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Mar. 3rd, 2004 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herewiss13Been a strange couple of weeks. The Novel-to-Be has retreated back into my head, having produced the very first scene. I'm getting a better handle on the actual characters, but the chronology of social progression in history is kicking my ass. I'll try to have the next segment of the history posted within the week for all my devoted fans out there. ;-)
In other news, I've won my first class-action lawsuit. Over a year ago, some kind soul here on LJ posted a link to a website which promised money if you'd bought a CD within the past 5-10 years. So I filled out the address and forgot about it. Then, Monday, a check shows up in the mail. I've stuck it to the music industry to the tune of $13.68. Not bad, really.
Have finally finished extracting pampas grass as well. Word to the wise: don't muck about with shovels and chain saws, just use high-explosives. Pampas Grass is the most insidious form of vegetation known to man. It _looks_ light and frothy (if razor-edged) on the outside, but inside is a stump thick and pithy enough for a tree...and more roots than you can shake a stick at. I spent about 10 hours shaving it all down and then another ten digging out the remainder. And I still have to clean up all the little plant fragments laying around and fill in the hole.
Have also possibly jumped back on the romance wagon. Got another mutual-wink at match.com. "Power Nerd" who happens to also be a lapsed General Science Major. After a long, silent weekend of dispair she replied (turns out she'd been in the mountains...the nerve!). OTOH, I've gave her the full disclosure of my less than appealing situation, and it's now been over 24 hours of silence. On one hand, I _did_ give her leave to run screaming into the night, on the other, I'm extremely paranoid about computer silences, so it's probably nothing.
This is the Ben Affleck near-future thriller. It didn't get the best reviews, but I actually liked it quite a bit. Affleck is a genius reverse-engineer. After ever project, his memories are wiped in an extreme version of the non-disclosure agreement and he gets a fat paycheck. As the movie starts, he's offered a _huge_ paycheck for a 3-year project (most are only a few months long).
Cut to three years later, his memory of the intervening time gone. Affleck goes to get his check, discovers that _he_ has declined it and all he gets is an envelope of personal items that aren't even his.
Turns out, he built something he shouldn't have during the 3-year blackout. A machine for seeing the future. Realizing that its existence will result in both his death and nuclear war, pre-wipe Affleck sends post-wipe Affleck 20 random objects that will help him escape capture & death and lead him to save the world. Frex: he's escaping from bad guys into a bus-depot. In the envelope, he finds a one-day bus bass.
It's really quite ingenious. On one hand, the items are all extremely random (key, paperclip, crossword puzzle, silver dollar) and post-wipe Affleck has no idea what each is for. On the other hand, it doesn't matter because pre-wipe Affleck knows when they'll be needed regardless of what post-wipe Affleck thinks.
In essence, the entire movie is one, long, alternate version of the chase scene in "Minority Report" after Cruise escapes with the precog, who mutters random commands that help them to elude their pursuers through happenstance. It also rips off an old fairy tale trope wholesale.
Virtuous girl gets three gifts from magical creature she aided; mirror, comb and (something else). Virtuous girl must flee from evil villian. As she runs away, she throws the mirror behind her, it transforms into a vast lake. The comb becomes a thick, tangled forest and the other thing is a third obstacle I can't recall. Multiply that by twenty and turn the virtuous girl into Ben Affleck and you've got Paycheck.
In other news, I've won my first class-action lawsuit. Over a year ago, some kind soul here on LJ posted a link to a website which promised money if you'd bought a CD within the past 5-10 years. So I filled out the address and forgot about it. Then, Monday, a check shows up in the mail. I've stuck it to the music industry to the tune of $13.68. Not bad, really.
Have finally finished extracting pampas grass as well. Word to the wise: don't muck about with shovels and chain saws, just use high-explosives. Pampas Grass is the most insidious form of vegetation known to man. It _looks_ light and frothy (if razor-edged) on the outside, but inside is a stump thick and pithy enough for a tree...and more roots than you can shake a stick at. I spent about 10 hours shaving it all down and then another ten digging out the remainder. And I still have to clean up all the little plant fragments laying around and fill in the hole.
Have also possibly jumped back on the romance wagon. Got another mutual-wink at match.com. "Power Nerd" who happens to also be a lapsed General Science Major. After a long, silent weekend of dispair she replied (turns out she'd been in the mountains...the nerve!). OTOH, I've gave her the full disclosure of my less than appealing situation, and it's now been over 24 hours of silence. On one hand, I _did_ give her leave to run screaming into the night, on the other, I'm extremely paranoid about computer silences, so it's probably nothing.
This is the Ben Affleck near-future thriller. It didn't get the best reviews, but I actually liked it quite a bit. Affleck is a genius reverse-engineer. After ever project, his memories are wiped in an extreme version of the non-disclosure agreement and he gets a fat paycheck. As the movie starts, he's offered a _huge_ paycheck for a 3-year project (most are only a few months long).
Cut to three years later, his memory of the intervening time gone. Affleck goes to get his check, discovers that _he_ has declined it and all he gets is an envelope of personal items that aren't even his.
Turns out, he built something he shouldn't have during the 3-year blackout. A machine for seeing the future. Realizing that its existence will result in both his death and nuclear war, pre-wipe Affleck sends post-wipe Affleck 20 random objects that will help him escape capture & death and lead him to save the world. Frex: he's escaping from bad guys into a bus-depot. In the envelope, he finds a one-day bus bass.
It's really quite ingenious. On one hand, the items are all extremely random (key, paperclip, crossword puzzle, silver dollar) and post-wipe Affleck has no idea what each is for. On the other hand, it doesn't matter because pre-wipe Affleck knows when they'll be needed regardless of what post-wipe Affleck thinks.
In essence, the entire movie is one, long, alternate version of the chase scene in "Minority Report" after Cruise escapes with the precog, who mutters random commands that help them to elude their pursuers through happenstance. It also rips off an old fairy tale trope wholesale.
Virtuous girl gets three gifts from magical creature she aided; mirror, comb and (something else). Virtuous girl must flee from evil villian. As she runs away, she throws the mirror behind her, it transforms into a vast lake. The comb becomes a thick, tangled forest and the other thing is a third obstacle I can't recall. Multiply that by twenty and turn the virtuous girl into Ben Affleck and you've got Paycheck.
