h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

and any way A Bug's Life had better toys as well.

That's what initially annoyed me about Bug's Life: all the characters looked like easy-to-manufacture toys, using easy-to-manufacture (and very un-ant-like) solid pastel colors.

The individual scenes in Bug's Life are good, but the story on the whole is just the same old cranked-out formula that Disney uses for every single feature-length animated classic they've ever created.

That's why I like Antz (even though Woody Allen's voice tends to grate after a while). It wasn't designed around a huge marketing machine. I don't go into Toys 'R' Us and see Antz mousepads, Antz kooshballs, Antz this, Antz that. Dreamworks just made a movie. Disney just creates marketing engines.

You might think, "Well yes, but despite that, Bug's Life is a great movie." But look what this method of film making did to Star Wars. George Lucas made all his money back before the film was even released. You can now be assured that the next Star Wars movie will contain one or more new, irritating "Jar-Jar-like" characters appearing in way too many scenes.

The saddest part is that I'll buy the Phantom Menace on DVD the day it comes out. What a lame way to end the 90's.

ohh I love it when you get angry!!!! To be honest I haven't seen either film I just wanted to see what your reaction would be and it was good. Very nicely argued!

Are you as surgically attached to your Gameboy Colour as I am? Not that I am attached to your one, I was meaning my own!!!

Hey, everybody's entitled to their opinion, although I do question your motives.

For a while now I've been addicted to playing Pokemon on my GameBoy. A day or two ago, though, I managed to catch my 124th Pokemon, so now I have caught all the ones that can be caught on the Blue version of the game. Now I have to go trade with my nephew (he's playing the red version) in order to get all 150. Why? Beats me, but it has held my interest for a significantly longer period of time than Zelda DX ever did. In the meantime, my other game systems' dust covers are just gathering dust.

However, I just got my new laptop (Sony Vaio 505TR - sweet) and I'm hoping to get back into Playstation development in my spare time. Then, even the mighty GameBoy would be taking a back seat. Unless Pokemon comes out with a sequel.

I know nothing of this 'Pokemon' you talk of Captain. Prey enlighten me further.

You're kidding, right? Find a kid anywhere about 5-8 years old and ask him or her about Pokemon. You will find that the kid is an encyclopedia of knowledge on the subject. It started with trading cards, comic books, and a cartoon, and now there's a Gameboy game. But there are actually two versions of the game: a red version and a blue version. The object of the game is to catch all 150 Pokemon. But the neat thing about the game (or the rip-off, depending on how you look at it) is that you can only acquire 124 of them on either version. In order to get all 150, you have to trade Pokemon between the two versions using the link cable.

Why am I playing this game when I am clearly not in the 5-8 years old range? One word: nephews. You would be surprised how popular I've become with them now that I speak "Pokemon". :u)

Besides, it's a fun game. But I've caught 124 of them now, so I'm playing Star Ocean on the Playstation 'til I get a chance to trade with my nephews. What is this thing called "weather" that everybody keeps going on about?

Let me guess - you are suffering from a vitamin D deficiency?

I am going to have to see if I can get hold of this game now. Trouble is (and I blush to admit this) I am not a big gamer cos I am not very good at them. My eye to hand coordination would be generously described as abysmal and after twenty minutes I get frustrated and fling the thing away. Which is a bit embarrassing on public transport

I have only had my 'color for about four weeks - it was meant to be a present for my younger stepbrother but I couldn't bring myself to give it to him. I think he was very happy with book tokens - at least he is too polite to say otherwise. What a wicked Step-Sister!!!

...but I outgrew it. Well, physically anyway - I can't vouch for my mental state most of the time.

If you're not good with the ol' hand-eye, you might like Pokemon, since there's none of that hand-eye stuff in it. The battles are turn-based, and reaction time is never an issue.

As for vitamin D, I get a fair bit going to and from work. I typically walk over 30 blocks a day (12 blocks to work, 12 blocks back, and about 11 blocks during lunch), and Vancouver's been pretty darn sunny lately. Jesus, I'm going to get Popeye legs at this rate.

hmmm why the eleven blocks at lunchtime? Is this a masochistic thing? Do you eat a lot of spinach? I should imagine that like mine your job is fairly sedentary - plus do you suffer from eye-strain? And if not how do you avoid it?

Well, although I work for a big company and it's a great job, the office is in a part of town I'd... rather not have lunch in. So I walk over to where it's nicer to have lunch. I don't drive so I tend to pretty much walk everywhere. Benefits of living in the city, I suppose (everything's nearby).

My job is pretty sedentary. Fortunately, I smoke, which gets me out of the office every hour or so to stand in the sun for ten minutes.

I assume you use a 'puter, since you're on about eye-strain. My trick to avoiding it is to either get a bigger monitor, or just wear dark glasses at work and get a braille keyboard.

Do you work in a culinary wilderness?

You are one of the people I hate - you see I don't smoke and so if we disappear eyebrows are raised and noses twitch. I am almost tempted to take up smoking in order so that I can get that. But not that tempted.

Hmm thanks for the tips - I already have the largest monitor in the world, so a bigger one would just be excessive and very Howard Hughes. This is because we work in a paperless office - this doesn't explain, however, why I am surrounded by piles and piles of paper but there you go. But I like your thing about the braile keyboard - that might be the reason my attention to detail is so bad!

The neighborhood I work in is plagued with junkees, crack dealers, and "three dollah ho's" (pardon my brash colloquialisms). It's not bad during the day (if you don't mind being asked for change and cigarettes all the time), but it's bad at night. I've heard some nasty stories from my co-workers, several of whom have seen dead people and varied "goings-on" involving "three dollah ho's".

Oddly enough, it's a pretty cool job otherwise. So you can see why I'd rather walk a few blocks to have lunch at, say, MacDonalds than have lunch across the street at some strange establishment full of screaming lunatics with a sign over the door that just says "Pub", which is next door to another establishment with a sign over the door that just says "Pub". The exercise is good for me, if you catch my drift.

I see you're an "anti-smoker". I'd love to quit smoking, but it's a habit and an addiction. One thing I don't understand is why heroin addicts get so much sympathy and attention, but smokers are treated like the scum of the earth (perhaps I'm exaggerating a bit). I've tried quitting several times in the past but I never lasted more than a couple of weeks. My co-worker has just quit and is using the patch, so I've turned him into one of my own diabolical experiments to see if the bleedin' things work. I'm currently trying to convince him to stop wearing it for a week just to see if he freaks out as a result. Then I'd know whether it makes a difference or not.

I work in a similar sort of neighbourhood - well by British standards - which are very tame. When I go out, all the mad people seem to congregate round me and witter on about football and the like. Actually it is not that bad really - its just dingy rather then being dangerous. But we have our addicts and 'ho's'. I must say that $3 is a bit of bargain!!!! In fact on the lunch theme I think that it is why the charity I work for has a restaurant cos there is nothing in the immediate vicinity. Hey I think running away from someone who intends serious harm to one's person is just about the best exercise one can get!

The reason heroin addicts get so much sympathy from women (I do not feel knowledgeable enough to talk about any other sex) is because of Trainspotting. Getting two cute blokes like Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller to take the leads was just asking for trouble in my book. Though I have noted that I have not met any other users like them! I am not a virulent anti smoker just never seen the attraction of it myself - I smoked for a month when I was 17 but still didn't like it and had no trouble giving it up. But hey I have my addictions so I know what you mean!

Ah, I had forgotten about Trainspotting. That must certainly be it. I took my brother to see that. He liked it up until "the baby scene" (he has kids). After that, the movie didn't sit very well with him.

I also hate smoking. I rue the day I started. Hopefully, I can convince my mind to go out and buy the patch and actually use it. Hmmm... that sentence didn't really come out the way I intended. What I mean is, a human mind that is addicted to smoking tends to build a psychological barrier against any assault against that addiction. Someone can show you a picture of a diseased smoker's lung, and you're grossed out completely and want to quit, but ten minutes later you're having a smoke. That's why it's so easy to contemplate quitting when you're lying in bed at night. The addiction's not worried because you don't smoke in your sleep. But as soon as you wake up, contemplation is out of the question; you need a smoke, dammit! Essentially, I had meant that making a serious attempt to quit smoking requires you to break through that barrier, which is no easy feat.

Anyway...

Since you, like myself, work in a "paperless" office (which simply means that everyone's always running out of paper), I feel inclined to ask what you do at your job beyond possibly the Stevie Wonder impression I alluded to in an earlier post.

I've done nothing but video game programming my entire career life until recently. Now I'm doing database programming, perl programming, html, and C++ programming, primarily in Unix, which was a bit of a shock as I had no Unix experience whatsoever (or perl, or html, or database design) when I started. However, I'm feeling at home here now, and now that I have my laptop I can still do game programming at home on my Playstation as a sort of hobby. I'm a geek. There, I've said it.

I work as a grants administrator for a charity. I think I am well on the way to being one of the first people that they have ever sacked on the grounds that every thing I do at present I see to cock up! I don't understand why at all - three years in my last job and it all went swimmingly but here nothing goes right. Even when i check check and check again - it always comes back scrawled all over with all my many failings pointed out to me. I have stopped getting depressed about it and now just watch in wonder - the daily bollockings and meetings with my line manager are now just everyday punctuations. Its like "so we are back in Margaret's office again" I actually have less responsibility then my last job and am very miserable. But well - you can't always have a job you love - I am trying to be philosophical about it. The accent there is very much on trying.....

Hey on a brighter note there was a newspaper article yesterday about Pokemon - apparently it is going to be the big Toy for Christmas this year and they will be releasing the game in September. So I will be expecting you to give me lots of tips!

It's working environments like that that make people ultimately come to the conclusion that everyone in the world except three of their best friends and their immediate family is completely insane.

Most of the video game programming jobs I had were like that. In fact, the last job was so bad that one day, something like this happened:

- The company had two particular people who were quite good at their job, but were disliked by someone who was newly-hired and placed on their team because this person was a long-time friend of the v.p. They didn't like her because she had decided that she should be the technical director, thus usurping control of the entire team and demoting these two people (one of whom USED to be the technical director and the real genius behind the entire project, but ended up in the credits under "additional programming"). She eventually had them fired because they weren't "team players".

- This firing pissed off many people in the company, and some people left as a direct result. Some time after this, I find another job opportunity elsewhere and resign. But after that...

- The company stops re-stocking the "food wall". Then they stop paying for everyone's parking. One by one the perks dry up.

- Then they suddenly lay off thirteen people. This pisses off a LOT of people, several of whom quit as a result.

- Then the company shuts down their office in the U.S., letting everybody down there go.

- Then they announce that they are putting together another list of lay offs. At one point, an entire department asks to be put on that list. They get put on the list, bringing the total to over fifty people. All remaining veterans subsequently leave the company.

In the end, the company stripped its head count down from about 290 people to less than a hundred. And guess who ends up effectively running the whole company: Mrs. Technical Director, who just couldn't seem to ever have enough power. She even out-lasted the v.p. that hired her (he left apparently because the company wasn't going in a direction he liked anymore).

When I started there I thought I had found my dream job, but after four years I couldn't stand being there anymore.

So, what is the moral of this little tale? Beats the hell out of me. Maybe it's "two birds in the hand are worth less, apparently, than a dead bird in the bush", or perhaps it's "absolute power corrupts abosultely, but also provides job security", or, more likely, "person in glass house eventually gets cut". Well, gosh, I could just go on and on, but the job I'm in now makes it so hard to care about the job I once had.

On a lighter note, I forgot to fill my zippo before I left for work today.

Seriously though it sounds like what is going on at my old company and in a way I should be grateful that I got out of there.

Do you think that the thing with the zippo is life's way of giving you a message? Give up Faithful Researcher you know you want to really. So was it a stressful day then? How is your colleague doing on the patches?

Darn, another stupid joke bites the dust.

Sorry about not posting for a while. I don't have internet access at home yet, and monday was Canada Day.

My diabolical experiment has not worn a patch today, but claims that he will put one on if he gets edgy. I suspect that my evil research will soon be complete and will hopefully pay dividends. I could just walk down to the pharmacy and buy the bleedin' patch, but the corner store where I usually buy cigarettes is so much closer. Remember that mental barrier? Oh well, at least I'm seriously _thinking_ about quitting. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

The job thing from my previous post was not necessarily meant to cheer you up (although that's a nice side effect) as it was meant to illustrate that when it comes to office politics, you're certainly not alone. Even my new job has a certain degree of politics, but in general everyone seems pretty adept at their job, which makes it much more tolerable. There's nobody here like that "tech director" I talked about, who wouldn't know a programming language if it walked up and bit her freaking leg off. I'm not bitter about it. Really.

Picked up more DVD's over the weekend. Got "Payback" (great movie) and volume 2 of the first season of South Park (mostly for the "interviews" with the creators). That brings my total to 129 DVD's. Woo hoo! I also picked up "DVD Spectacular", which, aside from having the entire 1812 Overture in 5 channel Dolby Digital, also has four of the Dolby Digital theatrical trailers. I don't understand why they never put those trailers on any DVD's. They're amazing.

Hmmm, can't think of a pithy remark to end this with. Must be from coming off a long weekend or something.

It seems to have eaten my subject line, which was '"lighter" note, get it?'. Only it's just not funny anymore (if it ever was).

Think I should change my name on this board? Everyone else has a nickname they've chosen, whereas I just blindly accepted the name that was given to me.

What do you do with so many DVDs? You cannot possibly have time to do them all justice.