From BOOM! Studios comes Keith Giffen's new little twisted tale, called 10. The spiffy art is from our friend Andy Kuhn, who did my story in the first Zombie Tales book from BOOM!
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Boom Boom
From BOOM! Studios comes Keith Giffen's new little twisted tale, called 10. The spiffy art is from our friend Andy Kuhn, who did my story in the first Zombie Tales book from BOOM!
Friday, October 07, 2005
Lunch Discussions #145: The Crazification Factor
John: ... I mean, what will it take? That last speech literally made no sense. It was crazy drunken bar talk! Islamic radicals are like COMMUNISM?! (gets speech on laptop) If we don't fight terrorists in Iraq they'll build a fundamentalist terrorist state stretching from Spain to Indonesia? What the fuck? Even assuming Spain, which last time I checked is 95% Roman Catholic, goes down, you gotta assume France, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, all eight hundred million Hindus in India, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore would be somewhat of an obstacle.
Tyrone: To be fair, you're going west-to-east. Maybe he meant a fundamentalist terrorist state stretching from Spain to Indonesia going east-to-west. Going that way, there's only the U.S. The President could be warning us that if we don't prevail in Iraq, the United States will become a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist state.
John: ... a little oblique, isn't it?
Tyrone: The man is nothing if not subtle.
John: (calling up map on laptop) You know, I guess if you start in Spain, swing hard south through northern Africa, you got Algeria, Libya there, Egypt, cross the Red Sea and you're in the Middle East ...
Tyrone: From there, if you spot him the Indian Ocean and India, you're in Indonesia.
John: I am not spotting him eight hundred million Hindus. I call shenanigans.
Tyrone: And again, I must point out Bush said "the militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, allowing them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region." That's what the militants believe. They may just be delusional. He says that himself: "Some might be tempted to dismiss these goals as fanatical or extreme. Well, they are fanatical and extreme -- and they should not be dismissed. Our enemy is utterly committed."
John: But he's citing that desire as a basis for our strategy. You can't cite your enemy's delusional hopes as a basis for a rational strategy. Goals don't exist in a vacuum, they're linked to capability. David Koresh was utterly committed to being Jesus Christ. See how far that got him.
Either Bush is making strategy based on a delusional goal of his opponent, which is idiotic; or he's saying he believes his opponent has the capability of achieving this delusional goal, which is idiotic. Neither bodes well for the republic.
Tyrone: Reading here, the speech boiled down to two points --
John: Who cares? The Spain-to-Indonesia thing should automatically invalidate the whole speech. I don't care how good your investment advisor is, he can spend three hours reviewing mutual funds, as soon as he says "And of course, we can put your money into the Easter Bunny's Egg Upgrades", he is out of --
Tyrone: -- two points. First, Iraq is the keystone in the struggle between the West and Islamic Fundamentalism.
John: Which, if we accept the Administration's own argument, means that invading and destabilizing Iraq with insufficent post-war planning (and all that entails), not enough personnel, and shitty equipment for that personnel was the biggest screw-up in the War on Terror.
Tyrone: He's the President: if he says it, it must be true. Second, Bush says we have made a lot of progress in stopping al-Queda plots. Look: "Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least ten serious al Qaeda terrorist plots since September the 11th, including three al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States. We've stopped at least five more al-Qaeda efforts to case targets in the United States, or infiltrate operatives into our country."
John: What are they counting for those wins? Are they counting guys like Padilla?* This is all very gooey, like how we've killed like, nine of Osama Bin Laden's #3 guys.
Tyrone: Being #3 in Al-queda is like being a "creative vice president" at a Hollywood studio. There are dozens of them ... and they are expendable. Listen, don't do this, you're just getting worked up. Have another mozzarella stick.
John: Hey, Bush is now at 37% approval. I feel much less like Kevin McCarthy screaming in traffic. But I wonder what his base is --
Tyrone: 27%.
John: ... you said that immmediately, and with some authority.
Tyrone: Obama vs. Alan Keyes. Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. Hell, even like 5% of Democrats voted for him. That's crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population.
John: Objectively crazy or crazy vis-a-vis my own inertial reference frame for rational behaviour? I mean, are you creating the Theory of Special Crazification or General Crazification?
Tyrone: Hadn't thought about it. Let's split the difference. Half just have worldviews which lead them to disagree with what you consider rationality even though they arrive at their positions through rational means, and the other half are the core of the Crazification -- either genuinely crazy; or so woefully misinformed about how the world works, the bases for their decision making is so flawed they may as well be crazy.
John: You realize this leads to there being over 30 million crazy people in the US?
Tyrone: Does that seem wrong?
John: ... a bit low, actually.
Tyrone: (shrugs) Probably right, then. Speaking of Obama, I need to get t-shirts printed up to sell.
John: I can do that on the web. What do they say?
Tyrone: Don't You Dare Kill Obama
John: How about Don't You Dare Kill Obama (... and we know you're thinking about it)
Tyrone: Niiiiice.
John: Or You Kill Obama and WE WILL BURN SHIT DOWN
Tyrone: Even better. Nobody wants their shit burned down.
John: Glad to help.
Tyrone: I'm having you taken off the list for when the revolution comes.
John: ... there's really a list --
Tyrone: Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
* (Edit: Holy shit, he is. This was even more dubious than I was joking about.)
Tyrone: To be fair, you're going west-to-east. Maybe he meant a fundamentalist terrorist state stretching from Spain to Indonesia going east-to-west. Going that way, there's only the U.S. The President could be warning us that if we don't prevail in Iraq, the United States will become a fundamentalist Islamic terrorist state.
John: ... a little oblique, isn't it?
Tyrone: The man is nothing if not subtle.
John: (calling up map on laptop) You know, I guess if you start in Spain, swing hard south through northern Africa, you got Algeria, Libya there, Egypt, cross the Red Sea and you're in the Middle East ...
Tyrone: From there, if you spot him the Indian Ocean and India, you're in Indonesia.
John: I am not spotting him eight hundred million Hindus. I call shenanigans.
Tyrone: And again, I must point out Bush said "the militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, allowing them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region." That's what the militants believe. They may just be delusional. He says that himself: "Some might be tempted to dismiss these goals as fanatical or extreme. Well, they are fanatical and extreme -- and they should not be dismissed. Our enemy is utterly committed."
John: But he's citing that desire as a basis for our strategy. You can't cite your enemy's delusional hopes as a basis for a rational strategy. Goals don't exist in a vacuum, they're linked to capability. David Koresh was utterly committed to being Jesus Christ. See how far that got him.
Either Bush is making strategy based on a delusional goal of his opponent, which is idiotic; or he's saying he believes his opponent has the capability of achieving this delusional goal, which is idiotic. Neither bodes well for the republic.
Tyrone: Reading here, the speech boiled down to two points --
John: Who cares? The Spain-to-Indonesia thing should automatically invalidate the whole speech. I don't care how good your investment advisor is, he can spend three hours reviewing mutual funds, as soon as he says "And of course, we can put your money into the Easter Bunny's Egg Upgrades", he is out of --
Tyrone: -- two points. First, Iraq is the keystone in the struggle between the West and Islamic Fundamentalism.
John: Which, if we accept the Administration's own argument, means that invading and destabilizing Iraq with insufficent post-war planning (and all that entails), not enough personnel, and shitty equipment for that personnel was the biggest screw-up in the War on Terror.
Tyrone: He's the President: if he says it, it must be true. Second, Bush says we have made a lot of progress in stopping al-Queda plots. Look: "Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least ten serious al Qaeda terrorist plots since September the 11th, including three al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States. We've stopped at least five more al-Qaeda efforts to case targets in the United States, or infiltrate operatives into our country."
John: What are they counting for those wins? Are they counting guys like Padilla?* This is all very gooey, like how we've killed like, nine of Osama Bin Laden's #3 guys.
Tyrone: Being #3 in Al-queda is like being a "creative vice president" at a Hollywood studio. There are dozens of them ... and they are expendable. Listen, don't do this, you're just getting worked up. Have another mozzarella stick.
John: Hey, Bush is now at 37% approval. I feel much less like Kevin McCarthy screaming in traffic. But I wonder what his base is --
Tyrone: 27%.
John: ... you said that immmediately, and with some authority.
Tyrone: Obama vs. Alan Keyes. Keyes was from out of state, so you can eliminate any established political base; both candidates were black, so you can factor out racism; and Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement. Hell, even like 5% of Democrats voted for him. That's crazy behaviour. I think you have to assume a 27% Crazification Factor in any population.
John: Objectively crazy or crazy vis-a-vis my own inertial reference frame for rational behaviour? I mean, are you creating the Theory of Special Crazification or General Crazification?
Tyrone: Hadn't thought about it. Let's split the difference. Half just have worldviews which lead them to disagree with what you consider rationality even though they arrive at their positions through rational means, and the other half are the core of the Crazification -- either genuinely crazy; or so woefully misinformed about how the world works, the bases for their decision making is so flawed they may as well be crazy.
John: You realize this leads to there being over 30 million crazy people in the US?
Tyrone: Does that seem wrong?
John: ... a bit low, actually.
Tyrone: (shrugs) Probably right, then. Speaking of Obama, I need to get t-shirts printed up to sell.
John: I can do that on the web. What do they say?
Tyrone: Don't You Dare Kill Obama
John: How about Don't You Dare Kill Obama (... and we know you're thinking about it)
Tyrone: Niiiiice.
John: Or You Kill Obama and WE WILL BURN SHIT DOWN
Tyrone: Even better. Nobody wants their shit burned down.
John: Glad to help.
Tyrone: I'm having you taken off the list for when the revolution comes.
John: ... there's really a list --
Tyrone: Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
* (Edit: Holy shit, he is. This was even more dubious than I was joking about.)
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Not Completely Useless
Always pleasant to get this in the gmail:
Now shhhhh, people. If the suited humans discover our secrets, we're done for. Vary it up, change the wording.
Things are a bit chaotic at the moment, between a rewrite, home stuff and a possible trip to London. (Get that pint ready, Mike) Sometime soon though I will do a review of Gugino's "Sequence Technique" screenwriting book. I dug it. Shit, that was the review...
Just a follow-up from the panicky screenwriter who emailed you a couple of
weeks ago about my studio pitch. Read your post that Monday. I revised and
shortened based on your advice, and went on to use your magic words "what's
fun here is that this concept gives us a lot of stories..."
Anyway, I just found out it sold to USA.
Now shhhhh, people. If the suited humans discover our secrets, we're done for. Vary it up, change the wording.
Things are a bit chaotic at the moment, between a rewrite, home stuff and a possible trip to London. (Get that pint ready, Mike) Sometime soon though I will do a review of Gugino's "Sequence Technique" screenwriting book. I dug it. Shit, that was the review...
Monday, October 03, 2005
Veronica Mars
Thanks to BitTorrent (come get me, Glickman) I caught all of VM Season One. Surprisingly twisty, with many fine character moments executed well. The best pal's evolution from outcast to popular kid because of his excellence in sports was nicely handled, as were her Dad's romantic entanglements. I have to say, any UPN teen-detective show that has an overall mystery arc comprised of:
-- roofie date rape
-- murder of a teen best friend
-- small town politics
-- corporate espionage
-- drunken philandering mother
-- possible incest
and comes across as a smart crime thriller instead of a turgid soap is pretty damn impressive. Do grab the box set for at least a rental. Watch it before you watch your tivo'd season 2 eps. And you should be tivoing season 2. Why?
Any season that can be described as "Nancy Drew in The Sweet Hereafter" is, to borrow a phrase -- f'in metal.
-- roofie date rape
-- murder of a teen best friend
-- small town politics
-- corporate espionage
-- drunken philandering mother
-- possible incest
and comes across as a smart crime thriller instead of a turgid soap is pretty damn impressive. Do grab the box set for at least a rental. Watch it before you watch your tivo'd season 2 eps. And you should be tivoing season 2. Why?
Any season that can be described as "Nancy Drew in The Sweet Hereafter" is, to borrow a phrase -- f'in metal.
C in C
*sigh* It was the entire marketing campaign. One Sentence. A concept so bugnuts insane you had to tune in to watch THIS IMPOSSIBLE BIZARRE IDEA COME TO LIFE!!! --
This fall
a woman
will
be
President!
Holy SHIT!! Is that over the top or what?
So many layers of sad on this, I can't even begin.
Once again, for the new folk: "Everybody who wants to live in the 21st Century over here. Everybody who wants to live in the 1800's over there. Good. Thanks. Good luck with that."
This fall a woman will be President!Holy SHIT!! Is that over the top or what?
So many layers of sad on this, I can't even begin.
Once again, for the new folk: "Everybody who wants to live in the 21st Century over here. Everybody who wants to live in the 1800's over there. Good. Thanks. Good luck with that."
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Blogging for a Cause: Katrina Relief
Did I keep to my previous plan of writing thank-you letters as the donations came in? No, and as such, I am waaaay behind. But all who donated will receive e-mailtronic thanks, which I'm sure you'll save and treasure forever.
The huge publicity around Katrina was the primary factor in raising this amount of money. Although, looking back over the summer, if I may, I blogged the shit out of August and September. Just saying.
Another thing. The two largest donors were:
-- largest donor liberal tech whiz Dave Slusher at Evil Genius Chronicles, who cunningly did his own fundraiser and then applied it to my matching
-- close behind was Gaijin Biker, at Riding Sun, a conservative American living in Japan. Politically we disagree on ... wll, everything, but we still manage to have civil and entertaining e-mail discussions about it. Our mutual love of tech and geekery keeps it all cool.
Because that's how we do it at the Kung Fu Monkey.
What did you folks raise for Katrina Relief? A lot of large donations, and I'd rather see more of the one-dollar donations from the regular readers and RSS folk, but all in all -- pretty amazing.
$7,588.82
Which means I dip into my filthy screenwriting monies and match that for a grand total of , well, let's round it off --
$15,200
to the Red Cross for Katrina relief. As we can see, people are still being relocated, need shelter, food, etc. so this money will go to excellent use for our fellow citizens in need.
Nicely done, folks. Proud of you.
October's looking like it might be a little busy with work travel, so I think we'll take a month off from "Blogging for a Cause" and jump back in when I know I'll be able to give you a decent amount of blogbang-for-your-buck.
Thanks for your generosity. We know return to your regularly scheduled programming of pop culture snark, hubris and apocalpse rants.
The huge publicity around Katrina was the primary factor in raising this amount of money. Although, looking back over the summer, if I may, I blogged the shit out of August and September. Just saying.
Another thing. The two largest donors were:
-- largest donor liberal tech whiz Dave Slusher at Evil Genius Chronicles, who cunningly did his own fundraiser and then applied it to my matching
-- close behind was Gaijin Biker, at Riding Sun, a conservative American living in Japan. Politically we disagree on ... wll, everything, but we still manage to have civil and entertaining e-mail discussions about it. Our mutual love of tech and geekery keeps it all cool.
Because that's how we do it at the Kung Fu Monkey.
What did you folks raise for Katrina Relief? A lot of large donations, and I'd rather see more of the one-dollar donations from the regular readers and RSS folk, but all in all -- pretty amazing.
$7,588.82
Which means I dip into my filthy screenwriting monies and match that for a grand total of , well, let's round it off --
$15,200
to the Red Cross for Katrina relief. As we can see, people are still being relocated, need shelter, food, etc. so this money will go to excellent use for our fellow citizens in need.
Nicely done, folks. Proud of you.
October's looking like it might be a little busy with work travel, so I think we'll take a month off from "Blogging for a Cause" and jump back in when I know I'll be able to give you a decent amount of blogbang-for-your-buck.
Thanks for your generosity. We know return to your regularly scheduled programming of pop culture snark, hubris and apocalpse rants.
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