ThunderPeel2001

I was in London... and I still missed it. *facepalm*

I have no idea. As I said, I sold mine within 60 mins on TF2Outpost.

Bah! Missed it.

The value of Bill's is explained in the link I posted.

It's worth noting that if you pre-ordered Sam and Max season from TellTale, you have to enter your code on their website to get your TF2 items.

Of course! (I tried playing by sense of smell, it didn't work out for me :-/)

Nicely put, Mr Castorp!

No, I totally agree that the film should portray those guys as they are and show the success they achieved. I wasn't suggesting the film needed a "Hollywood Ending", or even some kind of flawless female character to put them in their place. Absolutely not! I totally agree that it's more powerful to show how people like that can succeed, no matter how much of an asshole they are. What I'm saying is just a matter of realism and balance. For example, if there were two characters in the movie who were black, and they both were portrayed in stereotypes, and there were no other black characters, and all the white characters were realistic and well-rounded, you'd kind of have to stop and go, "Hang on a minute...?". It just seems highly unlikely (and indeed, according to Argobot, it's completely fictitious) that Zuckerberg wouldn't have been working with some incredibly smart and incredibly motivated women. The fact that the film chose only portray all its female characters in a certain way, while showing all its male characters in another way, is an artistic choice... and a dubious one. (However unintentional.) Even Sorkin can see and understand what's been said about his script. That's why, instead of insisting it wasn't there, he tried to give an explanation as to why it was there. But as I've pointed out, his explanation doesn't ring true (to me, at least).

Fair enough. It was just a vague idea that some of your issues may have stemmed from that. I know that you were mostly unhappy with the pacing. I do think there's a better (and shorter) cut waiting to be made by someone....

I haven't received ANY emails since my initial one that gave me access to vote :-/ Should I have been getting links to things?

Yep, it's just SO difficult being a white male aged 18-35 living in a first world country. It makes me want to... *sniff* Sorry, it's so just hard sometimes. When I'm sitting in work, next to my female colleagues who are earning 10% to 30% less then me for doing exactly the same job, I sometimes wonder if they know the burden we men silently carry around within us. Sure, we're less likely to be discriminated against, more likely to be promoted, more likely to be listened to, and dominate senior levels of society, but... Um, actually, I've forgotten where I was going with this, but I'm sure it was a really good point. Well that was (kind of) Sorkin's counter-argument. He never said it was the world seen through their eyes, as obviously there are female characters in the film that aren't seen through their eyes, but he did say it was the world that the entrepreneurial tech-nerds were living in. The thing is, of course, that when he says that he's referring to things like the "Fuck Truck" (which is/was apparently real). Obviously those women were shallow, and around the up-and-coming men for the prestige, fame, money, whatever. That's obvious. I'm not talking about those women, though, I'm talking about the smart intelligent women that were there. And those that were conspicuous by their absence. Zuckerberg is never really successfully put in his place by any of the women he confronts, despite being rude and obnoxious to all of them. (FYI: Sorkin added the stuff about Zuckerberg blogging about Erica's bra size, and he exaggerated the FaceMash stuff, too. It wasn't just women who were being voted on for their "hotness", it was photos of men and women. Sorkin likes to say that Facebook was born out of a night of incredible misogyny, but most of it was actually added by him.) I'm actually writing all this as I research it, so I could be wrong about this, but I'm prepared to guess I'm right. I felt that women in the TSN were incredibly under-represented, especially compared to the men -- who were busy being super-smart, building empires, and changing the world. Let's take a look at the two most prominent female characters that have already been mentioned: Rashida Jones's character, the fictionalized junior associate on Zuckerberg's legal team, Marilyn. Is she a strong female character? A counterpoint to the strong men portrayed in the movie? Well, she's only in the meetings because her boss wanted her to sit on the deposition. She says she's only been practising law for 20 months and she's only there for the experience. She's not actually working on his case (she explains her particular speciality is picking Jury members) and isn't involved in the preparation of the settlement agreements. Hmm. Not a great start, given that most of the other female characters in the film are shallow bimbos who just want to give a blow job to someone who's rich. Let's look at what little dialogue she had (out of the 30 lines she spoke): Can you imagine any of the male characters saying that dialogue? I can't. They'd immediately say something smart and snappy and Sorkin-esque. Sure, there needed to be a character who was wowed by the stats so the audience didn't miss the big number... but it's not a good start for her character :-/ The second time we see her: Ok, so Mark is being obnoxious here, but how does she respond to that? Does she say, "Excuse me? Don't talk to me like that."? No. She just politely continues and doesn't stand up for herself. She does get the final say on Zuckerberg, though, which was interesting, and that scene (her third and final one) definitely showed a stronger side to her character: "You're not an asshole, Mark. You're just trying so hard to be." It's a bit little too late for me, though, seeing how it's the final line of the movie. What about Rooney Mara, the fictionalized Erica Albright. In the opening scene, Zuckerberg runs circles around her and belittles her for going to a lesser University than him. As he sees it, she's going nowhere. Compared to him, she's nothing really -- she doesn't even need to study. There's no point for her. Yes, she dumps him, but that scene plays like she does it because he's hurt her, not because (as anyone can plainly see) he's a complete asshole (although that is the reason she gives). So is Zuckerberg's assessment of her right? Is she really going nowhere? Does she really lack drive and ambition? Hmm. She's only in two more scenes in the movie: The next one is of her being humiliated, not only by what Zuckerberg has written about her on the internet, but by a stoned dorm guy making a crack about her bra size. How does she react? We don't know. All we see is her being humiliated. In her third (and final) scene, she's in a bar with friends and Zuckerberg comes up, apparently attempting to apologize. She’s understandably upset with him for what he did, but the scene plays so we feel sorry for HIM -- because she's refusing to talk to him. And that's that. That's the entirety of the major female characters represented in The Social Network (aside from the bimbo party girls, of course). I'm sorry, but that's not enough. You're telling me that in all that time, in the years portrayed in the movie, there isn't a single strong-minded woman who crossed Zuckerberg's path? He met a ton of men who could go toe-to-toe with him, but no women? (What about the women Argobot pointed out, the ones who helped create Facebook?) I'm not saying Sorkin is misogynistic. I'm not saying it's a badly written script (I think it's actually brilliant in terms of structure and dialogue). But is it socially aware? Nope. To me its portrayal of women is pretty much inexcusable... And it wouldn't have taken hardly a thing to address that imbalance, which sadly just makes it worse. So I don’t really buy Sorkin’s explanation, but I might buy his sincerity. (That said, he's posted some pretty shitty things in the past, so I’m not completely sure what he's like in person.) Anyways, Elizabeth's boobs...

Which market?

Yep, if you pre-ordered Season 3 of Sam & Max you got those three items... and that was the only way you could get them. It's not just that they're rare, it's that they're pretty damned cool, too. I honestly think that someone trading all three could get up to $100 worth of stuff in return. I posted my three items on http://www.tf2outpost.com/ and had sold them within the hour.

The first Star Wars movie (the one from 1977) was part IV of a bigger story -- and now that the prequels have been made, they do have a direct impact on those original stories. It's no longer about Luke Skywalker, all six films tell the story of Annakin. But I digress. I hope you enjoy The Hobbit when you watch it! I do think any reviews that claim it's "cataclysmically bad" should be ignored. At worst, I think it's "meh".

In terms of his TV shows, I've only really watched SPORTS NIGHT, which was largely very favourable to its female characters (although there was one asshole guy, I remember). A friend of mine told me that NEWSROOM had some serious problems with its women, though.

Interesting topic! I think a good writer should be aware of what they're doing, really. I think a good recent example is THE SOCIAL NETWORK, or even SUCKER PUNCH. Both were accused of misogyny, and both writers insisted that if anything, it was the opposite of misogyny. SUCKER PUNCH is harder to take seriously, for all its problems, so I'll skip that. SOCIAL NETWORK was more problematic for me. I definitely did have issues with the fact that there wasn't a single female character who was shown as being an equal to the protagonists. Everyone woman in the film, even those in Harvard, were all portrayed as intellectually inferior, shallow, and with no real ambition. All it would have taken is to have one female character who saw them for what they truly were, or with an equal amount of ambition, but nope. There wasn't anyone. I think TSN was astoundingly well-written. I think Sorkin is one of the best screenwriters working today. But I think he dropped the ball, and a little social conscience would have gone a long way. I think every good writer knows that it's of paramount importance to stay true to your characters, but I don't think you can pretend that they exist in a vacuum -- they're going to be part of a culture with issues. I guess it's something you should do retroactively, rather than questioning yourself every step of the way. You let the story unfold, you let the characters be who they are, but then you take a look back, afterwards, and make sure you haven't just inadvertently written a pro-KKK movie or something.

It's nothing to do with the 3D, it's just the 48fps by itself... It has pros and cons, as we've all mentioned. It certainly won't be to everyone's tastes, but seeing how hardly anyone is showing it in 48fps, it's unlikely to affect many people anyway. Not sure what you mean about "cataclysmically bad". Are people really describing it like that...? Weird. Also, I don't think it's fair for people to compare The Hobbit to the Phantom Menace -- It's a separate story that just happens to feature the some of the same characters, for one thing. (Honestly, if you go and watch it expecting to be as disappointed as people were in The Phantom Menace, you'll probably be pleasantly surprised.) Yep, but it puts the filmmakers in a difficult spot, I guess. Stay true to the source, or improve on it. I think they managed to do both, to be honest, although I acknowledge it has problems.

Woot!

It definitely wasn't scary, but I'm not sure it was trying to be :-/ The original book isn't particularly scary.

Please don't take a dump in this thread. As I said before: This thread was intended for things you actually use, and improve your life, not just random links. Speaking of which, that Productivity Owl Chrome extension really works! (At least, for me.)

Yep, I think that fella got a pretty decent deal, to be honest. Here's more information: How much are my TF2 items worth? I recently traded those two items, plus Max's head, for Super Street Fighter IV and The Walking Dead. I probably could have gotten more, in hindsight.

Did you draw this? It's excellent!

*shudders*

I didn't know that a film had to have suspense for it to be enjoyable.

It's funny, I've heard quite a few people say the first hour dragged. I thought it was fine. Ben felt it went by too quickly. The thing is, that part is very faithful to the book. (The book is arguably worse, in fact!) I do wonder if a lot people's issues with the film actually stem from the book -- A great read for kids, but really not much going on for adults. With this in mind, I think Jackson and Co did a great job of taking such simple source material and making it more textured. The "Riddles in the Dark" scene was absolutely everything you'd hoped it would be, for instance. In the book, it's extremely tame, with not all that much threat. In the film it's the most threatening "game of riddles" you can imagine -- well, by comparison, at least. The Hobbit, for me, was exactly what I was expecting: A lighter, more childish, story set in the of Lord of the Rings universe. Not as good, on the whole, but then I don't think the book is as good as its larger, more complex brother, either.