Naginata

It is inevitable, Mr. Case

It's a spoilin good time today. If you haven't read Neuromancer AND seen "The Matrix", this post is not for you.

That being said, I'm not going to do the "click to read more" thing because I'm just that crazy.

I just finished reading Neuromancer the other day, and I have to say that I'm glad the Matrix brothers decided to make it a movie (or three).

Seriously, it's like they wrote down every plot element and character from Neuromancer, and then fiddled with a few things, added a splash of pseudo-religious chaff and then threw it up on the screen. I'm glad I didn't read the book before I saw the movie, because that would have spoiled it for me.

That being said, here's my rundown:
1) Trinity gets captured and abused instead of Morpheus. Morpheus is ok through part of the movie, but then goes crazy and tries to kill everyone. Pretty much they split Armitage into two characters, the cool, collected guy (and they made him slightly cooler) and the evil crazy one (and they made him a real bastard).

2) Wintermute = The Architect. Neuromancer = The Oracle. The difference is that these two merge, instead of Neo merging with the Source. Also, the door of light, I know this is kind of a reach, but could it be similar to the Ice around Wintermute? Hmm... the assault on wintermute certainly didn't require multiple teams acting in unison to strike different targets... or a SPECIAL KEY THAT ONLY ONE PERSON HAD.

3) Look, they both call Cyberspace "The Matrix". That's like, a freebie for people like me.

4) Both of them have the badass female superchick lead fall for the bumbling idiot guy, who turns out to have crazy powers. Not exactly the same story (or the same ending), but it's there. I guess that's sort of inevitable. Also, Trinity takes her glasses off about as often as Molly does.

5) Both of them have an unstoppable ninja guy who they start out fighting, but who turns out to be an ally of convenience, at the very least. Personally, I think that Hideo could destroy Seraph, if they started out with any kind of range between him.

... I'm sure there's others that I'm not thinking of right now, and that we're about to start a long thread detailing them, so I'll leave the rest of the hard work up to you.

Butterflies

Cynan rented Butterfly Effect last night, and it's pretty creepy. Since I'm bad about spoilers, you're going to have to click.

Unless you're getting this from a feedreader, in which case, STOP READING!

So, nitpick time, these aren't so much problems with the movie (because I have very few) as much as they are things that I would have done differently if I were Evan. Or at least thought about doing differently.

First of all, he could have easily proven to anyone that he had powers. Like he did to the guy in prison, when he got the stigmata. Of course, what's the point of proving something to someone when your goal is to make it so they never met you anyway.

Also, the director's cut ending was much better than the theatrical ending, even though it was the most depressing thing I've ever seen in any movie (including Requiem for a Dream). The theatrical ending was GOOD, mind you, it just wasn't as "kick me in the pants" as the DC ending.

... and now I'm out of steam.

Jive Talking

So, I've realized (again) that I type like I talk. A few individuals have brought to my attention that my style of writing, while conversational and all that jazz, is often "not good" grammatically.

For example, in IM, I'd type this:
I tend to use dramatic pauses, when I want to add particular emphasis to certain ideas. It's as if, I don't know, I want the person to be able to read the sentence, and know exactly how I'D say it.

Where there's clearly a few extra commas in there.

I'm about 3 steps away from being Bill Shatner here, it's quite frightening.

So...

As a libertarian, would it be wrong for me to collect unemployment.

I think I'll call boortz on monday, in the mid-morning. You know, because I don't have anything better to do.

Well...

</job>

The Naginata Diet

So, my amazing diet plan seems to be working, as I'm now down 20 pounds.

That is to say, from my absolute heaviest point to my absolute lightest point (this morning), there's a difference of 20 pounds. Considering that I lost a lot of water yesterday, and also the times involved, it's probably more like 15 pounds, but hey, I'll take it.

That all being said, I'm sure you're dying to hear my secret, so here it is: There is no secret. Don't overindulge your appetite more than the 2-4 times a month required to maintain sanity, and work out like a MANIAC 4-6 times a week. I'm saying like, 45 minutes should be a "light" workout. If you jog 4-6 miles, or spend 2 hours moving iron, that's more like it. My typical workout week:
Monday: Weights for 1.5-2.5 hours
Tuesday: 4+ miles jogging
Wednesday: 1 hour Tae Kwon Do
Thursday: Weights for 1.5-2.5 hours
Friday or Saturday: 4+ miles jogging or 1 hour karate/tae kwon do, sometimes both.

It took me 16 months to lose this weight, but dammit, I lost it, and I'm not done yet.

Also, all you people with hyperfast metabolism: I hate you.

Free Speech

So, here's the thing... first of all, whatever your political leanings, that comic is funny. If it's not funny, read it again until it is, because I laughed, and dammit, you should too.

That being said, yes, it's so terrible that the police are coralling protesters out of the way in these "free speech zones". It happened at the G8 summit, it happened at the DNC, it's going to happen again. Look, I don't like the practice, I think it's tragic that it has come to that, but let's consider why, in one of the free-est nations on the face of this earth, we have come to this:

1) Terrorism. How hard would it be for a few terroristas to slip into a crowd of protesters outside, and fire upon VIPs as they were entering the building. Yeah, it wouldn't be "easy", but we need to at least acknowledge the possibility. If we allow the nutjobs right up to the doors of the place, the police are probably going to want to search them or hit them with a portable metal detector - which the nutjobs are just going to love.

2) Commerce. I've been to a protest or two, and while there's a lot of respectful, peaceful protests, there's also a lot that go the other way. One of the groups notorious for this is the pro-lifers - you've seen the pictures of them lying down in the driveways of abortion clinics and worse, and that's what I'm talking about. It's not just the pro-lifers either, any time you get a bunch of angry, like-minded people together in proximity to the object of their rage, you've got a potentially explosive situation.

So, what are the police to do? They must acknowledge the rights of the nutjobs to voice their opinions, but must also protect the rights of people to carry out their normal business without being harassed. I think that, in many ways, the "free speech zone" idea is the result of protesters getting out of hand, moreso than the police getting out of hand. I'm sure there's a few policemen who salivate at the idea of creating some sort of "hippie corral", but I bet to most of them, it's something they do reluctantly.

Weekend Stuff

So, strange things this weekend... went home to see the Girlfriend after her foot surgery, and hang out with people I haven't seen in a long time. She needs to learn to not act crazy, in spite of her broken foot. No one with 2 broken appendages should be kneeling "backwards" on their wheelchair, pushing it along with their one good foot, and yelling "wheee!"

That being said, the ride back was a trip. Stopped in K-Town to get gas/dinner, and then lit up a cigar to help the last leg of the trip pass a little quicker. Was almost done with the cigar, and just north of L-Town(I think) when I saw a dust cloud off to the left of the road as I was turning a bend. Then I saw the white top of a car bouncing through a cornfield. So I pulled over into the next driveway, put the flashers on, and ran up the road to where the car was, in the ditch.

There's a woman inside, crying (of course), a few other people stopped and we managed to talk her into pulling back onto the road. She's very, very lucky there wasn't more damage to the car (it still ran fine), and that she didn't get a bump along the way. She did some real damage to that cornfield.

So, I felt good that I didn't really have to think about what I was doing until I was up at her window, me jumping out of the car was automatic. On the downside, I dropped my cigar in that cornfield, so if there's a fire down there... well, I'll have to do some creative editing of this post :p

Oh, and I almost got rear-ended soon after that. Yes, I stopped a little fast... the car 2 cars up slammed on the brakes and it kind of went downhill from there, fortunately the guy behind me had the presence of mind to swirve instead of skid. Bless you, giant blue truck man.

And finally, from the Department of the Interior:
Acceptance is better than forgiveness. Acceptance is the act of saying "Ok, X has occured, as a result of your actions, but I have integrated the consequences of X into my view of the world, and find Y" Forgiveness is the act of saying "Ok, X has occured, as a result of your actions, and I absolve you of your responsibility for those actions". Forgiveness denies the consequences, and removes the need for responsibility. Real forgiveness, that "forgive and forget" forgiveness, denies reality.