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Post by 1stAgent on Aug 2, 2009 14:11:20 GMT -5
And after this latest session, maybe I better go hide somewhere...
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 31, 2009 23:11:15 GMT -5
Hey, welcome! Glad to have you on board!
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 31, 2009 17:45:44 GMT -5
We're on staff this year, which means late hours and being on call all weekend, so we've got to stay in the hotel this year.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 29, 2009 21:41:01 GMT -5
What exactly is "so far behind that it's not even funny?" We can rap about volume one too you know.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 27, 2009 15:56:02 GMT -5
The important thing now is that the Cubs are in first place. With another relievers and no more slumping bats, they could be all right this year.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 20, 2009 23:43:29 GMT -5
Hi, Nikara! Thanks for signing up. Hope we can have a blast with our little corner of the interwebs.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 20, 2009 20:10:51 GMT -5
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 19, 2009 13:20:34 GMT -5
My hometown convention... which as a staff member I am legally obligated to promote wherever I can. It's October 23-25 in Madison, Wisconsin. Check it out! geekkon.net/
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 16, 2009 23:16:02 GMT -5
In an effort to kickstart the Renee board, here's my thoughts on the latest movie about those blokes in that British private school of magic. It's worth mentioning that when all this MST business started, I didn't know a lick about Harry Potter other than that it involved a school of magic. Likewise, I haven't read a paragraph of the books, and refuse to do so until MST is completed (and judging by the size of them, possibly afterwards as well). So it's nice to see the story unfold and compare and contrast the elements.
I've always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Harry Potter series. I love the world that was created and I love the characters in it and the general course of events that have unfolded. In that regard, the movie's fantastic as a "darkest before the dawn" moment that always proceeds the final act of any good story. When the focus was solely on the primary plot, it was incredible. Save for my eternal frustration with the endless loophole and anti-climaxes spurned by the killing curse (that's now three straight endings punctured by it; at least this one was heavily telegraphed), the ending was amazing. For all the talk about the big omissions from the last chapters of the book, it's clear why they were left out: they interfered with the flow.
That interfering with the flow thing is the big problem with the middle of the movie. The whole relationship subplots are cute, but given the magnitude of what's going on around them, it's hard not to wonder why they're given all this attention. If there's a point to be made regarding their characters, it can be done in far less screen time invested here (I had a similar problem with this in the fourth movie). There's a buildup to this tremendous war; I honestly don't care who Ron or Ginny are snogging. I've come to realize that characters like Lavender and Cormac are part of the reason Marie is such a surprisingly popular character in MST: she's not a two-dimensional throwaway solely there to make someone jealous.
I'm not a fan of beating-around-the-bush scenarios; they're too easy and too emotionally manipulative. The Ron and Hermoine thing really should have been settled by now, particularly when you see how settled Harry and Hermoine are around each other. And Ginny seems to have all the depth of a token romantic interest in a cheap comedy or action movie: she's there because the main character's gotta hook up with somebody. Since she's barely in the third and fourth movie, with only light hints of romance in two and five, it's hard to really pull for Harry and Ginny. Speaking of Ginny, whatever happened to "once you go black, you never go back?"
I loved seeing Draco actually get a sizable role in this movie, but that might stem from my frustration of him being a trite bully in the first movie and an utter waste in the next four. Shame they couldn't have told us anything about him in the first five movies (namely his actual moral code), otherwise we might have been able to better appreciate what he was angsting about all the time.
It's a very good movie, but suffers from the same problem as Goblet of Fire: unnecessary fluff pulls you farther away from the gravitas than it should. Thankfully, this proves to be better than Goblet in giving us time to soak in and appreciate the ending.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 15, 2009 23:52:17 GMT -5
Heya der! Glad to have you aboard on our exciting new venture.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 15, 2009 16:24:34 GMT -5
As a courtesy to the rest of us, please keep your avatars small. When we say small, we mean both size and bandwidth. We don't want to spend all day loading the page because of your GIF, and whoever hosts your image doesn't want us loading it either. Avatars should not be larger than 150x150.
Signature images are allowed, as long as the combined width of your signature is smaller than 700x200.
Violating either of these gives us the right to do whatever we want with your avatar or signature. We will have fun with it. You probably won't.
Note that we have several nice imbedded avatars using the artwork for the five main characters and Gaia-style avatars for most of the main cast... and Reggie. If you want one for a character not featured, ask nicely and we'll see about making one.
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Post by 1stAgent on Jul 14, 2009 22:02:34 GMT -5
Proclamation #1: Anything that would get the forum in trouble will get you in trouble. Straight from the forum host: “User's web site may not contain content promoting the use of illegal drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, nudity, or any other form of adult content, profanity, hate, spam, fraud, racism, mlm, pyramid schemes, or promote any illegal activity.” There is no wiggle room here, no matter how good your hentai fanart is or how much someone wants pirated software.
Proclamation #2: Act like an adult. Not necessarily like a mature adult, but petty arguments and inappropriate childish behavior will not endear you to anyone and may lead to disciplinary action. Likewise, please attempt to make your posts coherent. The local grammar police is tied up with the novel itself, but grammatical atrocities borne of netspeak may be incomprehensible to those of us not taking Lucidrol.
Proclamation #3: No personal attacks on forum members. Blatantly insulting fellow forum members will not be tolerated. Constructive criticism and intelligent debates are always welcome (see Proclamation #2), but flaming is not. Likewise, hating on anyone's race, religion, belief system, ethnicity, sex or sexual orientation may be grounds for warnings or banishment per Proclamation #1.
Proclamation #4: No threats of violence against anybody. Serious threats will be taken seriously and you will be banned.
Proclamation #5: Watch your language, but don't watch someone else's. All we ask is for a little decorum. We're all adults here (or acting like one per Proclamation #2), so a little foul language isn't going to kill us. Persistent vulgarity is frowned upon.
Proclamation #6: No spam overdosing. We're trying to get our projects over too, so we understand the need for the occasional shameless plug. Constant self-promotion, however, is not welcome. Using your first post to sell a commercial product is grounds for instant banning. For this rule, we will have a clear bias favoring those that contribute to the forum in a positive manner and want to promote their labors of love.
Proclamation #7: We aren't responsible for protecting your identity. As much as we're all friends, remember that this is a public forum and anyone can see it. That includes Google. Never give out any personal information. If you do, don't blame us if anything happens.
Proclamation #8: We will act in order to maintain control. To keep things orderly, site administrators reserve the right to move, lock or delete posts or threads. They may also issue warnings, temporary suspension of posting privileges, or outright banning. Normally, we will start with warnings and punish more severely with each violation, but egregious offenses may demand instant wrath.
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