justvinnie

After missing some of the past episodes, gf demanded that I watch the finale with her. Must say I was pleasantly surprised. While I understand that under duress people will go to extremes, I have always felt that the BSG fleet went to the impractical end. The BSP fleet (can one ship be called a fleet?) went to the fanatic end. Because both sides are flawed, t interplay made the interactions more real then some of the past "drama" for me. What really impressed me most about this series is the acting though. It's got some of the best talent around, even if many of them are unknowns until now. However, there are a few points that I don't quite agree with on htis episode. How the fart did the BSP ever resupplied? We saw that the BSG couldn't go for two weeks without resupplying from the civilian ships and yet in the ep, the BSP resupplied the BSG. I find that hard to believe considering the BSP had no support ships. It's been months now, where the hell do they get their rations? So unless they had the trekkie replicators, I don't see how the ship could have made it this long. Admittedly they can scavenge fuel and parts from the destroy cyclon outposts and what nots, but we have seen very little evidence that such facilities maintain large numbers of human form cylons. They are mostly mechanical forms. As such they wouldn't have large rations supplies. Secondly, the BSP must have a shitload of spare Viper parts to be able to maintain active offensive military operations and still keep all their Vipers flying AND supply BSG. So either the cylons are rolling over for them or all the BSP are super invincible ace pilots, I don't see them lasting as long as they did and still maintain all those Vipers. I also hated that Cain is a female. Not to go PC or anything but why does the psycho captain have to be a female? And being female, how could she condone raping of an enemy agent? I'm sorry, but I don't care how much I hate someone, there are certain morales that make me better than a beast. If I didn't feel comfortable with her on my ship, I would execute her. Allowing her to be the crew... toy is unacceptable. In the end I expect people to be reasonable and honorable. I didn't think that the BSG is reasonable but at least honorable. The BSP is neither reasonable or honorable. vinnie

Dude, if I remind you of the kinds of chicks you date, all I can say is you have awful taste in women. Then again I recall you have a thing for doorknobs, so I guess you're not too picky. Besides I thought AgentONE doesn't believe in calling women chicks? vinnie 324259[/snapback] High Schools don't have women... Looks like you hang on my every word... Flattering. 324267[/snapback] Fine, you have bad taste in girls. And it's Jemstone's words that I remember. Very opinionated, she is. I happen to like that. I should mention that I have near photographic memory. Age is taking it's toll though. Starting to show lapses in details every now and then. vinnie

Dude, if I remind you of the kinds of chicks you date, all I can say is you have awful taste in women. Then again I recall you have a thing for doorknobs, so I guess you're not too picky. Besides I thought AgentONE doesn't believe in calling women chicks? vinnie

324240[/snapback] *wonders how much anima spiritia AgentONE generates with his self-passion* on second thought, I'm actually not that curious. vinnie

Macross 7 shows no evidence at all that Anima Spiritia is not heavily connected to singing. The rest is just nothing but retroactively shoehorning Macross 7 themes back into Macross where they had no place. No thanks. 324126[/snapback] Veffidas generated anima spiritia at the end with her drumming. Anima spiritia has nothing to do with singing. It has to do with passion. As Basara puts it, "It's the burning heart of passion." If you are passionate about something and pour your heart and soul into it, you can generate anima spiritia. It isn't actually anything special in the sense that everyone can do it, but we lack the passion to do so. Basara was the only who who had a high enough level to make a difference. Somehow I don't think passion is weakness. vinnie

Is it me or the hands not retracted into the forearm? I always hated that about the design of the VF-1. It makes no sense because in battroid mode that area would be empty. Which translated to small hands on the toys. vinnie

Completely agreed. Stargate doesn't pretend to be a serious show with serious issues. It's more of a fun mindless romp through the galaxies. As such I take it for what it is, relatively mindless entertainment. It's the same way with Firefly, which accomplishes the same fun factor but maintains a greater sense of seriousness. That's why it's still favorite sci fi series. BSG wants to be serious. Ok, I take it seriously. What? It's full of stupid people so as to set up contrived drama? It's not a bad show, just not good either. This latest ep which I did watch, because the new gf sat through Stargate for me, the least is I sit through BSG for her. Apollo is an idiot. He takes off after Boomer when he sees her run. Never mind you there's a Cylon shooting down on him and that he's abandoning the people he is supposed to to protect. This is obviously to set up the dramatic conflict where he struggles with Boomer for the grenade launcher (?) and she kicks him off to destroy the last Cylon. Oh great, so now they are going to have him be conflicted over whether he should or should not trust Boomer because she saved their collective asses. Also why was a nobody carrying the most powerful weapon? Starbuck is supposed to be a crack shot right? Why isn't she carrying it? Again drama set up that makes no sense. Oh yes, Adama is a great character, but what they did to him in this last ep was stupid. Now they turned him into a wuss who just wants his little boy back. Glad to see that there are people out there who do not think BSG is a gift from the gods of sci fi. Felt like I was the only one last week. Like I said, don't hate the show, am just apathetic about it.

Agreed, but applies to all stories. Mindless violence and extreme sex gets old fast, at least to watch. I just don't think BSG is all that. Nice premise and nice mood and atmosphere, failure in dynamics both character and event. At least for me. Eh, if you think so. I'm confident there's very little about the show that I can't debate on. And you missed my point that it's not exactly that hard to find such a nebula. I understand why people like this show. I had the marathon over the weekend because everyone had high praise for it, including my new gf (the real reason why I watched it). Figured I'd see what the fuss was about. To tell you the truth, I don't really care to see what the next episode is, but she probably will, which means I probably will too. I don't hate the show, just not impressed with it. And it's in my nature to analyze everthing. Can't feel one way or another if you don't really know why. Actually tried to rewatch yesterday. Never know if opinions change once you are aware of where things are headed. It was painful, found myself forwarding a lot (oddly enough to scenes of Adama Sr and the CIC). At least we agree that Firefly is good. Still pop in an episode every now and then. vinnie PS: Anyone listen to Vienna Teng? This is cool.

My point is that the tactics displayed aren't logical in keeping with the tech level. FTL means that the Cylons can show up any moment. If there is not standing intelligence that the area is clear then it can't be assumed to be clear because a scout report from several hours ago said it was clear. It's been shown that the Raptors are capable of making continuous jumps. The fact that they were not prepared to jump back immediately is lack of logical tactics. Being surpised is one thing, being caught unprepared is unforgivable. Another thing that really bothers me is that the reason the ammunitions depot in Ragnar was there was because it is known that the radiation affects cylon technology. Considering that Adama is aware of human form cylons, why didn't he just hang out in the nebulae for a bit to flush out all the infiltrators. Such nebulae aren't exactly difficult to find either. They tend to be large after all and broadcast distinct powerdul radiation signatures that surely the BSG can detect. vinnie

Geez that's like the longest post I've ever made. vinnie

True I did give any reasons because I was mere stating my overall impression. After having read and heard so much about how great this series is, I guess I came in expecting way more than it delivered for me. I feel that too often the characters act in contrived ways to stimulate more "drama". While this makes for better story telling the situations they get into are not within the realm of reasonable, especially when I consider this a "serious" sci fi series. Since you asked for a breakdown so politely, I will oblige. Let's start with the miniseries. Humanity must have been really stupid to ignore the fact that the Cylons simple "disappeared". Surely you'd think we'd learn our lessons the first time round. It seems that only William Adama was smart enough to keep his ship's computers unnetworked. History is doomed to repeat itself if we don't learn from it. This seems to be a pretty big lesson not to learn. So all the ships are disabled with a virus. I find that hard to believe. Also surely we'd be smart enough to expect an attack again as well as advance Cylon units since the first war? The ambassador had tech sheets on old units. Secondly, the use of FTL jumps. It is mentioned that this form of travel is not often used (jumping to Ragnar) before the series starts and only 60% of the civilain fleet is equipped with them. You'd think that FTL travel would be an integral part of space travel as well as defense systems. There are only 12 colonies. You'd think that humanity is more adventurous and spread out a little more. Are there no remote backwater planets? It seems to me that humanity hasn't exactly been busy charting space either, as it seems the BSG is constantly surveying new planets. Why didn't the 12 colonies try to find Kobol and Earth? From the wording of the series, it seems like humanity found 12 habitable planets and were satisfied. Unlikely given human curiosity. Why are there only 12 models? We know that Six infiltrated over 2 years prior. Given there immense resources, I doubt 12 is all they can do to crank out new models. Besides once the interface between organic and electonic is complete, generating diverse bodies types shouldn't be that hard. It's not like each protein shell operates on different principles. As long as the wiring is the same, the shell can look whater they want. Lastly, why the hell is life going on as usual? Tom Zarek in the series even says it, their current culture is an illusion - lawyers that have no clients, businesses that sell nothing. Why was there not an overhaul of the social system. Start training military personnel. Most of the fleet is near damn defenseless! Install gun batteries on the ships for basic defense. The whole government aspect is a charade. I can't stand the character of Laura Roslin. It's stupid. This is not life as usual. Humanity is about to die and here you have a bunch of defenseless people. More than anything I hated this aspect of the show. It's so contrived. It's what really killed the show for me, the stupidity of the people. The civilians are sitting around waiting to die, sheep for the slaughter. I wished Zarek had won that VP. Maybe the people would have had some sense knocked into them. That's just from the miniseries. While I don't recall each and everything "slap my head" moment in much of the earlier eps, I do know they occured often. So I'll just start by naming the few at the end. They knew the Cylons were making sweeps of space in search of the fleet. Why were they caught unawares of the Cylons over Kobol with the 3 raptors? It doesn't matter if a previous survey cleared the area. FTL means that the moment the survey left the Cylons could show up. Always be prepared for Cylon attacks no matter what. Same way when Tyrol and Callie and the third guy were coming back with the med kit. Getting there they are all careful, but coming back, it's like they are taking a stroll though the woods. That was stupid. And Starbucks defection was... silly though you could still write it off. Anyways, enough of a rant. Like everything else, BSG is probably not for everyone. I love Firefly, but's a different beast and doesn't try to take itself seriously so I can forgive the shortcomings. BSG takes itself serious and so it fails because I view it as not being reasonable enough. It's a nice stark image of the future, just make the events and characters more plausible . I can easily see why many people think its a great series. I'm just unimpressed. vinnie

I just watch BSG for the first time. Had a 2 day marathon. All I can say is... too many plotholes. Characters are acting stupid from day one. I'm sorry, I just don't like this series. It's such a disappointment since everyone is raving about it. vinnie

RNAi only suppresses gene expression. This is great for helping with metabolic diseases and viral infections. I still want to see an effective delivery system though. Those hairpins need to be inside the cell and destroyed to confer long term suppression. The other thing is how to reverse the process. vinnie

Oh yeah, I hated Clash. Marvel is too idealized, and Superman was too dense. I mean why the hell would Luthor build a bunch of buildings for poor families and then blow it up??? That and its not like he doesn't know that Luthor knows that he has super hearing. It was such an obvious setup. As Batman says, "Leave it to you to charge in with both arms swinging." vinnie

I thought Panic in the Sky wasn't as good a climax as I had hoped. By the end of Flashpoint, I wash all pumped up, but the fighting in Panic, while satisfying just seemed to end... too conveniently. The twist at the end should be interesting. Luthor's a sick, sick man. That said, I think Kingdom Come was more about metahumans learning to cope with other metahumans, right? I mean there's the old guard with their chivalrous code and the new guard who does as they please. Humans no longer have confidence in the old guard. The new guard take over and the old ones go into hiding. The new ones cause problems, old ones come back and deal with it. JLU is more about metahumans dealing with humans and their paranoia. vinnie Spoiler.... If it was so easy to reach the Watchtower by missles, why even bother with an invasion force? They were going to blow it up anyways, they should have just sent a couple of real missles.

Can't say I keep up with the comic mythos, but just wondering, can electricity hurt Superman? I mean like severly injure him? vinnie?

Bored during the summer, I downloaded the Justice League eps. For some unknown reason to me, the Canucks get their eps like 2 week before us US people do. Anyways, the latest one is Flashpoint. Man is this show getting dark. This is even better than Batman: TAS. Every ep is such a cliffhanger. Spoiler alert! Just wondering if anyone has seen the eps since Doomsday Sanction. There's a war brewing between the League and the US gov. Project Cadmus has an army of super soldiers. My question is where the hell is Batman. How did Luthor get remote acess to the Watchtower, esp such a something as primary as the binary fusion cannon. We know that in Doomsday Sanction, Wayne was unhappy with Superman and starting to doubt the League. We all know how paranoid Wayne is and there's no way he didn't implement safety precautions to prevent remote take over of the tower. More the point then is, did Wayne help Luthor gain access? There's no way IMO Luthor could have hacked the Watchtower so easily, at least not with Batman the one responsible for security. Vinh

DAMN! you guys need a to get a life... I need to get a life too since I can't believe I just read through this thread. I love M7. MII is ok. Don't hate it. So I voted neither. The poll is skewed since it would seem then that even though M7 ranks much higher than MII for me, it isn't salient based on my vote. To truly assess how much more people like one show or the other, you'll need two polls asking people to rank how they liked each show, then comparing the statistics from both poll to each other. And azrael, it was indeed I who what made that post on the old board. I can't believe you remembered it. I still watch M7 every now and then especially when I start feeling angry and want to bashed someone or something... It's so much harder to refrain from violence. vinnie

While I don't download movies, I could see why people would. The past 5 times I've been to the movies, I left feeling like I wasted $19 (popcorn & drinks) with my dates. I don't go anymore. Everynow and then i will see something interesting, but then I'll just rent it (and some of those weren't even worth renting!). If they are "losing" mone, the studios need to make better movies. Until then, I'll just rent movies at my viewing pleasure... vinnie

Angels and Demon was far superior to The Da Vinci Code. As for movie... bleh. Not really interested. It wasn't the action that made the story even remotely interesting... vinnie

I wonder... PCP's reactive in the upper atmosphere to from diatomic haildes that can initiate a free radical chain reaction that destroys ozone. Is it possible that UV will do the same to PVC and other halogenated plastic polymers. If that's the case UV is worser than air oxidation. vinnie

Different plastics will be affected by UV and air oxidation at different rate. I don't keep up with plastic technology, bet I bet they do have plastics that are resistant to one or the other. Mind you resistant, not immune. Bullet proof glass is made from polycarbonate. They suggest you have it changed once a year because UV causes it to weaken and breakdown. Of course, even with the most perfect storage possible, one cannot stop entropy from taking over... vinnie

One simple answer: oxidation. Oxidation is a chemical process whereby a compound loses electrons. We live in an oxidative environment. That's why metals rust. Our biochemistry is tuned to take advantage of the oxidative nature of the air we breathe. Guess what oxygen does? Exposure to ordinary air alone will cause all plastics to yellow. The stripping of electrons will make the plastic breakdown and change color. Plastics are polymers, in other words long chains of carbon. This opens up even another source for oxidation to occur in plastics. UV light is easily absorbed by plastic. UV is extremely high energy and can cause electrons to be ejected. This causes the formation of free radicals that cause chemical reactions to break the plastic down. All plastics will yellow over time in the environment. White plastic will exhibit the most obvious yellowing while colored plastics will be masked by pigments. Some plastics yellow more rapidly than others. I have no doubt that Toynami opted for cheap plastic that yellows easily. The only real way to prevent yellowing is to lock your toy in a vault that is flushed with inert gases and bury it underground. vinnie

several times. Against Bruticus on Cybertron and when there was this super exploding thingy that threaten to destroy all of them and Megatron transormed so Prime could fire it off and save their asses. Sorry it's been almost two decades since I've seen TF. But I do know there were several times when that happened. vinnie

Is it me or does the AFOS resemble the Protodevilns alot? Both in looks and capabilities. It seems then that the Protoculture employed techno-organic weapon platforms (which the Protodevilns were). Perhaps the only difference between the AFOS and the Protodevilns was the super dimensional organ? vinnie