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Tell Me Anything
14 years ago
General
When I get bored, I've posted those 'ask me' journals now and again. Lets do the reverse. Tell me to do something. Lets get action instead of just talk.
The man behind Owl City is named Adam Young.
*glomps*
You're pretty cool.
I'll interpret it as 'buy me food.' which I would do.
What? You absolutely have no such lists from conversations with me or others? I can't believe it, but OK I've made a contingency list so there is NO back and forth about this directive. IT GETS DONE, sirrah!
(If you've seen, skip to one you haven't before picking a favorite)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
Metropolis (Fritz Leiber)
AI: Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Silent)
Margin Call
Now all the above films have something to say about the human condition, and are a social commentary about either the time they were written in, or cautionary tales. One actually explains our current economic crisis. So if you use this list, be prepared to discuss critically the content and more importantly, the messages of the film. So no lazy dragon munching and playing games during the movie, fast-forwarding past the boring parts. All attention.
Be good. Whoops, wrong movie.
I actually just got the Godfather trilogy so I'll go with that as my movie to watch I've been meaning to watch.
I actually saw margin call last week. I think I'm the only one that understood what was going on. Keven Spacey was pretty great in it. I'm really starting to like him since I get through half a film he's in and realize suddenly that- wait, that's Keven Spacey! :P he really melts into his roles. Also, he kinda looks like a friend of mine so that's funny.
I won't be fresh on Godfather when you finish those, so I'll not have the bonus of post-movie discussion with you, especially since I have no clear memory of seeing II or III. I am a lot more current with Goodfellas, since it is sort of about the casino mob connections that I nearly missed, having worked for the son of the man who founded Circus-Circus and Caesar's Palace, Jay Sarno III. Jay worked the Circus-Circus mezzanine as a minor, then went to Cal State Northridge for an Engineering degree. Some of the people his father entertained at parties are definitely characters that are portrayed if renamed a bit in the film Casino.
I left Las Vegas somewhat soon after a Gaming Commission bust of a corrupt gaming company, mostly a route operator, Anchor Coin, who was a bit of a thorn in the side to my company, Casino Electronics. Anchor Coin was more profitable it turned out because they "gaffed" machines to not include aces in the electronic deck of cards every so often, or even all the time, in order to trim the payout percentage to a desirable lower limit than statistics would otherwise allow. This reduces the possibility of the most common and lowest paying hand, Jacks or Better, a full 20% of the machine's payback, by 5% less. Then most all hands up the line - straights, flushes, full houses, fours-of-a-kind, and most importantly, the royal straight flush got gaffed to 0% possibility. This meant the machine would never pay its top jackpot - the "come on" attraction for playing the game in the first place suddenly denied to all players because of cheating!
The programmer, Larry King (no relation) was approached by the gaming control board about this curious discrepancy in measured payoff percentages and expected percentages, discovering a telltale gap suggestive of this exact pattern of cheat. Immediately, he confessed to the suspicions being true, and he'd point out where it was in the code, and where the switch in the top box was found that affected the cheat feature… one that seemed unrelated and innocuous. But only if he could be taken into protective custody!
Larry was not a willing accomplice, complicit and participating in the profits of the cheating. He was threatened instead with violence against himself and family if he didn't perform the coding they insisted upon. The state started getting ready to prosecute; all gaffed machines were put out of commission that night… and Larry was found executed, gangland style, in his apartment, the next morning - before he could be taken into protective custody. The state didn't take his concerns seriously enough and let him go home that night while they shut down the gaffed machines.
This gave me a reality check. I was not working for someone who would face a cheating rap for the cost of losing their whole gaming license over it. But the company was in flux; who would acquire it next, and what scruples or lack thereof would come into play with them? Just how long did I have to wait for the offer I couldn't refuse? I was genuinely shaken, and worried.
What if the person who wants cheat code is outside the company, wanting me to slide something under the company's radar AND the gaming board? I'd have to be very slick, careful, and if successful… have one of the most dangerous secrets in Vegas. Something you don't live very long knowing… unless you're paid to use it to build something even better. A spiral that just gathers momentum to a hard and ugly crash.
The best move is never to play the game.