So one of the science-fiction series that I have enjoyed is the Timewars series by Simon Hawke. It started off quite fun, very pulpy type reading. And then, somewhere around the sixth installment it got tediuos and now I'm kind of just slogging through them. It doesn't help that the later books in the series are very hard to find and sell for exorbitant prices - compared to the $1.50 that I'm used to paying for used books. So I'm not too motivated to buy them. But if I happen to find one for a couple of bucks, I pick it up.
I found the eighth book in the series recently for $2 so I snatched it up and it went in the reading queue. Well, I just got around to reading it and I'm really disappointed. Maybe it's been too long since I read the seventh book and I've forgotten how bad it is. Maybe it's just that the author is getting sloppy. But there's all sorts of problems with the story.
Here's an example. There's a team of time travellers who have travelled back to nineteenth century England on a stake-out. It's a pretty big team but there's a lot of ground to cover and they're stretched to the breaking point. The author makes a big point about how tired everyone is getting. And that's just crazy. Why should you get tired if you're a time traveller. Couldn't you just clock out to some other time, get a good eight hours of sleep, do some exercise, take a shower, eat a good breakfast, and then clock back a minute after you left? Or stay away for a week. Take a vacation. You've got the technology. Why be stupid and run yourself ragged? There's absolutely no reason for a time traveller to suffer from time constraints.
Maybe I've forgotten the rules of time travel that Simon Hawke set-up at the start of the series where he covered the prohibition against this sort of behavior. Or maybe I'm just a nitpicker ;-)
Friday, July 29, 2005
Friday, July 22, 2005
Firefly Friday
And now the long awaited day is upon us. It's been a little over two and a half years since the show Firefly was last broadcast on US television. Tonight, at 7pm, the SciFi Channel will air the first part of the original pilot episode Serenity, Part 1.
Those of us who watched the original broadcast of Firefly on Fox remember that the pilot episode was the last episode aired. Fox's decision to demand a new pilot episode, and their airing of the episodes out-of-order from what the writer/director Joss Whedon intended, are cited by fans as two of the main reasons the show did not attract many viewers. SciFi, as part of a joint promotional campaign with Universal for the upcoming movie Serenity, will air all of the episodes in order (including three never before seen on US television).
Watch it.
More Firefly/Serenity related stuff:
Charlie McCollum wrote a great plug that came out in today's Merc. Great closing line, "There is some justice in the world."
A Hollywood Reporter article, by Anne Thompson, has been posted on a number of different web sites today. Has a nice quote from the arts editor of the Cal student paper.
The DVD of the television series has been on sale since December 2003. Sales of the boxed set were one of the main reasons Universal greenlit the movie.
The international trailer was just released.
The original trailer was released back in April and has been playing in front of many of the summer blockbusters. The release of the original trailer, in conjunction with the pre-screenings of the movie and a sale on the dvd set over at amazon resulted in a tremendous upsurge in the number of boxed sets purchased.
Serenity's world premiere will be at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Due to overwhelming demind, the film festival added additional screenings.
The first issue of the comic mini-series bridging the time between the last episode of Firefly and the start of Serenity has been in stores for more than a week. There will be three issues in all with nine different cover variants showcasing all of the main characters (well, with the exception of the ship Serenity herself).
The Signal, the first Firefly/Serenity themed podcast, just released their third episode.
Attendees at Comic Con were given a CD containing tracks from the finished score of Serenity. The finished version of the film was also screened to a packed house.
AbbyShot Custom Clothiers is producing a browncoat modeled on the one worn by Nathan Fillion's character. Quite pricey. Kind of a shame because, to be truly authentic, you would need to weather the coat quite a bit and, for how much it costs, I'd want to lock this up in a vault.
Those of us who watched the original broadcast of Firefly on Fox remember that the pilot episode was the last episode aired. Fox's decision to demand a new pilot episode, and their airing of the episodes out-of-order from what the writer/director Joss Whedon intended, are cited by fans as two of the main reasons the show did not attract many viewers. SciFi, as part of a joint promotional campaign with Universal for the upcoming movie Serenity, will air all of the episodes in order (including three never before seen on US television).
Watch it.
More Firefly/Serenity related stuff:
Charlie McCollum wrote a great plug that came out in today's Merc. Great closing line, "There is some justice in the world."
A Hollywood Reporter article, by Anne Thompson, has been posted on a number of different web sites today. Has a nice quote from the arts editor of the Cal student paper.
The DVD of the television series has been on sale since December 2003. Sales of the boxed set were one of the main reasons Universal greenlit the movie.
The international trailer was just released.
The original trailer was released back in April and has been playing in front of many of the summer blockbusters. The release of the original trailer, in conjunction with the pre-screenings of the movie and a sale on the dvd set over at amazon resulted in a tremendous upsurge in the number of boxed sets purchased.
Serenity's world premiere will be at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Due to overwhelming demind, the film festival added additional screenings.
The first issue of the comic mini-series bridging the time between the last episode of Firefly and the start of Serenity has been in stores for more than a week. There will be three issues in all with nine different cover variants showcasing all of the main characters (well, with the exception of the ship Serenity herself).
The Signal, the first Firefly/Serenity themed podcast, just released their third episode.
Attendees at Comic Con were given a CD containing tracks from the finished score of Serenity. The finished version of the film was also screened to a packed house.
AbbyShot Custom Clothiers is producing a browncoat modeled on the one worn by Nathan Fillion's character. Quite pricey. Kind of a shame because, to be truly authentic, you would need to weather the coat quite a bit and, for how much it costs, I'd want to lock this up in a vault.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Movie lines
I wandered into one of those countdown shows tonight and stayed to watch for a while. CBS was running AFI's 100 Years ...100 Movie Quotes and I'm a sucker for that kind of programming. I toggled back and forth between that and the Giants game and working/surfing on the laptop and reading a re-issue of sixties science fiction stories by Murray Leinster and couldn't have been happier (well, I could've been if I didn't have this damn cough). One cool thing about the countdown was that the top quotes were not dominated by lines from recent movies. Here's the top five:
1. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
2. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
3. I coulda been a contender.
4. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
5. Here's looking at you, kid.
It's funny but I've really only watched one of these movies from beginning to end - Casablanca is one of my favorite movies and I watch it at least once a year. Of the others, I've seen bits and pieces from Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and slept through the second half of On the Waterfront. It's a bit embarassing but I've never watched any of The Godfather movies. So that's probably something I should take care of at some point in time.
Actually, I was surprised at how many movie lines I recognized and knew what movie they came from even though I may not have ever seen that movie in it's entirety. I've probably seen less than half of the movies represented by the list. And I recognized close to 90% of the lines. Gotta love cultural memory.
I'd probably add a few to that list just for me personally. There were a couple of lines that me and my friends wore out after seeing them in movies:
I'll make you famous - Emilio Estevez
I'm your huckleberry - Val Kilmer
Inconceivable - Wallace Shawn
And many more if I gave it some thought.
1. Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
2. I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
3. I coulda been a contender.
4. Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
5. Here's looking at you, kid.
It's funny but I've really only watched one of these movies from beginning to end - Casablanca is one of my favorite movies and I watch it at least once a year. Of the others, I've seen bits and pieces from Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and slept through the second half of On the Waterfront. It's a bit embarassing but I've never watched any of The Godfather movies. So that's probably something I should take care of at some point in time.
Actually, I was surprised at how many movie lines I recognized and knew what movie they came from even though I may not have ever seen that movie in it's entirety. I've probably seen less than half of the movies represented by the list. And I recognized close to 90% of the lines. Gotta love cultural memory.
I'd probably add a few to that list just for me personally. There were a couple of lines that me and my friends wore out after seeing them in movies:
I'll make you famous - Emilio Estevez
I'm your huckleberry - Val Kilmer
Inconceivable - Wallace Shawn
And many more if I gave it some thought.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Working against the Big Damn Goal
There’s been a bit of controversy in the Firefly fan community concerning ticket scalpers. This controversy started because tickets for the first pre-screening were auctioned off on eBay. At pretty high prices. And every time another pre-screening sold-out the number of auctions on eBay grew. Fans seem to be debating this topic from a number of different directions (scalping is morally wrong, capitalism rules, this is something the crew of Serenity would do, as long as it’s legal it’s okay, real fans shouldn’t try to make money off other fans, it’s okay if it’s fans who bought too many by accident, and a variety of other perspectives). And often talking past each other. I have a definite opinion on the subject but think the ongoing debate is sorta pointless. It’s going to happen regardless.
So I might as well track the numbers :-)
But first I’ll just briefly state one portion of my opinion on the topic. I think the scalping of tickets for the Serenity pre-screenings is a bad thing for one simple reason: it contributes nothing to the Big Damn Goal. The Big Damn Goal, as I like to call it, is very simple: Serenity 2 and Serenity 3. To accomplish that goal Serenity needs to generate between $60 and $100 million in box-office returns during it’s domestic release. That’s a daunting task. And none of the money spent on scalped tickets goes to that box-office total.
To be fair, we’re not talking about a lot of money. For the first two pre-screenings, a total of around $21,500 was spent by fans on eBay auctions. And all of this was spent on 315 tickets. At an average price of $6.40 (which is what boxofficemojo is using as it’s average ticket price for 2005) 315 tickets would’ve brought in a little over $2000 dollars. Chump change compared to what we need. But, on the flip side, $21,500 could be used after September 30th to buy 3360+ tickets. Which represents many sold-out theaters. Which results in a lot of buzz. Which translates into more ticket sales. It’s almost a given that the people who spent money on eBay auctions are not going to spend the same amount of money on tickets once the movie is officially released. And that hurts the bottom line. Even if only slightly.
So, short answer, scalping Serenity pre-screening tickets is bad for the overall goal. It’s myopic. It’s egocentric. It’s all that stuff and more. And it’s also fun to track. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet on all the completed auctions just to try to get a feel for what’s going on. It’s a bit too early in the process to make generalizations but there were some anecdotal things I found funny. One thing, in particular, was the different ways in which sellers tried to camouflage what they were actually doing.
There are some people who are purposefully misrepresenting themselves. One seller started off their listing with, “The people I bought these tickets for can't go - their loss is your gain!” Sounds nice and all. Who wouldn’t want to help out a fan? Except that this seller used the same opening line in all five of their auctions. And the listings were posted in a forty minute span. And these five auctions were all for different cities (Norfolk, Charlotte, Columbus, Albany, and Providence). And the seller was located in a different state from any of these cities. The tickets are going to sell no matter what you write. Why did this seller feel the need to lie? Pretty hilarious.
Then there are a group of sellers who are trying to get around existing state regulations concerning the resale of tickets. This is silly because many states have not updated their laws to reflect online auctions. As long as you do not live in the same state as the event you are not affected (at least, that is how eBay interprets things). So they’re going out of their way trying to circumvent something that doesn’t even apply to them. And their attempts are very amusing. Quite a few sellers are auctioning something else (CDs, computer cables, etc) and then giving tickets as a gift to the person who wins the auction.
And finally, there are people who are just hoping prospective buyers don’t read the fine print. A person who individually sold six tickets to the Miami screening was charging a “Buy it Now” price of eight dollars a ticket. Face value! Outstanding! But if you look just a little further down the page you read that the shipping charge was $30! Wow, that’s an awful lot of money to mail a piece of paper. It was probably because the seller was also located in Miami and needed to ship those tickets using overnight air (heh heh). They have since tried a new tactic and have two regular auctions where you’re bidding on a pair of tickets. Not surprisingly, the addition of the second ticket bumped the shipping charges up to $34 dollars. So far no takers.
That’s it for now from the eBay tracking trenches. I’m sure there will be more to come.
So I might as well track the numbers :-)
But first I’ll just briefly state one portion of my opinion on the topic. I think the scalping of tickets for the Serenity pre-screenings is a bad thing for one simple reason: it contributes nothing to the Big Damn Goal. The Big Damn Goal, as I like to call it, is very simple: Serenity 2 and Serenity 3. To accomplish that goal Serenity needs to generate between $60 and $100 million in box-office returns during it’s domestic release. That’s a daunting task. And none of the money spent on scalped tickets goes to that box-office total.
To be fair, we’re not talking about a lot of money. For the first two pre-screenings, a total of around $21,500 was spent by fans on eBay auctions. And all of this was spent on 315 tickets. At an average price of $6.40 (which is what boxofficemojo is using as it’s average ticket price for 2005) 315 tickets would’ve brought in a little over $2000 dollars. Chump change compared to what we need. But, on the flip side, $21,500 could be used after September 30th to buy 3360+ tickets. Which represents many sold-out theaters. Which results in a lot of buzz. Which translates into more ticket sales. It’s almost a given that the people who spent money on eBay auctions are not going to spend the same amount of money on tickets once the movie is officially released. And that hurts the bottom line. Even if only slightly.
So, short answer, scalping Serenity pre-screening tickets is bad for the overall goal. It’s myopic. It’s egocentric. It’s all that stuff and more. And it’s also fun to track. I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet on all the completed auctions just to try to get a feel for what’s going on. It’s a bit too early in the process to make generalizations but there were some anecdotal things I found funny. One thing, in particular, was the different ways in which sellers tried to camouflage what they were actually doing.
There are some people who are purposefully misrepresenting themselves. One seller started off their listing with, “The people I bought these tickets for can't go - their loss is your gain!” Sounds nice and all. Who wouldn’t want to help out a fan? Except that this seller used the same opening line in all five of their auctions. And the listings were posted in a forty minute span. And these five auctions were all for different cities (Norfolk, Charlotte, Columbus, Albany, and Providence). And the seller was located in a different state from any of these cities. The tickets are going to sell no matter what you write. Why did this seller feel the need to lie? Pretty hilarious.
Then there are a group of sellers who are trying to get around existing state regulations concerning the resale of tickets. This is silly because many states have not updated their laws to reflect online auctions. As long as you do not live in the same state as the event you are not affected (at least, that is how eBay interprets things). So they’re going out of their way trying to circumvent something that doesn’t even apply to them. And their attempts are very amusing. Quite a few sellers are auctioning something else (CDs, computer cables, etc) and then giving tickets as a gift to the person who wins the auction.
And finally, there are people who are just hoping prospective buyers don’t read the fine print. A person who individually sold six tickets to the Miami screening was charging a “Buy it Now” price of eight dollars a ticket. Face value! Outstanding! But if you look just a little further down the page you read that the shipping charge was $30! Wow, that’s an awful lot of money to mail a piece of paper. It was probably because the seller was also located in Miami and needed to ship those tickets using overnight air (heh heh). They have since tried a new tactic and have two regular auctions where you’re bidding on a pair of tickets. Not surprisingly, the addition of the second ticket bumped the shipping charges up to $34 dollars. So far no takers.
That’s it for now from the eBay tracking trenches. I’m sure there will be more to come.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Tiger's Petard
Tiger (our young adult male cat) wandered into S' window a few years ago and decided that apartment was as good a place as any. He stayed.
S used to leave the window open and he would come and go as he pleased. She got him a collar and put a message on the collar for anyone to call if they owned him. No one did. He would drop by to eat, evacuate his stomach, and sleep. But for the most part he liked being outside.
S got a call one day from a concerned person who just wanted to let her know that Tiger was trying to cross the busiest street in the area. Thus ended his freedom. She still let him outside, but it was only on a leash. He seemed to greet the change in lifestyle philosophically. He was still able to lounge in the sun or sit on the top of the fence watching the world go by. And then S and I moved in together in a different apartment.
The new place represented a step-up for Tiger. His leash length doubled and he was able to roam the backyard. I put up a little ladder so he could get on the roof of one of the out-buildings and he would lie up there in the sun for hours at a time. We still wouldn't let him off the leash due to the proximity of a major street but he seemed quite happy. Every so often we would come outside and find him dangling from somewhere in his harness but he took even that indignity in stride. And then we got a new upstairs neighbor.
It was a combination of things that did Tiger's outdoor existence in. One was the presence of a large number of pretty (and difficult to find replacements for) flower pots that started appearing around the yard, up the stairs, and on C's back porch railing. Another was a bird that decided to start a family above C's back porch light. Every other minute one of us would have to go untangle Tiger's leash from the latest flower pot he had tracked around. And once the birds started chirping there was no keeping him from climbing the back stairs and trying to get at those tender morsels. In the process, flower pots began to lose their lives. And leaving that aside, with the addition of all these obstacles it got to the point where one of us would have to be outside every second Tiger was out there monitering him. His own personal valet, so to speak. We tried anchoring the leash in various locations and giving him different lengths, all to no avail. Eventually we just gave up and Tiger became an indoor cat.
He's never forgotten.
If he is given the opportunity he will escape the apartment and roam free. He usually stays out all night and comes back some time the next morning. And then we have to go through a couple of days of fun because Ocey, our other cat, doesn't recognize his new smell and hisses and yowls at him every time he gets close. A couple of times we've caught him within a half hour of his escape. Doesn't matter. That's long enough for him to get into some new scents.
Often he escapes through an open door. But he's also figured out he can unlatch the window screens. We've installed locking latches on the screens of the windows we open most often but haven't been religious in outfitting the entire apartment. Part of the reason is that we just can't open some of the windows anymore. For one reason or another the window screens are ripped to the extent that the cats can get out. Our window screens are old and idiosyncratic. They don't even make the particular heavy mesh metal screen that was used anymore and the frames themselves cost a pretty penny to replace since it's a custom job. Our property manager is a tightwad. The screens remain holed. Those windows stay closed.
One of the window screens with the old style latch is in the bathroom. Today, Tiger figured out he could open this one. Hilarity ensued, and continues to ensue. It was the gift that keeps on giving.
I was sitting at my laptop when I looked out the window and saw what I thought was Mamacat. Then I did a double-take because she looked bigger, and healthier, and an awful lot like Tiger. I immediately ran out the front door at which point Tiger, for it was indeed him, took off towards the driveway that goes to the back garage. I was waiting for him as he started down the driveway towards the street and he reversed course and headed towards the laundry room. Figuring his goal was the street I ran to the next driveway and cornered and caught him up against the fence there. All in all it was a pretty easy capture. He could've made things a lot more complicated if he had climbed any of the fences. Or just left using some route that didn't go past the one window in the house I could see out of.
I wanted to make sure that I knew how he had gotten out before I put him back in the house so I carried him around the apartment while I looked at each window. After one pass I was stymied. I had no idea how he had gotten out. On the second pass I finally saw that the bathroom window screen was ajar. It was hidden behind a sort of vine and trellis arrangement that our neighbor installed.
So that was easy to fix. I brought Tiger inside, re-latched the screen, and then slid the shower doors closed (I had left it open so the breeze would flow). A couple of minutes later I heard a weird noise from the bathroom. When I went to investigate I discovered that Tiger had jumped from the sink to the top of the frame that houses the sliding glass shower doors and was eyeing the window. So I gave up and just closed the window.
He's an obsessive cat, however. I heard him jump on top of that frame many times today. About an hour ago I walked past the bathroom on the way outside and there he was, prowling the frame trying to figure out how to get out that window.
I came in from outside after a few minutes. Did some dishes. Toasted up an English Muffin. Puttered around for a bit. Sat down at the computer. And then I heard this muffled complaining wauling sound. I went through every room two or three times checking in closets and under beds and behind couches. Couldn't find Tiger. Finally I remembered where I'd last seen him and slid back the shower door. There he was in the bottom of the tub. He'd jumped down and couldn't get out.
I think he'd been in that tub for about twenty minutes. He sure was lovey-dovey after that.
S used to leave the window open and he would come and go as he pleased. She got him a collar and put a message on the collar for anyone to call if they owned him. No one did. He would drop by to eat, evacuate his stomach, and sleep. But for the most part he liked being outside.
S got a call one day from a concerned person who just wanted to let her know that Tiger was trying to cross the busiest street in the area. Thus ended his freedom. She still let him outside, but it was only on a leash. He seemed to greet the change in lifestyle philosophically. He was still able to lounge in the sun or sit on the top of the fence watching the world go by. And then S and I moved in together in a different apartment.
The new place represented a step-up for Tiger. His leash length doubled and he was able to roam the backyard. I put up a little ladder so he could get on the roof of one of the out-buildings and he would lie up there in the sun for hours at a time. We still wouldn't let him off the leash due to the proximity of a major street but he seemed quite happy. Every so often we would come outside and find him dangling from somewhere in his harness but he took even that indignity in stride. And then we got a new upstairs neighbor.
It was a combination of things that did Tiger's outdoor existence in. One was the presence of a large number of pretty (and difficult to find replacements for) flower pots that started appearing around the yard, up the stairs, and on C's back porch railing. Another was a bird that decided to start a family above C's back porch light. Every other minute one of us would have to go untangle Tiger's leash from the latest flower pot he had tracked around. And once the birds started chirping there was no keeping him from climbing the back stairs and trying to get at those tender morsels. In the process, flower pots began to lose their lives. And leaving that aside, with the addition of all these obstacles it got to the point where one of us would have to be outside every second Tiger was out there monitering him. His own personal valet, so to speak. We tried anchoring the leash in various locations and giving him different lengths, all to no avail. Eventually we just gave up and Tiger became an indoor cat.
He's never forgotten.
If he is given the opportunity he will escape the apartment and roam free. He usually stays out all night and comes back some time the next morning. And then we have to go through a couple of days of fun because Ocey, our other cat, doesn't recognize his new smell and hisses and yowls at him every time he gets close. A couple of times we've caught him within a half hour of his escape. Doesn't matter. That's long enough for him to get into some new scents.
Often he escapes through an open door. But he's also figured out he can unlatch the window screens. We've installed locking latches on the screens of the windows we open most often but haven't been religious in outfitting the entire apartment. Part of the reason is that we just can't open some of the windows anymore. For one reason or another the window screens are ripped to the extent that the cats can get out. Our window screens are old and idiosyncratic. They don't even make the particular heavy mesh metal screen that was used anymore and the frames themselves cost a pretty penny to replace since it's a custom job. Our property manager is a tightwad. The screens remain holed. Those windows stay closed.
One of the window screens with the old style latch is in the bathroom. Today, Tiger figured out he could open this one. Hilarity ensued, and continues to ensue. It was the gift that keeps on giving.
I was sitting at my laptop when I looked out the window and saw what I thought was Mamacat. Then I did a double-take because she looked bigger, and healthier, and an awful lot like Tiger. I immediately ran out the front door at which point Tiger, for it was indeed him, took off towards the driveway that goes to the back garage. I was waiting for him as he started down the driveway towards the street and he reversed course and headed towards the laundry room. Figuring his goal was the street I ran to the next driveway and cornered and caught him up against the fence there. All in all it was a pretty easy capture. He could've made things a lot more complicated if he had climbed any of the fences. Or just left using some route that didn't go past the one window in the house I could see out of.
I wanted to make sure that I knew how he had gotten out before I put him back in the house so I carried him around the apartment while I looked at each window. After one pass I was stymied. I had no idea how he had gotten out. On the second pass I finally saw that the bathroom window screen was ajar. It was hidden behind a sort of vine and trellis arrangement that our neighbor installed.
So that was easy to fix. I brought Tiger inside, re-latched the screen, and then slid the shower doors closed (I had left it open so the breeze would flow). A couple of minutes later I heard a weird noise from the bathroom. When I went to investigate I discovered that Tiger had jumped from the sink to the top of the frame that houses the sliding glass shower doors and was eyeing the window. So I gave up and just closed the window.
He's an obsessive cat, however. I heard him jump on top of that frame many times today. About an hour ago I walked past the bathroom on the way outside and there he was, prowling the frame trying to figure out how to get out that window.
I came in from outside after a few minutes. Did some dishes. Toasted up an English Muffin. Puttered around for a bit. Sat down at the computer. And then I heard this muffled complaining wauling sound. I went through every room two or three times checking in closets and under beds and behind couches. Couldn't find Tiger. Finally I remembered where I'd last seen him and slid back the shower door. There he was in the bottom of the tub. He'd jumped down and couldn't get out.
I think he'd been in that tub for about twenty minutes. He sure was lovey-dovey after that.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Another procrastination aid
This is what I would look like if I was a Superhero!
Build your own.
Link found through via Majikthise.
Build your own.
Link found through via Majikthise.
I guess size really does matter to me. Just not the way you'd think.
One of my hobbies is reading science-fiction. At any point in time I'm in the process of finishing up one book with two or three in the queue. For the most part, the books I buy are written by contemporary authors but I've tried to make a point of sampling from some of the more classical works (If you can use the term classical to apply to stories written in the past hundred years or so). So, after twenty years of doing this, I pride myself on having a good layman's knowledge of the field (at least, in the English language - and thank goodness someone translated Jules Verne's works a long time ago. I'd love to read his work in the original French. If it's that good in English... Wow).
There is, however, one aspect of many science-fiction stories that I have a difficult time dealing with and that is the aspect of size. This really only applies to stories that are set across multiple planets, or star systems, or galaxies, or even universes. Space is just so damn big and I don't have a good gut feel for the difference between one light-year and two. At some point, my eyes gloss over and I just think to myself, "Okay. Far. I get the message." Amusingly, this is one area in which many authors feel the need to go into detail. Most of the time, that detail is wasted on me. About the only time I start paying attention is when there is a ship-to-ship engagement where the distance between objects - and their velocity and acceleration relative to each other - actually matters. Otherwise, the only information I really want to know is, "How long does it take to get there." It's probably the Angeleno in me.
On a related note, I have a similar reaction to the size of created artifacts - whether these are spaceships, or space stations, or entire ecosystems. The bigger they get, the less I care. Once it gets into the realm of, "Cannot build on a planet," you've lost me. There's a point at which I just stop trying to connect the dots and figure out where the bridge is related to the engine room spatially. And it usually doesn't matter - at least in terms of storytelling.
Even for spaceships that are small enough to land on a planetary surface I'll often just skim over the dimension data. Especially if the creators of the artifact have made design decisions that break up the spatial layout (whether that's through the use of tubes or transporters or some other method of transport). Once someone got into a tube on the Enterprise they could've been going to BFE for all I cared. Give me a ladder or stairway any day.
This is probably a shame. One of the things I love about Serenity (you saw that one coming, didn't you?) is that I know where everything is located. With a ship that is less than 200 feet long it's not difficult to get all the various areas located spatially. Non-trivial - I was greatly aided by some interior layout drawings that fans had done - but not difficult. And that knowledge really does add to my enjoyment of the show. The characters always act consistent with the environment. There's a reason they move in a certain direction. It's just one of those details that a good world builder takes into account.
It's definitely easier to show things rather than explain them verbally. Maybe I would've appreciated the scope of the Ringworld, from Larry Niven's Known Space series, more if I could've seen it. Somehow, reading that the created world is a circular strip 300 million kilometers in diameter and 1.6 million kilometers wide just causes my eyes to roll back in my head. There's big. And then there's BIG. And then there's FUCKING COLOSSAL. And that's about the extent of my discrimination. Also falling in that category would be the Dyson Sphere-type habitats from the later books of David Brin's Uplift series. It's clear that the author spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to explain what he had created. And I just skim right on through.
The only author who really impressed me with the sheer size of the artifact they envisioned was Arthur C. Clarke in his description of the Rama spacecraft. When the lights go on, early in Rendezvous with Rama, and the inside of the ship is illuminated section-by-section stretching off into the distance, it took my breath away. I got it. The scope was huge. And I was awed. I'm not quite sure what he did different than other authors. It might have been that he built off things I am familiar with and just added them up (the sheer number of staircases the characters had to descend to get from the entry point to the floor; the change in gravity the further away you got from the axis of rotation; the length of time involved to move from one point to another). But all that detail came later. And I appreciated it because he had sold me from that initial description. Whatever he did, he was able to get me to pay attention and start figuring out spatial relationships in an hollow cylindrical object 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers in diameter. And that's no mean feat. Of course, it also helps that Clarke is a good storyteller and an attentive world builder.
So I'm a tough sell when it comes to absurdly large artifacts. Yes, I understand that space is huge. And I understand that complexity and advancements in technology often result in an increase in size. And that, based on the tremendous energy requirements involved, you might want to move as many people or objects as possible so you'd need a large ship. But I also think there's a certain element of dick-waving going on with authors trying to outdo each other in the, "My spaceship is bigger than your spaceship" contest. And often it actually detracts from my enjoyment of the story. If anything, I find it humerous.
All that is prologue to what I really wanted to write about. Digression from digression followed by digression. Because all I intended to say when I sat down to type was how much I enjoyed reading Howard L. Myers' Econo-War series of stories. Rather than going off on how things only get bigger with time he goes in the other direction. In his future you don't need a spaceship, interplanetary travel is as simple as walking to the store. Through a combination of implants and advances in technology and various objects that can be stowed in pockets or on a belt, humans travel between the stars wearing nothing more than their clothes. They zip along at insane speeds in the ultimate thrill ride breaking atmo feet first as they hurtle down to a planet.
How cool is that?
There is, however, one aspect of many science-fiction stories that I have a difficult time dealing with and that is the aspect of size. This really only applies to stories that are set across multiple planets, or star systems, or galaxies, or even universes. Space is just so damn big and I don't have a good gut feel for the difference between one light-year and two. At some point, my eyes gloss over and I just think to myself, "Okay. Far. I get the message." Amusingly, this is one area in which many authors feel the need to go into detail. Most of the time, that detail is wasted on me. About the only time I start paying attention is when there is a ship-to-ship engagement where the distance between objects - and their velocity and acceleration relative to each other - actually matters. Otherwise, the only information I really want to know is, "How long does it take to get there." It's probably the Angeleno in me.
On a related note, I have a similar reaction to the size of created artifacts - whether these are spaceships, or space stations, or entire ecosystems. The bigger they get, the less I care. Once it gets into the realm of, "Cannot build on a planet," you've lost me. There's a point at which I just stop trying to connect the dots and figure out where the bridge is related to the engine room spatially. And it usually doesn't matter - at least in terms of storytelling.
Even for spaceships that are small enough to land on a planetary surface I'll often just skim over the dimension data. Especially if the creators of the artifact have made design decisions that break up the spatial layout (whether that's through the use of tubes or transporters or some other method of transport). Once someone got into a tube on the Enterprise they could've been going to BFE for all I cared. Give me a ladder or stairway any day.
This is probably a shame. One of the things I love about Serenity (you saw that one coming, didn't you?) is that I know where everything is located. With a ship that is less than 200 feet long it's not difficult to get all the various areas located spatially. Non-trivial - I was greatly aided by some interior layout drawings that fans had done - but not difficult. And that knowledge really does add to my enjoyment of the show. The characters always act consistent with the environment. There's a reason they move in a certain direction. It's just one of those details that a good world builder takes into account.
It's definitely easier to show things rather than explain them verbally. Maybe I would've appreciated the scope of the Ringworld, from Larry Niven's Known Space series, more if I could've seen it. Somehow, reading that the created world is a circular strip 300 million kilometers in diameter and 1.6 million kilometers wide just causes my eyes to roll back in my head. There's big. And then there's BIG. And then there's FUCKING COLOSSAL. And that's about the extent of my discrimination. Also falling in that category would be the Dyson Sphere-type habitats from the later books of David Brin's Uplift series. It's clear that the author spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to explain what he had created. And I just skim right on through.
The only author who really impressed me with the sheer size of the artifact they envisioned was Arthur C. Clarke in his description of the Rama spacecraft. When the lights go on, early in Rendezvous with Rama, and the inside of the ship is illuminated section-by-section stretching off into the distance, it took my breath away. I got it. The scope was huge. And I was awed. I'm not quite sure what he did different than other authors. It might have been that he built off things I am familiar with and just added them up (the sheer number of staircases the characters had to descend to get from the entry point to the floor; the change in gravity the further away you got from the axis of rotation; the length of time involved to move from one point to another). But all that detail came later. And I appreciated it because he had sold me from that initial description. Whatever he did, he was able to get me to pay attention and start figuring out spatial relationships in an hollow cylindrical object 50 kilometers long and 20 kilometers in diameter. And that's no mean feat. Of course, it also helps that Clarke is a good storyteller and an attentive world builder.
So I'm a tough sell when it comes to absurdly large artifacts. Yes, I understand that space is huge. And I understand that complexity and advancements in technology often result in an increase in size. And that, based on the tremendous energy requirements involved, you might want to move as many people or objects as possible so you'd need a large ship. But I also think there's a certain element of dick-waving going on with authors trying to outdo each other in the, "My spaceship is bigger than your spaceship" contest. And often it actually detracts from my enjoyment of the story. If anything, I find it humerous.
All that is prologue to what I really wanted to write about. Digression from digression followed by digression. Because all I intended to say when I sat down to type was how much I enjoyed reading Howard L. Myers' Econo-War series of stories. Rather than going off on how things only get bigger with time he goes in the other direction. In his future you don't need a spaceship, interplanetary travel is as simple as walking to the store. Through a combination of implants and advances in technology and various objects that can be stowed in pockets or on a belt, humans travel between the stars wearing nothing more than their clothes. They zip along at insane speeds in the ultimate thrill ride breaking atmo feet first as they hurtle down to a planet.
How cool is that?
Friday, May 20, 2005
Domestic type things
I'm one of those people who wait until they completely run out of underwear before they start thinking of doing laundry. And it's right around that time. Actually, I'm a bit ahead of the game this week. I could go another couple of days, but I'll be travelling shortly and I wanted to get this out of the way. So today is laundry day. Well, actually, yesterday was supposed to be laundry day but I aborted part way through. Neighbors. What can you do?
We have one coin-operated washer and dryer shared among nine apartments (somewhere between 12 and 15 people). Most of the time this isn't a problem as I've been working from home and can usually find a time when the machines are empty. But we have a couple of neighbors that are very aggressive about inserting themselves into the queue.
I usually do five or six loads in a row and I have a nice routine: set the timer for when the dryer finishes, walk out the back door with a dirty load, walk back in with a clean load, and repeat as necessary. This works great since the washer takes less time to finish a load than the dryer. But that also provides an opening. Sometimes I'll come out and a hamper full of dirty clothes has been set on top of the washer - a signal that one of the neighbors wants to do the next load. Or, even more pushy, is when I'll come out and my wet clothes have been removed from the washer, dumped on top of the dryer, and someone else's washer load is already running. One of our neighbors, in particular, is a master at this technique. I'm pretty sure that she scopes out the situation, sets a timer, and empties the washer the minute it stops spinning. I find it hilarious. Time is money, I guess.
Now I could eliminate any problems by leaving a hamper full of dirty clothes on top of the washer and keep cycling that until I was done. Part of the reason I don't do this is that I've got this weird pessimistic streak where I'm paranoid when I leave something lying around out in the open. Irrational. But there it is. But the other reason is that finishing my laundry is just not that important to me. Whenever I see that one of the neighbors has jumped the washer, I just chuckle to myself and think, "I guess they realllly wanted to get that load done today."
So, long story short, two loads yesterday and four loads today. Same smell.
On a side note, I'm coming to the conclusion that you can learn a lot about someone by how they deal with the dryer lint trap. Selfish people only empty the lint trap before they do a load. All they care about is that the dryer functions well for them. Considerate people empty the lint trap after they finish their load. They want to leave the dryer ready for the next person. (Maybe a Goofus and Gallant opportunity?). I've got to stop being so considerate. Most of the neighbors don't clean the trap after their last load. Maybe I shouldn't either.
'Nuff said on that topic.
Other domestic type things. Rosie is gone for a few days so I'm tackling the living room rug (S. is gone, too. But she's pretty good about not using the rug for relief). So far, Rosie is winning this battle. I'm almost ready to swap for the new rug we have in the garage. I've saturated this thing with chemicals to the point where me and the cats are staggering around the apartment like a bunch of drunks, scrubbed and scrubbed to work the chemicals in, and now I'm waiting until all this stuff dries out. Coming up on forty hours. Still kind of damp.
At least sweeping the floor went without a hitch :-)
We have one coin-operated washer and dryer shared among nine apartments (somewhere between 12 and 15 people). Most of the time this isn't a problem as I've been working from home and can usually find a time when the machines are empty. But we have a couple of neighbors that are very aggressive about inserting themselves into the queue.
I usually do five or six loads in a row and I have a nice routine: set the timer for when the dryer finishes, walk out the back door with a dirty load, walk back in with a clean load, and repeat as necessary. This works great since the washer takes less time to finish a load than the dryer. But that also provides an opening. Sometimes I'll come out and a hamper full of dirty clothes has been set on top of the washer - a signal that one of the neighbors wants to do the next load. Or, even more pushy, is when I'll come out and my wet clothes have been removed from the washer, dumped on top of the dryer, and someone else's washer load is already running. One of our neighbors, in particular, is a master at this technique. I'm pretty sure that she scopes out the situation, sets a timer, and empties the washer the minute it stops spinning. I find it hilarious. Time is money, I guess.
Now I could eliminate any problems by leaving a hamper full of dirty clothes on top of the washer and keep cycling that until I was done. Part of the reason I don't do this is that I've got this weird pessimistic streak where I'm paranoid when I leave something lying around out in the open. Irrational. But there it is. But the other reason is that finishing my laundry is just not that important to me. Whenever I see that one of the neighbors has jumped the washer, I just chuckle to myself and think, "I guess they realllly wanted to get that load done today."
So, long story short, two loads yesterday and four loads today. Same smell.
On a side note, I'm coming to the conclusion that you can learn a lot about someone by how they deal with the dryer lint trap. Selfish people only empty the lint trap before they do a load. All they care about is that the dryer functions well for them. Considerate people empty the lint trap after they finish their load. They want to leave the dryer ready for the next person. (Maybe a Goofus and Gallant opportunity?). I've got to stop being so considerate. Most of the neighbors don't clean the trap after their last load. Maybe I shouldn't either.
'Nuff said on that topic.
Other domestic type things. Rosie is gone for a few days so I'm tackling the living room rug (S. is gone, too. But she's pretty good about not using the rug for relief). So far, Rosie is winning this battle. I'm almost ready to swap for the new rug we have in the garage. I've saturated this thing with chemicals to the point where me and the cats are staggering around the apartment like a bunch of drunks, scrubbed and scrubbed to work the chemicals in, and now I'm waiting until all this stuff dries out. Coming up on forty hours. Still kind of damp.
At least sweeping the floor went without a hitch :-)
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Serenity and the BDHs to once again soar on the small screen
Who'da thunk? One of the commenters over at AICN actually wasn't full of shit. For once.
Okay. Maybe I better explain that one a bit. From earlier today over at the futon critic.
Which is all manner of great news (especially if they air the episodes in the Joss-intended order) and should provide some outstanding press heading into the BDM release. And convert more people.
And it's a possibility that has been rolling around my head for the past 10 days. Back on May 9th, I was surfing through the comments on a Serenity related article over on AICN (Comment reading over there is not recommended, by the way. It's like listening to a rant on talk radio - especially from the people who like to hate on everything. But sometimes I find myself wading through the crap anyways. Hmmm. Maybe I should get that checked?) when the following title caught my eye, "FIREFLY to air in SCI-FI in July. My first thought was, "COOL!". Followed quickly by, "Hmmm. Too good to be true?" Followed even more quickly by, "Damn. I just got suckered by some poster over at AICN. Oh well."
So it's nice to see that the rumor was true. Sorry I doubted you, RenoNevada2000. Whoever you are.
Okay. Maybe I better explain that one a bit. From earlier today over at the futon critic.
FIREFLY (FOX) - The Sci Fi Channel has landed the repeat rights to all 15 hours of the short-lived FOX series (and basis of the upcoming "Serenity" feature film). The network's July schedule lists the series as joining its Friday lineup on July 22 at 7:00/6:00c where it will precede original episodes of "Stargate SG-1," "Stargate Atlantis" and "Battlestar Galactica."
Which is all manner of great news (especially if they air the episodes in the Joss-intended order) and should provide some outstanding press heading into the BDM release. And convert more people.
And it's a possibility that has been rolling around my head for the past 10 days. Back on May 9th, I was surfing through the comments on a Serenity related article over on AICN (Comment reading over there is not recommended, by the way. It's like listening to a rant on talk radio - especially from the people who like to hate on everything. But sometimes I find myself wading through the crap anyways. Hmmm. Maybe I should get that checked?) when the following title caught my eye, "FIREFLY to air in SCI-FI in July. My first thought was, "COOL!". Followed quickly by, "Hmmm. Too good to be true?" Followed even more quickly by, "Damn. I just got suckered by some poster over at AICN. Oh well."
So it's nice to see that the rumor was true. Sorry I doubted you, RenoNevada2000. Whoever you are.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Weird and random
Surfing around this evening, I stumbled upon this page of games and quizzes developed for the online version of The Philosophers' Magazine. As noted previously, I'm a sucker for quizzes so I randomly clicked on one called Taboo.
I won't go into too much detail on the quiz except to say that they present some scenarios and ask if you think the actions are morally wrong, if the actions should be prohibited by law, and a cultural consistency question. The scenarios all involve actions that cause no physical harm to anyone and, since I had decided going in that my definition of immoral would be any action that caused another physical harm, I came out like the worst sort of libertine.
My Moralising Quotient is: 0.00.
My Interference Factor is: 0.00.
My Universalising Factor is: -1.
The analysis ended with the following line, "Probably, in your own terms, you were right to adopt a morally permissive view."
All that was so-so but the fun part came when they made demographic comparisons. For my religious preference I had responded, "Christian: Other," so I got to see a comparison between my answers and the answers of other Christians.
One of the scenarios involved a brother and sister having sex (without the possibility of pregnancy). I didn't see the physical harm in the situation so I judged there to be nothing morally wrong with this act. 85% of Christians disagreed with me. Another scenario involved a man using a frozen chicken to get his rocks off. Once again, I saw no harm anywhere in that equation and answered accordingly. 67% of Christians disagreed with me. I figure that most of the people who have a problem with sibling action would also have a problem with poulty loving.
But (to draw a completely inaccurate and unsupported conclusion), 18% of the Christians out there see nothing wrong with getting it on with a frozen carcass and everything wrong with two consenting adults engaging in safe sex. Why am I not surprised?
I won't go into too much detail on the quiz except to say that they present some scenarios and ask if you think the actions are morally wrong, if the actions should be prohibited by law, and a cultural consistency question. The scenarios all involve actions that cause no physical harm to anyone and, since I had decided going in that my definition of immoral would be any action that caused another physical harm, I came out like the worst sort of libertine.
My Moralising Quotient is: 0.00.
My Interference Factor is: 0.00.
My Universalising Factor is: -1.
The analysis ended with the following line, "Probably, in your own terms, you were right to adopt a morally permissive view."
All that was so-so but the fun part came when they made demographic comparisons. For my religious preference I had responded, "Christian: Other," so I got to see a comparison between my answers and the answers of other Christians.
One of the scenarios involved a brother and sister having sex (without the possibility of pregnancy). I didn't see the physical harm in the situation so I judged there to be nothing morally wrong with this act. 85% of Christians disagreed with me. Another scenario involved a man using a frozen chicken to get his rocks off. Once again, I saw no harm anywhere in that equation and answered accordingly. 67% of Christians disagreed with me. I figure that most of the people who have a problem with sibling action would also have a problem with poulty loving.
But (to draw a completely inaccurate and unsupported conclusion), 18% of the Christians out there see nothing wrong with getting it on with a frozen carcass and everything wrong with two consenting adults engaging in safe sex. Why am I not surprised?
Thursday, May 12, 2005
The little engine that could (and hopefully will)
Well, it's been a week since S. and I went to see the Serenity pre-screening. I wanted to put some time between myself and the event before I wrote about it, figuring that the added perspective would allow me to be a little less superlative in my description.
No such luck. I'm pretty comfortable classifying the Serenity screening as my best movie going experience ever. Hands down. No contest. My opinion hasn't changed with seven days. Ask me again in a few years.
The main reason why that night was so special has less to do with the movie (although I really liked it) and more to do with the circumstances surrounding the movie.
Serenity should not have been made. Studios just don't green-light major motion pictures based on television shows that didn't even survive one season, written and directed by a man who has never directed a feature motion picture before, and featuring a collection of actors and actresses who are not recognizable stars. It's just not done. And yet, last Thursday S. and I sat in a theater up in San Francisco and watched an almost completed version of that movie. Amazing. And, barring a catastrophe, that movie will be released in the US on September 30th of this year. And I will be seeing it many, many times in the theater.
I won't go into the backstory on why the show failed and how the movie got made. Short summary. Joss Whedon still felt like there was a story to tell. The success of the boxed-set DVD sales helped Universal decide this was a project worth pursuing. All nine of the cast were interested and able to come back and shoot the movie. And what they created is quality.
The pre-screenings were a thank-you from Joss and Universal to the fans. The test screenings have already happened (a number in the Southern California area, one in London, and another in Sydney) and that part of the feedback process is over. The movie is in post-production and there were some technical details and music accompaniment that need to be finished. But Joss put the word out (via the UB and immediately cross-posted around the Firefly web community - I found out about it from Haken over at FFFn.) that there would be ten screenings in ten cities around the country on May 5th. Before Universal could even get their marketing plan in operation, and almost as soon as the ticket portal site came on-line, the shows were sold out (If you go to the ticket portal site you'll notice twenty theaters and a date of May 26th. Welcome to round two of the pre-screenings. Sold out almost as quickly as the first round!).
The pre-screening, at least the San Francisco one, was really more like a big shindig. People lined up for hours playing Firefly audio clips, knitting Jayne hats, walking around and talking, and wearing all manner of Firefly related apparel. Universal had a camera crew there doing interviews for the movie DVD. And all this was before we even got into the theater.
Once we took our seats various people made fandom related announcements. After a few minutes the big surprise was unveiled as Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk entered the theater. We quickly turned that surprise into a standing ovation. One of the coolest things about the whole movie getting made story is the willingness of those involved with the production to tour and interact with the fans. Alan had just come back from a convention in London (where a number of the BDHs were in attendance). Basically they said they came to watch the movie with us and then answer questions afterward. So they sat down, the lights dimmed, and the image came up.
It was a short clip from Joss. Basically, it was a thank-you note. His message was, "Here's all the reasons why this movie shouldn't have been made. Here's the reasons why it was made. One of those reasons is you. Take a break and celebrate. Then get back out there spreading the word and generating buzz to help this movie be successful."
I won't say much about the movie itself, except that I really want to see it again. And again. The BDHs done good. Better than good. Amazing. The characters and the 'verse are consistent with what we came to know and love in the series. The plot is more epic. The dangers more dangerous. The villains more villainous. If the TV series was about the characters scratching out an existence on the edge of space the movie is about them hanging on by a fingernail. The emotions that the movie invoked are stronger. In short, it's Joss writ large. And, even though it's not in the finished state, I think I'll echo S.' sentiments when she said it was a 9 out of 10.
Movie ending. Question and answer session. Filing out. Getting schwag. Driving to the freeway. All kind of a blur. I was still processing the movie. I'm trying to keep the image in my head as long as possible.
And so, for all the above reasons, last Thursday was my Best Movie Experience Ever.
No such luck. I'm pretty comfortable classifying the Serenity screening as my best movie going experience ever. Hands down. No contest. My opinion hasn't changed with seven days. Ask me again in a few years.
The main reason why that night was so special has less to do with the movie (although I really liked it) and more to do with the circumstances surrounding the movie.
Serenity should not have been made. Studios just don't green-light major motion pictures based on television shows that didn't even survive one season, written and directed by a man who has never directed a feature motion picture before, and featuring a collection of actors and actresses who are not recognizable stars. It's just not done. And yet, last Thursday S. and I sat in a theater up in San Francisco and watched an almost completed version of that movie. Amazing. And, barring a catastrophe, that movie will be released in the US on September 30th of this year. And I will be seeing it many, many times in the theater.
I won't go into the backstory on why the show failed and how the movie got made. Short summary. Joss Whedon still felt like there was a story to tell. The success of the boxed-set DVD sales helped Universal decide this was a project worth pursuing. All nine of the cast were interested and able to come back and shoot the movie. And what they created is quality.
The pre-screenings were a thank-you from Joss and Universal to the fans. The test screenings have already happened (a number in the Southern California area, one in London, and another in Sydney) and that part of the feedback process is over. The movie is in post-production and there were some technical details and music accompaniment that need to be finished. But Joss put the word out (via the UB and immediately cross-posted around the Firefly web community - I found out about it from Haken over at FFFn.) that there would be ten screenings in ten cities around the country on May 5th. Before Universal could even get their marketing plan in operation, and almost as soon as the ticket portal site came on-line, the shows were sold out (If you go to the ticket portal site you'll notice twenty theaters and a date of May 26th. Welcome to round two of the pre-screenings. Sold out almost as quickly as the first round!).
The pre-screening, at least the San Francisco one, was really more like a big shindig. People lined up for hours playing Firefly audio clips, knitting Jayne hats, walking around and talking, and wearing all manner of Firefly related apparel. Universal had a camera crew there doing interviews for the movie DVD. And all this was before we even got into the theater.
Once we took our seats various people made fandom related announcements. After a few minutes the big surprise was unveiled as Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk entered the theater. We quickly turned that surprise into a standing ovation. One of the coolest things about the whole movie getting made story is the willingness of those involved with the production to tour and interact with the fans. Alan had just come back from a convention in London (where a number of the BDHs were in attendance). Basically they said they came to watch the movie with us and then answer questions afterward. So they sat down, the lights dimmed, and the image came up.
It was a short clip from Joss. Basically, it was a thank-you note. His message was, "Here's all the reasons why this movie shouldn't have been made. Here's the reasons why it was made. One of those reasons is you. Take a break and celebrate. Then get back out there spreading the word and generating buzz to help this movie be successful."
I won't say much about the movie itself, except that I really want to see it again. And again. The BDHs done good. Better than good. Amazing. The characters and the 'verse are consistent with what we came to know and love in the series. The plot is more epic. The dangers more dangerous. The villains more villainous. If the TV series was about the characters scratching out an existence on the edge of space the movie is about them hanging on by a fingernail. The emotions that the movie invoked are stronger. In short, it's Joss writ large. And, even though it's not in the finished state, I think I'll echo S.' sentiments when she said it was a 9 out of 10.
Movie ending. Question and answer session. Filing out. Getting schwag. Driving to the freeway. All kind of a blur. I was still processing the movie. I'm trying to keep the image in my head as long as possible.
And so, for all the above reasons, last Thursday was my Best Movie Experience Ever.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Just another feline/canine distinction
Rosie (our Yorkie) perks up at every single thing that moves in her field of vision. Tiger and Ocey (our cats) move about the apartment in an air of self-importance. It got me generalizing and I came up with the following difference:
Dogs think that everything you do is their business. Cats think that everything they do is your business.
Dogs think that everything you do is their business. Cats think that everything they do is your business.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
I'm a sucker for these things
Saw a link to this poll over on TalkLeft.
Take the poll.
-9%Republican. | "You're a damn Commie! Where's Tailgunner Joe when we need him?" |
Take the poll.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Probably a good thing our dog doesn't have higher reasoning capabilities
Just took Rosie (our Yorkie puppy) outside on one of my breaks. There's a squeeky ball that has been sitting on the backyard grass for a couple of days and sometimes we'll use the ball to play catch with Rosie (Although she can't get her mouth around the ball. She gets her teeth around one of the small extrusions on the surface and carries it around that way instead. And the whole fetching thing is not quite there yet.).
I threw the ball back and forth for a few minutes and then Jacki (the upstairs neighbor's dog who Rosie adores) came running around the side of the apartment. They sniffed noses. Jacki did some squatting business and then grabbed the ball, took off back around the corner, trotted up the front stairs and disappeared into her apartment. Rosie was left staring at me expectantly.
Sometimes it sucks being the short kid.
I threw the ball back and forth for a few minutes and then Jacki (the upstairs neighbor's dog who Rosie adores) came running around the side of the apartment. They sniffed noses. Jacki did some squatting business and then grabbed the ball, took off back around the corner, trotted up the front stairs and disappeared into her apartment. Rosie was left staring at me expectantly.
Sometimes it sucks being the short kid.
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Must not be summer yet
* note to self: Learn to write shorter entries.
We're into the second month of the MLB season and I have yet to get into fan mode. Partly this is due to the absence of Barry Bonds from the Giants line-up. Mostly. But we like to have the game playing on the TV in the background no matter who is starting.
To date, however, we have exhibited a certain amount of lackadaisicalness. Case in point. I surfed over to the ESPN MLB scoreboard today to find out the start time of the Giants-Pirates game. Surprise, surprise. Ninth inning, Giants up 8 to 3, Pirates batting with 2 outs. I was able to watch one walk, one change of pitchers, one single, and the final out. Total time invested: less than 10 minutes (and one commercial break - ugh). (recap)
We're into the second month of the MLB season and I have yet to get into fan mode. Partly this is due to the absence of Barry Bonds from the Giants line-up. Mostly. But we like to have the game playing on the TV in the background no matter who is starting.
To date, however, we have exhibited a certain amount of lackadaisicalness. Case in point. I surfed over to the ESPN MLB scoreboard today to find out the start time of the Giants-Pirates game. Surprise, surprise. Ninth inning, Giants up 8 to 3, Pirates batting with 2 outs. I was able to watch one walk, one change of pitchers, one single, and the final out. Total time invested: less than 10 minutes (and one commercial break - ugh). (recap)
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Happy Happy Joy Joy
Okay. Hiatus over. At least for today. If there was one thing that could make up for the sadness of the women's team getting unceremoniously dumped (I know, I know, it's been almost a month) it would be the happiness of great happenings in the Firefly 'verse.
The past week has been crazy with Firefly related goodness. Just a quick re-cap.
On Friday, Joss Whedon announced (over on the movie board - but the link will go to FFFn) that the trailer for the upcoming movie would be released online on Tuesday.
This announcement led to a flurry of posts throughout the various Firefly communities on the web culminating in a vigil leading up to Monday night at midnight EDT. When it became apparent that the trailer would not be released at midnight east coast time, or midnight west coast time, the excitement flagged and most of us went to bed (Well, the US browncoats did. The Europeans had to keep going on about their day).
When I woke up Tuesday morning and checked back online it was to discover that Hercules (A strong supporter of the show over at Ain't It Cool News.) had relayed an update from Joss. The trailer would be released at 4pm EDT over on the Apple site. Shiny!
At the stroke of 1pm PDT the page went live and I immediately ran into technical difficulties. Being the greedy fanboy that I am, my first selection was the fullscreen option. At this point I discovered that I would need iTunes on my computer. About halfway through the download/install process I came to my senses and decided to try one of the other options instead, so I selected the large trailer. This loaded completely, started playing, and froze up my browser. Third time was the charm (and it was a good thing because I was starting to get a might tetchy) and I was able to finally watch the medium trailer.
Brain overload. Too. Much. Good. Stuff. I can't even begin to describe how great it was to see the first new Joss footage in the Firefly 'verse in quite a while (going back to when we got our DVD set and were able to see the three un-aired episodes). S. and I watched the trailer again (once I finally got the thing playing she heard the intro and came on over to partake). And then we went over to her laptop and watched the fullscreen version (since she has iTunes - which raises the question: Why didn't we use her laptop to begin with? I don't know.). At that point I was able to form coherent thoughts and decided to check out the fan reaction.
Pandemonium. FFFn usually has less than three hundred fans and lurkers surfing during the day. There were at least twice that many online after the trailer debutted (and a couple of times the number got over 1000). The movie board was averaging around 60 users before the trailer. After the trailer, that rose to almost 300 and almost 1000 new accounts were created on Tuesday. An article was posted immediately over at AICN.
Then the word started spreading. First at MetaFilter. Then Slashdot. Even the movie boards over at the Hollywood Stock Exchange got into the action. I spent a significant portion of the afternoon checking out various places and getting more and more excited about the generally positive comments that were posted. I knew the fanbase was pretty rabid (Myself included. My virtual home on the net ever since the DVD came out in December 2003 and I was reminded of the show has been at FFFn) but I had no idea it was so large.
By the time Tuesday evening rolled around I was pretty well sated. I was just getting ready to turn off the laptop for the night when Haken (the fan who created and maintains FFFn) relayed Joss' announcement that there would be a sneak preview next week in various cities. I was skimming through the text of the announcement when two words caught my eye, "San Francisco." I think this was the point where the fanboy in me, who I thought had passed out from exhaustion, took control again (squeeling OMG OMG OMFG over and over the whole while - silently - fortunately). I dashed over to the movie message board to find out how to get tickets, eventually ending up at this page. At some point during this process I passed on the information to S. and asked her if she wanted to go to a sneak preview up in the city at 10pm on May 5. She pretty quickly responded with something along the lines of, "I think we have to." And that was that. The credit card was whipped out. The forms were filled out. The confirmation was printed out. And we were proud owners of two tickets!
I went to bed a very satisfied man!
That's enough for now. And I haven't even gotten to what happened on Wednesday and today :-)
* editted to add: Continuiuing on after a break.
Yesterday I put two decals, that I ordered from a Texas browncoat, on my truck. One of the cool things about the fireflyfan community is that there are a lot of creative people who make some fantastic things. In the 17 years that I've owned a vehicle, the only things that I've added have been registration tags and parking permit decals. I never got into the whole bumper sticker or decal scene. That is, until I saw these designs for sale. I ordered one of each. By the way, great service from the creator, artcat. And, knowing me, if I happen to see a Firefly related bumpter sticker that I like, I'll slap that on as well.
After agonizing where on my truck to put them I finally settled on the side rear windows. Having never done this before I was extra careful during the whole application process but I probably should've practiced. I ended up with a small bubble on the Blue Sun decal (however, it's not really noticeable - at least I keep telling myself that). Aside from that small detail, they look fantastic! We only have an old digital camera so these pictures don't do the decals justice. But here they are.
The past week has been crazy with Firefly related goodness. Just a quick re-cap.
On Friday, Joss Whedon announced (over on the movie board - but the link will go to FFFn) that the trailer for the upcoming movie would be released online on Tuesday.
This announcement led to a flurry of posts throughout the various Firefly communities on the web culminating in a vigil leading up to Monday night at midnight EDT. When it became apparent that the trailer would not be released at midnight east coast time, or midnight west coast time, the excitement flagged and most of us went to bed (Well, the US browncoats did. The Europeans had to keep going on about their day).
When I woke up Tuesday morning and checked back online it was to discover that Hercules (A strong supporter of the show over at Ain't It Cool News.) had relayed an update from Joss. The trailer would be released at 4pm EDT over on the Apple site. Shiny!
At the stroke of 1pm PDT the page went live and I immediately ran into technical difficulties. Being the greedy fanboy that I am, my first selection was the fullscreen option. At this point I discovered that I would need iTunes on my computer. About halfway through the download/install process I came to my senses and decided to try one of the other options instead, so I selected the large trailer. This loaded completely, started playing, and froze up my browser. Third time was the charm (and it was a good thing because I was starting to get a might tetchy) and I was able to finally watch the medium trailer.
Brain overload. Too. Much. Good. Stuff. I can't even begin to describe how great it was to see the first new Joss footage in the Firefly 'verse in quite a while (going back to when we got our DVD set and were able to see the three un-aired episodes). S. and I watched the trailer again (once I finally got the thing playing she heard the intro and came on over to partake). And then we went over to her laptop and watched the fullscreen version (since she has iTunes - which raises the question: Why didn't we use her laptop to begin with? I don't know.). At that point I was able to form coherent thoughts and decided to check out the fan reaction.
Pandemonium. FFFn usually has less than three hundred fans and lurkers surfing during the day. There were at least twice that many online after the trailer debutted (and a couple of times the number got over 1000). The movie board was averaging around 60 users before the trailer. After the trailer, that rose to almost 300 and almost 1000 new accounts were created on Tuesday. An article was posted immediately over at AICN.
Then the word started spreading. First at MetaFilter. Then Slashdot. Even the movie boards over at the Hollywood Stock Exchange got into the action. I spent a significant portion of the afternoon checking out various places and getting more and more excited about the generally positive comments that were posted. I knew the fanbase was pretty rabid (Myself included. My virtual home on the net ever since the DVD came out in December 2003 and I was reminded of the show has been at FFFn) but I had no idea it was so large.
By the time Tuesday evening rolled around I was pretty well sated. I was just getting ready to turn off the laptop for the night when Haken (the fan who created and maintains FFFn) relayed Joss' announcement that there would be a sneak preview next week in various cities. I was skimming through the text of the announcement when two words caught my eye, "San Francisco." I think this was the point where the fanboy in me, who I thought had passed out from exhaustion, took control again (squeeling OMG OMG OMFG over and over the whole while - silently - fortunately). I dashed over to the movie message board to find out how to get tickets, eventually ending up at this page. At some point during this process I passed on the information to S. and asked her if she wanted to go to a sneak preview up in the city at 10pm on May 5. She pretty quickly responded with something along the lines of, "I think we have to." And that was that. The credit card was whipped out. The forms were filled out. The confirmation was printed out. And we were proud owners of two tickets!
I went to bed a very satisfied man!
That's enough for now. And I haven't even gotten to what happened on Wednesday and today :-)
* editted to add: Continuiuing on after a break.
Yesterday I put two decals, that I ordered from a Texas browncoat, on my truck. One of the cool things about the fireflyfan community is that there are a lot of creative people who make some fantastic things. In the 17 years that I've owned a vehicle, the only things that I've added have been registration tags and parking permit decals. I never got into the whole bumper sticker or decal scene. That is, until I saw these designs for sale. I ordered one of each. By the way, great service from the creator, artcat. And, knowing me, if I happen to see a Firefly related bumpter sticker that I like, I'll slap that on as well.
After agonizing where on my truck to put them I finally settled on the side rear windows. Having never done this before I was extra careful during the whole application process but I probably should've practiced. I ended up with a small bubble on the Blue Sun decal (however, it's not really noticeable - at least I keep telling myself that). Aside from that small detail, they look fantastic! We only have an old digital camera so these pictures don't do the decals justice. But here they are.
Coming back in, I decided to check online. All ten of the sneak previews were sold out! Within less than 12 hours from the announcement! Absolutely amazing. It was clear that Universal had no clue that the demand would be so high.
Side note. Apparently, they haven't quite figured out how loyal the fanbase is for this product. They feel the need to consistently have these activities that fans can work on to receive points that will then be traded in for official apparel. I think they are worried that the interest will die out unless they continue to provide a fresh source of stimulation. If that is the case, they can put their minds at east. We're not the ones they have to worry about. The fans will show up for the movie. Multiple times. The people they need to worry about are those who have never heard of Firefly. If that huge group of people does not go see this movie, then we're in trouble. But the good news is that pretty much everyone who gives the DVDs a decent chance becomes a fan. The conversion rate is that high.
But, anyways. The people running the official movie board had three or four challenges set up for the preview screenings. I don't remember what all of them were but one stuck out: put up flyers for the preview screenings in the neighborhood of the theater and then send in a picture. It was really clear that they thought tickets for the preview screenings would be on sale right up until May 5th. Silly, silly, silly. Less than twelve hours after they put those challenges up they took almost all of them down. They were unneccessary. Word of mouth throughout the various fan sites was enough to snatch up all of the tickets (Although it's ambiguous who was actually buying the tickets. One fan reported that the Atlanta theater held back 200 tickets for Universal, held a chunk back to sell to walk-up customers, and the rest of the tickets were bought up in lots of twelve. Not sure on the accuracy of the report, however.).
So that was outstanding news. Other nice tidbits. We had a new browncoat show up at FFFn who had first learned about Serenity via CAD and it was also reported that there was a mention in Penny Arcade. Those are some heavy-hitters giving nice plugs for the trailer. And, of course, the various online communities were all abuzz with the news of the preview screenings. This event, coming on top of the release of the trailer, sent a jolt of electricity through everyone.
Today, the news that the trailer had been receiving serious notice started coming in. WhoIsRiver (from FFFn) had this rundown. Haken has a tracker for the Firefly DVDs on Amazon that shows the huge jump in purchases after the release of the trailer. Short summary: Monday - before trailer (157th), Tuesday - trailer release (94th), Wednesday (26th), Today (21st). And great reviews continue to be written - 16 months after the debut. One of the sources of pride for fireflyfans is that the DVDs have a 5 star (out of a possible 5 stars) average rating based on more than 1280 reviews. Also of note, the Serenity trailer topped the hot topic list over at Daypop. For a while, Serenity was featured on the front page of yahoo in their Buzz Log section (screen cap). We've since been replaced by Michael Jackson. Ugh.
So the buzz is building. The purchase of Amazon DVDs is especially heartening. One major concern I've had is that the fan base itself isn't big enough to generate the kind of box office we need to guarantee a sequel (somewhere between $60 to $100 million domestic should be adequate). I trust Joss to create a quality product but I'm not sure if it will appeal to people who are unfamiliar with the show. So the more people who buy the DVDs and watch the series, the more familiarity there is. Most people who watch the show in the order it was intended, with an open mind, become fans. It's as simple as that. Hopefully the sales will continue for quite some time.
On a final note, I also got a box in the mail today from Blue Sun Shirts. I've bought their t-shirts before and love the product they make. They've done a really good job of recreating some of the t-shirts that Jayne wears in the show (along with a couple of new designs). So I was very happy to receive my order of four Fighting Elves tees (three for me and one backup for S. - who already has one).
All in all, it's been a great week!
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Monday, March 28, 2005
Recommended reading
Okay. Last post on yesterday's game. Seriously.
S. has a link on her home page to WomensBasketballOnline.com which is a tremendous resource. Each morning they post links to newspaper articles, indexed by school, from periodicals around the country. I find it great for two reasons: It saves me the effort of checking all the Bay Area newspapers for Stanford articles and it allows me to read articles from reporters local to our competition.
I usually skim through the articles while drinking my morning coffee. Today's reading took a bit longer. There were 12 UConn articles and 10 Stanford ones. For Stanford there were the usual suspects. Michelle Smith (from the Chron) had a couple of good articles (1 2). As usual. Ann Killion (from the Merc) had one good read. Scott Ostler (Chron) had one. Darren Sabedra (Merc) had two (1 2) articles that didn't make the roll. And Zach Jones' (Stanford Daily) piece rounded out the local contributions.
Equally fun were the columns that ran in the Kansas City Star* (one from Sam Mellinger of the Star and another from Mechelle Voepel) and the Indianapolis Star (one from Michael Pointer). * KC Star site requires registration - or bugmenot.
And all the articles written by Connecticut sports writers were just icing on the cake.
A very enjoyable morning.
Postscript: I guess I could've gone through and contextualized each link... Nah. Read 'em all. :-)
S. has a link on her home page to WomensBasketballOnline.com which is a tremendous resource. Each morning they post links to newspaper articles, indexed by school, from periodicals around the country. I find it great for two reasons: It saves me the effort of checking all the Bay Area newspapers for Stanford articles and it allows me to read articles from reporters local to our competition.
I usually skim through the articles while drinking my morning coffee. Today's reading took a bit longer. There were 12 UConn articles and 10 Stanford ones. For Stanford there were the usual suspects. Michelle Smith (from the Chron) had a couple of good articles (1 2). As usual. Ann Killion (from the Merc) had one good read. Scott Ostler (Chron) had one. Darren Sabedra (Merc) had two (1 2) articles that didn't make the roll. And Zach Jones' (Stanford Daily) piece rounded out the local contributions.
Equally fun were the columns that ran in the Kansas City Star* (one from Sam Mellinger of the Star and another from Mechelle Voepel) and the Indianapolis Star (one from Michael Pointer). * KC Star site requires registration - or bugmenot.
And all the articles written by Connecticut sports writers were just icing on the cake.
A very enjoyable morning.
Postscript: I guess I could've gone through and contextualized each link... Nah. Read 'em all. :-)
Bringing SI up to date
I posted on March 20th about SI's poor two-round showing in their NCAA men's tournament predictions. They didn't improve over rounds three and four. To date:
Round 1 - 22/32 correct (D/D+)
Round 2 - 8/16 correct (F)
Round 3 - 2/8 correct (F)
Round 4 - 2/4 correct (F)
Round 5 - 2/2 teams still playing
Round 6 - 1/1 team still playing
I'll have to figure out how to weight these various percentages - giving a higher proportion for the final round and working backwards - before issuing them a final grade for the tournament. That will be out after the last game is played next week.
On a related note, we recently got the latest issue of SI in the mailbox. Most of it was devoted to baseball. The men's tournament got a nice section. Amazingly, it would be hard to tell the women were even having a tournament from the articles. They did rate one of the three opening two-page photo spreads. So that's something. And there was a side bar on Pat Summitt (who, at the time the issue had gone to press, was tied with Dean Smith for career wins) that had a cool photo of her playing back in the seventies - love those knee pads!!.
But, based on the past two weeks worth of coverage, someone not familiar with women's college basketball would not even know who the top seeds in each regional were, let alone anything about most of the other 60 teams. Sigh. I really think they should change the name of the magazine to something like, "Pre Title IX Sports" Illustrated. When you don't even pretend to cover the most important yearly event in women's college sports you're definitely part of the problem.
Round 1 - 22/32 correct (D/D+)
Round 2 - 8/16 correct (F)
Round 3 - 2/8 correct (F)
Round 4 - 2/4 correct (F)
Round 5 - 2/2 teams still playing
Round 6 - 1/1 team still playing
I'll have to figure out how to weight these various percentages - giving a higher proportion for the final round and working backwards - before issuing them a final grade for the tournament. That will be out after the last game is played next week.
On a related note, we recently got the latest issue of SI in the mailbox. Most of it was devoted to baseball. The men's tournament got a nice section. Amazingly, it would be hard to tell the women were even having a tournament from the articles. They did rate one of the three opening two-page photo spreads. So that's something. And there was a side bar on Pat Summitt (who, at the time the issue had gone to press, was tied with Dean Smith for career wins) that had a cool photo of her playing back in the seventies - love those knee pads!!.
But, based on the past two weeks worth of coverage, someone not familiar with women's college basketball would not even know who the top seeds in each regional were, let alone anything about most of the other 60 teams. Sigh. I really think they should change the name of the magazine to something like, "Pre Title IX Sports" Illustrated. When you don't even pretend to cover the most important yearly event in women's college sports you're definitely part of the problem.
A random observation concerning last night's game
One thing that became crystal clear to me early on in the game was that we were controlling which Connecticut players would shoot open three-point shots. They did make three of their baskets from beyond the arc in the first half but those shots were uncontested. Intentionally. I can remember two instances where Turner had the ball far from the basket and waited for a Cardinal to run out and defend her. It looked to me like she was hoping to fake, get around the defender, and get closer in where she could do some damage. But we just held steady, playing tough interior defense, looking at her out there by herself. The message was clear, "Go ahead and shoot that shot. We don't care. It's not your shot. You're not going to beat us that way." Finally, she put up the shot. And in the first half those shots went in.
But I loved it! We were playing smart and going with the numbers. Turner had attempted 16 three-pointers all season, making three. In the game last night she put up 5 attempts and made two. Turner shooting from the perimeter is where you want her to be. She's third on the team in offensive boards. The further from the basket she is, the better. And if she's out there trying to be a different player than normal, well that's the kind of behavior you want to see from an opponent.
Another player we gave a free license to on the perimeter was Swanier. She made 1 out of 5, after attempting only 23 during the rest of the year. And Moore. Another green light. Her two attempts (and no hits) from downtown deserved a hearty thank you from the Cardinal. During the rest of the season she only attempted 5 three-point shots, making one.
The players that we didn't want shooting the ball from downtown were their three best shooters: Strother, Valley, and Thomas. And we defended them aggressively. I don't think any of those three got an open look all night (well, maybe just one). And it showed on the stat sheet. Together they shot 1-10 during the game after going a combined 127-342 during the rest of the year. I'll take 10% versus 37% every day of the week.
The only Connecticut player who was a decent three point shooter during the regular season (in terms of attempts and percentage) and did well in the game was Battle. She over-excelled, making 2 out of 3. I'll have to watch the tape again to see how we defended her.
So an A+ for our perimeter defense (our interior defense was good as well - but that's another topic). We shut down the players we didn't want hurting us from the perimeter. We gave the green light to anyone else. We made it easy for them to play outside their comfort zone by giving them an open shot. It takes tremendous focus and recognition to keep that defense up for an entire game. And it's just excellent, smart basketball. When you couple that with the physical basketball we started playing in the interior, it makes us a deadly team. So if you're playing Stanford and you have a wide open three-pointer you should probably ask yourself, "If I shoot this shot, am I doing exactly what they want me to do?"
But I loved it! We were playing smart and going with the numbers. Turner had attempted 16 three-pointers all season, making three. In the game last night she put up 5 attempts and made two. Turner shooting from the perimeter is where you want her to be. She's third on the team in offensive boards. The further from the basket she is, the better. And if she's out there trying to be a different player than normal, well that's the kind of behavior you want to see from an opponent.
Another player we gave a free license to on the perimeter was Swanier. She made 1 out of 5, after attempting only 23 during the rest of the year. And Moore. Another green light. Her two attempts (and no hits) from downtown deserved a hearty thank you from the Cardinal. During the rest of the season she only attempted 5 three-point shots, making one.
The players that we didn't want shooting the ball from downtown were their three best shooters: Strother, Valley, and Thomas. And we defended them aggressively. I don't think any of those three got an open look all night (well, maybe just one). And it showed on the stat sheet. Together they shot 1-10 during the game after going a combined 127-342 during the rest of the year. I'll take 10% versus 37% every day of the week.
The only Connecticut player who was a decent three point shooter during the regular season (in terms of attempts and percentage) and did well in the game was Battle. She over-excelled, making 2 out of 3. I'll have to watch the tape again to see how we defended her.
So an A+ for our perimeter defense (our interior defense was good as well - but that's another topic). We shut down the players we didn't want hurting us from the perimeter. We gave the green light to anyone else. We made it easy for them to play outside their comfort zone by giving them an open shot. It takes tremendous focus and recognition to keep that defense up for an entire game. And it's just excellent, smart basketball. When you couple that with the physical basketball we started playing in the interior, it makes us a deadly team. So if you're playing Stanford and you have a wide open three-pointer you should probably ask yourself, "If I shoot this shot, am I doing exactly what they want me to do?"
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