David Copperfield on Reddit

Last night, David Copperfield appeared on Reddit to answer questions from the Reddit community.  /r/IAMA is one of my favorite subreddits, as many celebrities make an appearance there.  Tenacious D's AMA (Ask Me Anything) was a different experience for me, as, in edition to typing out their answers, they also answered via audio.  Below, I've included some of my favorite answers from the session with David.  For the rest, go check out the site.

unassumingname:
What is your favorite illusion? Where did you learn it? How do you perform it?

DCopperfield:
One of my favorite illusions is Flying. It's a dream anyone can relate to. All of these illusions take many years to develop. A lot of trial and error. Sometimes we have to change paths totally, but eventually, usually, we succeed.
The flying illusion took SEVEN years to develop - to make it really credible. I wanted to make it feel real: levitating inside a plexiglass box, levitating through hoops, flying while holding a woman from the audience.

TomCook24:
What was the first effect you ever performed, or the first you performed with some regularity and can remember?

DCopperfield:
The first trick I bought at Macy's was a little wooden board where a quarter would appear and disappear. It took quite a bit of skill and practice - I worked so hard on that thing!

shoeler:
What's your biggest embarrassing moment on stage? Illusion or otherwise.

DCopperfield:
I've embarrassed myself so many times. About a week ago, I threw a frisbee into the audience to find a randomly selected person. A guy caught it and I told him to stand up. He was reluctant. I thought he was just shy. I encouraged him to stand up - please, stand up! Come on!
I then realized that he was disabled, and I felt absolutely horrible. I apologized profusely and I ran to him, he smiled, I hugged him, and he understood. So yeah - that was embarrassing.

passitaround:
Do you have any pre-show rituals?

DCopperfield:
I brush my teeth with a Sonicare toothbrush before every show.

paradisefound:
What's the most magical thing you own?

DCopperfield
An island. ;)

Zelda: The Musical

I found this on YouTube, and it was good enough that it warranted sharing:

Men In Black 3

Overall, an enjoyable film.  I laughed throughout, found it an enjoyable movie.  Nothing really ground breaking, but Josh Brolin really captured a young Agent K, even sounded like him, I look forward to seeing more films with him in it.  One note, if you go see it in theaters, save your money and don't bother with 3D.

The Mageborn Series

Great book series. First book had some mild formatting issues, however he's fixed those in the second and third books.

I've enjoyed reading the first two books.  The third book just came out, and I'm reading through it now.  Mordecai's parents are attacked when he's an infant.  His father killed, and his mother mortally wounded.  She manages to escape with their child, but knowing that she's dying, she leaves him in the care of a blacksmith and his wife, who being unable to have children, raise him as their own child at the dying mother's request.  The story picks up again with Mordecai as a young adult, shortly before he discovers the gift he inherited from his father's side.

The first book is free right now, and the other two are worth the price:

http://www.amazon.com/Mageborn-The-Blacksmiths-Book-ebook/dp/B005A1JBB8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337363778&sr=1-1

A Song of Ice and Fire

Seriously, if you haven't started this book series, you should!  As fantastic as it is on HBO (and Peter Dinklage is fantastic as Tyrion.) the book series is beyond great.  It's in the Fantasy genre, but fantasy doesn't dominate the story.  George RR Martin seems to have found a good balance between the two.

On Mass Effect 3

I've been absent this week partially because I've been working, partially because it was my birthday, and mostly because I was playing Mass Effect 3.

The gameplay was good, the story (up to a point) was great.  I wish they'd done more character development with the other characters,  but what they had was good.  I mention the last bit specifically because they mentioned there'd be fewer companions so that they could focus more on them, but it really felt sub-par to me. The graphics were good.  I'd heard there were problems with importing your character's looks from the previous game, so I just built my guy's face from scratch when the option came up (though the import didn't look bad, so maybe they fixed it.)

The side-missions weren't that great, but the main-missions made up for that.  Overall, it's a great game. . .

Until you reach the ending.  All of the choices which affected the outcome of previous games, and played a part in each successor suddenly didn't matter anymore.  The morality choices made in the last game didn't effect the end.  They give you three possible outcomes, and each one is essentially the same choice, never mind the plot holes that come up.  It really feels like the game designers took a big crap for the ending and then served it up to the fans calling it prime rib.  This article explains it much better however it does contain spoilers.

Bioware is working on an extended cut for the ending of the game, however it won't be available until the summer, and you'll need the full game (Likely meaning if you bought it used, you'll have to get the online pass, something you'll need to play the multi-player anyway.)

Dishonored Trailer

I just found out about this game today, and I have to say, I'm looking forward to it already.  Glad it comes out this year.

<iframe width="480" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/E1HlYTukh9A" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Very Large Dead Snake

You won't believe what this thing choked to death on.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z6GdbWXqZ7o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Meme-Tag: About Me

Blogfather Harvey, of BadExample tagged me, so here are my answers:


Your questions:


1. What's your favorite color?


Don't really have one.  Green will work, though.


2. If you get a plane ticket for free to go wherever you'd like - where would your final destination be?


Either Ireland or Japan




3. Is there anything in your life you always wanted to do and never had the chance to?


Walk the Appalachian Trail


4. Which one is your favorite movie classic? (Let's say: Older than 20 years)


Pulp Fiction.  (It'll work in 2 more years.)  If I must choose 20+, then Die Hard.


5. If you were blond - would you mind the blonde-jokes (and of course if you ARE blonde - do you mind them?)


Wouldn't bother me.


6. What is it that always and 100% certain makes you laugh?


a baby laughing


7. Where do you usually buy your clothes?


Where ever  I can.


8. Does wind bother you or do you like it?


I like it.  I loved it when I first started shaving my head-- feels wonderful.


9. What is it that you dislike about high school reunions?


I can't say-- never been to one.


10. Are you a cat or dog person?


Dogs.  I don't like cats.


11. Can movies make you cry and if yes - when was the last time you cried in a movie theater or in front of the TV?


This is in one of my favorite games, these stories get me every time (there are a bunch):


<iframe width="480" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UPn0T4ZpLKE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>  


______________


Now, to pick the traditional three tagees:


Spockgirl over at Spockgirl Musings


Boudicca of Boudicca's Voice


I don't really have a third, so I'll leave it blank-- if you do it for your blog, let me know and I'll tag you in this spot.

Businesses Asking for Your Facebook Password

Lately, there's been more than a few articles about Companies requesting potential employee's Facebook passwords, so they can peruse your account, circumventing any privacy settings you may have.

Now, I take a different stance on this. Rather than protesting, create a fake profile that you use specifically for this type of situation.

• Be very open about your race.
• Be very open about your sexual identity. Or, claim that you are gay/lesbian/bisexual/transexual/transgendered/multisexual (Pick one or more, as you like) and be vocal about it.
• Be very outspoken about a religion (or lack thereof)
• Be very outspoken about a political views.

If they don't hire you, sue the company, they aren't supposed to even see such information, the fact that they're perusing your Facebook page makes this information available to them.