Chocolate Is My Prozac

Second Life - Relay For Life

2007-05-17T19:04:00.000Z

Second Life - Relay For Life

Lactose is continually keeping himself busy with filming and editing SecondLife Machinima. This time it's partly in aid of the Second Life contribution to Relay For Life.

Top 25 Geekiest Free Fonts

2007-05-16T18:19:00.000Z

A great list of fonts that sci-fi/fantasy film and television geeks will recognise and appreciate. Fonts listed include Blade Runner, Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien etc.

The question remains though if I could ever utilise any of them in my designs - unless of course I was using anyone of them in the context of the film or televsion series they came from.

Regardless, it's a still a pretty complete list of relevant sci-fi/fantasy fonts for the geek designer.

The Microsoft oPhone

2007-05-15T00:23:00.000Z

The Microsoft oPhone

A mock video has surfaced on YouTube advertising a fictional "oPhone" presumably produced by Microsoft in response to Apple's iPhone.

The phone is shown as a strange triple-layered device that is difficult to use. The video also appears to interview the developers of the phone, revealing distorted engineering views and ironic statements from a would-be software developer.

The Golden Compass

2007-05-14T19:13:00.000Z

The Golden Compass - First Look

The Golden Compass movie website was recently updated with lots of new goodies including a small behind the scenes and completed footage sneak peak plus an additional detailing section containing numerous information about Daemons. Why not take the interactive personality questionnaire and find out what your own Daemon is? You can see my Daemon here.

For further His Dark Materials and The Golden Compass movie details visit www.bridgetothestars.net

searchmash

2007-05-12T10:02:00.000Z

I've been periodically using Google's searchmash over the previous 6 months. If you're after a bare bones layout without all the usual sidebar adverts cluttering up your SERPs complemented by additional results simultaneously displayed from Wikipedia, Videos, Blogs and images you could do worse than give it a try.

My favourite feature is the "more web pages" link at the bottom. Click on this, and you'll be rewarded with the next 10 results appearing on the same page, inserted below the first 10. You can keep going, adding 10 more results at a time.

Although "Infinite Scroll" / "Continuous Scroll" results have appeared before on rival search engines I prefer the way searchmash have implemented it. As for the lack of Google branding, the concept behind this is to help gather more objective data about user response to new interfaces without the usual Google fanboy's skewing the data.

Regardless, searchmash is rapidly becoming my search engine of choice.

Collectormania 11 Video

2007-05-10T10:22:00.000Z

Collectormania 11 Video

If you weren't at the Collectormania 11 convention last weekend (and if not, why not?) there's now a short video available online highlighting some of the happenings that took place.

Thanks to YouTube user shuichishindo2211 for uploading the video, apologies about the soundtrack...

Someone Feed Cate A Burger!

2007-05-08T18:51:00.000Z

Someone Feed Cate A Burger!

Stepping out at a New York fashion gala the always slender and ethereal looking Cate Blanchett either appears to be ill, method acting a junkie or has fallen victim to the "Size 0" craze that until previously was only confined to the younger generation of Hollywood actresses.

Granted, it's well known that the Hollywood machine imposes greater pressure on its middle aged actresses and the competition for a seemingly ever decreasing selection of quality acting roles gets increasingly fraught but I've always believed that Cate had her head firmly attached to her shoulders and had the intelligence to rise above these fickle fads that Hollywood forces its female stars to conform to.

Cate, you were beautiful, you still are but at least try and eat something! I only hope she's not thinking of permanently ruining her looks by going the route Melanie Griffith has deemed necessary and subjecting her once beautiful face to the ravages of extreme plastic surgery.

Collectormania 11 Convention Report

2007-05-07T16:28:00.000Z

Darren and I returned yesterday from visiting the Collectormania 11 convention held in Milton Keynes over the bank holiday weekend. This was my second visit to the city of Milton Keynes and bar future Collectormania conventions I won't be returning soon.

Don't get me wrong, it would be unfair to disparage Milton Keynes solely based off the small segment of the city we visited over the weekend, but the prefabricated construction and grid layout we experienced made me believe I was trapped inside Toytown on steroids. I mentioned to Darren that it reminded me of one gigantic skateboarding park - all the concrete, steel and glass panelled exteriors making everything appear cold and artificial. I understand the thinking that was behind the construction of Milton Keynes, the first of a new generation of new towns, but to quote a line from Prince Charles - the place is a "concrete carbuncle".

Unfortunately for Daz and I the convention was held at The Centre: Mk, one of the largest shopping centres in the UK and the longest covered centre in Europe. Basically if your idea of hell is being trapped in a shrine to corporate greed with alters dedicated to the Gods of Starbucks, McDonalds and Costa Coffee etc. then look no further. Believe me when I say that if Dawn of the Dead was happening in Milton Keynes I wouldn't be taking refuge in The Centre: MK as the zombies are the ones inside of this shopping mall.

I suppose we should be grateful that we even made it to the convention as fate seemed destined to prevent us from arriving. We left for the train station at 5.30am and made our pre-booked train at 6.10am only for it to stop and start three times before finally pulling out 40 minutes late. I had this gut feeling that the train wouldn't make it to Birmingham and was proven correct 5 minutes later as it slowly limped back to Derby station. Virgin trains provided us with a replacement service but we'd now missed our pre-booked connection at Birmingham New Street and in the time that they'd attempted to fix our original train we could have caught another train to Birmingham and made our connection.

Arriving at Birmingham we bought a couple of cups of expensive coffee just so we could sit down for a while and let off some steam before making our connecting train and arriving in Milton Keynes - or so we thought. As we supposedly approached Milton Keynes train station we were informed by the driver that there had been a fatality on the tracks and the train station we were arriving at wasn't Milton Keynes but Northampton! Daz and I just looked at each other with this slow look of dread forming over our faces.

As we stepped off the train we came to realise that there was no way in hell that we were leaving this station as hundreds upon hundreds of people were debarking from all the diverted trains and milling around trying to look for any possible escape. Luckily, it was pretty easy to spot our fellow convention geeks so we approached two people who were getting a taxi to Milton Keynes and made a deal to share their ride and split the cost four ways. Finally, we made the convention - 3 1/2 hours late.

We originally deciding to book a hotel room because Michael Biehn was scheduled to appear on the Sunday (until he cancelled) so unfortunately this meant we had to carry our bags until checking in time which was about 1pm. Daz and I hate shopping centres and having to carry 3 bags whilst fighting against the tide of buggies, motorised scooters and families of screaming kids was enough to make both of us lose our tempers.

Collectormania operate a virtual ticketing policy which is where they provide you with a numbered ticket for a scheduled time frame to which you can queue up for a particular guest. This allows you to plan your day around your guests therefore preventing you needlessly queuing for hours on end and probably missing some of other guests you may have wanted to meet. Luckily for Daz and I we didn't want to meet any of the Buffy and Angel guests which were almost out of virtual tickets by the time we'd arrived. Our guests had pretty much open queues in the afternoon meaning that no virtual ticketing was required - you could just walk right up and join the end of the queue anytime.

Being a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fan I made a beeline for Rene Auberjonois who played the shapeshifting Founder Odo. He gladly signed my Worlds of Deep Space Nine: The Dominion and Ferenginar book, a photo and a group poster. Daz commented that he was real gentlemen taking time to shake his hand even though he himself wasn't there to meet him. Rene came across as very sweet and genuine taking time to answer all of my questions in his quiet calm voice.

Next I proceed to make my way to meet Aron Eisenberg who played the Ferengi Nog in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. When he was 17, Aron received a kidney transplant having been born with only one kidney that wasn't working properly and stunted his growth at 5' (1.52 m). He came across as full of energy and enthusiasm. He might have only been the most recurring guest character in the television series but in the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels, his character Nog, plays a much larger important role. When I handed him my Deep Space Nine novel, Mission Gamma: Cathedral to autograph he was so made up with the book. He said

"Hey look everyone - I'm on the cover and right at the front. Tell me - do I kick ass in this book?"

I replied that he did. Bless him - I might have just made his day!

After checking into the hotel we walked back free of our bags which made a big difference to our enjoyment of the convention. Note to self for next time - try and do the whole convention in one day if possible and leave the overnight bags at home!

Made my way to see William Sanderson who played my favorite character in Blade Runner, that of J.F. Sebastian. William Sanderson is often found playing tragicomical roles and can most recently be seen in brilliant HBO series Deadwood. He happily obliged to sign my Future Noir: the Making of Blade Runner book which is considered the bible for all Blade Runner fans and a photograph of him and Rutger Hauer. Now all I need is Rutger to attend a convention to get his autograph "I want more autographs fucker!" - That would be perfect!

And so to my main reason for coming to Collectormania 11- well joint main reason if Michael Biehn hadn't cancelled at the very last moment, that of meeting Avery Brooks better known as Captain Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and all round cool dude - Hawk. This guy is a legend - the original Black Alpha Male! He autographed my Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Unity book, my DS9 group poster and a couple of photos. I chatted to him about his upcoming CD and title role in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Tamburlaine and proceeded to go for my photoshoot with him.

When it was my turn for the photograph Avery remembered me and his face lit up "Victoria" he said waving me in. We started to pose for the photograph with his arm around me then abruptly stopped the photo session and told me off, saying in that deep cool mellow American accent

"Victoria - you're a tall beautiful woman now stand up straight!"

Apparently I'd started to stoop a little to lower myself down to his height. Hell, when the Emissary commands you to do something you do it!

I'd just wished I'd had more time to chat to him as I had plenty of further questions to ask but I was a little worried I wouldn't get to meet him and so rushed through my questions. Later on the Sunday afternoon he was completely free but I didn't feel like spending more money to buy an autograph just to chat to him. Shame, but maybe next time as he seems to be making more appearances now on the Star Trek convention circuit.

So that was me - what about Daz? Well before Collectormania 11 he vowed to only get a few autographs but eventually he ended up meeting and getting autographs from Michael Winslow (Sgt. Larvell Jones from Police Academy), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca from Star Wars), Grace Park (Sharon "Boomer" Valerii from Battlestar Galactica), Terry Jones (Monty Python) and Sophie Aldred (Ace from Doctor Who). You can read Daz's convention report here.

I also wanted to meet William Hope and Trevor Steadman (Lt. Gorman and Pvt. Wiezbowski from Aliens) but with Michael Biehn having to cancel I felt I'd spent enough money already. What made up for them though was the chance to meet the United Kingdom Colonial Marines who were parading around the convention with their captured Alien. They were definitely one of the highlights allowing you to pose with them, the Alien and their weaponry. Those M41A Pulserifles are damn heavy, however if you feel the need to build one then click here for a guide!

I was a little disappointed with the Doctor Who exhibits as they seemed to be spread across three different places but meeting K-9, the visual effects designer and K-9 builder Mat Irvine and Sophie Aldred made up for it. We couldn't for the life of us find Peter Davison even though he was definitely present.

Also appearing amongst others were Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), James Marsters (Buffy), Anthony Head (Buffy) Charisma Carpenter (Angel) and Zach Galligan (Gremlins).

Overall, we both had a great time, regardless of our travel plans going pear shaped on the way up, the ruined viewing of Spiderman 3 by a large group of chav scum kiddies talking, shouting, swearing and using their mobile phones throughout the entire performance and finally the general dreariness of Milton Keynes. If you're into the whole sci-fi fantasy geek stuff you should really make an effort to attend.

Next up - The London Film and Comic Con where Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner and Louise Fletcher are already scheduled to appear.

Click here to view my entire collection of Collectormania photos

This Isn't The Postal Box You're Looking For

2007-05-03T23:25:00.000Z

This Isn't The Postal Box You're Looking For

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars IV: A New Hope the United States Postal Service has issued 400 of the above postal boxes designed to look like everyone's favourite droid, R2-D2.

No sooner had the postal boxes started to appear when the above photo began circulating across the blogasphere perfectly capturing the geeky homage to a classic piece of pop-culture iconography.

I'm only jealous because I wish that I'd thought of it first. "Move along. This isn't the postal box you're looking for..."

Project Open Letter

2007-04-29T20:41:00.000Z

I'm hardly involved in Second Life at the moment due to being just way too busy but Lactose, if this possible, is even busier in the metaverse. However over the last couple of years with the explosive growth of Second Life it's become apparent that its creators Linden Lab haven't been able to keep up with infrastructure and software updates.

The situation has now come to ahead with the creation of Project Open Letter initiated by Cristiano Midnight.

In the past eighteen months, Second Life has expanded, growing from a small community of early adopters to a platform supporting millions of users. Linden Lab has created a world that inspires a deep level of passion in its users and provides unprecedented opportunities to share creatively, socially, and financially.

With explosive levels of growth often come unexpected problems. In keeping with your company's policy and rich history of resident involvement, we the undersigned would like to take this opportunity to address some concerns that we feel have gone unanswered for too long.

There are some consistent, ongoing problems that are getting worse under heavy load, not better, and are not simply irritants but problems that are causing financial loss in some cases, which is unacceptable. Here is a brief list of the main concerns:

* Inventory loss - this is a devastating problem that is worsening. We have no ability to protect our own inventories through backups, and are trusting you to protect that data. This is the highest priority. Sensible inventory limits (on non-verified accounts only), combined with better management tools and ways to protect our inventory ourselves would help to mitigate the problem as well. Regardless, this cannot continue - we will not accept financial loss as a feature of Second Life. It is your responsibility as service provider to ensure our data is not lost, and you are failing us.

* Problems with Find and Friends List - we continue to see search outages on a far too regular basis. It is bad enough trying to get anywhere without being able to use search, but many users are also paying money for classified ads. Our friends lists just do not work reliably any longer, after years without an issue with them. If America Online/MSN/Yahoo can provide presence information for hundreds of millions of users, surely there is a way to make our friends lists work again.

* Grid stability and performance - teleports fail quite regularly, especially under heavy load. Attachments end up in places they did not start out in, and sim performance varies wildly. None of this makes for a very pleasant experience for users. Long promised improvement to physics and scripting would help dramatically to reduce these problems, but there are a lot of other scalability issues as well. It often feels like the grid is coming apart at the seams. The promised use of limiting logins of non-verified accounts during peak load has been severely lacking. This would be an effective interim solution to load issues, but Linden Lab seems unwilling to use it.

* Build tool problems - the importance of build tools that actually work as promised cannot be overstated enough - we rely on them to create content. Prim drift, disappearing prims, imprecise placement, problems with linking and other issues with the tools need to be addressed. Too much time is being spent trying to work around the problems.

* Transaction problems - inventory deliveries are failing with an alarming (and annoying) frequency, leaving merchants with the burden of replacing missing content and having to try to confim the transaction in the first place. We trust that our L$ balances are accurate, but given recent problems, that is a cause for concern as well, and one we place our full trust in you to ensure its accuracy.

We remain fully supportive of Second Life and are more than willing to continue doing our part to help, but our confidence is steadily being eroded due to a general lack of communication and the apparent failure to successfully address the many issues detailed above. What we are asking for is that these problems are addressed immediately, ahead of new features, and that we are able to see tangible improvements. We accept that this will not happen overnight but it also cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely either.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Yippie Ki Yay... MelonFarmer?!?

2007-04-22T21:38:00.000Z

Die Hard - Music Video

Die Hard - 1924 Style!

I can't believe that the new Die Hard 4.0 film is being rated PG-13 in America which will probably translate to a 12-A over here in England.

So thanks to Tom Rothman, Chairman of Twentieth Century Fox, John McClane just got his balls cut off. How many more great adult movie franchises are going to get emasculated by studio executives chasing the teenage greenback? Robocop, Total Recall, Terminator, Alien and Predator all now available as either watered down TV shows or kiddie happy meals at your local hamburger bar.

Look, when I go to watch a Die Hard movie I want to see Bruce Willis fucking over terrorists, shooting them into a bloody pulp in an adult gore fest and not some Mary Poppins kiddie piccy. I want to see the bad guys getting sucked through an airplane engine, heads crushed in a conveyor belt or getting ripped in half by a steel cable.

What I don't want is to be stuck in a cinema with a room full of pre-pubescent children talking between themselves, playing with their mobile phones or running to the toilets because their kiddy size bladder can't handle even a "small" Pepsi bucket and so interrupting John McClane fucking up some Eurotrash terrorist's nefarious scheme. Edit - this being Fox they've probably switched over from European to Muslim terrorists by now.

*Sigh* So I guess I'll have to re-buy the original trilogy on DVD/Blu-ray to get my Die Hard kicks but until then I'll just repeatedly watch the above videos and lament all the previous good times...

John McClane - R.I.P.

Avery Brooks Photo Shoot

2007-04-14T18:32:00.000Z

(Note to my boyfriend) : Daz, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that I’ve managed to purchase our train tickets to Collectormania 11 in Milton Keynes for just half the original price we thought they’d be. Bargain! Err… and the bad news is that I’ve spent the money saved on an Avery Brooks photo shoot. Foxy x

Please let me explain. It's not like it was my fault. Honest! I'd just booked the train tickets and when FireFox indicated to me that I’d received the email confirmations, I checked my Inbox and there it was, an email from Collectormania saying that they were offering an Avery Brooks photo shoot.

But seriously though, what’s a DS9 girl supposed to do?

Daz, if it makes you feel any better there’s still tickets for the Charisma Carpenter photo shoot available!!!

SOCOM Hell Week Vs Keyboard Commandos

2007-04-11T22:02:00.000Z

SOCOM Hell Week Vs Keyboard Commandos

I'm currently watching season 2 of Sony's SOCOM Hell Week where a bunch of SOCOM players get the once in a lifetime opportunity to take part in infamous US Navy SEALs Hell Week training course.

I've always preferred Counter Strike to SOCOM but regardless of the game you'll always get a percentage of guys who believe that just because they can in-game storm a building single handedly or maybe pwn every other player on the map that they possess what it takes to be a member of their country's Special Operations Forces and relive their gaming glory days on a real battlefield.

Well, watch the above video and see these sorry n00bs get their asses handed to them by Navy SEAL instructors. Don't get me wrong, fair play to all of the trainees for just turning up because even the most deluded of them must have realised somewhere in the back of their minds that they were going to get ripped a new one.

Who in their right mind thinks that Joe Public can just swagger in off the street and take part in SEAL training? The closest some of these guys have come to witnessing SEAL training was renting out a copy of G.I Jane. Hell, one participant only started swimming four days before commencing the training. Talk about disrespect to the Navy SEALS. It takes the best of the best American forces to pass SEAL training and so every one of the Keyboard Commandos taking part better accept that they're going to be ringing a brass bell that signifies that they want to drop out pretty soon.

Guys, take part, push yourself to your limits and walk out like men. Either that or provide us viewers plenty of laughs as you puke your guts up when those instructors cream you.

My favourite part so far? When the Chief Instructor starts calling them up front by their gaming nic's and hands them their dog tags. "President Pain! Are you shitting me?" Fucking priceless. Welcome to the real world. Navy SEALS - I salute you.

Trivia - The actor and all round gorgeous hunk of loveliness that is Michael Biehn has played a Navy SEAL three times on film. The Abyss, Navy SEALS and The Rock and twice he's died. Best not give up the day job. I was thinking about what I could perhaps ask Michael when I meet up with him next month at Collectormania 11. I guess I at least now have one subject of questioning.

One final thought. US Navy SEALS Vs British SBS - who'd win in a stand off?

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

2007-04-08T22:25:00.000Z

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

With Terry Jones confirmed for Collectormania 11 I thought I'd post one of my favourite video mashups from 2006 which combined the famous "Knights of the Round Table" song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail with a video montage from the original series of Star Trek.

Some well chosen clips and some sharp editing makes for almost perfect lip synchronisation between the actors and the song. Regardless of the technical achievement behind the video, anything that manages to combine two of my all time favourite television series, Star Trek and Monty Python, is bound to make me laugh.

Speaking of Terry Jones, I believe he might be the only guest attending Collectormania 11 that Daz might possibly pay to acquire his autograph. However, knowing my boyfriend as I do, he's probably gone and spent the money on a copy of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars earlier today just because Michael Ironside is in it. Or more likely Grace Park and Tricia Helfer...

Collectormania 9 - Video Highlights

2007-04-03T20:58:00.000Z

Collectormania 9 - Video Highlights

Since Daz and I are Collectormania virgins, I thought I'd try and track down some video footage from any of previous Collectormania conventions so we'll both have a rough idea of what to expect once we arrive.

I've been to sci-fi conventions before but nothing on this scale. Judging from the above video, Collectormania 9 looked fantastic and had some great guests including Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Jamison Newlander, Mira Furlan, Patricia Tallman, Julie Caitlin Brown, Al Matthews, Colette Hiller, Lance Henriksen, Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, LeVar Burton, Carl Weathers, Robert Llewellyn and Marc Singer - and that's just the people I would have liked to have met and got autographs from. So maybe it's best that I didn't get the opportunity to attend as it would have probably bankrupted me...

Anyhow, Daz and I have managed to book a great hotel just around the corner from the convention and finally bought a new camera. With just under a month to go there's still plenty of time for Showmasters to arrange a few last minute guests but I've got my fingers crossed that they'll just be B-listers that I don't want autographs from as there's only so many queues a girl is willing to put up with to meet her sci-fi heroes...

The current line up can be viewed here and the autograph price list here.

Star Trek: Borg War

2007-03-30T20:42:00.000Z

Get ready for one of the greatest galactic wars ever created in machinima! Borg War, an independently produced, feature-length, animated science fiction adventure, was created using machinima, a filmmaking technique that harnesses computer games to create raw footage.

Despite its humble origins, Borg War has proven wildly popular among science fiction fans, and has now achieved over 750,000 downloads. Borg War is notorious within the machinima community for being the first video to earn more views in a single month on Machinima.com (the leading machinima distribution network) than "Red vs. Blue," the winner since July 2003.

Borg War was nominated for "Best Series" and "Technical Achievement" by the Academy for Machinima Arts and Sciences (AMAS), and has been featured in the exhibit "Star Trek: 40 Years of Fandom" at New York City's Museum of the Moving Image.

By recycling sound clips from computer games, Borg War has allowed actors from the original Star Trek television series to reprise their roles in the form of animated characters. Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Tim Russ (Tuvok) and Lieutenant Barclay (Dwight Schultz) character's all appear in the movie.

Finally, I haven’t managed to watch all of the episodes yet but what I’ve seen so far has blown me away. I don’t want to spoil anything for you so below is the background to the plot taken from the official website.

It's 17 years after the return of Voyager. The Alpha quadrant has been preparing for the return of the Borg, primarily by investing massive R&D in offensive and defensive weaponry. During the long peace, the Federation/Klingon alliance has been wearing thin, with the younger factions seeking a return to the old ways.

Meanwhile, the Federation, taking advantage of a detent with the Romulans, have cautiously begun to work to with them on holocloak technology -- a combination of a holodeck and a cloaking device. Technically, this is a violation of the treaty of Algeron, which forbids the Federation the use of cloaking technology. While the treaty is technically between the Federation and the Romulans, the Federation's willingness to forego cloaking is a lynchpin of the Federation/Klingon alliance.

The consensus at Starfleet is that the free races of the Alpha quadrant must work together if the next Borg invasion is to be successfully repelled. However, because the Klingons, due their racial hatred of the Romulans, are unlikely to agree with this strategy, Starfleet is keeping the holo-cloak research under wraps. Because of his broad understanding of both the Borg and Alpha Quadrant interracial politics, Captain Picard has been given full authority over the entire project.

Meanwhile, a Borg cube visits a desert planet searching for additional biological diversity to strengthen the collective. When a Borg unit becomes infected with an viral exomorph, the infection forces a break with the collective. In order to prevent re-assimilation and to find a safe haven to propagate, the infected cube leaves Borg space. By chance, it stumbles onto a Klingon mining freighter that belongs to the House of Mi'qoch, the Klingon clan that's responsible for the Klingon Empire's anti-Borg programme.

Jureth, the eldest son of the House of Mi'qoch, though the liaison between the Klingon Empire and the Federation on anti-Borg projects, has not yet learned of the growing cooperation between the Federation and the Romulans. His brother, Kephren, is of one of the young rebels who despises both the Federation and his Federation-tainted brother.

The A-Team Gears of War

2007-03-27T18:48:00.000Z

Pity The Fool Who Crosses Delta Squad...

Hands up! You got me. I'm a Sony PS1/2/3 Fangirl. Always was and always will be regardless of the current immature Sony backlash bullshit the PS3 crowd is having to face daily from all of Digg’s Wii360 Fanboys.

So admittedly it’s rare that anything about Microsoft's console gets mentioned in this blog’s pages but the above A-Team / Gears of War video mashup brought a smile to my face nearly as wide as hearing that Sony shifted a record breaking 165,000 PS3’s in their first weekend over here in Britain. I digress, but anything that pays homage to one of my favourite 80's television programmes deserves a mention – even when connected to the Xbox 360.

Speaking of the A-Team, Collectormania have announced that Dirk "Faceman" Benedict and Dwight "Howling Mad Murdoch" Schultz have been forced to pull out of the Sci/TV convention that Daz and I are planning to attend in May. Damn! Where's Colonel Decker when you need him?

Star Trek - The Television Continuation

2007-03-26T18:15:00.000Z

Women In The Mirror Universe Are Just So... Badass!

After a set of new straight to DVD / television movies expanding the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine universe (hopefully filming the DS9 relaunch novels) my second choice for continuing the Star Trek franchise on the small screen would be for an all new series set entirely in the parallel Mirror Universe.

I'm not too sure how well this concept would be accepted as it's widely known that many Star Trek fans initially disagreed with Deep Space Nine being much darker in tone than Gene Roddenberry originally envisionaged his Star Trek universe to be. However as the above video demonstrates, life in the Mirror Universe is that much darker, machiavellian, violent... and sexier!

But what would be great about this series is that since the Mirror Universe has already been established across numerous Star Trek series, DS9 especially Mirror Universe heavy with 5 episodes, and a large percentage of established characters (mainly from TOS, DS9 and ENT) appearing, the writers would already have a wealth of history, scenarios and characters to start building a new series around.

Finally, if we envisage each season of the series to encompass each of Star Trek series in chronological order from the beginning of Enterprise through to the end of Voyager we could then see how the Mirror Universe has developed through that same time frame, and hopefully trying to use as many of the original cast from each of the series – TOS characters excluded due to the obvious reason being that the original actors are either dead or dribbling geriatrics. Recasting would probably be necessary.

As I’ve previously mentioned numerous times in this blog I prefer DS9's much darker and grittier stories so I guess that makes me more accepting of the aggressive and depressive nature that the Mirror Universe offers. Discounting the pathetic Deanna Troi, the majority of female characters in the later Star Trek series were shown as equally tough and resourceful as their male counterparts - and in the Mirror Universe especially, the women were definitely in control.

Personally I can do without the new Star Trek movie as I believe going back into Star Trek history is too constrictive as witnessed by Enterprise. It’s time to accept a darker and grittier Star Trek universe and that means either filming a Mirror Universe series or continuing on with Deep Space Nine.

How Atheism Will Survive

2007-03-24T18:18:00.000Z

"I Will Survive..."

...or

maybe

not!

Hahh, to live in a free country and be able to laugh out aloud at religion. You have the option to practice your faith and I have the option to ridicule you. The faster this country drags itself out of the dark ages and becomes a secular nation, the faster we can thwart the many people hiding behind their indoctrinated religious beliefs which actively discriminate against various sections of our society.

Maybe then our country and our out of touch rulers with their inflated wages and egos can stop pandering to the religious rabble that is intent on riding rough shod over the voice of the people, labelling anyone who speaks out with common sense a racist, blasphemous xenophobe.

Don't get me wrong, everyone should have the right to believe in any religion or worship any deity they want to, but the right to live freely from discrimination and persecution based off your genes must come before thousands of years old invented dogma that may have been relevant when it was written but is surely backward in today’s more enlightened science based world.

It’s a fact that you can't change many of the fundamental characteristics that contribute to your being, but until anyone can prove that their deity exists and their doctrines of faith are real and not some work of fiction to control the masses, then no one should be allowed to practice their faith blindly protected by the law of the land.

Regardless of what many people are brought up to believe in, the belief in religion is voluntary. Wake up. We’re living in 2007, not 1007!

The History of Final Fantasy

2007-03-21T22:37:00.000Z

The History of Final Fantasy

Why don't you pull that tartan blanket over your varicose veined legs, ease your tired feet into a pair of comfortable slippers, grab yourself a hot cup of cocoa and take the load off your feet for the next 30 minutes?

Does that sound like a vision of your future self as some decrepit incontinent old age pensioner? Whatever, but you'll almost definitely be feeling old by the time you've finished watching the above video chronicling the history of the Final Fantasy gaming series.

Beginning in 1987 with the original Final Fantasy game on the Nintendo Famicom, the movie documents and describes each and every game through to the twelfth and current instalment on the PlayStation 2.

I've played many of the Final Fantasy games but never realised until watching the movie just how prevalent certain core themes are to the series that include: creatures (Chocobos / Moogles), vehicles (airships), incarnations of characters (Cid), magic and crystals are all there throughout nearly every one of the games.

At 32 minutes long the documentary only scratches the surface of the Final Fantasy universe and so lacks the time or scope to delve too deeply into each of the games, for example there’s no mention of Sephiroth, surely the franchises' most iconic nemesis? Shame...

If you’re wondering why the video doesn’t mention Final Fantasy XIII or Final Fantasy Versus XIII, it's because the documentary was commissioned for inclusion in the Special Edition of Final Fantasy XII.

I'll leave you now to reminisce over 20 years of gaming history...

Further Guests Announced For Collectormania 11

2007-03-19T22:50:00.000Z

Following on from my previous post, after a long wait the website for Collectormania 11 has finally been updated. Daz and I were getting slightly concerned about the lack of updates, myself wondering if we were going to get treated to any further Star Trek celebrities and Daz questioning where all the Sci-Fi totty was? Thankfully Showmasters, the people organising the Collectormania 11 convention, have been pulling out all the stops in attracting some great new guests.

I'm pretty excited about seeing Aron Eisenberg (Nog) and Rene Auberjonis (Odo) from Deep Space Nine together with my star of the convention Avery Brooks (Capt. Benjamin Sisko) it appears we're getting a small but great Star Trek: Deep Space Nine reunion going!

I'm hoping that Showmasters can pull off a real coup and get Nana Visitor (Col. Kira Nerys) to join Avery, Aron and Rene as she's already appearing over here in Blackpool for another convention. To see her and Rene back together again as Kira/Odo would be fantastic as they were my favourite Star Trek couple. Finally, managing to get some of the DS9 crew together would prove quite timely as I'm currently reading the DS9 Relaunch novels so to see them in the flesh would be fantastic.

Also I can't wait meet with Dirk Benedict (Face) and Dwight Schultz (Murdoch) from the A-Team even though I prefer their other character roles more. Benedict as the original and best Lieutenant Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica and Schultz as Lieutenant Barcley (Broccoli?) from Star Trek: TNG / Voyager.

Other guests that I'll be trying to meet with are William Sanderson whom to me will always be JF Sebastian from Blade Runner, Peter Davidson (my 3rd favourite Dr. Who) and Michael Winslow from Police Academy. Most of the remaining guests are from shows like Buffy and Angel which I positively hate. Oh, and I nearly forgot that there's a smattering of totty to keep Daz happy too!

And of course I can't forget the professional photoshoot with Michael Biehn I've signed up for. Yes, I'm a totally sad geek girl but £20 to get my body next to Dwayne Hicks? Daz (my BF) - pack your bags... Speaking of the Aliens film, also confirmed for Collectormania 11 are William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) and Trevor Steadman (Pvt. Wiezbowski). All we need now is for Showmasters to try and persuade Jenette Golstein (Pfc. Vasquez), Mark Rolston (Pfc. Drake), Ricco Ross (Pvt. Frost) and Lance Henriksen (Bishop) to appear. All of them are familiar faces on the convention scene so hopefully there's a chance they might turn up.

The one downside to all these new guests is that convention is starting to get expensive and will keep Daz and I busy for more than just the Sunday we originally decided to book. So we've decided to get a room for the night so we can now do both the Saturday and the Sunday and maybe money permitting do the party on Saturday night.

Unfortunately I can see myself going through about £100 just on autographs and memorabilia - plus we've decided to get a new camera between us. God help my bank balance...

So roll on May 5th-6th!

Wake Up Leon - Time To Die!

2007-03-12T20:16:00.000Z

Resident Evil 4 - 100 Ways To Die"

Between us, Daz and I have played Resident Evil 4 on the Sony PS2 to death (pardon the pun) but even after completing every single mission and acquiring all of the bonus items I don't think we've died nearly a hundred times. Why? Because we're awesome fucking gamers… that's why!

So for your viewing pleasure I present the above video "Resident Evil 4 – You Are Dead" aka "How To Die In 100 Different Gruesome Pixelated Ways". Truth be known, there's probably more ways to get Leon decapitated in RE:4 than Madame Guillotine went through French nobles... Enjoy!

Final Fantasy XII Arrives And The World Stops...

2007-03-09T18:53:00.000Z

Final Fantasy XII Main Intro

Final Fantasy XII New Game Intro

...well at least any regular entries to this blog for the previous two weeks.

Daz made the slightly silly and naive mistake of purchasing Final Fantasy XII for the Sony PS2 a few weeks back. I was originally happy just to leave him playing it and maybe on the odd occasion watch as not to try and spoil it for myself. The last Final Fantasy game I played was FFVIII but I hated the super deformed cutesy characters of FFIX so by the time FFX came out I'd kind gone off the Final Fantasy universe.

I originally thought to myself that I'd let Daz play FFXII and I'd stick to DS9: The Fallen until Bioshock comes out for the PC. But watching Daz play FFXII brought all the memories back of FFVII and FFVIII and before long I'd wrestled the game off him and selfishly hogged it for myself. The game's look is reminiscent of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace with its cityscapes modelled off Naboo's technological and architectural styles. Populated with hundreds of NPCs and as ever the beautiful soundscapes which the Final Fantasy series is renowned for the game seductively sucks you in with its politics heavy plot lines and the new fluid and much more exciting combat system.

I'm now fifty hours plus into the game but only about 2 locations further than Daz who's only put about twenty hours in. It appears we play these types of games differently with him rushing through the game trying to force the plot on as fast as possible whilst I choose the classic Final Fantasy tactics of completing every subplot, collecting every weapon and routinely going on massive enemy killing sprees to boost my stats up. Hence, whilst Daz's characters hover around level 18, mine are around level 24/25 and it makes killing the enemies so much easier which in turn allows for more of the side plots to be discovered and completed.

I have no intention of playing FFXII again so I would like to complete as much of it as possible this first and only time. So I apologise for the lack of blog entries but if it's a decision between playing one of my favourite series of games or blogging, than Final Fantasy will always win out.

My Top 10 Adam And Joe Toy Stories

2007-02-28T22:42:00.000Z

As a follow up to a previous blog entry "My Top 15 1980's Cartoons" I thought I'd quickly throw together another list, this one being My Top 10 Adam and Joe Toy Stories.

For anyone who hasn't heard of Adam and Joe, the eponymous pair had their own late night pop culture parody show on Great Britain’s Channel 4 television station.

Ask any of my friends and they'd tell you that chances are their introduction to this hilarious and juvenile (which, honestly is why we liked it) show was probably coming back from the pub pissed, nonchantly flicking from channel to channel, before settling on the bizarre comedy show hosted by two twenty somethings – one of them wearing a Captain Birdseye hat. Purportedly filmed on a camcorder from their Brixton flat in London the show is probably best remembered for their spoofing of Hollywood movies using fluffy toys and Star Wars action figures.

And it’s these toytastic piss takes that are the subject of my next list. So without further a do, I present FoxyTallChick’s Top 10 Adam and Joe Toy Stories.

1) Toy Trainspotting

"Choose bedtime stories, relentless dribbling and some baby ripping your fucking arm off."

2) Snatch

"Well that scene there I used a technique I got off Tarantino,
known as copying."

3) Saving Private Lion

"Hey Captain, how come we haven't seen any British Soldiers yet?"
"Don't be ignorant, everyone knows the second world war was fought entirely by American Actors!"

4) The Crystal Maze

"Shut up you bickering bastards! Either we win or I destroy you all!"

5) Stuff This Life

"I never see her anymore, she's always working late and she's started to wear men's aftershave for some reason, maybe she's trying to tell me something?"

6) Toytanic

"Being poor is fantastic!"

7) American Beautoy

"Damn these visual metaphors, I can't see anything!"

8) Furends

"Here comes the science bit. Concentrate!"

9) Se7en

"What's in the box?"

10) Tufty Club

"Did you know that if you typed 58008 into a calculator and flip it,
it spells boobs?"

Honourable mentions should also go to: Stuffed Trek, Chew Wants to Be A Millionaire?, EPR, Creche, Starwars in Their Eyes, Toykids, ShowToys

Adam Buxton's website is located here whilst Joe Cornish lives the life of a virtual hermit and consequently has no web presence of note. Either that, or he doesn't give a shit about this passing fad called the internet. If after watching the above and you long for more A&J you can both of them on XFM Radio every Saturday afternoon from 1pm until 3pm. You can also find more information about their previous shows at the fansite www.adamandjoe.co.uk.

Finally, if you liked the above then check out the below videos entitled "The PrisonBear". Created in the same style as Adam and Joe's Toy Stories, the videos are a homage to the the late 1960's classic television show - The Prisoner.

Ep 1. Revival

Ep 2. Stalemate

openID - Good Riddance To Manual Account Creation

2007-02-25T15:21:00.000Z

I’ve finally gotten around to organising a couple of openID’s for myself. OpenID is an attempt to provide a solution to the growing problem of users having to remember all of their website account details or the process of manually registering a new account. OpenID defeats this problem by allowing a user to register with an OpenID "identity provider" and when in future they’re asked to login in or register a new account they can just link to their identity provider and log in using that website's URI instead in turn allowing them to connect their identity to that website.

With openID being decentralised any website can employ openID software as a way for users to sign in. Numerous websites have already started to employ openID and with this ground swell of success it would be inevitable that some of the largest players in the corporate world are taking notice and making noises about future deployment across their websites.

Unlike Passport, Microsoft’s own failed universal login solution, openID appears to be gaining enough momentum to hopefully one day provide us all with an answer to the misery of remembering all of our website account details.

You can find a list of the current websites that are openID enabled here.

New B5: The Lost Tales Images

2007-02-23T20:37:00.000Z

New Graphics For Babylon 5: The Lost Tales

J. Michael Straczynski via Babylon5scripts.com has released two new images from the first of the new Babylon 5: The Lost Tales straight to DVD movies. The first is the re-imaged B5 logo whilst the second is an in film shot showing how the new graphics will look.

Taking the techniques used by television shows like the new Battlestar Galactica, it's already obvious from the one above image that Babylon 5's new improved look moves it away visually from its previous dated incarnations. Epsilon III looks almost photographic with Earth like clouds and halo - a far cry from the barren sandy dustbowl look in the television series.

The nebulas in the background appear like something sent back from a Hubble Space Telescope photograph and yet whilst the Babylon 5 space station herself and the foreground ships, especially the Minbari Sharlin Class Warcruiser, look muted they seem to possess far greater detail and clarity.

Anyway, it's only one photo and I'm trying not to read too much into it this early on but I'm currently in the process of re-watching the entire Babylon 5 series so any new information about my favourite science fiction television show of all time is bound to get me excited!

You can view larger versions of the images here.

Jimmy White At Rileys - Derby

2007-02-22T22:09:00.000Z

Daz and I along with three of our mutual friends Mik, Jamie and Dave went to see Jimmy White play at Rileys snooker and pool hall in our home town of Derby last night.

Jimmy "Whirlwind" White is widely regarded as the most popular and well loved of all snooker's personalities due to his natural talent, his flamboyant style and his great sportsmanship - all of which have probably contributed to him being fondly referred to as the "People's Champion".

Jimmy is also (unfortunately) known for being the best player to never have won the World Snooker Championship after finishing runner-up at the Crucible no fewer than six times, four times to Stephen Hendry and once each to Steve Davis and John Parrott.

Daz and I arrived a little later than the others and so we’d already missed the first two frames of snooker that Jimmy was lined up to play. The final third frame was decided by the last black before Jimmy moved over to one of the American Nine-Ball pool tables to play 30 frames with different members of the public again.

With only 30 places available and easily 150 people present we were too late to get our names down on the list to play against him. There was a variety of players all eager to take him on, ranging from a couple of youngsters barely tall enough to see over the lip of the table, a pregnant woman and numerous "lads" who you just knew were out to try and put one over Jimmy solely for the bragging rights the next day with their mates. Few of the players stood a chance, even with Jimmy easily knocking back the Budweisers, but this night was really about having the opportunity to play against one of snooker’s legends.

Throughout the night he performed a couple of trick shots and bantered away with the crowd. If you were one of the people playing against him or you bought a souvenir you got to have your photo taken with him and whilst I managed to snap off numerous photos on Daz’s digital camera, halfway through the night Daz decided to “accidentally” format the memory card (men and technology – never mix) so I was forced to revert to Plan B which was my crappy camera phone, hence few of the photos I managed to snap off were usable.

I’ve posted them on my Flickr account here but along with the night we travelled to see Morrissey play live at Nottingham (blog entry located here) and now this, it’s apparent that I really need to invest in a new digital camera for myself. It’s been nearly 6 months since my previous one broke and I’ve been to numerous events that I could have taken a batch of great photos if I’d a decent camera.

Rileys provided a buffet and there were plenty of souvenirs on hand to buy and have signed - I won't hazard a guess to how many will appear on eBay over the next week! Dave left happy, made up that Jimmy had signed a rare copy of one of his out of print first snooker books that Dave had managed to purchase a while back.

All in all, a great night out with one of sports endearing personalities and if you ever get the chance to see him play whilst touring the country I wouldn't miss it.

My Top 15 1980's Cartoons

2007-02-21T01:11:00.000Z

Looking back at my childhood I have many fond memories of growing up but rising early on a Saturday morning to run down stairs and watch my favourite cartoon was definitely one of the more cherished ones.

Just watching television now days makes my heart sink at the pathetic excuses for animated entertainment that pass as cartoons. Maybe I’m reminiscing through rose tinted specs but the bland, badly drawn and unoriginal drivel that is served up to children nowadays pales in comparison to the banquet of classics we had to choose from back then.

Granted, now that we’ve all grown up (or maybe not) we’re lucky enough to have another genre of cartoons we can naturally progress onto watching, more adult orientated animation including classics such as The Simpsons - which actually started in the 80’s (1987) on the Tracey Ullman Show but debuted proper on December 17, 1989 - and hence I'm not counting it for this poll, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, South Park and a plethora of Manga titles including Akira and Ghost In the Shell etc. to name a few. The social commentary these provide moves beyond the normal Good vs. Evil basics conveyed by their 80’s predecessors.

One aspect that definitely gained momentum in the 1980’s was the toy tie in. In many occasions the cartoon was considered as just another tool in the overall marketing campaign, dreamt up to help sell the toys in the playgrounds. Can you rememeber the joy of getting your Kenner, Mattel or Hasbro action figure to continue playing out your favourite cartoon adventures?

I remember trying to delicately transform my Generation 1 Grimlock without breaking him, fighting over who would be the Good Guys or who would end up being the Baddies – something that normally came down to who had the most toys of either side or who had the coolest Japanese/Canadian import – Shockwave, Jetfire, Soundwave or Blaster? Or maybe who had the coolest toy case – Castle Greyskull or Mask Boulder Hill playset? The list goes on. Oh and you’ve probably realised by now that most of my childhood friends were boys? Damn right – as they had the coolest toys!

Whatever, 80’s cartoons have left their indelible mark on my psyche, so I’ve compiled the below list of MY top 80’s cartoons. Maybe in your country you didn’t get to see all of them, I’m not certain if the likes of Mysterious Cities of Gold, Dogtanian and the Muskahounds or Around the World with Willy Fog ever made it over to America but they were huge in England and had a profound effect on me.

It’s been difficult to arrange them into some kind of order but I’ve tried to judge them by the numerous rules that most 80’s cartoons religiously stuck to:

Memorable and catchy theme tune – examples: Ulysses 31, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Dogtanian and the Muskahounds, Mysterious Cities of Gold, Around the World with Willy Fog and ThunderCats.
Unforgettable opening credit sequence - examples: Ulysses 31, Battle of the Planets, Transformers and G.I. Joe.
Irritation factor of the Pointless Irritating Sidekick? - examples: Snarf (ThunderCats), Nono (Ulysses 31), 7 Zark 7 (Battle of the Planets), Orko (He-Man) or Uni (Dungeons and Dragons).
Just how evil was the enemy leader? - examples: Mumm-ra (ThunderCats), Skeletor (He-Man), Venger (Dungeons and Dragons), Megatron (Transformers), Cobra Commander (G.I Joe) or Zoltar (Battle of the Planets).
Catchphrase cheese factor? – examples: "By the power of Greyskull!" (He-Man), "ThunderCats Hooooo!" (Thundercats), "Cowabunga!" (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), "Power Extreme!" (Centurions).
Reminiscence factor: For me the main criterior. Just how fondly do I remember it?

As ever YouTube can provide us with the appropriate time warp factor back to the 80’s and you can vote on your favourite below. Here goes...

1) Transformers (1984-1988)

Transformers is an American animated television series depicting a war between giant robots who could transform into vehicles, animals, and other objects, created as a marketing vehicle for the toyline of the same name.

2) Ulysses 31 (1986)

Ulysses 31 is a Japanese-French anime series which updates the Greek and Roman mythology of Odysseus (known as "Ulysses" in Roman Mythology and "Ulysse" in French, hence the name) to the 31st century. The show comprises 26 half-hour episodes and is produced by DiC Entertainment.

The Gods of Olympus are angered when Ulysses, commander of the giant spaceship Odyssey, kills the giant Cyclops to save a group of enslaved children including his son. Zeus sentences Ulysses to travel the universe with his crew frozen until he finds the Kingdom of Hades, at which point his crew will be revived and he will be able to return to Earth. Along the way they encounter numerous other famous figures from Greek mythology given a futuristic twist.

BONUS! Remake of Ulysses 31 Intro Theme Song

3) Battle of the Planets (1978-1985)

Battle of the Planets casts five young people as G-Force, consisting of Mark, Jason, Princess, Keyop, and Tiny. G-Force protects Earth from planet Spectra and other attacks from 'beyond space'. Their main ship is The Phoenix, which can deploy four smaller vehicles, each operated by one team member.

A regularly featured deus ex machina was the transformation of The Phoenix into a flaming bird-shaped craft able to handle virtually any exceptional situation by functioning something like a large blowtorch. The Phoenix’s primary weapon was a large supply of rockets. It also occasionally flaunted a powerful solar-powered energy blaster, although the team had the misfortune of choosing very cloudy days to use it.

4) ThunderCats (1985)

Set against a backdrop juxtaposing science-fiction and fantasy elements, the ThunderCats series tells a good-versus-evil tale of mythic proportions, featuring an equal mix of high-technology and magic, hand-to-hand combat, and a central core of championed values. Its anthropomorphic heroes, the ThunderCats, are pitted against a rag-tag assortment of villains and a demonic wizard named Mumm-Ra on a planet known as Third Earth.

5) G.I. Joe (1983-87)

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a military-themed line of action figures and toys. Produced by Hasbro, the toyline lasted from 1982 to 1994, producing well over 500 figures and 250 vehicles and playsets. The line reappeared in 1997 and has continued in one form or another to the present day. It was supported by two animated series as well as a major comic series published by Marvel Comics.

6) He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe (1983-87)

He-Man ("The Most Powerful Man in the Universe") is a heroic fictional character in a toy series called Masters of the Universe ("MOTU") and the various spin-off products and media related to it. The most prominent is the animated series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, produced by Filmation Studios. The syndicated series premiered in 1983 and ran until 1985, for a run of 130 episodes. In the series, He-Man and his friends defend Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.

BONUS! Skeletor YMCA

7) Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors (1985-86)

Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors features two duelling forces. The "good guys" are humans, called the Lightning League. They drove white and silver vehicles with assorted weaponry, and are led by Jayce. The "bad guys" are organic green vegetable-based creatures called the Monster Minds, who tend to take the shape of black and green vehicles. They travel via large green organic vines, that sprout seeds that rapidly grew into further Monster Minds. They are led by Saw Boss.

8) Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (1981)

Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds is the story following a young Dogtanian who travels to Paris in the 17th Century in order to become one of the King Louis XIII of France's musketeers (note that they are referred to as musketeers throughout the cartoon and only the title calls them muskehounds). He quickly befriends three musketeers (Porthos, Athos and Aramis) and falls in love with Juliette, a maid-in-waiting for Queen Anne of Austria.

9) Dungeons and Dragons (1983-87)

Dungeons & Dragons is an American animated television series that was a co-production of Marvel Productions and TSR, and made in the United States during the 1980s. Based on TSR's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, the show was popular in the US, and ran for three seasons on CBS.

10) Around the World with Willy Fog (1981)

Around the World with Willy Fog is a cartoon version of Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne in the same vein as Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, and like that series produced by BRB Internacional. The characters are anthropomorphisms of various animals, Willy Fog (Phileas Fogg in the original book by Jules Verne) himself being a lion and Romy (Aouda) and Rigadon (Passepartout) being cats.

11) The Centurions (1985)

The Centurions is a syndicated 30 minute science fiction American animated television series produced by Ruby-Spears and animated in Japan by Sunrise. Comics legends Jack Kirby and Gil Kane contributed to the design and concepts of the show[1] The series began in 1985 as a five-part miniseries and was followed in 1986/87 with a 60 episode series. There was also a line of tie-in toys made by Kenner and a comic produced by DC Comics.

12) Mysterious Cities of Gold (1986-90)

Mysterious Cities of Gold is very loosely based on the children's novel, The King's Fifth, by Scott O'Dell. In the year 1532, a Spanish orphan named Esteban joins a party of Spaniards in their search for one of The Seven Cities of Gold in the New World, hoping to find his father. He is joined on his quest by Zia, an Incan girl, and Tao, the last descendant of the sunken empire of Mu ("Hiva" in the English dub).

The series is a mix of South American history, archaeology, and science fiction. The characters discover many lost technological wonders of the Mayans, Inca, and Olmecs, which include a solar powered ship (the Solaris) and The Golden Condor, a huge solar-powered airship, capable of traveling considerable distances under the sun's power alone. They are constantly pursued by antagonists Gomez and Gaspard, who are also in search of the Cities of Gold.

13) Defenders of the Earth (1986-87)

Defenders of the Earth was an animated television series of the 1980s featuring three characters from comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate — Flash Gordon, The Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician — battling the Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless in the year 2015.

14) M.A.S.K. (1985)

One of many cartoons produced during the 1980s as a vehicle for toy merchandising, M.A.S.K. (which is an acronym for the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand), was a hybrid of popular era cartoons G.I. Joe and The Transformers. It featured a special task force, led by Matt Trakker, with transforming vehicles engaged in an ongoing battle against the criminal organization V.E.N.O.M. (an acronym for the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem), with an emphasis on super-powered helmets called masks worn by the characters on the show.

15) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-96)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT or Ninja Turtles) are a fictional team of four anthropomorphic turtle mutants, who are trained by their sensei, Master Splinter, to become skilled ninja warriors. From their home in the sewers of Manhattan, they battle petty criminals, evil megalomaniacs, and alien invaders, all while remaining isolated from society at large.

Honourable mentions should also go to: Belle and Sebastian (1984), The Real Ghostbusters (1986-88), Muppet Babies (1984-92) and Voltron, Defender of the Universe (1984-87).

Deep Space Nine - The Fallen

2007-02-15T22:23:00.000Z

Major Kira Nerys Comes Under Heavy Fire From The Jem'Hadar

Finally last week I started playing Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen computer game which I purchased off ebay for only £2! What better way to discover the working innards of a Cardassian space station than to immerse yourself in an adventure set in the world of Deep Space Nine.

Admittedly with the game being nearly 7 years old and even running off an enhanced version 1 of the Unreal game engine, I didn't hold out too much for it. But you know what? Damn this game is addictive! Set during the sixth and penultimate season of the show, it weaves an enthralling story encompassing and building upon numerous plot points from the sprawling Deep Space Nine story arc whilst allowing you to play either as Captain Benjamin Sisko, Commander Worf or Major Kira Nerys.

One of the benefits the game has of being seven years old is that any modern pc will render the game at a high resolution very smoothly, so you should achieve a great frame rate - absolutely essential when you're caught in a life or death fire-fight with those pesky Dominion henchman the Jem'Hadar whilst trying to take back the Defiant from a Founder infiltrator.

With what little time I've had to play it I haven't progressed too far. I’ve just broken out of the Jem’Hadar asteroid prison (season 5 episode 14 - In Purgatory's Shadow). I'm not a fan of third person computer games (the only exception being the mighty Metal Gear Solid franchise) but after a couple of hours acclimatising to the control setup it's apparent that by using the third person over the shoulder camera perspective versus the more tried and tested first person view used my nearly other Unreal engine powered games, it allows for great character interaction within the Deep Space Nine world. That's not to say it's on par with the in-game mechanics of a title like Half-Life but somehow the game just "feels" right with the decisions that the designers have taken.

It's not perfect by a long way. Games have moved on a long way since the year 2000 when The Fallen was released. One of the departments that the game compares badly with today’s offerings is with character speech. It's great that many of the principal actors from the original cast have lent their vocal talents to the game - Kira, Bashir, Dax, Worf, Odo, Garak and Quark are all present, whilst O'Brien and Sisko are played by voice actors. Colm Meaney, and to a lesser degree Avery Brooks, are noted in Trek fandom as being two of Deep Space Nine's cast members hardest to pin down for extra curricular Star Trek activities.

The characters provide you with just about the right amount of dialogue to drive the story forward but unfortunately they let you down with the limited set of pre-programmed responses they reply to you when you engage in any verbal interaction and NPC’s are even worse with just their standard greeting to you. Whilst wandering around Quark's bar and the promenade you will also discover semi-regular characters like Leeta, Rom, Nog, Morn, Vice Admiral Ross and Kai Winn however whilst all of them share their actors features you can't speak to them which is a shame.

Further gripes would be that the game is very linear and it regularly suffers from the Doom inspired level design and objectives of find object A to solve puzzle B to proceed to area C. With no map available you better possess a good memory, however the maps aren't too large (yet) that you'll get lost. A brute force approach of searching every nook and cranny should see you through.

The item that you'll be relying on most won't be your sidearm but your Tricorder. With the ability to detect life forms, useful objects, traps and force field modulation amongst other things it becomes a Godsend, however the game won’t allow you to simultaneously use it and a weapon at the same time. This can make for some awkward situations when switching back and forth between trying to locate enemies (especially cloaked Jem’Hadar) and having to quickly switch to your weapons.

Considering that the game is now 7 years old the music is beautifully atmospheric and I'll go out on a limb by saying that it's some of the best in game music I've heard in a long time and it masterfully contributes to building tension and enhancing the action sequences.

Overall, if you love Star Trek: Deep Space Nine then you have to play The Fallen. Furthermore, whilst looking around the internet I came across a new expansion pack entitled Convergence. It just came out late 2006 so hopefully it should provide plenty more time in the Deep Space Nine universe.

It's Been A While...

2007-02-12T20:44:00.000Z

...since I last blogged mainly due to being too damn busy with life and with what little free time I've managed to squirrel away since writing this blog’s last entry I've been using it to *ahem* do research for my Second Life Deep Space Nine project.

I've been so distracted from blogging that it's taken one of the Commanders of Second Life's premier Star Trek sim – Galaxy (SLURL: Galaxy (173/83/103) posting a group wide message about a previous Second Life blog entry I wrote about them to realise it's been three weeks since my last blog. Ouch.

Quickly looking over my last few entries it appears that I might have been subconsciously veering the blog off on a sci-fi/Star-Trek/Second Life tangent and since there's nothing wrong with that (at least not from a geeky girl kind of perspective) I feel that the blog should roughly continue in that direction. And with Nik bugging me about getting to grips with the building tools in Second Life (and the fact that my Deep Space Nine space station project won't build itself!) I guess I better pull my finger out and starting hitting the prims.

As I mentioned above, with what little free time I've had these last few weeks I've been *researching* Deep Space Nine. So what did that entail? To start off with I've managed to trawl ebay for 3 of the most important behind the scenes books on Deep Space Nine:

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual by Herman Zimmerman (DS9 Production Designer), Rick Sternbach (DS9 Artist and Illustrator) and Doug Drexler (DS9 Illustrator and Graphic Designer).
The Making of Star Trek Deep Space Nine by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Star Trek Deep Space Nine Companion by Terry J. Erdmann with Paula M. Block

Between the three of them they host a wealth of background history, photographs, technical drawings and schematics to help me get an overall feel for the exterior and interior modelling. Added to that I've also managed to purchase via ebay some high quality photo art of the space station and 2 small desk models of Deep Space Nine. One by micro-machines and the other by Futura. It’s always good to have a model of the space station constantly sitting in my line of sight (on top of my monitor actually) as a constant point of reference.

I guess whist I was watching the whole of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine back to back via online DVD rental a few months previously I should have burnt them all off for reference as originally the season box sets were too expensive to purchase. Thankfully they've been recently re-issued and hence much cheaper. You can now pick up the entire show for under £80! Christmas 07 can't arrive too soon! *Ahem* Daz, are you reading this?

I've also starting playing the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen computer game and reading the Pocket Books DS9-Relaunch novels but more about them in further blogs.

So all that's left for me to do now is to find some free time and delve back into Second Life, whip my rusty 3D moddleing skills back into shape by playing with the building tools, show my face a little more around Galaxy and say hi to Oolon. If I'm lucky I might even find the time to upload the first part of my attempt to map all of the Second Life Star Trek content via this blog and Flickr.

Live long and prosper...

Possible LCARS Interface Prototype?

2007-01-20T20:05:00.000Z

Jeff Han's Interface-Free, Touch-Driven Computer Screen

Homemade Multi-Touch Table With Java Application Used
As A MIDI Controller

Multi-Touch Screen Used As A VJ Control Desk

I've been looking around the internet lately for any inspiring graphics and textures for my Star Trek Deep Space Nine space station sim I'm hoping to build in Second Life. One of the many memorable pieces of technology in the Star Trek universe is the LCARS (an acronym for Library Computer Access and Retrieval System) computer operating system used on Federation starships and space stations.

You can buy numerous objects in Second Life that have LCARS graphics embedded in them but I know I'll end up having to skin the objects with new graphics because most of the computer interfaces on Deep Space Nine are of Cardassian design.

Anyway, the above three videos are examples of possible solutions for one aspect of a real life fully working LCARS operating system, that being the multi-touch interface. The second and third videos are inspired by the first video - Jeff Han's jaw dropping showing of his original multi-touch interface early in 2006.

Official Star Trek To Beam Into Second Life

2007-01-18T17:21:00.000Z

Star Trek In Second Life - Race You To The Captain's Chair!

Trekmovie.com ran an article on the 11th January reporting on how Star Trek franchise owners CBS Paramount have commissioned Second Life content developers extraordinaire - the Electric Sheep Company, to build numerous interactive environments based off the Star Trek franchise.

I can only speculate on what affect this will have on current Second Life Star Trek themed communities but from what little CBS Paramount Chairman Les Moonves intimated it appears that CBS Paramount themselves are happy cutting the fans of the legendary sci-fi franchise quite a lot of slack (compared to other media whoring companies) over intellectual property rights. I'm only aware of a few occurrences within the Second Life world where CBS Paramount have asked users to remove certain content and I believe that was only due to CBS Paramount themselves not being paid any royalties.

Once the makers of Star Trek realised that they had a huge fan following they've always banked on us to keep watching each new show, attend the conventions and turn up for each (lamer) movie release. Unlike official sanctioned computer game releases where the content is pre-defined, Second Life allows its inhabitants to build anything they want and use it however they want. It's only natural that die hard fans are going to want to build, expand and inhabit their own Star Trek worlds.

If CBS Paramount come along and declares it all null and void then there's going to be some really pissed off people out there. The designers of Second Life’s premier Star Trek sim, Galaxy (173/83/103), have sunk huge amounts of time into building, scripting and nurturing their creation. As long as they don't suddenly start making a large profit I don't see why everyone can't be left alone. If they've decided on the former and designated any unsanctioned major Star Trek themed sims illegal in favour of their own official sim then I for one won't be visiting it.

Second Life allows us to build our own adventures and thousands of users are always going to be able to build more diverse (it may not be as professional) content. It will be interesting to see how CBS Paramount approach and resolve this potential problem without upsetting the Star Trek franchise lifeblood - the fans.

Avery Brooks & Michael Biehn At Colletamania11

2007-01-16T19:31:00.000Z

Michael Biehn (Aliens) Will Be At Colletamania11

Oh my God... I've just found out that Star Trek Deep Space Nine's Captain Benjamen Sisko, the one and only Avery Brooks, is attending Colletamania11 this May in Milton Keynes. This information alone would have made me happy beyond belief, whooping for joy like a sad little Star Trek Deep Space Nine fangirl, but on further reading it appears that one of my all time sci-fi heroes Michael Biehn (Aliens / Terminator / The Abyss) will also be there.

How this gorgeous hunk of a man never became a larger star than he has I'll never know but he's next appearing in Quentin Tarantino's Grind House so at least I'll get another chance to see him on the big screen as the last time I saw him was in 1989 when The Abyss came out.

So I guess I've got four months to save up the money for my train tickets and autographs...

Star Trek In Second Life

2007-01-15T20:13:00.000Z

The Lobby Of The Star Fleet Command Second Life Quadrant Building

I've been wondering around the Second Life universe since November 06, getting used to the user interface, visiting some of the more popular locations and tweaking my avatar. But now I want a little more out of Second Life, to maybe join a group and start building and scripting, so I've decided to join Galaxy - Second Life's premier Star Trek themed sim.

Galaxy offers fans of the sci-fi franchise an opportunity to live and interact in the Star Trek universe, a place to hang out with like minded individuals and take part in the scheduled role-play scenarios in their own Federation starship - the USS Ajax. The entire sim has its own command structure over seen by Fleet Commander Katrina Bixby with many routes to gain promotion from your humble beginnings as a cadet.

Exploring around Galaxy you will come across a sandbox for experimental building, a Borg Cube for tactical and combat practice, a science and research facility, a park to relax in, a medical complex and numerous other buildings. The Star Fleet Command - Second Life Quadrant headquarters contains rooms for each of the various divisions (Command, Logistics (Engineering), Personnel and Security) along with some pretty impressive facilities including an academy, recreational room, auditorium, holodeck, transporters and finally a walk through exhibit showcasing all the star ships from the Star Trek franchises. You can see some of the locations that make up the Galaxy Sim here.

If you're thinking of joining up, teleport into Roddenberry Plaza SLURL: Galaxy (173/83/103) where you'll see numerous signs, a teleporter to Infinity Station (a Deep Space Nine type space station floating in the sky) where you can go shopping along the promenade and a stand that has information that you pick up. You want to look out for the handbook (shaped like the USS Enterprise NCC-1701), grab yourself a copy and fill in the application pack and take it to the Personnel department located in the west wing of the building on the second floor. A Personnel Officer will talk you through your application, the rules of the sim and provide you with your uniform.

Now all that remains cadet is to boldly go where no avatar has gone before...

Bunny Suicides

2007-01-14T15:19:00.000Z

With Scotty On Holiday Transporter Standards Started To Slip

*WARNING: NOT FOR BUNNY LOVERS* This website contains numerous pictures of cute bunnies attempting suicide in various (and often hilarious) ways. The Darth Vader / Obi-Wan Kenobi one is pretty funny too!

Bruce Campbell Old Spice Commercial

2007-01-13T16:25:00.000Z

Bruce Campbell Old Spice Commercial

Bruce "The Man" Campbell of the Evil Dead trilogy of films fame stars in this self-deprecatingly funny Old Spice aftershave advert.

I'm not sure what the public perception of the Old Spice branding is in America but over here in England it's on par with Hai-Karate and no man with a shred of street credibility would admit to wearing it.

But hey, this is Bruce Campbell and he can make anything look cool...

Groovy!

Celestia

2007-01-12T18:07:00.000Z

Deep Space Nine in Celestia

I've just started using a great piece of software entitled Celestia which is a three dimensional space simulator. The software boasts numerous features:

You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.
All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.
Celestia is expandable and comes with a large catalogue of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that's not enough, you can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects including many from the Star Wars, Star Trek and Babylon 5 universes.

The reason behind using this software is my ambition to build the Star Trek Deep Space Nine space station in the Second Life metaverse. Over the last month I've been building up a library of photographic and schematic information both in paper and digital form however none of this information allows me to visualise the station like a complete 3D model would.

This is where Celestia comes in thanks to its ability to import third party add-ons, the majority of which are available at celestiamotherlode.net. The add-on I'm using is the module created by Jestr which includes the Deep Space Nine model pictured above.

With Lactose now near permanently living in the Second Life universe and only coming out to attend work, his TARDIS project has spurred me on to get back into 3D modelling after a lengthy sabbatical from my days building First Person Shooter levels and models. I'm not underestimating the size of the task but I need something to get my passions stirred in the Second Life universe and being a huge Trekkie and Deep Space Niner this project has got me chomping at the bit.

So if anyone knows any great resources for Deep Space Nine information, schematics, textures or artwork please feel free to post a response to this post.

That's Entertainment

2007-01-10T20:47:00.000Z

Morrissey Predicts The Demise Of Pop Music

"Ultimately popular music will end. That must be obvious to anybody"

Listen to the spoof Morrissey Eurovision entry here!

Twenty years after the above interview was conducted and it's unfortunate that pop(ular) music is still with us. Maybe if Radio 1 didn't force it down our throats everyday with the same lame boy/girl band playlists, I would have liked to believe that popular music might have somehow just faded away. It will never truly die though, not as long as there are embarrassing Saturday morning children's programmes to appear on, prepubescent children to cynically market too and middle-aged women lusting after homosexual twenty something singers who are young enough to be their sons.

So it's quite ironic considering the above quote that the BBC reports that Morrissey is one of a handful of artistes that they've approached to write, perform and wave the flag for Great Britain in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest? I suppose it’s a push too far (to the right) to ask for Madness to be his backing band? *winks to the audience* Controversial…

Granted, the best thing about the Eurovision Song Contest is Terry Wogan and his deprecating commentary but no band worth their MySpace credibility will touch it with a barge poll. Morrissey however is one of the few artists that can transcend the bland, camp tackiness, garish clothes and cheesy disco music repeatedly spewed out year after year. Although fair play to previous winners Lordi from Finland. Daz and I were on holiday in Malta last time the final was being broadcast and we were rolling around in hysterics at the death metal band's performance.

Maybe the BBC has taken stock of the fact that Morrissey came second in their Living Icons Poll and by beating the musical geniusus of David Bowie and Paul McCartney they have a hunch that they might be onto a winner. Do they actually believe that if we have a credible chance of winning they'll get more viewers? Maybe.

Either way I don't care. My devotion to him is such that if Morrissey battered for my team I'd suffer the pains of childbirth and have his children. So no more "Nul Points". Here's hoping for a funny, darkly cynical and perhaps slyly political song by the Moz-Meister. And whilst we're dreaming, maybe the BBC could even try and persuade Johhny Marr to whip up a killer riff? Perfect.

Finally, Daz beat me to my title of choice with "Euro the one for me Fatty" so I'll just have to settle for "That's Entertainment".

Star Trek: "Time Warp"

2007-01-09T00:01:00.000Z

"Let's Do The Time Warp Aggaaiin..."

Great compilation of clips from the first four Star Trek television series in addition to numerous scenes from the films all set to the legendary "Time Warp" song from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Well chosen clips, great editing and an embarrassingly addictive tune. Awesome!

"Analyse, Optimize, Publicize"

2007-01-08T19:34:00.000Z

I'm a firm believer in analysing all the statistics generated by the numerous websites that I look after and last month I decided to use a second piece of software to help cross reference my data.

I've been using Google Analytics for a while now and since it's free and easy to use there's no reason why anyone with a little bit of smarts can't use it to produce a large swathe of detailed reports that can help you analyse the landscape of your website's user metrics.

However, for the last month or so I've been complementing the above with Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg has been around for nearly for a year and they now offer a subscription-based tiered serviced complemented by a free standard package allowing you to track 2 pages and 5,000 visits per month.

If after trialling the freebie package you feel that you require a greater level of service then you're going to have to pony up some cash but for most "Joe Public Vanity Bloggers" (like me!) the free account should surfice as your home page being the one displaying your current and previous entries is the one taking the brunt of the hits.

Crazy Egg doesn't offer the level of analysis and report generating tools that allows Google Analytics the ability to drill down through the pages of your website producing the detail reports that it does, however the ace that Crazy Egg has is all in its visual presentation.

Crazy Egg will capture and display this information through a range of different visual reports:

OVERLAY - Does exactly what is says by overlaying icons next to your links which contain the amount of user click throughs.

LIST - Produces a table documenting all your links and their relevant information including: element type (img, span anchor tag etc.), the amount of clicks and finally the figure presented as an overall percentage of the page total.

HEAT MAP - Crazy Egg's signature feature. The heat map is an overlay not too dissimilar to the images produced by eye tracking software. This software is used in the field of usability testing which provides web designers valuable user feedback on how visitors to their websites react to the various site components like navigation, branding and online advertising.

Crazy Egg users the above but bases its report off user clicks. Many people might dismiss it as a gimmick but on a high traffic website it can quickly visualise where your user destination hotspots and coldspots are in a second. I think it's marvellous and I wouldn’t be too surprised over the next year or so to see this type of tool cropping up in other web analytic software packages.

So, there you have it. Google Analytics plus Crazy Egg equals in-depth analysis with speedy visualisation. Now add FeedBurner to report on your syndication feed and don’t forget to register your website with Google Sitemap to help Googlebot spider your pages more intelligently and you're on your way to understanding how your visitors interact and travel through your website.