Movies

Prometheus: Two Reviews

Kris and I took a day off work to go see Prometheus on opening day, so eager were we to see the new sci-fi film by Ridley Scott, creator of Alien and Blade Runner. I’ve written two reviews, and here’s the first one:

It’s a good, entertaining monster movie, but not the landmark piece of science-fiction I was hoping for.

Okay, now onto the second review, which is absolutely filled with spoilers, because despite my disappointment in the film as a whole, it was very entertaining, and it is a great deal of fun to talk about in detail.

Spoilerslots of them — below.

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Site Blather

Once More, With Feeling

Okay, I’m back. I’ve said this before, but this time I mean it. Well, I’ve meant it before, but this time I totes double-swearsies mean it. I am going to write some things for you to read, or at least for you to scroll through quickly before unsubscribing.

As you can see, provided you’ve been here before and remember what things looked like, and provided you’re actually here now and not viewing this through Google Reader like a jerk, things look different now. Also, there is more stuff here than there used to be. This is due to the efforts of my friend Des, who has redesigned the site and also gone and yoinked everything I’ve ever written for all the other websites I started and then abandoned, and stuffed it all in here, because I couldn’t figure out how to do it myself and even if I could have figured it out I probably never would have taken the time to do it (lazy).

Over to the right, there are what we will call “features” while trying to keep a straight face. These are all things I’ve done that have appeared elsewhere on their own sites, but are going to live here now. The features are still in various stages of reassembly, mainly due to me letting my other websites expire without making sure I had everything backed up because I am an idiot (also lazy). Here’s the current state of the union:

  • Concerned: The Half-Life and Death of Gordon Frohman. This is my Half-Life 2 webcomic. With the exception of a couple navigation buttons everything seems to currently be working, but if you spot any errors or problems, drop me a line.
  • Living In Oblivion: My blog about playing as an NPC in The Elder Strolls IV: Oblivion. Currently, it’s a bit of a mess: The entries are all there but I lost the cropped images for the most recent few posts. I still have all of the originals so I’ll be replacing them soon. There’s also some weird question mark thingies in a lot of the posts — working on removing them. Once that’s done, the old WordPress site will redirect to its new home here. Not sure if I’ll ever finish this blog, but maybe!
  • The First-Person Observer: My fake in-game news site. Everything is archived and should be readable; again, if something seems to be malfunctioning, let me know using the contact page. I plan to start writing entries for this (occasionally) again.
  • The Elder Strolls: A ten-part series I wrote for PC Gamer’s blog about playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as an NPC. The content isn’t hosted here, but the page links to each of the ten entries. This series is complete.
  • The Demo Man: I used to write reviews of free game demos, because who would ever need such a thing? They’re free! That’s the joke, see. Right now, this section is incredibly incomplete: I wrote these reviews on like four different sites, including Shacknews back when they were into that sort of thing. So, I still need to find/rebuild them all. I will, eventually. And maybe I’ll start writing new ones from time to time.
  • To The Death! A little project I did in Garry’s Mod where I made AI-controlled people and monsters from Half-Life 2 fight each other. I doubt I’ll ever add to this, but I included it because people still ask me about it sometimes.
  • Not My Desk: My old temping website. I haven’t really looked through it so see if it’s all working, but it should all be there: essays, archives, etc.

I also have a huge backlog of blog posts from some of my old, long-gone blogs, like 1fort and First-Person Shouter, and they’re all still around, somewhere, and I’ll see about building them back into the site at some point. At the same time, like I said, I’ll be writing new things, hopefully regularly.

Video Games

The Elder Strolls on PC Gamer

Oh, hi.

I’m going to start writing for this blog again, after a long, work-induced hiatus. Not that my job has gotten any better or easier, but a writer needs to write and if I wait for my job to get less hectic I’d never put another word down until I retire at the age of 79.

So. Look for some updates later this week! In the meantime, I have been doing some writing for PC Gamer’s website. Back in 2007 I started a blog about The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a massive adventure game I played with the goal of not having any adventures. It’s been limping along for years and has a bunch of nice, patient, loyal followers, who have been asking if I planned to do something similar with Oblivion’s sequel, Skyrim.

As it happens, the guys over at PC Gamer, who have given me freelance work for years, were wondering the same thing, and asked if I’d do a weekly diary for their website. The first entry is up now, and there will be new ones every Saturday. Hope you like it!

 

Lady Business | Television

Lady Business – Finally, some drama!

The American Horror Story ads had gimps coming down from the ceiling, so I had to give this one a go for the weirdness alone…and the fact that there are few things creepier than ghost twins.

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Television

Best Breaking Bad Ever Is The Best Breaking Bad Ever.

If I were to sum up the first half of this season of Breaking Bad, it would go something like this:

Skyler buys a car wash, Jesse has a party, Walt sulks and scowls, and Walter Jr. is asked what he wants for breakfast.

The second half of the season got a bit more interesting, with Jesse working directly for Hitman Mike, the Mexican cartel repeatedly disrupting Gus’s meth distribution by whacking a number of his nameless goons, and Hank finally getting out of bed and starting to investigate Gus. Also, Walt sulked and scowled, and Walter Jr. was asked what he wants for breakfast.

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Lady Business | Television

Lady Business: Terrible show ideas

I was watching some embarrassing program or other when I saw an ad for a show called Truck Stop Missouri. I figure if a show about a truck stop can get on the air, the powers that be must be looking for some terrible shows to air. Here are some that we’ve come up with.

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Lady Business

Lady Business: Out and About In the Real World

I’ve been lucky enough to see Mr. Show’s “Hooray for America” when they came around in 2002, Louis C.K. in one of his very angry this-close to divorce shows circa 2008, Dave Attell right after they cancelled “Insomniac”, Doug Benson right after he had “made some very bad decisions pre-performance”, Brian Regan when he filled up the Crest with just about everyone in Sacramento, Mitch Hedberg a few years before he died and the spectacularly funny Paul F. Tompkins twice while he was participating in the SF Comedy Sketchfest.

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Gaming | Internet

We Are So Close To Rapture I Can Almost Taste The Bees

Remember that great game, Bioshock, where billionaire libertarian Andrew Ryan built an underwater city because he was tired of government interference, and it worked out really well for him, and it totally didn’t turn into a nightmarish leaking hellpit filled with screeching, drug-addled lunatics?

Well, we’re inching closer to that beautiful reality, as billionaire PayPal founder and libertarian Peter Thiel has given  $1.25 million to the Seasteading Institute, a group determined to build their own underwater city! (Technically, they plan to build their city above the ocean, but since they’ll be operating in international waters, free from the pesky, invasive government building codes, their city will be at the bottom of the ocean soon enough.)

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Video Games

Dungeons of Dredmor Is Effing Great

I’ve been playing a cute little indie RPG dungeon-crawler called Dungeons of Dredmor. It’s a $5 game on Steam, with a charmingly retro look and some clever writing. At first glance it does not appear to be the type of game that would suck away great swaths of your life. But it is.

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Internet | Lady Business | Video Games

Lady Business: Apptastic

Now that TV is in re-run mode, I’ve started relying on the internet and my iPod touch for entertainment. I have a few categories that I like to cover on a daily basis.

Money App: Smarty Pig – This doesn’t actually do anything fancy. In fact, it doesn’t do much at all other than track the money I’m saving up for various goals. You can set up an account on the web for as little as $25, and then choose to automatically deduct whatever amount you choose for however long you choose to save up for whatever the heck you want. Admittedly, the interest on these accounts used to be much higher. However, it’s better than stuffing it in your mattress. Plus, they have a cute little piggy bank that tells you how far along you are with your goals.

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