Why does George Lucas hate America?

Posted on March 14, 2005 by Solonor

I think that Kottke speaks for an entire nation in peril:

Once every three years, the first trailer for yet another crappy George Lucas Star Wars movie is released somewhere to great fanfare. And each time, I watch said trailer and get all excited. It looks great, I’ll say. Maybe it’ll actually be good. My hopes start to rise. And then the movie comes out, Natalie Portman is transformed by Lucas’ awful direction into the worst actress ever, and I leave the theatre disappointed that a cherished childhood institution has been handled in such a piss-poor manner. With the impending release of Episode III and the trailer during last night’s episode of The OC, I have vowed not to get my hopes up. Never again, George Lucas, will you disappoint me.

However.

OMFG THE TRAILER FOR THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE IS SOOO GREAT AND EXCITING AND THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO KICK SO MUCH ASS!!!

I can’t let myself get sucked in again. I just can’t. It’s too emotionally draining. If I want to be set up for that kind of disappointment, I’ll go watch another Sin City preview.

[ via ***Dave ]

Posted in Wouldya Lookit That! | 4 Comments

Me likey

Posted on March 14, 2005 by Solonor

A new member of the family has arrived! Everyone, say hello to my little friend from Epiphone.

A dear, sweet, wonderful friend of ours gave it to me, as she had no further use for it. Am I lucky or what?

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | 9 Comments

Saturday Diary

Posted on March 13, 2005 by Solonor

After spending the morning reading all about the stupid Bankruptcy Bill (doesn’t it tell you something when Instapundit and Kos don’t like it?), we launched into a game of Weak Personality with the kids. I haven’t spent the afternoon playing old fashioned D&D (starting off at 1st level and everything!) in forever. It was buckets o’geeky fun.

Last night, we dumped the kids off at an anime watching thingamabob, and we went to the Orlando Metroblogging March meetup. Unfortunately, the place where we had arranged to meet changed their hours and was closed. So, those that showed up (Masked Blogger and Annmarie) skipped over to the bar next door, listened to loud music, drank beer, watched Minority Report with the sound off, yakked and had a general good time.

Posted in Life, the Universe and Everything | Comments Off on Saturday Diary

“The game indicates a weak personality.”

Posted on March 9, 2005 by Solonor

Yeah? Tell me something I didn’t know…

Israeli Army frowns on Dungeons and Dragons

A security official tells Ynetnews there are specific criteria for deciding the level of a soldier’s security clearance.

“One of the tests we do, either by asking soldiers directly or through information provided us, is to ask whether they take part in the game,” he says. “If a soldier answers in the affirmative, he is sent to a professional for an evaluation, usually a psychologist.”

But the good news is that you get to make your saving throw versus mental attacks at a +1.

Posted in Rants 'n' Whines | 5 Comments

PingLinks 4 U

Posted on March 8, 2005 by Solonor

By popular demand, you can grab a copy of my PHP version of Joe Jenett’s PingLinks by clicking HERE. Just follow the instructions in the setup.txt file, and you’ll mess up your blog real good.

(Your blog must use PHP and MySQL for this to work.)

Posted in Wouldya Lookit That! | Comments Off on PingLinks 4 U

Idol Chatter

Posted on March 7, 2005 by Solonor

One thing that really ties me up in knots creatively is the thought that I’m naught more than an American Idol reject. (‘Tis true, ya know… even if I were freaking no-doubt awesome, there’s not much call for Johnny Cash or the Ramones on good ole AI… but I digress…)

I really feel for the AI contestants. It’s a Catch-22. In order to be good, you have to have the balls to get up there and know that you’re good. But if you’re that blinded by your own awesomeness, there’s a real chance that you suck and just don’t know it. And nobody’s gonna tell you until Simon does!

With that in mind, it was nice (and, yet, a little disconcerting) to have one of my daughter’s friends give me a high five and tell me, “You made my MP3 player, Mister N. You rock!”

Posted in Tunes | 7 Comments

Amish Terrarium. Must find Amish terrarium.

Posted on March 7, 2005 by Solonor

Whiny rented one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time. It’s called The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. It’s a spoof of the bad 50’s sci-fi movies, filmed in black-and-white (or “Skeletorama”) and filled with hilarious dialogue like this:

“I’m a scientist. I don’t believe in anything.”
“Sorry, sometimes my wife forgets that she is not an alien from outer space.”
“We take our horrible mutilations seriously around these parts!”

Not as much fun as finding a real cheesy movie, I suppose, but it was a fine cheese-like substitute.

Posted in The Big Screen | 2 Comments

Don’t walk away, Renee

Posted on March 5, 2005 by Solonor

At least while you’re wearing those shoes…

Posted in Strangeness | 2 Comments

Oh, good grief… Improperly link THIS!

Posted on March 4, 2005 by Solonor

I’m not a big political blogger. I’ve made my views known at times, and I snuck a couple of lefty posts onto the Command Post editorial pages during the campaign, but I’m mostly a tapdancing monkey for your occasional gratification. The godawful noise that usually comes out of political blogs makes my head hurt.

I agree with the intent of campaign finance reform (try to level the playing field, take the money out of it, blah, blah, blah). However, this is just carrying things a leetle too far…

The coming crackdown on blogging | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

In just a few months, [Bradley Smith] warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign’s Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate’s press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

What’s next? Bumper stickers (as JR points out)? Lawn signs? Are we going to fine everyone who stands around the water cooler and tries to convince folks that their candidate won the previous night’s debate?

Tell me, my Canadian friends, are people not as insane up there because they’re too busy trying to keep warm, or what?

Posted in Rants 'n' Whines | 3 Comments

L0rd 0f teh Ringz0rz

Posted on March 4, 2005 by Solonor

Is it a coincidence that immediately after Bill makes reference to an old translation of the Fellowship of the Ring into leet, we get: LOTR:The Two Towers – In leet?

I think not.

Posted in Strangeness | 1 Comment