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Sir Andrew

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Posts posted by Sir Andrew

  1. Religious people have God and various beliefs; Discordians and
    embrace the chaos. What do Objectivists have?

    Objectivists have the principle that the universe is not chaotic and contradictory, but is absolute and knowable. When you integrate that principle in your life, you know you're not stuck in some chaotic universe that knocks over every so-called "castle in the sand" that you build. As far as reaffirming the benevolent universe principle, when I'm experiencing any doubt I compare the progress I've made in my self-esteem in the 6 months I've been a student of Objectivism vs. the years of chronic doubt, guilt, and fear I experienced when I was a Christian. To me, that's enough.

  2. One thing I find personally annoying is the absurdly unrealistic postmodern "realism" of constantly subverting authority. In Firefly, if you disobey the captain, you (literally) get shoved out an airlock. That's a bunch of outlaw pirates. How is it that a quasi-military ship like the Enterprise is ruled democratically, with no real consequences for disobeying orders?

    They can be relieved of duty, transferred, or court-martialed. I don't see where you're getting this notion that everyone gets away with anything.

    Most of the time, people don't disobey orders. When they do, they usually have good reasons.

  3. There was amazing little bad philosophy on display. Even young Spock's opportunity to "stick his foot in it" from our perspective fails to be viciously evil. He is in a Vulcan school and gets to say something about "morally praiseworthy, but not obligatory". Old Spock says something about not being self-serving at the end of the movie, but it is not a plot moment.

    The only problem I had was when Old Spock said "Put aside logic and for once do what you feel is right.", but then I realized that this wasn't a matter of ethics per se, it was about what Spock wanted to do with his own life, not what some duty told him to do. Then he says "You will always be a child of two worlds, and fully capable of deciding your own destiny. The question you face is: which path will you choose?". So all in all, the philosophy of the movie isn't that bad.

    Now some people have said "It didn't have a great plot". Personally I think the plot was fine, but what they're missing is that the movie was character-driven, which makes sense when you understand that the entire purpose of the movie was to re-introduce the characters we've known and loved for 40 years. While they weren't able to flesh out every single character (which they didn't need to), they did a great job with a 2-hour movie. Next movie will most likely have a better plot, because the characters won't need introduction.

    The action sequences were spot-on, the actors' performances were great (Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy was an epic win), and overall the beauty of the film has beaten anything I've seen in a while.

  4. Why is it that the top-selling AS paperback repeatedly appears and disappears from search results? For the longest time it was missing, and only briefly did it reappear. Now it's missing again. Conspiracy theories, anyone?

    The Illuminati don't want to become too conspicuous.

  5. Lena Headey, who plays the Queen of Sparta in the movie 300, and Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles would also be a great pick for Dagny Taggart.

    She definitely looks the part.

    Here's a casting pick of my own: Wallace Shawn as James Taggart.

    vizzini1.jpg

    Just imagine him saying "I didn't say that!" in the same tone as "INCONCEIVABLE!"

  6. The Comedian was shown as the extra gunman, thats why it was there. Hippies went by too fast for me to figure out, I must have been fumbling with my popcorn.

    Yes, but we didn't need to see pieces of JFK's skull on the car and Jackie Onassis getting up in shock. The camera easily could have fumbled with the sound of the shot and then gone back down to Jackie being pushed back.

    And there was nothing to point out with the hippies.

    Overall this was a faithful adaptation of the source. Criticisms of this movie are so far criticisms of the original work.
    Is the source equally as disgusting? I'm sorry, but I'm judging this film on its own (as films should), and it's probably the worst film I've seen.
  7. Any Star Trek

    Any Stargate

    30 Rock

    The Office

    Family Guy

    South Park

    Seinfeld (The funniest show to be on TV, EVER)

    24 (The best drama on TV, EVER)

    Mystery Science Theater 3000

    The Sopranos (2nd best drama on TV)

    Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld

    Sanctuary

  8. I think they genetically engineered the gentleman that played Rorschach to play Rorschach. He was perfect.

    The entire performance was completely unoriginal. It was Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry in a mask.

    Edit:

    Things that irritated me about Watchmen:

    Random glass crystal on Mars

    Rorschach a Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry rip-off

    Comedian a Robert Downey Jr. rip off

    John just looked like a combination of the Silver Surfer painted blue with the powers of Jessica Alba from the Fantastic Four.

    John's bouncing flaccid penis

    Rorschach torching the cops after being framed.

    Rorschach murdering the killer of the missing girl.

    Rorschach torturing.

    Rorschach throwing hot frying oil on a man's face, killing him.

    Rorschach biting the kid's ear off as a kid.

    Zack Snyder's cutting to a flashback every five minutes, trying to be Quentin Tarantino but failing miserably.

    Characters talking past each other in dialogue (specifically the John/Laurie scene on Mars)

    The stupid notion of "understanding without condoning or condemning"

    Nixon being elected for five terms

    The needless recreation of the Kennedy Assassination tragedy

    -

    I'm sorry, but it was a waste of three hours of my life.

  9. What is it?

    What is it, that keeps me from cleaning my room? What is it, that keeps me from studying for university and makes me do nothing at all instead?

    [...]

    What is it?

    What are you majoring in, and what do you want to do with your degree?

    I can tell you that I'm a college student and I've been struggling with the same things you have (my room's a mess, haven't been waking up on time for classes, etc). I only recently (as in yesterday) decided I needed to get my act together, and it was only after I realized that I don't want to major in Literary Studies, but I want to get an Arts & Performance degree and write for TV and Film.

    Make sure you feel that you have a purpose for being there at school, and it'll become easier.

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