--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Probably, thinking about it.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

Well, if you want to be shot, or have your head or other parts lopped off.... then yes, it's quite wrong!

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

�Navigare Necesse Est�-'Get me out of here!'

Yeah, strangest thing. Turns out all this time it's just wanted a hug.

--G.
... we'll... come back to that
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

�They planned their campaigns just as you might make a splendid piece of harness. It looks very well; and answers very well; until it gets broken; and then you are done for. Now I made my campaigns of ropes. If anything went wrong, I tied a knot; and went on.�
-- Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington

Nope, that would imply more than one model is involved, which isn't the case - it's all the examples of a single model. It's not an intuitive construction, since it refers to a singular group and its multiple individual members collectively at the same time, but that is actually the way it should be written. Companies are sometimes referred to in the same way (e.g. "Ford make the Taurus"); it's just one of those weird things about English.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

BTW, just finished watching the first episode of "Leverage". This show kicks some serious ass. Really looking forward to see how you're going to work these characters into the next installment.

Thanks,
-T.Z.

==================================================

"I believe that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
Then find someone whose life gives them vodka and have a party."
--Ron White, stand-up comedian.

==================================================

I rather like it, but it's often avoided (along with the ensuing debate) with careful sentence construction, to the point where people see it so rarely nowadays that they automatically assume it must be a mistake. Which just leads to more writers choosing to avoid it. As I probably should've done when I gave Lain that line.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ja, -n

For America, there is the story of the chap from Puerto Rico or some other such poverty-stricken Central American banana republic who has been refused a visa on several occasions for not providing a full set of fingerprints. This is despite his several letters to the American Civil Service explaining that he does not in fact possess a full set of fingers, having lost three in an industrial accident.

For Britain, there's the Unholy Trinity of the Data Protection Act (which means you cannot photograph your child in a nativity play), the Human Rights Act (which means a car thief can sit on a roof threatening police with a shotgun whilst demanding they bring him a KFC Family Bucket and two litre bottle of Coke) and the Health And Safety Act (which means that if you want to do something next month, you need to start filling in forms about the December 1865).

Which has the most useless legislation? You decide, viewers.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

It seems unlikely to have been Puerto Rico, since a) it's not in Central America, it's an island in the Caribbean and b) it's a territory of the United States.

>For Britain, there's the Unholy Trinity of the Data Protection Act
>(which means you cannot photograph your child in a nativity play),

Is it that, or is it you cannot photograph someone else's child in a nativity play? We have something similar here (although I think it's handled state-by-state in the US); I ran into it several times when I worked in the press. Photographing school events is a complicated process now, because there's always the possibility that one or more of the children you end up catching in any photo of a school play or sporting event is, e.g., on the run from an estranged parent, and would be exposed and put in danger by appearing in the newspaper. So all the photos of such things have to be cleared through the school office, whose responsibility it is to ensure that the parents or guardians of all the minors pictured have filed a release with the school district saying that it's okay for their kids to be in press photos.

>Human Rights Act (which means a car thief can sit on a roof
>threatening police with a shotgun whilst demanding they bring him a
>KFC Family Bucket and two litre bottle of Coke)

Well, a car thief can sit and demand whatever he likes here, too, but I grant you that our cops have no obligation to bring him anything other than some very-recently-expended bullets.

>and the Health And
>Safety Act (which means that if you want to do something next month,
>you need to start filling in forms about the December 1865).

Mm, yes, they bitch about Health and Safety a lot on Top Gear. We've got the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) here, which is similar, albeit not quite as addle-brainedly strict. It's one of those things that is well-intentioned and, realistically, you wouldn't want to work (in an industrial setting, particularly) without it - it prevents things like people being forced to work high steel with no safety equipment whatsoever, which I think we can all agree is a good thing - but since legal frameworks aren't good at anticipating contingencies, it ends up causing a lot of unintended annoyance.

One thing the US has going for it, in terms of crack-addled red tapery and its avoidance, is that we're not eligible to join the EU. That saves us a lot of hassle, most of which we then inflict upon ourselves through the mechanism of our own Congress, but still. :)

(As an aside, I saw a segment on the news once in which a grave-faced British academic asserted that the reason the United States cannot join the EU - as if at some point we had tried and been rebuffed - was that we still indulge in the barbaric pastime of capital punishment. Funnily enough, I had always assumed that the main source of US ineligibility for EU membership had to do with not being in Europe, but that goes to show you what I know about these things.)

... How did we get onto this topic again?

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ah. Somewhere foreign, Spanish-speaking and unreasonably warm, then. My geography's total cack.

>... How did we get onto this topic again?

Never underestimate the power of a hyperactive, mildly politically aware, bluntly arrogant teen when it comes to derailing conversations.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

I'm already depressed about the lack of response, and this turning into a digression into international politics is just grinding me down farther.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

Or, indeed, your private lives?

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>I'm already depressed about the lack of response, and this turning
>into a digression into international politics is just grinding me down
>farther.

More like one of those 90-minute "pilot movies" cut up to fit a 45-minute episode slot. It's not the fact everything was resolved by the end, it's the lack of time given to each plot point.

The more I think about it, though, I think that's deliberate.

1) For the opening, Geoff is basically tossed in and then viciously dragged by his heels through the setup almost in as much confusion as the audience.

2) Aside from the bits of character (which were good development) that we were shown aboard the Queen, did we really need much else, there? The actual travelling through space part is pretty boring when they're not getting shot at.

3) The bank job itself -should- feel fast, rough, and chaotic, because that's the way the whole thing went down.

And the pacing stretches nicely back out once the escape is over for the denouement and works pretty smoothly.

Besides, I think we're a little spoiled by the depth of flavor in most of the 'regular' UF/FI/SOS cast members. Since most of these are new introductions to UF with the exceptions of Geoff and Saya (and even Saya's mostly a blank slate), they should feel a bit unfamiliar - needing to get to know them as we go along is kind of the point. :)

Let me... continue... *wheezes and coughs up a battered-looking lung*

I don't think it really felt rushed, more like (to continue the telly example of WengFook) one of those sitcoms with the Snap Back at the end. They'll probably continue to be back-referenced in future Geoff capers, � la Charlie's explanations of high-levels maths in Numb3rs, but it looks like it'll be a sitcom-styled series. With a body count.

The Brittas Empire, anyone?

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

Just to clarify, that series should have ended a season before it did, with him being kicked out of heaven for being too annoying, and before the cyborg shenanigans. I can't see Geoff as Mister Brittas, though. He seems to be learning the hard way how to do some things- the dropped-in-at-the-deep-end way- and I'm wondering if maybe he should start a sideline in Extreme Babysitting?

*****

"It's difficult keeping up with the cross-continuity, but I think Cosmouse just gave The Saturnian Scraphunter his Ultimate Pacifier to use against Galactapuss..."

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

YOU TAKE THAT BACK.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Boring, hypermasculine drivel
Triple X: Black Ops for the mentally deficient.
The Pacifier: Just no.
The Fast And The Furious series: Porn for 15-year-old male climate skeptics.
The Iron Giant: FANTABULOUS WONDERMENT!

Need I go on? No, no I do not. He has only ever made TWO good films. In one of them he wasn't exactly in a starring role (Riddick basically being an extra) and in the other he was the voice of a cel-shaded giant robot. Yay for you, Vinny boy, yay for you.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's
barren too, // "She's not worth
feed or hay, // "But I'll give
her this," - he blew smoke at
me - // "She was something in
her day." -- Garnet Rogers,
Small Victory

Maybe this would be better down in the general misc.

No, you don't, but not for the reasons you think.

>He has only ever made TWO good films.

Leaving aside your slightly hilarious miss as to the point of xXx, you clearly haven't seen Find Me Guilty. See if you can remedy that at some point. If nothing else, watching a Sidney Lumet film should keep you quiet for a couple of hours.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

S.

Sort of. Mike Sounders XIII is one of the AI robots from King of Braves Gaogaigar - his original "cosmo robo" form is clearly inspired by Sci-Fi Cute Robots like 7-Zark-7 and his ilk, and his "boom robo" form is more your classic Takara Transforming Robot.

>Finally, one thing I just didn't understand, and would like some
>enlightenment. "She looked as if she'd just pulled an all-nighter in a
>19th Century shirt factory." Um? All I'm getting is entertaining
>images of Jessica Alba as a result. Not complaining about that, but I
>don't understand the reference.

The garment factories of the 19th and early 20th centuries are where we get the term "sweatshop" from - they were basically huge rooms packed full of industrial sewing machines and immigrant women who worked for an inordinate number of hours per day for not very much money doing the dull and repetitive task of making shirts, trousers, and so forth. The conditions were hot, unsafe, and generally miserable. That kind of thing isn't seen often in the industrialized West any more - it's been largely stamped out by modern labor laws - but it still crops up pretty often in the less developed world. (One often finds left-wing activist types refusing to wear particular brands of shoes and whatnot on the grounds that they're made in sweatshops somewhere on the Pacific Rim.)

Anyway, 19th-century shirt factories were hot, dirty, dangerous places where underpaid women did drudgerous work for too many hours per day, so the effect I was shooting for was basically "sweaty and exhausted, and not in the good way".

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I was thinking of "What chemicals might they have used then to cause such an effect in people?", which shows you how my mind works.

"It's difficult keeping up with the cross-continuity, but I think Cosmouse just gave The Saturnian Scraphunter his Ultimate Pacifier to use against Galactapuss..."

I'm working on an annotation, so I hope that'll help you when it's done.

IF there's anyone you want right now, let me know.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"