The Return of Testing Chat Thread

[Dooey Jo]

or we could get FUCKING OUTRAGED if someone were to try to move Tintin in the Congo from one section of one library to another section more in the back

you can have my racist children's entertainment when you pry it from my cold dead hands

[RogueIce]

You know, I feel like Mass Effect had the perfect opportunity to portray a multi-national future and fell short. It was good that i could be whatever colour I wanted but the VA was obviously North American. It would have been interesting to have your character be from Zimbabwe or something and explore how that effects her life. Does racism still exist, is Zimbabwe a full partner in the SA or are they ostracised like today?

Well if they're beyond racism or whatever in the future, it wouldn't affect her life so what's there to explore? Kinda like how Star Trek never really asked Uhura or Geordi what it was like to be black in Starfleet, because it just didn't matter. And as far as VAs go well, storage space isn't unlimited.

How multinational were all the other humans? I guess it would be a failing if the main character could be any race but everyone else was white.

[uraniun235]

Well if they're beyond racism or whatever in the future, it wouldn't affect her life so what's there to explore? Kinda like how Star Trek never really asked Uhura or Geordi what it was like to be black in Starfleet, because it just didn't matter. And as far as VAs go well, storage space isn't unlimited.

I don't think it would be so much a function of storage space as money to hire additional voice actors and record/edit it. You can compress a few hours of sound down pretty well.

[Civil War Man]

Tangentially related, but I saw The Hobbit yesterday. I personally liked it better than the Lord of the Rings movies. It's your standard British people fight orcs type of fantasy, but it gets a pass on that because it's an adaptation of the original British people fight orcs fantasy. The characters were cool, the actors all generally did a good job, and the scenery was beautiful. They added a bunch of stuff and changed a few more things, but I didn't find that the stuff they changed and added really detracted from the original story in any way. The only part where they really removed anything was making the riddle contest between Bilbo and Gollum shorter, but even that was an improvement because I went through the riddles in the book afterwards and it turns out that almost all of the riddles that were removed were stupid and nearly non-sensical.

Also, its slow moments weren't too bad, unlike Return of the King's 45 minutes of endings.

[Dooey Jo]

how did the double frame rate work out?

[joviwan]

I really enjoyed the HFR. It added a lot of detail to character interactions and mannerisms, and made action easier and smoother to follow. Combined with the girthy number of pixels involved and the 3D, I got a lot more immersion and fascination. It does, of course, take a little getting used to, but once you do, you don't really... 'notice' the extra frames, so much as notice how much more information you're getting. It was enough to convince me that I'd like to see a lot more movies shot this way.

[Civil War Man]

To be honest, I was there to watch a story about a bunch of short people going on an adventure to kill a dragon, so there was no point where my mind tried to interrupt and analyze the frame rate.

Everything was really vivid, though, so the double frame rate seems to have worked out well.

For something more specific, some people on The Other Board complained about the addition of Radagast the Brown, but I personally had no problem with it. Ever since I first read Lord of the Rings, something about Radagast intrigued me, mostly because so little was said about him. I wondered what he was doing during the whole war against Mordor, since I couldn't picture him doing nothing. Especially since the war was spreading so close to where he lived, seeing as how Fangorn forest is not too far away, and there was off-hand mentions of troubles in Mirkwood and Dale.

Radagast in the movie was not how I pictured him, but I thought it was a good imagining for the character. The whole crazy hermit thing and the sled pulled by magical rabbits were silly, but for his silly demeanor, it was obvious he was a wizard, and was therefore much smarter and way more powerful than you'd think by looking at him.

Particularly when he gets ambushed by the Witch King in Dol Guldur and successfully fights him off.

[Aaron]

Magic sled pulled by rabbits?

I'll see it just for that.

[joviwan]

I had the same kind of response at Radaghast; at first I was skeptical and kind of displeased, but then he had a couple of outstanding moments that made me think twice about him, and overall I think he was great.

I couldn't help giggling, either, when he said "I'd like to see them try."

That's a good way to describe the HFR in general: The Hobbit in Glorious Peter Jackson Vision is really vivid.

[Sandman]

I had the same kind of response at Radaghast; at first I was skeptical and kind of displeased, but then he had a couple of outstanding moments that made me think twice about him, and overall I think he was great.

I believe you have just accurately described Sylvester McCoy's entire career.

Radagast was great. And it's nice to see Sylvester McCoy getting a genuinely decent acting role for the first time since Doctor Who.

[Glass Fort MacLeod]

I find my enjoyment of the LOTR movies was greatly enhanced by an ability to treat them as being separate and distinct from the LOTR books, rather than the two needing to be inextricably tied together. I have also noticed that many people's lack of enjoyment of said movies tend to stem from lack of an ability to do the same.

[Questor]

I really enjoyed it. I will definitely get it on blu-ray.

Radaghast was amazing. I hope they find some way to bring him back later. and ditto to the best line of his.

[Oxymoron]

This is a man with a bird nest in his hair and guano on his temples. What more could you ask for ?

[Gands]

Woo! I got my Masters acceptance letter!

I start February 25th, and I get a merit based scholarship.

[evilsoup]

congratulations

[Count Chocula]

Ditto Gands!

[Gands]

I'm so happy to finally be there.

Following things going to shit at home when the family broke apart, I lost all interest in doing anything during high school, leaving me with a crappy UAI when I graduated in 2003. It also didn't help that I got epilepsy six months before the exams anyway. So I graduate, then apply for a pathway program in 2005, and slack off during that too. Then I did the same thing in 2007 again, but more slackening saw me balls that up too.

I started again in 2009, with Sam there encouraging me, and not only do I not drop out/fail, but I actually excel at the damn thing. Woo!

[evilsoup]

it's good to know that there's hope for lazy people lol

[Stofsk]

I'm so happy to finally be there.

Following things going to shit at home when the family broke apart, I lost all interest in doing anything during high school, leaving me with a crappy UAI when I graduated in 2003. It also didn't help that I got epilepsy six months before the exams anyway. So I graduate, then apply for a pathway program in 2005, and slack off during that too. Then I did the same thing in 2007 again, but more slackening saw me balls that up too.

I started again in 2009, with Sam there encouraging me, and not only do I not drop out/fail, but I actually excel at the damn thing. Woo!

I'm really happy for you dude.

[Straha]

It's really not that difficult IF you can afford it. Fact is that veganism is generally a way more expensive diet than an omnivorous one.

I'm curious where this bromide originated, because it's one of the most recurring statements I've heard about a vegan diet and as far as I can tell it's also the one most divorced from reality.

Assuming you don't live in a food desert and can afford to grocery shop at least a little vegan foods are way cheaper on just about every level, especially if you're willing to buy in 'bulk'. I can go to the local supermarket here and buy a twenty pound bag of rice for twelve bucks that lasts me almost a month (if not longer), if I buy two cans of beans a week and a bag of frozen vegetables for vegetable fried-rice that comes out to about five dollars, rounding up, for four meals. Pasta is dirt cheap (here it's about $0.80 a pound), lentils sometimes feel cheaper than dirt, and there are half-a-dozen other vegan food staples you can prepare for similar costs. If you have a fresh produce section it's even easier, fruits are amazingly plentiful and come at bargain basement prices (hello banana), and a vegetable stir fries and 'from scratch' soups are relatively cheap but last a while time.

Vegan processed food is more expensive, morningstar and boca burger should powder your ass for the price they expect you to pay for their food, but you can easily get substitutes in the form of Tofu, Seitan, and TVP for half to a quarter of the price. And vegan dining out is easily as expensive to more expensive than carnivorous dining, with no fast food options (aside from Taco Bell) for the penny pincher but that argument (which gets made with alarming frequency) strikes me as on face weak.


As I said, this isn't always true. If you live in a food desert you're shit out of luck, but that's not just because of a lack of vegan options, and then I can at least understand why someone would feel they have to continue to eat flesh. On the whole, though, I just don't buy it.

(There is also a compelling argument to be made that the health side-effects of Veganism are also incredibly cost beneficial in the long run. Vegans and vegetarians run almost a nil-risk of heart and brain disease and tend to live longer, happier, and healthier lives according to a number of studies. Accounting for cost-savings on that end it makes sense as a long term savings plan to go vegan young. )

[Straha]

Woo! I got my Masters acceptance letter!

I start February 25th, and I get a merit based scholarship.

Welcome to Academia!

You and I should attend a conference somewhere and get snooty at everyone else.

[evilsoup]

when I'm running low on money, I switch to a vegetarian diet
even then, the most expensive stuff is cheese and milk etc, so I can only assume that a vegan diet would be even cheaper, unless you need to get vitamin supplements or something... but you shouldn't need to do that if you plan things right, I think.

[Straha]

You don't have to, I do to be safe and then a bottle of multivitamins costs $15 and lasts two months. If you go Vegan it's generally a good idea to get B12 supplements as a precautionary measure which are, generally speaking, cheap.

[RyanThunder]

How do you feel about fish?

[evilsoup]

on moral grounds, I know I really should become a vegan
but bacon is so delicious <--this is how I know Judaism etc is fake
what kind of a god would put something that delicious in the world, and then deny it to his chosen people?
not one I'd want to worship, that's for sure