of evils, but I’ll bet my toes it can still read my 1987 IBM floppies.
Moon Over Morocco. You’ll never know just how intense radio can be until you listen to something like this. It seems oddly slow now that I’m listening to it again after all these years, but that’s probably just a reminder of how fast I’ve been moving.
It’s also a little outdated by today’s standards too, speaking of Islam decades before 9/11 and all. One of the biggest oddities is when the American protagonist, Jack Flanders, checks into a hotel, the balcony of his room starts to fall off.
While he’s standing on it.
It falls off completely just after he’s able to escape it, and it isn’t until the outside wall of his room falls off that he starts getting genuinely outraged at the concierge, and he requests that his bags be picked up on the pretext of checking out.
Wow. I mean, wow. An American tourist loses 1/3 of his hotel room, and the only thing he does is ask the concierge to send someone to pick up his bags?! If something like that happened today, your typical American tourist would be screaming bloody murder at the hotel management and threatening to either sue or bomb the entire country, possibly both.
Things do change.
Back onto Stars & Stuff for a moment: Most of the stories don’t have much in the way of plot or resolution, but they’re just so fun to listen to that you hardly even notice the lack of a solid ending. The stories are also quite twisted, and they tweak the sci-fi standards in a very noticeable way – the hero who discovers all the secrets of the government is a black ex-janitor, the leader of an all-controlling dictatorship is nothing more than a lethargic, pathetic, paranoid whiner (who insists on being called “Your Preciousness”), and the two “heroes” who explore an wild planet in a fairly generic sci-fi story are both portrayed by African-American voice actors.
Then there’s the wizard from “The Ah-Hah! Phenomena” – I’ve always loved his tuxedo with the solar system covering it. Naturally, he’s a great and powerful wizard, but don’t count on him being able to control his power – he manages to set himself on fire in the first seven minutes of his appearance.
Then there’s the so-called time-travelling car from “Bobby Bonecutter”. I have yet to find another sci-fi story with a car acting as a time machine besides Back to the Future*, yet I feel there *has* to be one predating ZBS’s story. Does anyone know of any time-travelling stories featuring modified automobiles that date prior to 1977?
( Here's where it gets personal )
*Oddly, Bobby Bonecutter comes from the township of Lyon…didn’t Marty McFly live in Lyon Estates?
Subject line from MoM.
Apparently, newer Macs can’t read floppies of a certain age. Your only options upon inserting one of these disks is to either eject it or initialize it (that’s not the verb you’d associate with rubbing out every iota of data on the disk, is it?). PCs may be the evilest of evils, but I’ll bet my toes it can still read my 1987 IBM floppies.
Moon Over Morocco. You’ll never know just how intense radio can be until you listen to something like this. It seems oddly slow now that I’m listening to it again after all these years, but that’s probably just a reminder of how fast I’ve been moving.
It’s also a little outdated by today’s standards too, speaking of Islam decades before 9/11 and all. One of the biggest oddities is when the American protagonist, Jack Flanders, checks into a hotel, the balcony of his room starts to fall off.
While he’s standing on it.
It falls off completely just after he’s able to escape it, and it isn’t until the outside wall of his room falls off that he starts getting genuinely outraged at the concierge, and he requests that his bags be picked up on the pretext of checking out.
Wow. I mean, wow. An American tourist loses 1/3 of his hotel room, and the only thing he does is ask the concierge to send someone to pick up his bags?! If something like that happened today, your typical American tourist would be screaming bloody murder at the hotel management and threatening to either sue or bomb the entire country, possibly both.
Things do change.
Back onto Stars & Stuff for a moment: Most of the stories don’t have much in the way of plot or resolution, but they’re just so fun to listen to that you hardly even notice the lack of a solid ending. The stories are also quite twisted, and they tweak the sci-fi standards in a very noticeable way – the hero who discovers all the secrets of the government is a black ex-janitor, the leader of an all-controlling dictatorship is nothing more than a lethargic, pathetic, paranoid whiner (who insists on being called “Your Preciousness”), and the two “heroes” who explore an wild planet in a fairly generic sci-fi story are both portrayed by African-American voice actors.
Then there’s the wizard from “The Ah-Hah! Phenomena” – I’ve always loved his tuxedo with the solar system covering it. Naturally, he’s a great and powerful wizard, but don’t count on him being able to control his power – he manages to set himself on fire in the first seven minutes of his appearance.
Then there’s the so-called time-travelling car from “Bobby Bonecutter”. I have yet to find another sci-fi story with a car acting as a time machine besides Back to the Future*, yet I feel there *has* to be one predating ZBS’s story. Does anyone know of any time-travelling stories featuring modified automobiles that date prior to 1977?
( Here's where it gets personal )
*Oddly, Bobby Bonecutter comes from the township of Lyon…didn’t Marty McFly live in Lyon Estates?
Subject line from MoM.
15 July 2006 @ 10:17 pm
And I am a shrub. [...] We've all been shrubs, ever since the Carboniferous Age.
I am in love with this short story!
I was reading through Sheckley's The People Trap and starting to get a little depressed because of the content of the short stories I'd read so far (ruined world, this guy gets killed, another ruined world). I was starting to think that Sheckley's humorous period at this point in his books was over, then suddenly, I read one that was amazingly light-hearted, and the one that followed was so funny and so enjoyable that it was nearly unbelievable.
It's called "The Odor of Thought", and I suppose the main theme is a little...60's-ish. Not that I have any problems with that, but I'm sure that's a turn-off for some.
Picture this: An alien planet populated by animals with no eyes or ears. How do they hunt and avoid danger? They sense your thoughts. An unfortunate Earth man discovers this, and has to try to stay alive on this world for three days.
Unfortunately, when an eyeless, earless panther is stalking you, it's very hard not to think the word "panther"...and if you do that, the panther will sense you. So our protagonist has to come up with new ways to trick the planet's wildlife -- his first one is mentally asserting to the panther that he is a pantheress ("...and what did this panther mean by frightening her like this?").
It's yet another one of those "boy, I wish I'd thought of that" stories. And of course, there's one of those delicious plot twists at the end. I live for surprises like that. Hopefully the rest of the stories in this book will be equally worthwhile.
And did I mention that it's really funny?
I love this little wonder so much that I want to do...something with it, but I suspect it would be best if I just let it be. It's one of those stories that only works in a texual format*, where all the action takes place in your head.
If only this bliddy book weren't out of print...
*sort of like the Thursday Next series, where the characters communicate through footnotes. That doesn't translate to an audiobook very well.
I was reading through Sheckley's The People Trap and starting to get a little depressed because of the content of the short stories I'd read so far (ruined world, this guy gets killed, another ruined world). I was starting to think that Sheckley's humorous period at this point in his books was over, then suddenly, I read one that was amazingly light-hearted, and the one that followed was so funny and so enjoyable that it was nearly unbelievable.
It's called "The Odor of Thought", and I suppose the main theme is a little...60's-ish. Not that I have any problems with that, but I'm sure that's a turn-off for some.
Picture this: An alien planet populated by animals with no eyes or ears. How do they hunt and avoid danger? They sense your thoughts. An unfortunate Earth man discovers this, and has to try to stay alive on this world for three days.
Unfortunately, when an eyeless, earless panther is stalking you, it's very hard not to think the word "panther"...and if you do that, the panther will sense you. So our protagonist has to come up with new ways to trick the planet's wildlife -- his first one is mentally asserting to the panther that he is a pantheress ("...and what did this panther mean by frightening her like this?").
It's yet another one of those "boy, I wish I'd thought of that" stories. And of course, there's one of those delicious plot twists at the end. I live for surprises like that. Hopefully the rest of the stories in this book will be equally worthwhile.
And did I mention that it's really funny?
"No more fuel," [Cheevy] said. "Catalytic actions, I think. I told you we needed new fuel tanks. I'm putting down on the first oxygen planet I find."
[...]
"I'll try 3-M-22"! he shouted over the mounting static.
"Take good care of the mail," the postmaster howled back. I'm sending a ship right out."
Cheevy told him what he could do with the mail, all 20 pounds of it. But the postmaster had signed off by then.
He looked around and saw that a small animal was passing near him. It was about the size of a squirrel, but with dull green fur.
As it came close, he saw that it had no ears or eyes.
This didn't surprise him. On the contrary, it seemed quite fitting. Why in hell should a squirrel have ears and eyes? Squirrels were better off not seeing the pain and torture of the world, not hearing the anguished screams of...
I love this little wonder so much that I want to do...something with it, but I suspect it would be best if I just let it be. It's one of those stories that only works in a texual format*, where all the action takes place in your head.
If only this bliddy book weren't out of print...
*sort of like the Thursday Next series, where the characters communicate through footnotes. That doesn't translate to an audiobook very well.
12 July 2006 @ 11:02 pm
Ever read something or listen to something that makes you think of something totally unrelated to the context it is in, even if the author didn't intend that something to be interpreted that way?
I've had this happen a couple of times. When I first heard the X Minus One episode "The Lifeboat Mutiny", the computer controlling the lifeboat of the story's title has imprisoned its two occupants because of its obselete, misguided programming. When the two men are quietly planning their escape, the computer suddenly asks, "What are you doing?". The tone and inflection of the voice reminded me of HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey" so much that I burst out laughing, and I still can't hear that line without smirking.
Today, I was reading a story by Robert Sheckley (in Shards of Space, which came in the mail today -- I can't believe I used to shun eBay) in which a man is prospecting for precious ore in the vast, unforgiving deserts of Venus (this was written in the early 60's. Stop cringing.), hiking through then unforgiving terrain, penniless, and running out of supplies.
He attracts the attention of some of Venus' hungry desert wildlife, such as sandwolves and black kites, who start following him as his water begins to run out. Finally, he whirls around and defiantly yells, "I'm not dead yet!" to the vicious animals.
Any other Monty Python fans will understand why I burst out laughing when I read this. I suppose it's a bit sick, but I've laughed at sicker things...
...like the song that plays at the end of the musical "Carousel". When I first heard it, I was snickering almost all the way through it, because it was the same song that Eddie the Shipboard Computer sang in the H2G2 radio drama. The protagonist has just been stabbed to death and is now watching his wife and daughter from the great beyond, and I'm trying not to laugh audibly.
Well, I never was crazy about relationships anyway.
I've had this happen a couple of times. When I first heard the X Minus One episode "The Lifeboat Mutiny", the computer controlling the lifeboat of the story's title has imprisoned its two occupants because of its obselete, misguided programming. When the two men are quietly planning their escape, the computer suddenly asks, "What are you doing?". The tone and inflection of the voice reminded me of HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey" so much that I burst out laughing, and I still can't hear that line without smirking.
Today, I was reading a story by Robert Sheckley (in Shards of Space, which came in the mail today -- I can't believe I used to shun eBay) in which a man is prospecting for precious ore in the vast, unforgiving deserts of Venus (this was written in the early 60's. Stop cringing.), hiking through then unforgiving terrain, penniless, and running out of supplies.
He attracts the attention of some of Venus' hungry desert wildlife, such as sandwolves and black kites, who start following him as his water begins to run out. Finally, he whirls around and defiantly yells, "I'm not dead yet!" to the vicious animals.
Any other Monty Python fans will understand why I burst out laughing when I read this. I suppose it's a bit sick, but I've laughed at sicker things...
...like the song that plays at the end of the musical "Carousel". When I first heard it, I was snickering almost all the way through it, because it was the same song that Eddie the Shipboard Computer sang in the H2G2 radio drama. The protagonist has just been stabbed to death and is now watching his wife and daughter from the great beyond, and I'm trying not to laugh audibly.
Well, I never was crazy about relationships anyway.
26 June 2006 @ 07:02 pm
13 May 2006 @ 10:51 pm
I got two see the family of white-tailed kites that lives in the park near us today. There are two adults and at least two juveniles. I've seen them twice before, but this time, I got to see one the kites giving the other food -- Kite 1 was perched in a tree, then Kite 2 flew in with something in its claws. Kite 1 takes off, meets Kite 2 in midair and almost turns over in midair, snatching the food with its talons from Kite 2 as it passes under it, their feet almost touching. I'm almost positive that these were the parents, and that this was courtship feeding -- I've never seen such an elaborate display by raptors before.
And apparently, posting an entry about an imagined ailment (i. e., chronic bad timing) is a bad idea. Yesterday I was planning to record a song from an Internet radio station that I'd requested some time ago (it can take hours for a requested song to play), and I'd calculated approximately when the song would play, I had everything ready to record it...
...and guess when the Internet decides to go "lemming" on me?
I frantically try to recycle the power, and my connection is resurrected just in time for me to see my song jump up the playlist.
And as if that weren't bad enough, I was trying to record another sound clip from a radio station that night after we'd gone out to dinner, and just as it is about to play, the family realises that out deaf indoor cat has escaped into the great outdoors. Thank goodness he came back home unscathed, but I was worried sick. At least I got that recording*...makes me wonder if it was worth it, though.
Looks as if I've heard anything on that sci-fi radio show I was talking about last time had to offer...one of the more interesting episodes had Jack Benny playing a Martian. I'm sure that wasn't one of his better roles. I guess I'll have to hunt down some MP3s now...considering the age of these shows, I probably won't have much trouble with copyright infringement.
For anyone who is interested, here's a page with a lot of "X Minus One" MP3s. I highly recommend these:
"Universe" - quite an amazing, well-done concept. Leave it to religious superstition to spoil everything, though.
"The Defenders" - it starts out as a typical, depressing "humanity living underground because of nuclear war" story...but things are not quite what they seem (story by Phillip K. Dick, whose short stories have been the basis for "Blade Runner", "Minority Report" and "Total Recall").
"Junkyard" - the episode with MacGyver in it. The solution to the crew's problem is logical, yet so ridiculous...don't you like it when authors don't take themselves seriously?
"Tunnel Under the World" - remember that X-Files episode "Monday", where Mulder keeps living the same day over and over? The creators were accused of ripping off the movie "Groundhog Day", which has Bill Murray doing the same thing, but they defended themselves by saying, "No, we're ripping off 'The Twilight Zone!'" Well, before any of these, there was this recurring mind-bender...
"The C-Chute" - A story by Asimov. The unlikely hero's explnation for his deeds is a real "awwwww"-inducer.
"Protective Mimicry" - A fun, hardboiled detective story set in space with some inventive elements and dialogue:
"Do you know anything about the sealed power pack on this condenser?"
"Yeah, if you keep banging on it like that, you'll crack the seal on the atomic shielding and your posterity will thank you...three heads at a time."
*Speaking of recording: to record whatever comes out of the speakers on a PC, you need to go to the Sounds and Audio Properties window (under Control Panel) click on the Volume button under Recording, then select the Stereo Mix box. I had no idea this was possible, and I'm just spreading the word.
And apparently, posting an entry about an imagined ailment (i. e., chronic bad timing) is a bad idea. Yesterday I was planning to record a song from an Internet radio station that I'd requested some time ago (it can take hours for a requested song to play), and I'd calculated approximately when the song would play, I had everything ready to record it...
...and guess when the Internet decides to go "lemming" on me?
I frantically try to recycle the power, and my connection is resurrected just in time for me to see my song jump up the playlist.
And as if that weren't bad enough, I was trying to record another sound clip from a radio station that night after we'd gone out to dinner, and just as it is about to play, the family realises that out deaf indoor cat has escaped into the great outdoors. Thank goodness he came back home unscathed, but I was worried sick. At least I got that recording*...makes me wonder if it was worth it, though.
Looks as if I've heard anything on that sci-fi radio show I was talking about last time had to offer...one of the more interesting episodes had Jack Benny playing a Martian. I'm sure that wasn't one of his better roles. I guess I'll have to hunt down some MP3s now...considering the age of these shows, I probably won't have much trouble with copyright infringement.
For anyone who is interested, here's a page with a lot of "X Minus One" MP3s. I highly recommend these:
"Universe" - quite an amazing, well-done concept. Leave it to religious superstition to spoil everything, though.
"The Defenders" - it starts out as a typical, depressing "humanity living underground because of nuclear war" story...but things are not quite what they seem (story by Phillip K. Dick, whose short stories have been the basis for "Blade Runner", "Minority Report" and "Total Recall").
"Junkyard" - the episode with MacGyver in it. The solution to the crew's problem is logical, yet so ridiculous...don't you like it when authors don't take themselves seriously?
"Tunnel Under the World" - remember that X-Files episode "Monday", where Mulder keeps living the same day over and over? The creators were accused of ripping off the movie "Groundhog Day", which has Bill Murray doing the same thing, but they defended themselves by saying, "No, we're ripping off 'The Twilight Zone!'" Well, before any of these, there was this recurring mind-bender...
"The C-Chute" - A story by Asimov. The unlikely hero's explnation for his deeds is a real "awwwww"-inducer.
"Protective Mimicry" - A fun, hardboiled detective story set in space with some inventive elements and dialogue:
"Do you know anything about the sealed power pack on this condenser?"
"Yeah, if you keep banging on it like that, you'll crack the seal on the atomic shielding and your posterity will thank you...three heads at a time."
*Speaking of recording: to record whatever comes out of the speakers on a PC, you need to go to the Sounds and Audio Properties window (under Control Panel) click on the Volume button under Recording, then select the Stereo Mix box. I had no idea this was possible, and I'm just spreading the word.
11 May 2006 @ 08:59 am
I got a bit panicky yesterday because my calendar book said that Mother’s Day was yesterday. It turns out that it was…for Mexico.
Although considering the current state of immigrant affairs, it may not be long before us Californians are celebrating Mexico’s Mother’s Day…ehm, excuse me: Dia del Madres.
Speaking of confused cultures, I met yet another person who thought I was from Britain a couple of days ago because of my “accent”. Have I listened to Monty Python and H2G2 that much?
( Incredibly long commentary on OTR sci-fi storytelling, leukocytes, bad timing, and parasites, so large that I had to stick some horizontal rules in it )
New icon. I’ll probably be using it a lot. I considered having that quote on a note on my door once.
subject line from Space Quest 6 (though it has probably appeared elsewhere as well)
Although considering the current state of immigrant affairs, it may not be long before us Californians are celebrating Mexico’s Mother’s Day…ehm, excuse me: Dia del Madres.
Speaking of confused cultures, I met yet another person who thought I was from Britain a couple of days ago because of my “accent”. Have I listened to Monty Python and H2G2 that much?
( Incredibly long commentary on OTR sci-fi storytelling, leukocytes, bad timing, and parasites, so large that I had to stick some horizontal rules in it )
New icon. I’ll probably be using it a lot. I considered having that quote on a note on my door once.
subject line from Space Quest 6 (though it has probably appeared elsewhere as well)