Year: 2006

Back in 1973…

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This is fun: THE movie timeline.

So here’s the pitch: The Movie Timeline is the history of everything, taken from one simple premise: that everything you see in the movies is true – the real mixes with the fictitious, so long as it’s reported in a movie somewhere…

In 1973, the year I was born:

  • January 1: 12:01am – The Poseidon, a luxury liner on its last voyage from Athens to New York, is struck by a 90ft tidal wave and capsizes (The Poseidon Adventure, 1972)
  • Bobby Darin dies (Beyond The Sea)
  • New York – William Miller and Penny Lane go on tour with Stillwater (Almost Famous)
  • Las Vegas – Sam “Ace” Rothstein begins running a casino (Casino)
  • The Ice Storm
  • The Long Goodbye
  • Astronauts travel 3000 years into the future and bring back talking apes, who are killed by the police and the investigation files sealed (Planet of the Apes)
  • March 15: George McFly wins a writing award, or is killed, depending on the timeline (Back To The Future Part II)
  • June: Mossad debriefs a killer it may or may not have hired (Munich)

And in 1976, the year both Prairie and my brother Kevin were born:

  • January 4: Rocky Balboa shocks the boxing world by lasting 15 rounds with heavyweight champ Apollo Creed – though Creed wins (Rocky)
  • King Kong is again discovered on Skull Island and let loose – again – on New York City (King Kong, 1976)
  • Atlanta, Georgia – Bo “Bandit” Darvill and Cledus “Snowman” Snow bring 400 cases of Coors beer 1800 miles from Texarkana to Atlanta in less than 28 hours, winning $80,000 (Smokey and the Bandit)
  • Israeli officer Avner is debriefed by Mossad (Munich)
  • Rocky Balboa marries Adrian and they have s son, Robert “Rocky” Jr (Rocky II)
  • Summer – Dazed and Confused
  • July 4: Coeur d’Alene Indian Reservation, Idaho – Arnold Joseph saves infant Thomas Builds-The-Fire from a burning house (Smoke Signals)
  • July 8: Hannibal Lecter savages a nurse during a medical examination (Red Dragon)
  • September 8: Howard The Duck arrives on Earth (Howard The Duck)
  • November 25: Philadelphia – Rocky Balboa knocks out Apollo Creed in the 15th round in their rematch (Rocky II)
  • November 26: The Band perform their last concert together (The Last Waltz)

Who knew things were so eventful back then?

iTunes “Stay” by Shakespear’s Sister from the album Hormonally Yours (1991, 3:48).

Norwescon 29 Photo Extravaganza

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One or two (or three or four…hundred…) photos

Well, not only did I survive my first Norwescon (didn’t even get auctioned off, either, once some kind soul told me that I probably shouldn’t be admitting that it was my first time), but I did it camera in hand. And, since I’m a complete and total photo whore, there’s a few pictures to be seen.

Just a few.

I was only there for Friday and Saturday, but still managed to come home with almost 1,600 photos. I’ve distilled the most presentable 441 into this photoset, and I’ll spend a little time further distilling things down and putting “the best of the best” into the Norwescon group‘s photo pool.

In the meantime, though, in addition to the big monster set, I can also give a few pointers to certain themes, such as…

  • The graffiti wall. I had fun stopping by from time to time to see what additions had been made, and overheard a few people commenting that they were glad someone was documenting it.

    (The Doubletree was partially under renovation, including the hallway that housed the Norwescon office and the Hospitality rooms. Since the walls were simple unfinished temporary drywall, they became an impromptu graffiti wall. Fen…er…fun with markers!)

  • Friday night’s Stardance — specifically, the “most evil” pageant before the floor was opened up to the general public.

  • While I didn’t actually make it into the Masquerade, I did grab a good spot in the photo pool for the costume gallery photoshoot. Lots of incredible costumes!

  • The Rasputin during the Saturday Night Hoedown.

  • Star Wars vs. Star Trek: While there were Klingons and Federation representatives, there were far more Jedi, Stormtroopers and bounty hunters making their presence known. I guess that galaxy far, far away is a bit more interesting than our own (of course, given how Jabba dresses his slave girls, I can’t say that I’m surprised…)!

And those are the major themes. I had a blast, and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again next year.

(X-posted to my LJ, Norwescon, and my website.)

iTunes “Majestic” by Orb, The from the album U.F. Orb (1992, 11:06).

Off at Norwescon

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I’m spending the weekend at Norwescon, so I’ve already missed my one-photo-a-day posting goal. Heh. No big surprise.

Here’s one from yesterday at the con, though…

Norwescon 29, Seattle, WA

There’s 109 more of Friday in this photoset, with photos from today to be added to the set later (sometime tomorrow, most likely).

iTunes “I Took Your Name” by R.E.M. from the album Monster (1994, 4:03).

Googling a Dead Horse

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There’s a certain irony in Google‘s new Google Calendar supporting the iCal standard for calendar sharing and distribution (named, unsurprisingly, for Apple’s iCal calendar application) when — as usual — they don’t yet support the standard Mac web browser.

Google Calendar in Safari

Sigh.

I don’t know why I even bother checking, really — this has been the pattern every time Google’s unveiled something new and shiny.

iTunes “James Brown Is Dead (Take Outs)” by L.A. Style from the album James Brown Is Dead (1991, 0:55).

Misty Morning

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NSCC Wetlands

Shooting in the wetlands around NSCC that make up part of the Thornton Creek Watershed.

This was my first day experimenting with using the (all manual) 70-210mm f/4-5.6 zoom lens. Lots of shots that weren’t quite metered correctly (since it was a lot of guesswork), but ended up with a surprising number that I actually liked. This lens also seems to have something of a “soft” look that (to me) works really well for these nature shots — I’m not sure if the “soft” look is supposed to be there or not, but hey, if it works….

Mystery Flower

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Flowers

Since I’m not babbling much at the moment (work and school keep me busy, I’m behind in my reading and keeping up with news, and I’m spending a lot of my free time either with Prairie or taking pictures), I figure I can at least (try to) post a picture a night before I go to bed.

We’ll see how long I manage to do this regularly. ;)

iTunes “Spybreak!” by Propellerheads from the album Decksandrumsandrockandroll (1998, 6:58).

New Toy: Nikon D70s

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Thanks to some very kind assistance in the mysterious and tricky realms of credit and financing by the best girl in the world, I’ve got a new toy to play with for my birthday:

New Toy!

  • Nikon D70s
  • Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 G (the kit lens included with the D70s)
  • Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 D
  • Quantaray 28mm f/2.8
  • Quantaray 70-210mm f/4-5.6 One Touch

So. Many. Happydances.

This is only one half of a deal, though. See, while I’m working on rebuilding my credit after doing a rather impressive job of digging a financial hole for myself some time back, it’s still in pretty sad shape. So while I’m at a point where making payments on a setup like this is quite reasonable, there was no way my current credit score would allow me to finance this.

The deal, then, is simply this: in return for helping me with the credit end of things, I quit smoking and apply the money I’ve been throwing away on smoking towards making the payments for the camera. It’s all a matter of priorities: what’s more important to me? Continuing to throw money away at something that will do nothing except make me sick later in life? Or better my health while putting the money towards improving my photography?

Really, not a very hard choice to make.

So, while I may have a rough few days or couple of weeks ahead of me, I’ll just pick up the camera every time I have the urge to pick up a cigarette. It should make the transition from smoker to non-smoker far easier to deal with.

Now…it’s time to go play!

iTunes “Do You Remember the First Time?” by Pulp from the album Hits (2003, 4:20).