The Lost Discussion
OK, so now I'll talk about Lost season 2 - as requested by Weezie in the comments thread here. Before I dive into the spoilers let me say to anyone catching up on DVD - they were pretty good about avoiding spoilers in the season 1 commentaries - not so the season 2 discs. They spoil several major plot points in the commentaries. I even put my hands over my ears during one discussion. And the season 2 commentaries were pretty vanilla - some interesting stuff, but not much and none of the way-cool season 1 "stop the film" tricks I mentioned in the above post.OK, enough of that - onto to the spoiler-rific discussion. If you haven't watched the first two seasons and you care about spoilers move along now.Overall, I liked season 2, and there were aspects I liked even better than season 1. The "how do we survive on the island" plot was wearing thin before season 1 ended. The "oooh, a possibly evil/crazy organization doing crazy experiments" plot of season 2 was much more up my personal alley.There were certainly a few things I didn't care for - I didn't really buy some of Locke's transformation. One of the commentaries talked about how they were building up a conflict between Eko and Locke where Locke was the "man of science" and Eko was the "man of faith" and how that contrasted with the Jack/Locke debates from season one. A neat idea but I never bought into Locke as a "man of science". A "man of faith" that's lost his way certainly, but I don't think I would have even realized they were attempting a parallel if I hadn't heard it on a commentary track. The things they don't bother to investigate bug me. Locke has a theoretical map that shows all the hatches right? Nobody is even really bothered by the monster from season 1, even after Eko encounters it in season 2. Claire dumps Charlie for being a psycho (rightfully so) but then takes him back because his ears are ringing? WTF was that? Michael was basically a stupid rube all season and it wasn't plausible that nobody but Sayyid was suspicious. There were at least two episodes that consisted almost entirely of "Look how incredibly stupid Michael is being" that I found mostly tedious.I seriously didn't see the whole twist coming where Desmond failed to push the button and caused the plane to wreck - I realized it only a few minutes before he told us. I thought that was very cool. I liked how the hatch let them move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Weird bonus note - the washer and dryer they find in the hatch are the same model as what we bought when we moved into this house - except we got the white model. I laughed when I saw them though. From a character standpoint I seriously dug the way they started to turn on each other as they settle into the island and make new roles for themselves.So, would I say it was better or worse than season 1? That's a hard call to make. While I didn't care for some of the character development in 2, some was quite good. And I enjoy the DHARMA Initiative plotline more than I do the "survivors vs. nature" plotlines of season 1. I probably enjoyed most of the season 2 episodes more, but they also had the luxury of building on season 1's foundation. I'd call it a draw.
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OK, so now I'll talk about Lost season 2 - as requested by Weezie in the comments thread here. Before I dive into the spoilers let me say to anyone catching up on DVD - they were pretty good about avoiding spoilers in the season 1 commentaries - not so the season 2 discs. They spoil several major plot points in the commentaries. I even put my hands over my ears during one discussion. And the season 2 commentaries were pretty vanilla - some interesting stuff, but not much and none of the way-cool season 1 "stop the film" tricks I mentioned in the above post.OK, enough of that - onto to the spoiler-rific discussion. If you haven't watched the first two seasons and you care about spoilers move along now.Overall, I liked season 2, and there were aspects I liked even better than season 1. The "how do we survive on the island" plot was wearing thin before season 1 ended. The "oooh, a possibly evil/crazy organization doing crazy experiments" plot of season 2 was much more up my personal alley.There were certainly a few things I didn't care for - I didn't really buy some of Locke's transformation. One of the commentaries talked about how they were building up a conflict between Eko and Locke where Locke was the "man of science" and Eko was the "man of faith" and how that contrasted with the Jack/Locke debates from season one. A neat idea but I never bought into Locke as a "man of science". A "man of faith" that's lost his way certainly, but I don't think I would have even realized they were attempting a parallel if I hadn't heard it on a commentary track. The things they don't bother to investigate bug me. Locke has a theoretical map that shows all the hatches right? Nobody is even really bothered by the monster from season 1, even after Eko encounters it in season 2. Claire dumps Charlie for being a psycho (rightfully so) but then takes him back because his ears are ringing? WTF was that? Michael was basically a stupid rube all season and it wasn't plausible that nobody but Sayyid was suspicious. There were at least two episodes that consisted almost entirely of "Look how incredibly stupid Michael is being" that I found mostly tedious.I seriously didn't see the whole twist coming where Desmond failed to push the button and caused the plane to wreck - I realized it only a few minutes before he told us. I thought that was very cool. I liked how the hatch let them move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Weird bonus note - the washer and dryer they find in the hatch are the same model as what we bought when we moved into this house - except we got the white model. I laughed when I saw them though. From a character standpoint I seriously dug the way they started to turn on each other as they settle into the island and make new roles for themselves.So, would I say it was better or worse than season 1? That's a hard call to make. While I didn't care for some of the character development in 2, some was quite good. And I enjoy the DHARMA Initiative plotline more than I do the "survivors vs. nature" plotlines of season 1. I probably enjoyed most of the season 2 episodes more, but they also had the luxury of building on season 1's foundation. I'd call it a draw.
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Post One Of Two
So I caught up on Lost in time to watch the season 3 premiere tonight. I wanted to post about Season 2 earlier today but the day got away from me. This is not the post to discuss Lost though - I'll write that next.
I was looking forward to watching an episode in Lost in HD because one of the things I've been hearing from some of you folks lately is that DVD is "good enough" - that a HD-capable disc format is overkill. I didn't believe it but I wanted to make sure I had a good A/B case to present. Well here you go - I watched the Season 2 finale on DVD on Monday night. Brand-new discs, presumably pretty much state of the art in DVD compression. I watched the season 3 premiere off my DirecTV HDTiVo , pulled in from my rooftop antenna tonight - and some of the "previously on Lost" footage is the exact same shots. I'm here to tell you - y'all are on crack. The color range is better, the lighting detail is better, it's just a better picture. And I don't want to hear what puritan "mainstream America" has in their homes - I have a high end TV because I value quality entertainment, and I can clearly see the bandwidth limitations of DVD. From what I've read Blu-Ray and HD-DVD look even better than broadcast HD television - and I'm excited to see content become available for these higher-bandwidth formats.
Was it as big a jump as from VHS to DVD? No, not quite. Maybe about comparable to going from laserdisc to DVD.
Meh. If you want to cling to your NTSC sets, and your combination filters and your red pushes go right ahead - I'm not even going to argue anymore. It's not like I personally own either a HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray player right now - the content isn't available yet. But I've seen better than DVD-quality video - I pretty much watch it every night when new programming is available. And I'm ready for a disc format that provides it, and I don't really much care what some mythical "mainstream" consumer thinks on the matter.
technorati tags:HDTV, Lost, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray
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So I caught up on Lost in time to watch the season 3 premiere tonight. I wanted to post about Season 2 earlier today but the day got away from me. This is not the post to discuss Lost though - I'll write that next.
I was looking forward to watching an episode in Lost in HD because one of the things I've been hearing from some of you folks lately is that DVD is "good enough" - that a HD-capable disc format is overkill. I didn't believe it but I wanted to make sure I had a good A/B case to present. Well here you go - I watched the Season 2 finale on DVD on Monday night. Brand-new discs, presumably pretty much state of the art in DVD compression. I watched the season 3 premiere off my DirecTV HDTiVo , pulled in from my rooftop antenna tonight - and some of the "previously on Lost" footage is the exact same shots. I'm here to tell you - y'all are on crack. The color range is better, the lighting detail is better, it's just a better picture. And I don't want to hear what puritan "mainstream America" has in their homes - I have a high end TV because I value quality entertainment, and I can clearly see the bandwidth limitations of DVD. From what I've read Blu-Ray and HD-DVD look even better than broadcast HD television - and I'm excited to see content become available for these higher-bandwidth formats.
Was it as big a jump as from VHS to DVD? No, not quite. Maybe about comparable to going from laserdisc to DVD.
Meh. If you want to cling to your NTSC sets, and your combination filters and your red pushes go right ahead - I'm not even going to argue anymore. It's not like I personally own either a HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray player right now - the content isn't available yet. But I've seen better than DVD-quality video - I pretty much watch it every night when new programming is available. And I'm ready for a disc format that provides it, and I don't really much care what some mythical "mainstream" consumer thinks on the matter.
I was looking forward to watching an episode in Lost in HD because one of the things I've been hearing from some of you folks lately is that DVD is "good enough" - that a HD-capable disc format is overkill. I didn't believe it but I wanted to make sure I had a good A/B case to present. Well here you go - I watched the Season 2 finale on DVD on Monday night. Brand-new discs, presumably pretty much state of the art in DVD compression. I watched the season 3 premiere off my DirecTV HDTiVo , pulled in from my rooftop antenna tonight - and some of the "previously on Lost" footage is the exact same shots. I'm here to tell you - y'all are on crack. The color range is better, the lighting detail is better, it's just a better picture. And I don't want to hear what puritan "mainstream America" has in their homes - I have a high end TV because I value quality entertainment, and I can clearly see the bandwidth limitations of DVD. From what I've read Blu-Ray and HD-DVD look even better than broadcast HD television - and I'm excited to see content become available for these higher-bandwidth formats.
Was it as big a jump as from VHS to DVD? No, not quite. Maybe about comparable to going from laserdisc to DVD.
Meh. If you want to cling to your NTSC sets, and your combination filters and your red pushes go right ahead - I'm not even going to argue anymore. It's not like I personally own either a HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray player right now - the content isn't available yet. But I've seen better than DVD-quality video - I pretty much watch it every night when new programming is available. And I'm ready for a disc format that provides it, and I don't really much care what some mythical "mainstream" consumer thinks on the matter.
technorati tags:HDTV, Lost, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray
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Great Buckets of Shame
So here we are - only a few days left before the country flushes the right of habeas corpus away in the name of grandstanding political theater. And lest someone say that it only changes against non-citizens that's not true - Americans can be declared "enemy combatants" as well. And once the new law passes they can't challenge that see, because they would require habeas corpus. As long as the President (any President mind you - not just good ol' Georgie) never makes a mistake, there's no problem, right?
This will live in infamy for a long time - it's a dirty, dirty thing we've done for stupid partisan reasons. And for all the jokes about California politics that I've made over the years - I'm glad to live in a state where my elected representatives voted against torture and suspending the Constitution. Do you? Here's the vote roll calls - House and Senate. If somebody on your ballot voted for this, make darn sure you know what they voted for, and what exactly it is they've made you complicit in. And remember how you feel next time their elections roll around.
technorati tags:politics, habeas_corpus, Congress
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So here we are - only a few days left before the country flushes the right of habeas corpus away in the name of grandstanding political theater. And lest someone say that it only changes against non-citizens that's not true - Americans can be declared "enemy combatants" as well. And once the new law passes they can't challenge that see, because they would require habeas corpus. As long as the President (any President mind you - not just good ol' Georgie) never makes a mistake, there's no problem, right?
This will live in infamy for a long time - it's a dirty, dirty thing we've done for stupid partisan reasons. And for all the jokes about California politics that I've made over the years - I'm glad to live in a state where my elected representatives voted against torture and suspending the Constitution. Do you? Here's the vote roll calls - House and Senate. If somebody on your ballot voted for this, make darn sure you know what they voted for, and what exactly it is they've made you complicit in. And remember how you feel next time their elections roll around.
This will live in infamy for a long time - it's a dirty, dirty thing we've done for stupid partisan reasons. And for all the jokes about California politics that I've made over the years - I'm glad to live in a state where my elected representatives voted against torture and suspending the Constitution. Do you? Here's the vote roll calls - House and Senate. If somebody on your ballot voted for this, make darn sure you know what they voted for, and what exactly it is they've made you complicit in. And remember how you feel next time their elections roll around.
technorati tags:politics, habeas_corpus, Congress
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Housekeeping
EDIT 09//27/06: I accidentally omitted the link to see the Weird Al videos, it's there now.
Link-a-licious time!
Humor Item: Most time the Daily WTF is fairly programmer-centric. I think almost anybody can enjoy this collection of message boxes.
Pimping the music item: Weird Al's new album Straight Outta Lynwood releases next week - and it's a DualDisc with music videos on the DVD side. Sweet! You can see some of the videos here - I recommend "White & Nerdy" myself.
Pimping the book item: Time Spiral - the first book in this block's trilogy is out. If you really want to read my book next year you'll need to read this one first. Speaking of which Amazon has mine listed - although it should list Scott and I as co-authors. I assume that will get fixed as we get closer to release day.
I can also point out now that this story is not entirely independent of previous stories. (When people asked before that was a super-secret covered-by-NDA detail. But since book one is now out, that's no longer a secret tidbit.) While we did our best to make sure new readers would enjoy the story it does build on previous novels. If you're not current on the Magic storyline you may want to read this recap.
technorati tags:music, Weird_Al, Magic:_The_Gathering, fiction
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EDIT 09//27/06: I accidentally omitted the link to see the Weird Al videos, it's there now.
Random link I saved away and then didn't post: A really cool machinima with a thousand cars racing on a custom track. It pretty much uses cars to simulate fluid dynamics - but it's way cooler than that sounds. I saw this first on Wonderland - which is a great gaming blog.
Link-a-licious time!
Humor Item: Most time the Daily WTF is fairly programmer-centric. I think almost anybody can enjoy this collection of message boxes.
Pimping the music item: Weird Al's new album Straight Outta Lynwood releases next week - and it's a DualDisc with music videos on the DVD side. Sweet! You can see some of the videos here - I recommend "White & Nerdy" myself.
Pimping the book item: Time Spiral - the first book in this block's trilogy is out. If you really want to read my book next year you'll need to read this one first. Speaking of which Amazon has mine listed - although it should list Scott and I as co-authors. I assume that will get fixed as we get closer to release day.
I can also point out now that this story is not entirely independent of previous stories. (When people asked before that was a super-secret covered-by-NDA detail. But since book one is now out, that's no longer a secret tidbit.) While we did our best to make sure new readers would enjoy the story it does build on previous novels. If you're not current on the Magic storyline you may want to read this recap.
Random link I saved away and then didn't post: A really cool machinima with a thousand cars racing on a custom track. It pretty much uses cars to simulate fluid dynamics - but it's way cooler than that sounds. I saw this first on Wonderland - which is a great gaming blog.
technorati tags:music, Weird_Al, Magic:_The_Gathering, fiction
Blogged with Flock