The Sky Has Limits

The tangled webs we weave

I have to be more careful about my escapades with Wikipedia.  At one point today, I had nine wiki tabs open in my browser at the same time.

In my recent interest with comics, not only did I get involved in Spawn, The Sandman, and Buffy (Season 8), but I also started poking around Wikipedia's entry on Spiderman.  This was mostly prompted by a conversation with a co-worker, who mentioned that the movie completely muddled Venom's character by making the wrong character (Eddie Brock) into Venom instead of Carnage.  My friend was wrong, but when I started reading more, I realized there are about a million different versions of how Spider-Man, Venom, and Carnage end up.  This doesn't mean I thought any better of the movie, but I heard the director was frustrated by what was being demanded of him from producers.

As it turns out, the lovely Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays Gwen Stacey in Spider-Man 3, is in an upcoming movie called Terminator: Salvation alongside the popular Christian Bale, who is becoming famous as the new Batman.  The fact that they are still trying to milk this I.P. kind of makes me uncomfortable, but I like Christian Bale a lot and since McG is at the helm, I have high hopes that the post-apocalypse Terminator will be good.  Aparently, Bale is a huge fan and while I know that an actor's zeal does not a great movie make, I'm sure it helps.

Another thing that gives me faith in this film is that Bale's co-star is Sam Worthington, whom was recommended for the role by James Cameron, based on work as the star in the upcoming $250 million budget film, Avatar (which was delayed six months in release, so we can see Night at the Museum 2 instead...)  And if it's good enough for Cameron, it's good enough for me.  Although, I'm starting to wonder about that guy's sense of humor:

"Sigourney Weaver as Grace, a botanist who mentors Jake Sully.  Weaver dyed her hair red for the part.  Her character was named Shipley at one point."

Hmm.  A Cameron Sci-Fi movie with Sigourney Weaver playing a character who's name ends in "ipley".  I've never heard of that before...

Lastly, I'm not even going to explain how I got to this site (possibly NSFW), other than I just keep following the white rabbit farther and farther down the hole that is the internet.

Zelda, FTW

So, in looking for "Chop Suey", I happened upon this nugget as well:

Zelda, WTF?  Who are these guys?

Rock out with your [guitar] out

I admit I was a naysayer last year when Aaron was drooling over the news about the original Rock Band.  My "nays" turned to "yays" when it finally hit, and (someday) I will own a copy myself.  At this point, I may just hold out for Rock Band 2, because the article at GameSpot made me salivate.  They have listed a couple of the tracks that will be available for it, and I have emboldened the ones I am dying to sing/play:

"Ace of Spades" -- Motörhead
"Everlong" -- Foo Fighters
"Pinball Wizard" -- The Who
"Panic Attack" -- Dream Theater
"Any Way You Want It" -- Journey
"Chop Suey" -- System of a Down
"Kids in America" -- The Muffs
"Give It Away" -- Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Hello There" -- Cheap Trick
"Pump It Up" -- Elvis Costello

Nothing against Cheap Trick, it's just not my favorite song by them.  Their insane guitarist has also made our blog-news before.

But fuck yes, I cannot wait to try "Everlong", "Chop Suey", and "Give It Away" on all three instruments, and adding Journey for me to sing is like gravy on the mashed potatoes.  If they keep this up, it won't matter if the competition makes shitty, I mean, cheesy PR videos (that video so goddamned ghey, I'm ashamed to link it), even though I do really want to try "Are You Gonna Go My Way".

Surfing with the Alien

I found a few vids of Audiosurf when I went looking for some techno songs a couple months ago, and I wasn't really sure what I was looking at.  Now, I see that the PAX 10 are up, and Audiosurf is one of them.  It would seem for good reason.

So, my extensive techno and "real" guitar-hero music library can be paired with a procedural game?  That's sort of like getting to play a graphics visualizer.  What's that you say?  It's only $10??  Well, slap my ass and call me a customer--sold!  The fact that Linkin Park has three entries on the top 25 songs played assures me that I will enjoy this game.

That's not enough?  You want deep strategy and RPG elements with your music game from a publisher known for excellence?  Fine--Penny Arcade pointed out today that you can have and eat that cake, too.  Only problem I have is my archaic 3rd Gen iPod.  Up 'til now, I didn't really have much of a reason to upgrade but Song Summoner?  This is a form of financial torture.  $5 game, $250 game console.  I suppose for a 2-year contract with ATT I could just get an iPhone 3G.  Hmm...

Good Old Games

Evil Avatar actually had an uncharacteristic amount of good articles today, one of which was about a new digital delivery games service called Good Old Games.  They are boasting $6 - $10 per game with no DRM and seem to encourage installing them on multiple machines.  Mark was always trying to get me to play Descent: Freespace, and I can't imagine Freespace 2 would be any worse.  At that price, LAN parties for the "old, but good" will be cheap.  More power to 'em.

Max Payne

I vaguely remember not being able to keep it in stock years ago.  I never did actually play it, but several around me did, and they said it was worth playing.  That being said, I'm quite excited about this trailer:

It seems to capture the gritty feel of what I was led to believe the atmosphere of the game was like, and they seem to have the obligatory "bullet-time" scenes that will probably still seem a bit stale after The Matrix and more recent attempts.  And Mila Kunis.  And (for different reasons!) Ludacris.

I have no idea if it actually follows the game's plot (or any plot at all), and I notice a lacking example of Mark Wahlberg's acting in the clip, so it's possible the movie could suck.  But I hope not.

My Next Tattoo

I have mentioned to several around me that I'm considering getting my second tattoo as soon as I have the time and money for it.  I say time because they are a pain in the ass for about a week, and I say money because most places charge around $100/hour, and the tattoo I'm considering will probably take somewhere around two to four hours.  Some of this urge comes from the "open door" all those people with tattoos talk about--when you realize how nifty it is and how bad it isn't.  Some of the urge comes from seeing some really cool tribal zodiac art on the web when I went looking for supplemental material for my most recent Flash homework.

And then I found this video:

Now, stupidity aside, I have not been able to find information on whether this kind of thing is permanent or temporary.  I think it would be kind of awesome either way.  If it's temporary and priced right, a guy could make a fucking killing pimping this out.  If it's permanent, it has some serious advantages over the four hours I'm considering spending in a chair with a strange guy and a needle.  And as to the safety--we point lasers at our eyes these days to do corrective surgery, and if that's safe, then I think someone could use a CAD engraving machine to etch something on their epidermis and not have too many repercussions.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting, I came across the original source of the video at instructables.com where the person doing the etching described their laser as a "CO2 Infra-red" etcher that is unlikely to cause any nasty damage (like cancer) due to the lack of UV, and that it could be somewhat permanent based on how much power was used and the speed the etching is set to.  Plus, the fact that the guy is referring to this as a "tattoo" implies permanence, but as I imagine he did this a couple of days ago, I think it's a tad early to cry "forever".

Resistance is Futile

Aaron has turned me into a hopeless fanboy of modern TV drama.  Last Sunday, I witnessed a black cloud of smoke ravaging some trained mercenaries, and it made my day.  I'm getting ready to teach Amy about vampires, and I am eagerly awaiting the aftermath of humanity's arrival at Earth.  Unfortunately for the last, I will be waiting a solid six months minimum before Battlestar Galactica starts up again.

However...

I did just discover this little webisode thing called The Resistance that I must have missed the first time around.  There are 10, less than 5 minute episodes detailing a bit of the time gap between the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3.  If you want them, sans payment, it can be had here.

That's sort of like digging to back of the cupboard for anything yummy--knowing full well you ate the last box of cookies a week ago--and finding that hidden package of Oreos, ready to go.