by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 27, 2012 | Blog
Bad Guys. They’re very cool. Awesome even so use them wisely. They can make or break a story, book, movie, game. Darth Vader (until those last three abominations) was always more interesting than Luke. I really got to thinking about villains after the epic fail of Mass Effect 3. I was thinking back over the final ten minutes where Shepard is faced with this glowing AI/Star Child who gives you this gibberish reason why the Reapers show up every 50,000...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 26, 2012 | Blog
So EA/Bioware are now on my permanent fecal roster. Ty Franck offered me valuable advice regarding the expanded DLC for the end of Mass Effect 3. He said he wasn’t going to download it because the company would track the number of downloads, and if there are a lot of them they will take it as vindication of their crappy ending. So I waited for some game site to comment and upload the “expanded” endings. Someone did. I watched them, and — Do they think we are...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 26, 2012 | Blog
I’d use the “F” word except I don’t want to offend. What ought to offend people is what is happening in Louisiana. Apparently choice vouchers are being offered by the state, and people are using them to send their kids to religious schools where they are taught young Earth Creationism, bigotry and suspicion of mathematics. You can read about it here, and even watch a video. I’ve been too frightened and depressed to run the video. The...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 24, 2012 | Blog
Okay you’ve been warned. SPOILERS**************SPOILERS***********SPOILERS***********SPOILERS Why didn’t BRAVE work? It wasn’t bad it was just flat, and I think it was because they couldn’t decide who the movie was actually about. It began as Merida’s movie, but then it became Elinor’s, and it is mom who ultimately defeats the big bad, and saves the day. Yes, Merida repairs the tapestry, but the message is...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 22, 2012 | Blog
So I’m reading the news this morning, and to add to my depression over the fact that a large percentage of Americans don’t accept evolution I run across this little gem. Here’s the highlight from the article — the 63% of Republicans polled believe that Iraq had WMD. Let’s contrast this with the nation as a whole. In the panicked, drum beat to war of 2003 70% of American believed Iraq had WMD thanks to a relentless campaign of misinformation on the part...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 22, 2012 | Blog
So why was The Hounds of Baskerville a failure as an episode of TV? A number of reasons. First among them being that they violated a cardinal rule in mysteries. They never gave the audience/reader the chance to see the answer. It all came out of Sherlock remembering something he read which we the audience hadn’t seen. The method used by the villain to do his nefarious actions was just idiotic, and didn’t bear close scrutiny They strained to tie in a tiny D...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 18, 2012 | Blog
As I’ve been struggling with this Old Mars story I had a realization — I write short stories much more easily when they are set in a universe I have already created and where I have spent a lot of time. The other stories I’ve written for Gardner and George were set in the Imperials universe, and the Edge universe, and they just flowed onto the page (or the screen). This one is set in a sort of Bradbury/Heinleinesque Mars. A place I don’t know well, and I’m...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 18, 2012 | Blog
I figure enough people have played Mass Effect 3 by now that I don’t have to put up giant spoiler warnings. So, plunging in. After I finished the game it asked if I wanted to keep playing. I said yes, and it rolled me back to a point just before you assault the Cerberus base, and the final battle on Earth. Since I was stuck there, and waiting for the DLC to be released I decided to replay those final sequences. I’m continuing to keep my war readiness at 100%...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 16, 2012 | Blog
Perhaps my expectation were very low, but overall I enjoyed this movie (up until the end). It was wry and funny, and Will Smith is the most charming and charismatic man in the world. Well, I guess it’s a contest between him and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. But I digress. I’m actually an outlier on the second movie. It wasn’t as good as the first film, but I found the love story sweet and compelling, and it had Patrick Warburton (The Tick) as Agent...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 16, 2012 | Blog
I started my Mass Effect 3 story last night. I knew the opening scene and several more beyond that. The only thing that saved my from typing even later into the night was the discovery the battery on the laptop was in the red and I was too lazy to get out of bed, and get the power chord. Kimchee also helped by deciding to hurl on the bed. I thought I had gotten him onto the floor, but he had managed to drop one nasty horck right on the summer blanket. So then I had to change...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 16, 2012 | Blog
Last night I was a bit agitated so I listened to music and played solitaire and spent some time in my own held evaluating life and what makes it important. Because I was fairly wired and anxious, and had slept very little the night before I opted for some sleep aid I did my usual thing of getting up two or three times for a drink of water, and to make certain the stars were still in their customary places, and went back to sleep. Then just before when I awoke at (god help...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 13, 2012 | Blog
For all the lunatics who keep shouting about how this country was founded as a Christian nation, and how there should not be a separation of church and state please turn your attention to a couple of quotes from Jefferson — author of the Declaration of Independence, and Madison — the father of the Constitution. Jefferson spoke of “this loathsome combination of church and state” and a little gem from James Madison. He said — “The civil Government,...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 12, 2012 | Blog
Long ago a friend taught me that getting space and mass on a problem will often help you find the solution. Driving to the Post Office did that for me today. I had been struggling and struggling with this Old Mars story. As I drove I realized I needed some action beyond emotional tension, and then this scene just popped into my head of a half-tethered ultra-light jumping like a frightened horse as a Martian dust storm approached. I saw it clocking my heroine’s...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 11, 2012 | Blog
I was reading my favorite blog this morning, and came across this little gem. Apparently 46% of all Americans believe the world was created 10,000 years ago, and that god made humans in their present form. Sometimes I despair. Really I do. How in the hell are we going to compete in a global economy when we can’t accept scientific fact? Sullivan also thinks this gap is what has made our politics so polarized. I think he’s on to something. The...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 11, 2012 | Blog
I wanted to see SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN because the director is someone my manager is interested in for a movie Ian Tregillis and I wrote based on his amazing Milkweed triptych. Rupert Sanders is an extraordinary director, his work reminded me of Pan’s Labyrinth in its visual beauty, luscious textures and horror, but the script was a mess. I should have known when I saw the two “ands” between the three writer’s names. Never a good sign when a...
