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Hello darkness my old friend.
Seems to be a summer of big powercuts. USA, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and London. Which brought to mind Buckminster Fuller who back in 1969 had the idea of linking all the worlds power supplies and in doing so greatly reducing the number of powerstations that would be needed in the world. The reason being there is no good way of storing vast amount of spare output so station have to be built to cope with peak flows but end up spending most of their time producing a fraction of the power they could. Now if nations electricity systems were seriously connected we could get rid of around half the worlds power stations and run the other half at nearer capacity all the time.
My take on this for current times is we could get rid of the majority of nuclear stations and cut the number of traditional fuel stations and go for renewable energy sources and install them in third world countries. Helping their economies (engineers etc would need to be locally based) and making use of cheap land for the large wind/solar/water expanses that would be needed.
On a different note... Being a bit of a Calvin and Hobbes fan and having watched Fight Club recently this really rang true. Worryingly every day Zac's turns a bit more Calvin on us.
.16:01/03/10/2003/zebra3
Desperados under the eaves
Warren Zevon died last weekend. He'd been diagnosed with an advanced form of lung cancer and was given only three months to live but managed to hang around for a fair old while and in his last year finished off two final albums.
His lyrics shone with an innate wisdom, a dry wit and a honest "as I see it" truth about life and world event that he never watered down.
And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this hotel will be standing till I pay my bill.
Try and check out "A quiet and normal life" for an easy way into Zevonism. He will make your life better. FACT.
Enjoy the sleep Warren, you earned it :)
As a GlobalRichList top 1%er and I'm feeling bad (not really as it doesn't really hold much water but does make you think). Mind you split my worth between the whole family and I plunge down to the 10% mark is that classed as the most basic form of creative accountancy ;)
.17:35/12/09/2003/zebra3
Benn not Bennett
Amanda took me down to Brighton yesterday. Idea was if I was going to get a nice hot day off for my birthday (for it was yesterday) it may as well feature paddling and ice-cream :)
Car was telling us the temperature was a toasty 35 degrees as we tore down the A281 heading for the coast around 3pm (took us a while to get going). As we got to a crossroad at the edge of Brighton there seemed to be a solid cuboid of smoke crossing our road. Took us a few hundred meters and a few more junctions to work out it was a sea fog blowing in from Hove. Five minutes later, when we parked up, the temperature was 24 degrees not great for paddling but a welcome break from the heat in Guildford. So it turned into a shopping trip rather than a beach trip.
After a bite to eat and a couple of gin and tonics at the very swish Hotel du Vin. We headed off to the Brighton Dome Theatre to hear Tony Benn speak. I've always found him to be an amazing politician and really enjoyed listening to his impassioned views on our role in a democratic nation, education and privatisation of public services. He talked for maybe three quarters of an hour and then took questions for around an hour and a half. Really made me think about a number of subjects not least about our role as employer to our MPs. Sue Doughty expect a letter soon ;).
Drive back was clear and quick and by the time we got back home at midnight the car was telling us the temp was still 24 degrees so another stick night in Guildford. Maybe we should have stayed in the Hotel du Vin. :)
.09:22/07/08/2003/zebra3
Freebie, sunshine, bikes and Gothica what a mix
Join the members' area at Jessops (link on the front page) and you can get a free 3 month sub to Photography Monthly or Total Digital Photography.
Remember your folks telling you not to look at the sun...
One for the sci-fi bikers...
And finall some news plagiarised from Dark Horizons::
American Gothic: The Movie: Moviehole posted a rumour last week about a possible feature film version of the short-lived cult series American Gothic being in the works, and now Craig Marquardo - the President of the Fathom Motion Picture Company indicates not only is a film version being prepped, but the TV series is likely to get another go:- I will exec produce, and the film adaptation was my idea. Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert (original producers of the series) of Renaissance Pictures are also attached to the film. Sean Cassidy, series creator, is not affiliated with the project, and won't be. The following members of the original cast will reprise their roles: Gary Cole. Jake Weber, Brenda Bakke and Nick Searcy. Paige Turco will not return. Lucas Black and Sarah Paulson will not return due to their significant age change since the series run. Fathom is apparently in talks with Traffic writer Stephen Gaghan about writing a screenplay that will be based upon elements from the early part of the series, however its all a legal issue at the moment - Right now, the fate of the film rests with Universal. Uni TV owns the rights. Universal Studios is making the decision as we speak. They are the ones who will have to decide whether to greenlight it. Even if they say no, there are other options, one of which is Fathom (my company) buying the rights from Uni and making it ourselves. Fathom are also looking at getting a new series of the TV show off the ground - "Sci-Fi Channel wants to continue the series. The subsequent series will be a season one picking up where the movie leaves off. The new series is 'American Gothic: Revisited'. The original series will then be ignored".
.17:12/01/08/2003/zebra3
Atomic Batteries to power, Turbines to speed
Top Gear at the weekend featured one of the few 1000bhp cars being touted at the moment. The 16 cylinder Cadillac is actually rather clever and only uses the minimum number of valves needed i.e. six while pootiling around town and twelve for cruising down the motorway, adding in the extra four when you floor it. Other 1000bhp cars being kicked around are the Bugatti Veyron and a Bentley. But the real interest shirley should be the Viper Bike called Tomahawk - V10 - 500bhp - 0-60 in 2.5secs - and tops out around 400mph, well maybe :)
Ooooh and a new Batman film is out grab it here, or here. Ok it's not a whole film but it's a hell of a trailer and Batman and the Joker REALLY look the part not sure who the others are though ;) More info here and info on who made it here.
The title is reference to this by the way... see what I did there :)
.21:56/22/07/2003/zebra3
TW@ BBQ
Tw@ Clan BBQ at the weekend. Many thanks to G and Cath (she of Snowcat fame) hosts extrodinare. Tasty chicken and good salad :) but I'll never trust a disposable bbq in a tray again, those poor sasuages. Link to someones else good photos to follow.
.14:57/20/07/2003/zebra3
Live action bullettime pingpong
No really :) two versions pick your flavour and see which works best for you. Version 1 or Version 2.
.12:15/11/07/2003/zebra3
Landlocked beaches
The joy's of local beaches... Being close to the centre of the south east of England we're a good hour away from the nearest seaside resort and they are mainly the pebbly ones (I love you Brighton but not for your beaches). On a sunny sunny sunday (yeah I know, I know, old news now) we set off in search of a beach. Luckily Amanda had a plan and just twenty minutes later we were strolling on the sands of Frensham Ponds Great Lake. And many sand castles were built and duely stomped on Zac really is turning into Calvin
Paul Anderson (no relation) director of Res Evil is to film A vs P. work starts in ernest this fall.
Hang one of these mirrors over the fireplace and toss out your telly.
.15:29/25/06/2003/zebra3
Good excuse for a party
Having had a good do last year for Zak's first birthday many of the Guildford lot had been asking when they could trundel off to ELC again. So Zak had his second second birthday party this weekend. Sorry for the brief delay in putting the wonderful pictures up but Matt brought his rather nice camera along and I've been rather daunted by the shear number and size of the shots I had to wade through. As always most of Matt's shots seem to effortlessly capture the moments and most of mine ended up in the trash folder. Drop me a mail if you want a particular one in higher res there is at least one of Dan and Luke that deserves framing.
Went for Jalbum in the end as Oin and Snowcat both recommend it and found it a breeze to use. Particularly like the fact it strips out the camera info for you to check out if you like the look of a certain shot and wonder what the setting were for that snap.
.23:19/17/06/2003/zebra3
Toons
This link should tell you what I'm listening to at the moment and that last few tracks played to (hitting F5 will refresh the page if it doesn't up date frequently enough for ya). All thanks to a Winamp3 plugin called "What's Playing" and a bit of command line ftp-ing. If I was still using server side includes I'd work it into the main page but I'm not. Warning a bit of a bugger to set up.
.16:33/12/06/2003/zebra3
Just the links sir, just the links
Baby white mice beware... V returns with a second generation and the rebels are still fighting the devious lizards read more on CNN
A pint from the freezer
500mph basketballs would cause the same damage... ouch
.12:08/12/06/2003/zebra3
Hippo birdy
Well Zac was two years old this weekend and family gathered to spoil him rotten. Lucky boy got a sand pit and played in it almost all day through (light) rain and shine. Between that a trike, an activity tent/tube system and swing from last year I think we have to hope for a sunny summer or he'll go stir crazy.
In other news:
Remember my link to the ins and outs of the Halo art system a few week ago. Well it seems that the US Army was browsing by and liked it so much they commissioned their own "scorpion ensemble" battle uniform due 2011:
The uniforms will:
· Monitor vial signs
· Plug into a massive satellite network, unmanned planes and robotic vehicles
· Come with built-in tourniquets that might be tightened and loosened remotely (next wars shock headlines "Mobile phone use causes friendly garroting incident")
· Have a helmet with tiny built-in cameras for spotting people in the dark or concealed by bushes which will project the images semi transparently to the soldier (AKA Wallhack)
· Provide maps, global-positioning coordinates and other location data, and (in the top right corner I hope)
· Be able to identify friends and foes (lol yeah right)
As some one pointed out "I wonder if it comes in other colours or if they expect the next few decades of wars all to take place in desert conditions.".
In other other news: Hellboy is here. Good old Ron P.
BattleStar the next generation...
Fancy a new Merc?
Oh and Boing! said Zebra3... Did I mention my birthday was coming up?
Finally, thanks to Snowcat for updating our stortroopers to the new inproved two of everything look, very good of her especially at it was her site I lifted the idea from and that stor.co.uk has since died and thus she did it by hand :)
.23:13/03/06/2003/zebra3
Paintings for wallpaper - there's rich
After looking at some screenshots of the forthcoming Homeworlds 2 I was struck by how much like Chris Foss's work they are. I've since been told that they do indeed list him as the main inspiration of their games distinctive look.
This spurred me on to find some new desktop images and while looking for some Edward Hopper work I found a good site for large clear art scans. But unfortunately I had to look else where for my favourite Hopper - "People in the sun".
My current haunts for wallpaper are:
Doing the Impossible
EmpireMovies (not the magazine)
PGric
And now the above art site
You can view your favourite images everyday by using "Wall Wizard" by Primitive Itch to swap between random ones every few minutes. A great little program and it is chooseware, that is either free or $10 you pick.
Anyone have ideas where else to try for great wallpaper?
.13:55/27/05/2003/zebra3
The three (digit) degrees.
Rough parenting day yesterday, having spent the day/evening telling a uncharacteristically naughty/emotional Zac off and even going to the extremes of withdrawing "Monsters Inc." rights (harsh actions indeed for a little one who would watch it all day, everyday if he could). Tears at dinner, not eating, kicked up a hell of a fuss over not wanting a bath. I gave up and say he can go straight to bed if he wanted, start to change his cloths and realised he was burning up, one thermometer reading later and it turns out he's 39 degrees (102 in old money). Calpol to the rescue, along with a couple of his favourite stories, and frequent checks through the night. The main effect seems to be Amanda and I feel awful for giving him a rough time all day when he was just feeling ill -sigh- and all the symptoms were obvious looking back on it - our bad - /me shuffles feet and hangs head in shame. Good news is he's feels better this morning and his temp is falling :)
Work wise - time ticks on and with E3 over we start work in earnest on the finishing of my current game. Longer hours and late nights with Abi mean I'm going to give blogging during the day a try to see if that ups the odds of me getting updates done.
Other:
-Renaming bunches of files is a pain, be they hundreds of textures for our game or some mp3's that aren't formatted like your rest so allow Oscar to help.
-Uphill water gardener.
.13:36/23/05/2003/zebra3
Visit z archives
2003/02/14 thru 2003/04/24
2002/12/3 thru 2003/02/11
2002/10/22 thru 2002/11/24
2002/09/15 thru 2002/10/21
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