Film shot in 1928 at the premiere of a Charlie Chaplin movie seems to show a passerby talking on a cellphone. The fellow who found this detail thinks it's a time traveler.
(What's pareidolia?  It's the tendency for human beings to see patterns and images in random data -- like the "Face on Mars" or the reports of Jesus on toast or in bathroom mold stains.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Apparently so. As of 2011, Champions Online is going to a free play model, where you only pay for the 'extra goodies'.
http://www.champions-onli...gn=10262010_Free2Play_NS
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Ok. I've tried to explain my love for this show before. But I don't think I ever -quite- put it across well enough.
THIS guy is MUCH better at setting up the context of what was going on at the time and why Star Blazers was such a watershed moment in TV animation history. Please watch it!

-Logan
--------------------
"Love is the first casualty of war... It does not
allow us to be our better selves."
-Desslok of Gamilon
--------------------

So it's that time of year again (no, not the one with the presetns, the one with the candy)
so time to show off what ya made for All Hallows Eve.


starting of with DS's Devil costume.
got to love them boots

It's a clever political ad from Moveon.org, which is why I'm putting it here.  Even if you don't care for the message, you may be amused by the "story".  Apparently works best if you have a Facebook account it can tap for your name and picture, but if you don't have one -- or like me you didn't want to give it access -- you can enter a name by hand.  Short real names are best, but it can cope reasonably well with long and/or bogus ones (like "Weltzschmertz von Wombleflump", which is what I used).

Watch it here.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Alright, I know this argument is old, but there's something new that I've noticed recently that supports my side of the argument that it's Open Office that screwing things up.
Whenever I open a document last saved under a Microsoft product it parses just fine under Open Office.
However, I make a slight change - a space here, a corrected spelling there, it doesn't matter, then save the document under Open Office, then exit the program.
Next, open the document, in Open Office and find that font sizes, indentations, and even font encodings themselves where italics or bold text is used are all kinds of messed up.  Same if opened under a Microsoft product.  This is easily repeatable and happens whenever I save under RTF file format.  Haven't tested Microsoft Office DOC format yet, but Open Office ODT seems to work just fine (of course it should), but then not everyone uses DOC and/or ODT, hence my preference for RTF which should parse the same no matter what you're using.
If anyone is interested in taking a closer look, then I can provide you with raw TXT files from saves of RTF files made in Microsoft Write and Open Office Writer.  Just post your email here and I'll fire it off to you.
EDIT:  A little research goes a long way to answering questions.
Turns out that this has been a long-standing issue for the folks at OOo, but it could be said that Microsoft is to blame as well for keeping RTF a proprietary format (!!) and forcing others to reverse engineer the damn thing whenever they come out with a new version of the file format.  Primarily they're having issues with in-line images inserted into RTF files, but apparently the issue also extends to general formating as well.
It's actually kind of a touchy subject judging from the commentary.  There are some that are demanding that the issue be given a much higher priority as it would make OOo much more promotable at all levels, but there are others that think it is simply too much trouble to be bothered with as it would suck up too many resources to figure out the issue.  Personally, I'm shifting more of my blame Microsoft for not making the format an open one in the first place - how can it be a universal format when you keep it to yourself?
That said, anyone know of any official channels that can be used to effectively ring MS's clue bell?  Because I can't see any reason why RTF should remain a closed format.

These are some pics of Jet Jaguar that I've made using both City of Heroes and Champions Online character creators. Neither one is perfect for portraying Jet, and at some point soon I'd like to take this as a new project in my own artstyle into a drawing of her on my own, melding the best elements together.
Okay - just to explain some things in general.
Champions Online, while generally superior to City of Heroes in portraying mecha and Powersuit characters, has a curious "hole" in it's repertoire, that of a classic Knight Sabre's style Hard Suit, particularly the helmet! That's why most of these pics are of Jet without her helmet, because the only one I could do... well... It's just NOT a Knight Sabers helm. At. All.
It's also tough to really get that "skintight" look with the various mecha bits without it looking either too layered and built up, or too skintight with nothing that looks like powered armor. Especially for females.
Also - while Champions does do backpacks, and CoH does not, only one of the CO mecha backpacks has wings, and it's kinda angular and chunky looking. I used it anyway, because it was the closest I could get.
You'll also notice that some of the pics done with CO have slightly different armor bits. I was still futzing around with the design elements. Particularly those god-awful big chunky boots in the earlier pics. Just think of them as alternate concepts. The "final" version is the one that I show in flight here (with the boot jets going).
I was rather pleased with the face though. With one slight caveat. CO does have the option of putting round metal coverings over the ears. And I did use them. But the hairstyle I chose covered them up!
More notes down below when I get to the City of Heroes version.







Ok, Jet is much easier to get "right" in my minds eye in City of Heroes in a lot of ways, and absolutely impossible in some key points.
Overall I like the lines of the suit and helmet MUCH better on the CoH version. In fact, she'd fit right in with the "Saber" group that many of us play in the game. (Yes, we've definitely had practice building Sabers in CoH. ^_^)
But the two main things that just can't be done right. One is the jetboots. You actually can have Jet Boots in City of Heroes. It's a craft-able costume piece. But the jets don't come out of the soles of the feet like Jet's do, (or a proper Iron Man for that matter) instead they come off the sides of the calf, which... bleargh... Let's just say I don't do much with jetboot style characters in CoH. It's a purely cosmetic thing anyway. And CoH has some nice things for traditional "no visible supported flight" style characters.
So I did make a version of Jet's suit with the CoH style jetboots just for completeness sake, but I much prefer the boots that I have her wearing in the standing pics.
The backpack is another matter.  There are none in CoH. Correction - there's ONE. And it's only a temp power that you can only have "on" for 30 seconds. Plus it doesn't really fit the idea. No wings. *Shrug* I activated it and put it in to a few pics just for completeness sake.
I am, if anything, even more pleased with her face and hair in this version, AND I could show the ear coverings too! ^_^




Oh - here's something I just tossed in. There's a "HUD" aura you can give your character in CoH. I don't think Jet has anything like this. But I thought I'd throw it in anyway.



I WAS kind of pleased with the last pic here. This was kind of by accident, but you could say it's Jet doing a high-G manuever.


Well, what do you think? Any commentary/criticism?

Bob Schroeck Wrote:

Quote:Jake and Elwood Banzai - the Blues Blazers!

Put them in Fenspace, now!

For a little while there, it looked like all of Yuku was screwed up, but we're back.
(What do I mean by "screwed up"?  I think a DNS entry got messed up somewhere, as I was getting interesting error messages that looked like the URL had typoed even when I linked out of Google to main Yuku pages.)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Back To The Future will be playing in AMC theaters this coming Saturday and Monday. Here's a link to AMC's page about it.
My main question: WHY IS THIS THE FIRST I'VE HEARD OF THIS? I already have plans for this weekend! Graahhh!
Edit:
and here's the trailer:

-----
Stand between the Silver Crystal and the Golden Sea.
"Youngsters these days just have no appreciation for the magnificence of the legendary cucumber."  --Krityan Elder, Tales of Vesperia.