Timely, I suppose, as it was just last month that I also dumped the Earthlink account I've had since this, maybe. (Actually, I think it wasn't until the late 90's that I settled there, from the contact e-mail addresses. Concentric, Netvoyage, Slip.net, AOL… I wonder if these guys are still around, too.) Check out this page, prettied only by a tiny Blade Runner pic I was lucky enough to find back then before Google Image Search and Blu-Ray.

Posted by me at 02:16 PM | Permalink

Finally, a visualizer (which you actually access by not enabling it on the menu) that one-ups the iTunes standard. Funny that I've yet to buy a single game for the PS3 but it's the little things like this that make me appreciate it so much more than the Xbox 360, which hasn't been turned on since I hooked it up back in April to check out Gears of War in 1080i.

Posted by me at 11:28 PM | Permalink

Balls of Fury and Rush Hour 3 rentals, because, respectively, Kentucky Fried Movie had funnier Korean lines and Zhang Ziyi died in the last one
Amazon.com Wish List—in fact, I'll leave the link up since everyday's a holiday for someone with disposable incomeno retirement plan whatsoever
The "Colossal MP3 Player" I came across at Walgreens in the Village (and must've ignored its blog rounds, it's that more impressive in person)
비 there with me

Posted by me at 06:04 PM | Permalink

My Secret Santa Chunnor in HR got me a Wii Zapper, which, bless her heart for checking three Best Buys before asking me to settle for a gift card, I doubt will do any more to save my dream of a controller-based FPS. I was playing Metroid Corruption last night and decided the Wiimote wasn't really making it a better game than the first Prime, much less the Super Nintendo classic. (Tracking movement with the pointer makes sense, I suppose, and Nintendo continues the scheme in the Link pack-in, but I envisioned independence between your weapon and the direction you look or run.) There's always been something… reassuring about a perspective that isn't striving to replace our all senses when it doesn't even come close. That said, imagine the scope of boss fights on a widescreen 480p 2-D version!

Posted by me at 05:10 PM | Permalink

A few weeks ago I was at 자기야's and came across 七人の侍 on one of her alien DirecTV channels and watched it twice. Well, on and off, but it's that fucking good. And since you rarely see it, at least in US media, without mention of The Magnificent Seven remake (I remember a Village Voice article, their original panning of Ran I think it was, written by someone so uninformed as actually to get the chronology reversed), and myself having grown up in a time when there weren't whole networks dedicated to retro cinema trying to fill their pre-infomercial airtime and seen the shorter, schedule-friendly Western first, I've been comparing the two since viewing them side-by-side …well, on and off, one between the intermission of the other. Sure, Sturges didn't have the extra hour that Kurosawa had, but you know he still wouldn't have filled it with women face-planting in the mud like so many highlight reels of MXC. His farmers are clad in White, Yul Brynner's hair never grows in, and the bad guys begin the inexplicable trend that'd keep James Bond alive for too many movies of letting their enemies go. No one runs, there's hardly any crying. Hell, even the Savage Five—which I couldn't find last week at Media King—had a scene with the broken comb inspired by Rikichi's wife to offer some sense of the tragic situation.

Posted by me at 03:05 PM | Permalink

I learned nothing of selflessness when I dinged 30 in my game, and instead would let someone else aggro all the gobs through the jungle. This does remind me of an idea we had back in the day (long before those, of course) of making a short film about a Final Fight/Streets of Rage player who is beset by bullies and tries to fight them off with moves he learned from the videogame, only to realize that spin kicks are much harder to perform in real life and you can't punch four guys at once, then get his ass summarily kicked. He'd fall against a trash can and a turkey leg would fall out.

Posted by me at 12:38 PM | Permalink

I got this today from Jane:

弟兄姊妹平安!

這封 email 是空中英語教室的彭蒙惠老師(Doris)所發出, 要告知大家下個月即將上映的一部電影叫「黃金羅盤」Golden Compass.該書作者是無神論者, 他接受媒體訪問時, 甚至大談其作品內容主要為消滅神,撒但要從神和教會的手中將人奪回, 得著自由?令美國教會界最擔心的是, 三本小說在與電影同步上市時,出版社更運用一些行銷手法將該書推入校園, 所產生的結果, 可想而知將對孩子們造成嚴重的信仰衝擊與心靈影響。

如果大家有注意, 近年來, 怪力亂神的電影越來越多, 我認為教會應在此儆醒, 幫助我們的下一代學習分辨來自惡者是是而非錯誤的價值觀與光怪離奇的世俗潮流。

請大家告訴大家, 並為此事儆醒禱告, 不讓撒旦有可趁之機.?求神賜教會與家長們屬天的智慧,教導與保護我們的孩子們!!

親愛的同工： 電影「黃金羅盤」12月7日將於全球同步上映，這是一部無神論、敵基督的電影，它的故事是從Thomas Pullman的系列書中衍生出來的，故事裡將神描述得又老、又健忘、又冷漠，而在系列中的第三部曲裡，神最後被殺身亡。

以下的網址提供您更詳細的內容，請將這電影訊息轉告親友，並禱告它不會影響台灣或世人對基督的看法，求神堅固我們的信心。

Dear All,

On Dec. 7, the movie The Golden Compass will be available at theaters around the world.

This is a anti-Christian, anti-God movie that promotes atheism. This is the first movie of three based on Thomas Pullman's three books his trilogy, His Dark Materials. God is portrayed as old, forgetful, and distant, and at the end of the third book the children kill God.

You can read more about it here.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,305487,00.html (Fox News report)

http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2007/goldencompass2007.html (Christian Spotlight on the Movies, a good site for movie reviews from a Christian perspective)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58541 ("Will your kid discover his personal daemon?")

http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=7254?(an article by Chuck Colson)

Please tell your family, friends, and church about this movie and pray that this movie will not affect the people of Taiwan and the world.

Pray that our faith will be strong in the Lord.

—Which of course, only my sparked my interest in Phillip Pullman's books; spoilerific Wikipedia tells me the anti-anti-Christians forgot to check their facts as usual, and Fox News needed a new enemy just in time for Christmas.

Posted by me at 07:59 PM | Permalink

남재 will attest, during one of our many AIM chats I laid out my vision for a fighting MMORPG where your avatar travels the virtual world, brawls in its streets, trains in dojos, maybe even takes them over, forms clans, protects secret techniques and hunts down those who dare leave with them—man, this stuff just writes itself. This is a start, but I'd prefer the game companies be more involved with the NPC's and put some pride in their property.

And oh yeah, I'm engaged.

Posted by me at 11:27 PM | Permalink