So, I’m officially abandoning this site for the time being. If you still have this feed in your reader, please redirect your RSS reader to:

http://whoisdialogue.tumblr.com/

That’s where I’m funneling everything media-and-commentary wise that I’m doing.

This site, obviously, isn’t going anywhere. I’m not taking it down, and I can think of a lot of ways to make sure of it in the future. For right now, though, don’t expect any more content.

Thanks.

I’ve been ‘channel surfing’ via iTunes and the freebie streaming video services online. Basically, the rest of the world has caught up with me. I haven’t had cable for years, and now that shows are increasingly freely, legally available via streaming services I’m catching up on a few old favorites and new hotnesses. I have a few thoughts on recent and new (to me) television shows.

My Name is Earl

This show, for a while, suffered from the same problem I have with Monk: a ‘writers hating the characters’ problem. I’m now at the point with Monk where I can’t even watch that show anymore. It’s completely obvious that the writers have zero respect for the characters. They’re just shells to move around in a con game, false fronts to put in the latest ‘wacky situation of the week’. My Name is Earl, on the other hand, has apparently blossomed into a great character-driven show. The end of last season saw an extended plot element (Earl’s short-term wife) that really allowed the actors, writers, and director to breathe new life into what kind of started out like a one-trick show.

It’s been some time since I watched Earl, and it’s great to see it going strong into its … fifth season. Wow. Long time.

Burn Notice

Brian turned me on to this, and it’s fantastic. I highly recommend this to anyone that likes shows that treat you like an adult. It has adult situations without simpering swearing or needless sexuality. The ads all make it look like this sex-heavy show set in Miami, and it really isn’t. It’s primarily a character and story-driven show that lets things happen in much the way they would in real life. It’s really, really good.

Numb3rs

The first episode back in the new season was yesterday and I’m not very impressed. They left off on a huge cliffhanger; “To Be Continued” as the Epps’ father put it. The pickup was decidedly lackluster. There’s little done about Charlie’s security status, and while there is a new member on the team to replace Megan Reeves she had so little screentime as to be faceless.

30 Rock

I watched a few random episodes of this show and came away impressed with Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, and not much else. Good writing but not-so-hot supporting acting. I bet if I’d been following it more I’d enjoy it more, but as of right now not so much.

Clone Wars

I definitely agree with io9’s assessment of the first episode of Clone Wars. The show succeeds in many ways that the movie fails. Tighter action, less dialogue, more straightforward situations. I dunno why iTunes makes the awesomeness better, but I actually get to watch two episodes plus the free preview right away. Maybe it’s for signing up with the Season Pass?

In any case, I’m really looking forward to more of this show. It’s popcorn/bubble gum compared to what it could (should) be, but for all that there’s a distinct likeableness to what they’re offering. If you’re still someone that can deal with what Lucas has done to Star Wars, this is some of the better canon stuff they’ve done in the last few years.

So, DRM is really dumb. Like, really really really dumb. Wait, dont’ stop reading. I promise this is vaguely funny and interesting to non-techs.

This is something friends of mine have been railing about for some time now, and I’ve generally agreed with them. But, if you want a quickie example of how dumb DRM is I have one for you.

Quickly, DRM stands for ‘Digital Rights Management’. Basically it’s copy protection for media, like video or music. It comes into play A LOT with online media, like streaming content from websites. Netflix, for example, uses a really agressive form of DRM that requires you download software and tweak around with Windows Media Player. I really like the Netflix streaming service. It’s fantastic, great selection, great video quality. However, for about three months now I’ve been unable to use it. No idea why, Netflix techs couldn’t help me. Tonight I finally resolved to get it figured out, and walked through a bunch of steps with the techs. Well, we got it figured out.

See, the streaming service was complaining that my DRM hoozits was bad. The response from the techs is to use a little piece of software in your Netflix software folder to ‘reset your DRM’. This basically wipes everything clean, and then requires you to ‘re-ok’ it with the server. I keep doing this, but Internet Explorer (the only browser this works with) keeps complaining. It turns out that the problem wasn’t with the software or with me or with the techs. It was actually with my computer. More specifically, my monitors.

Yes, that’s right, for once in the history of computing monitors were actually at fault. See, Vista is a cast-iron bitch about DRM. It’s incredibly incredibly picky about how you use the stuff YOU pay for. It monitors this use via various means, but one of them is through the high quality cables that monitors use nowadays. The DVI connection I use to both of my monitors is something Vista can ’see’. It knows I’m displaying images from my two video cards to my two monitors, and it has control over what is displayed on those monitors.

It turns out that this particular type of DRM objects to being displayed to a secondary source. I use my secondary monitor as a TV, you see, playing  videogames or working while I ‘watch’ NBC or Monk or whatever on Hulu/CBS/Toonami/iTunes/etc. Windows Media Player hates that, though, because I COULD be putting out that secondary video to a recorder of some kind. I could be taking that secondary video feed and putting it on a DVD, or broadcasting it in public, or whatever.

So, it turns out, I’m fine to watch Netflix on my machine. I’m fine to watch anything I want on my secondary monitor. But I can’t watch Netflix on my secondary monitor, because I could concievably be making a recording of the crap that I’m already paying them to give me access to. The solution I’m offered by the techs is exactly what someone who actually WANTS to record that imagery would do: use a ‘dumber’ cable. But I don’t want to use a dumber cable; I want to watch my iTunes/etc. in as high a clarity image as possible. Were I ‘illegally’ pirating stuff off of Netflix, I’d have no such qualms. I’m sure Brian and Alan and Ben have another half dozen ways I could get around this if I wanted to actually record the video.

But I don’t. I just want to watch what I paid for while I play my games or work. I, a legitimate user, am being punished because of the baseless paranoia of Microsoft and movie studio executives.

DRM sucks, and it doesn’t work. Don’t let anybody tell you different.

It’s a pretty darn good one.

The Clone Wars is not a good film. I knew this before I saw it yesterday, just as I know that the animated series is going to dissapoint me. Despite that, I went to see the movie and I’m going to watch the series – most likely via Xbox Live. Why?

I’m a fan. At this point I’m not even a fan of the movies; statistically speaking the amount of screentime I find frustrating and annoying is beginning to overwhelm the amount of Star Wars movie screentime I enjoy. But I do love the world, I love the setting. There’s a lot to like in the Expanded Universe, and the basic concept of a space opera gone magical is a firm foundation for storytelling.

That said, I’m getting pretty sick and tired of trying to enjoy the Star Wars universe despite the machinations of George Lucas. If you look around the absolutely terrible dialogue in Clone Wars, there was a pretty great experience to be had there. High adventure,  a war story in an evocative setting, and absolutely beautiful imagery. I really like the movie’s artistic sensibility – it was like watching moving concept art, almost. Jabba, particularly, looked really cool. His flabby chin had some scaly definition in the film, resulting in a look not unlike some sort of dragon.

To be honest, I really want to see Lucas done with the world. Give it up, let other people run it from now on. I think it’s a fantastic setting, I think there should be people telling stories there … but I just don’t think he’s the right person to do it anymore. Let some other people deal with it in an intelligent and forward-thinking fashion. Please!

That said, looking twenty years into the future, I can already forsee the ‘re-envisioning’ that will happen after Lucas has stopped meddling. Folks are going to come back to the series to retool, straighten, and strengthen the tatters of story and simply incomprehensible core components. Much as I expect we’ll see Abrhams doing with Star Trek early next year, all it takes is a singular vision to breathe life back into a beloved franchise. I guess I can wait if I have to.

But I don’t wanna.

Big day for me, generally speaking. Just wanted to make sure I remember.

I spent the entirety of last week in Los Angeles, helping out at Massively for E3. E3, if you’re not familiar with it, used to be the premiere videogames industry event. Held every year at the LA Convention Center, it was an over-the-top show full of new games, huge televisions, and scantily clad women. It’s now a purely media-and-business focused show, with a focus on giving the attendees a chance to focus on the games (instead of the spectacle). This is, in theory, a good thing. A problem has arisen, though, as developers and publishers begin to hold their own events throughout the year. Other industry events like the Penny Arcade Expo, Comic-Con, and even Gen Con have taken up some of the slack. You can see some excellent analysis of last week’s announcements in the Bonus Round posted this past weekend.

As for me, I essentially spent every waking moment trying to get stuff on the site with the exception of Friday. Friday early morning found me at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles having some really delicious foods. If you ever have the chance to consume their “chicken”, which is really unicorn meat, do so. With gravy. Friday morning I saw the Dark Knight with my co-bloggers, which I greatly enjoyed. It’s a fantastic movie, really stretches the bounds of what you think of when you consider a super-hero movie.

As per the norm when I get back from covering an event, I’ve got a ton of stuff to get done today. Thankfully, it’s pretty much just today – I’ve kept on top of my material pretty well. Hooray! So when I get through the content early this week I should have a schedule clear enough to tackle the other projects I’ve got to get done for the end of the week. Good times.

So, it’s been a rough two weeks or so. More calls to the law officers on the home front, as well as doctor visits and etc etc. Not worth sharing, really. Yesterday was a particularly bad slice of hell, as I managed to let some kind of bug or toxin into my system. Shared a veggie pizza with Elijah on Saturday that I think was the carrier, but he didn’t get sick. Maybe it’s all his clean living? Either way, Sunday is mostly a blur of pain, sweating, and nausea. I’m feeling quite a bit better today, but took it kind of easy this morning just the same. Tried to get up at the usual time and found looking at a monitor had me breaking out into a cold sweat. A few more hours sleep and I was able to get back on the job.

This week is going to be primarily spent readying for E3 next week. It’s traditionally been the biggest event in videogaming, where publishers roll out all the information on upcoming games to get players tempted for the fall releases. The last few years have seen it decreasing in value, to press and gamer alike. I’m not particularly looking forward to it, to be honest. Going to be a lot of work for I’m-not-sure-how-much in return.

I’m looking at it as an opporunity. It’s going to be a big challenge, operating in one of my least-favorite cities and dealing with an event I fundamentally don’t care about. I’m still going to have to produce, and produce well – “real” work as opposed to the day-to-day focused activities I find myself doing at Massively.

Next month is Gen Con and the month after that is AGDC – both of which I have a lot of appreciation for. GenCon in specific is pretty much my only annual vacation, and this year’s going to be a ‘big deal’. The new edition of Dungeons and Dragons will weigh heavily on the event, and I’m going to be spending some time with the associates at Gamers with Jobs. New and old meeting in a delicious blend of taste sensations.

I also want to note (not that anyone probably recalls) that I’m still very much on-track with my diet. I’ve got an entire month of notes down in my spreadsheet now, with July ticking nicely along … not that yesterday had much in the way of food to note. Since the beginning of the year I’ve lost about 30 pounds, though much of that was the result of exercise and not dieting. Now with my dieting pretty well in place I’m going to try to add exercise back into the equation (after E3, I’m thinking). This combination of diet and exercise is the lifestyle alignment I just couldn’t get right last year – I think it’ll be really important for me.

See, stuff like this is why I absolutely love Fourth Edition. This is a stat block for a new kobold released today in a new Dragon Magazine article. It’s called the “Vermin Handler.”

I just love this schtick! You can see him using that Vermin Cage ability clear as day. He sort of scuttles to the side of a battle, picks out the most heavily armed fighter, and chucks his box of bugs right at the melee guy’s head! Bugs and wood go flying and the poor bastard with the sword has to swat and swear at his armor until he kills most of them off. Brilliant.

Of course, my players aren’t facing down this guy. I’ve got a couple of much nastier tricks up my sleeve. Hee! I’m still not one of those GMs that thinks its his job to kill the PCs, but I can’t help but cackle with glee that finally – FINALLY – I’ve got some toys of my own to play with.