prisoner_24601: Dragon Age (Default)
( Jun. 15th, 2010 04:32 pm)
We've had a good run of completely mindless entertainment you and I, but I think that it's time we broke up. I mean sure, we've always had our problems, and for the last eight or so books you've been a complete hot mess. Still there were enough kernels of entertainment buried in between the increasingly sloppy writing and inconsistent characterization that while I refused to shell out anymore money to actually buy your books, I would occasionally pick one up from the library.

But a few weeks ago when I went to the library, I saw your latest incarnation "Changes" on the shelf, and after cringing at the amazingly lame title that would be more appropriate to say, a Judy Blume book, I opened up and saw this blurb on the jacket cover:

Cut for minor spoilers for Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, if you know, you actually want to read them, which I don't actually recommend. )
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Okay. I will freely admit that I can be a completely insensitive bitch, but I really, really think that the hypersensitivity over peanut allergies is completely overblown hysteria and it's really starting to piss me off.

Watch Pris lose her temper and totally overreact under the cut. )
So I read Twilight - or rather I read 224 pages of it before getting bored and putting the book down. It was bad, but not in the way that I expected.

I admit that I had a lot of preconceived notions about this book. I thought for sure that while 33 year old Pris was going to hate it (especially since I hate vampires), inner 13 year old Pris was going to think it was full of sparklicious awesomesauce. But as I read, inner Pris13 kept telling me that this book sucked ass, while Pris33 thought that while it was definitely bad, it could have been salvaged if Stephanie Meyer had done a few things.

Cut for Twilight spoilers - which probably aren't spoilers to anyone since I must be one of the last people to read this book. )
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You're still killing me. There seems to be three more simple ideas that you fail to grasp:

1. Sarah Palin isn't the one running for President, so stop wasting time and resources on her. Every time you go through the minutia about what may or may not have happened with "troopergate," "bridge to nowhere," or whatever, I start banging my head against my desk. She's like Teflon. Even if everything you're ranting about is actually true, none of it's going to stick. You already lost your credibility when it comes to her with the stupid ass attacks on her family so even if you have anything legitimate to say (which you probably do), people have tuned you out. The more Democrats and the media attack her, the more people like her.

Besides why focus on her when you have John McCain who was one of the Keating Five to rake over the coals? The dude should have gone to prison over that and probably would have if he wasn't a war hero. And now he's running as fighting corruption and bringing reform to Washington and none of you bring this up? WTF? Stop with the stupid cracks about lipstick, the bullshit about her qualifications and all the other stuff and focus on the guy that's actually on the top of the ticket.

2. The attitude of "OMG rednecks, why don't you know that we're best for you, you stupid assholes? Vote for us now, plz!" is going to alienate more people than it will win over. This kind of condescension and class warfare is why you lost the last election.

3. Hollywood stars ranting and raving on your behalf only reinforces the idea that Hollywood/blue states/liberal media/Washington are out of touch. Explain to them that they are not helping and put a freaking muzzle on them.

Stop dicking around. You're missing the forest for the trees and it's painful to watch.
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prisoner_24601: Dragon Age (Default)
( Sep. 5th, 2008 09:27 am)
You're killing me here. Once again, you're about to screw the pooch, because you simply do not understand why McCain chose Sarah Palin for his VP, why she is dangerous to your party and how on earth to handle her.

Michigan should not be in play in this election. We've voted for Democrats in the last five presidential elections. We have a Democrat Governor, a Democrat controlled state house and senate. Both of our senators are democrats. We're bigtime union country and our economy is actually worse than the rest of the nation. And yet, we are in play – which tells me one thing:

Obama is in big fucking trouble, and needs to do something about it RIGHT NOW.

Come on in, so this independent from the heart of Reagan Democrat country can school you... )
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I think this picture of my daughter sums up my feelings on the current presidential candidates and the press that insists on covering them 24/7. Read more... )
I'd always heard horror stories about people naming their children idiotic things, and I'd just recently reread Baby's Named a Bad Bad Thing thanks to [livejournal.com profile] midnight_hawk but I'd never quite witnessed this idiocy myself. However today I was tooling around over on a local mom message board when I ran across this post. I swear, I didn't make this shit up. I suspect you all will find this as sadly hilarious as I did. Read more... )
I am constantly fascinated about what makes a story popular and how does and doesn't relate to the quality of the story in question. Sometimes the stars align and you end up with something amazing that is both popular and well written (Heroes is a good example of this). Unfortunately, it seems that far more often they don't and that something is either wildly popular and sucks ass or is freaking brilliant and criminally overlooked.

I don't really mind that the stuff that I find mediocre is popular. Although I am baffled by it, I tend to write it off as a subjective taste thing. And I also realize that not everyone is going to agree with me about what a quality piece of fiction is - and that's okay. If everyone had the same taste, that would be horrible really. And hey, as I've gotten older, my tastes have totally changed. When I was a teenager, I loved wanky romances and poorly written fantasy novels staring blatant mary sue characters, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but the older I got and the more that I read, the picker I've gotten. I think partially that's because the more you read, the more you realize how certain things are clichés or just ripped off of other writers who did it better in their story (yes Robert Jordan… I’m talking to you, you asshat.).

When it comes to my own personal taste - it seems like if I like whatever it is - it's doomed to early cancellation or obscurity (I like to call this the Prisoner24601 effect). I keep waiting for Battlestar Galactica to get canceled because I really love it (especially now that the wanky Starbuck/Apollo romance seems to be over).

I admit that I find it frustrating when I stumble across stuff that's so brilliant and no one is watching or reading. There are tons of examples of this in popular media and hell even in our own little tiny fandom. I mean, we live in a world where Firefly was canceled but a show like Everyone Loves Raymond (which I admit - I could never stand) was the number one show for years. In television and movies, it seems like the more bland the entertainment is, the more likely it's going to be popular.

There are some truly amazing pieces of fan fic in our community that that have been criminally overlooked (and I'm not talking about my own stuff - which I think gets a nice amount of feedback actually) or aren't even as remotely popular as they should be - and I just don't get it. It seems like if something isn't a romance, light side or fluffy, that people simply tune out. And I don't see anything wrong with people wanting those kinds of stories - it's just that I wish people would be more open to other kinds of stories too.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
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So I've been rather bitter about the latest round of nerfs to the Druid class. After two years of playing the red-headed stepchild class of WoW, we finally got some serious love with the expansion pack - and finally we weren't the suckiest class in the game.

As I figured, this was too good to last. And now, due to a bunch of whiners, we've been hit with the nerf bat after only a month and a half of being fixed. Some had legitimate gripes (warriors did need a buff - but I fail to see why a Druid needs a nerf), but most are a bunch of 14 year old rogue noobs who figure if they can't wtfpwn another class in under five seconds - you must be overpowered.

I realize that nerfs come and go. Classes get new powers and nerfed all the time - but this time it truly blows. We were broken for two freaking years until they finally got around to making us useful and only a month and a half later we're back to our pre expansion uselessness for feral druids. I suspect that the resto and balance trees are next. I guess if they do that, I'm goint to throw in the towel and just level up my lock to 70 because I'm getting really tired of playing the most disrespected, fucked up and misunderstood class in the game.

Honestly, I think this whole thing is driven more by market economics rather than any desire to balance the game. Druids are by far the least played class in the game. Warriors and rogues are two of the most played (warriors alone outnumber us at least four to one). And let's face it, Blizzard is a company and the thing they are most concerned with is their bottom line.

But this video made by the dudes that did the illegal danish stuff, almost makes the nerf worth it.
Okay. So a small rant on the gubernatorial race going on in Michigan. I realize that this is probably interesting only to me, so I apologize in advance, lol. Read more... )
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Okay not really. You know I love you, but your last book pissed me off. Turn back now if you don't want to be spoiled, in my rant about George RR Martin's fourth book...

Read more... )
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prisoner_24601: Dragon Age (Default)
( Sep. 19th, 2005 02:04 pm)
I’ve decided to post this here because I’m starting to get tired of repeating myself when an author or an author’s fans take exception to one of the reviews I’ve left. Since I the recent firestorm over one of my reviews probably won’t be the last time I piss someone off due to a review that I’ve written, I think what I’m going to do is just link this page every time someone gets pissed off in the hopes that if an author or reviewer understands why I review the way I do that it will make what I say a bit easier to swallow.

Read more... )
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prisoner_24601: (Beast Pondering)
( Aug. 25th, 2005 09:12 pm)
Since I know that I have a tendency to dwell on the negative, I figure that it's time for something a bit different. This is a wish list of things that I would love to see more of in kotor fics. I'm not trying to suggest that writing certain type of story is wrong (which would be seriously hypocritical of me considering the subjects of some of my stories). Rather, this is a reflection of my desire to see something different for a change.

More musings inspired by procrastination… )
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prisoner_24601: (Beast Pondering)
( Jul. 21st, 2005 08:20 pm)
This rant has been brewing in the back of my mind for awhile. I suppose it applies to both Revan and the Exile, actually, although I really haven't read that many kotor 2 fics.

This rant is bound to piss a few people off, so please, take what I say with the grain of salt. As always, this is my opinion and I can only speak for myself, and if you disagree, by all means tell me because hey, I might be wrong, and I'm always open to discussion. However, if you have a thin skin, or are offended by my reviews, turning back now might be a good plan.

Don't say that I didn't warn you... )
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I should be working on chapter five of Chasing Redemption, but I've decided to screw off and procrastinate by writing a short rant inspired by the Batman Begins (which I thought was absolutely fantastic, btw).

A short and mostly spoiler free rant about movie love interests... )
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There are some things that I never want to see in Kotor stories again. These are my personal pet peeves, and every time I see these happening in a story it makes me want to tear my hair out. This list doesn’t include my biggest pet peeve: the Revan!Sue, because I think that’s a subject too lengthy to include.

As usual, this is my opinion, so if you disagree with me that’s fine, in fact, let me know, because a good discussion is always entertaining, and hey, maybe I'm wrong.

I warn you - this is kind of long... )
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After breaking down and watching Revenge of the Sith this weekend, I've decided that I detest her character.

Episode 3 spoilers and rant below... )
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I have to admit that, while I'm a sucker for a good romance, I actually detest 95% of romance novels. Romance seems to work better when it is worked into a larger, overarching plot, at least for me. So when I found myself writing a pure romance story (i.e. romance as the main focus of the plot), I was kind of shocked.

Since I have never attempted writing one before, I realized that I had no idea how to put a romance together, so I watched a lot of movies and read a lot of romance novels to try to figure it out. I also checked out the internet, and discovered there are an amazing number of websites dedicated to romance writing tips (most of which I completely disagree with). But instead of finding a common denominator about what I liked, I seemed to find a common denominator of things that irritated me and turned me off to the story (heh - I wonder what that says about me...LOL).

I made a list of things that annoy the hell out of me in romance stories. I tried to keep the list particular to romance stories, so things that plague all stories (like Mary Sues) I left off the list. And I thought I would share my awesome and profound wisdom with you all... :PRead more... )
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prisoner_24601: Dragon Age (Default)
( Feb. 15th, 2005 07:23 am)
Just beat the game for the first time today, as a light side female consular. I really loved it, but in many ways it was so incredibly flawed.

Warning... Spoilers Below...
Read more... )
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