Mind Sieve 8/29/11

Some definitely good stuff this week to share!

Jenny Hansen explores the question - Do Writers Read Differently Than Non-Writers? Very cute! And some truths too! Heh heh.


Total Film shared a trailer for Gerard Butler's next film Machine Gun Preacher.

Zachary Levi shared this article at IHeartChaos and a commercial from Duct Tape: Tron Style! Awesome.

Duck Tron from Ryactive on Vimeo.

 This could be a cool resource - Godchecker.com - Your Guide to the Gods. From all over the world. Rather spiffy!

Nikita Season 2 Trailer. Whole new direction!

Catie Rhodes give us the skinny on The Most Haunted Little Town in Texas - Jefferson, TX. Really great pics of the Claiborne House too!

Vevo News had a cute triple video serving - On The Set With OK GO. Then the OK GO Muppet's Theme Video comes on. And lastly an adorable promo. lol. These guys had too much fun. :)

ZombieSchool asks - Do you need a fast deployable zombie safe house? Here's one option:

Preview for Supernatural Season 7.  (You know I had to!)

Tony Eldridge shares a list of 10 Truths About Self-Marketing, Like It or Not. Some good points here!

Kristen Lamb shares The Single Best Way for Writers to Become a Brand. Woohoo! I did this right all on my own. Of course, I still haven't gotten my name to truly be seen as a BRAND, but at least I'm not having to start from scratch. Truly, this is a no brainer.

More Thoughts on That Pesky Author Branding by Randy Ingermanson. It works in quite nicely with the things Kristen was saying in the above post.

Dr Twuth is back! (aka Kristen Lamb) This time she tackles The Twuth About Twitter Pics.(Our Avatars, that is! From the title I thought this was going to be a totally different topic. DOH!)

This week Chuck (NSFW) Wendig tackles 25 Things Writers Should Know About Social Media. Look, he can be brilliant talking about writing AND social media~! (It's the Beard, you know. Chuck is just its puppet. :P)

Debbie Ohi has compiled a huge list of Google + Newbie posts and more. Might be a place to check out if you're thinking of trying out Google + at some point. These are aimed mostly at writers and artists. (Too many for me to go through, but since they were all in one place, figured I'd share!)

From The Bookshelf Muses - Weather Thesaurus Entry: Mudslide. Real nice article on how to use weather as an extra dimension in your writing. Even examples!

From Kristen Lamb the Guinea Pig Diaries: Little Darling Anonymous. Or The 5 Stages of Edits and Crying.(ROFL. Yes, and LDA meeting with 12 Steps.)

Structure Part 2 - Plot Problems - Falcor the Luck Dragon and the Purple Tornado from Kristen Lamb. Telling it like it is! Structure is king. :)

From Nathan Bransford comes There Is No Such Thing as an Overnight Success Story. WORD! (One success story I know of only appears overnight because of four name changes! lol. So it wasn't really. She worked her buns off!) :)

Ack, that's it. Brain is FRIED! (Eyeballs aren't too happy either.) Hope you enjoy!

Movie Review - Tron: Legacy

Tron: Legacy

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain, Beau Garrett, and more

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Premise: Sam's father disappeared twenty years ago. As Sam continues trying to deal with the abandonment and pushing his father's legacy along on in his own way, he's told an old friend got paged from a phone that's been disconnected for almost as long as his father's been missing. With a little prodding, Sam goes to check it out and his adventure begins.

Review: Hubby and I saw the original Tron way back in the day. We were some of the privileged few who got to see it with the stagnant then energy infused apartment belonging to Yori when she meets secretly with Tron. So you could say we've been somewhat looking forward to this sequel.

Visually, the new film is stunning. Absolutely MUST be seen in the IMAX 3D. All the old vehicles are there with a makeover, looking shiny and new. Though no tanks were seen shooting (major bummer) and only glimpsed from afar. There were all sorts of new personal vehicles to watch being played with though - like personal fighters and wing backpacks. The planes even leave the same deadly trails as the motorcycles (though I wasn't sure that made much sense as it was not in a game scenario). The motorcycle game went multi level, but they removed the 90 degree turns that proved so deadly in the original.

Jeff Bridges and Tron (who we saw very little of per say) were taken back to their original youth by utilizing digitized renditions taken from the original film. This works, for the most part.

Plot wise, they went a weird direction. In many many ways the new film follows the same steps as the old one. Clash and shenanigans with Encom (they had the HUGE door from the original that led to the lab. I so enjoyed that!). Dillinger's progeny is there though he has nothing really to do, just a gimme of sorts - I figured since they'd bothered to bring him in they'd do something with him, but no. Dumont's name is flashed around as fan giggle fodder. Once Sam is unwillingly sucked in to the grid he is promptly captured and thrown to the games (Very nice and mechanical seeming scene where his clothes get taken and him changed: like an assembly line) - first discs and later cycles just like his father. And more. If you've seen the original film, keep an eye out and you will see what I am talking about. (Don't want to give all away!)

As if to make up for the deleted room scene in the first film, you'll get a nice long look at Flynn's place in the digital world. Though it's been humanized. They make up for this later when you see Programs bumbling about looking at the strange things he's made. (Almost like Flynn had made his own programs for his furnishings like you can in Second Life Online.

While they keep the lingo from the original film, it is used a lot less and almost thrown in as an afterthought. I was somewhat bothered by the introduction of a bar in this digital world. Somethings were turned too much into normal human things - while it fit Flynn and his home, it did not fit in the grid. These are Programs. There should have been more originality in how they differ from us in their downtime and general life IMHO.

They introduce ISOs but really don't give you much about them. (Really it's but a crutch to give us a specific turnout at the end.) Also the falling out that turned everything so nasty was very vague. Just because your interest shifts does not mean betrayal or that you aren't looking towards that end anymore. It felt lame?

So while visually fulfilling, story wise it was a little lacking. Oh, and there's no BIT. You see him as a firework and as a couple of toys, but no BIT. Was really hoping they'd have BIT in there! :P

So overall, it was entertaining and beautiful if not totally satisfying.

Rating: Visuals 4.5, Story 3.5 out of 5 (Hubby rating: worth full price of admission)