Sick, but better now

[pphaneuf]

I was a bit sick these last few days, so I hereby predict that a large number of my coworkers will be sick in about a week. Due to a combination of me having a strong immune system and a few of my coworkers having rather depressed immune systems, when I get sick, people almost die. Sorry about that!

I've watched Black Hawk Down with azrhey yesterday. I found it to be very well done and rather realistic. The RPGs didn't make huge gasoline-tank explosions, people get deafened by close range shooting, etc. azrhey said she found it a bit boring, because she knew the history well, and it stuck to it very closely, so I suppose that's a positive of some sort. I found it interesting to see the difference between the Rangers, who all had standard issue weapons and equipment, and the Delta Operatives, who had weapons of their own choice (most using paratrooper-type compact M16 rifles, but I saw a few M14 rifles and M1911 handguns). This made me want to play some Tribes 2 again, mmhh!

On the geekier side of things, I finally managed to make Rhythmbox use something else than the silly "esdsink" it was using (on my box, ESD tended to freeze, crash or confuse itself on a regular basis). Should make my music much more reliable, which is good. The great hard disk clean up of 2005 goes forward, slowly, with still 3.2 gigabytes of old cruft to go, from almost 8 years back in some cases. There will be no upgrading of my box before this is done.

Still got a bunch of things to do left and right. As usual, I could use more time, but motivation isn't so good either...

Comments

[phrawzty.livejournal.com]

It may be worth noting that D-Ops get a choice of a limited range of firearms and sidearms. It's not like they can just request an M60 and a Desert Eagle out of nowhere. :)

Good movie though, yeah. I first saw it right around the time i was training for the Canadian Armed Forces. jul3z thought that it would scare me into dropping out, but it actually only made me want it more. Hmm..

[messiahdivine.livejournal.com]

BHD is one of my favourite movies - which reminds me that I have to buy a new copy (probably the special edition) because my copy just won't work anymore.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Of course, all of the weapons they were using were also previous issues of the Army there. Why someone would prefer to take an M60 or a Desert Eagle in combat is a bit beyond me. ;-)

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Was indeed an excellent war movie. I still have a preference for some others, like the Das Boot director's cut, but not by a large margin.

[messiahdivine.livejournal.com]

Ah! See.. I haven't seen Das Boot. Which I should.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Gah! Yes! I have the Director's Cut here, which I have been meaning to see again for a good while now (and I think Monsieur had said so as well), maybe we should get together and do that?

[messiahdivine.livejournal.com]

Sounds like an excellent idea! Next week sometime? We're out of town this weekend and most of next weekend. I'll talk to M about it. :)

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Also, myself, although I am interested in the theory of these things, would rather avoid getting anywhere close to practice, other than target shooting at a range (I remember the scene where some Ranger is showered by spent cases, cursing, and I was going "ow!", as I've had a .45 ACP case eject and fall on my nose and get stuck in my glasses! bad!).

What I was thinking during the movie is that they would have needed one Tribesman in heavy armor with a fusion mortar and an ammo pack on their squads. Screw those LMGs! They would have been in and out in no time!

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some evening next week should work.

[phrawzty.livejournal.com]

Haha, word. I played the first Tribes a little, but none of the mods or sequels. Do people still play any of the Tribes games now?

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

I've only played Tribes 2, really. I don't know if much people plays that anymore. There's a more recent sequel, "Tribes Vengeance", but I've never played it. I used to play a LOT on NecroBones's server, and was even a recruit of Sapphire Blade for a while, but I didn't spend enough time playing to do all the training and all. I basically just was a good team player with decent enough skills to get by.

The vehicles in Tribes 2 are a lot of fun, and the most interesting are carefully designed to encourage team play. For example, a bomber with a team of three average skill players that have their act together can keep an enemy base ravaged for an entire game.

I use only Linux, I'm not too much of a gamer (so that dicking around with WineX or whatever it's called today isn't worth my trouble) and I buy all my software, so the big attraction with Tribes 2 was that it was available for Linux. :-)

BHD

[pdage.livejournal.com]

I love Black Hawk Down because:
1- It's a Ridley Scott movie, through and through. Visuals are almost always stunning - I especially remember wide angle bit where you see a soldier ridding loose inside one of the choppers as they go through some of that tire smoke. The slipstream creates a tubular effect which frames the soldier well, who's already well framed by the high contrast foreground and side opening of the chopper. That's just one example.
2- It does feel reaslitic indeed, though I have no profound knowledge of modern weaponery as you do (which is a bit scarry. I find that hobby a bit evilish)
3- Cast of actors is incredible. There is no small role atributed to no names.

Re: BHD

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

They have very nice photography, although I found the use of the coloured filters annoying at times. They had different filters for the different areas, depending on who controlled them and such, but it got old quickly, I find. But the rest was quite excellent.

As for my scary knowledge of firearms, I have one word for you: Cyberpunk. ;-)