Secret World of Arietty is pretty darn good.

But when we're talking about Arietty, we're really talking about two things - the original movie (what you see) and the localisation (what you hear.) Localisation is easier, so let's start there.

Some of the voice casting is great. Arietty is fantastic, as is her father. The human boy - Sean, I think his name was? - is not particularly good, but part of the issue here is that he has to deliver everything very deadpan because of the character's conceit and animation. The soundtrack is good, but there's two or three original songs, which are war crimes. The incidental sound effects are curious; there's a lot which don't make logical sense, but which still sound 'right'. (For example, Arietty picks up a needle, which she carries around like a sword; they use a metal-sliding-on-metal sheathing sound for it, even though she "sheathes" it by poking it through her dress, no other metal involved. It makes no sense, but it feels right anyways.)

The animation is spectacular, news at 11. The art direction is typical Ghibli - impossibly lush landscapes and idyllic countryside homes. (In this regard, as well as in the regard of the theme that the main human character is in the countryside for health reasons, is a real return to Totoro, which is an interesting subject to explore.) The story is good, but weirdly structured towards the end; there's no resolution for certain supporting characters, and a really awkward exposition speech from the human.

The single best thing about this movie is the "set" design, and the "oh man, look at that" bits for what the Borrowers are using in their home.

Worth seeing, in any case. Orders of magnitude better than Ponyo.

What, it took this for you to not want to vote for him? I gave up on Obama when he appropriated the right to drone-murder American citizens without judicial oversight.

As you may recall, I work at a movie theater.

Today, some kids bought tickets to New Year's Eve, with the intent of sneaking into Immortals. They weren't very subtle about it, so one of my coworkers was watching them, and lo and behold.

Normally we'd kick them out, but he instead just sent them back into New Year's Eve - he figured that was punishment enough.

“Inside our office, I’ve been recently declaring, ‘I’m going to retire, I’m going to retire,’” Miyamoto said...

It's kind of hard to use a nice moderate article title when the man himself keeps throwing around the 'R' word.

It's clear that all kinds of crazy shit can, and often is, logged via Carrier IQ's software; it's still opaque, and incredibly important, what is transmitted from within that data. (I don't have an issue with my carrier or phone manufacturer knowing how many characters I've typed into text messages, but I mind them knowing what those characters are, for example.) Carrier IQ says that the data recorded and sent is by specific request on a per-client basis, meaning that it can be and probably is different for every carrier, but the extraordinary speed at which so many companies (Sprint,  AT&T, Apple, RIM, HTC) are backpedaling from their relationship with Carrier IQ is probably a sign that something really bad was going on somewhere.

It's the most entertaining game of PR hot potato I've seen in a long time - especially because it's unclear how many of the potatoes are hot, and who knows which potatoes are the hot ones.

(All links via John Gruber.)

I realized today that the one thing that feels like it's missing is a V.A.T.S. system. That would be fantastic.

Seven trillion? That's, what, half the national debt?

Literally yesterday I was looking for something like that.

I'm only up to "The Argonian Affair" so far, but I really enjoyed An Accounting of the Scrolls.

What advantages are there for light armor over heavy armor in the long term? I understand that the heavy armor makes you move slower and gives steeper penalties to your Sneak, but that's only until such a time as you pick up the "weighs nothing, does not diminish speed" perks. Once those are in play, what does light do better than heavy?

Well, I'm glad to hear you've written to all zero of your Congressional representatives, then!