To Baldly Go
Thursday, November 06, 2008
About those "Single?" lawn signs
Came upon this today - An investigation into what's up with all those "Single?" lawn signs you may have seen. (They're everywhere!) Specifically, it deals with who is behind them.
Surprisingly interesting.
Surprisingly interesting.
Labels: signs
¶ 3:45 PM 2 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, November 02, 2008
License Plate Watch 39
Seen today on a Mercedes-Benz C240: "ISLRE4U"
Hmmm, that was a stumper at first. Then I decided to simply run a search on "islre." Which led to this page, and the indication it is some sort of code for "Lactobacillus reuteri."
So, new search for "Lactobacillus reuteri." Which led to a list of many sites selling related products and many sites dealing with trials of of products that use this "...bacterium that naturally inhabits the gut of mammals and birds."
I think this is likely the longest License Plate Watch post I've written to date. Of course this all assumes that code page I found does indicate the meaning of the "ISLRE" but considering the entire plate, I think it's likely the owner of the car is involved somehow with a product that uses Lactobacillus reuteri.
Hmmm, that was a stumper at first. Then I decided to simply run a search on "islre." Which led to this page, and the indication it is some sort of code for "Lactobacillus reuteri."
So, new search for "Lactobacillus reuteri." Which led to a list of many sites selling related products and many sites dealing with trials of of products that use this "...bacterium that naturally inhabits the gut of mammals and birds."
I think this is likely the longest License Plate Watch post I've written to date. Of course this all assumes that code page I found does indicate the meaning of the "ISLRE" but considering the entire plate, I think it's likely the owner of the car is involved somehow with a product that uses Lactobacillus reuteri.
Labels: license-plate
¶ 3:54 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, October 05, 2008
License Plate Watch 38
Seen today on a Dodge Stealth: "KNOT C ME"
¶ 2:28 PM 0 Comments
Links to this post
Friday, September 26, 2008
What's a little spooky...
...is hearing sirens in the before-dawn darkness.
(As I have been just now.)
(As I have been just now.)
Labels: sirens
¶ 5:51 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, July 28, 2008
Comic-Con 2008 - Fourth day
Arrived at the Convention Center around 9:00 AM, and before entering powered up my camera and was astonished to see it displaying a message to the effect of "Can not record". Powered off, opened the door for the storage card, and yep, it was not there. After my head exploded from that shock, I realized what had happened. The evening before I had decided to copy to my computer photos I had taken of the Con up to then, in order to use them as memory aids while I typed up preliminary blog entries. So, after I had done that copying and removed the card reader from the computer, I had simply kept the card in the reader.
I did some thinking about where near the Convention Center I could purchase a new card. I walked the four or so blocks to the Longs Drug Store at Horton Plaza, and obtained there a 1-GB card for less than $20. Not bad.
First panel I went to Sunday was another one for DC Comics -- DC Nation: One Weekend Later. My interest here being the promise of a major announcement. Dan DiDio was again the moderator, but this panel was mostly composed of DC editors and managers. The hour was composed of reviewing the DC panel's that had occurred earlier and a questions-and-answers session. The big announcement? That Neil Gaiman is writing a Batman story. Sweet.
Also went to an annual Comic-Con Sunday event: Starship Smackdown. Like the annual events I wrote about in the post for Comic-Con third day, I've also never been to this before, so no clue from the description in the program exactly what might occur. This deals with what is the best starship, so I had thought that perhaps there would be computer generated videos of famous starships battling each other.
Not so much. What this turned out to be was the nearest thing to anarchy I saw the entire Con! Firstly, a list of 10 well-known starships was written down on a white board. Six more starships were needed on the list, which was thrown to the audience, and that's when things started getting wild. Names of other starships being shouted out, the moderator and panel accepting or rejecting (for all kinds of reasons) them, boos and cheers from the audience for the decisions.
The moderator and panel then began discussing which of each pair of starships (as written down on the whiteboard) would be the survivor in a battle, all to more shouting, booing, and cheering from the audience.
After the first round dropped half of the starships, the moderator introduced a random element to add to the remaining starships: a captain for each one. Names of 20 captains had been written on slips of paper and were pulled out of a hat one the panelists had worn. Included in the first seven captains selected were: Captain Merrill Stubing of "The Love Boat", and the Captain and Tennille. The audience loved those. For the final captain, the moderator read out the names of all remaining captains and asked the audience to select which one to use by cheering. And the selection was: Cap'n Crunch! Good times, good times.
Now, for the first time ever, the Smackdown had another panel running immediately after it, so the moderator was for the first time did not have the luxury of allowing discussion and voting on which starship survives each battle to run long, and had to press the panel to finish in the allotted time.
The final decision on victorious starship was: the Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer, as captained by James T. Kirk!
Here are my fourth day photos. ¶ 9:58 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
I did some thinking about where near the Convention Center I could purchase a new card. I walked the four or so blocks to the Longs Drug Store at Horton Plaza, and obtained there a 1-GB card for less than $20. Not bad.
First panel I went to Sunday was another one for DC Comics -- DC Nation: One Weekend Later. My interest here being the promise of a major announcement. Dan DiDio was again the moderator, but this panel was mostly composed of DC editors and managers. The hour was composed of reviewing the DC panel's that had occurred earlier and a questions-and-answers session. The big announcement? That Neil Gaiman is writing a Batman story. Sweet.
Also went to an annual Comic-Con Sunday event: Starship Smackdown. Like the annual events I wrote about in the post for Comic-Con third day, I've also never been to this before, so no clue from the description in the program exactly what might occur. This deals with what is the best starship, so I had thought that perhaps there would be computer generated videos of famous starships battling each other.
Not so much. What this turned out to be was the nearest thing to anarchy I saw the entire Con! Firstly, a list of 10 well-known starships was written down on a white board. Six more starships were needed on the list, which was thrown to the audience, and that's when things started getting wild. Names of other starships being shouted out, the moderator and panel accepting or rejecting (for all kinds of reasons) them, boos and cheers from the audience for the decisions.
The moderator and panel then began discussing which of each pair of starships (as written down on the whiteboard) would be the survivor in a battle, all to more shouting, booing, and cheering from the audience.
After the first round dropped half of the starships, the moderator introduced a random element to add to the remaining starships: a captain for each one. Names of 20 captains had been written on slips of paper and were pulled out of a hat one the panelists had worn. Included in the first seven captains selected were: Captain Merrill Stubing of "The Love Boat", and the Captain and Tennille. The audience loved those. For the final captain, the moderator read out the names of all remaining captains and asked the audience to select which one to use by cheering. And the selection was: Cap'n Crunch! Good times, good times.
Now, for the first time ever, the Smackdown had another panel running immediately after it, so the moderator was for the first time did not have the luxury of allowing discussion and voting on which starship survives each battle to run long, and had to press the panel to finish in the allotted time.
The final decision on victorious starship was: the Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer, as captained by James T. Kirk!
Here are my fourth day photos. ¶ 9:58 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Comic-Con 2008 - Third day
I had written before about intending to not go to Comic-Con on the Saturday, but after thinking about it, decided the key to having a good Saturday experience there is to not go in the exhibit hall. I recalled being in the exhibit hall on a Saturday was the real source of horrors, from the frequently non-moving monstrous masses of people in the aisles to the huge piles of trash not being collected. So, closest I got to it on Saturday was entering and exiting the building via the lobby areas
First panel I went to Saturday was an annual event I have not seen before, Quick Draw!
The idea is that three cartoonists draw cartoons on the spot, very quickly, based on topics given them by the moderator, with the cartoons being displayed simultaneously for the audience on three large screens as they are being drawn.
So, the participants were:
The best way I could find to organize the Quick Draw photos was to post them up by the topics that I recalled (should have taken notes of the topics!), then link here to each topic. So, here we go:
Second panel for me on Saturday was DC: A Guide to Your Universe. This was moderated by Dan DiDio, senior VP and executive editor of DC Comics, and the panel was composed mostly of a boat load of DC writers. This was basically general chatter about the current state of DC Comics and what is in the works for the rest of the year and early next year. They also answered lots of questions from fans.
And my third event for Saturday was another annual happening I went to for the first time: Oddball Comics. This is presented by the same Scott Shaw! who was part of Quick Draw earlier in the day. He explained he owns a large collection of comic books from years past that have very strange covers, and each year he presents slides of a selection of them, based on various themes he selects. This was a hilarious show, the comics covers he showed were absolutely wild!
I'm uncertain why, but I took no photos of the slides during this, though now that I think about it, I think it might have been possible to get decent photos without using the camera's flash.
But, as Shaw announced at the end of the show, he does run a web site where these covers can be explored: Oddball Comics.
And here are photos from the third day. ¶ 6:10 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
First panel I went to Saturday was an annual event I have not seen before, Quick Draw!
The idea is that three cartoonists draw cartoons on the spot, very quickly, based on topics given them by the moderator, with the cartoons being displayed simultaneously for the audience on three large screens as they are being drawn.
So, the participants were:
- The moderator, Mark Evanier, a comics and cartoons writer and historian.
- And the cartoonists:
- Sergio Aragonés - Well known as a long-time cartoonist for Mad Magazine. (Though that is by no means all he has done, as can be seen at the link.)
- Scott Shaw! - (Apparently he uses the exclamation point as part of his name.) A comics artist and writer for many years, he also has experience in cartoons. He demonstrated the cartoons experience during this Quick Draw.
- Mike Peters - The relative new kid on the block in this group, he is known as both an editorial and comic strip cartoonist.
The best way I could find to organize the Quick Draw photos was to post them up by the topics that I recalled (should have taken notes of the topics!), then link here to each topic. So, here we go:
- Bad Decisions by Popeye
- The Incredible Hulk as President
- Why You Don't Bring an Elephant to Comic-Con
- Things Not to do with King Kong
- Worst Costume YOU have ever worn
- Worst Costume you've seen at this Comic-Con
- New Jobs for Iron Man
- You as Batman
- Guess the words A word of explanation for this topic. It involved the moderator pulling a person out of the audience, then having three words displayed while the person's back was turned to the screens. The person than guessed the words based on cartoons illustrating the words. These sequences were especially funny.
- Aragones - Don't Do That And again a word of explanation for the topic. From time to time throughout the Quick Draw, the moderator would say "Sergio, don't do that", at which point Aragones would do a cartoon of something that should not be done. The last of these had the condition the cartoon include a pig.
- Shaw - Draw Hanna-Barbera characters
For this the moderator would from time to time give Shaw a string of names of Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters to draw. Shaw had worked for that studio in the past; he drew the head of each and every character whose name he was given.
Second panel for me on Saturday was DC: A Guide to Your Universe. This was moderated by Dan DiDio, senior VP and executive editor of DC Comics, and the panel was composed mostly of a boat load of DC writers. This was basically general chatter about the current state of DC Comics and what is in the works for the rest of the year and early next year. They also answered lots of questions from fans.
And my third event for Saturday was another annual happening I went to for the first time: Oddball Comics. This is presented by the same Scott Shaw! who was part of Quick Draw earlier in the day. He explained he owns a large collection of comic books from years past that have very strange covers, and each year he presents slides of a selection of them, based on various themes he selects. This was a hilarious show, the comics covers he showed were absolutely wild!
I'm uncertain why, but I took no photos of the slides during this, though now that I think about it, I think it might have been possible to get decent photos without using the camera's flash.
But, as Shaw announced at the end of the show, he does run a web site where these covers can be explored: Oddball Comics.
And here are photos from the third day. ¶ 6:10 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Comic-Con 2008 - Second day
First panel I went to Friday was for Batman: Brave and the Bold, a new cartoon coming out this fall on Cartoon Network. I was curious how it might be dealing with Batman in a way that might be unique.
The panel was comprised of producers Sam Register and James Tucker (Tucker seems to be the big ideas guy for this cartoon), writer Michael Jelenic, director Brandon Vietti, voice director Andrea Romano, and voice actor Diedrich Bader, who does the voice of Batman in this cartoon.
The new take on Batman being done in this instance is:
Also went to Spotlight on Connie Willis. I've enjoyed many of her novels, so definitely wanted to see and hear her at this.
She was first given one of Comic-Con's own achievement awards, the Inkpots.
She then talked about what she is currently is working on, especially a novel that she has had in the works for more than 10 years, All Clear, and is hoping to have wrapped up and on the way to her editor within 4 weeks.
She also talked about other writing she has plans to do, a couple stories and then a novel.
She then took questions, which got her talking at length about her passion for history and incorporating it into her science fiction, about writing comedy science fiction, and other topics.
Here are my second day photos. ¶ 6:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
The panel was comprised of producers Sam Register and James Tucker (Tucker seems to be the big ideas guy for this cartoon), writer Michael Jelenic, director Brandon Vietti, voice director Andrea Romano, and voice actor Diedrich Bader, who does the voice of Batman in this cartoon.
The new take on Batman being done in this instance is:
- Does not take place in Gotham City.
- Does not use Alfred.
- Does not use Commissioner Gordon.
- Does not use Robin.
- Has Batman teaming up with generally lesser known DC heroes.
- Has Batman fighting against generally lesser known DC villains.
- Does not take a dark tone, as it needs to be child friendly.
Also went to Spotlight on Connie Willis. I've enjoyed many of her novels, so definitely wanted to see and hear her at this.
She was first given one of Comic-Con's own achievement awards, the Inkpots.
She then talked about what she is currently is working on, especially a novel that she has had in the works for more than 10 years, All Clear, and is hoping to have wrapped up and on the way to her editor within 4 weeks.
She also talked about other writing she has plans to do, a couple stories and then a novel.
She then took questions, which got her talking at length about her passion for history and incorporating it into her science fiction, about writing comedy science fiction, and other topics.
Here are my second day photos. ¶ 6:57 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
