Sunday, October 12, 2003


Here is something unique for the buffyverse.
http://bradfitz.com/misc/buffysex/

How many votes do I hear for a BTVS Movie on the big screen?


5:48:57 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

Source: Sexy Mothers Do Exist

 

            My husband and I have been discussing what to do on my blog.  I should probably phrase it more like he’s adamant that I should begin serializing my manuscript THE BATTERY on the blog.  Post a few pages at a time every few days.

            I found this neat little tool called blogpoll.  It let’s you put polls up on your weblog without the fuss and muss of coding it.  So, I thought I would leave the question of whether to add THE BATTERY to you.  Please vote in the poll.  It’s located under the blogroll on the left hand side.

            Also, as a little preview for this week.  I will be getting ready for my son’s birthday parties this coming weekend, but really wanted to get going with the posting.  So, for this week, I’m going to re-post my favorite five posts since I started this weblog in January.  Then on Friday, I’ll put up a new poll for everyone to vote on their favorite.

            Then next week, I should be back up on my feet and writing more regularly.  I think I’ve pulled myself up out of my depression that I was in and am doing much better.  I’ve been writing – both on the new ms and re-writing the opening chapters of THE BATTERY.

            I hope you will visit back to see which articles were among my favorites and let me know which were yours!

[Sexy Mothers Do Exist]

3:08:55 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

 Source: Blogcritics

Posted by Fabian Gonzalez on October 11, 2003 08:08 PM
Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill appropriately opens with words uttered by Ricardo Montalban's Khan in Star Trek II, "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Khan preceded the quote by explaining that it was an old Klingon proverb and Tarantino credited the quote as such. But there were those in the audience that knew exactly who said the words and when. This film was made for those people.

Who are these people? People who have loyally watched the Star Trek franchise go through its ups and, most recently, its downs. People who watched in awe as Bruce Lee fought his way up the pagoda in Game of Death. People who loved Japanese anime before Robotech brought it to the Western masses. People that would go out of their way to watch seventies Hong Kong films like the Drunken Master, Master of the Flying Guillotine, and Sony Chiba's samurai classics like Samurai Reincarnation.

Kill Bill pays homage to all these influences and more with style. It doesn't assume that everyone in the audience can identify the plethora of inside jokes and references to other films and genres. Instead it presents the concepts with a certain amount of style and grace that is reserved only for truly great directors.

It is a movie that exploits everything in extremes--like a comic book come to life--like, dare I say, pulp fiction. And yes, even the extreme violence is done using extreme style. Blood doesn't simply ooze out of severed limbs and body cavities, instead it sprays forcefully as if dancing through a concert of park fountains. It is a visual assault that grabs you and doesn't let go.

It is nothing new, movies about revenge have been done before. However, the strong female warrior themes that are exploited in this film are concepts that are new to American cinema. Concepts that are long overdue and should be celebrated, even if the subject of revenge is "a little violent."

So, I urge you not to kill Kill Bill, but to kill the critics. For taking the over-the-top pulp fiction violence literally, for not seeing the underlying message of female independence, and for not recognizing the stylistic genius of Tarantino for a few severed limbs. Kill the critics by watching this film en masse and proving that critical acclaim is never a vital ingredient for box office success.

[Blogcritics]


2:55:04 PM    trackback []     Articulate [] 

Source: IXml* - Welcome to the real world

I came across the need to ensure that upon machine startup, certain programs in the Start group get executed
even if I'm not around to logon with my session. This is typically the case if you have your webserver in your
machine and want to automatically connect to the Internet and update a dynamic DNS service with the new IP.
You could use SrvAny to make those apps look like services that would run without the need to logon.
But most applications store settings in user-specific folders, and will not work without an initiated session.
Microsoft offers a "solution" to you: enable automatic logon. Ups. It works in Windows 2003 too.
But now the problem is that the machine will remain logged-on until your password-protected screen saver
comes up to lock the workstation. I'm using the following script, which gives the startup programs enough
time to do their work and then automatically blocks the session:

 <package>
<job id="lock">
<script language="JScript">
var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");
// 5 minutes are enough for me ;)
WScript.Sleep(300000);
WshShell.Exec("rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation");
</script>
</job>
</package>

This script is a .wsf file executed by Windows Script Host. We want to ensure this script is ALWAYS run.
You know that pressing Shift at windows start skips executing the Start group. To avoid that we can
make this script be run though the registry:

 Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionRun] "LockStation"="C:\\LockStation.wsf"
[IXml* - Welcome to the real world]
2:22:27 PM    trackback []     Articulate []