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I must admit I liked the original startrek. I also liked some of the settings of the later series (DS-9, Voyager), but I also never truly bothered to follow the series (chronologically or complete), because I got ultimately bored after a dozen eps or so, when nothing of the potential conflict in the setup between characters and surrounding was even remotely addressed or put to use.
The same goes actually for many of the sciencefiction series brought to tv or cinema in the last twenty years. Get me right: I *love* StarWars IV (and its potential), but that was *before* the rest of the saga; I love Eureka with its all nonsense take on scientists, and a few more (notably the original Battlestar Galactica and Bab-5, but again, "it's the setting, stupid." (to misquote Bill Clinton)).
However, when was the last time you saw a believe scientific and social different world set up on tv? The only thing I can spontaneously come up with is StarGate for a series, and even there it's mostly the original seasons with the earlier being the better, the Atlantis part lost most (if not all and then some) of its flavor, and Blade Runner as a movie.
SF author Charles Stross posted about the shortcomings of sciencefiction shows and movies in his online diary that brings these issues to a very clear point in terms of scientific and social world building for spellbinding scifi stories. His example is Startrek:TNG, and even if you don't agree with me (or like TNG to death), have a look at the quoted script excerpt for one of its eps, before the technical helpers filled in the gaps. It's a thought-provoking read.
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| Memories | Tell a Friend | Link |
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| 2009-04-13 11:48 |
| On behalf of Amazon.com |
| Public |
| pissed off |
| tripsing nightingale |
| amazon, fail, info, rant, wtf |
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Book dealer Amazon (.com, I didn't check .de yet) goes the way of LJ with excluding material it deems "offensive" from appearing in certain searches and from showing up in some of its bestseller lists and sales ranking.
Apparently, offensive in Amazon's books is sexual content (straight erotica, gay, lesbian, etc. pp. - prominent examples: Yamane Ayano's Viewfinder (manga; yes, draaaawn sex is bad!), Brokeback Mountain (the book) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (also the book; fugck!)).
To complete the similarity to LJ, Amazon now is also insisting that it wasn't planned policy but a glitch in the sales ranking feature. Then why this exchange with Mark Probst (including screencaps) earlier?
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| 2008-12-28 22:30 |
| FM-PMS |
| Public |
| cranky |
| fm-pms, rant |
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current chapter word count: 6862
scribbled changes applied today: changed breakfast scene
completed? unfortunately not
because Seishiro is uncooperative
quote of the day: "I feel out of place among all the gifted onmyoji there."
unrelated note: from the category of "unnecessary nuisances":
Dear Samsung laptop designers. Please abstain from moving CTRL and FN keys around on your keyboards! It is a nuisance that the CTRL key on the Q45 is on the FN key of the R560 and vice versa! Keys moving around like Dr. Kimble on the run make using two different machines regularly quite cumbersome. Thank you.
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current chapter word count: unchanged (in file), drastically changed (on paper)
because Ameru kind of had it with pretense
entirely related:( rantish happiness )
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope there'll be more FM soon! :)
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current chapter word count: 6508
because of severe tinkering in the waking up
because of extinguished reverence lights
because of scented oil
because who *is* Seishiro's kami, after all!?!!
scene to be worked on next: Seishiro & Ameru
because there are new data on kamidana & rituals that call for an improvement of said scene
research of the day: Style-trucks in Japan: Dekotora (here are pics)
research used? no, but the things look cool!
quote of the day: He considered it -- *Her* -- and used a whiff of his power...
Unrelated: I hate waiting for delivery nearing christmas. My laptop was scheduled to arrive on Friday before 19:00. Around 21:00 on Friday they changed the scheduled delivery date to Monday. Christmas-time-service-sucks!
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| 2008-06-23 15:21 |
| Eight things that put me off a fanfic... |
| Public |
| bitchy |
| MeatLoaf - Getting away with Murder |
| fanfic, rant |
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This list is incomplete and partially bordering on a rant, though it wasn't intended as one when I started it.
( Eight things that put me off a fanfic )
| 4 Replies | Comment | Memories | Tell a Friend | Link |
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| 2008-03-16 11:34 |
| [LJ warning flag - the next one] |
| Public |
| GRRRRRR |
| X-Japan - Standing Sex |
| blog, goatse.ks, info, rant |
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Read Stewardess' post at Insane about LJ's new most popular interests (in comparison to what they normally are).
It's nice to know how much you and your work are valued, also nice to know with what it is listed and associated.
Thanks, SUP, you are making a superior effort of making me feel at home on my Insanejournal.
| 2 Replies | Comment | Memories | Tell a Friend | Link |
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| 2008-02-22 23:36 |
| On pants and people |
| Public |
| pissed off |
| ...bitte bleiben Sie nicht stehen, da gibt es nichts zu sehe |
| pants, rant, real life |
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Open letter to fashion labels - more specifically: jeans labels.
( cut for your anti-ranting-convenience )
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| 2008-02-22 13:34 |
| Phonetics |
| Public |
| irate |
| ***rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggg*** |
| rant, real life, wtf |
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Dear phone company, I'd very much appreciate it, if my phone doesn't ring to tell me that
- it is busy (I prefer my phone to be busy when I actually tried to call somebody who's already speaking with somebody else!)
- I'm in somebody's waiting loop (I bother with waiting loops only if I called the service and can afford the wait!)
- my inbox has no messages (I only want to know about existing messages if I called the damn box!)
- a telemarketer, speaking apparently an ancient form of Aramaic, wants to sell me something. (No, you can't opt out of the ensuing verbal decapitation.)
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| 2008-01-23 18:53 |
| Customs Office... the Unreal Tournament |
| Public |
| irate |
| Reinhard Mey - Einen Antrag auf Erteilung eines Antragformulars... |
| customs, rant, real life, wtf |
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Firstly, I've got an Aunt in the US (about 60-years-old, widowed, and fond of cats and kitchens).
Secondly, said Aunt got herself a shiny new kitchen (and adopted a cute li'l kitten recently), both of which was talked about extensively on the phone and she promised to send pictures.
Thirdly, she did.
( Then the ridicule started... )
No comment.
And I need an icon expressing equally contempt and utter disbelief...
| 4 Replies | Comment | Memories | Tell a Friend | Link |
I just realized that I already had to tell no less than five people about how my Christmas went.
Since I am about to do copy & paste for it, I might as well just blog and be done with it.
( Christmas Spirit Kickaroo )
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| 2007-12-19 20:00 |
| Dear Landlord... |
| Public |
| cold |
| Elton John - Ice on Fire |
| rant, real life |
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...can you imagine that there's a certain reason behind most construction companies trying to finish their building projects in Germany by the end of September?
...can you further imagine that said reason might be related to the fact that it is rather uncommon here to replace apartment windows at the end of December?
...would it surprise you to learn that said reason is commonly called F.R.O.S.T. (and that I don't mean L.K. Hamilton's Sidhe warrior by it)?
Therefore, allow me to put it all into simpler words:
You freeze your arse off when your flat has no windows for several hours in December!
Thank you very much, you rectum!
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| 2007-09-29 17:51 |
| Hardware Quark - Printers |
| Public |
| cynical |
| MeatLoaf - There's A Wolf At Your Door |
| hardware, rant |
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My first printer ever was a HP deskjet 850C, which worked over 6 years until it died by spitting one of those tiny rubber wheels used for moving the paper inside (and out) onto my feet. Needless to say, the prints were kind of "lacking substance" (as in being printed on paper) afterwards.
( the messy printer deaths )
Now I have a shiny new Canon Pixma ip4500 in glossy black lacquer (I'm so going to see every fingerprint & dust particle on it - might be useful in reminding me to clean in time). It's a bit bigger than my old HP and setting up was slightly more complicated, but the test prints looked great and I'll be able to replace the color ink cartridges color-by-color not all-colors-at-once. I do a lot of bluish art work, so that should save me some money, too. (And if Canon's die by barfing ink onto carpets, at least it's going to be LESS INK than what comes out of the fat all-in-one HP cartridges!).
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