I know I'm doing it to death, but: Primal Veer:
"When a blood-spattered altar boy (Ed Norton) is found running from "[some]" murder scene, his conviction seems c[replace/ertain/ritical]. But when arrogant defense attorney [replace/Martin Vail (Richard Gere/lulz what should i put here?/]) steps in, the issue of the boy's possible guil[replace(streetfigher reference)/t/e/] may be less important than winning the [replace/case/EVO Championship/]. Based on the n[o/a]vel by William Diehl, this twist[replace/y/ed metal] thriller delivers a perfect police procedural with characters that " [were] "deeper than they appear"[ed]"."
Imported reference video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcCCP3jIGrk
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, November 26, 2010
Slow, progressive review of Gran Turismo 5: The Real Driving Simulator game
So I'm taking it very slow with this GT5: The Real Driving Simulator game, and I think the product is best appreciated that way. On every menu screen, where I may have been previously impatient, or bitchy about loading times, with this game I feel a genuine inclination to savor the entire experience. There are, like, 5 years of who-knows-how-many people it took to make this game, so I find it very easy to justify the contemplation of exactly what the hell is happening at each screen that is presented.
For example, they have a 'Special' section in the menus, where you can do more strange things than one may normally expect from a car racing game. The first one is Kart Racing, which gets unlocked once you reach level 2 or 3 (I forget), but while that is pretty interesting, what I was really blown away by was when I clicked into the 'Nascar' special event. Anybody who knows me knows how much I have laughed at Nascar in general, and also the people who pay good money to sit down and watch it. But in this game, when you enter the Nascar event, you get a substantial CG introduction that isn't so much about "Hey look, a CG with the top guy in Nascar" but some very compelling information about the sport itself--for example, they tell you how it was started around the 1940s or something (leaving you to wonder what these guys were thinking, in the middle of World War 2), and how the actual engineering of the frame of the car is what makes Nascar racing interesting to car enthusiasts. Then, the first event in the game is this awesome exercise in 'drafting', and as you are doing it, you fully realize exactly how well physics are being simulated here. Great experience.
Next on the list in the 'Special' section is a series of events held within a recreation of the 'Top Gear' test track, which you will see is actually an '8' shaped airfield. This also has an exclusive CG introduction, where they try and make sure you realize that there is one point (in the 8 shaped track) where the roads actually intersect, posing greater risk to drivers. The video ruminates on the issue that on pretty much every other track you basically have only two dynamics to really worry about--what is happening in front, and what is at the back. But in the Top Gear test track, you also have to look left and right. And if you think that isn't compelling enough, in that first event, you're driving a goddamned Volkswagon van. That's the thing that really got me.
Anyway, further exploration of the game will come about, slowly.
For example, they have a 'Special' section in the menus, where you can do more strange things than one may normally expect from a car racing game. The first one is Kart Racing, which gets unlocked once you reach level 2 or 3 (I forget), but while that is pretty interesting, what I was really blown away by was when I clicked into the 'Nascar' special event. Anybody who knows me knows how much I have laughed at Nascar in general, and also the people who pay good money to sit down and watch it. But in this game, when you enter the Nascar event, you get a substantial CG introduction that isn't so much about "Hey look, a CG with the top guy in Nascar" but some very compelling information about the sport itself--for example, they tell you how it was started around the 1940s or something (leaving you to wonder what these guys were thinking, in the middle of World War 2), and how the actual engineering of the frame of the car is what makes Nascar racing interesting to car enthusiasts. Then, the first event in the game is this awesome exercise in 'drafting', and as you are doing it, you fully realize exactly how well physics are being simulated here. Great experience.
Next on the list in the 'Special' section is a series of events held within a recreation of the 'Top Gear' test track, which you will see is actually an '8' shaped airfield. This also has an exclusive CG introduction, where they try and make sure you realize that there is one point (in the 8 shaped track) where the roads actually intersect, posing greater risk to drivers. The video ruminates on the issue that on pretty much every other track you basically have only two dynamics to really worry about--what is happening in front, and what is at the back. But in the Top Gear test track, you also have to look left and right. And if you think that isn't compelling enough, in that first event, you're driving a goddamned Volkswagon van. That's the thing that really got me.
Anyway, further exploration of the game will come about, slowly.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Let me tell you something about fuckin' 'Inception'
Witness the power of blogspot.So I make some plans to go watch this movie with this friend who's always like "aww how come you never watch any new movies with me?" right? So I wait till 8pm then step outside. Take a cab from Chelsea to Union Square. I'm in a hurry. Also, sometimes if I walk across streets I feel I could fall down and experience an stroke or something. So I just take a cab.
I arrive there by 8:20. My expectation is that my friend has tickets for
'Inception' ready, and we can go into the damn theatre and watch the fucking movie. This is the same guy, by the way, who bought the wrong fucking tickets when we went to watch whatever fucking movie it was last time. He got tickets for 6:15 when we were actually going to watch the 9:15 show. What was that fucking movie, anyway. Oh yeah. 'Splice'.
You'd think I'd learned my lesson, right?
Imagine my goddamned surprise when I see this fucking guy gliding past at 8:29, trying to look like the coolest dude on the street. I hail him, and we establish some kind of greeting discourse, and then he tells me that he's going down somewhere to get some cash from an ATM machine (for the tickets).
I pull this fucker out of his course and show him that there are no more shows of 'Inception' for the rest of the night.
To be honest it was my fault for not just getting a fucking cab. This guy blows up into this whole fucking demonstration. Suddenly it's fucking 'Lollypop Day', according to him now. We walk all the way back up the street to find another theater, and all I fucking hear is this guy's point of view about the fucking world. Apparently it is 'Lollypop Day' and this guy really enjoys being obnoxious. I want to tell this fucker to go back to Brooklyn, but apparently they ban him from there during 'sleeping hours'.
At least there is one funny thing as we walk by. As we walk by we see this store called "Big D's". And guess what: "Big D's has a *blowout* sale". This is fucking highlight of this journey. It was at the peak of this moment that I pulled him into the New York City Metro System, a.k.a fucking hole into the uptown F train, after you reach the L train fucking pedestal, before which you are inside the downtown F train area, before which you are still en queue (this is a setup) for an L train. Apparently Williamsburough is fucking big now. Anyway, before all that, we did, admittedly, step into an L train hole.
What I forgot to tell you all this time is that this friend of mine actually got very hurt that he was not able to watch Inception this very night. I think he had made a deal with some girlfriend of his or something that he was going to watch Inception today, before her, and now he was very angry that he did not get to see the movie.
He started attacking passengers in the subway. "Happy Lollypop Day!" he would cry out. There was an air of uncomfortable silence wherever he went. Like how a chef would let a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top of good pasta. There was this old woman wearing a hijab with her whole family, and her took her by the arms, kissed her directly on the mouth, and said, "Why the fuck do you stupid people have to watch Inception? What is wrong with you? I should be in that cinema!"
After that it was fairly mundane. We went to a place he thought was the bomb. Then we went to another place he thought was the bomb. Then, having been affected all these years by this fucking skank, I said something about Lollypop Day to the wrong person, and suddenly there was going to be a big fight. Luckily it ended out that there wasn't a huge fight.
.
Now all we have to differentiate is psychopaths from sociopaths. Which is probably easier than actually going and watching Inception. I noticed something peculiar with this guy. He's very focused on being 'correct'. He even pulled the whole "So you think just cos I'm a doorman" bit on me. To be honest, I don't think he really even wanted to ever watch 'Inception'.
I think I should see the movie without any external influence.
I arrive there by 8:20. My expectation is that my friend has tickets for
'Inception' ready, and we can go into the damn theatre and watch the fucking movie. This is the same guy, by the way, who bought the wrong fucking tickets when we went to watch whatever fucking movie it was last time. He got tickets for 6:15 when we were actually going to watch the 9:15 show. What was that fucking movie, anyway. Oh yeah. 'Splice'.
You'd think I'd learned my lesson, right?
Imagine my goddamned surprise when I see this fucking guy gliding past at 8:29, trying to look like the coolest dude on the street. I hail him, and we establish some kind of greeting discourse, and then he tells me that he's going down somewhere to get some cash from an ATM machine (for the tickets).
I pull this fucker out of his course and show him that there are no more shows of 'Inception' for the rest of the night.
To be honest it was my fault for not just getting a fucking cab. This guy blows up into this whole fucking demonstration. Suddenly it's fucking 'Lollypop Day', according to him now. We walk all the way back up the street to find another theater, and all I fucking hear is this guy's point of view about the fucking world. Apparently it is 'Lollypop Day' and this guy really enjoys being obnoxious. I want to tell this fucker to go back to Brooklyn, but apparently they ban him from there during 'sleeping hours'.
At least there is one funny thing as we walk by. As we walk by we see this store called "Big D's". And guess what: "Big D's has a *blowout* sale". This is fucking highlight of this journey. It was at the peak of this moment that I pulled him into the New York City Metro System, a.k.a fucking hole into the uptown F train, after you reach the L train fucking pedestal, before which you are inside the downtown F train area, before which you are still en queue (this is a setup) for an L train. Apparently Williamsburough is fucking big now. Anyway, before all that, we did, admittedly, step into an L train hole.
What I forgot to tell you all this time is that this friend of mine actually got very hurt that he was not able to watch Inception this very night. I think he had made a deal with some girlfriend of his or something that he was going to watch Inception today, before her, and now he was very angry that he did not get to see the movie.
He started attacking passengers in the subway. "Happy Lollypop Day!" he would cry out. There was an air of uncomfortable silence wherever he went. Like how a chef would let a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top of good pasta. There was this old woman wearing a hijab with her whole family, and her took her by the arms, kissed her directly on the mouth, and said, "Why the fuck do you stupid people have to watch Inception? What is wrong with you? I should be in that cinema!"
After that it was fairly mundane. We went to a place he thought was the bomb. Then we went to another place he thought was the bomb. Then, having been affected all these years by this fucking skank, I said something about Lollypop Day to the wrong person, and suddenly there was going to be a big fight. Luckily it ended out that there wasn't a huge fight.
.
Now all we have to differentiate is psychopaths from sociopaths. Which is probably easier than actually going and watching Inception. I noticed something peculiar with this guy. He's very focused on being 'correct'. He even pulled the whole "So you think just cos I'm a doorman" bit on me. To be honest, I don't think he really even wanted to ever watch 'Inception'.
I think I should see the movie without any external influence.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Identity Referencing With '@' On Social Networks: Unexpected Outcomes
Recently I have taken to using blip.fm a lot, posting up songs that I enjoy so that the world (i.e. my social-networking sphere) may enjoy along with me. With disregard to your opinion on such behavior, this note describes a somewhat unusual outcome of this kind of activity.
What blip.fm offers you is the ability to cross-post your musical selections across social networking sites that you may indulge in. I am sure you have already seen such postings of mine, on Facebook and Twitter, featuring laudable performances by such acts as 'Boney M' or 'Lee Majors (The Unknown Stuntman)'.
Normally, this would not be remarkable. This is what the world is doing these days, after all, in terms of user-broadcasted content (in lieu of user-generated content). The unexpected outcome I experienced, however, formed as a result of two social networks that utilize the '@' symbol for identity references within their own messaging systems, and then begin interacting with each other.
What happened is this (real Twitter or blip.fm identities withheld for privacy): I 'blipped' a song on blip.fm, attaching the following note: "@thisgirlmyfriend 'that boy needs therapy!'" (the song here was 'Frontier Psychiatrist' by The Avalanches). My aim here was to reference the identity of this girl who is my friend, and a DJ, on blip.fm, so that my message ('that boy needs therapy!') would be delivered to her blip.fm account.
So far so good. But then remember, I also have blip.fm set to send out messages to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. Twitter uses the same identity referencing method ('@' symbol followed by username) within its own messaging system. So my message: "@thisgirlmyfriend 'that boy needs therapy!'" was also tweeted on Twitter. This would be okay if this girl who is my friend had an account on Twitter named 'thisgirlmyfriend'. Hell, it would even be fine if the account 'thisgirlmyfriend' didn't even exist on Twitter.
But the account does exist -- only, it belongs to a different girl who is not the same girl on blip.fm that is my friend. 'thisgirlmyfriend' on Twitter is a completely different person, who lives in Australia. I was surprised when I was sent a tweet from 'thisgirlmyfriend' (on Twitter) saying "hi! Saw the link you sent... frontier psychiatrist. Interesting =)", since as far as I knew, 'thisgirlmyfriend' was from the US.
Eventually, I caught on to what had happened (some people may have caught on earlier because of the different profile info, but my judgement was cataracted by my long exposure to social application development and the knowledge that online profiles are not necessarily always 'real').
Anyway, nothing really bad came out of this particular incident. 'thisgirlmyfriend' on Twitter (who was not the friend I had targeted my message at on blip.fm) fortunately liked the music, and is now my friend on Twitter. This turned out to be an unexpected, yet amicable incident.
In future posts, I will explore how this referencing of identity with '@' can have more serious implications when employed across social networks.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
The Electronic Cigarette
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NOTICE: This information is provided for free, gratis, on an as-is basis, and is unasked for, completely unrequested. It is data that has entered your consciousness without either design or anticipation of your brain, and thus, even if the data is largely meaningless to your being, it probably validates several philosophical ideas on existence.
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My electronic cigarette is a device I received two days ago, pursuant to an online order I placed with Sottera, Inc of Scottsdale, Arizona on the previous week.
The device is comprised of three parts: 1) A battery fashioned after the look of the tobacco paper tube of a conventional tobacco cigarette, which is used in order to power 2) an atomizer, which acts upon 3) a nicotine cartridge also containing flavoring (tobacco, mint, apple, etc), water and propylene-glycol.
The atomizer is activated upon inhalation by a user in such fashion as commonly executed during consumption of a common tobacco cigarette. Nicotine from the cartridge (available in various mg denominations) is delivered to the user during this process, and a vapor mist is also created by the propylene-glycol, mimicking the sensation and effect of cigarette 'smoke'.
After two days of use, I find that it seems to be an effective replacement for the conventional cigarette. As the product does not contain tar, glue and other carcinogenic chemicals commonly found in regular tobacco products, it is generally much less harmful. Please note, however, that the electronic cigarette is not considered a smoking cessation aid, since nicotine delivery (not reduction) is its core function.
I am finding there are interesting aspects to switching to the electronic cigarette. These go beyond the usually advertised differences, such as the lack of cigarette smell, the clarity of my breathing organs, and such. They are deeper, more ... behavioral aspects which highlight things I did not notice before about smoking, and also provide small confusions to the self from time to time. Having communicated thus far the basic operational details and general information about the electronic cigarette, I will in the future explore these deeper aspects.
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NOTICE: End of transmission.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTICE: This information is provided for free, gratis, on an as-is basis, and is unasked for, completely unrequested. It is data that has entered your consciousness without either design or anticipation of your brain, and thus, even if the data is largely meaningless to your being, it probably validates several philosophical ideas on existence.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
My electronic cigarette is a device I received two days ago, pursuant to an online order I placed with Sottera, Inc of Scottsdale, Arizona on the previous week.
The device is comprised of three parts: 1) A battery fashioned after the look of the tobacco paper tube of a conventional tobacco cigarette, which is used in order to power 2) an atomizer, which acts upon 3) a nicotine cartridge also containing flavoring (tobacco, mint, apple, etc), water and propylene-glycol.
The atomizer is activated upon inhalation by a user in such fashion as commonly executed during consumption of a common tobacco cigarette. Nicotine from the cartridge (available in various mg denominations) is delivered to the user during this process, and a vapor mist is also created by the propylene-glycol, mimicking the sensation and effect of cigarette 'smoke'.
After two days of use, I find that it seems to be an effective replacement for the conventional cigarette. As the product does not contain tar, glue and other carcinogenic chemicals commonly found in regular tobacco products, it is generally much less harmful. Please note, however, that the electronic cigarette is not considered a smoking cessation aid, since nicotine delivery (not reduction) is its core function.
I am finding there are interesting aspects to switching to the electronic cigarette. These go beyond the usually advertised differences, such as the lack of cigarette smell, the clarity of my breathing organs, and such. They are deeper, more ... behavioral aspects which highlight things I did not notice before about smoking, and also provide small confusions to the self from time to time. Having communicated thus far the basic operational details and general information about the electronic cigarette, I will in the future explore these deeper aspects.
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NOTICE: End of transmission.
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
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