Unless you’ve been chewing through your blubber reserves whilst hibernating on the distant ex-planet Pluto for the last few months, you probably know that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike, and that negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have not been particularly successful.

I’m not going to rant about the strike just yet, but I will show you this video which fairly accurately sums up the situation the WGA is in with regards to negotiations:

Links:

• Video @ Funny Or Die [found via Digg]
• Writers Guild of America

Hello World.

Apparently, once upon a time, I was a comic book character.  And not just any comic book character either, but an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., working alongside Nick Fury himself!

Unfortunately, Agent David Purcell only seems to have appeared in one issue, and the entirety of his story can be summed up thus:

David Purcell was a young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, a cadet who was about to graduate. He was hoping to marry his girlfriend Gail. As he was preparing for the graduation day ceremonies, Gail noticed that he was missing his dress boots, and he started searching for them. As he was occupied, HYDRA agent Lt. Romulus broke in and killed Gail from behind. Before David could react, Lt. Garotte grabbed him from behind and crushed his neck.

The two HYDRA agents then used David’s body to create an LMD with which they could infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. Central on graduation day.

The LMD found Baron Strucker’s Satan Claw weapon where S.H.I.E.L.D. had impounded it, and transmitted the schematics to Strucker so that he could build a duplicate. By that time, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Bruno Krea had smelled cyclonite on Dugan’s hankerchief, and they were about to deal with the matter when the LMD was detonated, and the explosion destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. Central, killing all 1,500 graduates gathered that day. A mop-up squad of HYDRA crafts ensured that no survivors escaped the blast.

Basically, my comic book namesake witnessed his girlfriend’s violent murder shortly before meeting his own demise, then his body got turned into a walking bomb and killed all of his classmates.  So, not really a legacy I’d like to be remembered for, to be honest.  But still… Nick Fury!

Hello World.

This is a clip of a talk by Kevin Smith, wherein he tells the story of his doomed Superman movie.  The clip is nearly 20 mins, but well worth the time.

I’m pretty sure this is from either the An Evening With Kevin Smith or An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder DVDs, but I’m not sure which.

This particular story has become so well known, that it was even used as a joke in the recent animated movie Superman: Doomsday (voiced by Kevin Smith himself, no less).

Hello World.

Sorry, I just thought it was funny.  Gimme a break, it’s late.

– [via Digg]

Hello World.

Dunno who this is by - or where it’s originally from - but bloody hell it’s good.

Click to enlarge.

Hello World.

What if business meetings were like Internet comment threads?

– [via CollegeHumor, via Neatorama.  How meta.]

Hello World.

Yo, sound the bell. School is in, sucka.

U can’t touch this.

– [via xkcd]

Hello World.

One of my favourite video podcasts (I hate the word “vodcast” and refuse to use it) is Ask a Ninja.  Every episode is hilarious, and often very intelligent.  None more so, however, than the episode regarding Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End.

Let me just say that I agree with the Ninja completely.  I really just don’t get these movies.  I’ll freely admit there is a certain charm about the first one - it has pirates and zombies and a monkey that is both a pirate and a zombie.  But that concept, however cool it may be, does not a trilogy make.  These latest two are just confusing as all hell and far, far too long.  Granted, the special effects are amazing - but so were they in Fantastic Four and no one confuses that for a good movie.  When the best thing about your film is Keith Richards doing an impersonation of Johnny Depp doing and impersonation of Keith Richards, something needs to change.

Shot best your with me hit.

Hello World.

This is a photo of squirrels with lightsabers, in honour of the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars.

Original on Flickr!

– [via Digg]

Hello World.

A starship captain who is secretly gay has a baby with a parolled murderer who’s a mannequin come to life. Stars Marion Ross and Kelly Ripa. Genre: Action

This is the concept for a new TV show as proposed by The TV Show Pitch Generator.

It is interesting to hear concepts presented in this way, because as bizarre as they sound, they’re really not that different from what is actually on television:

A city girl, whose estranged father dies, moves to the country to ride horses with mysteriously good-looking farm-hands.  After a few years, there will be no one called McLeod remaining on the show. Stars Generic Replaceable Blonde Actress and Generic Replaceable Brunette Actress.  Genre: Crap

– [via TVSquad]