Trailer Trash – Thor Trailer and Avenger Chat

FyreHaar: Thor trailer

FyreHaar: have you seen it

SonicRob: neeope

FyreHaar: http://www.pajiba.com/trailers/to-fight-the-horde-sing-and-cry-valhalla-i-am-coming-thor-trailer.php

FyreHaar: watch and discuss

SonicRob: wait wait wait

FyreHaar: ??

SonicRob: this is directed by who now?

Continue reading Trailer Trash – Thor Trailer and Avenger Chat

2nd DoW2 Expansion Announced; Rob Swears a Lot

Sonic Rob: WAAAGHHHH!!!
FyreHaar: the comments are amazing
FyreHaar: 90% of them are “yay Ork in a pirate hat, yay!”
FyreHaar: and the others are all “DOWII sucks”
Sonic Rob: looks like a Freebooterz Kaptin
Sonic Rob: fucking SC2 nubs
Sonic Rob: fuck off
Sonic Rob: I’m sorry you can’t win a match without turtling up in a base
FyreHaar: they all complain that it’s too fast or that you have to get strategic points
Sonic Rob: DOW makes you get out there and fucking fight!
FyreHaar: exactly!!!
Sonic Rob: CnB was talking about playing SC2 last night
Sonic Rob: apparently a lot of people put together a single rush
Sonic Rob: if it doesn’t work, they sit there and wait to die
FyreHaar: damn
FyreHaar: this dude is talking shit about the story line of DOW II
FyreHaar: and how he has nothing in common with a space marine
FyreHaar: of course you don’t you stupid fucker
FyreHaar: jesus
Sonic Rob: wtf?
Sonic Rob: you wanna play a RTS where the units are all fat gamers?

The Madden Plan

Every review I’ve seen for Madden 11 mentions that “if you haven’t picked up Madden in a few years, this is the year to do it.” Honestly, the reviewers say that every year, like it’s the qualifier that makes the glacial pace of Madden’s evolution ok. You know what? I did pick up Madden last year. It was fine. In fact, I spent some time totally obsessed with it, as our fourth podcast demonstrated. When I want some computer football action, I throw the disc in and play my Niners franchise through a few more games and have a high old time.

I think I’m gonna pass.

-ssr

Chat Box

SonicRob: I really hope you enjoy the cabin, I always feel like one of the lost boys up there

FyreHaar: long weekends are the way to go

FyreHaar: there is a lake right?

SonicRob: there is

FyreHaar: for swimmin?

SonicRob: it should be survivably warm, yeah

FyreHaar: I have a wetsuit

SonicRob: it’s glacier runoff

FyreHaar: wet suit it is!

Bioshock Ad Infinitum

Irrational Games has released what amounts to a very full-featured cinematic trailer for the fifth game in their loosely-related series of Shock games:

Is it just me, or does this seem a bit… conservative? As always, no judgments are laid upon a mere trailer, but a lot of the thematic elements in this clip – the elitist exclusive society, the nigh-magical city hidden from the common world via fantastic technology, a hulking mechanical monster, the young girl in need of rescue, the haunting sensation we get from a dangerous place redolent of naiive American protoculture – seem terribly familiar. I’m willing to cop that these are themes that have been explored in pop literature for some time. Still, I would have been more excited to see the creative folks at Irrational pop out something that suggested a bit more reach outside of their comfort zone.

-ssr

Dead Men Do Tell Tales – Cannonball Read #29

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of  a Forensic Anthropologist by William R. Maples, Ph.D. & Michael Browning.

My husband is an anthropology student and brought this book home. I caught him giggling and outright laughing as he read it so I picked it up as soon as he was done.

The early chapters deal with different means of body disposal, burial, dismemberment, etc. Other chapters focus on specific cases or famous corpses. No detail of the anthropologists work is spared and triumphs and enduring mysteries are presented side by side. The most affecting chapter is the one dealing with the identification of the remains of Tsar Nicholas and his family. Maples presents the most probable circumstances of their deaths. I was horrified when I read that the women had hidden jewels in their corsets that then acted as bullet proof vests. When the bullets didn’t kill them the Bolsheviks bludgeoned them to death.

Maples is the kind of person who should be in charge of everything. His elegant and inspiring prose evinces a passion for the truth, a clear vision of duty of the scientist and a commitment to the equality of all people. Each chapter begins with a passage from a poem. Not just fragments that seem pithy but truly affecting passages, evidence of a sensitive mind and a well read scientist. Instead of being gross or off-putting his candor regarding everything from how maggots consume a corpse to the effects of shark stomach acid on human bone had me smiling throughout the book. At times I laughed out loud at incredibly gruesome details. At other passages I wept quietly, moved by his  sincere depth of feeling towards the victims he strives to identify.

Books like this are obviously inspirations for procedurals like Bones. Unlike Temperance Brennan,  Maples is not hiding from humanity in academia. He is bringing humanity into it and restoring it to those who some other has stolen humanity from. Even as he is literally re-membering their corpses and returning their identities, he is confirming their membership in the human race.

If you like police procedurals such as C.S.I. or Bones this is a must read.  Inspirational and fascinating!