Yoinked from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) janusd, BECAUSE I CAN |
[Mar. 13th, 2008|11:44 pm] |
Fnargh, memes. These are the rules.
1. Go to your bookcase, get 9 of your books from it. It doesn't matter if they're from the same writer, but try and make them from a different series.
2. Post the first line (or two if it's just a word or something really generic) of the first real chapter of the book. Personally, I did the first paragraph unless it looked better otherwise.
3. People can then try and guess what book this is from, and no cheating!
1. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him.
2. Every story has a beginning. Mine is in Washington, D.C., in 1969.
Washington, D.C., in the sixties, seventies, and eighties was one of the poorest places in the country. Murder was common. Crack cocaine was just getting its start. Life expectancy for kids was worse than in many third world countries. The politicians were corrupt, homelessness was at its peak, and even law-abiding people viewed the police as the enemy.
3. This tale begins a little less than nine months before King Lanius was born. That was when Certhia, King Mergus' concubine, went to Mergus and told him she thought she was with child.
4. "Who is John Galt?" -- "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, sighted by janusd.
5. They say the world is flat and supported on the back of four elephants who themselves stand on the back of a giant turtle.
6. It began, as many things do, with a death. And a burial, on a spring morning, with mist on the ground so thick that it poured into the grave and the coffin was lowered into cloud. (Not precisely from the first 'chapter', but it does skip a brief prologue.)
7. Stories, great flapping ribbons of shaped space-time, have been blowing and uncoiling around the universe since the beginning of time. And they have evolved. The weakest have died and the strongest have survived and they have grown fat on the retelling...stories, twisting and blowing through the darkness. (Same as above.) -- "Witches Abroad" by Terry Pratchett. Discovered by skunktaur.
8. It was dark beyond darkness, deeper than the depths of night.
She stood -- frozen, motionless -- wrapped in the impenetrable gloom.
From somewhere in the darkness echoes the high-pitched sound of droplets hitting the surface of a pool, but she could not tell in what direction it lay, or how far away it was. The echoes gave the impression that she was in a sealed cavern, but she knew this was not so.
9. A change of seasons was upon the Four Lands as late summer faded slowly into autumn. Gone were the long, still days of midyear where sweltering heat slowed the pace of life and there was a sense of having time enough for anything. Though summer's warmth lingered, the days had begun to shorten, the humid air to dry, and the memory of life's immediacy to reawaken. The signs of transition were all about. In the forests of Shady Vale, the leaves had already begun to turn.
Off you lot go. This should be interesting. |
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| Phantasmagoria 2 Screencap Adventure - Chapter 1, Part 1 |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|11:36 pm] |
[Cross-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) screencappery]
Okay so here we go. As many of you who are here know, zarla did a screencap adventure of Phantasmagoria a while back, and this prompted me to acquire and do one of Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh.
Unlike most sequels, this one has NOTHING to do with the first game. At all. So, no previous experience is required, although the game does make references to the past one as a kind of name-dropping thing.
I'll be doing these in small parts because I am a university student AND MY TIME IS SO LIMITED OH GOD COURSEWORK WHY DO YOU EAT MY BRAINMEATS SO
Anyway, here we go.
( Phantasmagoria 2 - Chapter 1, Part 1 )
Tune in next whenever when I get part two up. And DAMN LONG INTROS ARGH. |
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| In other news... |
[Dec. 16th, 2007|04:36 pm] |
I've been getting back into the old adventure games from the FMV era and have decided that doing a screencap adventure would be an interesting way to pass time. As such, I'd like to ask anyone reading if they have any preferences or requests? I have Phantasmagoria 2 and Tex Murphy 3: Under a Killing Moon already, but if anyone's got a suggestion, I'd be more than glad to go through the game. |
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| It's mourning time. |
[Dec. 16th, 2007|03:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  angry | ] |
Though it still has to be ratified by the House of Commons, England is now dead. I would like a moment of silence from everyone who loved the country. |
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| Dear Michael Moore |
[Jun. 20th, 2007|09:54 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | aggravated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Eagles - Hotel California | ] |
Kindly go die in a fire, you pompous, self-righteous asshole. No-one with more than an iota of common sense gives a shit about your poorly-researched propaganda 'films', and the only reason you even have any popularity is because you pander to the majority of the 'rebellious' youth who are vehemently anti-establishment. Not only that, but you do so by fabricating evidence, and refusing to even acknowledge evidence to the contrary of whatever agenda you're currently pushing.
Get your fat ass out of my goddamn movie theatre, and go choke on a tub of tofu, you bloated whore.
No love,
Me. |
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| The misuse of a text. |
[Jun. 7th, 2007|07:14 pm] |
Having read George Orwell's 1984 comparitively recently, and having re-read it over the course of last week, something struck me. The society in 1984 is an oppressive one; it limits the freedoms of the citizens, and even seeks to control how they think. The ruler is a purpoted 'benevolent' dictator called Big Brother who seeks to assure everyone that everything is fine. They schedule hate sessions, where a specific tone is played while an image of the person the public is being turned against is displayed. This tone induces a violent hatred in the viewers, and they come to associate that hatred with the image of the person.
Not only that, but they are surveilled every second of every day, with the little monitors that are so vital to their everyday lives containing monitoring equipment. Every inch of their houses are scanned, and anyone who shows dissent or does not conform to the thought patterns that the Thought Police (and by extension Big Brother) lay out are istantly snatched up and 're-educated'.
I'm sure everyone who has read 1984, or is otherwise even reading what I have described above, understands the dystopia being described. And what I find fascinating is that many people automatically associate this dystopia with a right-wing, capitalist state; and by doing so miss the entire point of the book.
( Read more... ) |
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| Happy birthday to me |
[Jun. 5th, 2007|09:02 am] |
Yes, that's right. I am officially 20 now. Goddamn. You know, I'm gonna blink one day and then I'm gonna be 30, and I will be sad.
But for now, liquor and steak is in order tonight. |
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| Also |
[Apr. 9th, 2007|02:54 am] |
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| Comic Geekery |
[Apr. 9th, 2007|01:59 am] |
So guys? The Gargoyles comic book? Worth every penny. It's about time the story was continued, and it's only been eleven years in the making. But for those of us who remember the awesomeness that was the TV series, the comic books do not disappoint. The art differs, as is to be expected, and there is no voice talent behind it to bring the characters to life like how it was in the series. But the pacing is done in such a way that you can hear the voices of the characters as you read it. Greg Weisman is a brilliant writer, and this comic shows it easily. Highly reccommended.
In other news, Marvel is jumping the shark with their recent Captain America death bit. And to make it worse, they might cast The Punisher as the new Cap figure. Which is so incredibly stupid that it cannot be put into words. So here's hoping the writers find what little common sense they had, and that they do it before World War Hulk. Worst part is that I'm probably still going to buy the World War Hulk stuff, just because it's gonna be awesome in a basket. Especially any of it doing with the Cable & Deadpool series, which is the only thing by Marvel I will consistently buy.
And on a final note: anyone who enjoys comics should read Gold Digger. Fred Perry makes me glee with each subsequent issue. It's hard to catch up on now, what with there being a 33 comic gap from the end of the last big compilation volume and several of those comics going out of print (so it seems). But if you want to get into it, I reccommend getting the Gold Bricks, which collect 25 issues each, and then trying to buy the other 33 to fill in the gap. It's well worth the money. |
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| Yaaay. [/sarcasm] |
[Nov. 8th, 2006|03:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | aggravated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Great Big Sea - Ordinary Day | ] |
Yaaay, so the Democrats have taken control of the House and possibly balanced the Senate, whoopee.
Why, yes, that is sarcasm. Why do you ask?
First off, before anyone gets to calling me a psychotic right-winger, kindly note that I am not. Though every party on the planet hates me for it, I am a centrist, also known as a moderate.
Take a good look at the senate. The Democrats cannot take majority control, as the Republicans have 49 seats, and with only two seats left, the Democrats have 47. Independants have 2. This means that there is no way for either party to barrel through anything in the senate, as even if the Dems get the other two seats, it's balanced. At which point it comes down to the independants.
This means that the US is now in a stalemate. This is a good temporary fix and will cause each party to carefully consider what they want to pass, and is also a good thing, because there will have to be (shock and motherfucking awe) compromises.
Well, this is a good thing. I'm pretty sure people are saying "what the fuck Gabe, then why aren't you celebrating?"
I am. Just not what you are.
I'm celebrating a balance of power and a stalemate. I'm not celebrating the Democrats supposedly 'winning'. You fucking heard me, unlike all of those other supposed moderates who have suddenly gone to supporting the Democrats while claiming to be in the center (you assholes know who you are), I am not cheering for the Democrats.
People like to lick the boots of the Democrats and claim they're good for civil rights. Well, you may be right there, once you're not a Chrisitan. And I do not support anyone who claims to support civil rights while focusing on one group for their slander campaigns. It's called hypocrisy. So okay, I'll somewhat support them for that if they get their heads out of their asses.
But I will not support them for their dreams of expanding government control and power.
"BUT HAY I THOUGHT TEH EVUL RIGHT WINGERS WUZ TRYING THAT WITH THE PATRIOT ACT"
Congratulations, you win a cookie. Do you see why I don't outright support the Republicans either? The Democrats want to basically become a nanny state, controlling all welfare, insurance, social security, safety laws, and your fucking dog too. A lot of people say this is good. Fuck them, I hate big governments.
And their insistence on supporting very specific parts of the constitution (free speech, free religion, etc.) while trying to push laws against other acts which 'make them feel less safe' (gun control) is bullshit. I'm sure they'd love to take away arms from the citizens, just like every other blossoming dictatorship out there. So when the citizens call bullshit, they can be put down with little resistance.
Yes, fine, this is doomsaying. I don't think the Democrats are going to try and create Soviet America anytime soon, but neither do I think that 'Bushitler' [sic] is trying to 'repress your very freedoms'. If he was repressing your fucking freedoms, then you wouldn't be able to complain or see anything opposing his viewpoint because CNN and NBC wouldn't fucking exist.
My message is that the current situation is nice, because there's a balance and the parties are going to have to work together and with the independants to pass laws and run the country. This will likely lead to some very good compromises that will benefit the country -- and hence the world -- as a whole. Because like it or not, what goes on in the US can impact the rest of us. And if things work out, there should be some resolutions. |
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| Shock and AWE |
[Nov. 5th, 2006|03:29 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | politics | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  I don't believe this | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Johnny Cash - Hurt | ] |
Okay, yeah. A journal post from me. Holy bollocks. But I have something to say.
First, watch this. Don't ask why, just do. If you even remotely like humour, you should like John Cleese, and this video makes sense.
Ready to cry? Okay.
Look at the date.
Listen to the message again.
Now note that almost two decades later, and a few changes in party names, most politics is exactly like that.
Does this sadden anyone else? |
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| I BLAME SAI |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|02:20 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | IN MY PANTS | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  CHEESE | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Phillip Bailey & Phil Collins - Easy Lover | ] |
Okay, because Sai Skunk is forcing me to do this (nah, just kidding), I shall post this meme and watch the fireworks. I'm never gonna get through all of this.
Leave a comment and you win:
1. I'll respond with something random I like about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll name something we should do together.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me (or just me).
5. I'll tell you my first/clearest memory of you.
6. I'll leave you a quote that is somehow appropriate to you.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must (please) post this on your journal so you can do the same for other people |
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| Soo, about them personality tests... |
[Feb. 27th, 2006|02:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  HWAAAARGH MAJOR PROJECT | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Utada Hikaru - Easy Breezy | ] |
( Meme AHOY )
So. Question. Why is this thing so accurate? It describes most of me (not all), and is closer than any of these things have come before. |
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| MWRAAGBA INTERNET |
[Nov. 9th, 2005|08:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | Arrrr! | ] |
 | You scored as Captain Jack Sparrow. Roguish,quick-witted, and incredibly lucky, Jack Sparrow is a pirate who sometimes ends up being a hero, against his better judgement. Captain Jack looks out for #1, but he can be counted on (usually) to do the right thing. He has an incredibly persuasive tongue, a mind that borders on genius or insanity, and an incredible talent for getting into trouble and getting out of it. Maybe its brains, maybe its genius, or maybe its just plain luck. Or maybe a mixture of all three.
Captain Jack Sparrow | | 88% | Maximus | | 88% | James Bond, Agent 007 | | 79% | Neo, the "One" | | 79% | Indiana Jones | | 75% | Lara Croft | | 71% | El Zorro | | 58% | The Amazing Spider-Man | | 58% | Batman, the Dark Knight | | 58% | The Terminator | | 54% | William Wallace | | 46% | </td>
Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com |
lolJackSparrow. It makes sense, I guess, what with me being from the Caribbean and being a rum drinker BRING ON THE RUM THANK YOU. |
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geeky