The railworks take another step closer to completion...
I took a few minutes to get a little more progress on holiday crafting and thought I'd show what I've "accomplished" thus far. To the left is half of the Christmas tree suspended train track project, composed of this sort of molding (I'm holding it with the side up that would normally go towards the wall). That photo shows a handy groove running through what will be the top of the track, where a roadbed and the rails will reside. I constructed a guide in Freehand for my cuts, but I either mis-measured somewhere or got the angle on the miter saw wrong, as I wound up with about a 4-inch gap missing when I put all of the blocks together. No worries; I'll just keep that section in the back or put a bridge over it or something. I also put some of the half-rotted wood on the lathe to see what would come of it. Of the eight or so pieces I tried, this is the only one I was able to finish before the lumber decided it was fed up with all the spinning and fractured. I like the look I got out of it, a kind of antiquey-goth vibe. Anyway, the epoxy didn't help much, so that idea's out. As far as I can tell, rotting outer wood is fine, and even deep fissures can be cool if they survive being turned. I just have to make sure there's a decently solid core still there, or it'll fly apart in spectacular fashion, especially if one of the chisels snags on something. On the plus side, it adds the potential for shrapnel injuries to the traditional holiday injury method of electrocution. :)
So I finished the first "Deathlands" audio book. It is, indeed, like a teenage first-edition Gamma World campaign. You've got mutants with weird powers, nanite clouds, and some kind of secret government project that has a bunch of matter transfer rooms set up all over the country, which eliminates a lot of tedious road tripping. Our heroes, who were part of a kind of interesting armored trading company, finish up as a group of adventurers randomly teleporting themselves into wherever the centuries-old transporter will take them. Again, the writing is pretty awful, foreshadowing is applied with a sledgehammer, and there's a pretty abrupt change from what at least sounded like plausible military hardware to "implosion grenades" (which I think were described as making a temporary black hole) and other items just as magical being commonly known. It's also very much a prologue book, as little actually gets resolved other than perhaps establishing "the team" along with escaping from the clutches of some baddies. What I was completely unprepared for was the advert at the end of this "graphic audio." It was for a series called "The Executioner," specifically the 307th book(!) in the series. This is actual dialog from the ad, as spoken by two characters, and I swear I'm not making this up:
"You think the three of us can take on a squad of Islamic ninja terrorists on motorcycles? Those sound like pretty long odds."
"You get used to it."
This series, like "Deathlands," is farmed out to several authors who crank out new books in short order, and the reviews I read said that "true fans" know the good ones from the awful. Still, I can't believe this isn't considered comedy. It sounded like discarded "Team America" audio tracks, but I think whoever wrote it was someone who finds Tom Clancy to be too highbrow and dull. I wonder if this is what "Top Secret" campaigns were like? Now I just need to find the several hundred "Boot Hill" novels that eventually have cowboys armed with horse-mounted missile launchers fighting undiscovered enclaves of Incas in Kansas who are ready to take over America using ancient ballistas and hang-gliders fitted with urns full of napalm.
Here's something I wasn't aware of (which is pretty much a hole with no bottom, but hey): Every year, a studio exec and a bunch of professionals vote on The Black List of the year's best unproduced screenplays. A few look intriguing, but I can't help thinking that many didn't get made for the usual reasons. Meanwhile, there's going to be a prequel to the "Austin Powers" films on Broadway, as a musical. I can't help thinking that these two stories are somehow related, but I'm having trouble connecting the dots...
And this entry's movie remake news is festively appropriate, as there's re-do of "Silent Night, Deadly Night" in the works. It's one of many movies I remember seeing the box for in the video rental store (this was in the dark ages before Netflix, children, it wasn't made up just to scare you) that I never actually rented.
"Terra Nova" continues to develop better plots at the expense of thinking about what kind of undertaking the show is about. In the opening minutes, one character's iPad Plex tablet dies, its promethium (an actual element) core giving out. Granted, it is used in batteries for satellites, it has a 17 year half-life, etc. However, it's hard to come by, making it somewhat impractical to send back in time, unless the future found a way to produce it in abundance. I would have figured they'd send back rechargables with some kind of solar hookup, but that's just me. The plot itself has advanced considerably, and pretty much seems to do away with the alternate timeline theory of where/when Terra Nova is. The sub-plot about the promethium core got a little too "Lisa Simpson must study"-cute to work well with the constant threats of death to a character's mother and other heavy topics, I think. Not to mention if this is about to become a shootin' show, the level of family-friendly lighten-up scenes is going to stick out like a sore thumb.
So it's back to the workshop (among other places) for me, and it's off to the dumping of links for you:
- I've noticed the one thing that "Fallout" is missing from its retro-future setting: Jetpacks. And asbestos trousers, of course.
- A self-taught effects guy took a budget of $150 and created a pretty awesome sci-fi concept trailer.
- Yeah, it's the Daily Mail, and it could very well be bogus on many levels, but a leaky roof causing a possible unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia just reminded me of better days when Indiana Jones movies weren't awful...
- I can't help but think this is probably not the most efficient use of fruit, but it's something I figure I'll see in trendy restaurants someday.
- Pixel 2 has ambient music, fireworks-like visuals, and mindless shootin'. Enjoy!
- Food for thought: The video game "Modern Warfare 3" hit the billion dollar mark faster than "Avatar."
- Blessed are the meats, for they shall inherit the girth. I'm sorry about that, but their title is a far worse pun than mine... isn't it?
- Speaking of which, here's the Weasley house, made out of a very bad pun, indeed.
- I think someone has plugged in GLaDOS and she's helping to build robot prototypes. Or it's a new era for "extreme volleyball." Whichever.
- Research continues on the Intercontinental Ballistic Piano.
- Because we need our illusions shattered, how the movies get falling into lava wrong.
- Anyone interested in 3D modeling might want to download two new free software packages that were released on Monday: Autodesk 123D Catch and Autodesk 123D Make. If I read it correctly, you can make 3D models out of a series of photographs. Nifty!
- There's a new trailer for The Doctor Who Christmas Special.
- From 9 to 5 I may be Dragon-born, but once Friday hits, consider me Watermelon-born!
- What may be the world's priciest vinyl recording is going on sale for $16,000.
- Here's the trailer for the next G.I. Joe film. Snake Eyes sporting a mask without faux lips is an immediate upgrade, though if he'd only brought a firearm on his mountain climbing trip, he probably wouldn't have had to muck about with all those acrobatics. :)
- Thieves in Brazil steal 50 tonnes of corn by greasing some train tracks.
- The latest thing in soft drinks that could be bad for you isn't an artificial sweetener for once. It's brominated vegetable oil. Feel free to make any "bro" jokes as you deem necessary.
- Volcania is a puzzle-platformer where the puzzle is in what way the game will alter the rules in each level. Backwards controls are just the start...