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Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted?

By TheophileEscargot (Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 01:41:34 AM EST) Reading, Watching, MLP (all tags)

Watching: "Wanted". Reading: "The Blade Itself". Web.

What I'm Watching
Saw Wanted at the cinema. Decent little action movie: not mind-blowing but definitely good fun. Bored cubicle drone oppressed by a stapler-wielding PHB discovers that his anxiety attacks are actually part of a minor superpower, and he belongs to a secret society of super-assassins.

Plot is highly predictable though I was expecting the renegade to be his brother rather than his father. and some of the stunts are reused multiple times with minor variations. However the stunts and effects are pretty fun, and the bullet-curving looks very cool.

Reminded me a bit of Equilibrium in some ways. Worth a look if you like action movies, better on the big screen.

However, please can someone give Angelina Jolie a sandwich. There's a pretty awful scene where she's supposed to be out-sex-appealing a moderately cute normal female, and frankly I'd prefer the one with arms thicker than her lips.

What I'm Reading
Finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. First volume in a fantasy trilogy, but I've already ordered the next two. Very good. Reminds me a bit of the Engineer trilogy: follows multiple characters, and has a similar level of sadism sometimes.

Doesn't have quite the depth of realism, though it's more fun in some ways. Some of the elements are a bit generic, but they're well handled. The characters are reassuring unsympathetic: the three main viewpoints are a torturer and a vain aristocrat; as well as the rather more likeable barbarian.

Has an actual plot, though it looks like they'll be heading off on a quest in the next one. Plenty of action. Worth reading

Web
Anglican split: Meet the Focas.

Did the Operation Julie drug raid have unintended consequences?

Mental illness guide: medication.

Via Carnage4Life: MS to Google and back.

UK grade inflation: 2 marks for writing "fuck off" on paper. Easy subjects are easy.

Star Wars Dance Off:

< Hurry up and do it then... | Attn: LHuSibeer infidels! >

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Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted? | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

fuck off! by hulver (4.00 / 1) #1 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 02:16:54 AM EST

Apparently would have merited 3 marks. An exclamation gets you more points.
--
smart, pretty, sane. pick two - georgeha

I wonder how far it goes by TheophileEscargot (2.00 / 0) #2 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 02:49:10 AM EST

Would "Fuck right off, you fucking fucker!" have scored even more marks for a correct sentence?
--
"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise." -- Bertrand Russell
[ Parent ]

: It depends. by Tonatiuh (4.00 / 1) #3 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 02:57:27 AM EST

Is that a recognizable way in which the English language is used, or is it just a fly of unjustified poetic licence ?

[ Parent ]
: But by ucblockhead (4.00 / 1) #16 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:07:22 AM EST

"Fuck off!" is itself a grammatical sentence.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}
[ Parent ]

That'd be only 2 for you. by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #5 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 03:34:23 AM EST

I'd like to think they'd take a mark off you for not capitalising the first word of the sentence.

Examiners by Vulch (4.00 / 1) #11 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 05:58:12 AM EST

My Tech Drawing teacher at school was also a marker for one of the exam boards. He'd tell a story about giving 7 marks to someone who had spent the entire time constructing a question mark. It was accurate, the working lines had been left in and it was neat so it got the full discretionary marks.

[ Parent ]

La Jollie by Tonatiuh (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 02:59:07 AM EST

You articulated my feelings regarding her, I just don't get why is she considered such hot property in Hollywood.

Not pretty (frankly weird looking), so-so acting, so what is the deal with her exactly?

She's not so much a bad actor by nebbish (3.00 / 2) #9 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 05:15:01 AM EST

As someone who picks really bad rules. I think she's absolutely beautiful, though I think she could put on some weight.

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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

Really bad rOles. by ambrosen (4.00 / 1) #22 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 04:27:20 PM EST

Now I get what you said.

Be honest, though, would you fancy her more if she was in a Primark top with her hair up in a scrunchy and her midriff exposed? Be honest.

[ Parent ]

: Oh yes! /nt by nebbish (2.00 / 0) #23 Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 05:52:02 AM EST

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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

Well... by ucblockhead (2.50 / 2) #17 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:08:25 AM EST

She used to be rounder and better looking.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}
[ Parent ]

Why do I do this? by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #6 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 03:51:28 AM EST

Why do we rub the blister?

The Blade Itself was a cracking read; the next two in the series just get better and better.

I love the way Abercrombie often writes what the characters want to say, then follows it with what they actually say.

If you liked the Engineer series, KJ Parker's Fencer books are worth a go - just finished the first and it was good.

What did you think of the conclusion of the Engineer series?

I loved the ending of the Engineer trilogy by TheophileEscargot (2.00 / 0) #20 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 01:10:21 PM EST

But apparently some disagree.

I read the Fencer and Scavenger trilogies by K.J. Parker. Pretty good, but not quite as good as the Engineer trilogy I'd say, and there's a certain repetition of ideas.
--
"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise." -- Bertrand Russell
[ Parent ]

: Certainly not the Hollywood ending by Breaker (4.00 / 2) #21 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 02:08:21 PM EST

But yeah I loved the books. Echoes of Ender's game without the victimisation aspect?
I wasn't too sure about Veatriz suddenly having her husband killed by Valens then up and marrying him though. But the set up of some of the plots is bloody brilliant.

[ Parent ]

grade inflation by Merekat (4.00 / 2) #7 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 04:00:16 AM EST

Firstly, fuck off is a pretty good response to such an asinine exam question:)

And secondly, in university there were always more firsts in science/engineering subjects than arts ones on the basis that it is actually possible to give a right answer in the former whereas the latter comes down sometimes to your ability to structure an argument based on resources that can never be wholly convincing.

: Grade inflation by Breaker (4.00 / 1) #8 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 04:24:55 AM EST

A levels have become so easy that at least one university (Imperial IIRC) has now created their own entrance exam.

[ Parent ]

Operation Julie by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #10 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 05:20:42 AM EST

There is a theory that because acid didn't really come back in the UK until the mid-1980s it was the real precursor to the explosion in British popular culture, rave etc, rather than ecstasy which came a bit later.

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It's political correctness gone mad!

Acid by jump the ladder (4.00 / 2) #12 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 07:36:51 AM EST

was easier to get hold off in late 80s and early 90s than pills at least for me and a lot cheaper ie: a couple of quid rather than £15-20.

[ Parent ]

: Yep by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #15 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 08:39:48 AM EST

First ecstasy I had in 1990 (or thereabouts anyway) was £25 - acid was about a fiver. I don't remember people doing ecstasy much until 1991.
There was also a lot of acid-influenced music like Spacemen 3, Age of Chance etc in the mid-1980s that people don't remember much but was very influential I think.
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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

ACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED! by R Mutt (4.00 / 1) #13 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 07:42:56 AM EST

That seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

[ Parent ]

: Lol /nt by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #14 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 08:35:36 AM EST

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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

Operation Julie mirrors the US experience in the by georgeha (4.00 / 1) #18 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:22:05 AM EST

late 60's, psychedelics were removed from the market and replaced with speed and opiates.

Microsoft by ucblockhead (4.00 / 1) #19 Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 09:25:04 AM EST

Their obsession with Google is a bit embarrassing.

I'm not surprised ex-Microsofties don't like working at Google. But I suspect that says as much about Microsoft's insular culture as it does about Google's insular culture. Much of the comments seem to be about how Google doesn't do things like back home at Microsoft.

I remember when it used to be that you tried to get a job at Microsoft out of college, burned the programming candle at both ends for a few years, made your fortune and then got out to do something on your own. Now they seem to be more like IBM, where you get a job out of college and then stay forever, secure in doing things the way they are supposed to be down. In that respect, Google really does seem to be the new Microsoft.

I've been a bit sadly amused by Microsoft bloggers, because lately they seem to be putting out a constant stream of "What Google is doing wrong", which is a bit amusing. It reminds me a lot about how people "in the know" reacted to Microsoft's rise. (I remember with amusement an article in Forbes when Gates entered the top ten on their "richest" list...they called his rise admirable but said Microsoft's rise was "of course, unsustainable in the near term".

I'm sure Google is doing lots of things wrong, but I am not sure I would trust either Microsoft or myself to recognize what those things are.
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_{ウセーバラケダ}

Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted? | 23 comments (23 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback