Damn.
I mean, I went into the theater expecting crap. I just wanted to hear Peter Cullen as the voice of Optimus Prime; figured, no matter how badly Bay screws it up, there'll still be Pete's incomparable Texas twang for the first time in twenty years. The hero of my youth, none of the succeeding Prime voice actors could compare.
I wasn't expecting a pretty darn decent action movie to go with it, but that's what I got. Alien invasion, military mayhem, an excellent portrayal of President Bush, the problems with having a black-book government agency that's so secret they can't actually exert half the authority they believe they can, and oh yes, Megan Fox, who registers something like one million Scoville Heat Units and made me forget what Eliza Dushku looks like.
As expected, the movie concentrates on the human characters -- Optimus and his homies get a fair amount of dialogue, but the script belongs to Shia LeBoeuf, Megan, and the rest. I was disappointed at the total short-changing of the Decepticons; they get hardly any lines or characterization. In the good old days, the banter between Frank Welker as the supremely confident Megatron and Chris Latta as his snarky, reflexively traitorous second-in-command Starscream could carry whole episodes; Hugo Weaving and Charlie Adler have maybe two brief exchanges. Prime and Megatron likewise theoretically share a complex backstory, having once been co-rulers of their world, but this too is pared down to a bare minimum of their standard exchanges (one shall stand, you know the drill) and a set of last words that hint at what could have been.
Given, however, that Shia, Megan, and Peter have all signed on for two sequels, I look at this movie as the equivalent of the first Fantastic Four: now that the characters have been established, future pics can devote more time to plot. I hope.
--Sam
"Are you Username Ladiesman217?!"

The remake of SRW OG1 and OG2 for the PS2, OGs, has already sold 350,000 units, according to Banpresto.
This, on top of Bandai having announced the release of the SRW OVA and TV series in the US, makes me a very, very happy nerd.
The better press OGs gets, the more likely it, and VERY LIKELY upcoming sequels, will come out here too.- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead

Okay, I just realized last night that Evangelia is high enough level now that I could slot L45 enhancements... but I can't find anyone selling them. Where can they be found?
Thanks.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3JCESdFNyw
check out the other stuff by this user, this guy's awesome.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

What MMO out there is closest to playing/feeling like CoX without being it?
Because, think about it: with the Virtues upsetting all the applecarts, the game itself is gonna be dead. So where will all the players go? Since I'm not really an MMO afficianado, I can't answer this question myself, but it seems like an interesting angle to work into a story.
Ja, -n

===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."

A life and death of Julian Friez
"Speech"
{Julian's thoughts to himself}
Warning: This will wind up both with mature themes and rather on the dark side in some places.
The interns: could be just a one-time thing, or could happen from time to time. I figure it's reasonable that the Prof might decide to send out a call for interns once, just to see what it was like, and there are enough people in fenspace with enough curiousity that he could wind up with a fair number of takers. Eventually they're liable to get annoying, but for the moment he's enjoying having a constant captive audience/group of henchlings.
I'm actually stumbling somewhat on the section after this, partially because I have no real idea how the Professor would *treat* individual Julians, after he'd finished the first round of experiments. Catty, if you've got any clue to share, I'd love to hear it. If anyone who's running a station likes the idea of having a string of lost, unhappy Julians tromping through it on an irregular basis, feel free to chime in, and I'll happily use you for the next bit. Oh, and any bits of concrit would be much appreciated.
----------------------
Deep inside one of the most feared ships in known space, inside a darkened lab, a machine about the size of a commercial refrigerator made a cheery "ding", and unlocked its output door. A short while later, the door fell open, and a form of approximately human size and shape fell out. It hit the floor and whimpered, then lay motionless.
A few minutes later, the Professor, star of numerous television shows (mostly of the fearmongering news variety) came striding into the lab, followed by a group of fascinated (and terrified) interns, brightening the place up with his very presence (Bad Things Happened to lightbulbs that did not brighten immediately at the approach of the Master. The lightbulbs that survived learned quickly.)
"Look! See! Witness, oh doubters! The machine does indeed make Julian Friez! Another victory for SCIENCE!"
{Oh, God. It's him!}
The vaguely man-shaped pile of sludge in front of the machine tried to shuffle away from the professor as best it could.
"Julian? Julian? JULIAN! Ah! there you are, Julian. What a delightful new form you have. You two! Fetch me that vat. Looks like we'll have to carry him to the table if we want to get any data out of him, and this version is *fascinating*."
{New form? This version? What is he ranting about? Why can't he just leave me alone?}
The sludgepile moaned in poorly-enunciated fear, but the various interns coralled him into into the vat and on to the table anyway. Then the professor brandished his tools, and the nightmare began in earnest.
------------------------
Over the next few days, in between moments of sheer terror and deeply unpleasant probing, Julian managed to find some things out about himself. He wasn't the first Julian Friez. (His fiance's number had an unhappy message telling him to go away and leave her alone.) He wasn't the second. (His mom's number had a really vicious message from his brother telling him to not even try to get in contact any more if he valued his "sick, freakish, miserable little life".) He was some sort of horrible thing that had been made to think he was Julian Friez, and he wasn't even vaguely human looking when he stopped thinking about it.
He'd spent a few hours slumped over a bench feeling miserable when it all sunk in. Finally, he decided to just ignore it. If he remembered being Julian Friez, then he was Julian Friez. The Professor had done something really unpleasant to him, and stuck some of that goop in him, and he'd wound up freakish. That happened to people sometimes, he'd heard. It sucked, but hey - with a little effort, he didn't even have to be freakish. All he had to do was stay calm and in control, and he could have his old face, just like he was supposed to. Okay, so he couldn't keep his body looking right all over without a lot of effort, but that just meant that he needed to wear a long-sleeved shirt and jeans and boots. That wasn't too bad. He wore that sort of stuff fairly often anyway. It turned out that he could even do his old job up here. You would have thought that they'd need all sorts of fancy stuff up in space, but it turned out that plumbing was pretty much plumbing wherever you went.
{What are you *talking* about? This stuff involves water recycling and air balance and...}
{Shut up. I can understand it, right? So it's plumbing.}
{But...}
{PLUMBING'S PLUMBING, DAMMIT!}
{Um...er... okay.}
{Thank you. I knew you could be reasonable.}
Of course, that was looking on the bright side. On the dark side, he was still trapped in this madman's lair, desperately trying to avoid his attention while keeping the various bizarre experiments from eating him, and scavenging enough food and water to keep going. Once, he'd been desperate enough to try to steal some of the professor's coffee. It had... not gone well. Now, now he just hid, and trembled - but it was nice to have a bright side to look on, right? Right?

The following parody of a 'Harry Potter' spoiler appeared today in a Boston Globe article by Tom Keane.

Quote:

---

A leaked copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the last volume of the seven-book series, sparked heated discussion among fans. According to those who have seen it, the book ends with Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger having lunch in the Hogwarts dining hall. Suddenly, Lord Voldemort and Severus Snape appear from the kitchen. Snape raises his wand and says the last words of the story, "Let me take care of the scar." Ten blank pages follow. The book's publisher refused to confirm whether the leaked copy was legitimate, but did acknowledge that author J.K. Rowling collaborated with "Sopranos" creator David Chase on the series conclusion.

---

I received this email this morning. I've resigned from Mod duties and quit the FFML, but I thought I'd pass it on to you guys anyway.

-----------------------
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. After about 3-4 months of being
down, we're back operational. Just have to unpack a few things and get
back up and running.
First, I want to make something clear: I'm not planning on acting in a
moderator capacity. I'll leave this to the moderators already in place.
My job is to run the machine the list is running on. I'm more likely
to get into writing again, if anything - and hope, in fact, to do
exactly that. =^^=
Most of everything is going to be the same protocol, but what is winding
up changing is the interface. We're running Mailman here (rather than
Listar/Ecartis, which the FFML ran on for over a decade), so the
interface is a little different, and is pretty much done through the web.
First and foremost, CHECK YOUR EMAIL FOR THE WELCOME MESSAGE. If you
have to, look in your spam traps. In this email are complete
instructions for how to log in and change your subscription options. If
you have multiple welcome messages, use the MOST RECENT one. If you
have misplaced this email, go to this URL:
chez-vrolet.net/mailman/options/ffml
...and follow the prompts.
Full documentation for Mailman can be found here:
www.gnu.org/software/mailman/users.html
As we here on the 'net are prone to saying, RTFM.
For those of you who had digest or vacation flags on your addresses,
you'll possibly have to replace them at your option. For those who were
hidden, by the time you get this, I'll likely have replaced your flag.
Please make sure you have your configurations set accordingly.
There are probably going to be a few quirks here and there, so please
bear with us as we get this mess ironed out. If, for instance, you got a
duplicate welcome message, sorry 'bout that - apparently the software
freaked out when loading all three thousand of you through the web
interface. Of course, that's what the command line is for. =^^=;;
In closing...well, I really wish I had something more to say about
Philip's passing, but all I can say is that he will be missed, and that
I'm glad he picked up the ball when we left fanfic.com something over
five years ago. Now it's my turn, and as corny as this sounds, I hope
that I can do as good of a job as he did.
-Dennis--
Christopher Angel, aka JPublic
The Works of Christopher Angel
"Camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legend! Right, Boo?"

As a cook, I give this movie five stars. Hilarious and extremely accurate in its portrayal of the mechanics and politics of a restaurant kitchen.
--Sam
"Food is fuel. You get picky about what you put in the tank, your engine is gonna die. Now shut up and eat your garbage."

Some casting news/rumors for the upcoming Watchmen movie.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.