Strike Three! You're Out ILM!

1999: The Matrix with it's "bullet-time" visual effects wins the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, beating ILM's use of CGI in creating Jar-Jar Binks, Yoda and Podracing for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with it's amazing life-like Gollum steals the fish (i.e. Oscar) for Best Visual Effects from under ILM's CGI cloned army, lightsaber-dueling Yoda and a chase scene through Coruscant all for Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

2005: ILM doesn't even get a nomination for their CGI work in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith where they create a lava planet (and very amazing effect there I might add), more Yoda dueling and a wookie army. Instead the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science nominees for Best Visual effects are King Kong, War of the Worlds, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Well, personally I think Lucas' staff got the shaft. No, they didn't deserve the Oscar in either 1999 or 2002; both the films that deserved to win did. And I don't think Episode III should have won this year either (personally I think King Kong will win... I mean getting New York City of the 1930s nearly perfect - never mind the 30 foot ape - deserves the golden stature) but I do think ILM deserved a nomination over Narnia. There were quite a few CGI shots in that Disney film that were a bit shaky... and Star Wars' visuals of Mustafar were amazing. In the end I guess we have to remember it's Academy visual effect artist members who vote for the nominations in this category - maybe they just have something against ILM and Lucas we don't know about.

0-2

Well, as a team we played better in our second game than we did in our first game. That's encouraging. Unfortunately, we lost again, this time 3-2.

The Red team had two guys who were playing a little dirty. Elbows here... Elbows there... none, of course, were called penalties by the two referees. And then there was the cross-check elbowing during a line change. One of our forwards who was coming off the ice was cross-checked and elbowed from behind just as he was about to leave the ice. Again, no penalty because neither referee saw it. What the hell where they doing out out there? Looking at the beautiful flowers?

Okay, enough rant on the other team. I thought I played better this week. I finally got my #19 jersey so I look like a real team member out there. I also got my skates sharpened before the game which really helped me grip the ice better. The line I played on stayed the same as last week and did play better - but there's always room for improvement. Next week we face the Light Blue team again... should be fun.

Never Forget

January 28, 1986

11:39am EST

Concidence? I think not...

Ron Moore a writer and producer Deep Space Nine has now gone onto co-create the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series. I think he hasn't forgot where he came from. To the right
is a picture of a Federation runabout as seen throughout the series.

I want you to take a close look of the design of the ship: the overall shape with the ship angled upward in the front, the two "wings" which contain the runabout's warp nacelles, and arch which holds the nacelles in place comes over the top of the nacelle. On top of the ship is an optional scientific instrument which was rarely seen.

Now to the left is Ron Moore's Galactica. Notice any similarities between the two pictures? There are the warp nacelles... but in this case the are the launching bays for the Raptors and Vipers. See the arch which holds the launch bays in place? It, too, goes over the top of the bays. And the front of the ship? It's also angled up towards the top of the ship. And that rarely seen scientific instrument? Well, push it a little farther back on the ship - and separate it in two... and there you have it - the two mini-wings on the top rear of the ship.

Maybe it's just you can't create anything "new" without taking (or improving) on something from the past. But if you ever get a chance to look at the status screens on the Galactica bridge - ask yourself if they don't look like those seen on The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine. That being said, I highly doubt you'll see a dry-erase board anywhere in the Trek universe.

Now you really have to wonder about our security...

As I mentioned in my previous post... a security guard at work got caught checking out porn on the receptionist's computer. But it turns out the story gets even better.

This young, white, ex-military guy (well, I can't say for certain he's ex-military - but normally the security guards we get are) wasn't checking out your normal porn. No, he was checking out gay porn. Even more salacious, the websites were centered around white men being topped by endowed black men. Yes, Dorthy, truth is stranger than fiction.

This makes you wonder a few things: what was his specialty in the military and where did he learn to like the black brother so much. On second thought... No, I don't need to know those answers.

Will the stupid people please stand up?

The company I work for hires a firm for to do our security. I would say probably about 85% to 90% guards are mostly young, ex-military guys looking to get into law enforcement but need security work until they can enroll at a police academy or something similar.

On the shift I work, 1am to 9am, the guards have it easy: walk the premises, check the monitors, and answer an occasional radio or phone call. Yesterday morning at around 3am my co-worker discovered the security guard was at the receptionist's desk. This was a bit unusual, so he mentioned it to the office manager when she came in at 8am. She said that was weird and she'd look into it.

Turns out the guard was checking pornographic websites on the receptionist's computer. Suffice to say the guy was not back this morning working security. Stupid kid! I'm not standing up for what he did, in fact I think it was totally inappropriate, but if you're going to check out porn on a computer that isn't yours, don't you know to clean the cache? And those are the types of brains we want patrolling our streets... thank you, no!

0-1

On Saturday Team White played its first game. This was new to me; I mean I've played pick-up hockey games before, but never a timed, refereed game. Unfortunately, we lost 4-2 to the Light Blue squad. We got down early 3-0 before making it a one goal game at 3-2. The other team got called for a penalty with about 25 second to go in the third period, but we couldn't score even with a 6-on-4 advantage - in fact, they scored a shorthanded, empty net goal to put the game away.

I played okay. I did make one bad pass that led to Light Blue's third goal. I need to get my jersey made up this week before Saturday game as well as get my skates sharpened. I not having sharp blades to grip the ice really good was a lot of my problem in the first game (other than my legs becoming like jelly after skating so hard). Maybe after getting them sharpened I can actually get the breakaway I was so close to having last weekend.

Game 2 at this Saturday at 5:45. I can't wait!

Waiting 22 For More '24'

What an explosive beginning to Day 5 for Jack Bauer. It was shocking though to see President Palmer assassinated in the first few minutes. What's the conspiracy with the President? Are the Chechens involved (that would make sense to some degree)? And where the hell is Sean Astin? I can't wait for another twenty-two hours for 9am to 11am hours of this season.

My trouble in the past was sticking through an entire season of 24. I've usually caught the first few episodes... then miss one or two and it's hard to catch up. But I usually watch the final episode of a season to know what happen. Maybe that's cheating - I don't know.

The Pain Of Being 19

I just had my second practice for ice hockey today. I did better today - didn't feel like puking as much as I did last Saturday. Again, we did multiple drills before touching a puck: wind sprints, circles, skating backwards, falling & getting up. Then we did some puck handling drills and finally some passing & shooting drills.

With about ten minutes to go we split in our teams (practice consists of two teams of 13 players) and practiced playing offense vs. Defense. Since I can't skate backward too well, I'm a forward. I practiced at left wing - which is the position I guess I'll be playing when our games start next week.

Before practice they asked me what number I want to be. I said "19" because that is my favorite number. "S" is the 19th letter of the alphabet - and it is the first letter of my first name... and "19" was my school bus number growing up. Now I just need to get my hockey jersey with the number put on it. I'll do that sometime this week.

Oh yeah, I mentioned some pain, didn't I? Back in the locker room after practice I felt a pain in my back. I've had a little pain there in the six hours since practice ended. Usually it take a few days to work its way out. Normally I'll get a pain in that part of my back when I've slept in the wrong position... so I'll take a Tylenol and deal with it. At least out hockey league doesn't allow checking so I shouldn't be hurting by being blasted into the boards intentionally...

Summer Trip #1

Well... I just bought an early-bird 4-day pass to Origins... so it looks like I'll be heading back to Columbus for the first time since July 2003. I went to six straight Origins gaming conventions starting in 1998 and have missed not being able to attend the last two years after I moved down to Florida. So look for me in the Buckeye State's capitol from June 29th to July 2nd this year!

Googling Trek

I guess the-powers-that-be at CBS have decided the best way to find new viewers for Star Trek is to look on the internet. According to this article on startrek.com CBS has followed ABC's lead of offering television content in new places.

Google Video is a new part of the Google empire where you will be able to buy or rent Deep Space Nine & Voyager episodes. But Trek series won't be the only shows offered, other include: I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch, The Twilight Zone, CSI.

Pretty cool. It's nice that studio heads are finally realizing the true power of the net - something Google realized years ago. Now if I could only find me a Delorean with an optional Flux Capacitor so I can go back to August 2004 and buy some of their stock...

One practice down

Well I made it through my first real team ice hockey practice. Man, at one point I was quite winded... haven't been this out-of-shape in probably seven years. I was breathing so hard after we did wind sprints, push-off drills and cross-over circles if we didn't slow down at that point to do passing & shooting drills (and thank goodness we did) I might have puked.

Overall... it was definitely fun. We've got another practice next Saturday and then it's time for a real game. I've been deemed a forward - which is okay... I can't skate backwards too well (and that's being generous trust me) so I can use the few things I can do okay to my advantage.

I asked for jersey number 19 - they said it's not being used right now, so hopefully I'll get it since it's my favorite number. Oh yeah, I'm on the "white" team. I don't think we have a nickname - I guess some of the green teams use the "gangrene" moniker. Maybe we can be the White Knights... I think that could be royally cool.

Onto the frozen pond

Well, I guess it won't be a frozen pond - at least down here in Florida. But starting later today I begin playing in an adult beginner ice hockey league. It should be lots of fun. I've only played pick-up ice hockey and roller hockey with friends before (when I lived in Buffalo and Syracuse)... never in a league.

We have our first practice today, followed by another one next Saturday and then ten games. I'm not the best skater (probably because Ohio is not known as a hotbed of ice hockey and therefore I didn't skate more than once as a kid), nor do I have the best shot... but I know most of the rules (not sure if the two-line pass is in effect for us), and will definitely give it my all - even to the detriment of my body.

The arena I'm playing at has two rinks - and is the practice rink for the defending Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning (I had to put that in there for all you jealous Blues fans out there). I just hope I don't hurt myself too bad - at least a few pills of Tylenol won't help... I'll keep you updated.

Losing your sanity a tape at a time

I know you're not supposed to write about work on blogs because it could get you into trouble. Well, I'm not complaining about work - because I enjoy it and most of the people I deal with on a daily basis are super! But today just sucked.

See on the new schedule the next editor is to start two hours after me at 3am and we both work on the morning show. Well, today the normal 3am editor was off. He took the holiday which was fine since we only had the morning shows and the 11am show because of college bowl games on our air the rest of the day and night. So one of the 9am editors (who didn't get the holiday off) was supposed to work the 3am to 11:30am today.

He never showed. So I had to do the entire show by myself... trust me people - that wasn't easy or fun. But I was able to make sure not a single tape was missed during the entire two hours. Finally at about 6:45am the missing editor called me (after the assignment desk had left messages on his cell phone) and apologized profusely. I couldn't talk long because I was still editing for the shows.

Right now I am totally exhausted and frazzled. There *is* a reason two editors work in tandem to finish the AM shows... it's called retaining your sanity - something I didn't have for a few minutes this morning. Alright... time to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzzz