Boris Stoke

I've done this eleven years in a row and completed it ten times. This is the first year in a long while that I will not be participating. It's gotten to the point where I have a billion first draft novels and I should probably just spend time rewriting one. So that's what I'm planning to do this month. Hopefully. I hate rewriting. I highly recommend the nanowrimo experience for those interested. It's very rewarding and as Tango mentioned, it's a great writing exercise. You'll write a lot of crap but you'll find some diamonds in the rough too and you'll find cause to be impressed with yourself.

I'm loving this game a ton. It's so great. You're right on, Video Games. Total comfort food. I've enjoyed getting different idle thumbs friend requests. I'm sorry if I don't play with you any time soon! Eight month old baby requires a lot of attention.

I didn't read anything about the movie before my viewing. I didn't even know the film existed! I hadn't thought of this, but you're right. He kills a man but he's more worried about the police showing up than he is about the fact he took a life. It's the sort of thing that would make me think he killed before, but that goes so against his character.

Exactly right. If it was a demo then it'd be terrible, but it's designed to establish tone and mess with your head. It succeeds there. I'm sure Silent Hills proper will be an actual game. The very nature of PT is sort of a riddle in itself and I think one of the points is that it's a riddle you don't know how to solve. You feel trapped, just like all those poor saps that keep visiting Silent Hill.

I was a big fan of the flashback sequence as well. It was a nice short story in the middle of a movie that otherwise missed the mark for me. It was sad, but also real. It was a shame that he didn't try to comfort his wife after she confessed to him and was so darkly depressed, but there was no way he knew she was going to kill herself. It's all very tragic, but he acts like a normal person would in that situation. Even though she needs help at that time it's quite understandable that he'd need time alone to think after learning what his wife did.

I'm apparently on the last loop of the hallway and haven't been able to figure it out. The puzzles in this aren't really puzzles.... maybe one of them counts. Mostly it's just "look at this thing to trigger a thing and then you can move on" which is not at all the same thing as a puzzle. But most of the things you experience are really neat. I'm definitely interested in how they handle the full game.

This was a really fascinating demo. I didn't get to finish it because I got stuck and was interrupted by a baby that I didn't want to play it in front of. But man, super great atmosphere and it's GORGEOUS. I look forward to trying it out some more.

I was not a fan of this film. It really felt like it didn't know what it wanted to be. I guess it's more of a dramedy but some of the humor is so over the top that it clashes heavily with the serious parts of the movie. The "swear to your mother" bit was hilarious, but felt like it had no place in a movie that was primarily about a man who has trouble openin his heart because of what happened with his wife. At least? That's what I think the movie is about because it devotes the most time to it. The crime aspect really just feels like it's there to serve no real purpose. I really liked those inept thugs though.

I played this some during the weekend. So much fun. If anyone wants to try and get a game together when the beta comes back my PSN name is Boris_Stoke. I wouldn't be against working on that strike team again.

I was also thinking about your comment on Jorge saving the dog, followed by the shot of that other dog that might be marching to its inevitable demise. This really goes hand in hand with Jorge's comment to Viridiana about how helping out a handful of paupers doesn't help the thousands that are homeless. It definitely seems to be an underlying point of the film that no matter what you do you can't help everyone, and going along with the fact that the paupers betray Viridiana at the end you could argue the film is even saying you can't help anyone. Period. But it's a criterion movie so maybe I'm looking too much into meaning behind things that are just there. The Lord's supper pose the paupers make for the photo that never happens is very amusing, but I wonder if one of the points is to show how not only are they rascals but actually go so far as to disrespect Viridiana and her beliefs. They're just playing along to get a free ride so to speak. When faced with the idea of working around the property they aren't particular receptive. It reminds me of this bible verse, which I guess would be pretty appropriate here because of the content of the film... I know nothing about the director so I have no idea if he's trying to make a point along these lines or not.

I thought this was a solid film with a completely depressing message. Viridiana is objectified, drugged, taken advantage of, and nearly raped. In the end she loses her faith and throws in the towel. The ending has a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" feeling. Jorge tried to defend her at the end, but he's still a sleazy womanizer (a cat pouncing on a rat?) so her ending up with him (and being shared?) is really just the least terrible of the possible endings she could have had in this movie. I found the film to be surprisingly compelling (I haven't seen any other work of this director), and the dialogue was particularly sharp. Some of the paupers said some strange things.... "All rich men have asthma." (what?) The movie felt like it was always moving forward even when not much was actually going on. The first act of the film is quite creepy, but then it becomes nearly slapstick for a while before becoming intensely carnal. It really made me feel that Viridiana was blind to the darkness inside of people. I'm not sure if that's the overall message of the film, however. Sad flick!

Ugggggggggh. Why can't this be real? I just want to be Goron Link again. Again forever.

This scene in House on Haunted Hill scared me so much as a kid...

At first glance I thought you guys were talking about this House from 1986. I would agree that it's a campy movie, but it is something I'd be very surprised to find in the Criterion collection.

I want to join, but I don't want to dance. Where does that leave me?