Mission: Improbable |3:03 PM|
I'm a bit of a horror movie dork. I'm not the Fangoria reading, doesn't talk to people much, wears all black, works at the movie store and smells funny type of horror dork. I did see "Jason X" and "Freddy Vs. Jason" at the premieres, and my fondness for zombie movies is already well known.
Enter the Alamo Drafthouse (Glorious Alamo!) and BloodShots. To summarize, one of ten teams in Austin is given a subgenre of horror and 48 hours to complete a movie. To keep people from preparing footage ahead of time the movie must include a prop, a character name, and a line that are given to you at the same time as your genre. This happens on 7pm, Friday the 22nd.
I plan to be awake and working the entire 48 hours. I managed to register a team shortly before registration closed. I called poker-host Joe, who has a little bit more experience in movie making than I do, seeing as he's worked on a variety of feature films, has produced some short films of his own, and his wife Tara is chef to the stars. He and I have assembled a crack team of amature film makers, musicians, goof-balls, whack-jobs and film geeks for this operation.
This should be DAMNED exciting, even if both Joe and I go utterly insane from sleep deprivation, and attempt to film things underwater, then end up drowning. Updates as they become available/interesting.
Fiduciary Fixation |1:32 AM|
Cecil: I kind of like the idea of a national cock bank. The investments would be self explanatory.
Constellation: I just bet you like it, hooker
Cecil: Yeah. While all the other cocks are tied up in 20 year house loans, I'm able to use my liquidity to leverage value-added broads into action item beds.
Constellation: Hahaha. I love it when you talk dirty to me.
Cecil: OH YEAH, OH YEAH, YOU LIKE THAT HIGH YIELD NO-LOAD MUTUAL FUND, DON'T YOU? You dirty slut.
Constellation: GOD YES IM GONNA CUM ALL OVER YOUR CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
Cecil: Raise it, raise it, RAISE THE FED OHHHHHH GODDDDDD
Constellation: Alan Greenspan is spinning in his hyperbolic anti-death stasis field.
Tank Tread |3:44 PM|
The tread kit for the kill-bot-to-be I installed is a quite a let down. Due to the dimensions of the tread's "footprint" it can't rotate in place, and turning the tank is shaky. I'm trying to find the right numbers to plug in to make it at least turn without horrible shuddering. I suppose if it was on gravel or sand it'd be superior to the original wheels.
The compass I installed, however, is awesome. Now the problem is doing path finding and correction (a wee bit of trigonometry is involved).
I also learned and implemented a way to control the robot via an infrared remote control, like one you'd use for a TV.
Luckily, the tread kit is well designed in that removal/installation (After initial construction) is very straightforward. I'm going to slap the regular wheels back on until I kit a couple second graders out of their sand box. Then out rolls the tank.
Oct. 13, 2004 | ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer on Wednesday obtained a court order to temporarily suspend the sale of commemorative Sept. 11 coins heavily advertised as being minted from silver recovered at ground zero.
Spitzer said the sale of the silver dollars emblazoned with the World Trade Center towers on one side and the planned Freedom Tower on the flip side is a fraud and he's investigating the claim the silver came from the ruins of the twin towers.
"It is a shameless attempt to profit from a national tragedy," Spitzer said. "This product has been promoted with claims that are false, misleading or unsubstantiated."
Spitzer said the National Collector's Mint, based in Port Chester, N.Y., claims the coins engraved with "In God We Trust" are legally authorized silver dollars, when they aren't.
He said the coin advertised as nearly pure silver is only silver plated, produced by a Wyoming company called SoftSky Inc.
The TV and print ads include one fashioned after a news story that reads: "Today, history is being made. For the first time ever, a legally authorized government issue silver dollar has been struck to commemorate the World Trade Center and the new Freedom Tower being erected in its place ... Most importantly, each coin has been created using .999 pure silver recovered from ground zero!"
The dollar pieces are priced at $39 each, but sold at $19.95 with a limit of five per customer.
A company spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. On Sept. 10, the U.S. Mint issued a notice on its Web site that the coin "is not a legally authorized government issued" product.
The temporary halt on sales is pending a civil suit filed by Spitzer in state Supreme Court. Spitzer seeks civil penalties, restitution to those who bought the coins, greater consumer disclosure and full disclosure that the coins aren't endorsed by the federal government.
The company sells a variety of novelty coins, including those with characters from the "Harry Potter" books and movies.
Disgusting. I hope new coins are "minted" out of pressure molded bone from the skulls of the people selling those things.
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Monday, October 11, 2004
Better than bored. |11:16 AM|
I've got a couple projects running at the moment, and I really want to get back to working on them. It's weird, this excitement is making the day seem to take longer, but not as long as being horribly bored. It just makes me more antsy and kind of hyper. Like trying to sleep the night before Christmas.
The two projects both involve programming. One is for the robot (new components coming in today) and the other is for a game modification. Fight off zombies from an old frightening house! Hooray! I always forget how daunting map making and script editing in Unreal is, until I sit down and start trying to read the existing code. Christ almighty, there's just so much stuff to wad through. It's exciting in its own way, but without a proper starting point I'm nearly unable to find my way through, lost among classes and sub classes controlling aspects of the game I wasn't even aware of, previously.
I'm sitting here, desperately wanting to go home and...type a bunch of misspelled words into a programming application. But I can't, so I've been looking around online for ideas for projects, as I have most of a robot here at my desk. If only I had a TV remote control, I could make a remote control robot. The detector is already installed, the code is very simple, all I need is an IR emitter.
Yes, yes, I'm still doing my job. But it's pretty slow for a monday.
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