What have I started?

Inspired by me, someone has decided to follow my lead in an unusual way.

This is something I was sure would happen eventually, as people slowly realised my true fabulousness.

I'm not sure I'd have chosen this as the thing to copy though.

On the other hand, nice arse.

Yawn

I've slept well for a couple of days. And surprisingly actually felt awake untill 11 last night for gaming, which was a lovely change as I'm usually collaping at 10pm and bugger all use for the last hour of it.

Which just makes it annoying that I got home and didn't feel at all tired until quarter past midnight, when Erin arrived in from Stirling (where she'd been collecting all of my Alan Moore comics/books - she nearly killed herself under the weight). Chatting to her kept me awake until quarter to 1 (she was a bit stressed) and then I couldn't sleep until about quarter past 1.

So now I'm knacked again! Fab.

(And yes, Stephen, I know this doesn't compare even slightly to your insomnia...)

More short answers

DapperScavenger: I'll try, with a little help from my friends.

T1000: Because it was made of 'living' metal. Darnit, this is explained in the novelisation, as is the fact that Skynet only activated the T1000 at the very last minute before its destruction because, frankly, it was scared by it.

paddie_gal: Good question. I know the ligament that runs through there is the anterior cruciate, but I'm not sure if it even has a distinct name other than "knee (posterior)". You can find plenty of information here and here and here.
Update: It's apparently called the Popliteal Fossa, which is the lozenge shaped space at the back of the knee. It's amazing what an email to your father will get you (if your father's a doctor, that is).

Hanging with the Dream King

From Neil Gaiman's Journal:
I don't know if it's mentioned in the sequel itself but in the game Enter the Matrix, Morpheus has a phone number that leads to a front so other rebels can contact him in the Matrix. The name of the fake buiness is called The Daniel Institute of Dream interpretation. Now I didn't get it the first couple of times because I went straight from the Morpheus Dream connection it was only the third time or so that I read it that I realised that Daniel was a definite Sandman reference. I admit once I made the connection I was very pleased to see they had made a little shout out for Sandman fans.

Do you know if Morpheus in general was a direct shout out to your Sandman work?

There was an article someone forwarded to me when the first Matrix film came out, an interview where Lawrence Fishburne talked about meeting DC Comics' Head Jenette Kahn on a plane, and how she gave him some Sandman books, which he didn't read until he was cast in the Matrix, and was told by the Wachowskis that his part should be played like Morpheus in the Sandman comics. But that was the only mention I've ever seen.

How is Sandman supposed to sound? You know, black dialogue boxes and all...

Like the voice inside of your head. Or failing that, like the voice inside of my head...

(no subject)

Finally, the EU is moving towards common sense:

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) takes up nearly half of all EU spending and is blamed for encouraging massive overproduction - creating notorious "food mountains" and exports at subsidised prices.

The European Commission wants to abolish the subsidies, and replace them with a single payment which would reduce over time, leaving farmers to make decisions according to what consumers want, rather than how much subsidy they could earn.

BBC environment correspondent Tim Hirsch says there is great pressure to reach agreement this week ahead of world trade talks in Mexico in September where farm subsidies will be a major issue.

Under the proposed plan, the money saved from scrapping subsidies would be used to help boost rural development and environmental protection.

The EU subsidies on farming make it much harder for the African farming communities to export produce to Europe, making their financial situation much worse. By changing this, we can hopefully improve their situation dramatically.

Matrix Reloaded

Lots of people have complained about the special effects in The Matrix Reloaded. I can definitely see their point, there were definitely moments when I spotted a glitch or two. But seeing as the whole films was one long special effects sequence and I was put off for about 3 seconds in total, I can't really complain too much...

[Poll #144490]

And here's a Matrix Quiz to give you a giggle afterwards.

reFLAG

reFLAG is a campaign to add a little more colour to the Union Flag in order to make it more suited to our multicultural society.



Thoughts?

Where does the music go?

I just spent a couple of hours trying to find a decent log file parser, before finally settling on Relax.
I had been wondering how many people downloaded the Sundresses song I posted the other day, and where they all came from. When you click on a link most web browsers pass on where you've just come from, allowing website owners to get an idea of how their site is used.

Apparently 47 people downloaded the song, 24 of them didn't report any referrer, but I now have a fairly good idea who downloaded it, also that some of you have friends filters that include me. It's interesting stuff. I do wonder why spaj appears to read in two different ways and has downloaded once from each...

24 -
4 http://www.livejournal.com/users/andrewducker
4 http://www.livejournal.com/users/andrewducker/285996.html
1 http://gwenix.livejournal.com/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/~spaj/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/community/edinburgers/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/aberbotimue/friends/read
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/andrewducker/
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/drainboy/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/fire_sermon/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/gnomatron/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/heron61/friends?filter=8
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/jetgrrrl/friends?skip=10
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/johnbobshaun/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/mistressmalaise/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/protempore/friends?skip=27
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/rainstorm/friends
1 http://www.livejournal.com/users/spaj/friends

Also, if you look just below here, you'll notice a teeny black dot. I can now check my referred logs and get a good idea of who has visited my journal. Pictures are cached, so it's very likely that ou won't download it multiple times, and unless you browse with images off, you have downloaded it. If you thought you had any privacy on the web, think again.

Copyright

Go here, open the Flash version. Boggle at the state of the Public Domain.

No time to explain my feelings right now, but goddamit there ought to be a 20 year limit on all copyright.

Deep fried puppies

In sickness...

I have a really, really sick sense of humour. in addition to my generaly cute, cuddly, fun loving self, I can find the funny side in almost anything.
( don't blame me )

(no subject)

From today's Penny Arcade

If Italy were a videogame, Venice would be the second level.

You've still got the twisty streets you had in Rome, and plenty of other old cities I've been in - except now, you replace over half of those streets (including the main one that runs through the whole town) with water. You know how in first-person games, you'll often come upon a grate that hinders your progress - or some ridiculous piece of design like "the ground just stops here" that seems trite and lazy when you see it. The person who made that level isn't bored with their job or trying to cut corners, they're accurately simulating Venice. You'll just be going along and then, no sign, no nothing - just mute water.

I'm pretty screwed up at this point, thinking of Venice - a human city - as a "level" is just the start of it. Everywhere I look I see the underlying game mechanism. All I have with me is WarioWare, which is cool, but if I don't get something substantial at some point over here I'm going to freak the fuck out.

I saw the old ladies with the woven donation baskets pleading with me in a foreign tongue, and all I could think about was whether the pictures of Jesus and Mary they had in there conferred some kind of donation bonus.

Of course, there's a metagame being played by the entire city, how much money can we make off tourists before our gravy train sinks like Atlantis beneath the waves.

The psychotic break made was practically audible when I walked off streets that looked like the Italy level in CounterStrike only to find myself with twenty people playing the Italy level inside an Internet Cafe. Thank God that place had a liquor license.