I'm feeling more and more unconnected to the pr0nz-consuming masses that press through these server(s) anymore.

I feel as if I am... I feel for all the world like Rip Van Winkle, streaching and yawning for all the world like it was still 2008 and I had just sat down back at my long vacant nest at my mother's house in Arkansas.

It isn't just furry, but life too. Is this the death that Wanderlust delivers?

OKk, this thing hasn't been upsated in so long I had forgotten about it. Seems whatever about this site that my iPhone didn't like is now gone. I can access it again. YEA!

I'm also training student commercial drivers again. Booo! Lack of time.

I'm flush with money though, and will start looking forward to patronizing a few artists here and there. Also, if anyone knows about equine friendly suit crafters, please introduce me. I've gotten bitten with the bug and will have to buy what I don't have the time to craft myself.

I've been given the greenlight to return to work. All other issues have been resolved and I've been told to report in Dallas on Monday the 18th.

Ok, ok... My ass has tattooed the bandwagon on this one...

I've seen both the movie (in 3d) and the game (PS3 edition). I'll do my best to go over both titles with as limited amount of spoilers as I can.

I have a few things to say about both.

First and foremost: Both titles benefit from extensive world-building effort from the entire creative team on the project. I have not seen such a background effort on something that doesn't get any REAL screen-time in a project... Well, since my young days when it was considered the way to write a SciFi epic was to start by creating the world in nauseating detail first.

The Game:

The control scheme is fluid and simplistic (a good thing) and yet allows for decent two-stick control of both your Character and POV. This is hardly ground breaking. Fans of Nintendo's Metroid shooters will recognize the "scan and study" aspect of gameplay. The level of scan-able items is rather amazing. The interface to access this information is also rather impressive in that it is as smooth as you'd expect for a console while as effective the way web-browsing should be. The interface does suffer a little from constraining things to the format but the simple model doesn't loose much for it. The transistion and multiple pane scrolling (pan then scroll then pan to another page, etc al) makes it easy to scan for the important stuff and then later review for the fluff text.

The "Pandoapedia" as its called starts with several really impressive bits of puesdo-plasible-science that I found missing in the movie. Like "whats with those floating rocks..." "Reduced gravity..." "Increased air viscosity..." etc al.

The combat model is a good compromise between arcade style action and realistic FPS. Others might not like the blend of styles like this but I do. Its a game that can be put down mid-mission and picked back up later without difficulty. Also, the fact that pausing for a few moments when not under fire allows for your health to completely regenerate. I know this will be seen as a downside by some but for me there is nothing more annoying that having having to range back to the start of the level for health and not find it.

It seems to work similar to the weapon selection combo setup that has been used by various other games in the past. The Star Wars Starfighter series comes to mind, as does The Bard's Tale... Its not new, but it works rather well.

The game's story does not intersect with the characters from the movie. I'd add locations to that if I could remember for certain all of the location names from the movie.

It took me only three days to work my way through one of the two storylines and I must admit that I have not tried the multiplayer options. The thing that made it really fun was the fact that the system supported (and thankfully so did my monitor) 3D output and the glasses from the movie (which I kept rather than recycling) allowed me to see it! I turned it off after awhile but I must say the effects were a lot better than I expected.

Now, for the movie:

The story isn't amazing. I won't go on about it. But the whole literatary industry makes obcense amounts of money retelling stories all the time. But, as a writer I can admire and am in complete awe of the massive envirornment crafted for the story. Parts of it are fantastical and parts are plausible. Its the best current example of what the SciFi greats did when they were working for soup-money. Craft a place to tell a familar story with things that might could exsist.

The visuals are well planned and exacuted to give the grand cimena show that we have come to expect, but it also keeps from doing too much of the 'throw shit at the audiance' that many of the 3D movies I've seen do.

The tech captures the same magic that the movie Aliens did for me. Considering the two movies were done by Cameron its hardly surprizing there. The story that I kept seeing wasn't "Dances with Wolves... inn spaaAAACCCCEEEEE!" but more along the lines of "Thunderheart" and that movie touches me in potent and powerful ways.

There was a lot of hype about it changing the way we look at movies... I doubt it. Its a good movie and deserves the accolades and profits it gets. Bottom line, you can SEE the strength of the homework that went into it. Its a story well told. And that is, what we look for when we wish to be entertained.

James Cameron managed to bring it all together well. From the music (James Horner of Alien series fame) to even getting Sigourney Weaver to play a supporting role... It comes off very well told even if the story itself isn't as exciting as some had hoped.

Oh, and BTW just in case it needs saying... Sigourney Weaver + tail = <3

Came back mostly clean. No major tear. I go back Friday to get word on contining treatment. Today's doc was a different one, and she seemed to think I'll be able to retunr to work by the first of the year...

*sighs* We'll see

I'm slowly working on posting some of the pictures I've had to upload here. Some of these are coming up on two years old or more.

I don't post here often enough for a number of reasons, the least of which is FA isn't exactly iPhone friendly.

Last year I started driving Big Rigs for a living... Its long work and while I managed to make FC this year, and have a good friend take a ride with me for a while, I havn't really had the time I used to for browsing through my favorite artists and socially networking through all of my watched artists comments and such like I used to.

In fact when I'm on the road, there are many days I don't dig out the laptop at all, only using the iphone for email and LJ. I've got an iphone app to update LJ and it works rather well... I wish there was a similar functionality for FA, perhaps through the WordPress API? I diegress...

Last month, on the 13th of Novemeber I got hurt. I didn't see the doc until 18th. I hyper-extended my right shoulder as a box took it behind my head and down after I had reached up to grab it. I have not driven since the 18th.

Yesturday, I went in for an MRI of that shoulder, and I'll find out on Tuesday what the news is. Right now the muscle strength in my right arm is ok for most normal movements unladen. I've got some loss of range of movement in the extreme ends. My physical therapist believes it will come back as a tendonosis in the point of my shoulder. My physical therapy is progressing well, but I have a lot of weakness around that hurt area with some exercises limited to just a few pounds of resistance.

I have the time to look up my old friends again. I've found a number of my old friends on FurryMUCK are still there and I enjoy time with them and remember fondly working nights in hotels. Money's tight just now as my benifit checks have yet to start arriving but I've got support and food and such so I'm not in a panic for that.

There it is in a nutshell... Unicorn's still lame.

Work has been a killer...

Unicorn is lame in right shoulder now... On workers comp and likely will be for the next month or so.

I saw this story on FoxNews and now I don't feel quiet so crazy for having sworn I'd seen one before....


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,365629,00.html

First time since finding FurryMUCK in '95 I finally made it to a FurCon...

Had a decent time, despite problems with the hotel... Will post a few more pics over the next few days.

Seems like every year, I get into the blahs about this time. I *USED* to have a good reason as the school season was approaching and my days of freedom were soon to be over... But now I'm not so sure anymore.

Anyone else ever feel that way now that they are out of school?

Anyway, in other news, I've had several friends bend my hoof behind my back and force me to enter several pieces in the Northwest International Exihibition of Photography at the State Fair this year. I have no clue how I'll do, but I've been really nervous about it. Well see. Enough people here have said I've got a good eye for the camera so maybe I won't embarass myself.

Yes, I know its been ages since I've posted anything here... Real Life, various dramas de-jour's and so forth...

But I'm uploading again.

I should have known better though... I post some photos I'm really pleased with and they get good comments, but I post a photo of a raccoon and within ten minutes of being on the server it breaks my comments/favorites/notes speed record. *shrugs*

Oh well, more later.

I'm stunned... *smiles*

I know the FA counteres don't work all that well, I remember for months and months that my Pageviews were plastered on 5.

Anyway, I am really pleased to see my works are this popular.

I'm going through several old folders of pictures of various trips and things and I'll be posting the best of them over the next few days.

Additionally, to all the artists viewing... Please feel free to draw inspiration from any of my photos. I don't mind. I would like credit and notice if you don't mind. Thanks.

Yeah, I'll admit, I'm an old-school shutterbug...

I still remember my first SLR, it was my first real camera. The Kodak Disc format not withstanding.

I have tons of pictures laying around here somewhere and one of these days I'm going to get a couple of hundred rolls of 35mm film processed and scanned and maybe even uploaded.

Until then, enjoy what I've been doing with my digital. I do love the freedom of the format. As long as memory card and battery remains I can keep taking shots until I get the one I want.

I'm working on a piece that illostrates that point quite nicely... I'll post it when finished.

EDIT: The digital camera I have is a Pentax Optio MX. Its got a nice power curve, and I have two large cards for it 1 gig and half gig, it has a Li-Ion battery pack but will accept CRV3 batteries as well. The 10x optical zoom is nice, as well as the video feature, even if most of the time the video is way too jumpy, like the SD cards I have arn't fast enough to write the data as its collected.

Ok, so I finally signed up for something other than LJ.... And it seems like I'll make little use of it too... Mainly just signed up to keep up with several friends that are here already...

I suspose if you want the real scoop head on over to http://dain_unicorn.livejournal.com