VPFORUMS.COM back online!

[sleepy]

I do believe it's back! I do believe it's back!

http://vpforums.com

 

[sleepy]

Aw Hell, I'm back at home too, but they took away my pics!

http://web.archive.org/web/20040929231126/http://sleepys.home.att.net/

 

[LeeVanCleef]

made a nice discovery just tonight (if you remember, i go through loads of flash games in search of 'great' ones)- this one is a claymation puzzle adventure, high on the humor scale.

first real puzzle is to get past the three audrey II's from little shop of horrors.
images: "totally odd" flash - Google Search



large screen link: http://files.gamezhero.com/online/totallyodd/totallyodd.swf
original link: http://www.gamezhero.com/online-games/adventure-games/totallyodd-games.html

Jesus, but that's a weird-looking game! To quote MST3K: "Good old fashioned nightmare fuel." It looks too good to be a flash game! Didn't get much of a chance to play it yet due to hand-cramping brought on by the release of Arkham City, but it's on my list.

 

[Shockman]

I think the 2009 movie, which was really good I think, could have been done better without adopting the alternate reality (timeline). I think it was only done to shoehorn Nimoy into it which I would have loved to not have. I am a fan of his, of course, but I don't think he was key, necessary, or worth it, in any sense.

I think it could have been done without screwing up what little consistency of a continuum there is. I am not against changing the reality though, if it was a set up for a series, or sequels.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

I'm kinda ambivalent about the whole timeline change thing, too. I think the prevailing reason behind it was to shed the million-pound weight of the whole Star Trek mythology and start fresh... secondarily, to shoehorn Nimoy into it. I can understand why they had to do it... to kinda smooth things over as far as the whole CTRL-ALT-DELTE conceit of the movie and distract the fanboys with some old-school Spock to sigh over. It does feel a bit calculated, but the movie as a whole was pretty good. Chris Pine did a fine job of channeling JTK without imitating Shatner. Not sure how I feel about Spock being gay.

 

[mrschultz]

I have not watched the 2009 movie, and may never.

The timeline change really annoys me, other series have been rebooted successfully without destroying the previous versions (batman, 007). My biggest grip with this timeline change is that now the studio will not do anything more in the old one, studios are deathly afraid of anything that might "confuse" the audience (even though movies like that often do well...).

In my opinion it is not Star Trek any more. It's been going farther away from the original idea for a long time, with Voyager and Enterprise they had a chance to get back to the original idea, Voyager failed miserably, with Enterprise they seemed to be starting to get back closer to the original series, but fell back into war and conflict instead of exploration.

Oh, and I finally got around to playing that flash game, weird stuff, not very hard, but fun.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Aw, mrschultz, I think you're being too hard on the franchise. I, too, had my doubts about Star Trek CTRL/ALT/DEL, didn't even bother to see it in theaters. But once I watched it, I enjoyed it quite a bit. There's plenty of mythology laced throughout for us hardcore fans, and it's the best Trek movie since First Contact (highly underrated, I always thought). It's not the franchise-restoring movie you hope it will be, but I'm not sure that's even possible anymore. It is fun and interesting... and how many Star Trek movies can you say that about? (I know... the even-numbered ones)

 

[Shockman]

I agree. Don't let an alt timeline rob you of seeing a good movie. Alt timelines have been a recurring theme in ST.

 

[sleepy]

studios are deathly afraid of anything that might "confuse" the audience (even though movies like that often do well...).

Not when the franchise is a horror franchise (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, etc.), but then studios often treat horror as trash cinema.
Quick buck for a pile of recycled gore with no sense.
At this very moment they are making a sequel to TCM in 3D, playing off the current Godawful reboot series. Gack.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

@arne,
the cancer article gave me some pause since i've had GI problems for the last 20 years or so. unfortunately, i also habitually worship at the altar of capsaicin, forming a not-so-good dynamic duo with the GI stuff.

this year at age 45 i've popped more omeprazole, ranitidine and chugged more maalox than in all 44 previous years combined. so the article is very much a good reminder about the dangers of inflammation. but, but... maybe all the tea and carrot juice i drink is a decent counterbalance against cancer formation?

btw, how's the german and italian coming along? the one thing i really appreciate about the english language is that the words are approximately 50% german and 50% french in origin, giving us a small leg up towards romantic and germanic languages.


@bill,
i hear that about the hand / controller-intensive games. about my only chance now is using a light combination of mouse / keyboard in mainly turn-based games. or the gamepad for a couple games which aren't terribly demanding, like spelunky and cortex command, both of which i still play.


@marty,
agree mostly, although i'm not so sure that the original ST idea was all that great in the first place. i mean, not the idea that it would make a worthy show, but the idea that human life in the future would be so sanitised, safe, friendly and agreeable. it's kind of insulting for lack of better language. not coincidentally, gene roddenberry, based on what his working colleagues have had to say about him over time, is nowhere near the 'benevolent and creative figure' that the fans have come to view him as. more on that later when i finish rounding up my ST notes.

glad you enjoyed the claymation game. the puzzles did kind of peter out at the end, but the format is so cute that i hope that someone does more of that kind of thing in future. in other news, i tried revisiting the creeper world but found that i'd lost my edge somewhere along the line for all the new levels. best thing for me is to put it on the shelf, then come back to it in a couple years...

...

saw a P&T teller magic trick tonite and it reminded me of how much i like seeing magic tricks, trying to figure them out, and usually being wrong in my conclusions. here's an example by david copperfield:
David Copperfield-Laser Illusion - YouTube

 

[sleepy]

Can you use Phillips (magnesium)? Maalox with aluminum freaks me out.
I would depend on Pedialyte but the manufacturer changed the formula a few years ago and now includes Zinc (a trace mineral) which is the last thing I need. It interferes with using it for pets and using it for myself.
If I could find a knock-off brand with the same mellow milky formula as Pedialyte used to use, that would become my regiment, to keep the kidneys in good working order.

 

[Shockman]

agree mostly, although i'm not so sure that the original ST idea was all that great in the first place. i mean, not the idea that it would make a worthy show, but the idea that human life in the future would be so sanitised, safe, friendly and agreeable. it's kind of insulting for lack of better language. not coincidentally, gene roddenberry, based on what his working colleagues have had to say about him over time, is nowhere near the 'benevolent and creative figure' that the fans have come to view him as. more on that later when i finish rounding up my ST notes.

Insulting? I don't get that.
The ideas of ST are for the most part timeless ideas. Race relations, bigotry, oppression, domination, corruption, you name it. if it was an issue it was approached from the correct angle every time, in my opinion. The tech. of Trek was prolific in a lot of areas, and it also broke the ground (ice) for diversity without (too much) stereotyping in casting.

I don't have much interest in what colleagues have had to say about Roddenberry, because I know many of them could not be trusted to be straight either. It should not surprise you that he was not perfect though.

 

[sleepy]

But...was Roddenberry on drugs?

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Nah, ol' Gene's predilections ran toward a more lurid bent... he fucked everything that moved (including Uhura... lucky man!). I lost faith in Gene after those first two horrible seasons of TNG he foisted upon an unsuspecting TV audience. Unlike the third season of TOS, TNG actually benefited from him handing over the reigns to... Pillar and Berman, if I remember correctly?

@nic: Not fair! You taunt us with Penn & Teller and then give us David Copperfield? I've always despised him for dumping Claudia Schiffer. Always thought someone who looked so much like Gay Spock would be "light in the loafers", as our fathers used to say... but I guess not.

 

[sleepy]

But his ashes are now travelling through Space alongside those of Tim Leary. I wonder why the family would do that, though I suppose with the high cost of space travel, it was more a matter of available accommodations, like catching the next available bus.
Gene had no say in travelling companions.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Considering Roddenberry was a pretty strait-laced LA cop at one time, I kinda like the idea of him drifting into the final frontier with Tim Leary! Gene gets a mention in a very fascinating book called LA Noir (not to be confused with the vidja game) that tells the story of cops and criminals in 40s/50s/60s LA. Amazon.com: L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City (9780307352088): John Buntin: Books Part of Gene's duties were to peruse Dragnet scripts for authenticity.

 

[Shockman]

Timothy Leary's dead?

 

[mrschultz]

Great, now I've got that song in my head....

http://youtu.be/kQIzm3ypzBQ

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Great song! Shockman's Timothy Leary's dead put this song in my head. And, after all, it is Halloween.
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead (Original) - YouTube

 

[Shockman]

It's also one of the songs in the database at the chat here. I sometimes go there (alone) just to listen to the songs, especially the Moody Blues. It's a nice short list of songs Jon has here in my opinion.

Many don't stream like they use to though, cutting in and out, or stopping before the end. At least on this machine.

 

[faralos]

talking of star trek, my gal has this cool limited edition signed plates
of star trek! we don't know the values yet but she has about 15 of them
also the complete card set (over 1 thousand cards)
I know the plates can fetch a pretty penny but what of the old trading cards?
are they still worth anything?

 

[Shockman]

Signature values are based on rarity. I think all these people did after the show is sign stuff. My guess is the money is in the cards.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

thanks for the replies on the ST thread. i have a few responses and more tidbits, about 3/4 finished- need to finish that up one of these days.

i'm just sitting here, a bit frustrated, trying to put together my notes on dad's life so i can read a history of his life at the service tomorrow. he finally passed last friday after that long, long illness.

...

here's a question for any staff-type people here: is it okay to post links to safe, legal places that in turn link to copyrighted material?

reason- i recently came across some superb graphic novel travelogues that i'd love to share in digital form. they're about a westerner's inside look at modern-day china and north korea, written across multiple-month stays in those countries. also some digital previews of weird, amazing stories by jim woodring (mostly art plus a little text). i'm thinking of bill (ruby) on those last in particular.

i mean, copyrighted stuff is shared on youtube, blog pages and all over the place these days, but i just wanted to check.

...

and for anyone who liked soma-fm, check out their two seasonal xmas stations. here's the tamer, more nostalgiac of the two:
http://somafm.com/christmas/

best feature: the subtly-executed ambient remixes of various slightly rare tunes.

 

[sleepy]

Sorry to hear it. Best wishes Nic.

Somebody, a bot maybe, posted a link to a China tourism site about The Great Wall in my "7 Billion People" thread, but it was deleted as spam. It was certainly the mildest of spam though.

 

[LeeVanCleef]

Damn, Nic... sure sorry to hear about your dad. Hope it doesn't ruin your holiday seasons for years to come... I've finally just managed to not hate this time of year, myself because of similar circumstances. Grooving on that Soma Xmas channel!

@sleepy: I actually clicked on that link. It was just sort of an underwhelming Chinese tourist site, from what I could figure out. Hope it wasn't virus-related!