His episode last season was great. I have high hopes that this one will be too.
Category: Entertainment
Mark your calendars:
* December 14, 2012 – *The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey*
* December 13, 2013 – *The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug*
* July 18, 2014 – *The Hobbit: There and Back Again*
> There’s an element of “be careful what you wish for” when I think about Dragon Age 2. It does – or tries to do-so many of the things I’ve wanted RPGs to do with their narratives for a long time, like telling a smaller story in both geography and scope, developing tragedy, and focusing on party members’ stories. Yet the problems with doing those things become apparent as well, especially as the locations become tired and the narrative becomes fractured. Unbalanced narratives can fall down. It’s easy to see why Dragon Age 2 became such a divisive game, but love it or hate it, I’m happy that a big-budget role-playing game was so willing to experiment with narrative form, and I hope its successes and failures are learned from.
I was one of those who did not enjoy the structure of Dragon Age 2. In fact, I stopped playing all together. I hope Bioware can bring back some of the “epicness” of the original Dragon Age in their next installment[^fn].
[^fn]: Also, I hope they bring Morrigan back.
So it begins[^fn].
[^fn]: HBO has made it clear this is not the model they intend to use in the US. That is unsurprising. I would not be surprised, however, if that is a decision they revisit every five years or so.
In Whedon we trust.
Categories
A History of Dubsteb
At least once a month, my fiancé and I argue over what “dubsteb” is. Hopefully this helps.
Good. Burn through these two and then get to releasing the ones everyone wants to see. Any chance we can get the original versions re-released?
Categories
Disney Planning a Rocketeer Reboot
All of this talk that about Disney wanting to reboot *The Rocketeer* makes me want to go watch the original.
> Yesterday I was in St. Louis with my friend K, and basically her car got broken into and all our bags got stolen. In our bags were not only ipods, wallets and sentimental things that we will never replace, but also both our Macbooks. Being that we’re two people who earn a living on Internets, and being that I make music with my laptop, perform from my laptop, and use my laptop to, well, make any and everything that has to do with Adam WarRock, and being that macbooks is expensive, I’m kind of SOL right now.
> So we’re going to do something I’ve always wanted to do. We’re going to do a [24 Hour Rap-A-Thon](http://www.adamwarrock.com/m/rapathon/).
Pretty awful thing to happen just before he starts his 15 city tour. Hopefully he can make enough with his [Rap-A-Thon](http://www.adamwarrock.com/m/rapathon/) to buy another laptop before the tour. I already have his Chapel Hill stop marked on my calendar.
I loved this movie when I was younger. My father and I would frequently quote lines it as we played basketball in the driveway.
Categories
How Pixar Made Merida’s Hair
> Pixar developed and internally released a new simulator, which is multi-threaded. The new code does computation before it sends hair off to the simulator to determine how other hairs would relate. This means that a cluster of hairs would all be dealt with as one group, and the Hair simulation could be multi-threaded. In one sequence Merida flicks her hair from one side of her face to the other, but even such high level gross spatial changes were able to be automatically accommodated.
Fascinating. You know that Pixar designed the character like they did just so they would have the challenge of doing her hair.
(via [The Loop](http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/08/21/how-pixar-made-meridas-hair/))
Categories
Bane Soundboard
Move along, nothing to see here…except awesome.
(via [Grantland](http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/55710/there-is-now-a-bane-soundboard-on-the-internet-you-know-what-to-do))
Categories
Avengers 2 Release Date
Mark Your Calendars: May 1, 2015.
Great news. I also love the reason why:
> “[Steven Moffat’s] first episode of [Season Eight] sounds great.
> “It hasn’t been written yet but the idea is as brilliant and as mental as you’d expect from Steven. So there’s a lot to look forward to.
> “When Steven was going to pitch the next season to me not long ago, he said, ‘Are you ready to cry?'”
I cannot wait.
Categories
Whedon’s Master Plan
Too bad that [Nathan Fillion has already said he does not want to play Ant Man](http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/GraphicCity/news/?a=60132). That could have been the next step to making this comic a reality.
Take that Marvel.[^joss]
[^joss]: They are definitely not copying Marvel’s idea of getting a geek god like Joss Whedon.
Yes. Hell yes.
Bummer.[^ee]
[^ee]: Though it is my favorite book, I am actually unsure about this movie. The [trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o) was not exactly what I figured a Gatsby movie would look like.
I would be fine with allowing Fox to make another crappy Daredevil movie if Marvel could put Silver Surfer and Galactus in the Guardians of the Galaxy and/or Avengers 2.
Categories
Excuse of the Day via XKCD
Have this one on the tip of your tongue.