FEED
YOURSELF WITH THIS.
OK, I NEED A LITTLE
BIT OF HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!
February 9, 2008
I've tried but I failed.
I want to use Blogger to blog through this interace, but I think I
need a little bit of help from someone smarter than me, maybe a programmer.
I would like that the journal would look just like now, while adding
the commentary feature, and the easyness of blogging at blogger, or
email-to-blog stuff.
I, of course would be more than thankful to anyone that can work some
magic at this, and I'll be more than happy to link to whatever sites
of yours you wish to share with the world.
Thank you magic friend.
- Sam
Abducted. But really,
I'm still alive!
January 5, 2008
If you are brave enough to ask what
the hell happened in the last four months??! Then I should probably
tell you. I was without computer, or that's what the aliens who abducted
me adviced me to tell everybody.
Anyway, now I have a nice 21st century computer and I hope to be going
back to activity.
A new year is upon us, and I'm happy about it since I had a lot of
revelations on the last couple of months.
I know this year wasn't my best at blogging and not only in my regularity
but content-wise as well (in other words it SUCKED).
My first resolution for this year (Dig museum-wise) is to take this
journal another step into technology and make it easier to update
(and from anywhere in the world with internet access) while retaining
this fancy look.
My next post will be (hopefully) from that 2.0 Journal which (hopefully)
will allow for comments. I bet even CIA classified web files allow
for comments, so that the hackers that get in can splash some wity
sentence and amuse secret agents.
Anyway, thanks for still checking in, and see you soon (promise)
- Sam
Still Alive
September 4, 2007
Oh damn, it happened again. This has
to be a record. I haven't posted in like.... many months. But this
is a quick post to reassure you I'm still alive and doing well. Lot's
of things happened during this time so I'll be telling you about it
next time (tomorrow I hope).
As you can observe there are some improvements. New pictures for the
header (all taken by your lovely host of course) and new phrases on
the randomatic thingie. Also, you can check out my new website about....me.
It's right up there, and right over HERE.
Finally I've added another thingie which allows modern browsers recognize
the syndication feed. By the way, how many of you are subscribed to
the feed? Drop me a line and tell me.
- Sam
At
World's End
May 22, 2007
Today I was fortunate enough to watch
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End in a theater. This
private screening (for the press) was held early in the morning. I
watched the previous movie for the first time... yesterday night (I
rented the dvd).
So given this rare opportunity I had, of having watched this movie
before most of the people on earth (yeah, it's a stupid thing, but
it really makes me feel good), I'll review it.
Not Enough Midgets
A Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End Lovely
Review
By Sam
NOTE: Spoilers will be avoided, and anyway, there isn't much to spoil.
So, let's see. There's been a while since a write a movie review (or
any review for that matter), so I'll start it roughly and follow the
bliss from there.
The movie is way too long! Three frigging hours! So, my first shook
of head goes to the editor. Having myself never edited nothing longer
than a 5 minutes short, I would be delighted to try my feature length
editing skills chopping a good hour chunk out of this movie.
It's just unnecessary long. There are some movies that ARE necessarily
long (like...let's say.. Titanic, The Return of The King,
etc), but that's because those stories require it. In the case of
At World's End, it DOESN'T!
Overall, the movie is entertaining, and I had a good time. The first
half of it, was quite good. I particularly enjoyed when Jack Sparrow
makes his appearance in this chapter. It was kind of experimental,
very odd and very good at the same time I really liked that part.
But then, once the conflicts in the movie had been more or less established,
coherence and dynamics where thrown out the window.
The story-line was just all over the place, getting ridiculously complex.
There is people changing sides all the time, but instead of achieving
it in a subtle attractive way like in The Departed, it was
just silly and poorly justified. It seems the movie takes and attitude
that says "Hey, don't judge me, I'm just a movie..." and
that is supposed to make it up for some major holes in the plot. You
snap your fingers and suddenly a character that had died is alive
and kicking again. But how did he came back? dah, who cares? It was
a charming character!
Other thing I enjoyed was Keith Richard's character. Very smooth appearance,
lot of style. Almost perfect. Even his costume design was my favorite.
Like a more refined version of Jack Sparrow's.
I don't even have to mention that Johnny Depp was marvelous as always.
And of course Orlando Bloom sucks as always.
The music is disgustingly hollywoodish, a shame because I've recently
heard Hans Zimmer's work on The Weather Man and it was wonderful.
(I love ranting harshly about movies, I feel like a real critic)
Well, in a more serious observation, and given that lately I've learned
a lot about story telling, I could say that this was a very FORCED
story. It's like they had a bunch of random DOTS (dots like: "The
sexy girl now becomes really piratey and is more than just the hot
chick on the film", "Epic pirate meeting", "Unnecessarily
long and epic battle in the sea", "put all the main characters
against each other", etc etc) and they FORCED them together.
And that line between each dot is very poorly sustained, and in consequence
there is a lack of purpose in the story. It's just a bunch of things
happening, and they don't really connect with each other.
So, is this a crappy movie? Not at all, it made me smile a lot, and
laugh a little. Other important thing, I recommend you to watch the
previous movie Dead Man's Chest (in case you don't remind the
details) before you watch this one. I wouldn't have understand half
of it, if I hadn't watched it yesterday.
Other important thing, the visual effects are stunning and most of
the time they are there to serve the story (even a "so so"
story like this one), not the other way around (errr...Spider-Man..errr).
Summary: One whole unnecessary spear HOUR, and definitely it would
have been better if it had more midgets.
It opens worldwide on May 25. So watch it, enjoy it, and write me
to tell me what you thought of it!
- Sam
Catching
up
May 15, 2007
Damn, it's been a quite long while
since my last post. I have a problem of continuity, it would seem.
I envy people who post something everyday. To my defense I can claim
that I use no fancy system like Google's Blogger or anything more
simple like it. I just have to put together every single post, and
that takes some time.
It has been good times for me lately. Recently I've got to meet one
of my favorite comics-making duets. I'm talking about master storyteller
Carlos Trillo and fine arts genius Juan Bobillo, they are both fellow
Argentineans, but their work is all over the globe. Some of their
titles are Bird
(which they both signed me), Zachary
Holmes (which I asked Juan to draw one for me) and Chocolate
and French Fries (which hasn't been published here yet, but
I really look forward to read it).
So, that was awesome. I was ridiculously happy that day.
Finally, a new interview! This time with the great Ryan Kaufman, who
was one of the testers of The Dig. One of the funnier interviews I've
done. Read it here!
MAIL TIME:
FROM: Fatih Dicle
hi, i recently play the dig and i love it. actually i have this
game from when its release but because of bad english and being a
child i even cant pass the meteor section :D. actually i just want
to ask are you still there ? :), i am a old game lover, like dungon
keeper 1-2, X-COM 1-2-3-4-5 vs..., so its sads me to see this game
has been forgotten, anyway i hope you like this messege, take care
and good by.
Note: english is not my first language so please forgive my writing
mistakes.
Well, glad you enjoyed The Dig. Regarding your question, I can assure
you I'm STILL HERE. I don't know what those weird numbers are suppoused
to be, but it certainly scares me.
I can tell you that as long as this site lives, The Dig won't be forgotten.
NEXT!
FROM: John H-W
Hello Sam,
Firstly, Your website
is great and I've used it as a reference for Dig related material
for some time now.
My question for you and the reason
for this email is to query the wallpapers section of your site. Can
we expect anything in the near future from you? My question was also
a result of what was said by someone called Uwe in Ask Yoda section,
who mentioned high definition art from the game.
Lastly, do you recommend any programs
I can use to capture my own screen shots from the game. I'm assuming
this is how you have taken the art from the game and implemented it
into your site.
Thanks,
John H-W
Well, I will certainly make some wallpapers in the future. There is
a lot to do on this site, and I have not even half the time I had
when I started it. But I will eventually, just have some patience.
If someone wants to make wallpapers they will be welcomed (just send
it in 2 or 3 different resolutions, starting with 800x600).
To capture screenshots from the game I simply used the PrintScreen
key on the keyboard, and then pasted them on Fireworks, which is the
program I use to do all the graphics.
NEXT!
From: Stefan Sundin
Just wanted to tell you about a video I've put together where all
the dig cinematics come in order, you can watch it at google
video.
hey, nice job. I just wish you also included the tram sequences, even
if there is no way to put them chronologically. They are still wonderful.
(Warning, don't watch it if you haven't finished the game, it includes
both endings)
Decently I've discovered the great world of uploading videos to YouTube.
So soon all the trailers and videos I did for the site will be up
on YouTube for everyone to enjoy.
- Sam
Recommended link:
Shedding
light on The Little Matchgirl
The art of digging
March 20, 2007
Lot's of things to talk about. Let's
begin with Dig related topics.
LucasFilm suing issue.
Do you remember that LucasFilm sued Digg.com for creating confusion
in the world? Well, they now suspended the thing, because the negotiations
started. That means Digg.com is going to pay LucasFilms some millions
of dollars for all the confusion they caused. And they better pay
them well, because can you imagine all those thousands of people that
went to Digg.com looking for information about Ludger Brink being
disappointed? It's just horrible.
What surprises me is that if Digg.com is paying LucasFilm that means
they probably had some chance of winning which is rather insane. Another
speculation is that LucasArts might be planning on doing something
with "The Dig" trademark. I doubt it, but who knows...
Interviews coming up.
Ok, It's been a while since my last published interview (the one with
the great Bill Eaken). So, I went back at my contact list and also
did a LARGE research on people I didn't know were to find. And I found
a lot of them. Actors are particularly easy to find, but rather hard
to contact. That's because I usually find out what their agency is
and then try to contact the agency. But for some reason talent agencies
don't find email to be a useful medium of communication. They mostly
rely on this ancient thing called "phone" which apparently
involves entering a numeric pattern in it. The weirdness of the past.
Nevertheless I managed to find email addresses for most of the agencies,
and so I can tell you there is an upcoming interview with...... ONE
OF THE LEADING CHARACTERS in The Dig!!! Yeaaaaahh! Really exciting.
And not only that but I'm actually conducting other 3 interviews with
great people who participated in The Dig. So there is a lovely amount
of interview material coming your way soon.
The art of the fans.
Recently I've received an email from a visitor called Michael Small
who told me:
"I first played the Dig at quite an early age, I was about
6 i think, and sci-fi had just become an interest to me. I was absolutely
overwhelmed by the game, loved every minute of playing it, and playing
the game has become one of my fondest memories of youth. My best freind
was also fascinated by the game, and so it became the basis for basically
every make-believe playground game for years after that!
For my A-level art project, I decided to incorporate the Dig's artwork
heavily into my studies, as I always loved the quality of the work-
It seemed to me to be worth more than many rendered games made today,
as there was more soul put into hand-drawing every single piece of
work.
I studied and made my own versions of many of my favourite locations:
The Museum spire base, ( just outside the tram station) the underwater
cavern, the crevice cavern by the waterfall on the Planetarium spire,
the Map spire canyon, and a couple more."
He contacted wondering If I could hook him up with some of the artists
in The Dig (I'm on it Michael, I promise!) and I asked If he could
send me some of the stuff he did. So he sent me some of them... and
gosh, I really like them. Look at them. LOOK AT THEM NOW!!
The famous crevice room were Brink stucks his hand.
The Map Spire Canyon. Awesome!
The Museum Spire. Don't you love it? I sure do.
This are so good, I could
have lied to you and said this are pieces of early concept art. But
being my soul so pure, I just couldn't.
What I love about this art is that I can identify a different style
in it. It's not a copy of the original, you can actually tell it's
has a fresh vibe in it.
So, this inspired me to have a gallery of art made by anybody (I could
call it fanart, but I won't). I have more art from Michael Small and
I would like anybody out there to send me art inspired/based on The
Dig. It could be dramatic like Michael's or it could be funny or abstract.
SEND SEND SEND!
I know a few years ago I was a bit reluctant about fanart. I still
am a bit, that's why I like this new point of view I discovered. Which
is mostly having a gallery with a lot of different people's visions
about a SAME thing. And I think that's very interesting.
My new site.
Yes, thanks to the helpful and lovely Gabez (and also a bit of Jake
and Thrik) from Mixnmojo. I have new site about Thrillville. I call
it "Join The Joy Ride" but it hasn't an official name. So,
go and look at it right here:
http://thrillville.mixnmojo.com/
I'll be BACK!
- Sam
A return, a gathering
and a lawsuit
March 5, 2007
Oh yes, I'm back, after some long vacations.
I'm no good for a journey to a desolate place in which I can barely
find something useful/entertaining to do. So I wish I've come back
earlier.
I could tell you some things about the journey but I don't feel like
it right now I'm afraid.
Instead let me express my frustration on my (again) not so good predictions,
having made 8 out of 24 on the Oscars. For some reason I can't seem
to nail more than ten.
I'm frustrated because Pan's
Labyrinth didn't won the two more important Oscars to which it
was nominated (Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay)
although it did take 3 golden gays home. And I'm very very happy that
Martin Scorcese finally won an Oscar, and not only that but it was
given to him by Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.
The four of them are friends since long ago.
Here is a retrospective of images of all them toghether.
Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian Di Palma, George Lucas and
Francis Ford Coppola.
George Lucas whispers at Spielberg something about their upcoming
Indiana Jones movie: "Hey Steve, I know this may not be the better
moment to discuss this... but I still think Harrison Ford is too old
and could be perfectly replaced by a full CG version."
The Whiz Kids
-------- * ----------
Could it be possible that after years and years of logical lack of
The Dig news, a NEW news about it appears and I'M ON VACATIONS?
Well, it seems to be possible.
On February 5th, LucasFilm Entertainment Company filled a petition
to sue Digg.com because "The
Applicant's registration and use of the DIGG Mark would likely create
confusion, mistake, or deception in the minds of prospective purchasers
as to the origin or source of the Opposer's Goods associated with
THE DIG Mark." You can view the official thing right here.
I'm going to skip commenting on this subject right now, as I want
to try to interview someone (possibly one of the lawyer). But I'll
do comment here eventually.
- Sam
Journey, predictions
and more
February 17, 2007
Okay, here I'm again. Very very busy
and with a lot of stuff still to do before I leave. That's right tomorrow
morning I'll be heading for a trip to Rio Negro, to a place called
Las Grutas, which is one of the few places in south america to have
beaches with warm water. And I'll be there for ten days or more, enjoying
some vacations, taking lots and lots of pictures, reading, writing
and sleeping.
As I'll be off when the oscars arrive, so I'll leave my predictions
here.
24. Visual Effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest"
23. Live Action Short Film: "Binta and the Great Idea (Binta
Y La Gran Idea)"
22. Animated Short Film: "The Little Matchgirl"
21. Makeup: "Pan's Labyrinth"
20. Film Editing: "The Departed"
19. Documentary (short subject): "Rehearsing a Dream"
18. Documentary Feature: "Deliver Us From Evil"
17. Costume: "The Devil Wears Prada"
16. Original Song: "Our Town" from "Cars" Randy
Newman.
15. Original Score: "Pan's Labyrinth" Javier Navarrete.
14. Sound Editing: "Letters From Iwo Jima"
13. Sound Mixing: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."
12. Cinematography: "Pan's Labyrinth"
11. Art Direction: "Pan's Labyrinth"
10. Animated Feature Film: "Cars"
9. Original Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro, "Pan's Labyrinth"
8. Adapted Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter
Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, "Borat Cultural Learnings
of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
7. Foreign Language Film: "Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico.
6. Directing: Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"
5. Supporting Actress: Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel."
4. Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"
3. Actress: Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"
2. Actor: Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"
1. Best Picture: "The Departed"
Well, another thing.
We have a new email address, it's just like the previous one except
now it's [@gmail.com], if you are subscribed to the Alien Memos, you
should configure your email reciving thingie to not filter that address
as well. I'll keep checking the previous account for a month, just
in case.
And now, EMAIL TIME:
hey there!
ah, so good
to see the website still up and running (it's been a number of years
since I checked it out...), so I should at least start with a "thank
you" for all the info about The Dig.
got a question
for you...
I was able
to find the soundtrack cd years ago, but as much as I love it, it
didnt have any of the atmospheric sounds found throughout the locales
of the dig.
you don't,
by chance, have any mp3's of those sounds do you?
thanks in
advance for any help you can offer...
all the best,
Matthew Pfeiffer
Yes, I have some wavs from the game, but I'm not sending them to you
(lazy bastard). You can extract them yourself from the game using
the SCUMM
REVISITED. Knock yourself out.
NEXT:
Hi! I'm a long time
fan of adventure games and The Dig was one of my
old all time favorites. Unfortunately I never did finish the game,
and have long since lost my copy.
do you know
where I can purchase copies of old games over the
internet? I'm based in the philippines and as such, finding such old
games here in my country is a little difficult
I loved the
Dig, and I'd very much like to see how the game ends.
Hoping you can help me out.
Thanks,
Paulo
OH yes. I think I've played that game once. And I think you can buy
it from here.
NEXT:
i do think that your web site is a good idea.
I
played the game when it origionaly came out and i used
to play it. I never did beat it when it came out and
that always bothered me. it bothered me for over a
decade. I always kept thinking what if i had beaten
it. I finally broke down and bought it again. It
hase one of the best story lines i think i have ever
seen.
Well keep up the good work.
Elliott
Oh, Elliott, Elliott, I love your name Elliott. In fact I love you,
you know why? because I also couldn't finish the game as I first played
it, it didn't take me ten years like you, but it did took me two long
years. And that's why, dear Elliott, deep down we are the same. FREE
hugs to Elliott.
Ok, I love you all, but I'm off now, plenty of stuff to do for the
rest of the day. See you in 15 days or so, and oh, yes, HAVE A WONDERFUL
CHINESE NEW YEAR (which is tomorrow).
- Sam
TEXT
LINK TODAY. NO TIME TO FIND A BANNER.
Memento,
Oscars and pictures
January 30, 2007
Yesterday I was talking with a young
girl over IM, and despite the fact that we talked about 30 times,
she always ask me my name. When I tell her my name with the hope that
she might remember, she asks other casual questions as "So, where
do you live?" even though I've told her that a dozen times.
So, lately whenever I speak to her, and she asks my name I always
tell her a different one. In fact to any question she asks me I tend
to make up something, because no matter what I tell her I know she
won't remember any of it by the time we talk again.
Other thing I find amusing is when I tell her things about her self,
and she reacts as If I had psychic powers. When the only mystery here
is she not remembering telling me those things. Without a doubt this
fact remembers me to Memento,
the best Christopher Nolan movie so far.
I've recently read the short story on which Memento was based. It's
called Memento Mori and it was writen by Christopher's brother
Jonathan Nolan. It's a wonderful story, left me thinking. You can
read it here.
The Oscars nominations have been announced, despite I don't respect
this awards very much, I love them. This year in particular I love
them for having 6 nominations on Pan's
Labyrinth, which is just awesome. I saw the movie by the way and
I was totally blown away, the best movie I saw in a long time.
As I do every year, I will make full oscar predictions on every category,
last year's was one of my lamest predictions so I'll try harderd this
time. I will post them here in a week or so, before I take on some
vacations journey.
PICTURE TIME:
- Sam
Give me
a hug 2007!
January 19, 2007
Hi there,
Welcome to my 2007 Journal. I really missed you, mysterious reader.
Oh, look at the new improvements I made to my journal. First of all
you may have noticed that there are new wider pictures in the header.
These are all pictures taken by me, and they are randomly selected
every time you enter here (or every time you reload). I have to mention
this lovely javascript function was programed by Stewart Holmes, awesome
guy, member of The Dig Museum staff.
What else, what else? oh yes, I have links to both the 2006 Journal
Archive (with the not so many posts from that year) and to the site
of my first album. There is also another randomic thingie, which randomly
selects a quote from myself. Is a more modern way of having little
words like I used to put at the bottom of the "Coming Soon"
site.
Finally to conclude with the brilliancy, I have turned my old-fashioned
journal into a cutting edge topnotch blog with the amazing addition
of an RSS FEED. Oh yes, Hello 21st Century! I'm cooking with sparkly
pixels here!
So, now you can subscribe to the RSS thing, and know exactly when
I've posted a new thing here. Which in this year, I'll try to make
it more often. And I'll probably will given the neat amount of new
tiny and lovely stuff I've added to this place.
It's like a recently born fat (but lovely...and clean) baby, that's
very hungry. I have to feed this eating baby with tasty posts. Or
it will eat ME.
What is it to expect from me in 2007? Well, I've recently finished
a Thrillville "mini-site" which hopefully will be up soon.
On The Dig stuff, I will very possibly open two cool sections, the
reviews section and the beauty-packed gallery. I'm also writing "certain
article" for "certain cool site" on "certain subject
I pretend to know a lot about", and that would be finished soon
as well.
I'm also looking forward to my Loom site (I have many neat ideas for
that one) and another site about "the art of certain unreleased
sequel of a certain game" (but this one doesn't really depend
on me).
If things go right I will also compose new music and make a little
single (with not many songs in it). And also develop many stories
in very different mediums. One of them for example is an idea I have
for a short adventure game.
On a work basis, I'm developing and finishing the website of my web
design studio, Deja Vu Studio. And starting my DJ career. And that's
it basically, I'll inform you on any of this things as they become
available.
- Sam
