We can throw terms like microblogging around, but that usually just leads to blank stares. Because, lets face it, the word blog itself is fairly distant to a lot of people. Something they hear now and then on the news or read about in a magazine.

Perhaps the best, worst, and laziest explanation we’ve both used is “it’s like a slow motion chat room” but that’s not right at all.

This video is a good explanation, but you can’t always bust out a video on people.

How do you explain Twitter to people? I’d love some suggestions.

In the original Klaatu says, “It is no concern of ours how you run your own planet,” because he doesn’t care about humans or Earth. His concern is that an adolescent warlike race is about to leave the confines of their own world and threaten the safety of the galactic community. I realize the cold war is over, but this message still holds true and doesn’t need updating to have an impact.

If Klaatu comes to Earth to convince me to drive a hybrid I’m gonna be pissed.

Nerd rage!!!

My biggest problem with the trailer isn’t Keanu Reeves, surprisingly. It’s that it depicts Klaatu (or Gort?) destroying a sports stadium and a semi truck. Basically he’s killing people.

The original Klaatu was a peaceful messenger who shutdown all machinery (mechanical and electronic) on earth but spared things like hospitals and airplanes in-flight to avoid hurting anyone. He uses this as a warning to the people of Earth that our inclination towards violence and movement towards space exploration have been noticed by other space faring worlds and will not be tolerated.

For me, this is a more profound statement in its subtly. Were they worried that people today wouldn’t “get it” so they had to show that he and his alien buddies can destroy an arena? Pfft, I can destroy an arena too with enough explosives but I can’t change the rules of physics and stop machines from working on an entire planet. This shows substantially more power than simply “blowing some shit up, bro.” In fact, it shows that we’re still cavemen waving around a big club (the atomic bomb) in comparison to them.

This movie really didn’t need to be remade but has been. Hopefully I’m misunderstanding what I’m seeing in the the trailer, but I doubt it.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen the original here’s the Wikipedia page on it and I highly recommend seeing it. You can get it from Netflix, Amazon, etc.

Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll have a ton more to say about this movie in the future…

PS - The Quantum of Solace trailer, on the other hand, was freakin awesome.

Gleeeeee!!!!

No one.

Besides, everyone knows Linux is better than both.

I used to say I liked any book or movie that made me feel something. Sad, happy, angry, disgusted, whatever. Just not bored. Gaming, for me, is starting to become the same way. Looking back, maybe it always was. The recent crop of games that I loved all got me emotionally involved in the story. Mass Effect for it’s amazing characterization, epic world building and awesome space opera story. Grand Theft Auto 4 for its sandbox and well written crime drama (plus, the fantasy of running around a huge city, oblivious to the law, is always fun). Assassins Creed, Call of Duty 4, etc, etc, etc.

I understand why a lot of people have a problem getting into Metal Gear Solid 4. It’s Japanese story telling at its most difficult. But once I got into that mindset I started to enjoy the game much, much more. If you enjoyed Ghost in the Shell, I think you’d be right at home here.

The game could stand on it’s own and be enjoyable for someone who skipped the 90 minutes worth of cut-scenes in the game… but I’m not going to do it and find out because, unlike Tycho, I enjoyed them. Maybe not like I did Mass Effect or an R. Scott Bakker book, but enough to give the game 9 out 10 on my scale.

Losing 1 point only for the learning curve. But that’s another post.

First two things I queue up are Planet Earth Disc 1 and Stargate (dunno why, but I’ve been wanting to see this classic film again..). I also queued up several other things, including the other 3 Planet Earth discs.

Netflix sent me Disc 2 of Planet Earth.

Ahem. Let me restate that. Netflix sent me Disc 2 of Planet Earth. Mind you, I’ve never seen disc 1. I checked my queue… nope, Disc 1 was higher in the priority than disc 2..

WTF Netflix? Why the hell would I want Disc 2  before I’ve seen Disc 1? Seriously?

Oh well, at least I have Metal Gear Solid 4, Ratchet and Clank and a new PS3 to set up tomorrow.

PS - I’m finally outta that crazy arm brace I’ve been in for the last 6 weeks. Feels great, but my arm is weak. Just sorta hangs there. hehe