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So Very Tired

BREAKING NEWS: J.J. Abrams to Produce/Direct “Trek XI”

J.J. Abrams, producer of hit shows Lost and Alias, as well as director of the upcoming Paramount film “Mission: Impossible III,” is slated to produce and direct the next Star Trek feature, according to today’s Daily Variety and sources at Paramount Pictures. There is no title as yet for the new movie, but it will be the eleventh in the franchise. (Until a title is selected, we will usually refer to the project as simply “Star Trek XI.”)Although there isn’t an official Paramount press release announcing the movie, it is a confirmed project under development with a 2008 release date targeted. Word about the Abrams project surfaced this morning in the daily trade paper. He will be writing the script with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who penned “M:i:III.” STARTREK.COM will keep you up to date on all official statements as they are released.

The proposed story will focus on the early days of James T. Kirk and Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and their first mission in space.

Abrams’ producing partners from Lost, Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk, are cited as being producers on “Trek XI.” This project is separate from the previously rumored script developed by Eric Jendresen and overseen by Rick Berman. The former Star Trek producer is not involved in this project.

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Seven Dollar Pens!

Today I brought some $7 pens today at lunch. They’re refillable, and have replaceable tips. So I’m told. They came in unusual sizes (normally you get .005, .05, or 1 and higher – these were .25 and .35). I also bought some other types. When I got back to work I tried them all out with some quick sketches. Here are the results.

sketchy1.jpg

sketchy2.jpg

sketchy3.jpg

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From Badminton to Worseminton

I may scan in another Horribles tonight. If you’re very lucky. Because I have no plans for tonight. Anyone want to go see a movie at Tinseltown?

Last night Joe and I went to drop in to badminton at the Mt Pleasant Community Center but they were all full up (we were told after waiting a half hour). I have to invest in a net and racquets so that we can go to any park on any sunny day and play any time we want. All of us! You and me! BADMINTON!!! I’ll just have to find out who sells such things. Sport Mart? Doubtful. WalMart? Probably but it will be a cold day in hell etc etc….

Meanwhile, check out this video from the Mercury probe MESSENGER as it leaves our front porch.  

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/flyby_movie.html

This is the planet you live on.

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I Am 8-Bit

“A 23-member team of balloon artists, an eight-member flight crew, and countless community members were needed to launch the first ever piloted latex balloon sculpture. Nearly 20,000 animal balloons were twisted together by the hand-picked team of artists from around the US and Canada to create the Fantastic Flying Octopus.”

BONUS:

If you like video games and you like fine art, check this out:

 http://www.vinylpulse.com/2006/04/show_coverage_i.html

I love the Bubble Bobble one by Luke Chueh.

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Put the Cabbage in the Bag!

Did a couple more “Horribles” toons today, which I will post in their rough state as always. So far of the three jokes only one was one I’d been saving up, so that’s a good sign. In the meantime you can revel in recaps:

Over the Easter weekend I had precious little chocolate. A shame, really. But on Monday we played Power Enterprise/Mutants & Masterminds and that was fine ‘n’ dandy. I went to Joe’s on Saturday for a Dr Who party and we ended up watching three episodes of Penn & Teller’s you-know-what, featuring intelligent design, self help via walking on coals etc, and something else. The classic Dr Who we watched was “The Green Death” which was entertaining. Other than that I had a good weekend with lots of ‘me’ time. Me ‘n’ Kodos, drawing, playing video games, watching TV (ST: Nemesis was on TV), listening to the rain. I wonder if it gets that dull in prison. You wouldn’t get a cat though. Would you? Maybe if it’s a cat convicted of second degree murder.

Holy hand grenades, I almost forgot that we played with the Hanson Brothers on Thursday in Langley. That was fun. I went with Marlo and Joe and Pat and Mel. The Slangers and Dan & Natascha were there and some friends of Marlo’s too. We performed well enough – broke out into a country & western ditty which seemed apt considering we were playing at 8 Seconds Country Cabaret – and then we watched the Hanson Brothers. We had been booked at the Asbalt on Friday but nobody had confirmed it with me so by the time I saw the posters, it was too late for some of us (not me) to reneg on other responsibilities and actually play the show. I don’t know if we’ll be playing with NMN while Warren is back in town. Try as I might, I’ve been told they already have other bands opening for them on their tour. They’re supposibly coming out with a new album this year.

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Tentatively Known as The Crumplets

.crumplets.jpg

Here for your amusement and enjoyment (I hope) are some little characters that I’ve been working on in between phone calls at work. I want to do something with these guys…maybe an online comic. I don’t know yet. Right now I’m just trying to work out…I guess you could call them model sheets. I’ve got 8 jpegs up and you can already see the progression from the alpha (b&w) to the betas (colour).

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsalpha1.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsalpha2.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsalpha3.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsbeta1.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsbeta2.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsbeta3.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsbeta4.jpg

http://www.thickets.net/toren/Crumpletsbeta5.jpg

Let me know what you think! I’ve given them names so that if one of them (or certain design elements of one of them) stands out you can point at him over the internet. Aspects that I’m still struggling with are the legs (placement and form – stick legs or “full”) and profiles, specifically body shape on the profile. I’ll do a gamma round some time next week, likely, and I’ll post them if there’s interest.

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Lazy Layman part 2

So I’ve been further considering this “Introduction To…” communal grassroots (god I hate that word) educational system. I could make a new blog for it (vancouverfreelearning.blogspot.com?), which would be cheap and easy, but the disadvantage is that there’s no way to email people who are interested in partaking, unless I made a separate mailing list, which I could do. There’s yahoogroups, which is a glorified mailing list, but some people have a hate-hate relationship with it. Doing forums would be the most efficient way I think, but it would be a hassle to set up and would probably never get done since I am no programmer and probably don’t have the requirements to host such a program.

Thoughts?

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My Pores!

me-apr06.jpg

My digital camera is pretty amazing. At 6 megapixels, you can see the pores on my nose from a shot taken at full arm’s length.

Here, as promised, are some pictures, or ‘pics’ to use the parlance of our times.

kitty.jpg
Karaoke Revolution. Here you can see me (MacBin) in my furry cat costume.

karaoke.jpg
In the blurry shot where Joe and I are performing, the crowd meter is on the right, and there is a bar on the top and bottom (those blue and orange streaks), one for each player, which provides the lyrics and indicates when to sing and the pitch, more or less. The angle changes constantly, and the characters do little dance moves of course.