Star Wars: Revelations
Watch "Star Wars: Revelations" here. Watch the movie at IFILM	Reports, Reviews and Links:
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July 28, 2005

Watching all the fun on Discovery and the ISS.

Hot Damn! This is cool.

Same link:
http://www.space.com/returntoflight/
At the top of the left hand column is the link to watch live NASA TV.

July 26, 2005

Countdown

Here we are again. We wish Discovery and her crew a safe and successful journey. Watching these missions, I am always impressed. When you stop to think about it, it's a wonder these things ever work at all. I know a lot of people work very hard to try to make this as safe as possible but really, getting on a rocket and throwing yourself into orbit at some 18,000 miles per hour is just a fantastically dangerous thing to do.
Of course, having said that . . . I wish I were going.

Live coverage here: http://www.space.com/returntoflight/

"I will pass the surly bounds of gravity and punch the face of God."
-Homer J. Simpson

"Darren Grimley" <tigertron@hotmail.co.uk>

More Explosions in London!

Damn.

July 21, 2005

Star Wars 3.5

A new review of Revelations here.

July 19, 2005

Did Lex Luthor Out Superman?

This is pretty damn funny. Got the link from xoverboard.

You know what's not funny to me though? TREASON!
I'm not sure why no one else is using the big "T" word, but I will.
If Rove in any way identified an undercover CIA operative, that's treason.
If he's guilty he shouldn't be fined, or fired, or merely jailed . . . he should be shot!

July 18, 2005

Still more Revelations in the news!

Really excellent article from the BBC here.
Shane really sounds off here.


Also here is a link to a story about the release of the new Harry Potter book with a picture of one of my best friend's children, Ian.
You may need to log in to see it.
Try username: f***this password: f***this only, you know, with out the *'s.

Gina and I as Kirk and Miramanee.	Romantic!
Kirk meets Imperial Kirk?!	I'm . . . Captain Kirk! Thanks Steve.

July 13, 2005

Countdown to Launch of Discovery

We're racing the weather but we're still on track for a launch this afternoon.
It has been a long time coming. Here's wishing them a safe and successful journey.
Check it out here.

"Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate;
still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Update:
Discovery Launch Scrubbed

13 July 2005, 1:30 p.m. EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A low-level fuel sensor failure has scrubbed today’s launch of space shuttle Discovery. Details to follow.

-- Roger Guillemette

Dammit!

SHORE LEAVE (This past weekend)

Gina and I spent this past weekend down in Hunt Valley, MD and had a great time.
(Pictures will follow as soon as we get them.)
First congratulations to the Tempest members who took Best in Show at the costume call. This was a skit the Gina and I were supposed to take part in, but because of some other commitments we didn't know if we were going to get our costumes done, or even make it to the Con at all. As it turned out we did but we had already bowed out. I have to say though, that it didn't matter much to us. It was still just as exciting to see our friends win as it would have been to win ourselves.
A big thanks to Ronnie and Steve for covering for us and making it look easy.
Congratulations all around guys.

Speaking of the costumes Gina and I did Miramanee and Kirk from classic trek.
Many people went out of their way to tell us how good we looked as the characters.
The best compliment however came from Malachi Throne who had actually worked with William Shatner back in the day. As Gina and I were slowly making our way past his table, through the crowds, he looked up saw me, and said, "Wow, for a minute I thought you were Bill standing there." Also Gina was simply stunning as Miramannee.

It was certainly great to see everyone down there. One of the most fun aspects of the whole weekend for Gina and I was introducing our different groups of friends to each other. Everyone seemed to hit it off pretty well and a grand time was had by most.

Meanwhile Gina and I were networking around with a lot of the fan film people. We met and gave headshots to Jack Marshall of the Star Trek New Voyages Fan Films as well as speaking to some others. It is very exciting to see all that is going on with these fan films, and of course, they've all seen "Revelations" so they have some idea of what Gina and I can do. I guess we'll just have to wait and see whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

The Rising Phoenix guys certainly had a big and very successful weekend.
More on that though in a later post. (wink, wink.)

In other news; a big congratulations to our old buddy Rob Stalker who got married this past weekend. Sorry we couldn't be there Rob, (Shore Leave, other commitments, mass hysteria.)
It looks like it went really well though. All the best!

Also a big thank you to our buddy Pete who held down the fort and helped keep us on track for this weekend. Thanks again man. Buster loves you.

One last slightly sad note, due to some of those mysterious other commitments, Gina and I will very sadly have to bail out on Dragon Con. We really wanted to go, but there is just no way to make it happen.

Terrorists attack London!

Consider, this attack was planned, organized, timed and executed.
Someone, somewhere, thought this was a really good idea, a worthy cause, a noble act.
An attack not on a government or military but on random, common people trying to get on with their lives as best they could.
Speculation runs wild as to who is behind it.
What was the motive, the Olympics, the G8 summit, Britain's support of and participation in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan?
In the end, what does it matter?
The fact that human beings could do this to other human beings speaks louder and says more about our species than any rationalization any zealot might care to provide.

We must try to find the strength not to give in to our baser instincts in the face of such atrocities as a thoughtless rush to retaliation against 'someone' only serves to further the agenda of the people behind these attacks.
We must resist the urge to lash out against each other lest in our panic we achieve what the terrorist could not in the total destruction of our liberties.
Let us find the actual people responsible and let justice be done upon them to an extent that discourages others from similar acts.

Of course we extend our most sincere condolences to the family members of the victims of this senseless attack.

As to the terrorist themselves, may they suffer under the full weight and knowledge of what they have done until death itself becomes a mercy; and if at all possible, thereafter as well.

July 6, 2005

Happy Birthday!!

Just wanted to wish a personal Happy Birthday to Tenzin Gyatso, who happens to be the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet and celebrates his 70th birthday July 6.

Now I'm not a Buddhist, anymore than I am a Christian, Muslim, Hindu or anything else. I'm not what anyone would call a religious person in any sense that I'm aware of. As a human being I am all too aware of my own faults and shortcomings and I struggle against them constantly. Not for the sake of any religion but merely to enrich and refine myself. To increase my own value in my own eyes. To better enjoy the simple experience of being. It's not religion, there is no god, no prayer, no worship in it.
Yet reading that message "My religion is kindness" makes me want to say something I almost never, ever say. People who have known me for years I am sure have never heard, or probably even imagined, me saying this single word. It's probably all wrong too. It's not anything I've ever heard an actual Buddhist say, for instance, but I read that message and it's the only thing I can think of, so here it is . . . Amen.

Deep Impact has little impact on human stupidity.

Of course I was watching, and rooting for, the Deep Impact mission. It was quite daring, quite a complicated problem to solve, and it went off brilliantly. A glorious success and a well deserved congratulations to the entire team. A shining, radiant example of mankind reaching out to explore the cosmos to learn all we can. You can check out all the details over on SPACE.COM.
However lest we forget ourselves in our jubilation, a dose of perspective. Just in case some of us might be carried away by this stirring testament to human achivement I bring you another story about an astrologer who is suing NASA for her "moral sufferings," because the experiment will "deform her horoscope."

*cough*

Now let me state this clearly and for the record:
Astrology is total Bullshit!
Horoscopes are total Bullshit!

Astronomy = Good.
Astrology = Bad.

Astronomy = Very smart people working to uncover the secrets of the universe and refine our understanding of its workings and origins through the application of scientific method, advanced mathematics and reason.

Astrology = A bunch of mystically minded knuckleheads memorizing sets of arcane, outdated, nonsensical rules that have no connection to reality or even, in most cases, any resemblance to each other.

Isn't it time we put this kind of stupidity behind us?
Why do we continue to allow idiots like this to abuse our legal systems and waste our time with this hogwash?
This is not a matter of personal opinion or a question of conflicting belief systems.
This is flagrant and deliberate stupidity of the highest order.

And don't give me any anecdotal evidence about most of them being hacks but your particular astrologer is the real deal becasue blah, blah, blah . . .

BULLSHIT!

You want a goddamn horoscope?
HERE! This is good for every day of your life from now on, if you were born on any day whatever, anywhere on the planet Earth:
Today you will continue to be amazed and annoyed by the willful ignorance, stubborn thoughtlessness, needless cruelty, and outright raging stupidity of other people. The orbits of all heavenly bodies will continue to have nothing to do with you whatsoever.

Happy 18th Birthday to Nicholas!!!

Sorry to be updating so late but here it is, our new theme will be Lord of the Rings. Everything about these three movies impresses me. The production is staggering and the performances are just glorious.

Meanwhile Nicholas turns 18 today.
Huzzah!!