Saturday, May 26, 2007

Celebration IV: Day 1 - Love among the Stars

Today is the first open day of the Star Wars convention Celebration IV. Here is what I have learnt through my participation today:
  • Watching younglings learn lightsaber moves then fight Darth Vader is an emotional experience
  • The Star Wars fan community is a loving group
  • Talking on a cell phone is a somewhat effective way of brushing past a gatekeeper
  • I still love Star Wars
  • Lego is Rad, Lego Star Wars is Super Rad
  • Elvis Trooper is one cool dude
  • R2-D2 is practically a religious icon
  • If you see a cool costume, tell them, and they will love you for it
  • If someone starts singing "Duel of the Fates," join in
You practically had to chisel the smile off my face today. More to follow.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Celebration IV: Day 0

I have arrived in Los Angeles and have my passes ready to go for tomorrow. I don't have fan club membership so I couldn't attend today's programming, only enter the lobby and look in. It looks good. Really, really good.

That is no moon

Oh and PS: Heroes Rocks.

Kirby Plaza

Official Celebration IV Blog

This is the link to the OFFICIAL Celebration IV Blog: http://starwarsblog.wordpress.com/. This is where news will be coming fast on the right, whilst I blog slow on the left.

Behold it. I said Behold it! Woot.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Tales of the New Republic

Tales of the New Republic looks like a media project based on the Gentle Giant Animated Star Wars Marquette styles.



The website gives little information, other then a promise that more will be released on Friday, which is the first full day of Star Wars Celebration IV. Coincidence?

More on this as it develops.

[talesofthenewrepublic.com]

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

No Sleep til Celebration 4

I'm off to Los Angeles this week for Celebration 4, the convention marking the thirtieth anniversary of Star Wars. As is, I'm sure, about 50 percent of my readers.

I plan on bringing down the laptop so I can post blog updates from the field, so expect some semi-regular convention posts.

There is a Flickr group dedicated the event, which I hope will fill up quickly with some awesome pictures:http://www.flickr.com/groups/celebration4/

Stay tuned.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

+3 Webcomic of Humour

From a recent post on the blog "Warp Section" I found out about a great webcomic called "The Order of the Stick."

Created by Rich Burlew, the strip tells a D&D-style, stick figture tale where the adventurers are completely aware of the game mechanics operating their world.


Gaming and Pop-culture references abound, but the real charm is the depth of the plot and and richness of the character development. Happily bound by the literary tropes and clichés of the genre, Burlew weaves a intricate story that keeps you reading his thrice-a-week updates.

I'm not the one who thinks highly of the work. Since starting in 2003, The Order of the Stick has been nominated for eight Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, of which it won five. It was named Best Gaming Comic and Best Long Form Comic in 2007, Best Fantasy Comic in 2006, and tied for Best Fantasy Comic in 2005. The strip has also spawned 4 books and a board/card game.

This comic gets the Seal of Slashboing Approved Awesomeness.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

More Bruce Campbell Goodness

This commercial is the follow up to Old Spice "Experience." Bruce Campbell is always welcome in the Pantheon of Awesome.



Previously on Slashboing
Bruce Campbell: Man's Man

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Shirt idea I wish I had


P1010114.JPG
Originally uploaded by SMITHMag.

Sunday means flickr favourites on Slashboing. This is one of the many fine geek shirts captured on SMITH Magazine's first annual SXSW Interactive Geek T-Stream, "a mostly cotton wonder of personal expression."

The complete set can be found here: Geek T-Shirts

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Top 5 nighstand books

Part Rorschach's inks, part turn-your-head-and-cough, the books on my nightstand serve as a measurement of my mood, temperament and state of mind.

First up:

Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town -Cory Doctorow. Honourable Mention
I just finished it and I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure which one of his to read next. The new "Overclocked" or the classic "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" ? Tough call. This book only gets an honourable mention because it is on its way off the table to make room for...

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson.
I just started it and am liking it so far. I always had high hopes the Cyberpunk genre, but thought William Gibson was over rated. So far Snow Crash is living up to my expectations.

The Wandering Stars #2 - The Davidge Cousins
Written by James and illustrated by Jesse Davidge, The Wandering Stars tells of the supernatural adventures of a crack team of histories best mathematicians. Alan Turning, Georg Cantor, Maria Agnesi, Brahmagupta et all, have gathered to fight threats to the many dimensions folded and layered within time and space. What is not to love?

The Velocity of Honey - Jay Ingram
An informative everyday science book which answers some everyday questions regarding topics as diverse as Honey, mosquitoes, or the aerodynamics of Maple tree seeds. It really is the best kind of guide to being the most annoying guy at a party.

The Areas of my Expertise - John Hodgman
Complete world knowledge, volume 1. Matters historical, matters literary, matters cryptozoological and Hobo matters are all here. Also a great guide to being the most annoying guy at a party.

Wired Magazine (Hodgeman Cover) - Feb 2007
My love of John Hodgeman (I'm a PC) led me to get the issue of Wired with his interview. I used to love wired when the typography and graphic design was crazy and the main thrust of the publication was a love of tech, and tech culture. Then it went through this phase where it seemed more focused on which tech companies you should invest in. It now has gained a bit of a pop-culture slant to it, so I'm starting to read it again.

Previously on Slashboing
Books on my Nightstand (May 2006)

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

365 Days Project Update

I am on day 225 in my yearlong self-portrait photography project on flickr, and things are going well. Lately I have also taken on a personal challenge to alphabetically theme my photos with for the "An Alphabet of Life" flickr pool.

This is yesterday's "L: Lord of the Rings" picture:

Day 224 - L: Lord of the Rings

This makes today an "M" day. Any suggestions?

For reference

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Lessons learned from role playing games

The fine folks at project-apollo.net have been compiling the Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés. These are fine lessons to carry you thought your gaming, and non-gaming lives. Here are a few of my favourites:

Edison's Lament
No switch is ever in the right position.

Dimensional Transcendence Principle
Buildings are much, much larger on the inside than on the outside, and that doesn't even count the secret maze of tunnels behind the clock in the basement.

Nostradamus Rule
All legends are 100% accurate. All rumors are entirely factual. All prophecies will come true, and not just someday but almost immediately.

Bed Bed Bed
A good night's sleep will cure all wounds, diseases, and disabilities, up to and including death in battle.

Zelda's Axiom
Whenever somebody tells you about "the five ancient talismans" or "the nine legendary crystals" or whatever, you can be quite confident that Saving the World will require you to go out and find every last one of them.

Not Invented Here
Trade of technology will not exist. One place in the world will have all the techno-gadgets while all the others will be harvesting dirt.


If You Meet The Buddha In A Random Encounter, Kill Him!
When you're out wandering around the world, you must kill everything you meet. People, animals, plants, insects, fire hydrants, small cottages, anything and everything is just plain out to get you. It may be because of your rampant kleptomania.

Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon's boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.

Supply and Demand Axiom
Killing a powerful enemy will usually yield an item or weapon that would've been extremely useful if you had gotten it before killing that enemy.

Thousand Year Rule
The Ancient Evil returns to savage the land every thousand years on the dot, and the last time it showed up was just about 999.9875 years ago. Despite their best efforts, heroes of the past were never able to do more than seal the Evil away again for the future to deal with (which brings up the question of just how exactly does this "sealing away" work anyway, but never mind.) The good news is that this time, the Evil will get destroyed permanently. The bad news is that you're the one who's going to have to do it.

[Link]

Monday, May 07, 2007

My money is on the Cat


Ready & Waiting
Originally uploaded by CORSIWORLD.

This picture is from the "never too late" Sunday Flickr Favourite group. The cat's name is "Pinchy", the Dog is "Laverne."

The colour and composition of this picture is fantastic.

Friday, May 04, 2007

History Channel Star Wars Documentary


STAR WARS™: THE LEGACY REVEALED- Memorial Day, 2007
Originally uploaded by THE HISTORY CHANNEL.

Coming up on the History Channel on May 28th is the documentary "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed." I love the promo art, which shows the evolution of various items like swords into lightsabers, nazi stormtroopers into white clad imperial stormtroopers, and world war II fighters into x-wings.

See the rest of the set here

I will be in Los Angeles at Star Wars Celebration IV when this show airs, so I will likely miss the first run of it.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Mini "Heroes" roundup

Mild spoilers of NBC's "Heroes" follow. Don't say you haven't been warned.

After watching the latest episode of "Heroes" on Monday, and catching up on all the online graphic novels that fill in the gaps between episodes, I really can't wait to see how season one, (Volume 1) of the series will end.

The early tagline for the show was "Save the Cheerleader, Save the world." Even though I was enjoying the show, I thought this oft-repeated phrase was a little silly. After the events of "Five Years Gone," the full meaning of the phrase became clear, and what started as a pithy catchphrase became a grave and earnest plea.

The plot has taken a standard superhero direction, showing a future where people with their "genetic condition" (a PC way of saying "those super-powered freaks that might be dangerous"), are rounded up, watched and feared. This follows the "Keene Act" from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons "Watchmen," the "Mutant Registration Act" from the Marvel universe. It also echoes every "final solution" that dictators and demagogues have enacted throughout history. This is the sort of thing people in power do when they fear loosing that power. Order 66 anyone?

We also got to see a second, more intense showdown between the empathic Peter Petrelli and his foil, the brain stealing Sylar. Both have acquired countless powers from other heroes, including cellular regeneration, so no clear victor could be foreseen. They are likely to remain locked in their fire-and-ice battle until the world fell around them, which reminds me of the end of the Original Trek episode "The Alternative Factor"

In the end it's up to everyone's favourite hero, Hiro Nakamura, to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap...will be the leap home.