Mook?

Seeing Krull with the Mudge A209 crew was a defining moment for the word "mook". Modern culture has started to use the word to mean "an ineffectual, foolish, or contemptible person" (Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Volume II). But to us, the word has a much more specific meaning:

"A mook is a character in the story who serves no purpose, other than to absorb damage" (Mighty, Mighty Death Machine).

Every (good) action movie has mooks. You need them for the action. If nobody dies, the action can't really be that dangerous, can it? If your main character dies, the movie is over. This is different than a major-minor character (one who actually has a name, and people care if he dies).

Mooks come in two main flavors:

1. Hapless Mook - the hapless mook is movable scenery. His death serves little purpose, perhaps warning a hero of imminent danger. They rarely have a name ("I lost, a man, down there!", or "There goes what's his name!?"

2. Warrior Mook - the warrior mook is the main stay of war movies. They appear in tens or hundreds (or thousands), often on both sides. They die by tens or hundreds (or thousands), too.

The characters (besides the mains) in Krull were all hapless mooks. Several had names, but no one remembered them. Their presence did nothing to aid the hero in the completion of his quest, their deaths were quick and unmourned. One even received a "that's cool!" look from the mook captain for his spectacular plunging death.

Popular theory holds that mooks are dispensed from a "tree of mooks". It is imporatant that you pick your mooks fresh, in the proper season.

Movie Review

"Krull"! (1983) starring a bunch of people you have never heard of, and will never see again (except IMDB lists Liam Neeson, who I don't remember being in the movie...).

I haven't seen Krull recently, but this is the sort of movie one never forgets. Krull is a classic. Krull is the kind of classic most people have never heard of. Krull is such a classic, most people would deny its classicity.

Maybe the proper word is "cult classic". But that is what people who don't think it is a classic call it...

Krull has a typical "epic" outline:

1. Evil guys kill hero's family, kidnap hero's girlfriend, leave hero for dead
2. Old, smart guy nurses hero back to health, shows hero how to get even
3. Hero gives evil guys what's coming

Krull is an unusual mix of science fiction and fantasy elements. The evil guys are alien invaders from outer space. They use a form of high tech musket, which has a single energy blast, and then can be used in melee to deliver devasting energy pokes. The hero's band includes a magician, cyclops, and a bunch of mooks with axes and swords.

In giving the evil guy his what's coming, Krull gave birth to the term "flaming marital death". It includes the direct (hilarious) quote, "We're your family now!"

More Laughing

Ok, today is a good day for me...

I am listening to the Way of the Master radio show. For those not familiar with the Way of the Master, it is a program for educating Christians on how to share their faith according to the Bible. Part of the show consists of the cast putting their teaching into practice on actual unbelievers.

The show is an old one from September 19. About 6 minutes in, the announcer (Todd "Freakishly Tall" Friel) makes a parallel between the Gospel message, and Oprah. He says, "If Oprah told you, 'Unless you listen to my show five days a week, you are going to Pittsburgh!', that has an impact on you."

This is funny for several reasons. The main one being that Pittsburgh is paralleled to Hell. This is funny because I spent four years in Pittsburgh, most of the time comparing it to Hell.

ROFL

Do you need a laugh? Do you use Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Exploder? If you use Exploder, download Firefox now!

Ok, now go here in Firefox. Wow! Hope they don't fix it too soon, I may need another laugh...

I found this at the Daily WTF. I recommend it if you are a programmer (and need a laugh, but if you are a programmer, you need a laugh).

Another new member!

Hello all,
I'd like to welcome Corey to Mudge A209. While not a proper citizen, he is certainly a permanent alien. Corey is most famous for the "Discontinuously Probable Wooden Appendage", and demonstating the behavior of a Stars! mass packet exceeding MAX_WORD (32768 kilotons) in an actual game setting.

Who is Biff?

I'd like to welcome again Biff Splifford to Mudge A209. Some may wonder who Biff is. I'll let Biff speak for himself. But there is a story to Biff.

When I first started playing Magic the Gathering, I was in an ante tournament. That's a story in itself, but in the end, I had my first Force of Nature. I liked my Force of Nature. I made a whole deck just for him. He had a name, Biff. He pummelled a lot of annoying blue mages for me.

Soon I had more Forces (from packs, not purchased). The second was Boff. The third was Buff. I once put all three in a deck, but that was kind of crazy. Most decks only had one after that.

New Name, New Member

Not that we have a huge audience, but Ned's Niche has a new name and look. Going forward it will be Mudge A209. We should also have a new member shortly, so look forward to some new posts!

Banned Books

Slashdot (http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/09/13/1532230.shtml) has a post on Google's list of banned books. Looking at the list, I am reminded of some books I had to read for school.

"A Separate Peace" - Was it just me? Or was this book terrible? I remember it as terribly depressing, and the ending made no sense. I can think of a lot of better stories than this (how about "Flowers for Algernon"?)

"Heart of Darkness" - Some good quotes here, "Need more rivets", and "Mista Kurtz, he dead". But besides that, not very good.

"The Great Gatsby" - Terrible. Why anyone would bother to ban it is a mystery.

There are some shocking books on this list. Not that they should be banned just because they are shocking...

"Brave New World" - This has lost a lot of its shock value, but only because it has come true...

"1984" - Nuff said.

"The Lord of the Flies" - see above.

"Slaughterhouse Five" - a classic.

"The Call of the Wild" - This is a really good book.

Some books I didn't like didn't make it to this list (not that I think they should be banned). Maybe they weren't shocking enough.

"The Illustrated Man" - We read one science fiction book in 13 years of school, and it had to be this one. If I read another story about a rocket ship blowing up in space, it will be too soon...

Anything by Jane Austin, or the Bronte sisters - ugh.

"The Return of the Native" - 30 pages describing the heath, double ugh.

Movie Review

"City of Angels" (1998) starring Cage-olas Nick, and Meg Ryan
On the face of it this is a story about how great love is. But it is (probably unintentionally), a story about the making of a demon.
Nick is well cast as an emotionless angel (Seth). During the course of the movie, Seth becomes obsessed with Meg Ryan's character. By the end, he decides to "take the fall", to give up his role in eternity to spend a lifetime with Meg.

This is a refreshing take on evil. Evil is so often portrayed as a guy in a black hat, a laughing monster who delights in evil. Rarely do we see the true definition of evil: seeking what would be considered good - in the wrong way.

Genesis 6:2
Matthew 22:30
Revelation 12:4

Fun with sed

I've applied random sed 's/.*/pants/g' to some famous movie quotes. See if you can identify the quotes!

> O-B-Pants never told you what happenened to your pants.
>> He told me enough, he told me you took them!
> No, I AM YOUR PANTS!
>> NOOOOO!

> If only you knew the power of the dark side of my pants.

> The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant, next to the power in my pants.

> I find your lack of pants, disturbing.

Books I'll Never Forget

"Two Hawks from Earth" by the Philip "the outlaw" Jose Farmer
I read this book during a particularly difficult time in my life. Let's just say, I was in high school, and there was this girl... Two Hawks (who was an American bomber pilot, shot down during the fire bombing of Dresden and transported to an alternate earth) was also betrayed by the girl he liked (with the evil Nazi fighter pilot also from our Earth). It led to my statement, "all of time and space is crashing down about my ears".

I'll never forget the line from the book, "And Two Hawks buried himself in his work."

As men, when things are going bad, it is very tempting and somewhat comforting to bury ourselves in work. But it's not a real solution...

Stuff I've read lately

Accelerando (by Charles Stross) - All I can say is "Russian doll, Dyson sphere, computronium!"
Hmm, let me also say Stross presents an interesting solution to the Fermi Paradox, but one that is ultimately insufficient.

Mere Christianity (by C.S. Lewis) - Well thought out, but shows its age. I am working on an updated version. If you have any comments, leave them here!

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (by John Gray) - A good, humorous description of the differences between men and women. Offers some excercises to help men and women communicate.

Iron Sunrise (by Charles Stross) - A fun adventure set in the "Singularity Sky" universe.

Out of the Silent Planet (by C.S. Lewis) - I'm glad I've read this after "Mere Christianity". I know Lewis denies allegory in this case, but otherwise I would of likely filed it with Edgar Rice Burroughs ("Pirates of Venus").

Opening Post

Hello world!

puts "Hello world!"; # TCL

printf("Hello world!\n"); // C,C++

str DB "Hello world\n"
100 mov DX, str
mov AH, 9
int 21h