I remember snickering to myself about a poster for one of these movies during a bus ride over at Disney World a couple of years ago.
“Talking dogs … dressed up like Santa?!” I laughed. “That’s ridiculous – nobody would ever pay to sit through an entire movie of that…”
So long story short, it looks like I might’ve been wrong. 😳
It’s kind of ironic that just a week ago I wrote a gigantic post about SOPA and the movie industry and why it makes little sense to combat piracy on the Internet, and yet here a week later I find myself checking out a tool that admittedly is still very cool, even if ethically it’s also kinda wrong… 😳
The gist of the program is that it basically acts as a DVR for pirated TV shows, offering support to monitor TV directory services for TV Guide-style show information, then automatically download the latest episodes via either usenet or bittorrent. I know this isn’t actually the first app of its kind, as I do kind of recall other people attempting to mix torrents with RSS back when I still actively downloaded things myself, but it’s no doubt very slick and seems to do a pretty simple job of managing the tedious part of searching for and downloading files so that all the user has to do is choose their show and preferred format, then sit back and wait…
And yet it was kinda funny when I clicked into this site because on one hand, the technology itself is very cool, but at the same time this is the exact thing that the studios in Hollywood are complaining about! Why pay for a $90 cable subscription with HBO and Shotime when you could just set this little tool up to grab the latest episodes of Dexter in high definition just as soon as sources can get the files online after they air?! It’s hard to condone this kind of software when you can download new episodes without a subscription for $2.99 on iTunes, but if you’re the kind of person who insists on DRM-free files in a very specific format – here you go?
I don’t know – maybe it just has something to do with getting older and actually having money to purchase the things that I enjoy, but I find it a lot harder to justify piracy these days than I did a decade ago when I would grab entire music albums off of IRC to check out new artists, as opposed to now spending $0.99 to sample a single track or splurging the $9.99 to buy the whole album. There was a time when I did care about simple things as the naming conventions of the files that I downloaded and that they all followed the same encoding and file formats, and maybe I’ve just moved on from that kind of stuff or something, but I honestly just don’t care about a lot of the idiosyncrasies that I used to support piracy back when I used to do it.
Today I’m more ready to place a value on all of the time that these creative people put into making their shows and I want to support them financially so that they can continue to make more … maybe when you’re young and dumb, because you don’t have much money you just naturally assume that it wouldn’t make much of a difference to anyone else if you chipped in for their efforts anyways? I’m even willing to just chalk it up to rebellious youth – there are certainly plenty of other extremely stupid things I did back in high school and college that are just completely without reason except to ruffle someone’s feathers in hindsight! Maybe illegally downloading really expensive software that I didn’t actually even have a use for was some way to stick it to the man in the mind of a free-spirited 20-something with nothing to lose and no real bearings on intellectual property yet to compare to…
In a way, I guess it’s just kind of interesting for me to look back at something that I was very much a part of back then that I’ve so radically changed my position on over the years, sort of akin to thinking that my long hair back then was kind of ridiculous or having absolutely no desire to go camping in the outdoors ever again, despite having spent 12 years of my childhood in the Boy Scouts. In a way, it’s somewhat comforting to see my views evolving as I grow older instead of being stuck in their own little world with less and less substance to back them up.
Granted, it may not make me feel as young to actually pay for my content online instead of just pilfering it like all of the kiddies do, but then again, there are also some pretty cool things that older people get to do through actually having money to their name like visiting theme parks all the time and having a swimming pool in their backyard, so maybe this whole growing up thing isn’t so bad after all! 😉
I really hope that last one isn’t true!
I don’t even know why I like these movies – I absolutely abhor just about anything scary and I honestly don’t think that I’ve even ever played any of the video games before, and yet for some reason this tale that started with the secret research facility underneath Raccoon City is in some way tremendously intriguing to me in ways that I’ll probably never be able to explain!
Anywho, they’ve got yet another episode in the series coming out this fall – I’m waiting until the one where we eventually find out that Umbrella also had a research facility on the moon simply because they’ve got to be running out of underground here by now, aren’t they?!
“We’re zombies on the moon, we carry a harpoon…”
I heard an interesting perspective the other day with regards to weight loss that I kind of connected with that I’d like to share – I think it was in a talk about how people so frequently fall off the proverbial horse when they’re dieting and exercising, and how it’s so easy to complain about not having the time to spend when honestly if you’re really trying to lose weight, frankly, making time to work towards this massive goal each day should be just about the easiest thing in the world…
I’m no stranger to this, mind you – I’m constantly shuffling around all of the things that I want/need to do, which a lot of times results in staying up super late to spend 30 minutes on the elliptical because “I just couldn’t find the time anywhere else in my day.” Which sure, on one hand is perfectly legitimate if those other things are more important than losing weight, but if the point here is to make a lifestyle change to leave behind a dangerous bill of health that’s going to have serious consequences the longer it takes me to shake, then the excuse is really just that – a part of me shouting out that maybe I don’t really want to lose weight as much as I think I do.
I really need to just stop listening to those excuses and get back to work!
Because the fact is, realistically I shouldn’t have to spend hours upon hours each day at the gym in order to lose weight, nor do I have to cook all sorts of elaborate meals to balance my diet. It’s actually just a two-parter and really pretty simple:
It’s just a matter of re-prioritizing my brain to realize that my time spent sweating on the elliptical or getting dragged around the neighborhood by Cleo shouldn’t be something that I dread – if anything, it’s something that I should look forward to because it’s those 60 minutes every day consistently that are ultimately going to make me reach my goal of not being a overweight anymore. This is something that I’ve been trying to do on and off for over eight years now – only my writing career has a longer duration, but that’s not something that can be solved simply with an hour a day.
My weight loss can, however, and so I need to figure out whatever I can do to re-prioritize my brain yet again so that it understands just how vital that simple hour of exercise is in the long run.
For anyone who needs an absolutely beautiful, new wallpaper for their desktop, might I suggest this satellite image taken earlier in the month by NASA using their latest Earth-monitoring satellite, the Suomi NPP research probe…
Resolutions go up to an incredible 8000×8000-pixel image for those of you with extra-large displays, so be sure to click through to NASA’s site for the best possible image! 🙂
And I suppose while we’re on the subject, I also got a real kick out of this interview by BoingBoing with NASA astronaut Rex Walheim. Man, space is awesome, isn’t it?!
My other revelation that I had at the Apple store earlier this evening is one that even made my wife do a double-take and say, “Wow – now that’s cool!”
Admittedly I can probably count the number of times I’ve been in these stores on one hand, so I’m not super familiar with their layout, but when I finally settled on my iPhone case, I caught myself saying, “Hey, wait a minute – where do I actually check out?!” as I looked around the store and realized that with the Genius Bar in the pack being entirely for tech support, they actually don’t have cash registers on the floor in these stores! Surprisingly, I asked a random employee and he proceeded to check me out right there on his iPhone, which alone was pretty darned neat, but that wasn’t the cool part…
The cool part was that before he ran the transaction, he gave me a quick, little demo of the Apple Store app that’s available as a free download, that not only allows you to schedule tech support appointments and browse Apple’s full product line using the store’s free wi-fi, but also using a new feature called EasyPay gives customers the ability to check themselves out when making simple purchases for accessories and the like, with the balance just charged to your iTunes account after scanning the barcode of each item with your phone’s camera! You obviously can’t use it for big things like computers and phones, and employees have to retrieve those from the back for you anyways, but for anything else, just scan the back of the box, click a couple of buttons, and you’re good to go!
I’m a big fan of self-checkouts at grocery stores because A) I tend to be a bit anti-social when I’m out shopping, and B) most times I feel like I can check myself out more quickly and efficiently than a human cashier who’d rather go on break or flirt with their bag boy than help me anyways, but this is even a step cooler yet! I downloaded the app as soon as I got home, and I’m definitely looking forward to giving it a try when we go back next weekend to pick out a case for Sara’s phone and run some other errands…
This is the future, and it is awesome. 
I’ve never really been one who was caught up in that whole minimalist, I have too many things lifestyle, however my trip to the Apple store this evening has left me pondering something along those lines that I probably wouldn’t have expected.
I was looking at cases for my iPhone because I’ve had the thing almost a year and still haven’t taken the time to better protect it from my reliable clumsiness, and I ended up settling on this one that also has the intriguing feature of two sleeves on the back to hold credit or ID cards in addition to the phone itself. I bought it initially, thinking that if nothing else it would make quick trips out to the store on weekends easier when I’m often times wearing shorts that simply don’t have back pockets to hold my wallet, but the more I’ve thought about it, I’m actually wondering if I might be able to get away from having to carry my wallet altogether after introducing this thing into my life…
I started going through my wallet in my head, and then later actually emptied its contents out onto my desk, and the truth of the matter is, I don’t really need most of the crap that I carry around with me on a daily basis. Membership cards to businesses that I visit maybe once a month, and some that technically don’t even exist anymore, business cards that look so ratty I’m not sure why I would want to hand them out if I did find myself presented with the opportunity, an old phone card from about ten years ago that probably has about a minute and a half left on it at this point! Why do I carry all of this junk around in my back pocket with me every single day?!
Or more importantly, could I do without to the point where I can boil my life down to only needing two of them so that I can just carry them around in the back of my phone???
I think it might be possible – right now those two cards would be my driver’s license and the main credit card that Sara and I use for all of our daily purchases. All of the membership and frequent buyer cards, I would think, could be kept at home or in my car for easy retrieval when I drive to HoneyBaked Ham for lunch or something – no real need to carry that kind of thing around in my back pocket. For insurance cards and whatnot, I think I want to try taking scans of them and keeping those on my phone, and then keep the actual cards in my backup wallet that I’d just leave in the car. Mind you, I wouldn’t leave actual credit or debit cards in there, but really, if somebody breaks into my car, I think I’ll be a little more worried about the car itself than the fact that they also managed to get away with my Subway Rewards Card that almost had enough for a free foot-long on it, too! 😉
Oh yeah, and as for cash … I rarely ever actually carry it around with me anymore anyways, so on the off-chance that I need it, I’ll have had to plan ahead for it anyways, so I’m not really too concerned about that…
Anyways, it’s an interesting experiment, and I can tell one that might take a little getting used to not only for not carrying around the big, honking wallet that seems to be a rite of passage for most men, but also the idea that my primary ID and credit card will be kinda out in the open to the world as I use my phone on a daily basis … that’s admittedly a little weird, too, but I’m willing to give it a try and see if it’s just a social awkwardness that I’ll get over after a while at this point.
Frankly, as much as I thought the idea of being able to pay for things via our phones was a stupid one years ago, now that I’ve got a much cooler phone that I don’t want to spend five minutes without, the thought of even leaving my credit card behind is a bit tantalizing in a world where all I need is this miniature computer in my pocket wherever I go! I believe that Starbucks and some other retailers are already offering apps that tie your rewards card into your phone, so once credit cards are on board, all we need then are electronic state IDs and I’d be all set to walk around completely clutter free … save the phone itself, that is!
In the meantime, though, I think I’m going to try a few weeks surviving on just the two cards and see how that goes – I’ll post a follow-up later to see if I end up going back to carrying a wallet or if my life then feels sufficiently liberated by no longer being bound to this small stack of trivial plastic and paper cards that I’ve seen fit to carry at my side without question for so long! 😀
So a couple of sessions ago in the campaign that I play, my character bought a horse … a very fast horse! Although technically his base speed is the same as a regular horse (speed 10), he’s got a considerably higher Dex and some other cool abilities that help to bump it up a bit, and the DM helped to add some flavor as well by continuing the theme in his own world of them being a special elven breed of horses known for their agility and swiftness.
I got a kick out of it because it gave my character something special that not everyone else had, and it also gives me another angle to further develop him as well because being one with nature and the outdoors, I can easily see him building a strong bond with this noble steed that grants him the power of speed that few creatures can match.
But then I got to thinking – just how fast actually is this mighty riding horse???
Speaking in terms of combat rounds, and assuming I don’t actually have to attack and instead am focusing on just clearing as much ground as physically possible…
The horse’s base speed is 10.
Running adds +2.
His Swift Steed minor encounter power gives him +4 to speed until the end of his next turn.
I also picked up some Horse’s Breath, a consumable magic oat bag of sorts, which grants him an extra move action this turn.
So his total run speed is 16, and on an action point he can take a total of 3 moves in one turn, for a grand total of speed 48 for a single turn in combat!If you do the math, that works out to about 27 mph here in the real world, which is apparently actually pretty close to the ball for how fast real horses run … but instead of dwelling on that downer of a note, it seemed like it would be more fun to compare my new ride to something a bit more fearful in this fantasy realm of ours…
You know, like a red dragon!
Looking at the stats of an adult red dragon (level 15), it gets a little tricky because they have a fly speed of 8 but also an overland flight speed of 12. For the purposes of this comparison, we ended up settling on the regular fly speed with the idea of one trying to outrun the other. If it was a simple, long distance race, the dragon would still win by having that soaring speed to eventually bump up to, but at least in theory he would no longer be a threat to those of us back down on the ground from that altitude!
Anyways, following the same logic for big red as we did for my horse, his total flying run speed is 10, which means on an action point he’s still only moving speed 30 for that single turn … however, one thing to keep in mind is that dragons have 2 action points, and so instead we need to look at it over multiple turns to get a true picture of who comes out ahead:
- Round One – riding horse, speed 48; red dragon, speed 30
- Round Two – riding horse, speed 32 (total – 80 squares); red dragon, speed 30 (total – 60 squares)
- Round Three – riding horse, speed 24 (total – 104 squares); red dragon, speed 20 (total – 80 squares)
- Round Four – riding horse, speed 24 (total 128); red dragon, speed 20 (total 100 squares)
- Round Five – riding horse, speed 24 (total 152); red dragon, speed 20 (total 120 squares)
- (at round 3 and above once we’ve both spent our action points, etc…, at a steady double run each the horse will continue to outpace the dragon by a net gain of +4 squares per turn…)
Now it’s probably worth emphasizing just how vital that initial burst of speed is in this particular game of cat and mouse because while my horse may have the leg up on the dragon by 4 squares at our normal, double-run speeds, lest we not forget that his breath weapon is a close blast 5 (not to mention a stunning fear effect that’s also close burst 5), so in the event that we’re not the first ones out the gate or I don’t have an action point to spend, we’re pretty much boned, but in a dead ground to air race across an area that keeps him from hitting that overland speed, my horse can EASILY outrun an adult red dragon!
Of course, go figure … the campaign that I play this character in doesn’t really have much for dragons anymore, save for one ancient, gold dragon that lives in some mountain somewhere and hasn’t been seen for years, but just knowing that I could outrun one if we’re scouting through the woods and come across something that we really find ourselves regretting – I think that’s still pretty cool, if you ask me! 🙂
This is pretty awesome!