newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2006-05-21 08:40 pm
newnumber6) wrote2006-05-21 08:40 pm
Entry tags:
Time for another Big Random Post.
I burned my finger slightly today. Not seriously, just hurts a bit.
More creative work from my sleeping mind! The other night I was in the half awake half dreaming state and came up with a Marvel comic concept. Anyway, the idea was it'd be like Young Avengers, only it'd be Young X-Men. The premise of the book is a bunch of kids deciding, on their own, to start calling themselves the next generation of X-Men. The twist? None of them are actually mutants, although they all claim to be. Some of them are ex-mutants depowered during M day, some aren't (and some of the depowered ones might be 'technically lost their powers but still retain their physical form of a mutant' that a lot of people got stuck with). Some are just humans. But most of them are getting their powers from other sources... tech, magic, etc. They're just masquerading as mutants, generally feeling that the world needs X-Men now more than ever, but the so-called X-Men they had now aren't doing a hell of a lot of good (stupid 198 miniseries). Part of the dream part of it involved a sentinel with super mutant killing ability going out of control but missing the group because none of them were mutants.
Hey, I never said it was a _good_ comic concept, just that it was one created by my subconscious.
6 gets semi-political: NSA Wiretappng
I tend to leave politics out of my posts for the most part. Partly this is because I tend to want my LJ to be a low stress place and I don't care to get into huge political debates with people of differing opinions here. Partly it's because usually someone else (or many someone elses) on my friends list has already pointed out an issue and I feel a little pointless repeating it.
But I have some thoughts on the NSA wiretapping/phone records collection program. I don't like it. If you want to wiretap someone, get a warrant.
I had two random thoughts on the topic though:
Things I'd Do If I Had Ambition
a) I keep hearing pundits say things like 'yeah, okay, we don't want the government tapping our phone calls, but WHAT IF IT STOPS A NAUGHTY TERRORIST ATTACK!' or 'Wouldn't you feel silly if a terrorist attacked and warrantless wiretapping could have stopped them?' Gah. Such specious logic. Makes me want to create a faux website for the NSA's 'National Proctology Exam', where they send people door to door to check every US resident's anus for WMDs. They can even have a pithy slogan: 'If you don't want to bend over for us, you might as well be bending over for the terrorists.' After all, if it stops one major terrorist attack, isn't it worth the inconvenience?!
b) So the US government is spying on its citizens phone patterns, looking for what seem to be 'suspicious calling patterns'.
It almost makes me want to:
1) Find out or try to deduce what exactly constitutes a 'suspicious calling pattern' (ie, a person who takes one overseas call and then calls three others, who call three others, or something like that).
2) Create a site called something like TapMyCallsPlease.com and collect volunteers who are willing to arrange and call themselves in a similar pattern, just to set off red flags somewhere and maybe trigger a tap. Also, people can make new friends.
Doctor Who - with my new computer I've been downloading and watching the new Doctor Who episodes since the CBC is being lame and idiotic and delaying it until after hockey season (It's a new world, folks, catch up - you can't afford to schedule something popular months after it debuts somewhere else - they'll just download it and you'll lose the viewer). Pretty good so far, my favorite's been Girl in the Fireplace. Anyway, at the end of one of the episodes the file had a clip of something called 'tardisode' but since I wasn't really paying attention (it was after the credits I was just letting it run), I thought it said 'Tardis Ring Tone'. And I thought... hey, if I had a cell phone, that would be an awesome ring tone... the sound of the Tardis about to appear. Wouldn't that be cool? I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone's already done it up as a ring tone and I don't have a cell phone anyway (or expect to), but it was just an amusing idle thought.
Also finally downloaded the first episode of Veronica Mars' second season. Won't spoil it in case anyone else hasn't seen it yet, but some general thoughts. I dunno, I felt a little disconnected from it. I mean it was good, but I didn't have that same intensity of enjoyment I got when I watched the first season. Maybe it's just because it's been so long I've felt a little out of touch. A long time ago, we used to be friends, but I haven't thought of it lately at all. Anyway, hopefully it'll pick up once things get going. I'd already sort of guessed how the episode ended because I heard a spoiler that referred to it, and could see things pointing to it, but I'm sure it would have been a 'wow' moment if I hadn't.
And of course since I'm reading Battle Royale again the BR effect is in place - I can't watch a TV show or movie involving student characters without imagining how they'll do in a Battle Royale situation. The good news? Veronica Mars does quite well. She manages to outsmart the government and get away (maybe even before the class is selected). Weevil also does okay but has to kill some people, he knows to hook up with Veronica and trust her. Logan betrays people to survive but not people he really cares about, but manages to survive to the end with Weevil, Veronica, and Wallace. Duncan dies tragically, probably trying to help someone else.
Also been playing some games. My computer's been behind the times for a while now, and this one still is, but it's good enough that it's given me a chance to try out some games that I've wanted for a while but my system was always just slightly below what was required. These being Black and White and Planescape Torment. B&W is great for working out frustrations (had a bad day? Don't play that stupid 'you've had a bad day' song, pick up a villager and chuck him in the ocean! Actually I don't do that, I'm a good god. But still, the option's open, and that's refreshing). Actually it's a little annoying at times, firstly because of that inane tutorial and cut scenes you can't skip through (damn singing boatbuilders, die!), and later because of the micromanaging, but it's still fun to fire up once in a while.
Planescape Torment's one I wanted for a while because I loved the Planescape setting for D&D. It was my favorite all time setting, even edging out over Dragonlance. Before I found Torment I was playing Dungeon Siege for a while.. it's got better graphics and full three d (rather than Torment which is built on the Baldur's Gate engine), but even so I dropped it like a hot potato because the story was so boring compared to PS. And, again, the setting itself. Even now Planescape's setting can still hit me with the sensawunda. In particular when my character first made it out of the mortuary and they gave a quick shot of Sigil where you could see the streets curving up wards ahead (Sigil's built on the inside of a ring, for those not in the know), almost literally took my breath away, and the graphics weren't all that good. It was like part of me was waiting to see that sight, like I belonged there. Anyway, right now I've got a lechereous floating skull and an old githzerai warrior/mage type on my party. And I pissed off the Lady of Pain already once! Woopsie!
Amusing (well, to me) thing seen today: sign taped to a mail drop box, saying that someone accidentally dropped a DVD in the box, and asking politely if the mailman could deliver it to them (the place right near the box).
More creative work from my sleeping mind! The other night I was in the half awake half dreaming state and came up with a Marvel comic concept. Anyway, the idea was it'd be like Young Avengers, only it'd be Young X-Men. The premise of the book is a bunch of kids deciding, on their own, to start calling themselves the next generation of X-Men. The twist? None of them are actually mutants, although they all claim to be. Some of them are ex-mutants depowered during M day, some aren't (and some of the depowered ones might be 'technically lost their powers but still retain their physical form of a mutant' that a lot of people got stuck with). Some are just humans. But most of them are getting their powers from other sources... tech, magic, etc. They're just masquerading as mutants, generally feeling that the world needs X-Men now more than ever, but the so-called X-Men they had now aren't doing a hell of a lot of good (stupid 198 miniseries). Part of the dream part of it involved a sentinel with super mutant killing ability going out of control but missing the group because none of them were mutants.
Hey, I never said it was a _good_ comic concept, just that it was one created by my subconscious.
6 gets semi-political: NSA Wiretappng
I tend to leave politics out of my posts for the most part. Partly this is because I tend to want my LJ to be a low stress place and I don't care to get into huge political debates with people of differing opinions here. Partly it's because usually someone else (or many someone elses) on my friends list has already pointed out an issue and I feel a little pointless repeating it.
But I have some thoughts on the NSA wiretapping/phone records collection program. I don't like it. If you want to wiretap someone, get a warrant.
I had two random thoughts on the topic though:
Things I'd Do If I Had Ambition
a) I keep hearing pundits say things like 'yeah, okay, we don't want the government tapping our phone calls, but WHAT IF IT STOPS A NAUGHTY TERRORIST ATTACK!' or 'Wouldn't you feel silly if a terrorist attacked and warrantless wiretapping could have stopped them?' Gah. Such specious logic. Makes me want to create a faux website for the NSA's 'National Proctology Exam', where they send people door to door to check every US resident's anus for WMDs. They can even have a pithy slogan: 'If you don't want to bend over for us, you might as well be bending over for the terrorists.' After all, if it stops one major terrorist attack, isn't it worth the inconvenience?!
b) So the US government is spying on its citizens phone patterns, looking for what seem to be 'suspicious calling patterns'.
It almost makes me want to:
1) Find out or try to deduce what exactly constitutes a 'suspicious calling pattern' (ie, a person who takes one overseas call and then calls three others, who call three others, or something like that).
2) Create a site called something like TapMyCallsPlease.com and collect volunteers who are willing to arrange and call themselves in a similar pattern, just to set off red flags somewhere and maybe trigger a tap. Also, people can make new friends.
Doctor Who - with my new computer I've been downloading and watching the new Doctor Who episodes since the CBC is being lame and idiotic and delaying it until after hockey season (It's a new world, folks, catch up - you can't afford to schedule something popular months after it debuts somewhere else - they'll just download it and you'll lose the viewer). Pretty good so far, my favorite's been Girl in the Fireplace. Anyway, at the end of one of the episodes the file had a clip of something called 'tardisode' but since I wasn't really paying attention (it was after the credits I was just letting it run), I thought it said 'Tardis Ring Tone'. And I thought... hey, if I had a cell phone, that would be an awesome ring tone... the sound of the Tardis about to appear. Wouldn't that be cool? I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone's already done it up as a ring tone and I don't have a cell phone anyway (or expect to), but it was just an amusing idle thought.
Also finally downloaded the first episode of Veronica Mars' second season. Won't spoil it in case anyone else hasn't seen it yet, but some general thoughts. I dunno, I felt a little disconnected from it. I mean it was good, but I didn't have that same intensity of enjoyment I got when I watched the first season. Maybe it's just because it's been so long I've felt a little out of touch. A long time ago, we used to be friends, but I haven't thought of it lately at all. Anyway, hopefully it'll pick up once things get going. I'd already sort of guessed how the episode ended because I heard a spoiler that referred to it, and could see things pointing to it, but I'm sure it would have been a 'wow' moment if I hadn't.
And of course since I'm reading Battle Royale again the BR effect is in place - I can't watch a TV show or movie involving student characters without imagining how they'll do in a Battle Royale situation. The good news? Veronica Mars does quite well. She manages to outsmart the government and get away (maybe even before the class is selected). Weevil also does okay but has to kill some people, he knows to hook up with Veronica and trust her. Logan betrays people to survive but not people he really cares about, but manages to survive to the end with Weevil, Veronica, and Wallace. Duncan dies tragically, probably trying to help someone else.
Also been playing some games. My computer's been behind the times for a while now, and this one still is, but it's good enough that it's given me a chance to try out some games that I've wanted for a while but my system was always just slightly below what was required. These being Black and White and Planescape Torment. B&W is great for working out frustrations (had a bad day? Don't play that stupid 'you've had a bad day' song, pick up a villager and chuck him in the ocean! Actually I don't do that, I'm a good god. But still, the option's open, and that's refreshing). Actually it's a little annoying at times, firstly because of that inane tutorial and cut scenes you can't skip through (damn singing boatbuilders, die!), and later because of the micromanaging, but it's still fun to fire up once in a while.
Planescape Torment's one I wanted for a while because I loved the Planescape setting for D&D. It was my favorite all time setting, even edging out over Dragonlance. Before I found Torment I was playing Dungeon Siege for a while.. it's got better graphics and full three d (rather than Torment which is built on the Baldur's Gate engine), but even so I dropped it like a hot potato because the story was so boring compared to PS. And, again, the setting itself. Even now Planescape's setting can still hit me with the sensawunda. In particular when my character first made it out of the mortuary and they gave a quick shot of Sigil where you could see the streets curving up wards ahead (Sigil's built on the inside of a ring, for those not in the know), almost literally took my breath away, and the graphics weren't all that good. It was like part of me was waiting to see that sight, like I belonged there. Anyway, right now I've got a lechereous floating skull and an old githzerai warrior/mage type on my party. And I pissed off the Lady of Pain already once! Woopsie!
Amusing (well, to me) thing seen today: sign taped to a mail drop box, saying that someone accidentally dropped a DVD in the box, and asking politely if the mailman could deliver it to them (the place right near the box).