Tuesday, July 21, 2009
DIY Depth-of-Field Adapter, Part 1
Recently I decided to get back into video stuff. I haven't touched video in about seven years, so I knew there would probably be quite a bit of catching up to do (the last video editing program I used was Adobe Premiere 6, with captured analog Hi8 footage, if that tells you anything). So I picked up the cheapest, lowest of the low-end Sony Handycam I could find, and started to try to learn exactly *why* video doesn't look like film. Well, a lot of it has to do with brightness, contrast, color saturation, etc, which can be adjusted in the video editing program. But another thing is depth-of-field. Here's where I began to kick myself for not taking photography in college. Depth-of-field? Aperture? What the heck is an f-stop? Anyway, you can google all that yourself, but basically I learned that cheapo consumer camcorders just don't have the same lens qualities that big film cameras have, but apparently, there's a way to fix that.
Enter the depth-of-field adapter: a rig that you put small camcorders on that allows you to attach nice lenses that you might find on any decent 35mm SLR camera. Unfortunately, these things can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. No thank you - I don't have the money to spend on something like that, nor the rational to even save up for one (it's not like I'm doing professional video here). Which is where I discovered that apparently hacking together these things is a favorite DIY project of a lot of impoverished filmmakers. Well, in that case...
The Scates-O-Matic Depth-of-Field Adapter, ver. 1.0
Amazing what you can do with a little PVC pipe, huh? Basically, this rig consists of:
1. Sony Handycam
2. 25mm adapter ring
3. PVC pipe fittings
4. ground glass (focusing screen)
5. Crayola model magic
6. more PVC pipe fittings
7. used 20-year old 50mm Canon FD lens (from a 35mm SLR film camera)
8. scrap piece of aluminum
9. various screws, bolts, nuts, and washers
(I might also mention it's pretty handy to have a father who has access to a drill press and a lathe.) Anyway, the Canon lens is attached to a 2.5" electrical conduit male adapter (which we lathed out to house the lens, and it's held in place by set screws). The male adapter attaches to the female adapter which houses the focusing screen, which is the plano-convex lens extracted from a Nikon F4 focusing screen. The reasons for using the male and female adapters are several: First, I can open it up if I have to, because they just screw apart. Second, we can modify another male adapter to hold a different lens, such as a zoom lens. Third, I can move the male adapter, thereby adjusting the lens' focus on the focusing screen. (Hint: to achieve proper focus, I adjusted the lens' focus to 5 feet (the distance to my tv, but it could be any object), then adjusted the distance between the lens and focusing screen. That way, I knew that the focus should be correct.) Since taking the above photo, we modified the male adapter by shortening it by about 1/2" to help with focusing issues, and added additional set screws to the female adapter to hold the male adapter in place.
The focusing screen: I would have just used the focusing screen as-is, but it has that little circle viewfinder thing on it. Fortunately, I discovered that the focusing screen was two pieces of glass held together on the edge by clear tape, so I took them apart to get the clear plano-convex lens. I then got a larger piece of glass (from a cheap photo frame), put some 5 micron aluminum oxide grinding grit on it with a bit of water, and hand-ground the flat side of the plano-convex lens for about 15 minutes until it was nice and frosty. I then cut out a piece of clear plastic (from a package) to use as a frame, and then used Crayola Model Magic to hold the thing in place inside the female adapter.
The female adapter then attaches to the camera with another piece of lathed pipe fitting, which attaches to a 25mm lens adapter, which attaches to the camera itself.
The whole assembly is then mounted upon a scrap piece of aluminum with holes drilled in it. The female adapter has a mount to bolt onto the aluminum, and the camera itself is held by a bolt in its tripod mount.
Test Footage:
This is without any color or brightness correction, and it looks like YouTube stretched the footage a bit horizontally, but you get the idea. I need to clean the focusing screen off, for one thing, and adjust the focus from the lens to the screen, but it seems to be coming along. Still getting a bit of vignetting, and the plano-convex lens seems to help - but I do kinda dig the look, it's almost like a Holga camera or something.
But does it look like film?
Well, not quite, but it looks better than it did, haha.
Sources:
Of course, I couldn't have figured all this out without these websites...
J5 Studios
Jag35
35mm Adapter Resource
.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Trailer for 'The Trail of the Screaming Forehead'
Now available at www.screamingforehead.com
Good times. :)
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Ever wonder...
...What ever happened to these guys? Yeah, well, me too. But Joss Whedon has returned (albeit to the world of comics instead of television), and the canonical Season 8 has begun, courtesy of Dark Horse Comics. Unfortunately, it sold out a lot quicker than anyone expected. I still don't have a copy yet. Grr, argh. But what about...
...their friends? Well, apparently, IDW Comics has announced that Whedon will be working with them to publish the canonical Season 6. I'll try to preorder that one.
But enough of that. I must move on to chapter 2 of my forthcoming epic. :)
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Ultimate Special Remastered Colorized Extended Edition for Families with Children and Pets
Random thoughts not quite worked out in my head:
It probably started in the 1980s, and there were movies like Blade Runner or Aliens that suddenly were realized in altered form as "Director's Cuts" or whatever, either to "present the director's original vision", make money, or some of both.
Then came the Star Wars Special Editions in 1997, where suddenly Lucas took his old films and added scenes, redid visual effect shots, etc. to produce what was hailed as the definitive version of the films. Of course, he changed them again seven years later. But, it's not it's the first time he did this - the original Star Wars film was actually altered a bit for its 1980 theatrical re-release - and frankly, I like the new versions better (with the exception of the new dance number in Jabba's palace - ack). I think this is also a case of where we have to use Francis Schaeffer's method of judging art, where we don't look at the individual work per se, but at the artist's sum total of work. Besides, who are we to say when a work of art (or film) is done? When it is released to the public or when the artist says it's finished?
Anyway, what I find interesting is the new "Star Trek Remastered", because here is something that appears similiar, but I think is actually quite different. "Star Trek Remastered" is the new high-definition re-release of the old-school "Star Trek" from the 1960s, except with updated visual effects shots. From the previews I've seen, it looks great, actually. But what is weird about it is that it's not the original filmmakers that are doing this project - rather, it's being commissioned by the corporation that owns the "Star Trek" franchise, so it's like "Wait, whose art is this? Who is this third party making these changes?"
At first, it's a bit disturbing, but then again, I guess people have been doing this for years, anyway. I mean, without even mentioning the "Bowdlerized Shakespeare", one might argue that having a third party translating an ancient text into a modern language might be similar thing, but I think maybe the key thing here is that there is basically a fine line between changing the original and simply making an adaptation of the original: an artist can change his/her original, a third party cannot; but a third party can make an adaptation of the original. I think simply having a knowledge of the history of a work, along with any adaptations, helps to satiate any worries about the integrity of a work, but I think when this knowledge is lost is when it becomes a problem.
Anyway, random thoughts.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff, religion/theology/philosophy
Friday, September 15, 2006
2007 Movie Preview
Transformers. Directed by Michael Bay and produced by Spielberg. They even got the guy who did the voice of Optimus Prime in the cartoon to reprise his role. But honestly, this movie doesn't even have to have a plot — it could simply be two hours of robots transforming and things blowing up, and every man of my generation would pay money to see it. Click here to view the teaser trailer.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Click here to view the teaser tralier.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
The best news I've heard all month.
"Trail of the Screaming Forehead"
Oh man, I can't wait for this one. It's from the director of "Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" and features the same cast:
"Terror strikes Longhead Bay when Creeping Alien Foreheads begin attaching themselves to local townspeople and seizing their very souls - launching a vast invasion from Space!
"By remarkable coincidence, sexy, arrogant scientist, Sheila Baxter begins testing her theory that the forehead - not the brain - is the seat of all human knowledge. She formulates a human extract - Foreheadazine - and convinces gullible collegue, Dr. Phillip Latham that - with enough Foreheadazine - he can become the most brilliant scientist in the world!
"Catastrophe reigns when the ill-fated experiment goes horribly, horribly wrong - meanwhile, the entire town of Longhead Bay is being taken over by sinister, crawling browlike nightmares in a terrifying cataclysm of Corpses and Chaos!"
Forget Pirates, X-Men, and Snakes on a Plane - my money's on this one. It releases soon.
Official site: www.screamingforehead.com
(And by the way, if you haven't seen "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" yet, well, you're missing out.)
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Thursday, June 01, 2006
I want to believe (that they'll actually film it)
From WENN via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News (link):
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have both signed on to star in the second X-Files feature film. The movie will pick up four years after the 2002 finale that left agents Mulder and Scully on the run from the FBI. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz claims the script is nearly finished, saying, "We've worked out most of the plot." He claims the sequel will be light on mythology, adding, "It's very liberating to be freed of that." The film will begin shooting after X-Files creator Chris Carter and 20th Century Fox settle a lawsuit over syndication profits.Lawsuit? Great, we'll never see this thing.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
To Boldly Go Where No Horse Has Gone Before...
From AP (link): Shatner believes he can contribute to Middle East peace by helping Israeli and Palestinian kids with disabilities through horseback riding.
Wow, I don't even know where to start. But hey, I guess he did bring peace between the Federation and the Klingons, and as Spock would say, "Only Nixon could go to China."
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Some Bizarre Random Things.
Cate Blanchett is one of several actors (including Heath Ledger and Richard Gere) who will portray Bob Dylan during different stages of his life in a new biopic by director Todd Haynes. Yes, you read that correctly. This is just wrong on so many levels, especially since I like both Bob Dylan and Cate Blanchett. (Although, it does introduce the possibility for a Bob Dylan vs. Galadriel match in this year's upcoming Super Archetype Slapdown Tournament...)
This is Elvis Presley's cell phone. For real.
I had no idea that this existed, but apparently in 1999, Ben Stiller directed a tv pilot called "Heat Vision and Jack", a show about astronaut Jack Austin (played by Jack Black), whom sunlight gives incredible intellect, and his talking motorcycle Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson), on the run from NASA hitman/actor Ron Silver (played by Ron Silver), and also featured appearances by both Stiller and his wife and the late character actor Vincent Schiavelli. It never aired. Here's the whole 30-minute episode:
Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWgXDOAJ5s
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Geek Update.
So, what's new in Star Wars Land? Well, for one, Lucas has finally broken down and decided to release the original trilogy in it's original form, much to the joy of those fanboys who feel that the special editions and the prequels have somehow stolen their childhood or something. I, for one, actually like the special editions. (Although it's cool to see Han shoot first.)
Some other news from Rick McCallum:
New Star Wars Animated Television Series
-Animated series will be released first, before live action show.
-Not the same style as past Clone Wars Cartoon
Live Action Television Series
-Shooting in Australia
-To be more dramatic, intense, darker, heavy duty
-May not go to television, mentions iPod, future "home" unknown
-Writing to start end of this year
-Starts shooting end of next year
Star Wars 3D
-The entire Star Wars saga re-released on the big screen in 3D.
Woohoo.
Sources:
• http://www.starwars.com/...
• http://www.theforce.net/...
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
It's almost summer, and that means movies. yay!
X-Men: The Last Stand - May 26, 2006
Cars - June 9, 2006
Nacho Libre - June 16, 2006
Superman Returns - June 30, 2006
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - July 7, 2006
A Scanner Darkly - July 7, 2006
Lady In The Water - July 21, 2006
Snakes On A Plane - August 18, 2006
For Your Consideration - September 22, 2006
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Redshirts and the Stormtrooper Effect
From Wikipedia.com: “A Redshirt is a stock character, used frequently in science fiction but also other genres, whose sole purpose is to violently die soon after being introduced. Redshirts are a plot device used to indicate the dangerous circumstances faced by the main characters at the start of a narrative, akin to the 'canary in the mine shaft.'” The term originated from the original Star Trek series, where “typically, a landing party would consist of Kirk, Spock, McCoy (all main characters who stood zero chance of dying) and one never-before-seen red-shirted ensign, who would be dead by the end of the mission, usually within minutes.”
“The Stormtrooper effect, also called Stormtrooper syndrome, is a cliché phenomenon in works of fiction where minor characters are unrealistically ineffective in combat against more important characters. The name originated with the armed Imperial Stormtroopers in the original Star Wars trilogy, who, despite their considerable advantages of close range, overwhelming numbers, professional military training, full armour, military-grade firepower, and noticeable combat effectiveness against non-speaking characters, were incapable of seriously harming the protagonists. The effect is generally employed either to increase the dramatic tension of a chase scene or to accentuate the heroes' fighting prowess...” It has been expressed in an equation,
“where n is the number of "bad guys", x is the number of "good guys", and J is the number of Jedi present (if any). The equation reads, "The probability of a bad guy hitting his target is equal to the inverse of: all bad guys present plus the cube of the number of good guys present (plus one) plus the number of Jedi present (plus one) to the tenth power." From this, one can infer that the presence of a good guy has a detrimental effect on the bad guys' accuracy, while having even one Jedi present is a veritable death sentence, as well as being more inaccurate in larger numbers.”
It should also be noted that this only seems to be in effect when the troopers are opposed to the protagonists, as Episodes II and III show the troopers to be quite an effective fighting force, up to the point where they no longer ally themselves with the good guys (ie., Order 66), and their ineffectiveness extends to the end of Episode VI.
The Stormtrooper Effect can oftern be seen in other movies such as The Lord of the Rings or the Indiana Jones movies, and scores of movies that both proceeded and followed Star Wars. Another classic example can be seen in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, where the pirates not only never kill Steve, but Steve seems to never run out of bullets on a single load.
(A related rule is The Inverse Ninja Law, which states that the skill level of any particular ninja in a group is inversely proportional to the number of ninja in that group. In other words, one ninja in a group of thirty ninja is no threat, while a single lone ninja is a great threat.)
These phenomena are often parodied in other works of fiction, such as Galaxy Quest, Family Guy, or Stargate SG-1 (where one minor character in peril (not coincidentally played by a Star Trek regular) exclaimed "We're dead! We might as well be wearing red shirts!")
Read more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormtrooper_effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshirt_%28science_fiction%29
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
More Random Things.
Cookie Monster struggles with his own personal demons...
Represent.
This is my BOOMSTICK!!!
Speaking of indulgences...
Praying Mantis:1
Hummingbird: 0
Go! Mighty Orbots!
Cute. Sorta.
Some people can pull off playing key-tar.
The Newsom Boys' Snow Golem:
Labels: geek stuff
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Don't miss the 2005 MIT Time Travellers Convention!
That's right, you only need one such convention. In the words of host Amal Dorai, "The convention was a mixed success. Unfortunately, we had no confirmed time travelers visit us, yet many time travelers could have attended incognito to avoid endless questions about the future." Or maybe as Tina Fey suggested: "too bad people from the future already know the party sucked."
Info is as follows:
MIT Time Traveler Convention
May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
(events start at 8:00pm)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
3 Ames St. Cambridge, MA 02142
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)
RSVP not required for time travellers, but some sort of proof is.
Or you can always visit the original Destination Day in Perth:
Destination Day
12 Noon (UTC/GMT + 8 hours)
31st March 2005
Forrest Place, Perth 6000, Western Australia
31° 57' 7" , 115° 51' 32"
(31.9522 , 115.8591 in decimal degrees)
(In both cases, I suggest you compensate for the Earth's orbit and spacial drift.)
Physicist Stephen Hawking has suggested that we can know that time travel is impossible because we haven't met any time travelers from the future, assuming that a time traveler would actually want to visit Stephen Hawking.
And while I'm at it, here's three words you won't see together:
Calvinist Time Traveller. haha
Labels: geek stuff, science/tech
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
How to become a robot.
One of the staple cliches of scifi is to transfer a person's consciousness to a computer (especially one in a robot), but the question remains, is this robot actually the person, or is just a copy of the person? The same argument is often applied to the transporter device in Star Trek: is the person stepping out of the transporter simply a copy of a person that was destroyed on a distant transporter platform? What is self, and what is the soul attached to?
Personally, I think the way to do it is to gradually replace living brain tissue with artificial components until nothing is left except the artificial computer brain, which can then be extracted from the body and placed in a robot body with the strength of five gorillas (alternatively, the organic brain can be placed in a robot until the conversion is complete).
Anyway, now we're a step closer. Here's a Fox News story about some researchers that glued a rat brain cell and some snail brain cells to some microchips (as seen in above photo):
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189323,00.html
Labels: geek stuff, science/tech
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
"That's no moon..."
Oh, wait, nevermind. Yep, that's a moon. Mimas, in orbit about Saturn.
Link to NASA website: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07639
"That's no moon..."
It's a space station. Except, it's in the wrong movie. Dunyayi Kurtaran Adam, or as we call it in the States, Turkish Star Wars, is a remarkably bad movie made in Turkey in 1982 that uses random clips stolen from Star Wars and random clips of actual NASA rockets to serve as its own visual effects, many of which are realized by just having footage of some guy with a motorcycle helmet sitting in front of screen that has Star Wars clips playing in the background. Yikes.
To watch some clips of it on IFILM, go here:
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2645732?htv=12&htv=12
To read a fun review of it, go here:
http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=22122
Labels: geek stuff, science/tech
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Happy 20th Birthday!
That's right, the original Legend of Zelda is now twenty years old. Twenty years ago, on February 21, 1986, Japanese gamers first ventured into the Land of Hyrule.
Forget Lord of the Rings - this was the epic 80s childhood fantasy that is forever ingrained in the brains of my generation, where we proved our fell prowess in reuniting the eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom in all its 8-bit glory, to rescue the beautiful Princess Zelda from the sinister hands of Ganon, and restore peace to the Land of Hyrule:
And then, the few and the proud rose above the rabble and defeated him again in the Second Quest, and we wouldn't let octoroks nor Aquamentus stand in our way.
Remember: always keep your boomerang as default on button B and always swap back to it after you use the first serving of the healing potion.
Read 1up.com's retrospective on the series:
http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3148112
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_Zelda_series
Labels: geek stuff
Saturday, February 18, 2006
How did I miss this?
My hometown in a prime-time drama? Yep.
Back in February of 1994, according the mythos of The X-Files, UFOs are spotted in where else but the non-incorporated community of Reagan*, Tennessee, on Highway 100, approximately 5-10 miles away from the house I grew up in.
What?
C.B. FEMALE CALLER: I seen three of them flying over Chester County.And why does Reagan look suspiciously like British Columbia?
C.B. MALE CALLER #2: Right, right, and six troopers were chasing them down 22! Whoa, I see one now! And he’s over the watertower!
Where was I when this happened? Probably playing Super Nintendo or watching TV (apparently not FOX, though). And then the next thing we know, Special Agents Mulder and Scully are questioning the truck driver at the police station of my very own hometown, Lexington, Tennessee, where we meet Lexington Police Chief Rivers, whoever that was (portrayed by Canadian actor Allan Lysell, who does a wonderful Georgian accent, unfortunately). I'm pretty sure I've never seen Chief Rivers' picture in the paper, and I've been in it at least twice. (And shouldn't the Sheriff, not the Police, have jurisdiction over Reagan?)
Anyway, this was from the first-season episode "E.B.E.", which incidentally was the first episode to feature The Lone Gunmen (who did not visit Lexington). You can read the transcript of the actual script at The X-Files Scripts Archive (scenes 3-5).
____________________
* pronounced RIG-un
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Random Things.
Culled from my random picture folder that's been accumulating for a while.
How not to land an F-15.
How not to move a bomb.
Bread is people too.
These are not the cops you're looking for. Move along.
New Orleans flood victims, floating along with their beer and snacks.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock... (for Calvinists)"
Snoopy Bass VI.
Jason finds a new major.
What?
Can't touch this.
We thank thee...
Turn to the Book of Kahless...
Tommy Seebach covers 'Apache', as only Finnish disco musicians can. To see his music video, click here, and prepare yourself for the worst dancing ever.
To watch some guys jump a VW van, click here.
Labels: geek stuff
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
Yes, it's real. No, they're not serious. Well, at least not like you think. www.devoted1.com
Labels: geek stuff
Friday, January 20, 2006
"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this..."
"Did I ever tell you kids about the first Thanksgiving? It took place between the ancient Egyptains and aliens from a distant galaxy." That's right, you can now buy an action figure of the Star Wars character Major Derlin, who was played by John Ratzenberger, who is best known for his role of Cliff Claven in Cheers. The Cliff Action Figure, now available from Hasbro.
Labels: geek stuff
Monday, January 09, 2006
Super Archetype Slapdown Tournament!
FINAL ROUND!
Due to surprising out-of-the-arena shenanigans, the Trinity vs. MacGyver match was cancelled to MacGyver's injuries from an attack of a pack of frenzied beagles (one of whom was wearing an old hat), and Trinity's illness that resulted from out-of-date virus definitions. Therefore, only one match is left. Who would win, and why? Discuss.
Labels: geek stuff
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Super Archetype Slapdown Tournament!
ROUND 2!
In a process that did not involve actual skill or facts, but rather the opinions of a limited council of sorts (much like the Jesus Seminar), the following characters have proceeded to Round 2. Who would win, and why? Discuss.
Labels: geek stuff
Monday, December 19, 2005
Super Archetype Slapdown Tournament!
In each of the following eight matches, who would win in a fight, and why? Discuss.
Labels: geek stuff
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
WARNING!!! MAJOR GEEK CONTENT FOLLOWS!!!
From Wired Magazine:
James Cawley, who plays Kirk, and director Jack Marshall are the cocreators of Star Trek: New Voyages. They are repairing a rift in the space-time continuum, fixing the most glaring flaw in the history of science fiction. As every geek in the galaxy knows, Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise set out on a five-year mission to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before. But NBC canceled the show in 1969 after only three seasons. New Voyages aims to fill fans in on what they missed. . . . At their current pace of one episode a year, they'll finish the five-year mission in 2054.Yes, that's right. A bunch of Star Trek geeks have banded together to shoot new episodes of the old-skool adventures of Kirk and crew with an all-new cast. Apparently, one of the script-writers of the original show is writing the new scripts, a few random production people who actually work for the official show are pitching in, plus the guy that played Chekov is even reprising his role when Chekov gets affected by an aging-virus. Director Jack Marshall, incidentally, is the guy responsible for "The Phantom Edit", a re-cut of Star Wars Ep.1 that floated about the internet, which cut out most of Jar-Jar's scenes and Anakin's "yippee!" lines, so it can't be all that bad, huh? The episodes can be downloaded for free from www.newvoyages.com
Now, on a certain level, I'll admit that what they're doing is pretty cool. It has indie written all over it, but man, I can think of lots of other things I'd rather pour my time and creativity into.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
For your edification...
This is the Fender Jazzmaster. It was introduced in 1958, and it is the only guitar that you'll ever want. It has a 25.5" scale length, two warm single-coil pickups, a separate rhythm circuit, and a floating tremolo:
Should for some obscure reason you want not a Jazzmaster, I suggest the Fender Jaguar, introduced in 1962. It has a shorter 24" scale length and brighter pickups:
Amongst many other colors, it is also available in the bizarre antigua finish (yum!):
Should you need a different sound, the Jaguar is also available with humbuckers and a fixed bridge:
A budget version is the hybrid Squier Jagmaster, also with a 24" scale length:
Should you need a lower range, try the Fender Jaguar Baritone Special, available with humbuckers, a fixed bridge, and a 27" scale length. It is typically tuned B-B, lower than a standard guitar:
But even more fun is the Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom, available with single-coils, a fixed bridge, rhythm circuit, and a longer 28.5" scale length. Tuned E-E, an octave lower than a standard guitar:
...which is more or less a modified version of the classic Fender Bass VI, with a 30" scale length, three single coils, and a floating tremolo:
However, should that not be bassy enough for you, there is always the Fender Jaguar Bass, equipped with Jazz Bass pickups and a 34" scale length:
For more info about the original Jazzmaster and Jaguar, their history, FAQs, etc., visit http://www.webrocker.de/jaguar/v2/index.php, which includes a nice helpful flash thingy that explains the Jaguar's switching configurations.
Should you wish to help me in my musical endeavors, I will accept donations of any or all of these. Thank you, and good day.
Labels: geek stuff, music
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Persephone? Rupert?
How about 'Xena'? Argh... Unfortunately, that's probably what the newly-discovered tenth planet in our solar system is going to be called. Astronomer Mike Brown and friends discovered the planet a few months ago, and a hack into his computer forced his hand to give a public announcement of their discovery. The current official name for the object is 2003 UB313 (not P2X-313). It is approximately 1.5x the size of Pluto and orbits the sun approximately 3x as far away as Pluto.
We have yet to determine if there is any enemy presence on Xena, but I say we launch a pre-emptive strike just to be safe.
For more info, click here to visit NASA's website.
Labels: geek stuff
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Thanks a lot Lucas... I'd almost gotten over my stormtrooper action figure addiction. Good thing you put like, I dunno, 582 new variations in Episode III. Last chance at the take a major swipe at the collectors, huh?
Oh well. The following picture is funny:
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Friday, July 15, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
New trivial things to obsess over.
My Netflix Queue. I'm on the 3-at-a-time plan, which, with shipping times, averages out to be 3 discs per week. I get dvds of tv series, and I try to stagger them so that I get one dvd from a series per week, so that every week I get an disc of X-Files, a disc of Stargate, etc. Naturally, it takes forever to get the Queue arranged properly, but I don't want to risk getting too many of any one show all at once. So, I'm almost done with Babylon 5, and Stargate will run out soon after that. I've added The Lone Gunmen (an X-Files spin-off) to take the place of Stargate, and I've added a dozen actual movies to come in later. Still, I'm staggering these so that every week I'll get "series #1", "series #2", "movie". Months down the Queue, Millenium replaces X-Files, I finally catch up where I quit watching Star Trek years ago, and I see what the big deal is about Alias. But! what if I don't like Alias? What if Jennifer Garner gets on my nerves after I've gone to all the trouble to stagger it against Millenium and Deep Space Nine? What if I get two discs of the same show in a row? Oh! the risks we take! Ah, yeah, so anyway... oh nevermind.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Whatever happened to...
George Lucas ties up a few loose ends that keep fanboys up at night:
____________
One bit of conjecture Lucas finally laid to rest was the question of how close the link between clone troopers and stormtroopers was. He told MTV in an interview that the Empire's stormtroopers in the original series were in fact more of the same clones that form the Republican army in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith – though by the time of A New Hope, stormtrooper ranks had swelled to include regular recruits as well.
"The idea is that over time, there were new clone strains introduced, and then they even conscripted guys to be Storm Troopers. So it's not just purely clones: It started out as clones, but then it got diluted over the years as they found out they could shanghai guys [more cheaply] than they could build clones."
When pressed for details about the fates of favorite and not-so-favorite characters, Lucas had this to say – first about Han Solo and Leia: "Han and Leia probably did get married. They settled down. She became a senator, and they got a nice little house with a white picket fence. Han Solo is out there cooking burgers on the grill."
And about Jar-Jar Binks: "He goes back to Naboo and he's a representative. He probably stays on the council, he's probably in the senate, because it becomes completely worthless. Senators are just for show, which they talk about in Episode IV. Actually, in Episode IV they get disbanded, so Jar Jar probably goes home to his wife and kids."
Source: http://filmforce.ign.com/starwars/articles/613/613366p1.html
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
A response.
"Do you think he has any idea we're about to arrest him?"
"Not a clue."
After months of lurking about spoiler-filled boards, listening to people invent wacky theories about Palpatine being a clone and make jokes about Obi-Wan trying to scam Padme out of her apartment or Anakin stinking up Palpatine's place in a failed attempt to prepare cod for dinner, Revenge of the Sith finally arrives in theaters, much to the displeasure of those people who think Star Wars was better before they got rid of the vasoline blob underneath Luke's landspeeder. For those of us who actually like the prequel trilogy and don't really care if Lucas screws up mythological archetypes or not,
Revenge of the Sith is a lot of fun, and dovetails nicely into the original trilogy.
"I really like this apartment. I wonder if they'd
consider signing the lease over to me..."
It is definitely the darkest movie of the entire saga and has the least worst acting of the prequels, and feels more like the original trilogy than the others. But if at anything, it feels a bit rushed, especially near the end. I would have liked it better if this movie were split up over Episodes II and III, and Attack of the Clones combined with The Phantom Menace into Episode I. Not a perfect movie by any means, but still a good way for the Star Wars movies to end - or at least meet in the middle, as it were.
"Smells like fish, this carpet does."
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Monday, May 16, 2005
Star Wars Matching Game
Test your mad skillz! Match the character on the left with the real-life actor on the right. One is a give-away (that's right, 1=C). Have fun!
 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. | A.  B.  C.  D.  E.  F.  |
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Summertime's almost here...
...and that means it's almost time for Revenge of the Sith. One week, actually. Unfortunately, none of the following things will be in it:
Fortunately, none of the following things will be in it:
And fortunately, this will be in it:
And it wouldn't be Star Wars without star-destroyers and hair-buns:
The circle is now complete...
...well, except that they're going to make TV shows.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Behind the scenes at Cartoon Network...
I have no idea where this came from, but it really made me laugh.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Quote of the Day:
"Strange, that movies about Satan always require Catholics. You never see your Presbyterians or Episcopalians hurling down demons."
-Roger Ebert in his review of the movie Constantine starring Keanu Reeves.
Or Baptists, for that matter. We can totally hurl down.
But he's just saying that because he hasn't seen John Piper and R.C. Sproul's new action-drama:
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff, religion/theology/philosophy
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Developing a better vocabulary.
I hereby announce the removal of the following word from my vocabulary:
celebration (n), celebrate (v)
This includes any adjectival, adverbial, or whatever other forms of the word, with the possible usage exception of a reference to a birthday or anniversary, where it will be possibly be written as "c**********" or some other appropriate form. Preferably, I will use the words "commemoration", "observance", or "festival" instead.
Thank you.
Labels: geek stuff
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Sweet Fancy Moses! Lucas Strikes Back!
Well, the teaser trailer Star Wars: Episode III - The Revenge of the Sith has hit, and Lucas may get the last laugh after all. Here's a bunch of pics from both here, there, and everywhere.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Anakin Skywalker
Padme and Anakin
Bail Organa
Mon Mothma
Tarkin
space battle
ARC-170 Starfighter
Jedi Starfighter
a ship crashing
Wookiees
Clonetroopers
C-3PO on the Tantive IV
The Duel
Darth Vader
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Monday, November 01, 2004
Say what?
I think if Christ's return does not precede my passing on to higher realms, I would like my last words during my time here (aside from "aaaaauugghh!") to be:
"I'll hold them off! Get the President out of here!"
Hahahaha - I'm pretty sure they won't be "I'll never talk!", because I'd probably tell them the nuclear passcodes right after they broke the first finger.
But really, as long as it's not "Hey guys, watch this!", or "Get them off me! Get them off me!", I'll be happy.
Labels: geek stuff
Friday, August 20, 2004
More Reasons We Need Batman.
Art Thieves. A couple of yahoos strolled into a Norwegian Art Gallery and stole Edward Munch's two paintings The Scream and Madonna in broad daylight. The Scream, of course, is the Expressionist painting of some sad fellow running down the pier, you guessed it, screaming. Yawn. His Madonna, of course, is not the singer, but is supposed to be the Virgin Mary, although his rendition is, in a way, more like the singer, in that it might not be visually edifying for young protestant boys trying to concentrate on their prayer life. But I digress.
EMP Attack. For those of you who paid attention during The Matrix, you learned what an EMP device is. For the rest of you, an EMP device releases an ElectroMagnetic Pulse which effectively fries any electrical device within line of site. The simplest way to create an EMP effect is to detonate a large nuclear device above the atmosphere, and it will affect a huge area. This phenomenon was discovered in 1963 after the US exploded a 1.5 megaton nuclear weapon 400km above Johnston Island in the Pacific - 1500km away in Hawaii, light bulbs and televisions exploded and power lines were fused. If a device was exploded high over Kansas, it would effectively take out all electrical equipment in the US that wasn't shielded against it - basically no consumer device is hardened against this, and few things military. Russia and China have both let us know that they have this capability, but really, they're not the ones to worry about as much as terrorists, who could mount a warhead onto a SCUD missile and fire it offshore from a barge or something.
The Apprentice First Season DVD Box Set. How did it ever come to this?
Labels: geek stuff
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Geek Update:
Star Wars Original Trilogy DVDs
Whatever you may think of the additional changes you might think that they're making to the original trilogy, just think how bad it could be:
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Stupid Geek Debate, moderated by Mr. Floyd Paenut.
The question that plagues the fanboys now is this: "What happens when you detonate a spherical metal honeycomb over five hundred miles wide just above the atmosphere of a habitable world?" Did the destruction of the Second Death Star in Return of the Jedi lead to an environmental disaster on Endor? Did enough material strike the surface of the moon to create a "nuclear winter"? (links: 'For' Essay, Rebuttal Essay) Do we really even care?
Discuss. Leave a comment.
Labels: geek stuff
Sunday, June 20, 2004
Tuesday the 22nd!
This Tuesday, two way cool things are coming out:
1. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra DVD – A spoof of 1950's scifi/horror films.
2. Mega Man Anniversary Collection (PS2, GC) – The old-school Nintendo game series Mega Man 1-8.
It should be good times.
Labels: geek stuff
Friday, June 11, 2004
Various Media Reviews
The Greatest American Hero. – Rumors are beginning to arise of a possible movie of this classic 1980s TV show...
The Holy Observer (www.holyobserver.com) – A really, really funny satirical Christian News site that appears to be run by actual Christians that are actually orthodox. Some of my favorite articles were "Church Votes to Expel Non-Purpose Driven Members", "Gospel Tract Actually Leads To Conversion", "Barna: Regular Baptists not regular at all", and this exclusive report: "Trinity Broadcasting Network Run by Atheists". Be sure to check out the archives.
In the meantime, you should listen to these CDs because they are filled with pretty songs, and they rock just enough:
• The Doves – Lost Souls – "Catch the Sun" is my favorite song ever.
• Luxury – (self-titled) – Good luck finding this one.
• Sunny Day Real Estate – The Rising Tide – Still better than The Fire Theft.
Labels: geek stuff
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
How to make our military more effective and polite:
Clone Patton. I mean, if one Patton can drive a swath of destruction through Rommel's forces, imagine what an entire clone army of these sonsa$@%&#es could do. General George S. Patton, Jr. was quite the literate high-society type, too, so they'd be quite well behaved. Plus, they'd kill the bad guys dead, because they know that you can't win a war by dying for your country.
Labels: geek stuff
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Floyd's Fake Death Review
Andy Kaufman has returned from the dead – or at least from the upper west side of New York City. Click here for the press release. And if you read it on the web, it must be true... Maybe Kurt Cobain will be next – I could really use a new Nirvana album.
But really, what we all want is for General George S. Patton, Jr. to come back and settle this War on Terrorism, Al-Qaeda, and Cobra Command once and for all. "You don't win a war by dying for your country..."
Addendum (2004.06.02) — Well, I guess he's really dead after all.
Labels: geek stuff
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
BREAKING NEWS!
Dateline: 2004
Gasoline prices soar out of control!
This photo was on cnn.com. Can't we just go ahead and make Iraq the 51st state? I'm all for the Imperial America Doctrine (with me in control, of course, haha, haha, ha, hahaha). This is getting old. Or at least couldn't they start marketing those Mr. Fusions that Doc Brown used?
Labels: geek stuff
Friday, May 14, 2004
"Woman! Where's my super-suit?!"
On November 5, Pixar will be releasing what may be their last movie for Disney, and it looks like it'll be great. The Incredibles is about a team of superheroes, and stars Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, and Samuel L. Jackson (see above picture). Pixar, of course, is the genius CGI company that brought you such fine films as Toy Story, Monsters Inc., etc. It is being directed by Brad Bird, who also directed The Iron Giant, which is a good movie, too. Check out the trailers at the Apple Quicktime website.
Labels: film/tv/books/arts, geek stuff
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Geek Update by Floyd:
Things to do in Bespin when you're dead...
So, the Star Wars Imperial troopers are clones, right? So what do we do about the fact that the old-school Episode 4-6 stormtroopers have different heights, voices, and apparently far less skill than their Episode 2 predecessors? Well, according to George Lucas...
"Well, they start to turn to different sources when they need it, that's why you get the differences," offers George as an explanation. "We get a model that isn't the Jango version, that doesn't bump his head on doors [ed.-see above photo]. But then we get versions that can't shoot straight," he laughs. "I can see the corruption in the Empire: someone says to the Emperor, my cousin would like to fight in the wars, but he doesn't want to do any of the actual fighting. Can you clone him? Well, can he shoot? Ah, yeah. Sure he can." (From the 8/13 Set Diary)Right. I wonder if that might have been "Cousin Jar-Jar"? Hmm. My guess is still that he'll make a Special Special Edition after Episode 3 and try and fix all the inconsistancies (and bad CGI from the first Special Edition). Also, here's a picture of the trooper helmet development. The middle one is the Episode 3 one.
Have a day!
Labels: geek stuff
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Geek update.
This summer, we will see the release of the original Mega Man series (parts 1-8) on a single disc for Playstation 2 and Gamecube. What's Mega Man, you ask? Mega Man is arguably the best series of old-school Nintendo games around. The main character's name is, you guessed it, Mega Man, and his mission is to go around and stop a mad scientist, Dr. Wily, and his evil robots from wrecking havoc on the world. Usually, there are eight levels (which you can play in any order) with one robot boss each. When you defeat a robot boss, you gain his weapon. Once you've beaten all the robot bosses, then you venture into Dr. Wily's multi-level hideout for a final showdown. The trick is to figure out which order to defeat the bosses, as certain weapons are more effective than others in various situations. There's a good breakdown of the first six Mega Man games at this site: Mega Man Matrix.
In the meantime, to help you get into the spirit of things, you should check out a band called The Minibosses. They are a 4-piece garage band (2 guitars, bass, drums) that play instrumental covers of old-school Nintendo video game music. They do a 9-minute suite of music from Mega Man 2. They're lo-fi and they rock. It's fun. In addition, a couple of guys called Project X have recorded most of the music from Mega Man 2 and 3.
Rock on.
Labels: geek stuff
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Floyd's Web Review:
www.khaaan.com
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the quintessential space opera of the 1980s, far beneath the epic status of Star Wars, yet far above the inaneness of any Corman production. There was nothing like popping an ABC-edited copy of this thing in the VCR and watching it with a big bowl of popcorn and Totino's frozen pizza (after being unfrozen). And of course, the melodramatic acting of Shatner as he taunted Khan, played by Ricardo Montelban, and the scarcastic bickering of Spock and McCoy.
This website encapsulates the emotion of that movie in a roughly ten-second Flash animation.
Labels: geek stuff
Monday, April 26, 2004
"I'm Batman"?
It seems that England now has its own crime-fighting duo. Or at least a citizen-helping duo that can push your car to the nearest petrol (US: gas) station, chase streakers off a football (US: soccer) field, or help protest the name change of your favorite pub.
Labels: geek stuff
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Well, now that Lord of the Rings is done, and Star Wars is almost done, you have a new series of movies to get excited about:
C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia
Yep, and there's seven of them, so we could be seeing these things come out for a while (assuming they make all seven). The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is scheduled for a Christmas 2005 release. They're being directed by Andrew Adamson (he did Shrek, but Narnia is live-action), special effects (not digital visual effects) are being done by Richard Taylor and Weta Workshop (they made all the non-digital stuff for Lord of the Rings), and Lewis' stepson Douglas Gresham is in as co-producer to make sure everything goes okay. Also, it's being shot in New Zealand.
I just can't wait for Septilogy Saturday, haha.
Labels: geek stuff
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Geek update.
Yeah, so Star Wars: Episode III is like a year away. Hoo-boy. Everybody contain your excitement. There was a rumor it was going to be called "The Creeping Fear" or something goofy like that. What'd you expect? Well, at least we'll get to see Darth Vader and Chewbacca in this one. And at least this fall we'll finally get Empire Strikes Back on DVD. Anyway, here's some random pics, new and old.
Anakin Skywalker doing his best "this ring is too heavy for me, Sam".
It's a wonder he doesn't burn his pants with that thing.
Bail Organa as the man who killed Inigo Montoya's father.
Obi-wan with his space-paper and space-japanese-import.
(Okay, I really don't know if it's japanese or american. It sure ain't corellian.)
Mon Mothma. Many Bothans died to bring you this picture.
Tarkin. Rumor has it that he's either CG or is wearing a prosthetic forehead on his real head.
Maybe the guy that played Gollum will play him. (This may be a fake photo.)
New trooper.
What were you expecting?
Old pirates like to hug.
So do wookiees.
The imfamous head-bonk scene.
The imfamous buffet outtake. Wait a minute...
Pics (c) Lucasfilm, of course. Go to starwars.com or grilled-sarlacc.com for more.
Labels: geek stuff