Quotable Quotes: Avatar

Finally, my first 2010 post and it’s about the movie Avatar.

After watching it for at least 4 times, here are some of the more memorable quotes (for me) from the breathtaking, astonishing,  overwhelming, psychedelic, staggering, eye-popping, wondrous, awe-inspiring, (anybody notice that these are more or less synonyms of mind-blowing? 🙂 ) absolutely cool movie:

(Quotes updated)

Jake: “Tommy was the scientist, not me. He was the one who wanted to get shot out in space to find the answers.

(Jake Sully talking to himself after getting out of cryo)

Jake: There’s no such thing as an ex-marine. I may be out, but you never lose the attitude. I told myself I could pass a test any man could pass. They can fix the spinal (chord) if you got the money. But not on vet benefits, not in this economy.

(Jake Sully to himself right after landing on Pandora)

Quaritch: You’re not in Kansas anymore. You’re on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact, every second of every day. If there is a hell — you might want to go there for some R & R, after a tour on Pandora. Out there beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubees.

(Miles Quaritch, during initial security briefing)

Grace: How much have you logged (link training)?

Jake: Zip. But I read the manual.

Grace: Tell me you’re joking.

Grace: So you just figured you’d come out here, to the most hostile environment known to man, with no training of any kind, and see how it went? What was going through your head?

Jake: (smiling) Maybe I’m sick of doctors telling me what I couldn’t do.

(Dr. Grace Augustine talking to Jake before his initial avatar linking)

Grace: (seeing avatar Jake curious about his queue) DOn’t play with that, you’ll go blind.

Jake: That’s kinda freaky.

(Grace to Jake before turning off the lights for bedtime)

Jake: Am I still with (Grace) Augustine?

Quaritch: On paper. You walk like one of her science pukes. You quack like one. But you report to me.

(Jake talking to Quaritch in the hangar area)

Grace: (To Lyle Wainfleet) Stay with the ship. One idiot with a gun is enough.

Jake: (smiling)

Wainfleet: You the man doc.

(During Jake’s first trip into the forests of Pandora)

Jake: So what about this one? Run? Don’t run? What?

Grace: Run! Definitely run!

(Jake asking Grace what to do with the Thanator eyeing him)

Neytiri: Don’t thank. You don’t thank for this. This is sad. Very sad only.

Jake: Okay, okay I’m sorry. Whatever I did I’m sorry.

Neytiri: All this is your fault, they did not need to die.

Jake: My fault? They attacked me. How am I to back–

Neytiri: Your fault! (pinning Jake to the ground). Your fault.

Jake: Easy, easy.

Neytiri: You’re like a baby, making noise, don’t know what to do.

Jake: Fine. Fine. If you love your little forest friends, why not let them just kill my ass? What’s the thinking?

Neytiri: Why save you?

Jake: Yeah, why save me?

Neytiri: You have a strong heart. No fear. But stupid, ignorant like a child.

(Jake and Neytiri talking for the first time, after Neytiri saves Jake)

Jake: I was a marine. A warrior — from the Jarhead clan.

(Jake talking to Eytucan during his interrogation)

Neytiri: Now you choose your Ikran (Banshee). This you must feel inside. If he also chooses you move quick like I showed.

You will have one chance Jake.

Jake: How will I know if he chooses me?

Neytiri: He will try to kill you.

Jake: Outstanding.

(Neytiri helping Jake to get his Ikran)

Grace: This is going to ruin my day

(After finding out that she’s been shot)

Norm Spellman: What’s the plan Jake?

Jake: There’s no plan.

Norm: (baffled) Tsu’tey’s olo’eyktan (clan chief) now, he’s not going to let you near that place.

Jake: I’ve got to try.

(Norm talking to Jake after they arrive near the Tree of Souls)

Outcast.

Betrayer.

Alien.

I was in a place the eye does not see.

I needed their help, and they needed mine.

But to ever face them again, I was going to have to take it to a whole new level.

(Jake’s ikran (banshee) arrives)

Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move.

(Jake talking to himself before bonding with the Toruc (the great Leonopteryx) )

The way I had it figured, Toruc is the baddest cat in the sky. Nothing attacks him — so why would he ever look up?

That was just a theory.

(Jake talking to himself before jumping to bond with Toruc)

I was afraid Jake, for my people. I’m not anymore.

(Neytiri to Jake after Jake arrives and has become Toruc Macto)

Jake: Look where we are Grace.

Grace: I need to take some samples.

(Jake brings the deathly ill Grace to the Tree of Souls)

Jake: (talking to Tsu’tey) With your permission, I will speak now. It would honor me by translating.

(Tsu’tey agrees to translate Jake’s speech into the Na’vi language)

The sky people have sent us a message, that they can take whatever they want.

And no one can stop them.

But we will send them a message.

You ride out as fast as the wind can carry you.

You tell the other clans to come.

You tell them Toruc Macto calls to them.

You fly now, with me. My brothers! Sisters!

And we will show the sky people, that they cannot take whatever they want!

And that this — this is our land!

(Jake giving his battle speech to the Na’vi, after Grace dies)

Jake: Give it up Quaritch. It’s all over.

Quaritch: Nothing’s over while I’m breathing.

Jake: I kind of hoped you’d say that.

(Jake to Quaritch in their final battle)

Quaritch: Hey Sully, how’s it feel to betray your own race?

You think you’re one of them? Time to wake up.

(Quaritch to Jake, before trying to kill human Jake in the link room)

Neytiri: Jake! My Jake!

(Gives human Jake the re-breather mask since human Jake is dying due to his exposure to Pandoran atmosphere)

Jake: (After several gasps of clean air) I see you.

Neytiri: I see you (eyes wet with tears).

(Jake and Neytiri touching each other’s hand, after Neytiri saves human Jake)

Jake: The aliens (humans) were sent back to their dying world, only a few were chosen to stay.

The time of great sorrow was ending. Toruc Macto was no longer needed.

(Jake’s monologue during the retreat of some of the RDA forces back to Earth)

Jake: Well I guess I better go. I don’t want to be late for my own party. It is my birthday after all. (smiling)

(Jake, during his last video log before finally being permanently transferred to his Avatar)

See an earlier form of the Avatar movie script, in PDF format,  by James Cameron from Fox’s own site here.  Some of the lines in that PDF file made it to the final version of the movie. It’s quite likely some of the other missing lines or scenes will make it to the extended DVD/Blu-Ray release, such as when Jake and Neytiri made love.

(Spoiler Alert!)

I’ve still yet to determine which ones from that earlier PDF file are canonical and which aren’t, such as Neytiri being 18 (in human years) during the events of the film, as well as her having a deceased sister, among others. Apparently, also in the earlier PDF file, Neytiri became pregnant at the end of the movie. I guess the scientists really did their homework when they mixed human and Na’vi DNA (according to Jake). 🙂

Things I’m hyped-up/excited about in 2010

This is still a work-in-progress list, so it will still be updated. I’m so excited about these that I managed to will myself to write a blog post about them… :). Anyway here they are (lo and behold, geeks and geekettes). Time to get your geek on:

Caprica – Back to the roots of BSG. Oh yes. Lots of sci-fi and sexy goodness.

The Flash: Secret Files and Origins – By Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul, bringing back the long dead Silver Age Scarlet Speedster.  With Geoff’s hot writing (especially post-Blackest Night) and Francis’ fantastic pencils, hopefully they’ll stay longer in the Flash books after this limited series ends.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne – Need I extrapolate any further? In case I do, Bruce has always been my favorite Batman, and somehow I knew DC wouldn’t keep him out of the picture for long. This reminds me of Reed Richards though, when he was sent in another time and place by Doctor Doom, as  a final strike against the fab four. Reed was found by his family though. However in Bruce’ case I think he’ll be the one responsible for bringing himself back to the present (?).

Supermand: Earth One and Batman: Earth One –  Graphic novel format! Retelling of Superman/Batman origins in modern times (ala Ultimates of Marvel)! J. Michael Straczynski and Geoff Johns (again) as writers, respectively! Need I say more? 😀 Anyway,  in case it’s not too obvious, I love the writers, the heroes,  the concept, and the format. I think it’s a good way to get away from the monthly format (I’m not saying I dislike them), and a good way to save money while salivating for the next graphic novel installment. I read that each graphic novel is about 100 pages, which reminds me of mange-type publications. Oh boy!

Iron Man 2 – Scarlett Johanssen as Nastasha Romanoff a.k.a. the Black Widow!  Downey Jr. and Paltrow returning as their original characters! War Machine! Samuel L. Jackson again as Nick Fury! Jeez, need I go on and say more? 😀

Planet Hulk – animated film. I’m not sure how well received the previous film incarnations which featured the Hulk were, such as Ultimate Avengers 1 and 2, as well as the Hulk Vs short films. But it’s good to see ol’ greenskin again, doing hulk smashes and proving once again  he’s a real force to be reckoned with in the Marvel U.

More updates soon.  Oh and suggestions are welcome. 🙂

\\//,

Holey Space

Nope that’s not a typo and this isn’t technically about religion. This post is about holes in space, namely black holes, wormholes, and the lesser known white holes, and their implications to the physical and metaphysical. The arrangement or flow of exposition of this article, from black to worm to white hole, will become much clearer as you read along the article. So get ready for a quick rundown on holes (cosmic ones of course), thought experiments, sci-fi love, paradoxes, and various possible implications in our lives and the universe we live in.

My list of most attractive females in Star Trek TOS

The original Star Trek TV series simply known as, Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) and  which started airing in 1967, is one of the great backbones of sci-fi media in my opinion, whether it be film or television. The series was riddled with attempts (sometimes successful sometimes not so in my opinion) of profundity, and at times humor.  The themes of several episodes are recurring themes in succeeding sci-fi series and movies. The series though was conceived as a ‘serious’ primetime science fiction series, which I think means adopting or applying currently known scientific facts and researches at the time, instead of more often than not making things up without scientific temperament.

Here now is my list of the most physically attractive females (enemy or friend) in the whole 3 seasons of the series, in no particular order. Note that these are only the one-time female characters who are not part of the enterprise’ crew, as otherwise I would have included the lovely Nyota Uhura and other officers.

1. Nona from the second season episode of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) entitled “A Private Little War“. She was played by actress Nancy Kovack. Interestingly enough, Nancy has quite a similar last name to a certain famous Watchmen character. 🙂  Unfortunately Nona became an antagonist and died for it. Still, she had a really beautiful face and a wonderful body 🙂

2. Eleen from the second season episode of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) entitled “Friday’s Child“. Eleen was played by the beautiful Julie Newmar who is more famously known as one of 3 women who played Catwoman in the 1960s live action television series Batman. Eleen started as an antagonist though she decided to become otherwise at the end of the episode. Eleen was very beautiful, not to mention the way she pronounced Bones’ last name was really hot. 🙂 She pronounced it “Mac-coy” in a very sexy way 😉

3. Miramanee from the third season episode of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) entitled  “The Paradise Syndrome“. Miramanee was a hot female Indian who seemingly became Pocahontas to Captain Kirk. In fact, she was so hot that Kirk had a child with her. Unfortunately, she died at the end of the episode 😦

4.Zarabeth from the third season episode of Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) entitled  “All Our Yesterdays”. Zarabeth was a lonely woman who was sent back in time to live in a cave amidst an ice age, since her planet at the time she came from was about to end. Thus she lived alone wearing only loin clothes. She had a very pretty face with a nice body. Thank you loin clothe 🙂

Comments in a ruly manner are most welcome 🙂

Vulcan salute ASCII art

As you all know, a lot of people, creative in art or not so much, create and use ASCII art ranging from the complex (machines, sceneries, human faces) to the trivial ones (faces, smileys: 😉 (^)__(^) d(o)_(o)b ). Now I’ve been looking around the Internet for a Vulcan salute ASCII art that really appeals to me. I mention appeal because the Vulcan salute ASCII arts I’ve seen so far are not so convincing, i.e. they don’t really look very much like the real salute (of course this is obviously a subjective thing).

Some of the Vulcan salute ASCII arts I’ve found are the following:

This one involves an underscore followed by 2 forward and backward slashes (source: http://www.geocities.com/dronak/smileys.html)

_\\//

This next one has one version similar to the above art, while the other version uses a “les than” symbol ‘<‘ to introduce the thumb (source: http://en.allexperts.com/e/e/em/emoticon.htm)

<\V/ or \V/_

As I’ve mentioned, I’m quite displeased with the above Vulcan salute ASCII art and so I created my own versions. The following are my two versions with specifications describing them and how they are made:

My version 1

_\\//()

\V/,

Specifications: This version uses backward and forward slashes to represent the pinky and the index finger, respectively, while the capital letter ‘V’ represents the ring and middle finger. Lastly, a comma represents the thumb. I used the comma for the thumb, and not an underscore like the above versions, since the thumb is usually not angled that much from the index finger in a usual Vulcan salute. In my version the forward slash (index finger) has a much smaller angle/opening with respect to the comma (thumb) compared to using a forward slash with an underscore. The smaller angle/opening is in my opinion, the correct form of the Vulcan salute as shown by Spock in this image.

My version 2

\\//,

Specifications: This is quite similar to the first  version I mentioned at the start of this post. That is, slashes represent the four fingers with the exception of the thumb. The differentiator is also the comma representing the thumb, which again has a look closer to the way a Vulcan salute is done.

License

Finally, I license my 2 ASCII art versions of the Vulcan salute under the following Creative Commons licenses listed here:

• Attribution (by): Licensees may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these.
• Noncommercial or NonCommercial (nc): Licensees may copy, distribute, display, and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only for noncommercial purposes.
• ShareAlike (sa): Licensees may distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work. (See also copyleft.)

That is, under the Attribution + Noncommercial + ShareAlike (by-nc-sa) licenses of Creative Commons.

Comments and suggestions are welcome as long as they are calm and ruly.

And, as is the customary farewell among Vulcans,

Live long and prosper \V/,

Quite Quotable Quotes: The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) is undoubtedly my favorite sitcom so far. I’ve never really been into sitcoms actually. Some of the last few ones I watched were (believe it or not) Seinfeld, Fraser, and Friends, and I didn’t really get into them that much. I just watched a few episodes here and there, usually with my dad or with my sister when we were much younger. TBBT has fervently rekindled my attention towards sitcoms, in such a magnitude I can only describe as the energy needed to accelerate an electron to 0.99% the speed of light 🙂

Needless to say, there are quite a lot of sources on the Internet for what TBBT is all about. Wikipedia or a simple Google search or a quick visit to the official site should do fine for a start. What it is to me however, is a brilliant show that combines geeks, nerds, comic books, sci-fi, technology, physics , science, and jokes together, and still be absolutely entertaining and humorous. In other words, much as what the Gay Liberation has done to reinvigorate gay pride, TBBT has reinvigorated the geek pride in me. The writers and producers are themselves geeks and nerds, watch Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica and read comic books. But they also treat the characters in the show with such respect that even if you’re not one of “them” (or in this case, one of “us”), you’d still find respect for them (or “us”). TBBT has I think, no doubt inspired many reluctant geeks and nerds, not just in America but across the globe where TBBT is being shown, to go out and be really proud to be geeks.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite quotes from the first season:

From the season 1 Pilot episode:

Leonard: We need to widen our circle.
Sheldon: I have a very wide circle. I have 212 friends on myspace.
Leonard: Yes, and you’ve never met one of them.
Sheldon: That’s the beauty of it!

And yet another from the same episode:

Penny: I’m a Sagittarius, which probably tells you way more than you need to know.
Sheldon: Yes, it tells us that you participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun’s apparent position relative to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality.
Penny: (puzzled) Participate in the what?

And another:

Sheldon: Okay, look, I think you have as much of a chance of having a sexual relationship with Penny as the Hubble telescope does of discovering that at the center of every black hole is a little man with a flashlight searching for a circuit breaker. Nevertheless, I do feel obligated to point out to you that she did not reject you. You did not ask her out.

another:

Leonard: (talking about him and Penny) Our children will be smart and beautiful.

Sheldon: Not to mention imaginary.

And from the succeeding episodes:

Sheldon: You have to check your messages, Leonard! Leaving a message is one-half of a social contract, which is completed by the checking of the message. If that contract breaks down, then all social contracts break down and we descend into anarchy.
Leonard: It must be hell inside your head.
Sheldon: At times.

Wolowitz: If it’s “creepy” to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I’m “creepy”.

😀

Sci-fi ponderings when (almost) idle

I was talking to one of my housemates last night while I was taking a break from using my PC when we came to the topic of Terminators.  Being sci-fi fans (me especially) we talked about the realism of robots and computer software taking over the world.

The proposed problems pertaining to plausibilities

Now, my housemate proposed that Skynet, the autonomous computer program that took over the world and is responsible for the decline and domination of the human race, isn’t very plausible, or at least isn’t ‘too’ smart. His propositions are the following:

a) Skynet should have made the Terminators smarter so as to make them more adaptable to human circumstances, issues, and environment.

He mentions that though they look like humans, they (or at least the ones in the movies, unlike in the Terminator TV series) they still act relatively cold and robot-like. Adapting to human behavior, emotions, idiosyncrasies, at least temporarily, may help them perform their missions better, i.e. terminating their targets.

b) Skynet, at least in the future (so my housemate concedes), should have made itself connected/linked to Terminators so that it can use it’s powerful processors and information on humans, including their tactics, to finally wipe out the human race and leave nothing to stand up against it.

I made my housemate actually concede early in this proposition that this can only work in the future, because how would Skynet of the future control and communicate with Terminators it has sent to the past? It could be quite given that future Skynet would be linked to the Terminator pawns via some wireless technology, but wireless technology across time? Dubious.

The proposed answers to the problems

a) Now this one has been answered already in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, when John Connor asks (approximately at 1 hour 6 minutes of the Special Edition of the movie) if Terminators (or at least the T-800 model 101 Terminator a.k.a. Arnold model/line of terminators) can learn new things so they can be more human. The terminator responds by saying that Skynet “presets the switch to ‘read-only’ when terminators are sent out alone”, to prevent them from “thinking too much”. This then prevents terminators by default, or at least the movie terminators such as the T-800, T-850 T-1000, and T-X, from learning a lot of things about what makes humans humans.

b) One solution I’ve thought about for this specific conundrum in the Terminator universe, which could also be said in real life hardware/software,  is that if Skynet ‘hooks’ itself up to every terminator walking around trying to find, infiltrate, and terminate humans, i.e. connect its thinking to the terminators, then that would lead to a vulnerability. The vulnerability comes from the fact that by doing so (hooking up/connecting to terminators in the field) would allow humans to insert a virus or ‘anti-Sknet’ software to one or more captured terminators, which could then be uploaded to the main Skynet program and destroy Skynet entirely. This is possible because Skynet has to maintain a duplex connection to the terminators in the field if Skynet is to control them and still be in sync with the main Skynet program. I think this is a risk Skynet would not dare take.

Questions/comments/arguments? Feel free to post them as long as they’re calm, ruly. 🙂

Quite Quotable Quotes: Star Trek (2009 film)

From the new (and I should say fascinating) Star Trek film comes the following quotable quotes.

From Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) at the end of the film, the updated Star Trek mantra is as follows:

Space: the final frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

And from Scotty (played by actor Simon Pegg):

So, the Enterprise has had its maiden voyage, has it? She is one well endowed lady! I like to get my hands on her ample nacelles if you’ll pardon the engineering parlance

And  from “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban) and young James Kirk’s (Chris Pine) exchange:

Bones: Don’t pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait till you’re sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles, see if you’re so relaxed when your eyeballs bleed. Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.
Kirk: I hate to break it to you, but Starfleet operates in space.
Bones: Yeah. Well, I got nowhere else to go. The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I’ve got left is my bones.

Finally, what would Spock and the Vulcans be without the Vulcan salute coupled with

Live long, and prosper

😀

And some thoughts immediately after watching Star Trek:

1. Fascinating.

2. Can’t wait for the DVD and Blu-ray to come out.

3. Can’t wait for a TV series.

4. Can’t wait for the sequel (as confirmed by this site, the major cast  and crew are signed up for 2 more sequels. Yay!)

5. Can’t wait for more official books and comics.

Quite Quotable Quotes: Mulder and Scully

These are from FBI special agents Mulder and Scully‘s conversation on the X-Files episode “The Unnatural”, season 6 episode 19:

SCULLY: Mulder, it is such a gorgeous day outside. Have you ever entertained the idea of trying to find life on this planet?

MULDER: (looking at the record book) I have seen the life on this planet, Scully and that is exactly why I am looking elsewhere.

🙂