How to carry a Lightsaber #2

Many proud owners of Force FX sabers from Master Replicas like to bring them to parties, events and conventions. To do so without risking damage or the loss of your saber, I recommend a fishing rod tube. I paid 20 bucks for mine and it does the trick.It is far easier to carry than the box it came shipped in, and less conspicuous than carrying the saber in the open.


Technorati Tags:
lightsaber, star wars, how to

How to carry a Lightsaber #1

Here are a few bonus insomnia 3:00am Slashboing posts. w00t!

There are a few canonical ways of wearing your saber on your belt:

1. Hung from a belt hook with a d-ring on the saber (Original Trilogy Style)
2. A cell phone style universal clip (Prequel Trilogy Style)
3. Tucked into the obi (Luke, ROTJ Style)
4. Tied onto the belt with leather strips (Aurra Sing EU Style)

All methods are cheap and easy. Belt hooks are available from Tandy leather, or from anyplace that cuts keys. Don't use a Carabineer. Don't use a dog leash clip. For the love of the Force do it right.

Technorati Tags:
Lightsaber, Rant, How to

Wichitalking 'bout Kansas

I created my own US State t-shirt at the Slashboing T-shirt shop. The shirt follows a long tradition of slightly funny shirts with punnish references to the names of US states.

Technorati Tags:
Kansas, State T-shirt, slogans, shameless

Knitting for geeks

I stumbled across the "Redshirt Knitting" site whilst clicking through my own technorati.com tags. Not only does he stock Jayne hats from Firefly, he shows how to knit the rebel logo and a hat that spells "hat" in binary.

Too Geeky, Too Cool.

Technorati Tags:
Knitting, Geek, Jayne Hat, Cunning Hat, Binary, insomnia

Special Modifications to Force Powers

This video from Lucasfilm/Hyperspace shows some awesome upgrades to the Jedi force poweres. I am unsure if this pre-visualization footage is for the new 3D Clone Wars Cartoon or a seventh generation console game.

Either way it is bad-ass. Force push/throw has come a long way baby!



Technorati Tags:
Star Wars, The Force, Clone Wars, Hyperspace, wow!

Lazy Muncie

After the popular SNL digital short Lazy Sunday was released and made people swoon, a series of rap "responses" came out. Parodying the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry, a group in California released "Color me Mine" to represent the West Coast. It is Ok, but the real gem is Lazy Muncie, the Mid-west repsonse from Indiana, complete with a cameo by Jim Davis.


Technorati Tags:
White rappers, Indiana, midwest, rap wars, Lazy Muncie

Shout out to my reader

Here are the locations of the last 10 unique readers of Slashboing, as revealed by their IP address:



1) San Antonio, Texas - Likely Greg, sup!
2) Edmonton, Alberta - Likely iRob, Yo homes
3) Wichita, Kansas - Wichitalking about Kansas
4) Boulder, Colorado - Keep rolling in boulder
5) San Diego, California - West side!
6) Chicago, Illinois - I get buckets of readers from Illinois, sup Chi-Town!
7) Scarborough, Ontario - Chill!
8) Mt. Laurel, New Jersey - Represent!
9) Herndon, Virginia - Bo-ya!
10) Manchester, England - Jolly good

This was brought to you by the good folks at Gvist.

Technorati Tags:
Gvisit, Shout out, maps make things fun

Serpents on a Cessna

Watching Indiana Jones with iRob this weekend I realize that Dr. Jones is the great grandfather of "Snakes on a Plane." Listen here: snakes.mp3

There is nothing new under the sun.

Technorati Tags:
Indiana Jones, Snakes on a Plane

Towards thee I roll

A photo of a rare "Sarbu" coffee shop. I didn't think a chain of such size would ever let a store get this shabby.


"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale" - Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Technorati Tags:
Starbucks, Moby Dick, Missing Letters, Sarbu

A Parable

Once upon a time, a father and a son went to sell their old horse in the market. While they were on their way to the market, a group of people commented, "We have never seen such idiots in our life. In spite of having a horse you are walking!" They both thought about it and sat on the horse.

Another group of people came and said, "How cruel you are! You both are sitting on this poor old horse. Have some mercy on it." They both thought about it, and the son sat on it while the father started walking.

Again, another group came across and said to the son, "What kind of young lad you are? You are enjoying a ride on this horse, while your old father has to walk in this hot weather." The son started walking and let his father sit on the horse.

Another group came across and said to the father, "What kind of father you are! Your little son is walking and you are enjoying yourself on this horse."

Both father and son became so upset that they carried the horse on their shoulders. Then all the people started laughing on them.

Finally, they got rid of that horse by throwing it into a river.

Technorati Tags:
Horse, Parable

Missing Wash

My wife and I agreed that when we got our new car, it would be free of bumper stickers and slogans. We changed our mind and picked up a "Wash is my Copilot" licence plate frame from "Black Market Beagles," a very good Cafepress shop specializing in Firefly/Serenity gear.

How it possible to be so moved by the death of a fictional character? Damn I miss Wash.

Warning: Video is sad and touching

Technorati Tags:
Firefly, Serenity, Wash, Alan Tudyk, leaf on the wind

Harry Potter, the script

Harry Potter, the script,
originally uploaded by Saltation.

Passed on from a friend, and worth posting here.

Technorati Tags:
Star Wars, Harry Potter

Star Trek Cribs

Something to balance out the "Star Wars" heavy posts of late.



Technorati Tags:
Star Trek, Cribs, G4TV

No sleep till Tatooine

After the much-anticipated "Star Wars Marathon" at BobaJay's place, I expected a few revelations. I hoped that after viewing the 6 movies, 2 seasons of the Clone Wars, and the Holiday Special Boba Fett cartoon in their chronological story order I would have a deeper insight into the nature of the Force, and a better understanding for the Star Wars universe as a whole.

What I did end up learning is the following:

• The marketing department at Jolt Cola has done a great job

By packaging their product in large battery style metal cans, they have effectively made their product frightening to the uninitiated. The Jolt Cherry Bomb I tried had everyone on edge. They pack the container with extra CO2 so the bottle emits a "pfoomp" when opened, which makes everyone take notice. "You are not going to drink that whole thing, are you?" Hells yes I am.

• The droid designations "R2-D2" and "C3PO" do not contain enough characters to designate a particular droid.

Using a 4-digit Character/Number/Character/Number code only gives 67,600 unique numbers, not enough to stock a galaxy. This is diminished further if "R2" is the model number, giving only 260 unique numbers in the set. Most of the Expanded universe has the whole name being model designator, so there could be 100 R2-D2 units working on the same project, meaning the customer would have to assign a unique identifier to each of his droids. The films do not support this, as this designation is used as a unique name to give orders to a specific unit.

The short and the long of it is, if R2-D2 is his name, then we don't know the series name, but if it is his series model number, then we don't know his name. Deal with it.

• 1:3:8 is a very good "showers/meals/hours of sleep" ratio

Nuff said.

Other posts on the topic:

• Veritate
  
• Defender 75

Technorati Tags:
star wars, marathon, Jolt Cola, R2D2

And now, the Fish Slapping Dance

Technorati Tags:
Monty Python, Fish Slapping Dance, something completely different, youtube

More T-shirts from Slashboing

The next offering from the SlashBoing t-shirt shop is the "Hopeless Situation Warrior" shirt. When one mechanically translates "Jedi" into a dialect of Chinese, then back into English without understanding either language, the result is "Hopeless Situation Warrior," as is evidenced by the Chinese bootleg copy of "Revenge of the Sith" called "Backstroke ot the West."

The back of the shirt reads "www.calgaryfanforce.com" which as Slashboing readers know, is not mis-translated dialog, but rather the website of the Calgary Star Wars FanForce.

To make ordering from the Slashboing shop easier, I have added a link to my list.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags:
starwars, backstroke of the west, tshirt, spreadshirt

Memes to avoid

A "Meme," as defined by Richard Dawkins is a "unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation." It is a piece of cultural information that one mind transmits, either verbally or by demonstration, to another mind.

Memetics is a means of explaining why almost everyone knows the words to "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" or what to shout out during the pauses during "Mony Mony" even though these things were not formally taught to us through mass communication or institutional means.


I promise to stay away from many of the cliche internet and blog memes, unless they are Star Wars related, or are extremely funny.

Technorati Tags:
meme, einstein

"Well, I can see you're serving drinks, but this place is dangerous"

Thinkgeek has a Star Wars Pewter Bar set that must be one of the coolest adaptations of the licence yet.

You know all the hep cats on Coruscant had a set like this:

• Darth Vader - Corkscrew
• R2D2 - Bottle Opener
• C3PO - Foil Cutter
• Yoda - Wine stopper

The set is missing a jigger and a strainer, but even lead free modern pewter is rarely used for items that will be in contact with food or drink. A Boba Fett flame thrower cigarette lighter would also be a nice addition.

Technorati Tags:
star wars, barware, thinkgeek

Great Mischief and Fun

We attended the Pirates of the Caribbean showing as planned. I think it went well! In our group we had at least 25 costumed pirates, and 15 or so pirates-at-heart in their civies.

Veritate has a much better post of the event, and she wrote it first. And I must say that I was most impressed by the considerable cheer that went up from the crowd when Captain Jack Sparrow made his entrance.

Until next time, Keep to the code...

Technorati Tags:
pirates, piracy, costumes, potc, deadmanschest, rum

Star Wars Rocks Demotivator

Star Wars Rocks Demotivator,
originally uploaded by sardonicasshole.

"It's Comforting to know that no matter what you do in life, it will never be as awesome as this picture"

Technorati Tags:
Star wars, flickr, demotivation, rockandroll

Top 5 costumes I want to see

This is a big convention going year for me. With Con-version 22 in August, then DragonCon in September, and Celebration IV next May, I'm set up for the my biggest season yet.



I hope to see some awesome hall costumes this year. Here is my top five list I'm keeping my eye out for.

• Fry and Leela as robots: Futurama, "Fear of a Bot Planet"
• Admiral Spaceship and Nitro: "Laser cats" SNL digital short, April 2006
  
• Jadis' battle outfit: The Chronicles of Narnia, 2005
• Archangel Gabriel: Constantine, 2005
  
• Plavalaguna: The Fifth Element, 1997

Strange that two of the characters were portrayed by Tilda Swinton. Who knew I was such a big fan? Some of these outfits are older, so I don't expect to see them in the fast paced one-upmanship of convention costuming, but a guy can dream.

Technorati Tags:
top5, costume, science fiction, Tilda Swinton

Won't someone think of the ribbons!

Support-our-ribbons.com is a place where you can make custom magnetic "support" ribbons. They can be funny, serious, or very silly. In my case I chose shameless self-promotion.



Technorati Tags:
ribbon, awareness, self promotion

Updated Disney Pirate ride video

The original "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland, along with the Haunted Mansion, rank in the best rides on the grounds. At some point Disney looked at these rides and had to decide whether to knock them down and make room for a film based ride or to make new films to keep new fans interested. Don't think Disney would take out classic rides to make room for something else. As attractions age, or sponsors come and go rides disappear. See "Yesterland" a site that lovingly documents the passing of classic rides.

With the crumby "Country Bears" and "Haunted Mansion" movies things looked bleak for a "Pirates" adaptation. But even Jerry Bruckheimer (Pearl Harbor, Armageddon) schlock could not keep the first Pirates movie from being great.

With the coming release of the sequel, "Dead Man's Chest" on July 7th, I present footage of the updated Disney ride with the addition of an animatronic Johnny Depp.



Tags: Pirates Disney JohnnyDepp