You’ve been diagnosed with a deadly disease, and have only a few months to live. You’ve got a three-year-old child. What sort of message—if any—do you live for your kid to read when your survivor’s consider him old enough?
This could certainly be faked, but it rings true to me, and—despite my lack of children—I found it moving. Highly recommended.
Warning: Contains spoilers for season six of “Doctor Who”
Later today, I’ll be watching the season six finale of “Doctor Who”. I’ve been thinking back over the season thus far, and have a few questions for it:
Thoughts:
My only guess is that it’s a consortium of his enemies, but I hope that’s not the case, as it would be awfully similar to the fifth season’s closer (“The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang”). I kind of doubt that Eyepatch Lady is calling the shots, but I don’t have any evidence of that. Although see #2 below.
The most obvious guess here is that there are plenty of Silence/Silents out in space, and that they are pissed at the Doctor for causing the execution of all their kind on Earth. Hell, maybe they’re even the ones calling the shots. Hrm, there’s a guess that covers two questions in one!
I don’t really expect the episode to explicitly answer this question—I think the practical answer is “Because Amy and Rory are the companions this season”. But I do think it’s an important one, character-wise, and I do feel there’s justification for it. Specifically, it makes sense to involve still-in-prison River, due to the Doctor knowing that pre-prison River is his killer. And once you’ve got River involved, it makes sense to involve Amy and Rory, given that they’re her parents (granted, they didn’t actually raise her). (It’s much more reasonable, in fact, than the sheer coincidence involved in “School Reunion”—though I surely did love seeing Sarah Jane again.)
This, of course, is the biggie (despite the certainty that death-cheatage will indeed occurr). I have very little notion of how this will happen, but in my mind, it needs to involve Catton Edward Deleware III. When preparing to meet his death, the Doctor brought CED III to the notice of his recruits, doing his very best to ensure that they would seek him out in 1969—which they indeed did. I can’t think of CED III as being all that vital to the Silence’s defeat in the season-opening two-parter, so I’m making an assumption now that some action and/or attribute of his will be instrumental in the Doctor’s survival.
I don’t much care how right or wrong I am (although being right sure does feel good) so long as Mr. Moffat provides a satisfying conclusion—which I trust him to do.
http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2011/09/fuel-up.html
By now you’ve likely heard of Activision’s crazy “Junk-Food-for-Experience” promotion being launched in concert with Modern Warefare 3. Bill Harris has—as usual—a great take on the matter (and if you haven’t heard of this promotion, his write-up explains it).
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/faq.php
Not sure how I came across this, but last night I found a “Total War” fansite, and in the list of forum no-no’s was this bit:
…if you have lost your CD key, you should contact Electronic Arts, Activision or Sega Customer Support depending on the game in question. Anyone asking for a CD key here will be assumed to be trying to deny the developers rightful compensation for their work.
I certainly want to see game developers get appropriate compensation, but from what I’ve read, it’s the publisher that loses out in a case such as the one described above, and I think that’s an important distinction. Developers typically get paid for producing the game and that’s it (granted, the studio sometimes gets additional compensation based on amount of games sold, but typically that goes to management types, and not the rank and file who did the majority of actual development).
The relevant Wikipedia article helps to support this point of view (I swear I didn’t add this bit myself):
The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered, for example, every four to eight weeks. By receiving updated milestones, the publisher is able to verify that work is progressing quickly enough to meet the publisher’s deadline, and to give direction to the developer if the game is turning out other than as expected in some way. When each milestone is completed and accepted, the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties. The developer uses this money to fund its payroll and otherwise fund its operations.
I know that overall, it’s not a big deal, but this misconception has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time.
I’m going to take my pills now. Thank you.http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/119/1196353p1.html
IGN has gifted us with an astonishing article titled “Top Five Reasons Dark Souls Will Eat Skyrim’s Face”—a truly compelling title!
I won’t go into a lot of detail on this, as it’s kind of a fun read—although perhaps not in the way IGN intended. It comes across as rather juvenille, as if the writer (or the writer’s boss) has some kind of massive hardon for “Dark Souls”. More likely, though, is that it’s link-bait, pure and simple. In which case, I guess it worked!
There is one bit that I do want to mention, though, as it exemplifies some truly horrible writing. The author is making a somewhat-legitimate point—that combat in “Demon’s Souls” (and, presumably, “Dark Souls”) is more fluid, and the controls tighter, than in Elder Scrolls IV, and then ruins it all with this lovely bit:
Each and every button press is a precise and calculated action that the player must unflinchingly command at their will.
I think I get the author’s general idea, but wow…just wow.
The author’s LinkedIn profile shows his title as “Editor-in-Chief”, which makes it easier to understand how that sentence got published.
