To those…

I just read (well skimmed) a really cool article on the internet:

http://antaiji.dogen-zen.de/eng/kodo-sawaki-to-you.shtml

I thought it would be fun to extract the questions from this, and answer them how I would today.  Then later I can look at the answers, and see what I think then.

More later.

Cloverfield Predictions — How Did I Do?

OK so I saw the movie, and it rocked. I really enjoyed it. Now I’m going to take a moment to take a look at my predictions and see how I did.

For this, I am taking only what we learned in the movie. There is a manga being printed in Japan that suggests, for example, that the monster was towed behind the Tag freighter. Which suggests that Tag drug the thing to New York. But that is still outside the movie, so it doesn’t count.

OK here goes.

—–

[P] The Chuai station was established to exploit a deep-sea region inhabited by extremophiles (i.e. hardy little buggers) that lived in the deep trenches. They found “deep sea nectar”, which is otherwise known as MONSTER POOP. The monster who produces this poop, and also creates a whole ecosystem around it, turned out to be bigger and more bad-tempered than the Tag engineers anticipated.

[A] Not addressed in movie.

[P] After a year of putting up with drilling and bombardment the ocean floor with sonar, this very large extremophile rose from the depths to tell them to knock it off. This it did with a distinct lack of subtlety. Then it followed the sound or sonar of a passing tanker, which it followed to the Big Apple.

[A] Not addressed in movie.

[P] It found the Big Apple, and its residents, to be very tasty. It probably thinks of them as “above sea nectar”.

[A] hehehe “above sea nectar” — I am funny

[P] Satellite parts? Coincidental.

[A] Not addressed in movie

[P] And Slusho? SLUSHO IS… MONSTER POOP!

[A] Not addressed in movie

[P] because of survival in a deep-sea trench, the monster probably burrows and has access to either volcanic vents or some sort of geothermal heat. This gives it an intimate relationship with natural gasses and heat, which above water produce FIRE and lots of it.

[A] BZZZZZZT! Nope. But the Air Force sure generated a lot of fire

[P] the monster is norished by fire

[A] er… BZZT! Didn’t look like it anyway.

[P] the monster is able to create fire in various ways, including having the little lifeforms that live on it produce sources of fire

[A] BZZZZT! Unless that is a hidden superpower the monster has

[P] because of its ability to survive in incredibly harsh conditions, it is really, really hard to kill

[A] DING! Yay my first correct answer!

[P] because it has to move a huge mass through water, above water it can move surprizingly fast and with unbelievable power

[A] Er… DING! It didn’t move super-fast, but it still moved fast enough to sneak up on Hud.

[P] the big thing is amphipious (for some reason) and is closer to a frog or a turtle than a reptile

[A] DING! At least, it looked more like a big shell-less turtle than a big lizard. It didn’t have scales, that I could see, anyway.

[P] the thing has two arms and two legs;

[A] well OK it had that little pair of extra arms

[P] its armspan is very wide, the same as its overall length.

[A] DING! Nailed it!

[P] It is incredibly hunched over, and walks primarily like an animal on all 4s, but can rear up and use its arms to grab things (like helicopters)

[A] DING! I win!

[P] The thing has a huge, triangular face with swivel eyes and a huge gaping mouth with big fangs that would be effective in eating whales

[A] BZZZT! OK the head was round. But it could easily eat whales.

[P] It does rub on buildings and knock off smaller creatures (i.e. I think that rumor is credible)

[A] DING!

[P] Marlena explodes, but literally, like in a big fireball

[A] BZZZZZT!

[P] The monster does something to Manhattan, like cover it in monster poop, that leaves it uninhabitable at the end of the movie.

[A] BZZZZZT! But still, the monster causes the Air Force to level Manhattan, so I was sort of right.

[P] Well …even more uninhabitable than it is now.

[A] DING! Manhattan is currently uninhabitable by humans.

[P] At one point, the monster seems to die and we get a close-up of its face as it lies in the street. But then it comes back to life (i.e. I think that rumor is credible)

[A] BZZZZZZT! Although it does pop out of that cloud.

[P] Ooooh… I just read a good post, so I am going to go with it. The monster evolves during the movie from a very blobby sea creature to a more well-defined, dangerous land creature 

[A] BZZZZZT! Although that is a really cool idea.

[P] The thing eats whales. That’s why it has fangs and arms, and is amphibious. So it can surface and grab them.

[A] Not addressed in the film, but it certainly could eat a whale, if it grabbed ahold of one.

So how did I do overall? Well, after doing a statistical adjustment for the size of the sample and the amount of the initial data set, spread out over the observation base and controlled by the participants, my score is:

Score: 95% correct! (adjusted)

I have to say, I am pretty good.

Cloverfield Predictions

OK I’m going to make some predictions of the upcoming Cloverfield monster movie. After I see it, I’ll run through the list and check off where I was right.

This is based on evidence from the Alternate Reality Game and viral marketing that Paramount has been putting out, from posts on the various forums, and the trailers and TV spots.

–

The Chuai station was established to exploit a deep-sea region inhabited by extremophiles (i.e. hardy little buggers) that lived in the deep trenches. They found “deep sea nectar”, which is otherwise known as MONSTER POOP. The monster who produces this poop, and also creates a whole ecosystem around it, turned out to be bigger and more bad-tempered than the Tag engineers anticipated.

After a year of putting up with drilling and bombardment the ocean floor with sonar, this very large extremophile rose from the depths to tell them to knock it off. This it did with a distinct lack of subtlety. Then it followed the sound or sonar of a passing tanker, which it followed to the Big Apple.

It found the Big Apple, and its residents, to be very tasty. It probably thinks of them as “above sea nectar”.

Satellite parts? Coincidental.

And Slusho? SLUSHO IS… MONSTER POOP!

Other predictions:

+ because of survival in a deep-sea trench, the monster probably burrows and has access to either volcanic vents or some sort of geothermal heat. This gives it an intimate relationship with natural gasses and heat, which above water produce FIRE and lots of it.

+ the monster is norished by fire

+ the monster is able to create fire in various ways, including having the little lifeforms that live on it produce sources of fire

+ because of its ability to survive in incredibly harsh conditions, it is really, really hard to kill

+ because it has to move a huge mass through water, above water it can move surprizingly fast and with unbelievable power

+ the big thing is amphipious (for some reason) and is closer to a frog or a turtle than a reptile

+ the thing has two arms and two legs; its armspan is very wide, the same as its overall length. It is incredibly hunched over, and walks primarily like an animal on all 4s, but can rear up and use its arms to grab things (like helicopters)

+ The thing has a huge, triangular face with swivel eyes and a huge gaping mouth with big fangs that would be effective in eating whales

+ It does rub on buildings and knock off smaller creatures (i.e. I think that rumor is credible)

+ Marlena explodes, but literally, like in a big fireball

+ The monster does something to Manhattan, like cover it in monster poop, that leaves it uninhabitable at the end of the movie.

+ Well …even more uninhabitable than it is now.

(edit… more)

+ At one point, the monster seems to die and we get a close-up of its face as it lies in the street. But then it comes back to life (i.e. I think that rumor is credible)

+ Ooooh… I just read a good post, so I am going to go with it. The monster evolves during the movie from a very blobby sea creature to a more well-defined, dangerous land creature 

(edit)

+ The thing eats whales. That’s why it has fangs and arms, and is amphibious. So it can surface and grab them.

A Private Blog!?

OK so I guess the question is, what is the point of having a private blog?

Well, first of all it gives me a chance to put out some of my thoughts and feelings in a format that is seemingly public and seemingly permanent so I don’t have to hold on to them inside. It’s like I have this feeling, “I need to remember this hurt” or “I need to remember what happened” even though I know rationally that’s not right.

By putting it on the blog, I already feel less burdened. Also, there is an aspect of magical thinking where someone might find it at some point, as if guided by fate. I just hope that time comes after I’ve moved to my next gig.

Also it is just fun to write. The act of writing forces some concentration and focus, forces some introspection and ordering of thought. The thoughts come much, much faster than my little fingers can fly over the keys, and so it’s a nice way to force my brain to slow down, while still focusing on the thoughts by brain feels are important.

And it’s just fun to be writing Writing is probably my first love, with the enjoyment I get from programming just being an extention of my love for writing.

So, a private blog? Sure! Why not. With the blogosphere being so broad, and so many people creating blogs that are, in practice, private, why not just declare it to be private and be done with it.

Maybe at some point I’ll start a new, public blog, and push out some of my more tidy thoughts to that one.

Hello world!

This is my first blog post. I still have no idea what I’m going to write here, but I suppose we’ll all find out together.