Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

Rankin/Bass: +1 beard
Jackson: –1 beard

Where?

As I told jubatus, this is a lot easier than actually writing stuff. Of course, I've taken a little time to correct things. . . . Still, I'm not bothering to worry about the fact that only a few of the changed titles are listed as such, and application of years is arbitrary.

- X what you've seen
- O what you've started but haven't finished
- Italicize what you haven't seen since you were in elementary school [This one may be a bit off.]
- Leave unchanged if neutral [?]

Classic Disney
[X] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[X] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[X] Bambi (1942)
[X] Cinderella (1950)
[X] Dumbo (1941)
[X] Fantasia (1940)
[X] The Jungle Book (1967)
[X] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[X] Mary Poppins (1964)
[X] Peter Pan (1953)
[X] Pinocchio (1940)
[X] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[X] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
[?] Song of the South (1946)

Disney's Dark Age
[?] The Aristocats (1970)
[X] The Black Cauldron (1985)
[X] The Fox and the Hound (1981)
[X] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[?] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[ ] Oliver and Company (1986)
[X] Pete's Dragon (1977)
[X] The Rescuers (1977)
[X] Robin Hood (1973)
[X] The Sword in the Stone (1963)

The Disney Renaissance
[X] Aladdin (1992)
[X] Beauty and the Beast (1991)
[X] A Goofy Movie (1995)
[X] Hercules (1997)
[ ] The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
[X] The Lion King (1994)
[X] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[X] Mulan (1998)
[X] Pocahontas (1995)
[X] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[X] Tarzan (1999)

Disney's Modern Age
[X] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
[X] Bolt (2008) (last week)
[ ] Brother Bear (2003)
[ ] Chicken Little (2005)
[ ] Dinosaur (2000)
[ ] The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
[ ] Fantasia 2000 (2000)
[ ] Home on the Range (2004)
[X] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[ ] Meet the Robinsons (2007)
[ ] Treasure Planet (2002)

Pixar
[X] A Bug's Life (1998)
[ ] Cars (2006)
[ ] Finding Nemo (2003)
[X] The Incredibles (2004)
[X] Monsters Inc. (2001)
[ ] Ratatouille (2007)
[X] Toy Story (1995)
[ ] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[X] Wall-E (2008)

Don Bluth
[X] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[X] An American Tail (1986)
[ ] Anastasia (1997)
[X] The Land before Time (1988) (the eight million sequels don't count)
[ ] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
[X] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[X] The Secret of NIMH (1982)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[X] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

Claymation
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[X] Chicken Run (2000)
[X] Corpse Bride (2005)
[?] James and the Giant Peach (1996)
[X] Nightmare before Christmas, The (1993)
[X] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[ ] Flushed Away (2006)
[ ] Coraline (2009)

CGI Glut
[X] Antz (1998)
[ ] Happy Feet (2006)
[ ] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[ ] Madagascar (2005)
[ ] Monster House (2006)
[ ] Over the Hedge (2006)
[ ] The Polar Express
[ ] Robots
[X] Shrek (2001)
[ ] Shrek 2 (2004)
[ ] Shrek the Third

Imports
[ ] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995)
[X] The Last Unicorn (1982)
[ ] Light Years
[ ] The Plague Dogs
[ ] The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Waltz with Bashir (2008)
[ ] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)

Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki
[X] Grave of the Fireflies
[ ] Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
[ ] Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
[X] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[X] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors the Yamadas
[X] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[X] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War)
[X] Porco Rosso (1992)
[X] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[ ] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] The Cat Returns
[ ] Whisper of the Heart

Satoshi Kon
[X] Millennium Actress (2001)
[ ] Paprika (2006)
[ ] Perfect Blue (1999)
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
[ ] Memories - "Magnetic Rose" (1995)

Shinkai Makoto
[ ] She and Her Cat (1999)
[X] Voices of a Distant Star (2001) [Only the self-voiced audio track]
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[ ] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

Other Ănĭme Films
[X] Adolescence of Utena
[X] Akira (1989)
[ ] Appleseed
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina
[X] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title - Vengeance of the Space Pirate)
[X] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[X] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title - Revenge of the Ninja Warrior)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden
[X] End of Evangelion
[ ] Fist of the North Star
[ ] Galaxy Express
[X] Ghost in the Shell (1996)
[ ] The Girl who Leapt through Time
[X] Lensman
[ ] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title - Clash of the Bionoids)
[ ] Metropolis (2001)
[ ] Neo-Tokyo
[?] Ninja Scroll
[ ] Patlabor the Movie
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13
[X] Project A-ko
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle
[ ] Silent Mobius
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra
[ ] Steamboy (2004)
[ ] Sword of the Stranger
[ ] Unico and the Island of Magic
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie
[X] Vampire Hunter D
[X] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force

Cartoons for Grown-Ups
[ ] American Pop
[O] The Animatrix (2003)
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie
[ ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996)
[ ] Cool World
[X] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[X] Final Fantasy: Advent Children
[ ] Fire & Ice
[ ] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Looking
[ ] Lady Death
[ ] A Scanner Darkly (2006)
[ ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
[ ] Street Fight (AKA - Coonskin)
[ ] Waking Life (2001)

Other Animated Movies I Can't Categorize
[X] Animal Farm
[ ] Animalympics
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
[X] Batman and the Mask of Phantasm
[X] The Brave Little Toaster (1988)
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie
[?] Care Bears: The Movie
[X] Charlotte's Web (1973)
[X] Fern Gully
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie
[?] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords
[O] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword
[X] The Hobbit
[O] The Iron Giant (1999) (Yes, I know. Shut up)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier
[X] Lord of the Rings
[X] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[?] My Little Pony: The Movie
[ ] Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
[ ] The Prince of Egypt (1998) [Did see a music video made from it in class, though]
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie
[ ] Quest For Camelot (1999)
[ ] Ringing Bell
[ ] The Road to El Dorado (2000)
[ ] Rock & Rule
[X] Space Jam
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
[ ] Superman: Doomsday
[ ] The Swan Princess
[X] Transformers: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Wizards
[X] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
[ ] Wonder Woman

What I've learned from this:

1. I've actually seen some movies he hasn't.

2. Apparently CGI is not Ănĭme. Or is it because they've had theatrical releases in places other than Japan?

3. Only two of the animated Tolkien films qualify. The other one was made for TV.

4. I still haven't bothered to watch my copy of Toki o Kakeru Shōjo. My fixer has noted Sora o~, but this part may be news to her?.

"Your lawyer?"

"His pastor."

( Frank discussion of sexuality )

Also, when I was looking up details for the post subject (as you can see, I couldn't find one of the names, so I kept it from the misquoted source), I happened to read a bunch of complaints about that episode on the site. People were outraged that NBC was willing to depict a fictional Christian sect as extremist fanatics. At least one registered user said that he was going to boycott the show because of it. In the 18th season, you're boycotting a show because of portrayal of guest charas in one episode? Is it so offensive to suggest that it's possible for self-proclaimed Christians to be zealots? (I guess that means that—just like the Holocaust—the Spanish Inquisition, the KKK, and so on are only myths.) But it's all right to have an episode where a Muslim guy beats an ADA within an inch of her life to prevent her from prosecuting the man who raped his sister?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's true that the Bible doesn't specifically state that you must kill those who sleep with Muslims. (Apparently the prophets didn't predict that part. I think Sean was actually talking about how adultery is against one of the Ten Commandments.) As far as I've heard, nor does it specifically say that you have to lynch black guys, or prevent gays from practicing their beliefs, or persecute any other innocents.

On that subject, I was surprised by this (coincidentally, also at NBC, since that was the first hit that seemed to have the more common wording). However, it sounds as if the people who are willing to admit that they're not on the only path are the more casual practitioners, not choir boys and ordained clergy.

I'm far too lazy to correct the titles, particularly considering I don't even recognize half of them.

Rules:

What we have below are the top 106 books most often marked as "unread*" by LibraryThing’s users--as in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded.

- bold the ones you've read,
- underline the ones you read for classes (at least once),
- italicize the ones you started but didn't finish,
- * if it's actually on your bookcase and you haven't read it.
- + for the ones that I really want to read but haven't gotten to yet

( As one might expect, the list is about 106 lines long. )

As you can see from the nonexistent Venn diagram, I don't do my homework—and I don't read prose given a choice. The Hobbit just barely made the cut; I imagine it'll fall off the list once the blockbuster comes out, too.

For some reason, my brother has become curious about gaming again recently, so I had him send me a link to some memes he'd found so I could take them (as usual). Remember, I'm neutral evil and have ability scores as noted.

The first one is rather interesting, as the descriptions of alignment are almost identical to those used in D&D v.3.5 (the only current major RPG that uses such a system), except that the words "moral" and "ethical" are reversed. It also appears that it may use the real-world definition of "sentient" rather than the galaxy-far-far-away version.

"You are 55.6% Good.
You are 25.6% Lawful.
Alignment: Neutral Good

You do the best good that a person could be expected to do. You are devoted to helping others. You are willing to work with authority figures, but you do not feel any particular allegiance to them.

You are the stereotypical “Benefactor.” You believe in doing good without any particular bias for or against order.

Examples of characters[ ]and people who fit into the same alignment as you include Mother Theresa, Ghand[h]i, Gandalf, Indiana Jones, O-B[b]i-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, and the Dalai Lama.

Description[s] of alignments are adapted from the Revised (v[.]3.5) System Reference Document, and are presented in accordance with the Open Gaming License v1.0a."

I'm too lazy to italicize them as is proper, so I'll use that for the ones I've seen to differentiate them from the title bar. I'm sure you can guess how this works as easily as I did.

Best Picture Winners:
1928—Wings/Sunrise
1929—The Broadway Melody
1930—All Quiet on the Western Front
1931—Cimarron
1932—Grand Hotel
1933—Cavalcade
1934—It Happened One Night
1935—Mutiny on the Bounty
1936—The Great Ziegfield
1937—The Life of Emile Zola
1938—You Can't Take It with You
1939—Gone with The Wind
1940—Rebecca
1941—How Green Was My Valley
1942—Mrs. Miniver
1943—Casablanca
1944—Going My Way
1945—The Lost Weekend
1946—The Best Years of Our Lives
1947—A Gentleman's Agreement
1948—Hamlet
1949—All the King's Men
1950—All about Eve
1951—An American in Paris
1952—The Greatest Show on Earth
1953—From Here to Eternity
1954—On the Waterfront
1955—Marty
1956—The King and I
1957—Bridge on the River Kwai
1958—Gigi
1959—Ben Hur
1960—The Apartment
1961—West Side Story
1962—Lawrence of Arabia
1963—Tom Jones
1964—My Fair Lady
1965—The Sound of Music
1966—A Man for All Seasons
1967—In the Heat of the Night
1968—Oliver
1969—Midnight Cowboy
1970—Patton
1971—The French Connection
1972—The Godfather
1973—The Sting
1974—The Godfather Part 2
1975—One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976—Rocky
1977—Annie Hall
1978—The Deer Hunter
1979—Kramer vs. Kramer
1980—Ordinary People
1981—Chariots of Fire
1982—Gandhi
1983—Terms of Endearment
1984—Amadeus (a good proportion, but audio only to avoid having to get another actor to play the freighter captain)
1985—Out of Africa
1986—Platoon (×2)
1987—The Last Emperor
1988—Rain Man
1989—Driving Miss Daisy
1990—Dances with Wolves
1991—Silence of the Lambs
1992—Unforgiven
1993—Schindler's List
1994—Forrest Gump
1995—Braveheart
1996—The English Patient
1997—Titanic
1998—Shakespeare in Love
1999—American Beauty
2000—Gladiator (×!)
2001—A Beautiful Mind (×2)
2002—Chicago
2003—Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (×3)
2004—Million Dollar Baby
2005—Crash
2006—The Departed
2007—No Country for Old Men

Total: 10/81 (altered from 79 because there are supposedly 80 of them, and one had two awards that were later rolled into one)

Incidentally, the two oldest movies that I've seen in full (as far as I know) were also nominees for '39. I'm sure you can guess which those were.

I looked at cast roll for the new Lord of the Rings movies. For some reason, it was separated in two sections: one for characters who were played by only one actor each, and one for those who were played by more than one each. The first section had only five characters listed: the Nine Walkers, minus the four hobbits.

Edit (2007.02.26): Also, Figwit was on the second list.

This is of course not consistent with the waking world, as almost everyone, even Sméagol, was played by a single actor, excepting stunt and size doubles. The only exceptions that come to mind are the Nazgûl, who were voiced by Andy Serkis.

On the topic of movies, I've just run across another meme, which is also a quiz. Sadly, I hardly watch movies, and the few that I've bothered to rewatch tend to be the geek "bibles," so any quotes from them would be easily identified, so I don't know whether I can make it have a point.

Edit (2008.06.20): I've taken a stab.

Typing of limited editions, I find it odd that they put one on dirt-cheap clearance. If I really cared about making money, I'd have bought five. It's not at an appropriate scale to be used with the game that doesn't require you to use miniatures that look just like everyone else's. Then again, the latter point doesn't make much difference now that the bastards canceled bitz service. Speaking of which, considering the fact that D&D Chainmail never showed a single conversion and went out of business to be replaced by a game where you don't even get to paint the minis yourselves, I was quite surprised to find that they published this series.

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

Project Cow Level in General: I've made some very brief notes on the page. I may look around and get some more interesting members of the team (a dwarf hunter and a gnome techno mage, perhaps?), because it's looking very thin at the moment.

This: I've done a few sketches, including some tests for different tauren horn structures (for variety). For logistical reasons, Aonghus's horns are in the same shape as those of a minotauros character from an old Slayers fan-story I first planned back in high school. This reminded me that arifyn might be another prospect for coloring this (on which I planned to comment, but haven't gotten around to posting), but I'd prefer if he used a different palette from our previous collaboration (to which he contributed without my knowledge).

This: Hell, even the most intellectual comic writer I know uses cheesy Scottish dialect/accent for dwarves. (When looking for that, it also occurred to me that someone has seen Alvissa and Gollum together. Also, remember that the Bridge of Khazad-dûm (dissed in the discussion of the Bridge of Khazad-Doom) was specifically designed to be hard to cross as a defense mechanism.) Come to think of it, I don't know where that stereotype originated, even after some cursory research. The legendarium apparently uses such an Anglicization, judging by the liner notes, but this isn't stated in the books, so only Tolkien scholars knew it until the live-action movies came out. The earliest well known source that comes to mind is WARCRAFT II: Tides of Darkness. Does anyone remember D&D players using cheesy Scottish accents before that?

This: In looking for other bases, I was reminded of the story of the dwarves and tauren's first altercations over Bael Modan. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, most of the description of this on Gann Stonespire and Bael Modan is just elaboration by users, as I haven't found any sources on that except the text for Gann's Reclamation. Has anyone heard anywhere reliable that it was Gann himself who tried the diplomatic efforts, or that the driving out of the tauren by the excavators and their killing by the League were two separate events? Any information related to this would be helpful. Of course, it's not terribly important, as WARCRAFT is probably the setting where the creators care the least about continuity of any I've studied, so probably not too many will mind if my story has a few inconsistencies with lore.

Although Azeroth is a very cheesy place, out of respect for my ancestors (being a mongrel is fun), I wanted to do a bit of research for Project Cow Level to try to use reasonably authentic Scottish dialect (as the story centers on a mostly dwarven team of prospectors). In my initial research, I was surprised to find that the stereotypes appear to come from both the Scottish English dialect and the Scots Anglic language, which I didn't even know existed. Furthermore, I'm not sure all of the contributors on Wiktionary know either—it lacks much in the way of sourcing or discussion, the two chief balancing factors for Wikipedia. I really don't want to have to read an actual book, so I'll probably just fake it.

Another option is to play a Dwarf in The Hobbit, in which case I'd get a dialect coach. My brother suggested this back when the live-action LOTR movies came out, because he claims we have disproportionately large heads. Of course, it might take some extra prosthetics to make me look like I'm not half-Easterling. (Being a mongrel is fun.) There are also these, but I doubt 35 minutes of coaching would let me master the vernacular to any great degree.

My group (which included arifyn, I think—see note here) was playing a session of some table-talk RPG. Oddly enough, we were doing it in a lecture hall (one of the ones with the rows of desks on increasingly high levels), and the players were interspersed amongst a bunch of spectators. Anyway, the party was currently defending against the Satyxis's assault on Osgiliath, and I was trying to decide on the fly whether their leader should be a straight fighter or rely on sneak attack damage. In any case, I had my bases covered, as I planned that if she were killed I could implant her brain in a warjack—an odd idea, considering that I think even Cryxian 'jacks are run with artificial cortices, and the Dragonfather's followers have plenty of other ways of bringing back the dead. . . .

Apparently I've been reading too much of blitzcon's LJ, because I was working alongside Ron Paul, a guest star in Star Trek: Necropunk and some other show I don't remember.

Last night, I instead had a dream about The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, in which the female PCs had to keep casting mind-affecting spells on the men to get them to actually try to advance the quest.