Where’s the Smackdown?

So this is what everyone’s talking about? Claiming Bill Clinton went over the top with Chris Williams? That he was physically threatening, yelling, angry, whatever?

Hardly.

Just another case of where the reporting — from both ends of the spectrum — is way out of proportion to the events reported. No, lefties, this was not a triumphant blow to the vast right-wing conspiracy. And no, righties, this was not Bill Clinton blindsiding a reporter by overreacting to an innocent query.

This was nothing. Wallace asked a question, Clinton answered it. Was the question loaded? Sure — but it was hardly, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” Was Clinton’s response heated? Sure — but he wasn’t foaming at the mouth.

Frankly, I can’t believe I wasted my time tracking down the clip. I kept waiting for the big, angry finale and got nothing.

Technorati tags: Fox News, Media, Bill Clinton, Chris Wallace

Ambigrams Revealed

Okay, so everyone’s seen my name logo ambigram, but I’ve got a few others I’m working on that I thought I’d roll out for you as promised. (I also have a couple I’ve done for my daughters, but for privacy reasons, those shall remain confidential.)

First is one I did for an upcoming art show being put on by my company’s Creative Services department. This one I just rolled out pretty quickly — I planned to go back and tweak it some more, but at this point I don’t think I’ll have time. The plan had been to create a general-purpose “Creative Services” ambigram (so that it would have a life beyond just this one show), but for the life of me I couldn’t get the two words to reflect each other. But once I added “Art Show” to it, and realized that “Services” could effectively reflect itself, I had something I could work with. (The toughest part was figuring out how to hide the capital S in the word “Creative.”) It’s far from my favorite — it still feels a little cobbled together — but it serves its purpose; the boss wants to give framed versions out to the show’s organizers (with my blessing, of course).

The second is one I did after a series of conversations I had on the ChipTalk website (the one where I won that chip design contest) about card back designs. Generally speaking, to deter cheating, you want to make sure that the design of a card back looks identical no matter which way it’s turned (the theory being that an unscrupulous player could turn one card around and pick it out from the others). Casino decks often have the name of the casino at both ends for this very reason. In the discussion, some designs had text in the middle, a definite no-no. I proposed that you could have text (or a logo, or what have you) in the middle, so long as the item was ambigrammatic. Since some of the discussion centered around a customized ChipTalk deck, I slapped together a ChipTalk ambigram to demonstrate (complete with rotation shown). So far, it hasn’t generated a lot of response, but I decided to finish it up anyway. (Incidentally, if anyone has an interest in poker chip collecting and would like to join the Chiptalk community — and maybe make a few comments on the logo to get the ball rolling — do please let me know. I’d appreciate the chance to refer you.)

And the last one is visible right there at the top of this page — the slightly redesigned logo for Prometheus Unleashed. It’s certainly derived from the prior iteration, but I really worked to improve the readability (something I’ve been working on for months). Not perfect yet (and I may still do some tweaking), but I think it’s definitely more legible.

Technorati tags: Art, Blog

All Wet

Hey, I love Die Hard 3 as much as the next guy. But — unlike our Homeland Security department — I’m not stupid enough to think it’s an accurate depiction of reality.

Quick recap: Okay, so a bunch of wackos decide they’re gonna mix liquid explosives on board an aircraft to blow it up. They get caught. Everyone clamps down on bringing liquids onto planes, and pats themselves on the back for a job well done.

One small problem: It’s one hell of a lot tougher to mix a multi-component liquid explosive than anyone seems to grasp. Is it possible? Sure. But doing so with components that are stable enough to carry onto the plane in the first place? And don’t require laboratory conditions in which to mix the components?

The danger is effectively negligible.

But wait, Richard Reid nearly blew up a plane with his shoes right? And the guys they arrested in Britain were about to do the whole liquid-mixing thing, right?

Wrong on both counts. Reid’s shoes — even had he not been caught — wouldn’t have exploded. The explosive compound had decomposed. And the infamous liquid bombers pretty much just had an idea. Their ability to actually carry out their plan was effectively nonexistent. Their level of expertise was limited to seeing the aforementioned Die Hard 3 and going, “Man, that’s what we gotta do...”

So were you “protected” in any measurable way by the ban on liquids? Nope.

And it looks like they’re finally getting it, and relaxing the restrictions on liquids. Oh, they can’t completely abandon them — despite having no basis in reality. ’Cause that would be admitting they weren’t completely infallible.

And besides, Die Hard 4 just started shooting. And we don’t want anyone doubting the abilities of John McClane... er, Duh-bya... to save us from those nasty terrorists, now, do we?

Technorati tags: TSA, Homeland Security, Air Travel

Festival Wrap-Up

Well, the DC Shorts film festival is over — though you can still catch one of the “Best of DC Shorts” screenings across this week, something I would highly recommend. No, “Quite Contrary” isn’t part of that show, but there are some really fascinating films that are. Some are viewable elsewhere, but not all, so you really won’t want to miss this.

The festival itself — apart from the screened content itself — was truly a remarkable experience, and hats off to Jon Gann and everyone involved in the DC Film Alliance for putting together a truly memorable weekend. Next year I will definitely be submitting again, and even if we’re not in the show, I’ll likely be springing for a VIP pass. Yes, it was that good (the nonstop stream of free beer probably didn’t hurt either).

As for the content itself — other than our own, of course — there were some personal highlights (and even this is by no means a comprehensive list):

• “Available Men” — just plain funny, without going too far into caricature
• “Bone Mixers”* — a surprisingly engaging documentary
• “The Cell-Phone” — a pretty damned amusing bit of animation
• “Checkout” — this could have been a one-gag bit, but the characters make it a lot of fun
• “The Cole Nobody Knows” — I may be biased by my affinity for the music, but this was a compelling documentary
• “Full Disclosure”* — a really funny first-date film starring Arrested Development’s Judy Greer and Deadwood’s Brent Sexton
• “Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot” — some absolutely hysterical animation
• “Hairlady” — an intriguing experimental film, and some absolutely amazing time-lapse, steadicam, and editing work
• “Ignotus” — an Italian period piece, weaving an artistically speculative tale
• “Jesus Beer” — a funny (if verging on blasphemous) gag commercial
• “Karma Café” — a fun (and funny) little treatment on self-improvement mantras
• “The Leeward Tide” — a remarkable story, but also fantastically shot... and on MiniDV, no less
• “Multiverse” — the Washington Improv Theater’s award-winning HD 48 Hour Film Project entry
• “Olyver Brody” — really dark, but a great story and performances
• “The Package” — a dramatic tale of money, self-interest and betrayal
• “Victoria”* — a spec music video that tells a truly moving story
• “Zombie-American”* — The Daily Show’s Ed Helms is a zombie just trying to fit in

Once again, thanks to everyone involved — and I can’t wait until next year. Maybe this’ll finally get me off my ass to finish my next (non-contest) film...

* Screening as part of the “Best of DC Shorts.”

Technorati tags: Film, DC Shorts, Tohubohu

How to Win a Debate

Here’s a winning strategy for you.

Show that someone who insinuated that your religion was tainted by violence is wrong by... vowing to violently destroy everyone who shares his beliefs.

Yeah, that’s really smart. Show you’re not violent by killing everyone who implies otherwise.

Technorati tags: Pope, Vatican, Violence, Christianity, Islam

Last Call

Last chance to get tickets to today’s screening — at last check, there were still seats available. Last night’s premiere screening went great — lots of really good shows — and the premiere party at Drinx was top-notch.

Especially since all the beer was free.

It also didn’t hurt that we got the full star treatment, including a spot in the filmmakers’ lounge for the screening (where the beer was also free) and the VIP lounge for the party.

You won’t get any of that at today’s screening (hey, I told you to come out last night), but you can still see some great short films.

(Oh, and I still need someone to tape Star Trek for me this weekend. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

Technorati tags: Film, DC Shorts, Tohubohu

Uru Lives

I’ve been a fan of the Myst series since way back when the first game seemed to capture the attention of my entire office simultaneously. (We had an early start on the phenomenon, being on Macs; the game wasn’t ported over to PC until some time later. Our productivity level was pretty low for a while.) I hung on through the sequels (Riven, Exile, Revelation, and End of Ages), and even read quite a bit of the supplemental material (I actually have original copies of the quickly-aborted comic series). I devoured realMyst, the realtime-3D recreation of the original game (and which served as an initial test for future Myst game development). And I later went back and replayed the games with my daughters, and they’ve gotten hooked as well — my oldest is currently going back yet again and playing them on her own.

But one of the games in the series remained effectively out of my reach — Uru. Billed as a spin-off rather than a new “chapter” in the series, Uru was Cyan’s return to the franchise (episodes 3 and 4 were licensed to outside developers), and was going to be a venture into online gaming (an early MMORPG). There would be a stand-alone component to the game, but the bulk of the game would be played interactively over the internet, with players collaborating both to solve puzzles and to develop online “communities.” Furthermore, the game was open-ended, meaning new content would be added continually; there would be no arbitrary “finish.” In fact, the series’ central conceit — that whole new worlds could be “linked to” via special books — made it particularly easy to add new material into the game “universe.”

But as with all such ventures, Uru was reliant on the underlying commerce. With the game still in beta testing, and early subscription commitments not living up to expectations, the project was abruptly canceled. The game was released as just the self-contained portion, with what multiplayer content was in development at the time being repurposed into two “expansion packs” (as well as forming the starting point for the last game in the series, the Cyan-developed End of Ages).

They also ran into another unanticipated problem: Contrary to expectations, Uru wouldn’t work on a Mac (an unfortunate twist for a series whose initial version only worked on a Mac). The underlying physics engine, Havok, was supposedly a cross-platform product, but the Mac version turned out to be what is creatively dubbed “vaporware.” Sure, it could theoretically be made to work on a Mac — as Cyan had been assured when they began development — but that was a bit of a disingenuous promise. Because no Mac game had yet used the Havok engine, whatever game developer wanted to be the first would have to fund the entire conversion process, rather than just a portion of what would be later be used by mutliple developers. With such a prohibitive cost of entry, Cyan couldn’t afford to develop the Mac version.

I was eventually able to play the single-player version of the game on a borrowed PC, but it wasn’t the same as having it on my own machine (and it also meant that once I returned the PC, I wouldn’t be able to revisit it). And in a particularly inspiring bit of grass-roots support, several on-line players of the beta version of Uru started hosting the game on their own servers — with Cyan’s blessing, if not their technical support. There would be no additional content, but players could participate in the interactive version of the game (including several activities which, by their nature, could not be repurposed into the single-player edition). But of course, it was of no help to me, as I don’t own a PC.

And then this morning I saw two things that gave me hope. The first was a news story saying that the Havok physics engine was finally being ported to the Mac. As the single largest obstacle to Uru’s being playable on the Mac platform, this was really good news. Well, at least it would be if Uru were still in active development... which it wasn’t. Still, I thought I’d pop over to Cyan’s site to see if they had any reaction.

And there I saw the second bit of news. The multiplayer, interactive version of the game, Uru Live, is back. In partnership with GameTap, Cyan (or “CyanWorlds,” as the company’s now called) is in the process of relaunching the game as a part of GameTap’s subscription service. (In fact, through today, you can sign up for a free one-month trial membership.)

Now, at the moment, GameTap doesn’t work on Macs either (so alas, I won’t be taking advantage of that free trial). But in conjunction with each other, these two bits of news give me hope that Myst’s ending really hasn’t yet been written.

Technorati tags: Gaming, MMORPG, Myst, Uru, Uru Live, CyanWorlds, GameTap, Havok

Time for a New License Plate

I change my car’s license plate every year.

See, Virginia charges you the same amount for just renewing a custom plate as they do for ordering it in the first place. In other words, they’re not doing any additional work after that first year, but they expect me to keep paying them as if they were.

So nope, if they’re gonna take my ten bucks, then they’re gonna have to do the work for it.

Anyway, it’s that time again, and I have to come up with my plate for the year. The family pretty seriously rejected my first choice, “I POOTED,” so it’s back to square one. I’d do something promoting Tohubohu, but I’ve only got seven letters, and “TOHUBHU” and “THUBOHU” (or other variations therof) just aren’t cutting it for me. In the past, I’ve had “MOVIMKR” and “CINEAST,” but I’m kinda looking for something fresh.

Any suggestions?

Technorati tags: Virginia, Cars, License Plates

Dénouement

Time for the credits to roll on the lonelygirl15 saga — and it’s apparently a big enough deal to make this morning’s CBS World News roundup, as I heard on my morning commute.

Virginia Heffernan (an early fan of the series) has more on the “outing,” and the LA Times has an interview with the filmmakers. How the story will continue — now that it’s definitively fictional — is anyone’s guess, though it’s speculated that the videos will move to a creator-controlled site.

For the record, the filmmakers are Ramesh Flinders, Miles Beckett, and (to a lesser degree) Grant Steinfeld; the actress playing “Bree” is named Jessica Rose, real-world photos of whom can be seen here (there’s no hiding on the Internet).

Oh, and in true Hollywood fashion, there’s already a spinoff (that hints at a more horror-oriented direction for the storyline).

Sorry to disappoint, true believers.

Technorati tags: Vlogging, Video, YouTube, LonelyGirl15

New Star Trek Premiere?

Hey, is anyone plannning on recording the premiere of the newly-enhanced Star Trek this weekend? The local DC syndication affiliate is preempting the show for a baseball game — which is perfectly understandable, except that they’re not planning to rebroadcast the premiere episode, “Balance of Terror,” anytime later.

I’d love it if anyone could get me a copy. I’m not planning to save it or anything — I’ll probably end up getting it on DVD later — but I’d like to at least see it.

Technorati tags: Star Trek, Television

Double Reminder

First of all, I just want to remind everyone that the DC Shorts screening of “Quite Contrary” will be THIS FRIDAY at 4:00 p.m. at the Landmark E Street Cinema. Tickets are still available!

Yes, I know that’s during the afternoon on a work day. Alas, we didn’t have a say as to our screening slot. But for those of you who can make it, it should definitely be worthwhile.

Furthermore, all ticketholders are invited to attend the opening night party at Drinx on Thursday at 9:00. All you need is a ticket! Whether or not you can make our screening, I do hope to see as many of you as possible there.

Secondly, I can officially announce that Tohubohu is signed up for the National Film Challenge, taking place over the weekend of October 20-23. We’re already talking preproduction at this point, so clear your calendars and get back to me ASAP regarding your availability, your preferred job function (which we’ll do our best to accommodate, but we can’t promise anything), and any other special information you may have to impart. We’re going to try to be even more organized than usual this time around, so the more we can nail down the better!

Technorati tags: Film, DC Shorts, Tohubohu, National Film Challenge

A Smoldering Ember

The lonelygirl15 cat is out of the proverbial bag.

There has apparently been an admission that the videos are part of a carefully crafted storyline. And as detailed by the LA Times, it turns out that Bree is as Hollywood-connected as you can get: She’s apparently logging on and sending emails from the offices of CAA.

Exactly who she is — not to mention the identity of her “co-conspirators” — is still up for debate, but this pretty much seals the deal.

But given the date-related clues in her Cookie Monster video — 10, 12, and 06 — I will be tuning in to see what happens next Tuesday October 12th (which would make more sense; apparently, as my wife so graciously pointed out, I can’t remember my month numbers).

Aleister Crowley’s birthday, incidentally.

Technorati tags: Vlogging, Video, YouTube, LonelyGirl15

Bond Is Back

Okay, so I had my doubts. Then I saw the teaser trailer, and a lot of those doubts were allayed.

They just released the full trailer (alas, not yet available via Apple’s trailer site, though I’ll update this post as soon as it is).

I am so going to be seeing Casino Royale opening weekend.

Technorati tags: Movies, James Bond, Casino Royale

Four Things

Okay, so I haven’t done a lot of memes lately. Back in the day, I used to do the Friday Five thing, but I couldn’t keep it up, and didn’t seem to run out of things of my own to say. But since I’ve been tagged by MotherReader — someone it would be unwise to refuse — I’ll give it a go.

For the sake of variety, I’ll try to avoid duplicating any of Pam’s entries (since we do have a bit of overlap), and I’ll also try to avoid current jobs, homes, etc., and stick with ones you wouldn’t know just by reading my profile.

Four jobs I’ve had

1. Restaurant host
2. Campus patrolman
3. Newspaper graphics editor
4. Receptionist

Four movies I could watch over and over again

1. The Usual Suspects
2. Memento
3. North by Northwest
4. Die Hard

Four places I have lived

1. Papillion, Nebraska
2. Rome, New York
3. Grand Forks, North Dakota (I still have chills)
4. Easthampton, Massachusetts

Four TV shows I love to watch

1. Battlestar Galactica
2. 24
3. High Stakes Poker
4. The Sopranos

Four places I’ve been on vacation

1. Jamaica
2. Mount Rushmore
3. Niagara Falls
4. Los Angeles

Four websites I visit daily

1. Dark Horizons
2. Ain’t It Cool News (it’s a sick, sick, addiction)
3. ChipTalk.net (I won that chip design contest, remember?)
4. MotherReader (what, you thought I wouldn’t put that one in there?)

Four of my favorite foods

1. Alaskan king crab
2. Lobster
3. Filet mignon
4. Sushi

Four places I would rather be right now

1. Hollywood
2. Las Vegas
3. Monte Carlo
4. On the Scotch whisky trail

Four blogs I’ll tag

1. Geoff
2. Penda
3. Tom
4. Tiff

(And no obligations there, folks — just a friendly invitation.)

Another New Look

Yeah, so it’s pretty simple. But I’m absolutely sick of the old page template, and I don’t have time to develop something from scratch. So I’m going with a default template for now.

I am working on a (slightly) revised version of the page logo (one of those ambigrams I just mentioned), so that’ll be up there at some point. Otherwise, if anyone wants to volunteer to create a new template, I’m certainly open to the suggestion. But in the meantime, I’ll just have to let the content speak for itself.

Technorati tags: Blog

Anticipation

As of today, it’s just one month until the third-season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. And just two weeks until the second half of season two get its DVD release.

In the meantime, I suppose I’ll have to content myself with classic Star Trek episodes being remastered in HD and broadcast with all-new digital effects.

Update: Looks like SciFi is running ten original BSG “webisodes” leading up to the premiere. Apparently covering some of the time between seasons two and three. Definitely worth a look.

Technorati tags: Television, DVD, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek

Ambigram Popularity Revisited

Bizarre.

The number one Google image search result for “ambigram” is my signature ambigram.

Number one.

That means I’m beating out all of the pro ambigram designers with my little doodle.

I bring this up because I finally got a copy of ambigram master John Langdon’s book Wordplay, and it’s making me feel simultaneously inspired and woefully inadequate. But I am working on a couple of new ambigrams, and hopefully, I’ll be able to show a couple of them off here once they’re done.

Technorati tags: Art

Mixed Feelings

My oldest daughter is a Clue genius. This weekend, we broke out the Master Detective edition of the game, figuring it’d give her more of a challenge (especially since we opted to play without that game’s additional rules — which would normally serve to make it easier).

As usual, she beat the whole family.

I don’t quite know what to think. On the one hand, I’m damned proud of her. But on the other hand, I’m being consistently beaten by a ten-year-old girl!

Nobody said parenting was going to be easy.

Technorati tags: Games, Children, Clue

When In Doubt, Go With the Virgin Sacrifice

Okay, so it looks like they’re finally looking to go over the top with the whole lonelygirl15 story: They’re preparing her for virgin sacrifice. (What the hell, it’s not like I’m talking politics anymore, so I might as well waste my time on this crap, right?)

I have a new theory as to the purpose behind this whole thing. They’re trying to see how far they can go before everyone screams, “You’re full of shit!” So once it’s all over, the filmmakers can sit back and laugh their asses off at how idiotically gullible people can be. I know I’m laughing already.

Given that path, now I’m really curious to see where they’ll go next. Is Bree going to escape the vile clutches of the Thelemist fanatics? Are they then going to unleash their armies of undead to recapture her? Is Daniel going to run in machine guns blazing and holy water at the ready? Is all of it going to be conveniently captured by a home video camera (and posted for all to see)?

I’ve beeen taking a look at some of the other YouTube vlogs that purport to debunk the whole thing... or at least I’ve tried to. Damn, but these things are absolutely unwatchable. Bree looks like Orson fucking Welles compared to this shit. But one thing they have driven home is absolute proof that Bree’s tale of woe is nothing more than a professionally (or semi-professionally) manufactured hoax.

Bree claims to be new to the whole vlog scene. But compare Bree’s delivery with any other newbie vlogger out there. Not once do Bree’s eyes drift away from her “audience” — i.e., the camera. See, the problem with vlogging (or videoconferencing, video phones, or any other comparable home-video medium) is that the camera is not positioned in the exact same position as the monitor. Invariably, for anyone not schooled in performing for a camera, the speaker’s eyes will repeatedly drift to focus on the monitor image and away from the camera. Bree is no amateur — either she has extensive camera acting experience, or she’s being very carefully directed.

There are probably other developments in this little drama that I’m not bothering to report. For now, though, it looks like the Wikipedia entry is back and here to stay. So feel free to pop over and investigate for yourself.

Technorati tags: Vlogging, Video, YouTube, LonelyGirl15

Must-See Movie

And just yesterday I was wondering if there were any good films coming out soon.

Technorati tags: Film, Bush

More Fuel for the Fire

Yes, I’ve apparently got too much time on my hands. But — despite my earlier disavowal of continuing interest — I’m finding myself compelled to follow the lonelygirl15 trail.

The latest developments:

• The producers have decided to cater to their core audience by putting Bree in a bathing suit — though at least they had the good sense to keep the video appropriate to the character, rather than making it into pure titillation.


• Bree has added a hint of interactivity in her latest video, mentioning at least a couple of commenters by name (though again, I suspect planted messages — if those messages even exist, which I haven’t bothered to check).


• The Wikipedia page has finally — and grudgingly — been restored. I still suspect that someone at Wikipedia has a stake in this thing; Wikipedia editor and YouTube director Brian Schott, perhaps?


• Suspicions are being aired that this may be the beginning of a new Alternate Reality Game, with the likes of Who Is Benjamin Stove? creator Brian Clark, Beast author Sean Stewart (with I Love Bees co-creator Jordan Weisman), Blair Witch studio Haxan Films, and documentary filmmaker Brian Flemming being tossed around as potential puppetmasters.


• The picture of Aleister Crowley wasn’t always that picture; it was apparently swapped out sometime before its closeup. Current speculation has it that the original was Baphomet, though I can’t make it out clearly enough to be certain (or even hazard a guess).


• In that same video — dated June 23 — I noticed that Bree dubs Daniel “the Danielbeast” as a part of her naturalist schtick. Daniel ends up using that as his user name, but the implication, of course, is that the moniker didn’t exist before Bree’s video. Anyone know how to check not when a user’s first video is uploaded, but when the account was created? A “member since” tag or something? I’m curious as to whether the dates line up...


• At least one blogger is starting to question not the veracity of the videos themselves, but the curious nature of its popularity in the first place. Let’s be honest, the content of these videos is nothing extraordinary — was there some gaming of the system to generate this “popularity”?

Sure, this may be just silliness, but I’m having fun with it. Especially since it doesn’t take up nearly the amount of time of something like The Beast. That much time I do not have.

Technorati tags: Vlogging, Video, YouTube, LonelyGirl15