PFunked

Will It Blend

I bought Mel a Blendtec blender for her birthday. It should arrive within a week. I don't think she'll let me blend my cell phone :(

By the way, Mel's blog is named The Vegan Monologues which I think is downright clever.

Advice for Judges hearing RIAA cases

Famed /. user NewYorkCountryLawyer (author of the blog Recording Industry vs. The People) posted an excellent article to educate judges on RIAA litigations.

Large Record Companies vs. The Defenseless: Some Common Sense Solutions to the Challenges of the RIAA Litigations

Savory!

Danny Dupre RIP

A kid I grew up with, Danny Dupre (now Marine, Staff Sgt. Daniel P Dupre) was killed in Iraq by sniper fire.

Tile Turn-Based RPGs

With the recent Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (A2) and the new 4th edition D&D rules, I've been thinking a lot about tile and turn-based RPGs.

First off, I like 'em. Depending on how they're balanced, they can make character stats or dice rolls really matter. Whereas in an action game, a level one stablesweeper could defeat Bad Horse (Thoroughbred of Sin) if the player had enough skill.

There are a few things I don't like about tile games. It seems every turn characters will try to reflank each other, and the resulting tumble of combat is not very realistic. You could make facing not matter (as in Roguelikes) but I don't know if that's a good trade.

Anything you like/dislike about tile turn-based combat?

Dark Knight

TL;DR version

Dark Knight is a very solid movie.

I especially like this reinvention of the Joker. The writing and performance for it are excellent.

If you like gritty action movies, catch it in theaters.

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Minor Complaints

I wasn't 100% sold on Harvey Dent. I don't think the writing was there to make it work -- felt like there were too many jumps at the end, probably a lot of character development left on the cutting room floor. They should have saved him for a different movie. 90 minutes of Batman vs. Joker would have been better.

I didn't like the "cell phone" bit at the end for a couple reasons. (1) forced Freeman to get preachy/topical, and (2) it's just terribad science. I didn't like the "microwave" bits in Batman Begins for similar reasons.

I agree with this quote from Broken scope on Slashdot:

Never has a simple writing implement been used to set the tone of a movie so effectively.