seamus2389

Elaborate please

Just watched the entire new season of Arrested Development. Overall this season was disappointing. This was a great ensemble show and focusing on individual characters doesn't work very well. The Tobias focused episodes just show how one note the character is. The best of the bunch were the first Lindsay, GOB episodes and Maybe's( in part because it was so late in the season). The amount of scenes that involved the actors recorded separately just reinforced how not having the cast together damages the show was as I went straight through the season. Also a fair amount of dubbing after shooting didn't help either. I was worried that they would overdo it with referencing past episodes but beyond the deluge of cameos in the first few episodes I thought they didn't overdo it. The setup of episodes happening at the same time did lead to some pretty funny moments as the season went on but that doesn't make for the fact they did it cause they couldn't get the whole cast together. Also the show was pretty racist in it's depiction of India and with some Chinese characters.

100% agree. After watching and talking about all the movies with a few friends we have realized that Ludracris is the secret special sauce of the series. Any scene with him is gold especially in this movie. I think this is the perfect movie to leave the series since Justin Lin is out and I don't want another movie with the Rock or worse with the lead from Tokyo Drift Also watched the Canadian series Slings and Arrows about a theatre putting on 3 plays of Shakespeare (Hamlet, MacBeth, King Lear -one per season) and I think this is one of the best tv series I have ever seen. after watching this I will some day go to Straford in Canada and see the 3 plays they covered. Also has one of the best ending to series, up there with the Shield and Six feet under. http://www.avclub.com/articles/olivers-dream,91369/ Also started watching Babylon 5. Still in the first season. The CGI is terrible and some of the dialogue is a stilted but it has the seeds of a really good show - it's a more pessimistic (or realistic) take on intergalatic affairs than Star Trek. From what I have heard the second season is where it properly kicks off.

Most of the anime I would suggest to others/ really enjoy is from that era. Once I went through stuff from that era my interest in anime fell off a cliff till last year when I checked out Kids on the slope and Baccano both of which were god but not up to the likes of Cowboy and the rest. The only show I am watching at the moment is the Worlds End which is decent but I was hoping for more with the premise but I really liked the animation and the clothing design.

For another book club I read the Paris wife which about Heminway's first wife Hardley Richardson and their life together in Paris which includes the trip and the people the Sun also rises was based on. Definitely worth a read

The BBC world book club is covering the Great Gatsby this month http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003jhsk

I was talking with a friend recently about reading and she reads one book at a time while I read 4. I read 2 fiction (try and have a mix between old and new, literary and genre), 2 non-fiction along with whatever comics/manga I pick. I like read this way cause (1) I can read some of one books then go to another if I still want to read but maybe not that particular book (2) I like when I am reading different books and I notice a connection between, it's a really nice feeling. She on the other hand just likes being able to tear through a particular book without any interruptions (like reading another books). Which way do you prefer and why? Also if you do read multiple books how many and do you ever end up leaving one book neglected as you tear through others (I am currently doing that with Ulysses, been at 28% for about 6 months as I read shorter/easier literary fiction)

There are alot of SFF online magazines that release their stories as audio books. Clarkes world and Strange horizons are my two favourites mostly cause they publish stories that aren't your bog standard SFF - Fade to white, Mantis wives, Immersion and Anarchist wasp and cartographers bees in particular are really good as audio stories. There is also Beneath ceaseless skies, Lightspeed (which has both SF and F), Nightmare (horror) and Podacstle (fantasy), escapeepod (sci-fi) and pseudopod (horror) the 3 of which are meant to be pretty good although I have yet to listen to them. Starship sofa is another one.

I have been playing the closed beta (mostly as the soviets) and like the multiplayer - been playing mostly 1v1 and 2v2 maps (of which there are 4). Its weird being able to do 2v2 with axis and soviets on the same team cause in COH1 it was one or the other but I don't mind it. Not a big fan of mirror matches though (like in DoW2). If you didn't like enemies attacking from all sides then you mightn't like playing against the soviets in multi since that is the best tactic to use as them with their basic infantry unit being pretty weak at the start with no upgrades or vet. I like how both sides gain vet by killing and be killed but I do think that the vet from be killed/taking damage should accrue at a lower rate cause you have situation where the losing player has more and higher vetted troops then the winning player cause they took so many losses. If you are looking to see how the multiplayer is check out these cause how have been casting games for the last few weeks

I am reading a copy of the complete Cosmicomics which contains more stories he wrote. It is another 200 pages/ 21 stories written after the intial bunch. Totally agree on how women are objectified in the stories.

I started listening to that recently and I am really enjoying. My only wish is that there was more that 2 episodes a month

I reading the complete works of Flann O Brien. Read At-Swim-Two-Birds and the 3rd poilceman and I am currently on the poor mouth which is a pretty spot on piss take/satire of myths about this country that used to be more popular before we got rich. This guy was a genius of messing with what you expect from a story with At-Swim and 3rd. I remember some saying once that the best artists are those who write something and after you read you just sit there wondering what was going through their mind. I prefer the 3rd policeman to At-Swin mostly cause it packs so many weird ideas (human-bicycle hybrids being the best, De Selby and his weird ideas and all the stuff about the people writing about De Selby) although At-Swim idea of having characters torturing their author for enslaving them is really interesting and possibly where Grant Morrison picked up the idea to be used in Doom Patrol. The 3rd policeman reminds me of Lovecraft in parts with the narrartor feeling this great unexplained horror for reasons they don't understand. Also how can I not like a novel that has a character complaining about the County Council. It does make me wonder what is up with this country and writers who like messing with expectations with novels with Joyce, O Brien and Sterne(Tristan Shandy). Still making my way through Moby Dick, still enjoying it and learning all about whaling on the 1800's which is more interesting then I thought it would be. Also reading Dreams of the Red chamber which is one of the 4 classics of Chinese Lit - all the names are kinda intimidating but I am working my though the book although from what I have read I am still have been introduced to the main characters. Started Barbarossa derailed volume 1 by David Glantz who is extensively quoted on quarter to three when even they look at Eastern front games cause it was $3 on kindle this week. This books covers 4 months but has about as many pages as other books I have read covering the whole of the Eastern front from Barbarossa to Berlin.

The French invasion Ireland actually happened (4 attempts, one landing of 1,000 men, another 2,000). The first (and biggest) was split apart by a storm and never landed.

Talking of Mitchell and Cloud Atlas the newest World book club episode is him talking about it

I also read that book after reading Evidence of things unseen and to me it felt like an empty book. It's like a lot of SSF or genre fiction where the authors just recreates what they have read before with a personal tweak here and there - the book's a pleasant read but when you finish it you realise that you will never think about it again till someone else mentions and all you will say it that "it was alright, an easy read". This review best expresses my thoughts about the book. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/a-swing-and-a-miss/308943/

Planescape:torment was a game where you played as a character who had a past you discovered throughout the game but he did have amnesia and didn't know his own past.

I don't mean to dismiss the book(s) by saying they are about rich people's problems. I agree with you and meant that both authors show their "problems" aren't real problems and they don't have to deal with the consequences that would ruin other peoples lives. One thing I took from both books is that if you aren't in the same class as them being friends with them can seriously mess up your life cause you don't have the wealth (or the attitude that no matter what happens you will be grand) to shield yourself from the consequences of reckless actions.

EU/Mallory/Vanu/seamus2389/seamus2389

If you are looking for more games like walking Mars and Mismata I suggest Ice pick lodges 2 games - The void (on steam) and Pathalogic (on desura) Reading about them on Rock paper shotgun made them an insta-buy even though I have only played about a hour of each so far. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/09/29/wot-i-think-the-void/ http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/04/10/butchering-pathologic-part-1-the-body/ Yer talk about spoilers reminded me of the fact that in the last year I actively spoil alot of the stuff I read/play/watch eg. I read how the last ep of breaking bad ended before I watched it. If reading how something ends kills any desire in me to actually play/read/watch something then I figure that is time saved to be spent on something better. This started when I read how the 3rd last Wheel of time book ended and I had no need to read the actual book which made me realise I didn't give a flying fiddlers fuck about the characters/world/plot, I had just been reading the books to see what happened. Part of the reason I spoil tv in particular is that I think it is on the re-watch that I really get to drill an episode cause I am more familar with it. Reading spoilers/reviews lets me do that to a certain extent while watching something for the first time. To quote Vladimir Nabokov "When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stands between us and artistic appreciation. When we look at a painting we do not have to move our eyes in a special way even if, as in a book, the picture contains elements of depth and development. The element of time does not really enter in a first contact with a painting. In reading a book, we must have time to acquaint ourselves with it. We have no physical organ (as we have the eye in regard to a painting) that takes in the whole picture and then can enjoy its details. But at a second, or third, or fourth reading we do, in a sense, behave towards a book as we do towards a painting"

Would anyone be interested in an un-official monthly non-fiction book club? Fiction book clubs are more popular and I really enjoy the Idle Bookcast but I'd like to be part of a book club that is focused on non-fiction - any type (except maybe auto-bio cause I find few of them worth reading). Looking at my goodreads account only 1/4 of the books I read were non-fiction and I'd like to up that to somewhere between a 1/3 and and a 1/2. I think the Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainance would be a good first pick as it has been talked about on the podcast before and is it on the cheap on Kindle ( currently $2.99). http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-ebook/dp/B0026772N8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357710839&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of+motorcycle+maintenance If anyone else is interested I will be starting to read the book this week and will post about it in this thread. Hope you will join in.

I have also started replaying it (played it on xbox last time and had bug that deletes all save games at 54% mark) and am about 5 or 6 hours. This time I didn't bother going stealth and just snipe as many people as possible and if anyone gets close I have a sub and light machine gun to deal with them. The one thing I find annoying is that it is really hard to get off the boats into the water and involves a lot of jumping around hoping to get at the right spot. Nearly cost me my life today. The other thing I noticed is if you are in a building the AI will drive into the buildings trying to either hit you or get at you. They seem really psychotic sometimes when they are driving I find the waterways handy cause it's easier than trying to drive through the jungle a lot of the time. A damn that is some beautiful game. If it's sunset/rise I nearly always just stop and look around at the landscape. Does anyone know what the buddy missions outside the main missions do for you ??? Also does anyone else wonder if at one stage they planned a female playable mercenary cause there are a few female buddies which I think would have required more work than changing how your arms look.

I did read the Sun also rises and Gatsby within a month of each other last. Both of them deal with "rich white people problems" or more accurately rich people and people who spend time with rich people (which both narrators are). In both books the richer you are the more screwed up your life especially in dealing with other people -the women in particular whose romantic relationships are the cause of alot of conflict in the books. In both books being rich allows you to do whatever you want cause you will still have money ( or the ability to leave at the drop of a hat) to deal with any problems. Also tremendous amounts of drinking - it seems that the people in these books could not have a social gathering without getting plastered. Didn't know that Gatsby was responsible for the phrase "the great American novel",

I bought a Kindle for the same reasons. The only thing I would miss is being able to look at all the books organised on the shelves/bookcase and have the impulse to randomly read a bit of one. Also agree about how much of a pain getting rid of books can be. Sold about 250 with another 150 to go, gonna be happy to no longer have to lug bags of them to the 2nd hand bookstore. I plan to keep onto some physical books - LOTR cause they were the first books I ever bought and a few other books that have some meaning beyond the story themselves. Hope to get it to about 20 books and however many comics/books I can't get digitally.

You should use the tracking app to see what routes you take while using zombie run and see if it's becomes random or over time do you use the same few routes over and over again.

True - it's more's of a philosophical novel but whenever I think about books like that (eg. Camus the stranger or Voltaire's Candide) I think about the philosophy espoused by the book as opposed to the story, characters (which are sometimes pretty thin and are meant to stand for a particular point of view). I regard them as Plato's dialogue with extra bits added on which is why I see them more as non-fiction although in truth they are a mix of both fiction and non-fiction.