So Long, 2007

Last post of the year...

It's been 1 year and 3 days since my first post. In that time, I've made 125 posts (including this one), for an average of about one post every three days. 108 of those have been since September, at almost a post a day. I've used 27 categories (or, more accurately, tags, as that's the way I've ended up using them).

Not too bad for Year One.

Many of you may be singing a very famous song tonight: Auld Lang Syne. This is a Scots song, so when you start toasting in the New Year, you're honoring my people.

Wikipedia lists the translation as literally "old long since," meaning either the popular "days gone by" or, alternatively, "long long ago."

Hm. Now that sounds familiar... I wonder if these would work for lyrics?

It is a period of
Civil war. Rebel
Spaceships, striking from a hidden base,
Have won their first victory
Against the evil
Galactic Empire.
During the battle,
Rebel spies managed to
Steal secret
Plans to the Empire’s
Ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR,
An armored space station
With enough power to destroy
An entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire’s
Sinister agents,
Princess Leia races home
Aboard her starship,
Custodian of the
Stolen plans that can save
Her people and restore
Freedom to the galaxy…

Ha!

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!

CHOW Profiles My Gaffer!

That's my Dad!

[c/o Yowell]

Patriots Complete Perfect Season

Damn, this millennium has been wicked good to New England sports fans!

Demand Done Right

This is exciting news, I only hope it's true.

This is why I've been waiting until January 14th to buy an TV; it may not get updated, but now is a pretty foolish time to buy, all things considered.

Here's to hoping there's a version of these digital files available in (at least) 720x1280 resolution...

Keith Richards Will Eat Me Thrice

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Stay away from me, Evil Keith! Stay away!

That's My Hometown!

From the New York Times, on smelting in Bowdoinham(!):

Rarely are you distracted from the drinking and the talking by the actual need to catch fish,” he said. “It’s an occasion for high sociability — and it’s not like there are so many of them in Maine — masked cleverly as a kind of sport.

Truer words have never been spoken; this is exactly why people up here love smelting.

Leopard Update

Monday's Leopard install was fairly uneventful. Considering how long I had been looking forward to 10.5, I'm surprised I made it this long without upgrading. Even my Dad noticed— he said it's the first time he's beat me to it.

It's always nice with the big updates—regardless of how major the changes, aesthetic or under the hood, it always feels like a new computer, at least for a day or two. I'm still trying to get used to/familiar with the new Finder windows, the dock, the pointed-edged menu bar, etc. I actually really like some aspects of the new menu bar— just not the transparency part.

One of the first things I did was to go to this AppleInsider forum and use Post #1's replacement files for the Dock. My new black Dock looks far better, and is more functional; those blue indicators are actually visible now. More Dock replacement files can be found here for those who are interested.

I also opted to switch over to the default Leopard background, that purple aurora borealis image you see in all of the promotional material. I figured, since I was already exclusively using NASA images, I might as well mix it up with a new photo for a while.

Something I hadn't realized: the "inactive" window look is very different; now anything inactive loses most of its shading and gets bright. I'd have gone in the opposite direction— darken and de-emphasize anything that was inactive. The new, current style actually draws me toward the very windows I'm supposed to ignore.

All in all, though, I am digging it, as I knew I would. Anyone who is waiting, I fully recommend going for it; QuickLook and CoverFlow are worth the price of admission alone. Unless you're waiting for specific program compatibility; in that case, keep waiting.

Johnny Chung Lee, I Salute You

There are some smart people out there, and this guy is one of them.

This is the kind of thing that I imagine people like Jamie and Adam already know about; but consider my mind blown. I get the idea of what's going on here— I couldn't engineer the device or program the computer to do it, but the ideas are very straightforward, especially as Mr. Lee explains it. Still, the second he demoed the "Camera-Eye View" of the effect, I started screaming and calling out for someone else to come and see it.

This won't be practical for general programming, like movies or TV—the single user experience discounts groups watching the same screen together. But as far as gaming is concerned... awesome.

I agree with Johnny; someone, somewhere, please make some games that utilize this!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, Joyeux Noël, and all the rest!

A little late, I admit, but I desperately needed a nap this afternoon.

So tough noogies.

Time For Leopard

Here we go...

Destiny Wants HD TV In Maine

While sitting at the airport, and prowling through my daily links, I discovered this good news: Time Warner Cable has added six new HD channels to the market in Augusta, Maine!

Now, my parents only live 25 or so miles from Augusta, so I don't know if this applies to them or not. Not that it matters, as they don't have an HD set... yet.

This is frustrating for me, though, as TWC in Los Angeles doesn't have these channels, and that is where I do have an HD TV.

I'd love to see TWC match DirecTV's level of HD support, but I recognize that as pure fantasy. I'd settle for a few more, like Augusta.

Flying Sucks

Wow, I always seem to forget just how much I hate to fly.

I'm not afraid of flying, and I like to think I'm a fairly patient fellow. But the airlines have got to be one of the worst organized customer service businesses I have ever encountered.

Last night, we had a flight from LA to Las Vegas, with a two hour layover before flying to Boston to meet Tracy's parents.

We got to Vegas fine, but things rapidly started to go downhill.

Our 11:30 flight out to Boston was first delayed to 2:30 a.m., then 4:30, and then cancelled. Turns out, I think, that it was the same plane as a flight out of Boston that was getting delayed and then eventually cancelled, which killed our chances of getting out of Nevada yesterday.

After a long wait at a Delta counter, we got some taxi, meal, and hotel vouchers. After a long wait for a taxi that accepted vouchers, we got to our hotel (the Greek Isles). After a long wait to check in (a few dozen folks were in the same boat), we got to our room.

Which at least was non-smoking, and had a solid shower.

Delta had "created" a new flight at 12:10 p.m. Friday for everyone on our previously cancelled flight. And that seemed nice. But when we got to McCarran airport this morning... we had already been delayed. That seems strange to me; how can a newly scheduled flight, created solely to accommodate people from canceled service, be delayed by almost three hours four hours before it's scheduled departure?!

Ahhhh!

As of right now, Tracy and I are camped out in Terminal D, waiting for our "Delayed" departure time of 2:40 this afternoon. McCarran has sporadic floor AC outlets, which is nice; Tracy and I found an empty plug, and will probably watch a movie soon. And they offer free WiFi, a service I wish more airports and hotels would start to implement. I'd be far more irate (and trust me, I'm already a bit pissed) if I couldn't check my e-mail.

I have a lot of sympathy for the airlines. Not only is it an incredibly difficult engineering feat to manage the volume of flight they do, but it's a scheduling nightmare as well. Plus, you get to deal with your customers at their worst; when they're tired and frustrated and just trying to get somewhere.

But really? The US government has given you guys a few billion dollars of the past decade, and this is the best you can do? Shit will always happen; I'm not so naive to think that things like this can be perfect. But this is ridiculous. There are a lot of smart people out there, and I'm willing to bet a few of them are feeling frustrated, as they work for airlines but don't have the power/wherewithal/cajones to implement the changes they can see are so obvious. So let's fire the dumbass bureaucrats who are getting in their way.

The LA public bus system is more reliable than this; and many of you know how late and irregularly the 156 runs sometimes. But when I pay my buck-twenty-five, I feel like I'm getting solid, easy, and ultimately dependable service for my money. Multiple the price of admission by about 500%, and suddenly I'm wishing I took the bus.

Sigh.

Happy Day!

Best. News. EVER.

Peter Jackson is officially producing The Hobbit and an untitled sequel based on stories and information from The History of Middle-earth series.

My co-workers just got to see me freak out in a big way over this. Those of you who know me understand just how important Lord of the Rings is to me; the books are among the first my father read to me, and the films happened at the exact right time in my life.

So this is, to say the least, exciting.

Here's to hoping that PJ also decides to direct...

2010 can't come fast enough...

While we're on the topic; back in 2000, before any of us knew what we were in for, New Line released an Internet-only trailer for the entire Lord of the Rings series. It started as a making-of featurette, with Jackson and others talking about the process, some b-roll of the filmmakers at work, and then a bunch of (semi-)finished shots. All of it scored to X-Ray Dog's "Gothic Power."

I fooled my computer into downloading this trailer (as QuickTime had it set to not allow this), and must've watched it a hundred times.

And then my computer died. And it was lost.

So... does anyone out there know where I can find this thing? Did you save it too? is it hidden on a disc or a DVD somewhere?

Because I wants it, and they stoles it from me!

My Work

A couple of pieces I've onlined have gone up on the internet.

Yay!

Check out the list below to see how I make meaningful contributions to a healthy society.

Charlie Wilson's War “The Real Charlie”

Go to the "Video" section, and click on "Real Charlie." I knew nothing about him, so I thought it was an interesting piece.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets “Locations Around the World”

Rotten Tomatoes has this as "Exclusive Featurette," with a couple of viewing options. I recommend the "High Resolution" Quicktime. Sadly, we did this piece in HD, but they only have it at SD size. Oh well.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets “MySpace”

A collection of lo-res pieces that are a little less formal; plus, the "Locations" piece pops up again.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets “The President's Book”

This is in really low quality, which is, again, a shame since we did it in HD, but it's still there. Funny note: Fandango has mis-spelled the title as "Presidents." Which make sense, but doesn't match the card in the piece.

Trajan

This is the kind of thing I notice, too. This cracked me up.

Other overused fonts: Copperplate (sorry, Dad, but since Universal Studios uses it, it seems like every other film tries it out) and Bank Gothic (Transformers, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and the ubiquitous "24" are all guilty, among many others).




[c/o Daring Fireball]

Yup

'Nuff said.

This is why I am so unenthusiastic about these services, and much happier with a blog; I am obligated to all of my readers equally, no matter how (or if!) I know them.

High Wire

The following video is pretty damn incredible.



For me, the long take of him "walking" along the wires, with a second worker coming into frame behind him, is one of the most beautiful and mesmerizing images I've seen in a while.

Here's a gauntlet for someone: shoot an HD series on human beings doing their jobs. Not just exotic and weird stuff, but maybe things we don't usually see. Cooks in a kitchen, people making penicillin, the guys who run snow-blowers on ski slopes... this piece isn't quite as majestic as I would want it to be, but I sure as hell want to watch more.


[c/o Kottke.]

Star Trek: The Tour

Star Trek: The Tour opens in Long Beach in January.

Who's with me?

Because I am so there.

YouTube x3

Because work is all about receiving, viewing, and passing along humorous internet videos.



This one's courtesy of Jeremey Foley, who can't stop watching it. The humor comes on slowly; like The Big Lebowski and fine wine, it gets better with age. Once you anticipate what's coming, and laugh at the reporter as she herself laughs, it gets pretty good.

I do feel bad for the kid; what he's said, even in the context he has, is not that different from a lot of things kids say. But he ends up on YouTube, and suddenly a million people are laughing at him.

You know what? When I was a kid, I misunderstood a reporter asking me questions on the news... so I started talking about a local recycling initiative instead of an infamous murder case.

Shit happens, I guess. And that is still funny.



This one comes from Adam; he, Jamie, Belinda, and I have been mulling this one over for a day or two. Jamie has already put up a blog post about it, and then a response post to the original.

I am so five minutes ago.

This is, on examination, quite clearly staged. The kid starts screaming and moving in a way obviously designed to attract the dog's, ah, affections, and the camera-person is expecting this, and intentionally not rushing to the child's aid. But I like to think that this is a recreation, for the benefit of the camera, of a prior event, a candid moment where all parties found themselves in this shocking (and hilarious) circumstance, which, at its conclusion, left all involved thinking "I wished we had that on tape!"

Well, now you do.

Jamie also makes the excellent point that, regardless of the human intentions on display, that dog is dead serious.



Lastly, here's my favorite strike video yet. If you don't know what strike I'm talking about... you don't live in LA. So good for you.

This week is when a lot of normal viewers are going to start noticing the Writer's Strike. This is pretty much the last week of new scripted entertainment until... well, who knows when. Half of the shows out there start are already showing repeats, and the late night shows have been out of production for over a month.

This video does a good job of positing what would happen if more media formats ran out of content with the striking WGA...

And isn't David Cross great?

OS X Dock Stacks

I came across this video showing the behavior of Stacks in the Dock back in beta versions of Mac OS X Leopard.

The salient difference, for those of you saying "That's the same as my stacks now," is that the stacks are in the application portion of the dock. Not consigned to the Document/Trash/Windows side of the dock, but useful as a true application launcher.

I think this looks pretty cool; the ability to name (and rename) stacks, as well as live-reorder them, seems pretty damn awesome too.

Maybe in an update? 10.5.3 or something?

Unreal

[WARNING: I found this story to be pretty disturbing... it isn't violent or offensive, but unsettling on a very basic level.]

A man in Indonesia cut himself as a teenager.

And, before long, he started growing warts, which kept growing...

Into roots. Or, more accurately, root-like growths.

This gets to me. This mans body turned into... something else, something alien. This is the exact same body anxiety movies like Alien play at: that your body is turned into a host for another organism, eating at your humanity.

This stuck in my mind for days; particularly when he shows off his hands in the video.

But, if you're interested, the video is the only way to get a real sense of what these growths are.

With a week's worth of distance, I find this scientifically fascinating; that HPV could run so rampant belongs on House, and the final result is right out of The X-Files. But I am still deeply unsettled... I hope that, someday, doctors are able to remove and restrain this man's unnatural warts, so he can use his fingers again.

And I hope I never get warts like that.

Good luck, brother.

Flash Drive Testimonial

Yesterday, I sent my USB flash drive through the wash, nestled comfortably in my pants pocket.

Doh!

Imagine my surprise and pleasure, then, to discover that it still works perfectly.

If ever there was a better recommendation that this, I don't know it.

So, everyone, if you're in need of a USB flash drive, I heartily recommend the Cruzer Titanium — I have the 2 gig variety.

Go Cruzer!, originally uploaded by Hutson H.

It's A Mystery

Tracy has told me about this before, but I came across an article today about the Racetrack Playa rocks. Short story is these very large rocks seem to slide around the playa, leaving long trails behind them... but no one has ever see seen them move, so no one knows how it happens.

Awesome. I want to go there.

And the good news is... it looks like I will!

When Tracy's parents come out for their (now) yearly LA trip, instead of heading down to Joshua Tree State Park, there's been talk of heading to Death Valley. Where Racetrack Playa is.

And I will make Tracy take us here. With my camera.

A similar place (in the opposite direction) that I want to check out: The Bonneville Salt Flats. Many of you may have seen them as "Davy Jones' Locker" in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End this past summer.

Tracy is right; geology is cool.

Web 2.0 On The Menu

This is a pretty funny story.

Any other ideas? Google Salad, Almond-Crusted Mahalo, with a Triple-Layered MySpace Tiramisu for dessert?

None of that rolls off the tongue nearly as well as "Stir-fried Wikipedia."

8 Points: Beowulf

Spoilers abound, especially for those of you not familiar with the original poem. Even if you are, I may ruin surprises.

So here goes.

1. See this in 3-D. Now. I mean it when I say that this is, bar none, the best 3-D work I have ever seen. Where the CG mocap animation has flaws, the 3-D smoothes them out and more than makes up for them.


2. I don't care what the rhetoric is; this is an animated film. Yes, it is in the direction of photo-real, but it stops short of traditional feature film effects trying to pass for real. It is stylized, especially when it comes to the light-like elements.


3. I wish they had pushed the style further. Early talk was of a moving Frank Frazetta painting; the final result is true to this in design, but is too polished for a real Frazetta feel. Maybe next time?


4. My three favorite moments: Beowulf digging through a sea-monster's eye, and being so worked up, he can only scream his name; Beowulf proclaiming his own legendary status to Grendel, just before ripping his arm off; the entire dragon fight.


5. This may be the best cinematic dragon yet. And certainly the best dragon battle yet. Eat your heart out Sean Connery. The bar has been raised for The Hobbit, if it ever gets made.


6. Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman have some serious credit due; they did one hell of an adaptation, that not only maintains the tone and feel of the epic poem, with its boastful braggarts and ritualized deeds, but feels energetic and exciting in a modern way. And the few additions they made tie the entire narrative together... Hrothgar fathering Grendel, and Beowulf fathering the dragon, make Beowulf's last stand, and the whole progression of the story, resonate in relation to the earlier confrontations. Balanced with the coming of Christianity (a contradiction in the original poem, as it is about Old English gods, but transcribed by Christian monks), and the (classic) death of the Old Ways, and you have a damn fine movie.


7. This is a truly mythic film; 300 wishes it could get you to care about its characters half this well, or get you invested in the battles a tenth what this film manages to do. Bravo.


8. James Cameron's Avatar is going to kick all of our asses.

Post-Thanksgiving

Well, that was a success.

The turkey came out well— came out great, if I do say so myself. Everyone brought a wonderful selection of food, from swiss chard to cranberry mousse. Will made his first cheesecake (pumpkin-flavored). We played some Wii games (Super Mario Galaxy is a solid console entry). We talked and went for a walk. We drink good wine, some Beaujolais Nouveau, some low-end blush sparkling white wine.

For those of you interested, I put my Nikon D80 to solid use tonight; once I finish developing the photos, I'll post and entry to new Flickr photos.

Coming home, unloading my equipment from the car, the cold air caught my attention. I was wearing my new hoodie jacket, hood on my head, carrying a large Rubbermaid tub full of cooking utensils and ingredients. I still smelled of brined and roasted turkey, a smell associated with the cooking my parents did. I had a pumpkin pie in my hands. I closed my eyes, just for a minute, and imaged I could smell frost on the cool air, and hear the wind in the woods back home.

Pretty damned close, for a minute there. Almost like home.

I hope all of your dinners were as good, and as fun, as mine. For those of you going shopping tomorrow, good luck. Will and I are heading out quite early... and, one way or another, I plan on ordering my HDTV. And who knows? Maybe I'll find some other things that spark my fancy... for either myself or others. The Apple Store is down as of right now; computers may be a cool $100 cheaper for tomorrow, both online and in person. And maybe Airport Base Stations and TVs will find themselves discounted. Who knows?

Sweet dreams to you, Dear Reader. I am off to bed to dream of the smells of home cooking, the chills of winter, and the feelings of home.

Goodnight.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Things are starting to get going back at the old digs in Century City...

More pictures as things progress... but I hope all of you have a happy Thanksgiving with great food, great times, and great company!

Amazonian Kindling

I was going to make a post regarding Amazon.com's new device, the "Kindle," but Fake Steve just does this stuff so much better than ever I could. Check it out.

I mean, really? This looks like bad sci-fi from 1987; it belongs on a shelf with old portable audio cassette recorders.

Hawaii Photos

I finally got some of my photographs from our Hawaii trip up on Flickr. These are the ones from my Canon point-and-shoot... I haven't finished developing any of my Nikon DSLR shots yet. But for the time being, here's a bunch for everyone to enjoy.

[UPDATED: Functional link posted.]

Waimalano Sunrise 1, originally uploaded by Hutson.

Paint Archaeology

This is one of the greatest photographs I have ever seen.

Not only is the subject matter fascinating, it's gorgeous. Excellent composition and color... and one hell of a found object.

I found it linked to over at kottke.org; it's a photo by Cassidy Curtis, which he explains better than I could back at the first link. Take a look at Kottke's second example for another cool application of paint-in-action.

Sherm the Star

Here's my good friend Sherman, starring in a music video back in his RISD days.



Some quick notes and observations:

• As a man with a beard, Sherman, please bring the beard back!


• But only if Meredith says it's okay.


• This RISD house looks pretty much exactly like the Senior Woodframe houses at Wesleyan, where most of the college films I myself participated in were shot. So that's funny.


• Speaking of my films, I should post some of them to YouTube...


• Just for reference, here is Sherman's IMDb page.

I Love The Daily Show... & Its Writers

Brilliant.


(courtesy of Daring Fireball.)

Twitter

I never "got" Twitter until this morning, when I was doing what I do every day: bemoaning my inability to get any regular posts up to TWGB these days.

I had two or three short things to throw on the blog, but they didn't seem to warrant full posts. Combining them into one didn't feel right— when I'm not going through three weeks of backlogs, I like things to be somewhat separated. So what to do?

Well, I guess, Twitter.

I'm not saying that I'm about to rush and make myself an account; I really do like the idea of having my internet presence being centralized, in respect to this blog. But the impulse that leads to Twittering (or is it tweeting?) makes a lot of sense.

What the solution is, I don't know. The "Linked List" approach that John Gruber uses over at Daring Fireball is a great model for what I'm thinking of; his longer posts have a different style and layout from his daily collection of links. So maybe, as I move to a fully Hutson-designed layout (someday!), I just need to implement something along those lines.

For now, though, I'll probably just end up being inconsistent about it, I'm sorry to say. I'll try and just make posts with my short thoughts/links/whatever; we'll just have to see.

We're Everywhere

On Sunday, Tracy and I went to Trader Joe's and came across this:

Doh!

Courtesy of Fake Steve Jobs, check out these stills from "The Bionic Woman." To add to iJustine's comments about the iPhone being upside down, I'd also like to point out that the screen is on, which doesn't happen during talk as the iPhone has "proximity sensors" or somesuch that kill the screen when it's against your cheek, to save on battery life.

Whoops!

Any "Bionic Woman" fans out there who can tell me if these pictures are of "Leoban" from "Battlestar Galactica?"

Simpsons Wars

Someone just sent this to me via Flickr, probably in response to my "Building the Falcon" photo set. It's pretty good.

Catsup, Ketchup... Catch up

Well, the week finally came to an end, and here we are. Remember earlier in the week when I said I had 11 web links I wanted to post and discuss?

Yeah, it's more like 20 now.

Now, posting them up individually would give us only a fine mess 'o blog clutter, so, in one fell swoop, here's the "HH Week In Review."

• Interesting article from Wired.com about the hidden cost of biofuels. Just goes to show how complicated the human relationship to the environment is. There truly is no easy answer...


• Sodium is awesome.


• The WGA (Writer's Guild of America) Strike is the big news in LA this week. Every day, riding my bike to work, I passed the picketers at the Universal Studios gate and gave my support—except for Friday, when 3500 (!) were picketing at the Fox lot, which is, of course, my old neighborhood. Here is an excellent look at what this strike is about, plus a great call to action regarding the studio heads of old. Corporate pros and marketing heads just aren't the same kind of mavericks. Also, as he so often does, Jon Stewart gets it right.


• Here's another bit of entertainment news I really hope is true. Not only is the idea of a new—and skilled—writer picking up the Spidey franchise exciting, but also the tease of a leaner, meaner story. Fingers crossed.


• I really want to get excited about J.J. Abrams Star Trek, as I'm a fan of "Alias," "Lost," and Mission: Impossible III. But the casting has been... to be generous, shall we say, uneven:
  
  
  
  • Zachary Quinto as Spock? Not too bad, as Quinto is one of the best (and most consistent) aspects of "Heroes." Still, I'd have preferred Cillian Murphy.
  
  
  • (Relative) unknowns as Uhura, Chehov, and Sulu? Not very exciting, but they'll probably be fine.
  
  
  • Eric Bana as the evil Romulan bad guy? Unexpected, but probably awesome. Of course, his character's name is Nero, showing once again that Star Trek is quite good at taking the Roman Empire metaphor very literally.¹
  
  
  • Simon Pegg as Scotty? Double-take worthy, totally weird, but Pegg is Pegg, so totally awesome. Or so, at least, I hope.
  
  
  • Chris Pine as Kirk? Meh. No, you haven't heard of him, and neither has anyone else. Might be good, but I want charisma and presence. Kirk's got to be exciting and infectious. There's a reason those Matt Damon rumors kept on swirling—he's got the right kind of energy. This is risky casting, but nothing compared to...
  
  
  • Karl Urban as McCoy! This is, simply put, wrong. Don't mistake me; I love Urban. His work as Eomer in The Lord of the Rings is excellent, and he played one hell of a gritty assassin in The Bourne Supremacy. Hell, I even dug him in Pathfinder, which is a truly terribly movie.² But as Bones?! Sorry, too meaty, too tough. Not enough of a thin, cranky old man, even as a fresh-out-of-the-Academy Star Fleet cadet. Ouch. Again, I'd rather see Cillian Murphy in the role.
  
  
  • Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike, the Enterprise's first commander. I love me my Greenwood, and he looks like an early-Starfleet era captain Right on.
  
  
  • Winona Ryder as Amanda, Spock's human mother. What?! Does she even work anymore? Last time I saw her was as the most dissapointing android ever in Alien: Resurrection. I'm not sure I buy her as anyone's mother, let alone a wise-beyond-his-years half Vulcan. Weak.
  
  
  • Rachel Nichols as... maybe Yeoman Rand, maybe Nurse Chapel? Either way, this gets classified as "awesome," because (A) She's charismatic and cool, and (B) She grew up in Augusta, Maine, and graduated from Cony High School a year or two before me. If she ran track, we were at meets together. Cool.
  
  
  • This is a picture from the set this week and that looks an awful lot like "House, M.D."'s Jennifer Morrison. Who is she? Is it her? Dunno and dunno, but if it is, she could be up for the same roles as Nichols, and it would also be awesome, as she is great on "House."
  
  See what I mean about uneven? Smaller roles are somewhat interesting, and then bigger ones range from "okay" to "Are they smoking crack?!" Here's hoping J.J. can really pull this together with a fantastic production... but given that Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are writing this, and they wrote this summer's abysmal Transformers adaptation, I'm starting to feel worried... But this teaser, done right, could do a lot to prove to the fans that this crew has got the right attitude, and is creating a film that has the right vibe. I can't wait to see this trailer.


• Speaking of Star Trek, here's a review of the outline for the Star Trek Prequel Rick Berman tried to make. Worth the read as a Trek-worthy glimpse at the alternate reality we could have had, had this film been made. Not that is sounds perfect, but a real Trek war story, written by one of the "Band of Brothers" guys, going back to the adventure and discovery roots of the original Star Trek? Count me in.


• NYTimes Deputy News Editor Philip B. Corbett talks the Times, language, grammar, and writing, all structured as a Q&A with readers. Great piece.


• Following the language thread, this is hilarious. For non-readers, Dinosaur Comics uses the exact same picture everyday, and just changes the words. It may take a while to get in the groove, but once you do, you may never stop laughing.


• With new Kubrick DVDs and HD discs coming out this week, people have been posting about his work. I followed a few links and came across this. Yes, it's 20 years old, but I'd never heard of this theory. You know what we call this in film school? Reaching.


• This is my morning bus stop when I take the bus to work, as I did the Monday this ad went up. That is the building I look at while I wait on the other side of the street. And I noticed this building before the article came up, I just took a full week to blog it myself.


• Tracy found this, and it's damn good.


• I've caught up on Heroes, and have been watching Season 2, which had mostly sucked. It fact, these 6 or so episodes are so bad, series creator Tim Kring is publically apologizing. Weak.
  
• These are wicked cool. And here you can see the real equipment Lucas used in 1977.


• Also, these pumpkins rule. I should have submitted this two years ago.


• I love wine, and I know some sommeliers, so I can attest that at least some of them know what they're doing. This is still hilarious, though.


• Tracy just discovered Katie Herzig, who's pretty cool. She really likes the song "Sweeter Than This," which you can listen to by going to the "Music" tab, and selecting the track.
• 
  
• Go see American Gangster. It's great.

Check out this editorial on the format war. This guy is very optimistic about the situation, and brings up many good points, especially regarding the general publics understanding of HD and how to optimize it. I think the format war is far more negative than he lets on, but he's still worth checking out.

• If you look at Amazon.com's page for Ocean's Thirteen, you can watch previews for two special features I onlined: "Masters of the Heist," and "Vegas: An Opulent Illusion." I even picked out the clips that play as the previews. So that's pretty cool!

Phew! So glad to get all of that out of the way! Maybe now you can see why, when it piles up and I get just a little behind, it starts to get much harder to even post a short bit. But, being all caught up, I intend to get back on schedule.



- - - - -

1. Example: Romulus and Remus are twin planets; Romulans live on Romulus, and Remans live on Remus.[⇪]

2. Pathfinder isn't even terrible good, or funny. It doesn't have any good action. It's just terrible.[⇪]

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Roy Scheider! Today you can go slow ahead, while I will come down and chum some of that shit.

Extended Pause

Yes, I've been off the air for several days now... we've had a lot of late-notice work requests coming our way here at HCE, many of which have fallen in my lap these past two weeks. Getting home at 11pm does not make for easy blogging.

But, I keep meaning to, and I have 11 (!) Safari tabs I want to link to/discuss... hopefully, in the next two or three days, I'll start slogging through the backlog and get back on regular posting.

Quick thanks to Dad for A) Excellent pictures, and B) Such a nice letter. Response forthcoming soon...

As for the rest of you, comment to me about how desperate you are without regular updates, and maybe I'll find the motivation to get a few quickies in...

Tech Specs

Word.

The problem with home video: everybody's an expert, while things are as complicated as an engineering class. Moral of this story: do your research before you start jawing.

Go Jeanine!

Check out this New York Times article, which is all about Jeanine Basinger—my college professor, department head, and advisor—and her new book.

Excellent article about what promises to be a greta book. You may think that the stars of the first half of the century would be boring, but Jeanine is easily one of the smartest people I've had the privilege to know and work with.

No Way!

I feel like I must have known this before, but I was happily surprised to discover whose birthday is today:

Happy Birthday PJ! The only present you need is for New Line Cinema to relax.

Halloween Treat

I just got home, and turned on the tube while I made some dinner.. to find, on the channel the TV was already on, this:



That's one of my best friends (and former roommate!) Adam getting iced in Halloween: H₂O. Maybe not a great film—who knew water was so scary?—but it's better than many of the other Halloween films.

Side note: YouTube is awesome. And the new encoding (based, I believe, on H.264) is even more awesome.

Please Be True...

Came across this yesterday.

I am exactly the kind of person this is good news to: huge fan of the first 5 seasons, loved the movie, and dug the MotW* episodes. Hopefully, the old gang can knock this one out of the park.


- - -

* "Monster-of-the-Week."[⇪]

Dumbledore's Agenda

Here's a great piece by Chicago Sun-Times editor and columnits Jim Emerson, dealing with J.K. Rowling's assertion that she imagines Dumbledore to be gay. That is interesting on its own, but what caught my fancy was his well-said explanation of the artist's intent, and what bearing it has: namely, that it is important and worthy of knowing, but is by no mean definitive. It's a brief aside in the article, but it's the most important part.

At Long Last

Good news via Ain't It Cool.

I've enjoyed the previous two releases immensley; the musical accomplishment of Howard Shore in these films is simply incredible. These deluxe releases are beyond complete, include nice documentation, and have a great case. Still, though, I sometimes wish for more detailed track notes, à la the "Star Wars: Special Edition" 2-disc sets from the 90's.

Luckily, though, "Lord of the Rings - Soundtrack.com" provides free PDF downloads that match that level of geekiness, and then some. Worth grabbing and paging through while listening to the over six hours of music the first two sets contain.

Amazon.com lists the "Return of the King" set (absent from the official page above) as being released on November 3th; you can pre-order here, which you'd better believe I did.

On a related note, the "Battlestar: Galactica" Season 3 Soundtrack CD is finally on sale, and it is awesome. Lookout, though, as it's backordered five to seven weeks on Amazon! I guess this has been one popular disc...

Happy Halloween!

I'm going for a Batman: Year One meets the "Sons of Batman" from The Dark Knight Returns, Call it "The Sons of Batman: Year One."

Hope you all dress up and have a good time!

Conversations 210: An Elective

Gretchen Rubin, over at "The Happyness Project," is absolutely right, even though her headshot could use a little work.

Courtesy of Kottke.org.

Best of the Web: indexed

I've stumbled upon her site numerous times, and I'm at a point where I must post about it: Jessica Hagy's "indexed" is one of my favorite websites. Now added to the sidebar.

Ever.

Great wit and understanding, and the best charts and diagrams this site of Algebra II.

Visit this site every day, and buy me a T-Shirt.

Jeff Bezos Has Been Busy

...Or at least his web designers have been.

Hot on the heels of the IMDb "Twin Peaks" DVD site look, it turns out Amazon.com has been remodeled. *

They really are going for a minimized header; a lot of old icons and pop-up lists are now in the sidebar, which is almost exclusively text. Images, in general, are much more sparingly used— predominantly only with product links. I applaud the simplification of the site; but I think there are quite a few problems.

To my old eyes, the "Search" bar is way too invisible; the pale grays and vertical layout just make it disappear. Considering the Amazon.com search bar was essentially the only way I interacted with the homepage, this bugs me.

Also, the look of the new graphics is... questionable. The rounded corners everywhere look like an ugly copy of the Apple "Aqua" look from two years ago; the light gray color scheme with white "cut-out" text and icons are hard to read and discern; the new orange is too distracting and attracts my eye away from what I want; the way every freakin' clickable highlights or responds when you mouse over (especially the "Amazon" logo if you're not on the main page!) drives me absolutely bonkers.

Contrast the new look with this snapshot of the page from July (courtesy of the Wayback Machine), and you'll see the difference. I find the old one, while certainly due for an update, had a distinct look that made me feel I was at a designed site; the new look is as crowded and generic as your average poorly-designed storefront. Too much clutter, not enough personality.

Not all bad, but far from great. Give 'er a Round 2, Bezos.


- - -

* I love that this page has no "Title" setting— the web broswer literally just displays the web address in the title bar. Classy. [⇪]

IMDb Sells Out

Yesterday, I checked out the IMDb for the first time in a week, and was greeted with this:

Over the last few years, I've felt like the IMDb has been commercializing itself progressively more and more; be it promoting bit-player actresses on it's front page to drive traffic, hawking the weeks newest DVD releases, or using stick-on ads. But this seems to be the biggest step yet even if only for a day.*

I can't recall the IMDb ever going this far with any other releases... this is a pretty major push for the "Twin Peaks" Box Set. And, for the record, I am a *huge* Twin Peaks fan. I just get cynical about blatant corporate synergy.

What's that you say? You were unaware that the IMDb is a fully owned subsidiary of Amazon.com? Take a look at the very bottom of the IMDb home page— you learn something new every day.

This is not much different from the New York times being an ad-based online magazine, or any other site that shows ads. Remember, nothing is free; we pay for "free" sites one way or another, and usually through commercials. You may not think of internet ads as true commercials, as they usually don't interrupt your regularly scheduled program temporally (i.e., stopping the chronological progression of your television show), but they do interrupt the linear progression of what you're reading. You have to skip your eyes past them to continue. Yes, that does have a temporal equivalent, but it isn't a temporal interruption. But is a spacial interruption better or worse? Hmmmm...

What worries me in this case, though, is that the premiere online resource for film is owned completely by the premiere online online retailer. Sure, I do most of my shopping on Amazon, so the links provided are convenient, but what happens when a movie comes out that is critical of Amazon.com? Or when trivia starts getting inserted to help promote sales? Or something more heinous that I can think of right now?

I don't mean to say that things are shady now, though yesterday's site look felt a little fishy. It's just that the potential for shadiness is particularly high, and if our history is any indication, what people can do, they often do.

* As of today, the ad look is already gone. [⇪]

Happy Returns

Well, so much for my plan to get some posts up on vacation... but we're back now. I do have a slew of photos and some debriefing to do, but that may have to wait for later tonight... I have laundry, and a quick trip to work to do today. But thanks for sticking with me...

That's What I'm F***ing Talking About

Here's a brilliant essay over at The New Republic detailing just why it is that swear words have the power they do, and why we use them. The author, Steven Pinker, does an excellent job analyzing not just the grammar of curses (for example, how nebulous the meaning/function of "fuck" really is) but their heritage. I, for one, had never thought about how religious curses ("What the hell is that," "Damn you") have lost their bite and severity, so "fuck" steps in with its secular power ("What the fuck is that," "Fuck you").

Absolutely worth a read, for fuck's sake.

Ian's In Town

Ian's here, and we've been having a good time. yesterday we swung by Santa Monica, check out the beach, and went to Father's Office.

Notice the smoke behind Ian— that's Malibu burning, where they're evacuated several houses, and many Pepperdine buildings. Here's a separate image of the smoke:

Postings are going to be sporadic for the next week or so— we're heading to Hawaii early tomorrow for a wedding, and I won't have a ton of free time. But I'll do my best to get somethings up, I promise.

Late Update

Light posting schedule today (obviously). Too much going on at work to slip away for more than this, what with prepping for a week away in Hawaii. With my girlfriend, my brother, and my best friend.

What could be better?

More soon, I won't leave you hanging.

News From the Homefront

My home state of Maine made the top of the news cycle today, even all the way out here in Los Angeles.

Turns out Portland is making waves by allowing middle school medical clinics to offer prescription birth control.

The usual debate of "sex is horrifying and this encourages it" versus "kids are having it, let's treat the reality" is playing out on a municipal (and, I guess, national) level. Big surprise there.

pro·gres·sive (adj.): Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods.

Because with 17 (!) pregnancies in three schools over four years (!), clearly everything is working fine.


[Note: Follow the link and look at the picture of the "horrified" woman. This is what we're fighting here, people!]

The Greatest City?

Here's a fabulous essay (with fabulous photography) by Geoff Manaugh over at BLDGBLOG about why Los Angeles is the greatest city in the USA.

That demands repetition: he claims Los Angeles is the greatest city in the Unites States.

No matter what you do in L.A., your behavior is appropriate for the city. Los Angeles has no assumed correct mode of use... No one's going to save you; no one's looking out for you. It's the only city I know where that's the explicit premise of living there – that's the deal you make when you move to L.A.

Amen. Whether or not you choose to hold this up as a paragon of greatness is purely a matter of taste; I tend to agree with his sentiment that LA is a singular place, unique and incomparable.

Now don't get me wrong; I'm a country boy to whom Boston will always feel like the Big City. And I love New York, albeit in a removed fashion; I haven't lived there, so my concept of it is more romantic. It's the source of our dreams of Gotham City and Metropolis. Home to the best and worst.

But Los Angeles doesn't play that game. It's a true empty canvas, because it isn't waiting to be filled. Los Angeles may not give you anything, as Manaugh says, but it also doesn't ask anything of you in return. Live and let live, drive and let drive, and nothing more. The rest all comes from yourself.

Los Angeles is the confrontation with the void. It is the void...It's a confrontation with the oceanic; with anonymity; with desert time; with endless parking lots.

Certainly not heaven, but definitely fascinating.

Goddamn HTML

Pardon the brief rant, but sometimes HTML and Web Browsers piss me off.

CSS allows me to do so many beautiful things... modern browsing can really be a well-designed experience. Think of how many pages you visit that look quite nice.*

But then, you look at the browser's title bar to see the name, and you get only a literal character representation of the code.

Bullshit.

Follow the jump, and take a look at the title of this post in your broswer bar. The page renders it as "Goddamn HTML." And that's what you should see. But the browser renders— no, it displays the code as "<i><b>Goddamn HTML</b></i>." Wrong!

But there's nothing I know to fix. I'd noticed it on several sites in the past, and thought it was bad coding... but getting into myself, I just don't know what to do. One of these days, we'll get a next-gen browser that'll render full HTML and CSS in the title display; until then, get used to my little friends “ < ” and “ > ”.

[* Even this site looks pretty good. Although it'll look much better when I've redesigned it from scratch... someday...]

Audio What Now?

If any of you think that it's confusing when I talk about the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray hi-def disc format war, be warned: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.*

Standard definition DVD audio is already home to many formats: Stereo, Mono, Dolby Digital, Pro Logic, PCM, DTS, WTFLOL.** But what I hadn't realized (and perhaps should have) is that each format has its own "High Definition" upgrade, some with compressed and uncompressed versions. 5.1 gets upgraded to 7.1, sometimes if you can't do one the same encoded audio will downgrade itself for backwards compatibility, sometimes not, uncompressed PCM audio streams that branch... my head is already spinning.

Fortuitously, Hi-Def Digest has posted a great article detailing all of this info. Well organized and well explained, if the next level of A/V equipment and standards gets your juices flowing, this is a must-read.

But I'll be god-damned if all of this technology doesn't make for one hell of an expensive upgrade.

[* C'mon, take a guess... I bet more of you know this than you think... okay, well, it's the top search on Google.]

[** So I made the last one up. Sue me.]

Batty

Going nuts here trying to get some serious tasks accomplished so I can go chill on the beach with my brothers...

And man, do I have a mono-brow...

Unbelievably ______

Unbelievably fast.

Unbelievably complicated.

Unbelievably dangerous.

Unbelievably awesome.

Check out the real Cannonball Run.

I can't imagine doing this in 32 hours. I just can't...

Another HCE Piece

Over at Apple.com/Trailers, at least today, one of our pieces for Gone Baby Gone is on the front page item. Awesome!

Here's a direct link to it; it's the one called "Featurette."

Don't Try Eating

Had this sent to me yesterday; another fine entry in the "SNL Digital Short" line. Does get a bit weird at about 2:10, but redeems itself in the end.

Random GIFs

Things I've seen on the internet recently (or not so recently).

I have no attribution, but I wish I did.

YouTube, The Bar Is Raised

Today's noodling led me to Vimeo, a YouTube competitor I hadn't heard of— and odds are, neither have any of you. I can't claim to be especially impressed— it's a pretty enough site, but the ubiquity of YouTube realy makes it hard to be able to count on something like Vimeo; will it have what I need when I want to show someone exactly how I feel about Spider-Man 3?* This is very similar to my thoughts on Zooomr, a Flickr alternative— too close to the original (or dominant) player to be worth the trouble of switching, not special enough to be set apart.**

But Vimeo does have one quality; HD content! I've always felt terribly frustrated by YouTube; in an age of DVD and HiDef television, it's super-shitty and compressed (and out of sync!) quality has no excuse. Vimeo, in contrast, looks pretty damned good.

Two videos caught my eye: "Little Booger" is an extremely well animated opening credits scene for nothing; I was particularly impressed with the excellent faux-camera work, and the music gets stuck in my head.

"DeSlime" just looks damn cool.

[* This is a truly hilarious video, by the way. Check it out.]

[** What's that, you say? That this reminds you of the whole Mac/PC debate? Well let me tell you, mister, it is nothing like that at all! ]

Consider Yourself Warned

Some sites have spoiler warnings.

Cigarettes have surgeon's general warnings.

Riverbeds have flash-flood warnings.

This, right here, is a worst thing ever warning.



I keep wanting it to turn into a Napoleon Dynamite-like performance, but no, it only hurts.

I'm sorry Jamie, this is certainly not a good thing.

Right and Left

Take a moment and visit this website. When you get there, don't think, just look: which way is the dancer turning?

Don't continue reading until you've visited this link.

The fascinating thing here is that this optical illusion actually measures (or at least claims to) which side of the brain is dominant for you. I fall into the right brain camp; the second I look at this image, she's moving clockwise. The article claims that most people see her moving counter-clockwise (or "anti-clockwise," as the article is Australian), and that most people are left-brainers. Showing it to people around the office, that seems to be true so far...

It's fun; stare at her shadow for a second or two, and you can make her switch directions. I've gotten pretty good at it...

What did you see?

Amazing...

This guy needs to be working in Vegas, pronto...


This begs the question... how do you decide to get good at stacking dice with a cup?

Sic Transit iMac...

I want to take a moment and mourn the passing of a friend... my iMac G5, after 3 full years of service, is dead.

I attempted to replace the hard drive today, but found that a plastic connector (for what must, to my mind, be a temperature sensor; it connects to the chassis of the hard drive, not any actual drive components) had become so brittle that just touching it caused it to fall apart. I can only assume my computer had, in the past, gotten too hot for too long; this plastic was truly degraded. I proceeded anyway, and did my best to reconstruct the part, but when I went to start the machine up, the drive wouldn't engage for several minutes, and no start-up screen ever loaded.

Dead for a ducat, dead.

So farewell, dear iMac. You served me well, and we had good times.

I'm glad I backed you up last week. I have to figure out a way to get you recycled, now...

In the meantime, I think it may be time for Tracy to get a laptop of her own. I still want one of the new aluminum iMacs, but I need to wait for that... Leopard comes out soon, and I can wait for the next revision to come along. Besides which, I plan on making a TV my next big purchase... So Tracy having her own machine will give us a home computer solution in the meantime. Besides which, she's started talking about it recently, so hopefully I can convince her... ;)

Anyone interested in a 500GB internal SATA drive? High quality, ready to rock; I'll sell it cheap for 80 bucks. Let me know...

Weekend Blues

Bleh, bleh, and bleh.

Yes, I was supposed to be in Yosemite right now, but on Friday I was just feeling too sick to go. That proved wise; Friday night wasn't very pretty. But yesterday got progressively better; I slept through a lot of it in various fits and naps (hence my being up at 1 a.m.).

Interesting note: at no point this weekend did I really want to watch a movie. Sure, I turned the TV on for a little while, but I really wasn't into it. Which is strange; I do love watching movies, and usually take advantage of time when I cannot do anything else.

But not this weekend, not me. Napping and reading and a episode or two of CSI.

Today is a much better day, I feel fairly good and have tried to focus on getting things accomplished. Tracy gets home soon, which I can't wait for; it's funny how lonely you can get over two little days.

sic transit gloria mundi

I was doing some internet-noodling* this afternoon, and in reading about some Wes Anderson influences, I encountered this phrase, the source of the stated theme of Rushmore: sic transit gloria mundi.

Wikipedia gives the definition as "Thus passes the glory of the world." It goes on to note that a common interpretation is "Fame is fleeting," and that the phrase is commonly used in Papal coronations, to underscore the fact that despite high honor, the Pope is mortal.

In none of this do I see direct connections to glory, or a world in a state of excellence.

So then, dear Reader, I ask you: what is glory? In my experience with common English, it generally seems to be a property of its subject: "the glory of God" is his greatness; or in speaking of, say, a (fictional) king, "He is a glorious man." And even when I hear the much more ambiguous phrase "I do this for glory," I have always thought it to mean "I do this for a higher purpose, to bring myself closer to perfection."

Turns out, though, I had it all wrong.

That last example I give lays it out most explicitly; "I do this for glory" is a simple statement of the reward the person is seeking. For in these Latin translations, the world is never the subject of the meaning. So "glory" is not, then, an internal quality of anything or anyone; rather, like praise, it is given by an outside party to an object of worth.

The Glory of God, then, is his to pass to you; the glorious king is so only because his subjects love him (and not vice versa!); the man does his deeds to win affection in the eyes of the people.

The search for glory is an innately selfish act; or is it? For the man of our last example is as much saying he desires no other payment than to be loved and remembered for his actions; a high price, to be sure, but a simple one to give, because it can be refused.

To say you do something for glory is to announce your intention to do great things; glory can only be earned, people must be convinced in order to bestow it. The man announcing his intent to act for glory says that people bear no risk in trusting him; if he fails, they lose nothing, and if he succeeds, they will pay him without needing to think about it. It is, simultaneously, a statement of arrogance and humility; I shall do this thing, and be great, yet I need nothing beyond this.

Or something like that. I am not a lingual expert, but I find this fascinating; what our words mean so often becomes taken for granted. It's fun to take apart our assumptions, every once in a while.


[* I like this term, at least a bit. "Web surfing" implies a higher level of athleticism and activity, besides which, it is so 1997. Web browsing doesn't really mean anything, as the applications we use are called browsers. "Internet-noodling" is needlessly clunky, but noodling... something feels right about that. Like on a guitar, playing around, not quite aimlessly, but with no clear direction. I like it.]

Thank You, Dad!

My father was always incredibly good at correcting my grammar as a kid. I mean it-- by age 14, I knew more about who/whom, lie/lay, effect/affect, objects/subjects, etc. than many teachers. I got Strunk & White's The Elements of Style as a birthday gift, and still consider it a necessary favorite.*

So you should find it to be no surprise that I am now, as I become an adult myself, exactly the same. Not that I have perfect grammar, or that I don't make mistakes; just that I tend to notice things when they're wrong.

And, being the same, I found the two following sites to be hilarious.

Apostrophe Abuse and The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks both post pictures of various signs, websites, letters, and other print media that break some pretty basic rules.

And often to comedic results.

I laughed out loud numerous times browsing these blogs; I highly recommend them.



[* This book is incredible, especially for anyone who writes. If you don't own it, go buy it right now. I mean it. Now.]

Thursday

Bleh.

Another Thursday, another week almost over.

We're planning on going to Yosemite this weekend; I've never been, and I'm starting to get pretty pumped.

Problem is, I'm also starting to get sick.

So, to bed with me. I may put up a quick post or two, but I'm going to rest and try to get well... because if not, it'll be a lame and boring weekend for me...

Millennium Falcon: The Beginning

This past weekend, I finally got started on the Falcon Lego set... and hot damn, what fun.

Some observations:

• Yes, this is a shit-ton of bricks.


• When building a set with over 5,000 pieces, do you have any idea how long it takes to find the first two?


• Answer: 25 minutes.


• It took me all of Day 01 to even guess which end might be which... it's that big!

Follow the link to check out the Flickr photo set of the work-in-progress...

More Galactica

My good friend Josh, a wonderful editor here at Herzog Cowen, took Tracy and me to the Battlestar: Galactica convention in Burbank last year, which was a whole heck of a lot of fun. I was a mite disappointed, if only because I expected it to be huge, when it was really a small affair, composed of two rooms. It was, however, just like Galaxy Quest with an MC working the stage, and a smattering of applause for the panelists.

Yes, it was awesome.

But, they had this "video" competition, where fans made their own music videos with footage from the show. And they were, summarily, all terrible.

I say again: All terrible.

But it gave Josh an idea. And here it is. Watch it, pass it on if you like it, rate it if you really like it. He's proud.

And I dig it. Big time.

Yikes...

Busy work + iMac not fixed yet + just wanting to relax = Lame, lame, LAME blogging!

Sorry about the week+ absence, here... I certainly didn't mean to disappear, and have no good reason.

To try and get the momentum started back up (and a heavy beast this blog can be, dear readers), here are a few random videos. Just because.


My money was on the bear.


I cannot wait for Season 4. Or Season 1 in HD. Seriously.


Yup. That's exactly what you saw.


Bare with me. I promise to get back into the swing of things starting today.

Look Before You Link

Two weeks ago, I linked to a story about a meteor crash and Peru, and its similarities to the chupacabra myth. In that post, I linked to the Wikipedia chupacabra page to help describe the beast. I glanced at its contents, verified it was what I wanted, and kept writing.

I should have read the entire page.

Turns out, there has been a chupacabra sighting right in m home state of Maine! As luck would have it, the Wikipedia page discussed and linked to a news story about a "hybrid mutant" (!) that was hit by a car in Turner. Apparently, it "may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation."

Goes to show that you don't need to go to exotic locales to find strange mythical beasts to mutilate your livestock. You just have to go to Turner, Maine.

A Missed Opportunity

Does anyone else think International Treasure is a way better title, and more fun, than Nation Treasure: Book Of Secrets?

Mini-Rant: I AM SO SICK OF SEEING "BANK GOTHIC" FONT! It is used everywhere, and was made popular several years ago by being the official font of "24." Now this, The Kingdom, "Battlestar: Galactica" (closing credits), The Day After Tomorrow, The Matrix films, and plenty of other film/tv projects are using it. Yes, it looks cool, but c'mon, it's way overexposed, and is starting to feel predicable and cliché.

Observation: Disney isn't too hip on numbering sequels these days. It isn't National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, just like we didn't get Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. My read is that a numbered sequel (especially done with numerics instead of roman numerals) feels finite and tacked on; as if the producers were stretching the original conept to expand the story. Numbering may also imply a continued storyline... as if we expect to see the original plot points developed further.

The "colon-ized" sequel title seems to lend a more serialized vibe to a film franchise. This is the next set of National Treasure adventure. That tradition goes all the way back to Raiders of the Lost Ark and its colon-ized "Indiana Jones and" sequels.

But... Star Wars, the ultimate serial adventure of our era, is a weird combination of both approaches— or at least it was ret-conned into being a hybrid later on, with Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. And comic books, which number issue but don't usually number story arcs, get translated into numeric film franchises regularly: Spier-Man 1, 2, & 3, Superman 1, 2, 3, & 4, X-Men 1 & 2, they all eschew straight colon-ized serialization, even when they come from truly serialized sources.

Interesting. I can't say I have final thoughts on that matter, beyond that Disney's two flagship franchises (of the moment) both title their entries the same.

Happy October everyone!

LEGO Mania

I have always been a huge LEGO fan.

Growing up, that was probably my favorite toy. I was a member of the LEGO club for several years. Back home, between my siblings and myself, we filled plastic crates full with our assorted sets. We had sets from all categories, but favored the castle, space, and pirate brands. Back in my day, the types were literally called Town, Space, Castle, and Pirates. And there were few (if any!) custom parts. Yessir, I watched as LEGO diversified, and started calling their lines "Space Police," "Wolfpack," "M:Tron," "Black Tron," "Black Knights," "Dragon Masters," "Ice Planet," "Space Police II," and started doing movie tie-ins with "Star Wars," "Jurassic Park," "Harry Potter," and "Spider-Man."

I built hundreds of custom sets... recreating the suggestions on the backs of the boxes, doing my own ideas, working with my siblings and friends to build larger concepts. My shining achievement was "Mount Dragon," a name ripped right out of Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain Chronicles." It was a completely original castle shaped like a dragon, with large wings, an opening mouth, a dungeon, and catapults.

It was awesome.

LEGOs were the first thing I ever took money out of the bank for. I remember my mother making sure it was something I wanted to do, me saying "yes," and then she took me to take $100 out to go and buy... I think it was an "Ice Planet" ship set.* Ian got some at the same time. We both used to spend a lot of time at a store called, fittingly enough, "Ask Your Mother." Long gone now, it was on Pleasant Street in Brunswick and had the best LEGO selection. I still look at Target, Wal-Mart, and Kmart, and wonder where a kid can go to see the full range of LEGO toys I remember...

I still collect and build LEGOs these days, although at a much smaller scale. A few "Star Wars" sets here and there, the occasional nostalgia purchase on eBay, sometimes building old sets from my youth that I've dug up during trips back home.

In that spirit, here are three LEGO-themed bits of news...

First, check this out; this is the kind of building I didn't do very often, but I salivate while thinking about it now. I wish I had the time to spend on exploits such as this; I think I'd be good at it, as well as love it.

Secondly, David H. pointed this out to me last week: "Forbidden LEGO."

Talk about awesome. This book is the ultimate guide to mischief: take a favorite (and in my life, common) toy, mix in adolescence with a touch of knavishness, and bring to boil with solid instructional material. Catapults, rubber-band guns, fast cars, this book has it all. I've pre-ordered it already, and look forward to showing it to Ashby someday.

Thirdly... I lied earlier. When I said I only collected on a small scale. Because every once and a while, LEGO history is made. Just like with the iPhone, I can't just let that pass me by.

So, several months ago, I took steps to ensure my place on the cutting edge, the front line of the mature LEGO collector.

And Tuesday, earlier than expected, I found this waiting for me at work:

You'd better believe I'm excited now! (And yes, I know I need a haircut) The "Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon" is, at over 5,000 pieces, LEGO's biggest set. EVER. And looking at the end result, it looks like it's low on custom pieces.

That's right, good old fashioned generic pieces seems to be the majority here.

I plan on updating as I go through the building process. I haven't started yet... part of me wants to leave the box untouched and pristine, but that part of me will lose out to the part of me that will always want to build LEGOs. The whole process will (hopefully) have a Flickr set devoted to it, and I'll post whenever it's updated.

Wish me luck...


[* Thanks Mom!]

Tardy Again

Sorry for the absense. No excuses this time. Why try and appease my guilt? Is there anything to gain in that?

Exactly.

Anyway, it's late and I have to go and get the laundry. Before I go, a few quick things for you.

Funniest Event of the Day: Tracy and I are reading in the living room as a siren wails past (not funny). As the siren fades, I hear some familiar sounding music, playing loudly, from the end of the block. It's a verse, which I am notoriously bad at knowing, so I focus on it to try and identify it. And I'm rewarded by the sudden mental image of someone (likely Russian, given my neighborhood) rocking hard to "The Final Countdown."

Awesome.

Ever wondered how best to explain our lovely planet (or at least our lovely species) to aliens from the planet Tralfamador? Here's your answer, worth a solid 7,000 words.

This is not only a great example of the very best kind of focused critical thinking, but one of many reasons I admire Errol Morris. Every student should read this for inspiration.

And lastly: When your logo isn't your logo. Ha ha ha.

MirrorSpace

Wow.

For the record, I do have a MySpace page.

And I hate MySpace.

It's no so much the idea behind the "social networking" site; really, my issues are with A) the stupid, stupid, stupid default look and customization options, and B) It's trendy and totally overrated. Pretty much every site looks (and functions!) like garbage. Yes, I appreciate an easy way to reconnect with old friends, post your pictures and have friends comment on them, and share yourself with the world. I understand those desires, dear reader, and even share them!

That's why I keep a blog.

I have a Flickr account where I post pictures (though I've maybe only posted one; I intend to get better about this soon) and a blog where I post updates & thoughts, in a much cleaner format, for anyone to read/comment. Best of all, you don't even have to get an account to read this, or respond.

But a lot of people, my friends, love MySpace. And I respect that. And so I have a page... with one photo, that links directly to this blog. Because my goal (however short of the mark I fall) is for this blog to be my digital representation on the internet. So I use MySpace as a redirect; anyone who finds it, will find me here.

That being said... there comes a time where everything's purpose is revealed. Today Adam left me a MySpace comment with a link to... I'll let the page speak to myself. [WARNING: mute your computer before clicking through!]

I can't put it any better than Adam...

Everyone, meet Tyler, The Bizzaro Hutson.