by Grania
This is an accidental Master Class in how to win at Twitter. As Dire Straits said “That’s the way you do it“.
This is a real news story from Germany that Boing Boing decided to be funny about and swap around the words in the headline, for reasons of extra clickitude. (That’s a word. Now.)
So then this happened.
If you are still staring at this post with a furrowed brow and blank expression, or maybe an frustrated expression, it’s all full of Terminator references. Hasta la vista, baby.
FWIW, she is an amazing FT journalist whose prose is super strong. Her longform piece on Amazon in the UK from last year is quite the read.
FT = Financial Times, right? (And not Fascist Twit or something such.)
Your Dire Straits link is broken. There must have been a copyright issue.
It’s the Dire Straits VEVO link, so it shouldn’t have any copyright issues. But it’s one of those links that has an underscore in it, so maybe that is what is messing it up for you.
~Grania
Interesting. The link takes me to the YouTube page and the page says “Dire Straits – Money for Nothing”, but the video window says “This video is not available. Sorry about that.” Other Dire Straits videos on YouTube play fine for me.
I assume you tried it yourself, so it’s strange that you get a playable video and I don’t. Oh well, I guess it’s not important.
FWIW, I get the same thing you get.
I got the same thing as Dr. I, which I figure was contemplated by the first line of the chorus:
“That ain’t workin’ … “
I was clueless since I’ve never watched Terminator and don’t have a Twitter account. I think I’ll keep it that way.
Yeah, meant nothing to me either.
I get the cultural references and I still have no reason to watch any of the movies for the first time. I have even been known to leave the geology office/ bar/ canteen with an In voce Arnie of “I’ll be back.”
If you don’t mind the scifi conceits (no, it is not the robots that are non-physical :-/), the first is an unexpectedly great movie akin to Alien or Bladerunner. It is the social dynamics/love stories (not Alien =D)/breakout actors that make a non-descript movie into something unique.
(Even the cheesy animatronics from before CGI fits the movie format, the filmers were genius.)
Terminator is a classic.
The sequels not so much. (Personally I didn’t like TII and especially the lead, though it grows on you if you watch it again as its concept isn’t bad. The latest one was rather well scripted too.)
I should have said that the TII script isn’t “all” bad, because it has its problems, especially how it breaks the TI world in some cases. But those problems makes the rest a good script.
I think you’d like The Sarah Connor Chronicles – the TV series.
In one of his occasional forays into film criticism, David Foster Wallace wrote an essay about this, “F/X Porn,” in which he compared T1 and T2 and formulated the “Inverse Cost and Quality Law” applicable to Hollywood scifi movies.
Ha ha! I used to work with someone calls Mary Connor and I docent say, “Mary Connor,mint is time!” and she never got the joke.
The new Terminator movie is out today. Perhaps I will go see it tomorrow. Here is my terminator bravely fighting off an acrobot attack.
http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w666/ddmacpherson/terminatorvsacrobots_zps1210c545.jpg
Ok “I used to say, “Mary Connor, it is time.”
Damn iPad. It knows it will rule the world one day. Until then, it teases me.
I’m glad you corrected that – I’m a Terminator fan and was worried that I didn’t get the reference! 🙂
Love your Terminator!
Yeah I got him off e-bay and he’s 12″ tall with light up eyes. I thought of getting a second one but I have way too much stuff everywhere as it is!
I would be happy to have not seen the Terminator movies, as I’d have some fun entertainment ahead. Though the last one was off the beaten track and too contrived. I will watch the new one though…it’s a Terminator movie for Ceiling Cat’s sake!
Oh yeah, and nice action figure. As a model builder I appreciate the moldings. And plastic grows no mold.
I liked some concepts in the last one like being executed and waking up in the future apocalypse to discover you’re a terminator but the script and casting didn’t work for me so I think it ruined it for me.
I really liked the TV series which of course was cancelled by FOX, destroyer of all good science fiction series.
I really liked that tv series too. They had a lot of good ideas developing there.
Methings the Lady doth correct too much. It’s thyme, not a after mint.
Remove the therminal from the turrible termit ate ‘er.
‘asta la vista! O Odious, if u prefer.
Yes, Science Fiction tries to give FOX Folk the Midas Touch. Doesn’t seem to turn to gold. Pyrite?
Auto correct will be the death of us all.
There’s the makings of an SF story in there. 1000 words to end with some paen to how AutoCorrect lead to [the end of civilisation, heat death of the universe, or the Restaurant at The End of the universe ; pick one].
I don’t know whose autocorrectos are funnier–Diana’s or Musical Beef’s.
Hasta la vista, baby.
Which, incidentally, is not a Terminator reference, just an Arnold reference.
Terminator 2 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhm7aWp8gvc
~Grania
OK, my bad. I could have sworn it was some other Schwarzenner action flick, specifically True Lies. Who says WEIT isn’t educational?
Maybe it’s a tumour.
It’s not a tumour.
Kindergarden Cop! That is my fav Arnold movie.
The name in the Terminator movies is Sarah Connor, not ‘Connor; and, no, no one has ever told me before that I’m pedantic; and, no, I’ve never told a lie.
Actually, her name (the tweeter’s name) is “O’Connor” not “‘Connor”.
And nobody has ever told me I’m pedantic either.
I will see the movie soon. Hope it is good, but I am not sure. One thing that I know will irritate me is the tendency for later movies in the series to repeat the famous lines from earlier incarnations.
I actually like that. I know it annoys most people but it almost goes with the idea of fate – like they just can’t help saying those words no matter how the future turns out.
Also, it makes me squeee!
Useful knowledge. My CPU is a neural-net processor; a learning computer. The more contact I have with humans, the more I learn…
But Skynet presets the switch to “read only” when you go out alone….
Mark Sturtevant,
Totally agree about the line repetition stuff in sequels. It’s never truly motivated in the plot and the lines just pop in just groaning with obligation. It always detracts rather than adds to any moment it happens, IMO. Eye-roll inducing, rather than cheer inducing.
I was hoping for actual instructions because I don’t really understand twitter! (I tried to tweet a link to animal photobombs but I have no idea if I did it right)
If it did not work, then you did it right.
I like how his joints are so articulated as well. I’ve had fun posing him. I even had a picture of him feeding a carrot to my guinea pig years ago when I had guinea pigs.
Nothing suspicious here. Has Terminator feed ‘pigs carrots. ‘Pigs are now past tense.
Ha ha. The guinea pigs were unimpressed with the terminator.
http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w666/ddmacpherson/image.jpg1_zpspz7qhocc.jpg
One of these days you’re going to hook “Termie” up to some motors, sensors and a robotics package and send him off on a mission to boldly turn toilet rolls which have not been turned before.
I’d love to do that but most likely I’ll have to wait for one of those Japanese robots that look after the aged and decrepit. I’ll forgo meals & just get the robot to turn over toilet paper throughout the land.
As you type, Evil Overlords throughout the world are preparing their TP inverting robot minions.
You don’t know what you started. Or you did, which puts you in with the rest of the Evil Overlords.
I’m kind of like Sauron is to the Orcs, I suppose.
Daddy’s Minion !
aw, love that pic!
🙂 That was Ursa (named so because she looked like a little bear to me when she was a baby pig) & she was the most docile of my two piggies. My white GP, named Arrow (she was very pointy) would bite you for the heck of it until I corrected her to stop that.
For some reason now I want to know what unit wage costs are.
Had you noticed, Diana, that most of the thread is now about your Terminator figure? Way to hijack a thread! 😉
cr
It’s how Skynet wins.
+1
Just for shits and gigs +2
The classic Terminator line is of course “I’ll be back”. You had to see the movie to understand why that ordinary phrase is so loaded.
Oh, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymc1eww7od0
if you haven’t seen it, the first minute covers it.
cr
Grania!
Jerry left you with the keys & you only go & write Twit*er without an asterisk!
😉
Yeah, what happens when you lend your car to somebody. They crunch the gears, never check the oil, and hang fluffy dice on your rearview mirror. 😉
cr
Hey!
*grumbles*
Everybody’s a damn critic.
We try 😉
cr
And sprinkles her posts with science fiction! I like it when Grania has the keys!
Some years ago I finally got around to watching the first Terminator movie, and realized that the computerese supposedly running through the killer robot’s awareness was 6502 assembly language. Apple or Atari? Idle minds wouldn’t mind knowing.
Oooh, you win the geek prize for this thread!!!
cr
Agree with the Lazy-8.
I like 6502 but I’m really a Z80 kind of guy.
The C64s had 6502 or was it the later 6510?
The Amiga also had one in the series IIRC.
I think the second one was the best with Robert Patrick coming up out of the Floor and various other places, james Cameron sold the rights for $1,000,000 , his biggest regret he says, bet it is.lol
No I think James Cameron’s biggest regret is that the tape was running when he admitted to an interviewer that he ripped the whole thing off from a couple Harlan Ellison penned scripts from the original TV series THE OUTER LIMITS. His “genius” cred went right out the window.
Oh well. Ellison remains a brilliant writer with an astonish9ng body of work. THE OUTER LIMITS remains an interesting show despite the limitations of time and budget. Cameron remains a very successful hack.
I thought that was common knowledge. I don’t think Cameron ever pretended otherwise, did he? Ellison gets mentioned as the inspiration in the credits of the original Terminator.
Yeah, but the storyline is only 10% of the success (or otherwise) of a movie, at most. The other 90% is the writers / dialogue, the actors, the director…
cr
Ellison wrote a short sci-fi story with one of the best titles ever, “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”