The Little Things In Life
Apparently LiveJournal does not want me updating. Ever. Disappearing entries, entries that appear out of nowhere, entries that do both, missing comments...now a script error. LJ LET ME FIX YOU! Not that I know more than the basics of database management but I do a great computer-intimidation stare that works on all types of electronics.
And now that I've threatened it, it comes back. See, told you. (And so did that missing entry...I'm so confused now.)
Anyway, so for the slight absence on my part; five days is a pretty long time to go without saying anything. I meant to go on a rant about Series 6 (again) from my missing entry, which is still in the works, but I figured I should ask a different question this time around.
Edit Deux: I'm dense but _thirty2flavors set my straight. Still, the idea of the Doctor "dying" for the sake of the universe/time/etc is completely bogus because any Doctor before him is still having fun. Doctor == Schrödinger's cat. *nods*
Also, apparently I'm out of practicing with posting, I've edited this thing too many times to count. My apologies for being OCD about it.
Alright, in the end of Series 6 we find out the Doctor never died and Amy and River know this. Great, fantastic, wonderful...I think. But, not the question. So, the Doctor we see in the latter half of the series opener is...the 400+ older Doctor from the finale just pretending to keep time going forward? Is it a cloned Doctor?
Edit: Sorry, wrong question; got ahead of myself again. Alright, second time around: the Doctor we see in the finale getting killed is a Doctor in a robot-thing (I can never spell the name of it) and the whole death at Lake Silencio, which the name is not coincidental at all, was just a trick. It made time move again because, somehow, time is related to the Doctor dying at a fixed poitn in time where he never actually dies, just the idea of him dying. Sort of. Does this mean that the universe from the beginning of Series 6 is now no longer valid because Amy and River know he's safe because he had told River when he/the robot wed her seeing as the entire finale focused on him tricking everyone into thinking he was dead? Did anyone think of how the opener makes no sense once you consider that the Doctor is known to be alive and that his death was greatly exaggerated (I think that's a song title...)? Not to mention you've got two Doctors of the same incarnation running around while the older Doctor needs to wait for his counter-part to repeat time to make sure he doesn't go into some sort of time-snare? Feels like a time-loop.
Am I missing something or did the finale just fuck with everything that was Series 6? How can the Doctor go through all of that again, particularly the two-parter opener, when he's supposed to be dead but still playing a part in events? It just...doesn't work out in my head.
Then again, this Doctor doesn't really care for time and the consequences of messing around with it, huh? Yeah...ok, I think I figured it out. *cough*Moffat*cough* LOL
Now that I've asked that, I can account for my whereabouts for the past week and the coming two months or so.
A ton of great video games are coming out in the next couple of months and I'm feeling the urge to play them as if Final Fantasy XIII had just come out and I'd spend hours in my bed not moving a single itch except for my fingers. Ah, the days.
Games I'm Currently Working On:
List of games coming out I will devote my life to (in rough order):
So, all of that, both current and to-play games, make up about $600 to be spent (assuming $100 per game for the Collector's Edition), probably the same amount of game time, and a lot of time to get my butt impression cemented into my recliner. My computer chair already has it so that's taken care of. Lots of gaming to do, not to mention I'd love to marathon some of the Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Assassin's Creed series before they come out. Will that happen? Probably not (other than over my ridiculously long and paid time off for the holidays) but a girl can dream, eh?
Well, should I talk about something else now?
I watched Sucker Punch over the weekend, along with the usual NCIS marathon, and other than the beginning sequence having 75% of the substance my nightmares normally include, I have no bloody clue what to make of this movie. Spoilers below if you haven't seen this very bizarre movie.
I get the levels of reality in the movie, and the setting of it being in my home state was awesome, but the rampant sexism in the movie, and the way it was portrayed, honestly confuses me. I could make a whole post for this movie alone, and if it hadn't been so late at night when I finished it on Saturday I would have done a reaction post, but this may be all I write on it. It was done by Zack Snyder, someone I wouldn't normally peg for the whole misogynist role, but every male character in this film was. Not to mention all of the girls were shallow characters working with a thread-bare plot, one that could have done so much more with the multiple levels of reality and what is actually real at the end, makes me wonder. Synder says it's really a movie that is meant to say something about current society's views on women but it never feels like it. Then, there's his quote on the movie as a story:
There's a mechanism in the movie that sneaks up on you. We sort of plant the seed of this thing, and then at the end of the movie it kind of comes back around. I think that in some ways, that's what the sucker punch is. But also you, the audience, have like a preconceived idea when you look at Babydoll. You think she's innocent and sweet, that she's capable of only a certain amount of things. But I think that's a mistake. So that has something to do with the title, too.
....Ok. I don't feel like I was "sucker punched" at all, nor that anything snuck up on me, but there was an overall feeling of "what the hell" that occurred when the credits rolled. Also, Babydoll, the main protagonist and highly fetishized young woman dressed as a '50s school girl, never felt "innocent" or "sweet."
Basically, I got two things out of this movie: eye candy, which I won't deny because I have a big weakness for fiery blondes with short hair, and the ending, where I think I had it mostly right. The ending, where you see Sweat Pea go off in a bus driven by "The Wise Man" headed to "Paradise," is most likely an allusion to Babydoll's lobotomy and her escape from her mental, and physical, prison due to the events leading up to her institutionalization. Sweat Pea, when I first saw her in the second reality, believed her to be an older version of Babydoll. In a sense, if my interpretation of the ending is true, would be partially correct. If through Baby Doll's lobotomy she escapes to "paradise" via the only one to escape the second reality (whose sister died in the third/second reality, a symbol of Babydoll's sister dying in the first), then she did get a happy ending. I'm in no way saying a lobotomy is a good idea, I find it to be one of those black spots on the history of psychology, but this movie makes you believe that Babydoll ran away in her mind to a place no one could touch her. In fact, that was the main message of the movie: no one can touch you in your world so go ahead and escape. Not a perfect message, actually one that most in the mental health field would abhor, but it does give a bit of comfort to those who have a hard time facing the real world. Sometimes you do need to escape, to fight your internal demons, in whatever reality you choose to do it in.
This movie...I just don't know. Would I recommend it? If you like action movies and can deal with the suggested rape/murder and horrible sexism, then go for it (it's got a lot of great action sequences, including zombie!Germans in a WWI setting and Dragons), but don't watch it for the plot.
Hrm, this post was a lot of nothing and more nothing, although thinking about Sucker Punch has made me want to analyze it some more, research it a bit, and see what I can make of it. Now, what's next on my Netflix queue....Ah, the 2008 "The Andromeda Strain" mini-series. Great book so I'm hoping the mini-series will be somewhat ok. I'm pretty sure some of those moments from The Andromeda Strain, as in the actual book, are about as memorable as reading 2001: A Space Odyssey and being terrified by HAL 9000 for the first time. Running up ladders to get to some room to contain a serious virus and stop a nuclear explosion? Yeah, I remember gripping the book when I first read it. Here's hoping for a good series! Cheers!
Now, to wrap up before House comes on and I can berate myself for watching yet another show of a TV show I gave up on seasons ago. I'll try to do a real life post, where a lot has happened at work, sometime tomorrow and do some catching up with comments/journals. Well, that's the plan as long as I don't get caught up in a video game. They are so addicting....
I also need to not nap after work. I've found that I grind my teeth, producing neck aches, when I nap. Guess the nightguard does something after all.
And now that I've threatened it, it comes back. See, told you. (And so did that missing entry...I'm so confused now.)
Anyway, so for the slight absence on my part; five days is a pretty long time to go without saying anything. I meant to go on a rant about Series 6 (again) from my missing entry, which is still in the works, but I figured I should ask a different question this time around.
Edit Deux: I'm dense but _thirty2flavors set my straight. Still, the idea of the Doctor "dying" for the sake of the universe/time/etc is completely bogus because any Doctor before him is still having fun. Doctor == Schrödinger's cat. *nods*
Also, apparently I'm out of practicing with posting, I've edited this thing too many times to count. My apologies for being OCD about it.
Alright, in the end of Series 6 we find out the Doctor never died and Amy and River know this. Great, fantastic, wonderful...I think. But, not the question. So, the Doctor we see in the latter half of the series opener is...the 400+ older Doctor from the finale just pretending to keep time going forward? Is it a cloned Doctor?
Edit: Sorry, wrong question; got ahead of myself again. Alright, second time around: the Doctor we see in the finale getting killed is a Doctor in a robot-thing (I can never spell the name of it) and the whole death at Lake Silencio, which the name is not coincidental at all, was just a trick. It made time move again because, somehow, time is related to the Doctor dying at a fixed poitn in time where he never actually dies, just the idea of him dying. Sort of. Does this mean that the universe from the beginning of Series 6 is now no longer valid because Amy and River know he's safe because he had told River when he/the robot wed her seeing as the entire finale focused on him tricking everyone into thinking he was dead? Did anyone think of how the opener makes no sense once you consider that the Doctor is known to be alive and that his death was greatly exaggerated (I think that's a song title...)? Not to mention you've got two Doctors of the same incarnation running around while the older Doctor needs to wait for his counter-part to repeat time to make sure he doesn't go into some sort of time-snare? Feels like a time-loop.
Am I missing something or did the finale just fuck with everything that was Series 6? How can the Doctor go through all of that again, particularly the two-parter opener, when he's supposed to be dead but still playing a part in events? It just...doesn't work out in my head.
Then again, this Doctor doesn't really care for time and the consequences of messing around with it, huh? Yeah...ok, I think I figured it out. *cough*Moffat*cough* LOL
Now that I've asked that, I can account for my whereabouts for the past week and the coming two months or so.
A ton of great video games are coming out in the next couple of months and I'm feeling the urge to play them as if Final Fantasy XIII had just come out and I'd spend hours in my bed not moving a single itch except for my fingers. Ah, the days.
Games I'm Currently Working On:
- Fable III: No more chicken saving and the numerous get-and-fetch quests are tediously annoying, but I still enjoy this game greatly. A lot of fun when I don't want to think or worry about my framerate dropping below 60fps like I would a shooter. It's really just goofy fun.
- RAGE: Oh, the headshots guys, the headshots. Magnificent graphics give you maximum gore and that's a very hard thing to argue with. Then add in the weapons, which I'm still waiting for the classic id BFG, and Twisted Metal-like car driving and you've got a great game...one it decided to run for me.
- Final Fantasy XIII: Ah, the killer. I've already put in around 80 hours into my first playthrough, of which I'm working on getting a platinum trophy for it by five-starring, aka being very good, at the missions post-game. It's mostly there...minus all of the weapons upgrades and grinding I still need to do. I'm missing the story, the cutscenes, and the early stages of any RPG where you're underleved and underpowered that I want to start over again. I can't tell you how many times I've played Final Fantasy X over again, I could if I wanted to search for my PS2 memory card, but it's probably about five time. With XIII...I just want to play and listen to Ali Hillis' voice (she's the voice actor for the main protagonist, Lightning, as well as Liara from the Mass Effect series and a few other games). And the story/characters/battle system is fun too. Way too much hate on that game.
- God of War: Origins Collection: God of War, 'nuff said.
- Demons Souls: Another long RPG that likes to kill you. Really.
List of games coming out I will devote my life to (in rough order):
- Batman: Arkham City: I haven't played the first game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, but I'm working on it but, until then, I may start up with the sequel knowing next to nothing about Batman. I do know he's Bruce Wayne at least. Collector's Edition comes in from Amazon tomorrow and will have it by Wednesday when my mom shuttles it in from for me.
- Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception: The first two games in this series were pieces of gaming history, the second one coming so close to being a movie you can actually play (with great story and character development), so the third game in the series will no doubt be amazing. Plus, Nolan North, Emily Rose, and Claudia Black will be returning for voice acting for Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, and Chloe Frazer respectively. Voice acting is a good profession, I'm telling you.
- Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. I still haven't finished Oblivion because I mod it to death, but this game...I've spent around 130 hours into Oblivion alone. This one will be another time-sinker. Coming 11-11-11 (same day as the movie Immortals opens up, which I will see).
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations: I still haven't finished the first AC game, of which this would be the fourth, but I will. All four. Yes....Coming November 15.
- Final Fantasy XIII-2: Haters will hate on XIII, and any direct sequels in the FF series, but this one I think I'll love. I didn't mind X-2 either and that's saying something. I just don't hate on video games all that much really. What's the point? Releasing January 31, 2012 and goodbye another 75 hours.
- Mass Effect 3: Yup, this one speaks for itself. I still need to do an inventory of all that I own for this franchise alone, not to mention the N7 jacket I actually use, or maybe the Dragon Age II hoodie I'm wearing now (mildly related), but Bioware...don't fail me now! Releasing tentatively on March 6, 2012. Too long to wait!
So, all of that, both current and to-play games, make up about $600 to be spent (assuming $100 per game for the Collector's Edition), probably the same amount of game time, and a lot of time to get my butt impression cemented into my recliner. My computer chair already has it so that's taken care of. Lots of gaming to do, not to mention I'd love to marathon some of the Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Assassin's Creed series before they come out. Will that happen? Probably not (other than over my ridiculously long and paid time off for the holidays) but a girl can dream, eh?
Well, should I talk about something else now?
I watched Sucker Punch over the weekend, along with the usual NCIS marathon, and other than the beginning sequence having 75% of the substance my nightmares normally include, I have no bloody clue what to make of this movie. Spoilers below if you haven't seen this very bizarre movie.
I get the levels of reality in the movie, and the setting of it being in my home state was awesome, but the rampant sexism in the movie, and the way it was portrayed, honestly confuses me. I could make a whole post for this movie alone, and if it hadn't been so late at night when I finished it on Saturday I would have done a reaction post, but this may be all I write on it. It was done by Zack Snyder, someone I wouldn't normally peg for the whole misogynist role, but every male character in this film was. Not to mention all of the girls were shallow characters working with a thread-bare plot, one that could have done so much more with the multiple levels of reality and what is actually real at the end, makes me wonder. Synder says it's really a movie that is meant to say something about current society's views on women but it never feels like it. Then, there's his quote on the movie as a story:
There's a mechanism in the movie that sneaks up on you. We sort of plant the seed of this thing, and then at the end of the movie it kind of comes back around. I think that in some ways, that's what the sucker punch is. But also you, the audience, have like a preconceived idea when you look at Babydoll. You think she's innocent and sweet, that she's capable of only a certain amount of things. But I think that's a mistake. So that has something to do with the title, too.
....Ok. I don't feel like I was "sucker punched" at all, nor that anything snuck up on me, but there was an overall feeling of "what the hell" that occurred when the credits rolled. Also, Babydoll, the main protagonist and highly fetishized young woman dressed as a '50s school girl, never felt "innocent" or "sweet."
Basically, I got two things out of this movie: eye candy, which I won't deny because I have a big weakness for fiery blondes with short hair, and the ending, where I think I had it mostly right. The ending, where you see Sweat Pea go off in a bus driven by "The Wise Man" headed to "Paradise," is most likely an allusion to Babydoll's lobotomy and her escape from her mental, and physical, prison due to the events leading up to her institutionalization. Sweat Pea, when I first saw her in the second reality, believed her to be an older version of Babydoll. In a sense, if my interpretation of the ending is true, would be partially correct. If through Baby Doll's lobotomy she escapes to "paradise" via the only one to escape the second reality (whose sister died in the third/second reality, a symbol of Babydoll's sister dying in the first), then she did get a happy ending. I'm in no way saying a lobotomy is a good idea, I find it to be one of those black spots on the history of psychology, but this movie makes you believe that Babydoll ran away in her mind to a place no one could touch her. In fact, that was the main message of the movie: no one can touch you in your world so go ahead and escape. Not a perfect message, actually one that most in the mental health field would abhor, but it does give a bit of comfort to those who have a hard time facing the real world. Sometimes you do need to escape, to fight your internal demons, in whatever reality you choose to do it in.
This movie...I just don't know. Would I recommend it? If you like action movies and can deal with the suggested rape/murder and horrible sexism, then go for it (it's got a lot of great action sequences, including zombie!Germans in a WWI setting and Dragons), but don't watch it for the plot.
Hrm, this post was a lot of nothing and more nothing, although thinking about Sucker Punch has made me want to analyze it some more, research it a bit, and see what I can make of it. Now, what's next on my Netflix queue....Ah, the 2008 "The Andromeda Strain" mini-series. Great book so I'm hoping the mini-series will be somewhat ok. I'm pretty sure some of those moments from The Andromeda Strain, as in the actual book, are about as memorable as reading 2001: A Space Odyssey and being terrified by HAL 9000 for the first time. Running up ladders to get to some room to contain a serious virus and stop a nuclear explosion? Yeah, I remember gripping the book when I first read it. Here's hoping for a good series! Cheers!
Now, to wrap up before House comes on and I can berate myself for watching yet another show of a TV show I gave up on seasons ago. I'll try to do a real life post, where a lot has happened at work, sometime tomorrow and do some catching up with comments/journals. Well, that's the plan as long as I don't get caught up in a video game. They are so addicting....
I also need to not nap after work. I've found that I grind my teeth, producing neck aches, when I nap. Guess the nightguard does something after all.