Today, the LJ newspost has introduced a new feature: Sponsored+ accounts. in essence, this allows banner advertisements on this website. I'm particularly dissapointed in this - I've had an account here for a bloody long time, both as tymeschizm and as Windnight. When I started blogging here, there were invite codes, and a lot fewer features. some of the the increased functionality has been wonderful and amazing, and some of it has left me more than cold.

I had a paid account for upwards of two years, before I decided that the benefits weren't worth it for me.

Over the last year, since I found Nothingland, my posting here has dropped significantly. I think that it's time for me to be done with Livejournal anyway. If I want blogging again, i'll find a different provider - there are hundreds of them across the web now, and many provide a lot more functionality than LJ.

LJ, Adios.

For all the figurine collector types with whom I might be friends... here's a little something for you to drool over:

Chthullu, from the upcoming wizkids HorrorClicks game.



more pics at the link:
http://www.wizkidsgames.com/wk_article.asp?cid=40709

Ok, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Where to begin? In this point in film history, were I a film-maker, I would find it very insulting if a person came out of a film and said “shit, George Lucas could have done that better.”

I was very excited, and hopeful that they had managed to translate the massive novel into a fairly decent film - after all, I think that the series had been steadily improving - Azkaban had introduced good cinematography, better acting, and better screenwriting into the series. Sure, it had some minor flaws, but it did not fundamentally and indiscriminately cut out vital parts of the story.

( spoilers and review )

so, overall ruling: this film could have done better if the director and screenwriter had been more faithful to the book, and concentrated more on character building and the suspense and mystery present, rather than attempting to waste their entire budget on special effects shots which amount to nothing more than visual masturbation.

Prisoner of Azkaban, though it lacked several details which give greater depth to the world, was essentially a complete film. Goblet of fire, on the other hand, was rushed, cut, and sanitized in unhealthy ways, turning what would have been a fairly decent 2 ½ hour movie into a 2 hour shlock-fest.

so, i debated weather or not i wanted to post this wandering musing that i was forced to write as an assignment for my science fiction film course, and finally decided that yes, i do actually want to.

i should note i was under length guidelines while writing this - no more than three typed, double-spaced, 12 point font pages, so i was kind of fucked when it came to getting every peice of the puzzle down. i'm still considering going back and re-writing this at a decent length later.

further, i'm taking one of those bizzare steps and actually making this a public post. i know, shocking. really.
( ok, so i spend way too much time thinking about these things... )

in hindsight, i should have emphasized that the scientific method is itself technology - the concept that technology is more than jus a physical object, but mathematics, language, and any other form of tool counts as some part of technology. i think that preface would have helped make the final definition a bit more clear.