vovat: (Default)
Nathan ([personal profile] vovat) wrote2009-06-20 02:56 pm

Conquest of the Wallpaper Planet

From [livejournal.com profile] poisonyoulove:

01. Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LJ.
02. Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
03. Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!




Five sentences, huh? Isn't that a little much for something that can probably be summed up in one? Well, I wanted an Oz image, and thought that this was one of Neill's best drawings in the series. Also, it has the Nome King chained up at the top. Okay, with this sentence, there are five in this paragraph, right?


And now, to change the subject abruptly, I came across a link to this list of sci-fi movie conventions that need to die from SamuraiFrog's blog, and I thought it was worth commenting on. So here are my thoughts on each item:

6. I think this one is just a throwback to the cheap special effects of early Star Trek.

5. I don't mind this one so much, but it did always seem to me that Star Trek characters spent an awful lot of time talking about what, to them, would have been ancient history.

4. I think the part about logical holes is what particularly gets to me. And it's not just sci-fi that does this. I mean, look at how often magical devices in fantasy aren't used when it would make sense. (Magic Belt, anyone?) I guess I like consistency in what things can do. For the same reason, magic that grants wishes can be an irritating trope in many situations.

3. I have to agree whole-heartedly with this. I can recall even noticing as a kid how weird it was that entire planets would have one culture and a single ruler (if not a single ruler for an entire galaxy), when such obviously wasn't the case on our own planet. Mind you, I still used the trope in some of my own stories. I was in elementary school at the time, after all. But really, why bother using planets and aliens when their entire civilizations are less diverse than the local country club? And I know I've seen several people point out how Star Wars is full of desert planets, ice planets, swamp planets, and the like. They're all fit for human habitation, yet consist of only one environment. Does every part of each planet somehow receive the exact same amount of sunlight? Or ARE there other environments on these planets that we just never see?

2. This just makes me think of the part in the Futurama episode "The Birdbot of Ice-catraz" where Bender just flies the ship out from the middle of Old Man Waterfall's peace ring.

1. A society with advanced military technology relying on infantry? Well, that's basically what we had in Vietnam, wasn't it?


And finally, another quiz result:



Your Brain is 60% Female, 40% Male



Your brain is a healthy mix of male and female

You are both sensitive and savvy

Rational and reasonable, you tend to keep level headed

But you also tend to wear your heart on your sleeve

[identity profile] bethje.livejournal.com 2009-06-20 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Everyone already know you had a girlbrain.

[identity profile] vovat.livejournal.com 2009-06-20 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not nurturing, though.

[identity profile] revme.livejournal.com 2009-06-21 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
5. I noticed that too -- sort of like how in the new Star Trek, Baby Kirk seems to have a real affinity for classical music.

3. I liked South Park's take on that convention -- that every other planet was One Planet, One Race/Species. So like, a planet of deer, a planet of asian people, a planet of cats, etc. But Earth is a reality show for the rest of the universe of the Real World type of "what happens when we take creatures from all around and put them together -- where they stop being nice and start being real!".

2. GOD, this one bugs me. Same with in cartoons where there's two bad guys, and they go one in front and one behind the good guys, and they go "OH NO WE'S SURROUNDED!!!" instead of just, y'know, running off to the side.


Edited 2009-06-21 02:36 (UTC)

[identity profile] vovat.livejournal.com 2009-06-21 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
5. True, although according to Futurama, the Beastie Boys will still be around in the year 3000. But they'll only have released two more albums in all that time.

3. Never saw the South Park episode in question, but that sounds about right.

2. Maybe the animators are so used to seeing things in two dimensions that they forget that's not how the characters would see them. Or they're just too lazy to draw in the bad guys on the other sides.