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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "James Bowman" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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11:06 pm
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Pseudo-random
Susan Richards of Earth. You have great love in your heart. Welcome to the Star Sapphires.
Charles Xavier of Earth. You have the ability to feel great compassion. Welcome to the Indigo Tribe.
Steven Rogers of Earth. You have the ability to instill great hope. Welcome to the Blue Lantern Corps.
Peter Parker of Earth. You have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps.
MacDonald Gargan of Earth. You have the ability to instill great fear. Welcome to the Sinestro Corps.
Norman Osborn of Earth. You want it all.
Bruce Banner of Earth. You have great rage in your heart. You belong to the Red Lantern Corps.
Benjamin Parker of Earth. RISE.
Tags: comics, dc comics, marvel comics
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08:20 pm
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Re: Marvel's upcoming "Heroic Age"
A comment from here:
Getting back to the status quo is now an Event.
Nails it on the head, methinks...
Tags: comics
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09:40 pm
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2009 in film
Of 2009 films, I saw...
In theatres:
Watchmen (4/5)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (4/5)
Star Trek (4/5)
Terminator Salvation (4/5)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2/5)
District 9 (4/5)
Paranormal Activity (4/5)
Sherlock Holmes (4/5) (note - watched on Jan. 1)
On DVD:
Inkheart (3/5)
Taken (4/5)
Coraline (4/5)
Monsters vs. Aliens (3/5)
Up (5/5)
Land of the Lost (1/5)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (3/5)
Direct-to-DVD:
Hulk Vs (4/5)
Wonder Woman (3/5)
Green Lantern: First Flight (4/5)
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (4/5)
Average rating for this year: 68/95 (71.6%, or 3.58/5)
Comparing to previous years:
- By Jan. 1, 2008, I saw 22 out of 2007's films, with a rating of 78/110 (70.9%, or 3.55/5). 21 were theatrical releases, one was direct-to-DVD. I waited for the DVD version of 12 of the theatrical releases, and watched one on pay-per-view.
- By Jan. 1, 2009, I saw 17 out of 2008's films, with a rating of 63/85 (74.1%, or 3.71/5). 15 were theatrical releases, two were direct-to-DVD. I waited for the DVD version of nine of the theatrical releases.
- By Jan. 1, 2010, I saw 19 out of 2009's films, with a rating of 68/95 (71.6%, or 3.58/5). 15 were theatrical releases, four were direct-to-DVD. I waited for the DVD version of seven of the theatrical releases.
Tags: dvd, movies, reviews
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06:11 pm
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MAGFest 2010 brief journal
Arrived at MAGFest on January 2, 2010, with my brother Jack, and our friends John, Juan, and Randy.
Various bits:
- Set up Jack's MUGEN late Saturday night/Sunday morning, and John's MUGEN late Sunday night/Monday morning. Both were pretty successful in different ways - Jack's attracted more attention from observers and single-try players (due to it being first and having a better timeslot, as it were) while John's attracted more people interested in actually playing at length. It was boosted by Juan's awesome stereo system, which meant people could actually hear it over the din of the game room...
- Randy hung out at various points with the Abridged Yu-Gi-Oh crew, even meeting Little Kuriboh (visiting from the UK)!
- I quickly became queasy after waking up Sunday - the smell of pizza even made me feel sick. But Pepto-Bismol is apparently a miracle cure, because it took one dose to clear that up. (I figure it must have been some combination of indigestion and dehydration.)
- At Jack's suggestion, each of us wore a different Lantern Corps ring during the con. Jack wore a Sinestro Corps ring, Juan wore a Red Lantern ring, John wore a Green Lantern ring (borrowed from me), Randy wore a Black Lantern ring (borrowed from Jack), and I wore a Blue Lantern ring. (Someone actually recognized my ring, surprisingly.) John and I got so used to wearing ours that we were feeling phantom "rings" on our fingers after getting home...
Differences from last year:
- Attendance was much higher, mainly on Saturday. I heard from a staffer in the elevator that it had already topped 2000 on Saturday, when it'd been 1700 at the end of last year. Clearly MAGFest is on the rise!
- A side effect of the increased crowd in the same hotel was crowding, and a mild decrease in the civility I'd noticed in previous years. The staff were still great, though! And on Sunday, it was more like previous MAGFests in terms of crowd and politeness. (I do admit this gave me some concern for future years, though.)
- The dealers seemed mildly better. There were certainly some great deals, such as a table with $2 for U.S. games and $5 for imports, and a wide variety of systems represented in both categories...
- The convention took up more of the hotel than last year, with several rooms on the lobby level, and the tabletop games area stretching to fit much of its area of the lower lobby level (whereas previously it'd been a single room).
- The game room and arcade games stayed active much later than last year, with all still going strong by the time we left (after 3 pm) on Monday.
Games I played (NOT in chronological order):
- Arcade: Ms. Pac-Man, Tetris, Donkey Kong, two vertical shooter games, Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and - with everyone of our group but Randy (who was resting) - X-Men. (Oh, and Colossus's roar from that game remained a constant MAGFest meme.)
- Atari 2600: Robot Tank (apparently, all I knew at the time was that it was a tank game). (Edit: Actually, it appears to be Battlezone. Like I said, I wasn't sure what it was at the time.)
- NES: Gauntlet and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (on a Playchoice 10 arcade cabinet).
- Sega Master System: Double Dragon (briefly, as the controllers were messed up in some way).
- Sega Genesis: Aladdin, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.
- Super NES: Super Bomberman.
- Atari Jaguar: Zool 2.
- Neo Geo: Fatal Fury (I wasn't impressed).
- Nintendo 64: Mario Kart 64 (probably the most entertaining game session I had during the con).
- Sega Dreamcast: Project Justice.
- Playstation 2: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core.
- Nintendo Wii: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, which (in combination with a deal Amazon.com is running) prompted me to pre-order the U.S. version.
Edit: I also played some sort of racing-oriented pinball game.
There were also three games I didn't play, but are worth noting:
- A Wii game called Dokapon Kingdom, which looks like a cross between Mario Party and the tabletop card game Munchkin. (We may be picking that up too.)
- Gleam of Force, a PC-based doujin boxing game involving cute chibi girls, was quite popular (and was active for much of the convention).
- Just outside the game room, someone also set up a neat NES-styled remake of Left 4 Dead.
Tags: con journals, conventions, games, magfest
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02:15 am
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Omniverse card game rules overhaul
If anyone's interested, I've posted a draft of my thoroughly rewritten and clarified rules for the Omniverse card game. You can read it here. If anyone finds any parts they don't understand, or wish were written more clearly, or have any other comments, I'd appreciate hearing about them...
Tags: card games, creative stuff, omniverse
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02:08 am
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Christmas 2009
Christmas Eve was pretty pleasant - I went out shopping and eating with my parents and brother. Crowds were crazy, but the experience was pretty neat. Then Mom and my brother and I watched the movies ''The Gamers: Dorkness Rising'' (better than I expected) and ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'' (more tedious than I expected) before retiring for the night.
My final Christmas haul:
- Doctor Who "Welcome Aboard" model kit (includes the TARDIS, the Tenth Doctor and Martha)
- When They Cry (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) DVD boxed set
- The Order of the Stick Books 1 and 2
- One Piece Monkey D. Luffy wanted poster pin
- X-Men Season 1 DVD boxed set
- Two lottery tickets (won $3.00)
- Green Lantern: First Flight DVD
- Mutants and Masterminds Deluxe GM Screen (with 2nd Edition Time of Crisis adventure)
- Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG boxed set
- Transformers: The Complete Series 25th anniversary DVD boxed set
- Two cans of Dinty Moore stew
- Doctor Who: Series 4 CD soundtrack
- Pathfinder Bestiary RPG sourcebook
Tags: christmas
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11:22 pm
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As requested...
( Spectacular Spider-Man character alignments )
Tags: animation, creative stuff, role-playing games
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10:41 pm
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Speculation on various people's alignments
( Because, after all, this is the ultimate geeky extension of any alignment discussion... )
Tags: comics, creative stuff, gargoyles, role-playing games, transformers
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08:51 pm
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Other alignment scales for your percentages
( Just for the heck of it... )
Tags: creative stuff, role-playing games
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11:31 pm
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Conan the Adventurer on DVD?
So, I was browsing my recommendations, and these came up...
http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Adventurer-Animated-DVD-Box/dp/B002BYNGFE/
http://www.amazon.com/Conan-Adventurer-Animated-DVD-Box/dp/B002BYNLZ4/
This looks like an actual Region 1 release of the series (it's been available in other regions for a little while, apparently), but some things just don't seem right...
1) This appears to be new, but no copies are available from Amazon itself - just from third-party sellers.
2) The listings are light on product details (for example, no studio).
3) It's nine episodes per disc, which seems slightly dense for a commercial release. (One of the discs in the second set apparently includes ten episodes.)
I'd really like to get an actual release of Conan the Adventurer on DVD, but I'm wary of buying what looks like someone's pumped-up bootleg...
Tags: animation, dvd
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03:05 am
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Nuancing alignment (because I think too much about these things)
Edit on Thanksgiving: Clarified the Neutral tendency alignments.
So, I've recently gotten into the awesome webcomic Order of the Stick, and that in turn has rekindled some of my interest in Dungeons and Dragons. (But not the current Fourth Edition from Wizards of the Coast. I'll stick with 3.5, thanks much.) One of the things I find neat about D&D is its alignment system... ( Read more... )
Tags: creative stuff, role-playing games
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10:12 pm
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Alignment
Your result for The Alignment Test... Lawful-Good80% Good, 44% Chaotic ( Read more... )
Tags: memes
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07:46 pm
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Five Questions Meme, from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dragonsong12
Leave me a comment saying "Bah wheep graagnah wheep ni ni bong."
I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.
1. If you could meet any one person (real or fictional) who would you like it to be?
The Doctor, from Doctor Who. He's undoubtedly the fictional character who's had the most influence on me. (I even played the Doctor for years in what amounted to LARPing in elementary school.) I kinda feel like he wouldn't really have the time of day for me, mind (or so a dream I once had suggested), but I'd still love to be able to meet him.
2. What talent do you wish you had?
I wish I had real artistic talent. I used to draw a lot through elementary school (and I still have many notebooks filled with characters and such). I had aspirations of becoming a comic book artist, but my capabilities peaked around middle school - my style never really evolved much past "cartoony". If I could draw well, I would totally have made a webcomic or such by now...
3. Pirates vs. ninjas and why? (oldie but a goodie!)
Pirates, no question. Pirates are just much more entertaining characters in my view, as they tend to have very distinct styles and personalities. (This is true even when you limit your view to historical pirates.) Ninjas' chief coolness is in their stealthy martial arts badassery - and while that is cool and all, martial arts skills have become so commonplace in modern media that it doesn't stand out as well. (Incidentally, I don't consider the more diverse cast of Naruto to really be ninjas in the traditional sense - more like spell-casters with martial arts skills.)
In short, I prefer pirates because I prioritize "entertaining" over "kick-ass."
4. Would you want to live in the DBZ-verse? Or are you content to watch from afar?
I much prefer being a spectator to the DBZ universe. Living there looks deadlier than living in the Marvel or DC Universes! (At least when Superman is fighting someone you don't have to worry about the accidental damage endangering the entire planet Earth...)
5. If you could see one work adapted into a movie, what would it be and who would play the lead?
Wow, big question. I honestly don't know which work I'd pick... I will note, though, that I'm usually not picky about specific actors, so long as they pick a good actor.
Tags: memes
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07:09 am
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The tarot and the Justice League
More ramblings inspired by Trinity... ( much text behind the cut )
Tags: comics, creative stuff
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08:04 pm
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Brilliant marketing
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/1004585.html
So, someone links to a clip of an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold on YouTube. Cue post after post of praise, and at least one person outright saying this sold them on buying the DVD...
Three hours later: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner Bros. entertainment."
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07:06 pm
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One Piece tarot
Inspired by the DC miniseries Trinity, I did a bit of Wikipedia research on the Tarot and its symbolism... ( much text ahead )
Tags: animation, creative stuff
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10:34 pm
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Selling some stuff
http://www.amazon.com/shops/jeb215alphazed
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07:34 pm
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Interesting essay on retcons
http://www.websnark.com/archives/2008/01/retconning_just_1.html
The comments are rather interesting, too.
Tags: comics, web sites
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08:23 pm
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I missed this???
http://www.lalalandrecords.com/BatmanAS.html
I've been waiting for a Batman: The Animated Series soundtrack for years, and this apparently came out last December... and it's now completely sold out! (There were 3000 copies produced, and 2500 sold out in the first month.) The upside is, it got great reviews, and it sold so well that La-La Land Records thinks it should help their efforts to convince Warner Bros. to authorize further releases. So maybe they'll do a re-release... and maybe this could lead to further DCAU soundtracks.
Tags: animation, music
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02:29 am
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WANT
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/08/19/fill-your-fingers-the-free-lantern-ring-collection-set-to-boost-dcs-sales/
The Black Lantern ring giveaway to kick off the Blackest Night event was an immense hit, with demand booming for these chunky stylish collectable black plastic fingerwear, and a call for similar rings to match the different Lantern colours seen in the series went out. And DC listened.
So for every 25 copies of Doom Patrol #4, Booster Gold #26, R.E.B.E.L.S. #10, Outsiders ‘24 and your retailer orders, they can order a bag of fifty Sinestro rings, Agent Orange rings, Indigo Tribe rings and Star Sapphire rings respectively.
And for every 50 copies of Justice League of America #39, Blackest Night #5 and Adventure Comics #4 sees you with a bag of fifty Red Lantern rings, Green Lantern rings and Blue Lantern rings, also respectively.
Each ring will ship every two weeks, Yellow on November 4th, Orange on November 18th, Red on December 2nd, Green on December 16th, Blue on December 30th (well, December 23rd now, I guess, thanks to Comic Book-Free Day), Indigo on January 13th and Violet on January 27th.
Tags: comics
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