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bohemiaLast night I was out of my mind with boredom. I think my instant gratification disease is attacking again. There's so many things I want to do but all of them take more time than I'm willing to spend on a single thing. I want entertainment right here, right now. Eventually I gave up just wasting time and ended up-- at 4am, mind you-- making a background for Twitter, re-doing my LJ layout and staring at my Twitter pic wondering whether I should change it, too. I had a few dreams but they're all jumbled right now since everyone kept waking me up about every five minutes and I don't know which dream was which.
Something is wrong with the world when Downey and Hugh Jackman receive stars on the Walk of Fame in the same year. I don't know what the criteria is, but is Hugh Jackman really that deserving so soon? As far as I can tell he's only been around since 2000. I awww'd about Macy and Huffman getting stars the same year. And lol @ Tinkerbell and the Village People.
I don't know why I was so late to the party but this (seemingly) dead fic-a-thon is pretty interesting to go through. I feel odd with films like Zodiac, Good Night, Good Luck and Fur which are about real people. You'd think it'd be like RPF and that it wouldn't be weird to me because I don't mind RPF, but just the idea of there being fics about these movies is weirding me out. Especially Fur since that in itself was an AU fanfic on celluloid. I wonder how Arbus's family feels about that movie. My views on fan fiction have changed lately, anyway. I'm more interested in anything that's not slash. And my flist being what it is, that is very hard to find! Not that I'm frustrated by it, it's just an amusing fact.
Now that I'm reminded of other creepy subject matter, I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about the CGI in The Incredible Hulk and I mentioned the uncanny valley and had to explain the theory to him. We started talking about how it's creepy when animals show signs of intelligence like when you go to the zoo and the gorillas wave or wink at you or when you're trying to squash a roach and it plays dead so you leave it alone. And I figure that the reason humans find humanoid robots and animals so creepy is because we have a superiority complex. Dad mentioned this Nat Geo program we watched in March about how gorillas have faster memory than humans and I said that that's not creepy because we assume it's a necessary skill for whatever they do in the wild. Kind of how squirrels always remember where they put their nuts but I can't remember my password for GMail when my notifier conks out on me. It's the same way we are amazed and not scared by birds or platypi. But when animals show signs of genius at human levels-- like the roach that tried hiding under a glass container so I wouldn't send him to his maker-- it's weird because we think, "Wait, we're supposed to be the ultimate beings here, not you. How does a mouse, a simple rodent outsmart me, a human!" And I think that's part of the reason why that beach scene in Planet of the Apes is so scary because it's like evolution denied us what we're supposed to be. Does that make sense?
Anyway, My Boys is about to start, I need to load up The Sims 2 and I'm looking into other simulation/strategy games. I'm thinking about getting Black & White or the latest Civilization since I loved the demo so much on my old computer. There also needs to be a new bar-tending simulator. I missed my chance to own Last Call back then as well. Anyone play any of these god games? I really want Spore as well, but that's not shocking news.
This episode of Diggnation is like two weeks old but I can't stop watching different parts. Especially conspiracy theorist Alex. "I saw Spiderwick Chronicles while I was flying up here. There are stuff happening in these bushes that we do not see, people!"
ALSO LMAO OMG HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN THESE BEFORE.
ETA: LOLOL ALEX
Lia
Something is wrong with the world when Downey and Hugh Jackman receive stars on the Walk of Fame in the same year. I don't know what the criteria is, but is Hugh Jackman really that deserving so soon? As far as I can tell he's only been around since 2000. I awww'd about Macy and Huffman getting stars the same year. And lol @ Tinkerbell and the Village People.
I don't know why I was so late to the party but this (seemingly) dead fic-a-thon is pretty interesting to go through. I feel odd with films like Zodiac, Good Night, Good Luck and Fur which are about real people. You'd think it'd be like RPF and that it wouldn't be weird to me because I don't mind RPF, but just the idea of there being fics about these movies is weirding me out. Especially Fur since that in itself was an AU fanfic on celluloid. I wonder how Arbus's family feels about that movie. My views on fan fiction have changed lately, anyway. I'm more interested in anything that's not slash. And my flist being what it is, that is very hard to find! Not that I'm frustrated by it, it's just an amusing fact.
Now that I'm reminded of other creepy subject matter, I was having a conversation with my dad the other day about the CGI in The Incredible Hulk and I mentioned the uncanny valley and had to explain the theory to him. We started talking about how it's creepy when animals show signs of intelligence like when you go to the zoo and the gorillas wave or wink at you or when you're trying to squash a roach and it plays dead so you leave it alone. And I figure that the reason humans find humanoid robots and animals so creepy is because we have a superiority complex. Dad mentioned this Nat Geo program we watched in March about how gorillas have faster memory than humans and I said that that's not creepy because we assume it's a necessary skill for whatever they do in the wild. Kind of how squirrels always remember where they put their nuts but I can't remember my password for GMail when my notifier conks out on me. It's the same way we are amazed and not scared by birds or platypi. But when animals show signs of genius at human levels-- like the roach that tried hiding under a glass container so I wouldn't send him to his maker-- it's weird because we think, "Wait, we're supposed to be the ultimate beings here, not you. How does a mouse, a simple rodent outsmart me, a human!" And I think that's part of the reason why that beach scene in Planet of the Apes is so scary because it's like evolution denied us what we're supposed to be. Does that make sense?
Anyway, My Boys is about to start, I need to load up The Sims 2 and I'm looking into other simulation/strategy games. I'm thinking about getting Black & White or the latest Civilization since I loved the demo so much on my old computer. There also needs to be a new bar-tending simulator. I missed my chance to own Last Call back then as well. Anyone play any of these god games? I really want Spore as well, but that's not shocking news.
This episode of Diggnation is like two weeks old but I can't stop watching different parts. Especially conspiracy theorist Alex. "I saw Spiderwick Chronicles while I was flying up here. There are stuff happening in these bushes that we do not see, people!"
ALSO LMAO OMG HOW HAVE I NEVER SEEN THESE BEFORE.
ETA: LOLOL ALEX
Lia
Re: *TAKES OVER THE COMMENTS*
Date: 2008-06-22 04:24 am (UTC)"Are you trying to tell me," said Arthur, slowly and with control, "that you originally ... made the Earth?"
"Oh yes," said Slartibartfast. "Did you ever go to a place ... I think it was called Norway?"
"No," said Arthur, "no, I didn't."
"Pity," said Slartibartfast, "that was one of mine. Won an award you know. Lovely crinkly edges. I was most upset to hear about its destruction."
"You were upset!"
"Yes. Five minutes later and it wouldn't have mattered so much. It was a quite shocking cock-up."
"Huh?" said Arthur.
"The mice were furious."
"The mice were furious?"
"Oh yes," said the old man mildly.
"Yes well so I expect were the dogs and cats and duckbilled platypuses, but ..."
"Ah, but they hadn't paid for it you see, had they?"
"Look," said Arthur, "would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?"
For a while the aircar flew on in awkward silence. Then the old man tried patiently to explain.
"Earthman, the planet you lived on was commissioned, paid for, and run by mice. It was destroyed five minutes before the completion of the purpose for which it was built, and we've got to build another one."
Only one word registered with Arthur.
"Mice?" he said.
"Indeed Earthman."
"Look, sorry — are we talking about the little white furry things with the cheese fixation and women standing on tables screaming in early sixties sit coms?"
Slartibartfast coughed politely.
"Earthman," he said, "it is sometimes hard to follow your mode of speech. Remember I have been asleep inside this planet of Magrathea for five million years and know little of these early sixties sit coms of which you speak. These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vast hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front."
The old man paused, and with a sympathetic frown continued.
"They've been experimenting on you I'm afraid."
Arthur thought about this for a second, and then his face cleared.
"Ah no," he said, "I see the source of the misunderstanding now. No, look you see, what happened was that we used to do experiments on them. They were often used in behavioural research, Pavlov and all that sort of stuff. So what happened was hat the mice would be set all sorts of tests, learning to ring bells, run around mazes and things so that the whole nature of the learning process could be examined. From our observations of their behaviour we were able to learn all sorts of things about our own ..."
Arthur's voice tailed off.
"Such subtlety ..." said Slartibartfast, "one has to admire it."
"What?" said Arthur.
"How better to disguise their real natures, and how better to guide your thinking. Suddenly running down a maze the wrong way, eating the wrong bit of cheese, unexpectedly dropping dead of myxomatosis, — if it's finely calculated the cumulative effect is enormous."
He paused for effect.
"You see, Earthman, they really are particularly clever hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings. Your planet and people have formed the matrix of an organic computer running a ten-million-year research programme ...
"Let me tell you the whole story. It'll take a little time."
"Time," said Arthur weakly, "is not currently one of my problems."
Re: *TAKES OVER THE COMMENTS*
Date: 2008-06-22 04:20 pm (UTC)Re: *TAKES OVER THE COMMENTS*
Date: 2008-06-22 06:44 pm (UTC)