Always With The Negative Waves, Moriarty!

Stupid Gaming Tricks (man, it& Mal R Mal Reunir 2011's beens been a

malcubed — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 21:38:14 GMT

Mal: Hey, according to this dropdown list I could get "Gorilla Gloves!" That sounds way better than these lame-ass green thumbs!

erragal: You don't care what they do, you just want them because they're gorilla gloves?

Mal: I figure worst-case scenario, they're made out of a gorilla's hands. So at least I'll be able to run up to people and be all like, "I'm gonna fuck you up with my GORILLA HANDS!"

Stupid Gaming Tricks (man, it& Mal R Mal Reunir 2011's beens been a while)

malcubed — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:23:21 GMT

Sorry for the last minute update (we plan as well as ever, don't we?), but we're going to be in Minny from next Friday (12th) to the following Saturday (the 20th).

Reason: it was my Grandmother's 85th birthday in May, and we're renting a cabin in Brainerd for the week.

Schedule:
Get in Friday early afternoon.
Saturday: Birthday party for Grandma on Saturday afternoon/evening (probably getting out ~7-8ish)
Sunday: currently open! Mass-catch up at coffee shop or at someone's house? Play games?
Monday: Drive to Brainerd!
Thursday: Escape from Brainerd, drive down to Blue Earth.
Friday: escape Blue Earth, with an eye toward getting back to the Twitties in the evening.
Saturday: Leave early afternoon.

We'll probably be staying with Drew and Max for the first leg (altho they might be finding out about that RIGHT NOW), dunno about the second leg.

Requests:
Flight in Friday the 12th at 2 PM, flight out Saturday the 20th at 2 PM (no, we didn't plan that): rides to & fro airport? Pretty please? *blink, blink*

Does anyone with a house have any interest in hosting a party one of those weekend nights to assist us with mass catching up? We were hoping to have more time free to hang out when we figured our dates, but family obligations have turned out to be larger than initially anticipated.

Anyways, look forward to seeing you soon!

THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS

malcubed — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 09:36:59 GMT

Just saw it. Yes, you will want to see it.

Quickie SIFF Review #2: KARATE-ROBO ZABORGER

malcubed — Sat, 28 May 2011 09:59:47 GMT

The Hook: Ostensibly a remake of Denjin Zaborger (aka Electroid Zaborger 7), really it's just Noboru Iguchi (director of MACHINE GIRL, ROBOGEISHA, and THE ANCIENT DOGOO GIRL, as well as co-director of MUTANT GIRL SQUAD with Yoshihiro Nishimura of TOKYO GORE PLACE fame and Tak Sakaguchi of a ton of awesome things fame) riffing off of tokusatsu in his own fetishistic way for an hour and a half.

The Plus: The drastically reduced amount of gore and complete lack of any implications of sexual violence do, on the one hand, add up to make it feel a lot more like a PG-13 experience than I'm used to from his previous work. On the other hand, it's also the first of his movies that I really feel I could show someone guilt free. I mean honestly, I think anyone I would want to show a movie to would appreciate ROBOGEISHA and 95% of them would at least tolerate MACHINE GIRL. But this one puts it all a bit more out there and really goes straight for the comedy factor while veering all over the place.

The Minus: None, really.

Memory burned into my mind for all eternity: THE LEAGUE OF SMILES. NEW FAVORITE SUPERHERO TEAM.

Rating: Five Rockets Shot Out of Breasts

SIFF Review #1: TROLLHUNTER

malcubed — Wed, 25 May 2011 07:25:50 GMT

The Hook: A group of film students follow a suspected bear poacher, in the hopes of getting a scoop for an unspecified film project. As everyone is I'm sure 100% surprised to hear, they get more than they bargained for: he doesn't hunt bears, HE HUNTS TROLLS!

Quickie Review: First off, the shaky cam. This is definitely my favorite faux documentary/shaky cam movie to date, but I think that's really because the ground has already been tread by certified blockbusters THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CLOVERFIELD. As such, they can minimize how much time they spend making you want to puke or watching a scene so dark that you have no clue what you're looking at. After playing with night vision a bit at the beginning, I think they spend most of the rest of the movie just filming with fairly subtle lighting to achieve reasonably dark shots that still allow you to resolve the action. Also, they don't bother trying to hide the action, allowing you plenty of opportunities to check out the TROLLS (although the darkness of the night scenes is certainly forgiving on the CGI).

The movie is definitely trying to be more action-suspensey than it is horrory, and I definitely liked it more than I would have if they'd gone the other direction. This is at least in part because the movie realizes it's premise is fairly ridiculous and is willing to run a bit tongue in cheek. See, for instance, the scene where a character is forced to explain that a series of sheep mutilations are due to a Russian bear that had wandered across Finland and Sweden into Norway--because they couldn't get a Scandinavian bear corpse on short notice--and then ends up having to further explain that Russian bears keep excess food for the winter stashed under bridges. You know, like squirrels do.

My number one complaint is that for all the pretense that our characters are a group of documentary filmographers, they often seem a bit incurious as to what's really going on. They do certainly ask questions of their subject, but there's a lot of things they don't ask and it really feels that it's just because the filmmakers didn't want to have to come up with an explanation.

Number One Unanswered Question: What is it with trolls and Christians, anyway? My theory is that Christians are trolls' natural predator, so they've evolved the ability to smell them. Makes as much sense as anything else.

Rating: four out of five Fuck Yeahs. Watch the trailer online. If it looks interesting, it's pretty much what it says on the tin. If you're on-demographic, it's definitely worth watching.

Slightly topical

malcubed — Tue, 24 May 2011 06:30:25 GMT

'By "deciphering" the Book of Revelations, a minister in Lochau--in what is now East Germany--proclaimed that the world would end on October 18, 1533. When it didn't happen, the minister--a Michael Stiftel--was given a thrashing by the townspeople.'

--Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts

Stupid Gaming Tricks

malcubed — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:56:02 GMT

Mal: Wait, DEATH?! NOBODY SAID ANYTHING ABOUT FIGHTING DEATH!

From Twitter 05-14-2011

malcubed — Sun, 15 May 2011 10:03:39 GMT

02:44:13: You haven't lived until you've seen California Über Alles and War Pigs performed by a marching band accompanied by live power saws.
11:23:53: RT @chemotaxis: if you ever go dancing in Seattle, don't look behind you. It'll only depress you.
11:39:43: CULTUROMICS IS A SHITTY WORD. DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE.
18:57:24: Altho I'm loathe to deprive my neighbors their celebration of the first nice wknd of the year, I can't wait until it rains and they shut up.
19:14:26: Ha! Rain! Try screaming along with your rap tracks on the front lawn now, motherfuckers! #yesim80yearsold
21:25:03: Apparently sour patch kids are the taste of betrayal.

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From Twitter 05-13-2011

malcubed — Sat, 14 May 2011 10:02:59 GMT

21:17:41: En route to The Mix for Honk! Fest.

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From Twitter 05-12-2011

malcubed — Fri, 13 May 2011 10:05:26 GMT

21:20:17: SIFF schedule is up! Busy squeeing!
21:25:06: DETECTIVE DEE! PHANTOM FLAME! OUTRAGE! REVENGE: A LOVE STORY! I think that'll do.

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From Twitter 05-11-2011

malcubed — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:03:04 GMT

08:50:05: Oh, so this is the reason you can only level up during an extended rest. SO TIRED.

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From Twitter 05-10-2011

malcubed — Wed, 11 May 2011 10:04:42 GMT

15:56:44: Someone stole the lab coffee over the weekend. I think PETA's finally figured out how to hit scientists where it hurts.
17:38:07: KT2 staining? Maybe? With the gain maxed out? Fingers crossed!
18:27:44: Tentatively looks specific. Forced to transiently break for dinner.
19:11:59: This confocal has the most bizarre keyboard layout. I think maybe it's British?
20:20:49: @mbruchas Just trying to get KT2 working in IHC in my own hands, since I've had rough luck so far.
20:22:56: @mbruchas From what I can recall of lab meetings, the Abcam KORp is crap.
20:28:18: @mbruchas That doesn't sound fun. You should branch out, make it in a goat or a chicken.
20:39:43: @mbruchas Best of luck, man.
22:55:02: Yay, double-labeling that looks real! I don't know if I've ever generated that before!
22:59:00: +1 level IHC, +1 level confocal microscopy. nah-nah-Nah-NAH (Link Theme)! I got a rupee! What a stroke of luck!

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From Twitter 05-09-2011

malcubed — Tue, 10 May 2011 10:03:15 GMT

12:47:20: RT @AlexSteffen: Seattle residents given chance to opt-out of delivery of phone books: in 5 days, 85,000 deliveries canceled http://bit. ...
19:59:59: Burnt my finger rushing zucchini bread out of oven. Owowowowowowowow.
20:35:04: RT @mattyglesias: Would love to read a profile of someone who's made a lot of money betting on the Memphis Grizzlies this postseason.
22:41:07: @chemotaxis "Hey, free troll!"
22:48:47: @chemotaxis However, I would hate to put myself in a position where I was financially opposed to congestion taxing.

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From Twitter 05-08-2011

malcubed — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:02:01 GMT

05:46:09: My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Public Enemy (20), Transglobal Underground (19) & The Shanghai Restoration Project (15) http://bit.ly/9id3xZ
10:00:58: Lion's Gate males really shitty trailers for their internationally sourced material. Boo.
10:03:29: Still drunk from last night. Way too sober for this movie.
10:23:42: "There isn't enough time to control your power the natural way. So we'll have to do it the evil way."
10:41:18: Apparently the evil approach to martial arts training primarily consists of bathing in evil springs.
10:57:49: @chemotaxis Evil springs were repeatedly incorporated into a general training montage. Good enough?
10:58:21: Everything's coming up ninja!
11:16:40: I love universes in which advanced martial arts techniques are basically Marvel comics-style telekinesis.
20:55:09: RT @billmaher: Republicans now backing off repealing healthcare! Healthcare, killing bin Laden - all part of Obama's diabolical agenda t ...
21:42:20: Wow, THE STORM WARRIORS totally fails the Bechdel test.
21:45:53: Dude just cut his evil eye... And it's LEAKING ALL THE EVIL OUT.
21:49:46: Watching STORM WARRIORS is really whetting my appetite for Tsui Hark to make a third ZU movie.
21:50:16: I think the technology has finally caught up with his ability to make pretty visuals and no God Damn sense.

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From Twitter 05-07-2011

malcubed — Sun, 08 May 2011 10:02:31 GMT

19:10:25: @chemotaxis Try Game Genie.

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From Twitter 05-06-2011

malcubed — Sat, 07 May 2011 10:02:17 GMT

18:13:01: Yay, my cup of yogurt in the lab fridge hasn't gone bad yet! Hooray for the small victories.

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From Twitter 05-05-2011

malcubed — Fri, 06 May 2011 10:02:32 GMT

22:15:48: Yyyaaaaaaarrrrgghh. That is all.
22:57:54: RT @AlexSteffen: Know what Seattle cops are doing w/ your tax $? Wasting them investigating liberal activists, artists+ councilmembers h ...

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From Twitter 05-04-2011

malcubed — Thu, 05 May 2011 10:02:01 GMT

11:40:18: RT @khyungbird: Attention all #yaoi fans! Rise up against #kindle for their lame new censorship/content-restriction policies! http://is. ...
11:52:03: RT @khyungbird: Amazon pulls explicit #yaoi from #kindle, instantly becoming as big a bunch of dicks as Apple's iTunes store http://is.g ...
21:19:15: Q: why did the chicken cross the road? A: to make out with Dude Law, apparently.
22:19:48: Wow, I really should have attended to Warren Ellis' review of ASHES OF TIME.
22:20:46: RT @SeanGrandePBP: Someone at tomorrow's emergency Celtics/Lakers NBA on ABC meeting: "is there a way to do this with electoral votes in ...

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From Twitter 05-03-2011

malcubed — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:01:54 GMT

21:27:14: RT @StephenAtHome: Good thing we got Bin Laden's laptop. With no Internet at the compound, he must have gotten a ton of work done.
21:27:54: Just remembered how much writing I used to do in bars. And studying for my neuro final at the Saloon.

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From Twitter 05-02-2011

malcubed — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:02:21 GMT

18:08:03: Having a romantic laser-lit dinner with the confocal. Nobody tell OSHA.
22:07:04: Challa!
22:11:28: What a great fucking playoff season. I need to spend less time in the lab and more time watching these awesome-sounding basketball games.

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From Twitter 05-01-2011

malcubed — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:02:05 GMT

00:43:36: My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Euphoria (19), Public Enemy (16) & The Jimi Hendrix Experience (16) http://bit.ly/9id3xZ
11:25:15: Can't decide which is blowing my mind more: the spanking Memphis is giving OKC or the ridiculously gorgeous day developing outside.
11:28:00: Sorry about jinxing the Grizzlies three minutes ago.
11:30:07: RT @joshtpm: White house corrs dinner, where people set aside political differences for one day a year to laugh at Donald Trump
18:57:00: Finally made it to the DVD store at the great wall shopping mall. The bad: mostly crappy-looking pirate-looking copies of new movies.
18:58:38: The good: got a copy of the out-of-print HE'S THE WOMAN, SHE'S THE MAN for $15; saw a copy of the FEMALE GOD HOP version of HEROIC TRIO.
18:59:14: The ugly: forgot to take a photo of FEMALE GOD HOP to prove it exists.
19:32:40: RT @latimes: Breaking: President Obama abruptly announced he will address the nation at 7:30 Pacific tonight. No word on what he will be ...
19:44:35: Oh yeah, Happy Beltane / Labor Day (before you stop caring and only care about whatever Obama's about to say).
19:46:31: You heard it here first: Osama's dead. You can pretend to still care now.
19:50:35: RT @ArturoGalletti: RT @mattyglesias Obama to reveal OBL behind NFL/NBA labor dispute & BCS. With him dead, world terrorism, sports stri ...
19:53:57: So does this mean we can pull the aircraft carrier and "Mission Accomplished" banner out of the shed now?
19:54:13: Alternately, does this mean we can stop blowing up Afghanistan now?
20:28:40: RT @GhostOsama: Well this sucks...I accidentally enabled location on my tweets.
20:29:48: RT @pattonoswalt Oh shit -- AP reporting Bin Laden has regenerated as Tom Baker.
20:30:57: RT @CobraCommander: This is why you hide in an impenetrable island fortress, not in a cave.
20:31:00: RT @jennifurret: RT @hemantmehta: Ok, new plan: Put Osama bin Laden's body on eBay. Use winning bidder's money to fix the economy.
20:31:51: RT @mattyglesias: Not sure why people think this will have electoral implications. GHWB had big foreign policy successes. Voters don't care.

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My year in reading: 2010

malcubed — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:48:06 GMT

You know you have procrastination issues when you do one of your summing-up-your-year posts when it's nearly seventy outside. Of course, having moved from Minnesota to Seattle, that's sort of cheating now. Anyways, I've fortunately read enough book this year that I need to free up space on the books-I've-read-this-year shelf, providing impetus for this post.

Please note that this is probably missing a couple things that got read and then lent out rather then getting put on the shelf. There are also a bunch of things that won't get listed (the only things that come to mind are The Epic of Gilgamesh and a bunch of Socratic dialogues) because my reading-tracking system only includes whole books consumed. Also, comic books are right out because I read them too much.

Most of my comments are really just rushed attempts to put down what I thought about the book. If you'd like more in-depth thoughts about the books or want more of a description of what they're about, feel free to ask and I'll see what I can do.

Anyways, here's what I've got in no particular order:

The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven by James Wasserman
I honestly don't remember this book very well, largely because I read it slightly over a year ago and you know how well my memory applies to events more than a year in the past. This was a proof I had left over from my Hungry Mind days, and the main thing that surprised me about it was that I had sort of expected this to be a slightly crazy conspiriology type book but it was actually an authentic history. It's actually quite good--it reads a bit dry but the history itself is interesting and it's reasonably well-told.

Queer by William S. Burroughs
Continuing my very slow plan to read all the works of Burroughs chronologically. It's a good book, but a bit less than I was expecting. Between the chunks that were pulled out and inserted into JUNKY and (I think) THE YAGE LETTERS and the events that are intentionally omitted entirely (pretty much anything involving Joan), the book feels a bit cannibalized. But it's still early Burroughs, and therefore totally awesome.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, unabridged
Trashy true confession: my interest in this book was driven in large part by the Jim Caviezel/Guy Pearce adaptation from a few years back, combined with a little bit of drive to read Dumas from his influence on Steven Brust's Khaavren Romances. Anyways, whatever reason I cooked up to convince me to read the book, it was totally worth it. I fucking love Dumas' writing style just as much as I expected to (based on reading others ape it), and I fucking loved this book through and through. Doubleplusgood recommended, especially if you like tragic tales of Rube Goldbergian revenge.

You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
Really, it was a buck at the Farmer's Market. Apparently this is the first Bond movie to have nothing whatsoever to do with the book. Impressively, rather more racist than the movie (which I admittedly haven't seen in the better part of a decade). Still good enough that I'm keeping my eyes out at used book stores for more of them.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes
I got this at Powell's in Portland after reading some intriguing descriptions of it online. Really, really, really, really good. Mind-blowingly good. Incredibly well-written, an aggressive, well-argued thesis, and I'm not at all convinced but it's thought-provoking enough that I bring it up in conversations with other neuroscientists all the time now. I can definitely see myself going back to this again and again both to try and make up my mind and also just for a good example of how to think about and argue these kinds of topics.

Solar Lottery by Philip K. Dick
I think I picked this up at Half-Price or Elliot Bay's used section for a couple bucks, this is another one I read early last year so I don't remember it very well by now. From what I recall, it had some standard Phildickian issues with him writing about how he thought science or probability worked that in fact bears minimal relation to how it actually works.

Asimov's Guide to the Bible by Isaac Asimov
You might recall that I have a degree in religious studies that, in retrospect, seems to have mostly been acquired for shits and giggles. You may also have heard that Isaac Asimov has been my favorite author since I was like nine years old. You can only imagine how much I loved the shit out of this book, and the best part is that it is in fact really actually totally THAT GOOD. An incredibly well-written, well-researched attempt to both historicize the Bible and interpret it as itself an attempt to portray the history of the Hebrew people and the cult that sprung out of them during the Roman occupation. So, so, good. Like, I climb out of bed in the middle of the night just to lick it. That good.

You Can't Win by Jack Black
I think I picked this up new at the UW bookstore after I read Junky and that Burroughs bio whose name and author escape me. Anyways, this was a book Burroughs read as a kid and it was a profound influence on his development and writing style. Unsurprisingly, it's really good and very interesting. It's an autobiography that's ostensibly polemic, but almost reads more like a picaresque of turn of the 20th century hobo culture. Depressingly, whenever I start to talk about it people think I'm talking about a highly overrated member of Tenacious D.

Boink by Mary Roach
I think I just picked this up on a trip to Portland or something to have something to read. I was pretty underwhelmed on a number of levels. On the one hand, as a scientist, there were a lot of sections that were basically like "I know you can't believe that scientists do this!" where I was like, "well of course scientists do this, what else would we do?" OTOH, there was this pervasive titillated-middle-class-housewife feelling throughout the book where she just seemed to think it was way more risque to be writing about S-E-X than it actually is in the 21st century. I can only take so much of the author giggling into her hand as she tries to avoid making it sound dirty. Very annoying. That said, it was worth five bucks and a couple afternoons which is more or less what I think I put into it.

FreeDarko Presents The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History
This is basically the best writing on basketball I've ever encountered. SO GOOD. If you know someone who's obsessed with basketball and you want to know why or you just want to be able to have a conversation with them, READ THIS BOOK. NOW. THEN READ IT AGAIN. LOOK BACK AT MY HAND. I'M ON A HORSE.

FreeDarko Presents The Macrophenomenal Pro Basketball Almanac
After the profound love I felt for Undisputed, I immediately purchased the first book (which I'd previously been interested in). It's really really good. I should have read them in the other order, because I was a little bit left down because it just wasn't quite as good (or quite as much what I wanted) as Undisputed. But it's still really really good, I swear.

So that's 2010. So far, in 2011, I'm continuing the trend of reading really really long books, which admittedly makes these posts shorter.

J out

From Twitter 04-30-2011

malcubed — Sun, 01 May 2011 10:02:27 GMT

10:48:23: RT @DalekThay: THE DALEKS WOULD LIKE TO SEE THE DOCTOR'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE, BUT WE WOULD SETTLE FOR HIS DEATH CERTIFICATE. #DoctorWho
17:29:34: RT @jbouie: RT @arjache: Why won't the President disclose the results of his Voight-Kampff test? How do we know he's not a replicant? #e ...
20:28:29: @kungfulasers You should see Versus, and then see Godzilla: Final Wars. You can live without Don Frye.

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From Twitter 04-29-2011

malcubed — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 10:01:50 GMT

12:02:06: RT @RobCottingham: ONLY A CONSERVATIVE MAJORITY WILL KEEP MARS FROM OVERTAKING THE EARTH AS THE THIRD PLANET FROM THE SUN. You have been ...
12:07:21: RT @OsamaSaeed: An unelected ruling family has brought the people of Britain out onto the streets. The Arab Spring is spreading! Oh wait...
14:14:12: RT @carlzimmer: "And of course the question on the lips of all British geneticists is: will there be any new royal genetic diseases?" ht ...
23:23:07: RT @KDonhoops: RT @treykerby: I guess Michael Heisley just proves you don't need to have read the CBA to win a playoff series.

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From Twitter 04-28-2011

malcubed — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:01:59 GMT

17:41:34: Strike free my misery.
18:25:30: RT @ProducerMatthew: Groupon announces it will drop ads from "The Apprentice" website over Donald Trump's attacks on President Obama - T ...
18:27:08: Pleasantly surprised that NARUTO is Japanese with English subtitles on Netflix view instantly.
19:01:53: @kungfulasers Will do!
20:26:04: Truly, Japan is a magical place where prog never died.

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