Multi Post!

Let’s try a Mr Anderson style multi-post.

Taking a small break from The Limit today to catch up on paperwork, filing & various projects that take a back seat when I’m in full-on scriptwritey mode. Biggest thing at the mo’ is that not only was it a relief to be at the end of TP2, it was also really satisfying to be writing the big Tracy/Peter scene.

I’m also getting to better understand the nuances of each character’s motivations. Watching Buffy Season 4 taught me that you really only need to know what characters have just been through and how that makes them feel RIGHT NOW in order to be consistent. Let’s call it the ‘stay one step ahead’ mode of writing.

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Lost, Season 2. Not only do I approve of the general direction, the stuff they’re revealing totally appeals to my inner-geek. However, what I wonder is whether the more Lost reveals & the more it locks down, then the more it shuts audience members out.

Remember how its initial appeal was its universality? "People struggling to survive". We could project ourselves onto their plight. Well the show's definitely abandoning that for increased specificity about what it's about. Has it given too much away – or created fresh grounds for speculation?

I thought they’d locked down too much with Episode 3 ‘Orientation’ but on reflection, there’s still a HUGE mystery to be solved (for instance, all the information we’ve just been given could turn out to be completely misdirecting the audience while simultaneously laying out future story-points to be explored). There’s the fact that Locke was healed on the beach. There’s the character stories on the island and their entwined backstories before the plane crashed (and the unanswered question of exactly how much of a coincidence it is that these particular people have landed here).

Lost may well have pulled off what it needed to: seeming to provide answers while still maintaining its inscrutable charm. For me, this’ll be its crucial season though – the season I pass judgment.

Also: I’ve never sided with Sawyer in the Jack- Sawyer debate before Episode 3. But give Michael & Sawyer their own spin-off show. Call it “Angry Men on a Raft”.

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tech.memeorandum is my new favourite site. It not only aggregates blog entries, it also lists other blogs that are writing on the same topic. For instance, now I've learned that 2.6GB from Google can turn out to be very expensive and that Zombie PCs. are out to get advertisers.

And here’s an expensive piece of VR estate. Someone paid $100,000 USD for a space resort amidst the treacherous but Mineral Rich Paradise V Asteroid Belt, in the virtual universe, Project Entropia.

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Queen Bees & Wannabes has started dealing with girls’ first steps into dating. Some observations:

1. Groups of girls entering puberty may not want boyfriends themselves, but they want to find out about relationships – so they’ll nominate a girl and set them up in a relationship (to observe the effects).
2. Queen Bees set up girls with boyfriends in order to buy their loyalty.
3. A fundamental criteria for group acceptance is to date someone that has the group’s approval.

It’s like the freakin’ Mafia out there.

In the ‘Girl World’ that Wiseman describes, boyfriends are crucial because they a) increase self-worth, b) make a girl’s friends think more highly of her, and c) prove that she fits into teen culture.

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There’s a feedback thread on Left Coast at the Forge.

Last Breath is another 24 Hour RPG – set in a post-plague world; one of my favourites. It’s a raw, very realistic setting – there is no ‘adversary’ – no Rage infected victims, no Dark Man to defeat. It’s The Stand without any fantastical elements.

I like the set-up phase – quick, engaging. The world ends. You have to deal with it & in the process meet your fellow players. Plus there’s a really simple dice mechanic for acquiring the resources you’ll need to survive.

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Do you think anyone wrote Vader/Leia slash-fic before Empire came out?

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