I'm wondering how 'spensive this stuff is. X-Flex probably has a hideous price tag. But if nothing else I could see papering your bathroom with it and hunkering down in the tub during a tornado and really being secure :-)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
New wallpaper protects against bullets and bombs
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Finally watched last night's V and finale of AMC's THE PRISONER
AMC's much-promoted revamp of The Prisoner concluded last night. After watching both hours twice-over now I am going to say that that, acknowledging that while mine is going to be in the minority of opinions, that I very much enjoyed it and thought it was time well spent. And I will likely be getting the DVD of the series when it becomes available. But I will say that AMC way over-hyped The Prisoner. And so much so that I have to wonder how much confidence they had in their own product. Doing "coming up" bumpers before each commercial break did nothing to instill one's faith in this show as a viewer. Without those, I think The Prisoner could have been much more enjoyable. Another reason why I'm looking forward to a DVD set of this.
Meanwhile, ABC aired the third episode of the relaunched V. I watched it from the good ol' DVR this morning. Last week I said that V needs to drastically ramp-up its action and intrigue. Well, it's a funny thing but last night's installment "A Bright New Day" did just that and in spades! The Visitors (in perhaps a thinly-veiled commentary on real-life immigration policies) began receiving passports and visas to travel throughout the country. We discovered that the Visitors had secretly been installing themselves on Earth for at least twenty years. We learned a lot more about the traitors and the words "Fifth Column" were finally used in this V's incarnation. And there were devious plot twists out the wazoo. If V keeps up this kind of tempo, it will almost certainly become the breakout hit of this television season and set itself up as the high-brow science-fiction series of the medium in the absence of Battlestar Galactica and the soon-to-depart Lost. After last night's show, me want more V!
Okay, three hours of television from one night: that's way more than what I'm used to. I'm gonna go read a book or three and compensate.
International Space Station transits the Moon
Bernhard Christ, an amateur astronomer from Germany, put himself in just the right spot on the Earth's surface (a testament to his mad plottin' and plannin' skillz) and using a digital astronomical camera produced this sequence - made in less than 0.4 seconds - of the International Space Station transiting across the Moon...
That's five shots of the ISS taken at equal intervals. If you're wondering where the fifth is, click on the image to drastically embiggen it and look just inside the Moon's limb toward the left side of the picture and you'll easily pick it out from the lunar landscape.
Aim here for more about Bernhard Christ's astonishing photo, and many thanks to Shane Thacker for the great find!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
"...Only to God and woman."
Last week President Barack Obama met with Akihito, the titular Emperor of Japan. You might have heard about it: Obama made a ceremonial bow to Akihito and it's purportedly caused a lot of his political enemies to seethe with outrage...
Interestingly, many if not most of these same critics defended George W. Bush when in April 2008 (when he was still President) Bush not only held hands with but also gave a big fat slobbering fat kiss right on the lips to the visiting king of Saudi Arabia...
Bush's supporters at the time claimed that Bush was just "following protocol", exactly as Obama's defenders are doing now.
Me? I can't see a difference between what either of these two Presidents have done. And regardless of who's doing it, it sickens me to no end.
If either Bush or Obama had acted like this as private citizens, that would have been their right. But Bush and now Obama, as elected head of state of the United States of America, each ceremoniously capitulated their nation to a foreign sovereign power. This ain't about our home-grown assumption that the United States is "the greatest" country on Earth and everything with our understanding that in the roll call of nations ours is equal - no more and no less - to any other.
That's not a small matter, folks. And I can't see how it can be defended.
A little over a hundred and fifty years ago in 1859, John E. Ward arrived in China. Ward, a proud native of Georgia and former mayor of Savannah, had been dispatched by President James Buchanan to begin trade relations with China in accordance with the Treaty of Tientsin. But before such could happen Ward would have to come to Peking: a place that no American had been allowed to enter. Ward was allowed to proceed but on every step of the journey he asserted his native land as equal to China and not as a vassal state, as the Russians and the British and everyone else had done according to "diplomacy". The final act of "insolence" on the part of this American "barbarian" was his refusal to kow-tow: a low bow before the Emperor.
John E. Ward refused to bow. The representatives of the Emperor told Ward that he must bow not only for purposes of diplomacy but out of respect for the land's religion.
The reason Ward gave the Chinese: "I kneel only to God and woman."
True to his word, Ward did not bow to the Emperor of China. He never got the audience with the Emperor that he had been sent to have, but Ward wasn't fazed. He still delivered his letter about the treaty (to a minor official) and returned to America, his pride upheld... and China beginning to respect "the Country of the Flowery Flag". You can read more about John E. Ward at AmericanHeritage.com.
Y'know, I can't even begin to imagine either Bush or Obama getting up the nerve to think of something as brazenly principled as "I kneel only to God and woman." In the chronicle of American statesmanship, John E. Ward is certainly the greater man than our two or three or four most recent Presidents of the United States.
And if we had men (and women) of Ward's caliber and character, this nation would no doubt have more respect and standing among the countries of the world today.
Auto-Tune as explained by Rocketboom and "Weird Al" Yankovic
Depending on you who listen to, Auto-Tune has become either a boon or bane to music production. The Rocketboom Institute for Internet Studies examines the Auto-Tune phenomenon in their latest video, with some rather scholarly assistance from visiting professor "Weird Al" Yankovic!
Thanks to Geoff Gentry for the heads-up!
BioShock EVE Hypo Prop Replica (yes, you can BUY this thing...)
Got a small daughter or know where to borrow a little girl (legally 'course)? Wanna have some fun freaking out the neighbors? The officially licensed BioShock EVE Hypo Prop Replica from Play.com is just what you need!
According to this "toy"'s description, "EVE is the lifeblood of the underwater city of Rapture, the setting for Bioshock and Bioshock 2. It is the substance that fuels the bizarre powers of the genetically-engineered splicers' plasmids, and it is the fight to control this precious resource that has nearly destroyed the underwater city. This Play.com exclusive EVE hypo prop replica is based on the in-game models, and features a light-up LED feature for that authentic eerie blue glow!"
Yuck... but still awesomely kewl!
Just finished watching the second installment of AMC's THE PRISONER
We had the first run-through (or "stumble-through" as it was officially called :-) of both acts of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever last night, so I was late getting home. But I had the DVR whirring away recording the second two hours of AMC's remake of The Prisoner and I just finished watching 'em.
I know that I'm in a solid minority here, but I am absolutely digging the heck out of The Prisoner! To me, it's the same theme going on as the Sixties original series. Just... different. Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner was about individuality, and this one starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan is about personal identity. Now, those may seem like the same thing, but they aren't. They're just aspects of the same thing. I don't have any better word for it other than "soul".
Is The Prisoner meant to be entertainment? Hmmmm... not really. It's more like something made to be endured (call it "enduretainment" perhaps?). There are no easy answers here, just more questions that one winds up asking more of self than of the show. But then, the original The Prisoner, forty years and more later, is still doing that. So on that note, AMC's revamp is already successful.
The final two hours air tonight. I'll be watching with great interest.
EDIT 12:31 p.m. EST: I like the "enduretainment" term so much that I thought it deserves an apt definition...
Enduretainment (noun): A work of performance art, usually but not limited to television and motion pictures, intended to bring about sometimes painful personal reflection and self-questioning as opposed to being intended for pure enjoyment and distraction.
Monday, November 16, 2009
A tiny lil' musing this afternoon
The smallest sincere kindness mocks every cruelty of the world entire.
Edward Woodward has passed away
Woodward was a very, very good actor. His portrayal of Howie in The Wicker Man has always haunted me for some reason. But like many people I was especially awed at Woodward's ability to convey "controlled rage". Robert McCall, his character in The Equalizer, was a man with James Bond's dirty tricks combined with Batman's thirst for justice. The last time I saw Woodward in anything, it was in the ill-fated Babylon 5 spinoff show Crusade: he played a Technomage who was the father of series regular and fellow Technomage Galen (who incidentally was played by Edward Woodward's real-life son Peter Woodward).
Thoughts and prayers going out to his family this morning.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Just watched the first two hours of AMC's remake of THE PRISONER
Hmmmmmm...
Well, it's unarguably not The Prisoner of Patrick McGoohan's day. And I knew that it wasn't going to be that either.
But, I think that I wound up liking it quite a bit.
Need to watch it again before tomorrow night's two-hour installment. Maybe even two or three more times.
Now you gotta admit: that is what good The Prisoner should compel you to do :-)
Tommy Burst toy commercial ("From Mattel, it's SWELL!")
There is no way that a TV commercial like this would ever be made, much less allowed to broadcast, in 2009. But once upon a time when boys were allowed to play "cops 'n robbers" there were fewer toy weapons as kewl as Mattel's Tommy Burst arsenal. For three bucks you could get the revolver and for seven you got the Detective Set complete with handgun and holster, toy bullets, badge and one neat-o machine gun!
Behold the commercial from about 45 years ago...
And if that adult looks familiar, it should: that's Hal Smith as the thief and the commercial's pitchman. Smith will forever be known as that lovable town drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show.
I remember about two decades ago when every Toys R Us had an aisle devoted to toy guns. Seems like we had a lot less real-life crime then than we do now. Maybe we should let children be children instead of expecting them to be miniature adults, and allow them to live out the "good guy/bad guy" fantasy. That's the kind of thing that has gone on since time immemorial and it's only been in the past number of years that the "child experts" (who never seem to have children of their own, hardly) have done their damndest to change that.
Well, anyway: it's a "swell" commercial, I think. Especially that machine gun!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Hey, live near Reidsville, North Carolina? Want a professionally-fried turkey for Thanksgiving? Read on!
Lots of this blog's readers are well aware of my obsession with/addiction to deep-fried turkey. I first heard about it nine years ago this month and then spent two more years studying the technique and getting brave enough to attempt it. With that first succulent bite in 2002, I knew that Thanksgiving would never be the same for me again. I'll never go back to basted turkey if I can help it. For me, a bird as magnificent as a turkey deserves better. Deep-frying it is the only way to honor what no less an authority than Benjamin Franklin once decreed should be our national fowl.
This is not mere "cooking" to me. This is an art! One that demands meticulous care and attention and passion. That this is also considered the second most dangerous form of preparing food known to man (after cleaning fugu) is even more extra incentive to treat turkey frying like delicate surgery. I love my work but I also know how to be really careful. I haven't been burned yet and Lord willing, I won't be anytime soon either.
Well anyway, for some reason my fried turkey has always been a smashing success for Thanksgiving and Christmas and a few other festive occasions. It's always the first thing to go at the family table. And a bunch of folks have told me over the years that I should go public with my nigh-patentable technique. That I could offer my services to others, for a reasonable fee.
I hadn't really given it much thought. But y'all know me: I'll try anything once!
If you live anywhere within driving distance of Reidsville and your mouth is already watering for one of those gloriously seasoned and deep-fried turkeys like you see me holding in that photo, fire me an e-mail at theknightshift@gmail.com and I'll get back in contact with you. Thanksgiving is a little less than two weeks away. I've already got a few orders in and can fit in some more.
And remember: you ain't just buying a turkey. You're buying confidence! Confidence that your Thanksgiving main course will be given all due diligent care, that it'll be done by an experienced pro, and that you will be risking neither your own life or house! That's a no-lose proposition folks :-)
Friday, November 13, 2009
I've gone mad for Monsterpocalypse!
A lot of you probably remember how over the summer I made this video on behalf of HyperMind - that groovy game store in Burlington - for a contest entry. It was for the Monsterpocapalooza event sponsored by Privateer Press for that company's Monsterpocalypse collectible miniatures game. Well as is usual whenever I'm about to get involved with something, I research the bejeebers out of it! I never get involved with a project regarding something new to me without giving it the hard hairy eyeball and reading everything that I can find on the subject. The store's owners gave me a copy of the Monsterpocalypse rulebook and I scoured the Internet for whatever I could find, and in the end we banged out a darn good video. It even made the top ten of the Monsterpocapalooza finalists. And I also have a nice letter from the president of the company praising how we parodied Cloverfield with it!
Monsterpocalypse is a game between two players (although some ambitious folks have created custom maps that let four, six and even eight people play against each other). The game is played on a playmat. On each player's side of the mat there's "storage" spaces for your various units and both forms of your monster (more on that later) along with "wells" for your various dice. Taking up the bulk of the mat is the city map, arranged in a grid. At the beginning of the game players take turns putting various building figures onto the map, constructing a city that they will soon proceed to destroy.
Along with the letter, Privateer Press also sent over some boxes of limited edition minis from the game. Between seeing how pretty those were, and observing how everyone in the store was way enjoying Monsterpocalypse, it was more than enough to entice me to give it a try. And that's how it all started...
So now five months and several booster box purchases later (in addition to scouring eBay for a few hard-to-find minis) I must confess: I am officially a Monsterpocalypse junkie.
Awright well, what exactly is Monsterpocalypse and why am I feeling obligated to sing its praises here? It's a game based around the "giant monsters" genre... and it's a heck of a lot of fun!!
Gameplay revolves greatly around how you use your dice. You've got ten "action dice", ten "power dice" and you can use any number of "boost dice" depending on what figure you're using and other factors. If you want to "spawn" a unit - which are classified as either grunts or elites - onto the board you have to spend a die (and it'll cost ya two dice for an elite). Want to move a unit? It'll cost ya one die. Attack with it? That'll cost ya a die as well. But "spending" means moving the dice from your unit pool to your monster pool... which will let you wreck even more carnage with your big monster. So there's not only a lot of strategic thinkin' that Monsterpocalypse calls for, but also a good sense of economics and wisely using your resources. If all that sounds too complex, don't worry: it's not. Games are usually very fast paced and most last under an hour. Hey, this is about ginormous monstrosities unleashing death and destruction, not... chess!
The object of the game is to destroy your opponent's monster. Which ain't as simple as it sounds. Ya see, you and the other player actually have two figures representing each of your respective monsters! The primary is the "alpha" form, which is what that monster looks like in its natural state. But accumulate enough power dice (earned by destroying units and brawling building into rubble) and you can switch your monster from its alpha to its "hyper" form: a bit more powerful and often with even cooler abilities than the alpha. Your goal in Monsterpocalypse is to inflict enough damage that both of the other player's monster forms have zero on their health trackers.
Monsterpocalypse came out a year ago and it's become a huge success for Privateer Press. When the game first came out it introduced its first six factions: G.U.A.R.D. (sorta like G.I. Joe or S.H.I.E.L.D. from the Marvel comics), Martian Menace (from the red planet), Lords of Cthul (my personal favorite faction, take a guess why), Terrasaurs (think Godzilla's kinfolk hooking up with radical environmentalist terrorist wackos), Planet Eaters (also a favorite) and Shadow Sun Syndicate (sorta like the Power Rangers on steroids). Last month Series 4 of the game, Monsterpocalypse Now! was released and rolled out six new factions: Elemental Champions, Tritons (a threat from the ocean), Savage Swarm (Them!? You'll wish it was just them), Subterran Uprising (molemen... really big molemen), UberCorp International (run by a thinly-veiled parody of Howard Hughes) and a group that's fast running up players' lists of most-liked factions, the Empire of the Apes (see the gun that Kong-sized gorilla is wielding? That's really a salvaged howitzer).
So, all of this sound like oodles of fun? It most certainly is! Nothing feels quite like building up a town only to thrash it to pieces with exotic weaponry and kaiju critters. And you can find Monsterpocalypse at most of your friendly local game stores. A lot of those usually have a dedicated group of players that meet regularly. I've started playing at HyperMind in Burlington on Thursday nights, and we've a good bunch that congregates there (including one particular 11-year old who handed my butt to me with his Subterrans last night despite my use of G.U.A.R.D.'s heavy air support... but he won the Mega Mantacon figure and is happy, so it's all fine :-).
One of my favorite online resources for all things Monsterpocalyse is Team Covenant and if you're looking for any particular figures, Team Covenant's online store is well worth visiting! They not only carry the starter box sets and boosters but also special bundles and some very good custom Monsterpocalypse dice that if you start getting heavy into this game you might wanna consider getting, 'cuz the blast markings on the regular dice have a tendency to "wear off" after several games. And 'course there's also eBay, that good ol' standby (and maybe your last, best hope of scoring a Mega Yasheth figure... hey, I am big into the Lords of Cthul, y'all ;-) And it goes without saying that the official Monsterpocalypse website is a must-see if you're thinking of getting into this game. Privateer Press just overhauled the site and among other things there's a gallery featuring every mini the game has to date, including stats. There's also a lively message board for players to discuss various aspects of the game.
Monsterpocalypse gets this blog's highest recommendation for entertainment worth checking out. There's a little something for players of all ages to enjoy... and they certainly do. And if you're in this part of North Carolina, drop me a line at theknightshift@gmail.com and let's see if we can hook up and play a round some evening :-)
A Dr. Horrible fan-film?! HORRIBLE TURN is pretty darned good!
While we're waiting for Joss Whedon to deliver up some more Dr. Horrible goodness, here's something that will both entertain and astound ya: Horrible Turn. It's an hour-long unofficial prequel to Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!
Sometime in the early Nineties, young Billy is pining for a cute Australian exchange student at his school. He's also wound up helping a fellow student named Hammerstein pass his grade. Meanwhile, a group calling itself the Evil League of Evil - led by the mysterious "Bad Horse" - has just staged its first attack on the city.
And in case you're wondering YES: Horrible Turn is a musical! The production quality is quite on par with what we saw in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog last year. Click on the link to watch Horrible Turn on YouTube or on Vimeo.
This is a photograph of the sun
Many of us in this part of North Carolina no longer remember what it looks like. There is a rumor about that today we might finally see it again.
(Curse you Hurricane Ida!)
DVD, made of stone, that lasts a thousand years
(Whether there will be DVD players in the year 3009 is a whole 'nother matter.)
You can send your data to Cranberry to have it burned by them. Or you can buy the DiamonDisc recorder for your own use, for the low price of $4,995. But that also gets you 150 DiamonDiscs that currently run $34.95 each when bought separately.
Personally, I think the major studios should adopt this new technology for the home market. And the first movie that gets this "recorded in stone" treatment deserves to be The Ten Commandments :-P
Man arrested for phone sex calls... to 911
The Smoking Gun has published the mug shot and police report of one Joshua Basso, a Florida man who's currently in the pokey after making numerous telephone calls to a woman, asking crude questions about her breast size and then queried her about engaging in erotic activities.
That's gonna land him in court for sure. Except that Basso also made all of his calls to 911. There's gonna be a bunch more charges against him for abusing the 911 system.
Why did he do it? Basso claimed that his LG cell phone was out of minutes and that he "called 911 because it was free".
This guy wasn't just stupid: he was stoopid!
