via Boing-Boing
Someone out there has made a movie timeline (mostly Sci-Fi, of course) that puts all of the movies’ dates together into one big string. For instance:
PRESENT DAY, APPARENTLY…
2006 Unicron reformats Megatron into Galvatron after a battle of Autobot City (Transformers)
Bicentennial Man
but my fave is of course, in 2010 when along with the Olympics, we’ll finally have Thunderbirds!
Last night, I had a collection of bad dreams, but I’m only really aware of two. The first one is gone in that fog of sleep that happens, but the second is sorta interesting.
I was getting onto a plane (at least the building I was in was very similar to an airport, with escalators, and lots of people coming and going), and had someone who reminded me of John Candy leading the way, and it was all somewhat rushed, like he was helping me get where I was going before time ran out. I was taking an escalator down, and then was placed into a capsule that was vaguely tube-shaped. Little windows at the top, and metal bars and framework around me. There was a sense of a countdown, and exhiliration of takeoff, but then something went wrong.
The tube was filling extremely quickly with water. Clear and clean, and fairly warm, but choking nonetheless. I couldn’t move, and couldn’t get myself out of the canister I was in, but wasn’t really able to do much but kick feebly at the edges of the tube, hoping that someone could hear me, or do something to get me out. The air in my lungs exploded out of me in a cough, and I felt the compression of claustrophobia in my chest. I sucked in water, and felt it burn my nose, and kept kicking… and kicking… I was heartbroken, I was dying, and couldn’t do anything about it. There was no panic any more, just futility, and loss.
I woke, and while I couldn’t move (what’s that chemical that we release into our muscles that keeps us from running around in our sleep?), I gasped in air, and then lay there panting, my head pounding and my heart bashing my ribcage as I lay on my still-numb hands.
I looked around a little, and realized that Tate was in the bed, but the soft (foamy, sorta rigid) pillow was over his head. I yanked it back and threw it almost off the foot of the bed, and then watched him closely in the dim light to make sure he was breathing. He was lying on his back, his head was turned to the side, away from me, and yes, he was breathing. He obviously hadn’t been bothered by the pillow at all. At least, he didn’t appear to be distressed in any way.
So why did I dream of drowning? Did my six-month-old son send the sensation of smothering to me for long enough to wake me to get the pillow off his head?
Or what?
That stuff aside, I’ve been feeling the hangover from dying today, and it still hurts. I’m still sad about it.
Watching this neat show tonight on Discovery, called Alien Planet
I want Ripley to see this, as it’s not only interesting and informative speculative documentary, but some of the best eye-candy I’ve seen in a LONG time.
Here’s some pics from Tate’s first meal today.
I love the look on his face when the carrots hit ‘im. (click pic for fullsize)
For Xmas this year, Ripley got a whole big bag of dressup stuff. One of the things in there was some awesome tinsel-like wig. Rip’s taken to rockin’ out and calling himself (and I swear we don’t know why) “David Boowee.” He recently bought some shades to make the ensemble complete…
(and yes, his pants are on backwards)…
At least it’s not Vanilla Ice (he prefers the old school hip hop, actually).
Issue: Network mapped drives that were “working just fine yesterday” are no longer available, but directly connecting to \server\share works just fine. Net Use commands don’t work, and the error “The drive could not be mapped because no network was found” is given in Windows shell or DOS commands.
Possible Solution: Workstation service not running. Started it, and drive mappings work again.
Aliens, man, aliens.
I’d put this out there as a reply on one of the boards out there, but I have to sign up to reply, so I’ll just reply here.
First hit for this error, when pasted into Google in quotes, is this one, which sadly, has only one reply (are your NIC drivers working?)
Hope this helps someone out there some day.
Is it just me or is the “USB Memory Drive In A {fill in the blank}” phenomenon getting a little old?
Seriously: $41.77 (plus shipping for another $14) for A 128MB USB Memory Drive in A Plush Crocodile
I could probably buy a small stuffed crocodile for about $4.00, and cram a $20 dollar USB drive down its throat.
I have no problem with the USB drives that look like other things (like Swiss Army Knives, or Watches), but c’mon.
I have a feeling the Beanie Babies folks are behind this, somehow.
Via Slashdot, the tech sector’s CNN, (or at least National Enquirer)
An anonymouse reader writes “Tom’s Hardware has a feature up on the makings of Tron which may interest latent fans. Through interviews with the creators they explore the makings of Tron, from how it came to be picked up by Disney to how the effects were put together (‘While the majority of the film takes place in the computer world, only 15 minutes worth of footage actually used CGI’, because it would have taken years to make the film otherwise). They then explore why the film flopped at the box office. ‘It was like we put LSD in the punch at the school prom and it was just way more than they can handle,’ said Steven Lisberger.”
If you thought the conversations about Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Matrix got heated (when comparing special effects to plot), check out the commenting threads going on for this story.
One comment [edited here] struck home for me, especially, from tinkertim
I saw Tron, opening night, and its one of the things that made me really, really want to figure out how those nifty looking typewriters with screens could do so much. I didn’t know what memory was, I didn’t know what a processor did, I barely understood how a calculator worked and if you said Binary I’d say “Sure, I have a Huffy!”.
We’re always looking at value as something monetary. Tron made me go get my first trash-80 (Err Tandy TRS-80 heheh) and later my first Commie. I wanted to know how those things worked.
The value of the film wasn’t how much it grossed , if you want to calculate that, then calculate the life time earnings of those who got into computers partly because of seeing it and you may be surprised :)
However only 15 minutes of CGI? I somehow (not sure why, because I know what was available then) thought most of it was CGI.. but yes, that would have been very very difficult at the time. My bubble sort of broke reading that article, never really thought about the making other than being fascinated as a child with the results.
Entertainment isn’t entertainment to most if it requires too much thought.
Tron got to be the pavement others were able to ride in on. So wallet aside, I don’t think the film was a flop. I was too young to remember any hoop-la coming from Disney about the film.. I wonder how it would have done if it had been underplayed before release.
Cool article, if you can wade through the advertisements :)
I remember getting sucked into this movie almost as badly as Star Wars: The Master Control Program made me tremble with fear, and when the old guy died, I’m pretty sure I teared up.
I’m *such* a geek.
{to the tune of “If I had a million dollars”}
If I had $200, I wouldn’t have to reach for the cord…
If I had $200, I’d poke myself in the ear ’cause it cosssssts more…
Logitech Wireless Headphones for iPod
Heaphones that are that latest “sport” style.
But cordless.
With remote ON THE FREAKIN’ EAR.
Sign yourself up for the mailing list of Mil Millington, and have a quick read-through of the latest while you’re at it.
He’s pretty funny, as some English folks are. His wife’s INSANE (have a spin through Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About some time for a laugh – or a cry, depending on how insane/German your partner may be).
So yeah. Go there.
