Standing On Boxes

Ever notice how all those HD channels on TV/cable aren’t really HD?

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Somehow, I made it through St. Patrick’s day without any contact with green.

In fact, looking around my apartment? The only greens are dark, non-holiday greens (I’ve got a dark (very dark) green couch. And that’s about it.

But then, I’ve never really celebrated the holiday. When I was growing up it was just another saint’s day. Even though I had a grandmother who was a Murphy (Apparently a common Irish name).

Of course, I don’t celebrate other ethnic holidays (Is there one if you have German ancestors) or one I should celebrate in honor of my Sicilian grandfather (1st generation American? His parents came over on a boat.)?

One of my stories, a WiP, is a BtVS/Gilmore Girls crossover. Every single time “Stars Hollow” has appeared in the story, so far, I misspelled it! And nobody noticed it? Either here or on TtH! (I didn’t check ff.net. Fixing typos there isn’t worth the effort usually.)

(I found another typo at the same time in the same story that I would have thought was blatantly obvious and fixed that also.)

Okay. I don’t have an editor, proof-reader, or beta reader. So it’s my responsibility to catch these things . Early and often. I’m just surprised that none of the people who’ve read this story caught these errors and said something in the year it’s been posted to TtH.

I’m having a hard time picking out the next fic to spend a large amount of time on. I’ve been poking a few over the past couple weeks but nothing seems to be gelling. Right now I have at least half a dozen sitting there with one or more unfinished chapters.

I should just grab one and run with it until it’s done… but which one?

I’m not a fan of that Internet extremist known as a ‘fanboi’ or ‘fanboy’.

What, exactly, is a fanboy?

A person who thinks THEIR thing (whatever it may be – Linux, Microsoft something, Apple something, Video game, TV show something, sports/team something, etc.) is better than all the other similar things to such an extreme level that they spend their free (and not so free) time bashing the other things that resemble theirs (e.g. Zune vs. iPod, Mac OS X vs Windows 7, Movie A vs Movie B). Their thing obviously came down from Mount Sinai with Moses while that OTHER thing bubbled up from the depths of some hell-place.

And they always feel persecuted. Contrary to all evidence. Even when they dominate the comments section of the blogs they haunt.

And then there are the anti-thing fanboys. They hate (and that’s the only word for it) something BECAUSE of who or what it came from. People who hate ANYTHING from Apple, because it came from Apple. People who hate anything from SONY, because it’s SONY.

And they are extremely unreasonable about it. Attempting to reason with anyone of these extremist fanboys? You’ll earn a fanboy label of your own as one of their hated fanboy targets.

One thing to note is that the fanboys and fanboy-haters seem to be in direct proportion to the size of their core base. So, there are a lot more, by an order of magnitude, MS (Xbox, Zune, whatever) fanboys spewing their fanboy-hate than there are Apple fanboys engaged in the same thing. And Linux fanboys? They are out there but they seem to stick to the backwater Linux fan places.

(Yes, that is of course anecdotal. I’m only referring to the web sites/blogs I frequent.)

And it doesn’t take much to get them going.

It’s basically making all the tech blog sites unusable for those of us who either don’t hate or who live in a world where multiple THINGS have uses. (We could drag politics into it and say the political blogs are crumbling under the same effect – crazy fanboys drowning out reasoned debate.)

I don’t see it dying down any time soon. Thanks to the way a lot of ad-supported web sites work (pay-per-view/pay per click) those websites encourage the fanboys. They incite them – driving away the rest of us.

Yes!

Kathryn Bigelow got the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker! (Okay, the movie got some other awards besides that, including Best Picture, but this was the big one.)

And, apparently causing heads to explode all over the movie-criticism websites, Sandra Bullock won Best Actress. Since she beat out both Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep (and the other 2 actresses are too “new” to have a following in Hollywood) – that sounds like the “It was her turn” award vote that got her it.

And a Star Trek movie actually got an  award (one of the technical ones) and a Pixar movie won Best Animation (again.).

And I missed the new iPad commercial that played right before that Pixar award. Darn. (And the Apple Hate drenched all the tech blog-sites seconds later. Time to stop reading them I think.)

Instead of watching the Oscars… I thought I would watch something else. And what does one watch on “Oscar Weekend” ? How about a Hayao Miyazaki film marathon this weekend? I have seven of his movies on DVD. Not sure of the order I’ll watch them in. Or if I’ll watch them dubbed or subbed.

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[Day 1]

Watched/watching: Kiki’s Delivery Service (subbed)

Kiki was only thirteen. Isn’t that a bit young to be thrown out of the house and sent to figure out life?

Things she delivers (not at all inclusive)

• A birdcage with a stuffed cat (that looks like JiJi, her black cat) in it.
• A heavy box.
• Herring and pumpkin pie? Uh… yum?

Princess Mononoke (dubbed)

Hadn’t watched this one in a long time. I’d forgotten how gory it is. And how much I don’t like Billy Bob Thorton’s voice. But otherwise the movie was mostly good though Ashitaka was annoyingly naive I think.

Spirited Away (dubbed) (The T and I actually saw this one for the first time in a movie theater in Hanover, NH back when it first came out.)

Poor Chihiro (she’s ten.). She has to rescue her parents.

[Day 2]

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (dubbed)(1984? It doesn’t feel that old.”)

Post-environmental apocalypse tale. With Nausicaä, another female main character. And huge insects.

Howl’s Moving Castle (dubbed)

Another Miyazaki female protagonist, Sophie is cursed. (Based on a novel by Diana Wynne Jones. The wiki entry details the differences. And the entry on the book includes info on the sequels.)

Poor Sophie. She meets the Wizard Howl and then attracts the attention of an evil witch, who turns her into an old crone so she won’t be competition for Howl. It’s a Miyazaki film… so we know she’ll have a happy ending. Eventually.

Hmm… we never really find out how the spell on Sophie was broken (It seems to be one of those spells where she’s herself if she’s the only person in the room but as soon as she thinks she isn’t alone — zap — old crone-ish. But by the end she’s back to herself — but with grey hair.

Castle in the Sky (dubbed)

In Search of Laputa, an island in the sky. We have pirates! And they’re not really the bad guys. And then there are robots.

Sheeta is the main female protagonist. One of the weaker such in the Miyazaki movies I’ve watched so far. She’s mostly just along for the ride IMHO. Pazu (the boy whose arms she falls into (literally))  is more the main character even as they travel together.

Ponyo (dubbed)

The story of a Magical Fish girl (Ponyo) and her boy (Sōsuke (he’s 5)). Her father, a magician who lives in the sea, doesn’t take it well.

Not the best movie he’s made but definitely good, if a bit more Disney-ish than I like at the beginning.

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So, do I go find the other Miyazaki movies and watch those for Day 3 (next weekend):

The Castle of Cagliostro – a pre-Studio Ghibli Lupin III movie (I’m not really a Lupin III fan.)

Poco Rosso – Not sure about this one.

My Neighbor Totoro – that actually sounds interesting.

Maybe Totoro and a couple other non-Miyazaki Ghibli films?

I only saw two movies in a theater this past year. And neither of them are nominated for an Oscar. So, I probably won’t both watching the ‘Academy Awards’ on Sunday.

I’m probably the only person in America who hasn’t seen “Avatar” yet. And am in no hurry to see it.

I do think it would be great if Kathryn Bigelow won Best Director for her movie The Hurt Locker but other than that, I don’t really care.

And once again, we’re reminded that the “Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts, and Sciences” is a very exclusive club of approximately 6,000 people who are involved in movie making. So why do we care what these very few people think about movies? (I’m thinking the “Tomato Meter” at Rotten Tomatoes.Com is a better “judge” of movie quality.)

It’s by invite only (of existing members ) and is “limited to those who have achieved distinction in the arts and sciences of motion pictures.” (And winning an Oscar? Not a guaranteed “in”)

Really? Keira Knightley has “achieved distinction” ? How exactly? By appearing in a Disney movie or three that made billions?  Or was it that movie about King Arthur. (They don’t list every member on their website. Just a small, small sample. Of which she’s one. Not to disparage her talent but she’s just one of dozens of actresses of similar talent her age making movies right now.).