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Sentential Links #116

Here we go, folks!

:: I have never lived in a community that was so obsessed with its past. (Good post on the lack of retail in downtown Buffalo. My suggestion for remedying this? Forget it. Don’t do anything specifically to bring retail downtown. Instead, work on getting businesses downtown, and getting people living downtown. Retail will follow; it always goes where people work and live.)

:: Too many people around here have wanted instant gratification; in reality, building new business takes both nurturing and time. We are about to reach a tipping point where everything is starting to happen at once, and where the renaissance will soon become obvious, even to the most cynical. (It’s also worth remembering that many things are never predictable. Since no one in the 1980s could have predicted the 1990s tech boom, it follows that no one could have therefore predicted the rise of the Austin, TX area as a result of that boom.)

:: As far as I’m concerned, every day is bread day.

:: Why is it necessary to do another Star Trek, especially one featuring the original characters? What possibly can be left to say or do in this universe that hasn’t been fully explored over five TV series and ten feature films? (I personally wouldn’t mind one more Trek movie, if for no other reason than to make it so that the franchise didn’t end with Nemesis, which is staggeringly bad.)

:: With all the cameras Fox had capturing the reactions of every person imaginable, I’m only sorry they didn’t have a camera in Johnny Damon’s house.

:: Choosing the best presidential candidate among the 2008 contenders is a tough job. Picking the worst is easy. Rudy Giuliani is the guy you’d get if you put George Bush and Dick Cheney into a wine press and squeezed out their pure combined essence: unbounded arrogance and self-righteousness, a chip on his shoulder the size of a redwood, a studied contempt for anybody’s opinion but his own, a vindictive streak a mile wide, and a devotion to secrecy and executive power unmatched in presidential history. He is a disaster waiting to happen.

:: And on Saturday I got a note from…well, never mind. Let’s just say it was a fan note from someone whose work I admire a great deal. Always nice to get those.

:: Science fiction is going to lose at least one of these magazines in the next five years.

:: The real trouble with our schools is that, basically, Americans hate school.

We don’t think it’s really necessary. We like schools and support them to the degree they provide cheap and easy day care and during football and basketball season give us somewhere to go on Friday nights.

All for now….

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Bills 13, Jets 3

We’re on a roll! Playoffs or bust! (Yeah, I know which of those is more likely, but still….)

Woo-hoo!

:: The Bills’ defense had a pretty good game, although they were helped out by the Jets’ coaching staff and its decision to not run the ball as much as they should have. Going on the road and holding the opposition to three points is superb, though.

:: JP Losman. I’m still a fan of his, and I’m glad to see him come in and succeed. No, he didn’t set the world on fire, but he completed one long bomb and very nearly completed another (he put the ball right where Roscoe Parrish needed it to be, and Parrish simply dropped it). Now, if the Bills are convinced that Trent Edwards is the future and needs to play, then I’m fine with that. I just hope they’re able to trade Losman in the offseason and get something good in return — a draft pick or two. If Losman gets more time this year that looks like yesterday, the chances of that happening go up.

I’m not convinced that Losman is a bust in the NFL. Is he the next Jim Kelly or Brett Favre? Probably not. But I wouldn’t at all rule out the thought of him having a career like, oh, Brad Johnson, Jeff Hostetler, Mark Rypien, or Rich Gannon. All of those guys were around a long time, none of them is a Hall-of-Famer, but all went to Super Bowls and three of them won it.

:: Lee Evans. Wow, did he want to make a play or what?

Meh.

:: Marshawn Lynch. Not Lynch himself, actually; just the fact that he’s trying so hard to have a big game and he keeps running into eight-man fronts every time he touches the ball. He’s a draft-horse type of player, but for one reason or another he hasn’t got the results yet. He will, though.

:: Offensive line. This is the main reason why Lynch hasn’t excelled yet. They should be “gelling” by now, and yet…they don’t look like they’re gelling. They still aren’t asserting command over the line of scrimmage. And how many consecutive corner blitzes did the Jets run yesterday, with none of them being picked up at all, even when the TV guys are saying, “Here comes another corner blitz!” before the ball was even snapped?

D'oh!

:: Throwing a long bomb in an obvious running situation again. Yes, it worked out well this time, but it didn’t have to, and I’d really like to see the Bills not have to contain a last-gasp comeback attempt in the final moment in a game. I’d like to see them get the ball with 3:30 or so left and never give up the ball again. That’s when I’ll start believing that the O-line is coming together.

:: The Washington Redskins. Were you guys even on the field? And you know what: if you’re pissed about the Stupid Patriots running up the score on you, then why not take a few shots at Brady? Why not take some jabs at Moss? It’s not like the penalty yards are going to hurt you anymore than you’re already hurt, since you’re already bleeding points all over the field anyway. Do what they do in baseball: take some shots at ’em. You’re getting paid millions of dollars to play football anyway, so either dish out some punishment in return, or shut up about being rung up for 52 points. As far as I’m concerned, the right to complain about running up the score ends when you’re making what an NFL player makes.

:: That game in London. How lame was that???

Next week: the Bengals come to town. And go Colts! Only you can stop evil from becoming truly ascendant.

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Don’t go in the water….

PZ Myers has tagged me with a quiz-thing where I’m supposed to list the ocean or seafaring movies that I’ve found scariest. This is, I suppose, because of Halloween coming up and Dr. Myers’s general fetish for many-tentacled sea beasties. Anyway, to indulge him:

:: Pinocchio. There’s some really spooky stuff in this movie, to be honest, and the whole Monstro the Whale sequence is pretty intense. The scariest part of the movie has nothing really to do with the ocean, of course — that would be the Pleasure Island sequence, and especially Lampwick’s creepy fate — but there’s a lot of material in this movie to put the lie to the notion of Disney being all-cuteness, all the time.

[Yes, I screwed up and typed Peter Pan originally. Sue me, you lubbers!]

:: Jaws II. This is a better movie than many tend to think nowadays, even if it really is nowhere near as good as its classic preceding film. But it does amp up the horror a bit. The original movie just posits a great white shark finding a spot where there’s some particularly nice and tender feeding; Jaws II has another shark that seems to be actually hunting all these teenagers on their boats. Some of their demises are particularly grisly, especially one poor girl who gets chomped whole as a young boy sits on the hull of the capsized boat looking on, about five feet away. And later on, the shark manages to take out a helicopter.

:: Deep Blue Sea. This is actually a pretty silly movie. OK, it’s an extremely silly movie. There’s not a moment in it that is in the least bit plausible. The special effects are pretty laughable. So why do I list it? Because it’s one of the few movies of the “lock some characters in an enclosed space with a ravenous beastie” type that actually plays by the rule of “Anyone in this movie can die.”

:: The X-Files: “Piper Maru” and “Apocrypha”. These are two memorable mytharc episodes from Season Three that deal with black oil being found at the bottom of the sea.

Anyone who wants to list some movies, go right ahead. Keep ’em ocean-themed, though!

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Yeah, but how do they get the scores to run across the bottom of the screen?

Today’s Buffalo News ran an interesting article, believe it or not, on the technical challenges posed to the TV people in superimposing the yellow first-down line on the screen during football games. Unfortunately, I can’t for the life of me find that article on the News‘s website (maybe it’s not even there, given that it didn’t originate with them), so here’s a page that details the process. Cool!

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Shhhh! Writer at work!


Writer at work, originally uploaded by Jaquandor.

Stop botherin’ me. I’m writin’ here.

Sorry about the dearth of posting the last few days, folks, but the week here at Casa Jaquandor got a bit unexpectedly busy over the last few days. Not bad busy, just a whole lot of stuff that ended up on the plate and being more time-consuming than I’d figured at the time. Plus, I’ve been fending off a minor head cold. Regular posting should begin again tomorrow.

By way of a progress report: I’ve been doing a lot more fiction writing lately — I finished a draft of a horror story a few weeks ago (which is now laying fallow for a time before I edit it) and I’ve started my first-ever actual attempt at a SF story (about two-thirds of the way through the first draft). I’ve also started noodling about with a space opera novel concept I’ve had percolating about my head for a few years now (this one, actually, although I started it over completely) and, believe it or not, a screenplay. And I also mean, once the Halloween festivities are over, to finally get back on track with The Promised King. I’ve also been doing some more reading, movie-watching, music-listening, and I have some longer essays in the hopper for eventual appearance in this space. So, fear not, regular readers: new content is in the offing!

I’d like to thank everyone who has delurked already, and welcome any other lurkers to do likewise, if you’re comfortable. I truly appreciate the fact that anyone at all thinks this blog worth following!

In closing, here’s a nifty item: the Top Ten Sound Effects of the Star Wars movies:

This list is almost perfect: One sound is, in my opinion, inexplicably absent. Which one? Why — that’s for you all to guess! (For extra credit, guess which one I’d replace.)

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Into the light, lurkers!

One year ago I ran my first annual Delurking Week here at Byzantium’s Shores, and I figure it’s time to run one again. So, if you will, lurkers, please feel free to drop a note in comments! You can do so anonymously if you wish, of the “Shout-out from Walla Walla, Washington” variety; you can also do so via e-mail if so desired. Feel free to comment, ask something, whatever. I’m curious as to who’s out there!

(I’m especially curious about you. No, not you, you. Yeah, you. What are you doing with that chainsaw?)

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Where are we?

Wow — as yet, both of the last two Unidentified Earth installments, numbers 20 and 21, remain unidentified. Time for another hint for number 20, I guess. Part of this location — but not the part featured — appeared in a pretty well-known film, albeit as a different location within the film. Confused? I thought so! In other words, in the movie this location was referred to as someplace else.

I’ll hold off on hints about Number 21 until after it’s gone unidentified for more than a week.

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Grrrr.

For those of you who are not in the continual company of a kid in the 6 to 9 years old range, you won’t understand this. Those of you who are acquainted with the vagaries of said age group, however, will certainly agree with me when I say:

Evil, thy name is Webkinz.

That is all.

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The official site of Kelly Sedinger: Reader, writer, photographer, and dreamer

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