- Happy Birthday Harry.
- Neville FTMFW.
- Tonks/Lupin WTF.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
Steampunks at Burningman
Burningman in color infrared
Originally uploaded by ioerror.
Found on flickr, photographic evidence of steampunkery at Burining Man. Given the intense heat in the desert, I don't know if I could handle wearing such attire.
This picture also supports the idea that Pith helmets rock the house.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Day 300
Day 300 - Focus
Originally uploaded by Drhaggis.
I'm approaching "endgame" of my yearlong photography project. With just a couple more months to go I'm looking forward to the project's completion.
Still upcoming is my trip to Dragoncon, which has lots of photographic opportunities.
I'm not quite sure what project I'll take on when this is done.
Previously on Slashboing
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Cats love the screech of an electric guitar
The new Guitar hero game "Encore: Rocks the 80's" drops today. I have it on order from Amazon.ca, so until it arrives, this will have to suffice:
Previously on Slashboing:
Previously on Slashboing:
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Canine spotted at Order of the Phoenix Release
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix midnight movie release 005
Originally uploaded by Summer23.
"Radar" the service dog was wearing this vest at opening night of Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix.
Very smart.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Name that emblem
Day 295 - Name that emblem
Originally uploaded by Drhaggis.
I picked up this pin on eBay for a steampunk costume because it looks cool, and the symbology is not readily recognized. Then I thought I should probably know what the pin meant before I starting wearing it.
The left hand side has a coloured enamel bandage wrapped skull, while the right side is an embossed profile of a living man. The bottom has a torch and the letters "EMRB". The pin was made in France, and the auction was French, so I'm presuming that the organization that used this pin was also French.
I have googled the letters "EMRB" and "ERMB" and nothing meaningful has come up.
The question to you is: What is this? What does it represent.?
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Concentric rings mark the earth
There are some interesting concentric rings carved into the ground at the Canadian Forces Base Suffield near Medicine Hat. This "bullseye" is either part of an extensive live fire training system, or the military is communicating with beings from beyond Pluto.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Steam Wars: A film extravaganza
In the quest for steam, I came across the art site Steamwars.com. A simple site with a collection of art depicting some great steam powered robots of war. Some exiting stuff.
Previously on Slashboing
Image © 2007 by Larry Blamire.
Previously on Slashboing
Summer Movie Trends Continued
As a follow up to my previous post, demonstrating blogosphere chatter of some summer films, I used the BlogPulse trend graphs to chart the buzz that Harry Potter has generated in comparison to the latest Pirates movie.
The first big Harry Potter spike we see on February first is for the announcement of the release date of Book 7: The Deathly Hallows. The HP blip on March 28th indicates the chatter that followed the release of the Book 7 Cover. This is about the same impact the release of the Pirate trailer had the week previous. The blip on May 31st during the Pirates craze shows the impact of the announcement of the Harry Potter themed amusement park. Of course the hockey stick at the end of the graph is the hype machine for the latest film, "The Order of the Phoenix." To contrast this I also graphed the impact of the June release of the new Fantastic Four movie, "The Rise of the Silver Surfer." Ouch.
This shows that the Book related announcements garner almost as much attention as the release of a large summer movie. However the Harry Potter movie experience dwarfs the impact of other summer film releases. Of course this analysis is a completely qualitative investigation, so if you dislike Harry Potter, you are free to dismiss its cultural impact. Or worse, one may manipulate these trends to show the shocking dominance of film media over book media, and popular books like Harry Potter over serious literature. Not that I'm cynical.
The first big Harry Potter spike we see on February first is for the announcement of the release date of Book 7: The Deathly Hallows. The HP blip on March 28th indicates the chatter that followed the release of the Book 7 Cover. This is about the same impact the release of the Pirate trailer had the week previous. The blip on May 31st during the Pirates craze shows the impact of the announcement of the Harry Potter themed amusement park. Of course the hockey stick at the end of the graph is the hype machine for the latest film, "The Order of the Phoenix." To contrast this I also graphed the impact of the June release of the new Fantastic Four movie, "The Rise of the Silver Surfer." Ouch.
This shows that the Book related announcements garner almost as much attention as the release of a large summer movie. However the Harry Potter movie experience dwarfs the impact of other summer film releases. Of course this analysis is a completely qualitative investigation, so if you dislike Harry Potter, you are free to dismiss its cultural impact. Or worse, one may manipulate these trends to show the shocking dominance of film media over book media, and popular books like Harry Potter over serious literature. Not that I'm cynical.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Summer Movie Trends
Using the fantastic trending tools at Blogpulse I charted the instances of "Spiderman," "Pirates," and "Transformers." This is a super tool for both serious analysis, and my non-quantitative figuring. At a glance we can how much relative "buzz" or "ink" each Summer movie has generated. Each big peak is their respective opening night, while the the little ripples afterword show that most posts are made during the week, with big drop-offs on the weekends.
The Transformers bump in mid-May shows the echo in the blogosphere after the release of a trailer.
A casual glance showed that "Pirates of the Caribbean" generated the most buzz of the three films, even allowing for the higher base reading from other non-movie posts about pirates.
Interesting? To me? Yes.
The Transformers bump in mid-May shows the echo in the blogosphere after the release of a trailer.
A casual glance showed that "Pirates of the Caribbean" generated the most buzz of the three films, even allowing for the higher base reading from other non-movie posts about pirates.
Interesting? To me? Yes.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Your lack of candy disturbs me . . .
Your lack of candy disturbs me . . .
Originally uploaded by WilWheaton.
Will Wheaton dressed as Darth Vader circa 1977.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Morse Code vs Text Message
As part of my exploration into the Victorian age for my steampunk ensemble, I inevitably came back to Morse Code. As a Cub Scout I learnt how to "pound brass" and send Morse messages with lights or sounders. I have lost this skill, but I may need it again if I'm to make a proper Airship Captain.
Through this research I found the following video on Youtube, where Morse Code is pitted against the fasted cellphone texter they could find. I won't give away the ending.
Through this research I found the following video on Youtube, where Morse Code is pitted against the fasted cellphone texter they could find. I won't give away the ending.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The many names of Warren Ellis
Warren Ellis is a British author of comics, novels, and television, well known for his sarcastic personality and sociocultural commentaries, both through his online presence and his writing. Through his various online forums he has gained such monikers as "Stalin," "The Love Swami," or "Internet Jesus." You can add one more to the list.
In a recent Livejournal post Richard Stevens, writer and illustrator of the syndicated comic-strip "Diesel Sweeteies," dubbed Ellis "Doctor Spacetime." This was his suitably tongue-in-cheek response to Ellis pegging Rich and his fellow web comic artists as "jerks." As can be witnessed from the LJ comments, Ellis is unsure, and Rich goes old school in his defence.
Ellis' original assessment was his playful response to the sketches that filled Rich and other artists at MoCCA used to fill Hope Larson's Kiss Book.
What a wonderful web of feigned disapproval and underhanded complements.
Previously on Slashboing:
In a recent Livejournal post Richard Stevens, writer and illustrator of the syndicated comic-strip "Diesel Sweeteies," dubbed Ellis "Doctor Spacetime." This was his suitably tongue-in-cheek response to Ellis pegging Rich and his fellow web comic artists as "jerks." As can be witnessed from the LJ comments, Ellis is unsure, and Rich goes old school in his defence.
Ellis' original assessment was his playful response to the sketches that filled Rich and other artists at MoCCA used to fill Hope Larson's Kiss Book.
What a wonderful web of feigned disapproval and underhanded complements.
Previously on Slashboing:
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Steam + Anachronism = Steampunk.
A recent post to some of the Steampunk communities on Livejournal got everyone discussing what the "sub-culture" actually is. Or if it really is a sub-culture to begin with.
I look at the characteristics of the community as governed less by rules or guidelines, and more by various "personal ethics."
Some people want functional steam, and see cogs-as-decoration as an unfavourable affectation, while others favour appearance over function. I read that some people are neo-Victorian re-creators, focused on the finer points of pleats and buttons while others are more like LARPers who seek to inhabit a world that never existed and/or a time that never was. Some people buy off the rack, others have a strict DIY mentality.
It can all be called Steampunk, and it's all awesome.
The only umbrella concept I can see is that steam is the prime source of motive power. (hence the name). This is anachronistic to begin with, but if you start layering on more and more anachronisms, the more punky it seems to become. Most of the other ideas that most think of as "Steampunk" are either corollaries of this, or are preconditions that lead to steam being king.
The original poster likes coming at steam from a post-apocalyptic future where much has been lost. In my opinion, this is still steampunk, from a certain point of view:) Kind of like how the TV shows "Legend" or "Wild Wild West" is US Civil War meets tech, while "Firefly" is high tech meets Civil war. One is retro-futurism, while the other is future-retroism. And you got your peanut-butter in my chocolate.
My personal guiding question for steampunk design and fashion is:
"What if all those steam powered inventions from the Victorian era were not hindered by such mundane concepts like 'practicality' or 'manufacturability', given that electricity was never anything more than a novelty, and it didn't really catch on."
Discuss.
I look at the characteristics of the community as governed less by rules or guidelines, and more by various "personal ethics."
Some people want functional steam, and see cogs-as-decoration as an unfavourable affectation, while others favour appearance over function. I read that some people are neo-Victorian re-creators, focused on the finer points of pleats and buttons while others are more like LARPers who seek to inhabit a world that never existed and/or a time that never was. Some people buy off the rack, others have a strict DIY mentality.
It can all be called Steampunk, and it's all awesome.
The only umbrella concept I can see is that steam is the prime source of motive power. (hence the name). This is anachronistic to begin with, but if you start layering on more and more anachronisms, the more punky it seems to become. Most of the other ideas that most think of as "Steampunk" are either corollaries of this, or are preconditions that lead to steam being king.
The original poster likes coming at steam from a post-apocalyptic future where much has been lost. In my opinion, this is still steampunk, from a certain point of view:) Kind of like how the TV shows "Legend" or "Wild Wild West" is US Civil War meets tech, while "Firefly" is high tech meets Civil war. One is retro-futurism, while the other is future-retroism. And you got your peanut-butter in my chocolate.
My personal guiding question for steampunk design and fashion is:
"What if all those steam powered inventions from the Victorian era were not hindered by such mundane concepts like 'practicality' or 'manufacturability', given that electricity was never anything more than a novelty, and it didn't really catch on."
Discuss.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
That's Prime, Sucker
Optimus Prime: the 8 inches and under league
Originally uploaded by Super King.
Day: Sunday June 24, 2007
Operation: Sunday Flickr favourite
Subject: Optimus Prime.
Designation: Leader of theAutobots, being awesome.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Buffalo Redux
As a follow-up to my previous post about Bison Behaviour, here is a great cartoon by Greg Williams about the phenomenon. I'm surprised no one has corrected the phrase noting that "American Buffalo" are "Bison", and not true buffalo. The sentence still stands as a high mark in both linguistic gymnastics and absurdist comedy.
This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Spot the Bot
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Bison Behaviour
You talking to me Punk?
Originally uploaded by Wildcaster.
Four years ago, a behavioural study was launched in New York state Bison farms to find out why otherwise docile animals were becoming aggressive and intimidating. They eventually concluded that Bison from upstate New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.
In other words, Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo. [link]
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Harry Potter launch for Calgary
Harry Potter Family Street Festival on Diagon Alley
Friday July 20, 2007 10:00pm - 12:15am
McNally Robinson Booksellers
Calgary's Stephen Avenue between Centre St. & 1st St. S.W.[map]
Prepare for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the McNally Robinson Family Street Festival on Diagon Alley (Calgary's Stephen Avenue)
Spooky & spectacular circus acts by Velocity Motion Werks. Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures & Transfiguration Classes. Magical crafts, enchanting music, ghastly treats & creepy performers. Special appearances by key characters. Costume judging & Harry Potter trivia contests!
[Link]
Friday July 20, 2007 10:00pm - 12:15am
McNally Robinson Booksellers
Calgary's Stephen Avenue between Centre St. & 1st St. S.W.[map]
Prepare for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at the McNally Robinson Family Street Festival on Diagon Alley (Calgary's Stephen Avenue)
Spooky & spectacular circus acts by Velocity Motion Werks. Defence Against the Dark Arts, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures & Transfiguration Classes. Magical crafts, enchanting music, ghastly treats & creepy performers. Special appearances by key characters. Costume judging & Harry Potter trivia contests!
[Link]
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