Speaking of making treasured properties from my youth into movies...

It's been announced that ReBoot, the first CG show on television, is getting a... reboot *groan*. Mainframe Entertainment, the creator of ReBoot has been acquired by rival Rainmaker Films. Together, they form Canada's largest animation company.

Rainmaker has subsequently announced that they'll be re-imagining the ReBoot world in a trilogy of feature-length animated films. They say they're "serious about doing it right", but whether their and my definitions of right align is another question entirely.

Now, onto Batman...

The Dark Knight teaser trailer is playing with the Simpsons, and since the Simpsons opened yesterday the teaser is naturally already on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Also, the clearest image yet of Heath Ledger as the Joker has been dangled for our salivation. Say it with me kids: "We can't wait 'til 2008!"

Posted at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)

In an attempt to move us away from the Transformers post, which has almost certainly generated a record number of comments, I thought I'd just blag-up something real quick to give you some status updates.

I have been disgustingly sick the past few days. I took the last two days off work. I still feel really crummy but I'm not willing to gobble down any more of my sick days. Good thing too, Kitty took the day off and Peter is having complications with his tonsillectomy. So we're two short. Swell.

Angela is being a sweetheart and grabbing breakfast, Halls, and tissues for me.

More blagging later.

Posted at 08:43 AM | Comments (4)

This is awesome. It would totally go on my desktop if it weren't so distracting.

Soundwave gets a bad rap for being a tape deck. But I have a soft spot for him. And I still have Blaster around somewhere.

While we're on the subject of Transformers, you need to watch Optimus Prime's Rude Awakening, it's basically hilarious.

To answer your next question; no, I did not see that travesty known as Transformers the "movie". Michael Bay raped our childhoods. Stop congratulating him. Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies? 'Cause Pearl Harbour sucked, just a little bit more than I miss you.

Posted at 11:53 AM | Comments (13)

My old-timey Wilson bakelite goggles arrived in the mail today. They could use some cleaning, naturally. But I can now call myself a self-respecting Steampunk aficionado.

I made a succinct definition of Steampunk which really impressed Sarah: "Neo-Victorian Retro-Futurism".

That is all.

Posted at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

Did you know that an analog computer made out of Meccano was used to help design bouncing bombs for the "Dam Busters" attacks on German hydro electric dams during World War II? I sure didn't!

I need to think about a vacation. There have been a lot of little things putting drag on my life. Work has been consistently busy and there have been lots of techie issues to sort out. Also, we still don't have a roommate to replace Iain, so I'm starting to fear that there's another move in my future. I suppose it's not so bad: I've lived at this house longer than I've lived in any other since moving away from my parents. Still, it's a nice neighbourhood and a nice home and I hate to lose it all.

Yesterday I attended my third wedding in as many months. It was at Burnaby village (they have a nice little chapel). Angela was the maid of honour, so I got to oogle her all dressed up nice and shiny. I even got a few dances once she was done with all her honourley duties.

It's 10AM and I feel tired. I can't wait to see Angela tonight.

Posted at 09:40 AM | Comments (1)

Hot. So bloody hot.

Last weekend I had an awesome climbing experience with Bryn, Jamie, and Allen. We went up to Smoke Bluffs park in Squamish and climbed some awesome rock faces (don't worry Mom, we use belay ropes). We did four walls in total. There was one rock that looked uncannily like the profile of an Easter Island statue. You climb up the back of his head. He was a pain in the butt, everyone got the skin grated off their knuckles.

Climbing outside is a lot different than climbing in the gym. In the gym, all the holds have coloured duct tape on them so you know which holds you're allowed to use for any given route. On a rock, well, it's no holds barred (groan). The trick is finding the holds altogether. You grope around with your hands until you find a crack that you can jam your hand or toe in. Sometimes you have to just press a foot against a flat, near-vertical wall and use your hand holds (or hand hold) to steady yourself as you push yourself up. It's just you, the rock, and Zen (okay, there's the rope too... but sometimes it's cooler to pretend it's not there and you're clinging to that wall for dear life and it's ALL YOU).

We saw a guy climbing with no rope. No shirt either ("Shirtless Kirk" Bryn quipped). Guy would just hop on the wall, climb to the top, walk down the slope behind the wall and climb up again. He went so quickly I guess it's not likely that he'll get tired in the middle of his route. But no belay, no spotters? Hmm... no thanks.

In any case, I feel invigorated. Incredible, climbable rock formations an hour's drive away. Makes me wonder how spoiled I am to live in the lower mainland. But then I remember at the intense monetary cost of living here and I feel a little less privileged. Ah well, c'est Vancouver.

P.S. - New router arrived yesterday. By today I had all our services functioning again. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.

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Posted at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

Angela and I had a lovely dinner the other night. I actually decided to try making Ratatouille. Like, the dish Ratatouille. In all honesty, it's nothing special; just stew, really. Angela got some red wine to go with it (French, of course). It all looks really nice.

I battle eBay for goggles. The good ones are hard to get.

Our office's router packed it in sometime Monday night, and when I came to work on Tuesday the first thing I had to face was a pack of confused and scared coworkers who didn't understand why their internets weren't working. The thing is made by Linksys, and subsequently is a piece of crap. My fortune was two-fold however. For one, we use a wireless bridge that can also function as a router, so I was able to temporarily sub that in to keep our office functioning. Second, we'll be getting a newer, better, more reliable replacement. A few things are going to be down until we get our replacement: the VPN, our print server (which I need to assign a static IP). It's not easy being IT.

Posted at 10:49 AM | Comments (2)

After a long and awkward battle, Steampunk now has me fully in it's brassy clutches.

For those of you who don't know what that is, Steampunk is a retro-futuristic aesthetic/subculture. It combines a futuristic technological prevalence with neo-victorian aesthetics. Steampunk would re-imagine the Transformers as giant steam-powered, cog and gear filled, rivet-covered robots made of brass and iron. It was exactly this over-the-top example which turned me off steampunk in my earliest encounters. It's better to reference, WarCraft Gnomish Engineers, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Steamboy, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, zepplins, and goggles; with all that you more or less have the idea. This newly-announced movie is also pretty steampunk.

The first things that started to reel me in were the Steampunk keyboard and LCD monitor by Jake Von Slaat. Soon I was poking through fan sites. By the time I found MikeST's homemade brass goggles, I was fully hooked. Why, just check out these amazing outfits.

So I think I have an idea of my next project for this coming Halloween. I know, know... you're shaking your heads and filing this in your "crazy, crazy Jesse". What can I say? Once a geek, always a geek. :-)

Posted at 07:18 PM | Comments (2)

I went and saw Ratatouille on the weekend. The film is the latest creation of Pixar and animator turned writer/director Brad Bird, lauded by yours truly for his excellent 2004 feature The Incredibles.

It was an excellent film. It's currently rated at 95% at Rotten Tomatoes. I wasn't the only one who noticed the extraordinary level of detail in the film. The cooks all had telltale burns on their wrists (I was worried one of the main characters was a cutter before I figured it out). The layout of the kitchen, the textures of food, the spices were all the result of a concerted desire to accurately convey the workings, the culture of a fine kitchen.

Ratatouille could have been a cookie-cutter animated film about cutesy animals who didn't belong. That format would have been terribly unremarkable. Instead, Pixar gives us interesting characters, stunningly intricate visual detail, and a powerful statement about the role that the creation and consumption of good food means to humanity. I hope Pixar, and Brad Bird in particular, continue the trend of bringing us fresh animated films in the future. Bravo!

Posted at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)