By the way, in case you haven't got wind through my Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or any other social media portals that I've been taking advantage of, I have a new t-shirt store on Redbubble.

Absinthetic on Redbubble

That has my old Etsy designs (Gozerian Society, Everybody Gets Ice Cream, etc), along with some brand new ones, and will be updated frequently. The best thing about Redbubble is that I don't need to worry about multiple ink colors...all shirts cost the same!

I saw Tron: Legacy this weekend. Beautiful movie, but ham-fisted exposition and eye-rolling dialog. Visuals and sound get an A-, story and everything else gets a solid C.

Anyway, I was looking at the IMDB casting and I realized that many of the character names are not spelled the way I thought...I thought it was Cora, not Quorra, and Zeus, not Zuse. So I looked up some of the character names and discovered that most of them are named after actual programming languages or pioneers in the computing field. I don't know what all these definitions MEAN, just wanted to give you a little something to chew on.

Don't worry, spoiler-free.


Clu: Despite Kevin Flyyn's definition of "computerized lifeform utility", CLU is actually a programming language created in the mid-1970s at MIT. A CLU program consists of separately compilable procedures, clusters, iterators, and no nesting.

Castor: An open-source data-binding framework for moving data from XML to Java programming language objects and from Java to databases.

Zuse: Named after Konrad Zuse, creator of the first process-controlled computer.

Quorra: ?

Gem (the 'girl in white'): Could be Graphics Environment for Multimedia, a collection of externals that provide OpenGL graphics functionality to pure data, a graphical programming language for real-time audio processing.

Rinzler: Named after Lucasfilm Executive Editor J.W. Rinzle, author of several books including The Making of Star Wars, The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, and Making of The Empire Strikes Back. Director Joseph Kosinski chose the name during a working session with the writers when one of Rinzler's books happened to be on the table.

Bartik: Named after Jean Bartik, one of the original programmers for the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the first general-purpose electronic computer.


If anyone wants to shed some light into whatever commentary they were trying to make about open-source programmings, please feel free to expound in the comments.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

"The man in black fled across the desert..."

Ok, so, I love the show COPS. I shouldn't...it's humiliating to the suspects and it perpetuates racial stereotypes. That said, I can't get enough of this damn show. It does, however, have me questioning a few things.

For example, at the beginning of each episode, it says "All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law". Does that imply that when the show airs, it might be airing sometime between the time of the arrest and the time of their court date? That can't be the case, because that'd be illegal, right? It'd be hard to pick a fair and unbiased jury when this guy's arrest (and occasionally, their fleeing from police, throwing evidence out of windows, and/or assaulting other people) was broadcast on national television beforehand.

Also, do they need to sign consent forms to have their faces shown? I can't imagine many people WOULD agree to that. "Hey, we just arrested you for drunk driving, possession of heroin, outstanding warrants, and you had an underage prostitute in your passenger seat. Would you mind signing this release form that allows us to use your likeness on a television show?" I'm sure there are a few fame-seeking morons out there who would agree to it, but by and large, you'd think the overwhelming answer would be "no". So how IS it legal for the show to broadcast the arrest of these people?

Does anyone know more about the legal issues surrounding the show? I'm quite curious.

Sorry, I just had to share these.

David Yost (the Blue Ranger)- After leaving the show because he kept being harassed for being gay, the character was "sent to live on another planet".

Walter Jones (the Black Ranger)- Arrested for DUI in 2009 (charges were dropped this past April), had a cameo role in Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, as well as a large role in Backyard Dogs, which was (for a while) the lowest rated movie on Internet Movie Database.

Thuy Trang (the Yellow Ranger)- Died in a car accident at age 27 in 2001.

Amy Jo Johnson (the Pink Ranger)- Had a kid, now lives in Toronto.

Austin St. John (the Red Ranger)- Now works as a paramedic in Sterling, VA. Wouldn't that be a trip? Getting CPR from a Power Ranger?

Jason David Frank (the White/Green Ranger)- Owns a Christian-themed clothing line for MMA fighters called Jesus Didn't Tap.

Machicko Soga (Rita Repulsa)- Died of pancreatic cancer in 2006.


AND THERE YOU HAVE IT.

Hey, art/publishing people out there, I need your help.

We have some brochures (~35 pages each) that we've built in InDesign CS2 (I know, I know, shut up) and we're trying to distill them into PDFs with hyperlinks. But there's a catch. Several, actually.

1. The final PDF needs to be under 1MB in size.

2. There are hyperlinks that go not only to URLs, but to other pages within the document (like the Table of Contents linking to where each 'chapter' starts).

3. The URLs do NOT necessarily go to the URL that's written. For example, even though we have the text "www.website.com", we want it to go to "www.website.com/tracking/1234/abdc/etc" for tracking purposes.

The hyperlinking is something new we're trying for these brochures. Usually, we'd open the file in InDesign, click "Print", then choose "Adobe PDF" as the printer, and set it to something low-res like "96 dpi". This would get the file down to about 1.5MB. Then we'd open the PDF in Acrobat (version 6.0) and do the same thing ("Print", then "Adobe PDF", then "96 dpi"). This would get the final PDF to about 650k. However, this method does not preserve the hyperlinks that we set (like the Table of Contents and whatnot).

I know that you can select the "Hyperlinks" check box when you're in the settings for the PDF preset, but when you choose "Print" rather than "Export", it doesn't preserve your hyperlinks as you created them, it only recognizes URLs and mailtos, and links them to exactly what they say (and doesn't recognize the inter-document hyperlinks like the ToC).

The hyperlinks are fine when I choose "Export" rather than "Print", but that makes the file size way too big (about 4MB).

Any suggestions?

At Comic-Con this past weekend, Marvel unveiled several props and recreated sets from their upcoming movies. Among them was the Infinity Gauntlet. Apparently, it will be playing a part in Thor, Captain America, and/or The Avengers.

We already know that the Cosmic Cube will appear in Captain America, and there are rumors that The Avengers will be introducing the Skrulls (not necessarily as the main villains, but probably setting them up for a sequel). Since the Skrulls created one of the Cosmic Cubes, and Thanos possessed one in yet another attempt at becoming a supreme deity, it's not unlikely that we could be seeing Thanos battling Cap, Iron Man, etc. The other theory is that Loki gets hold of the Gauntlet and HE'S the main villain in Avengers.

That seems a more likely approach. Loki mind-controls the Hulk and sends him on a rampage to distract the Avengers while he tries to steal the Infinity Gauntlet. From the prop on display at Comic-Con, the Gauntlet seems to share a similar design theme to the Asgard they've created, so perhaps they'll change the origin and make the Gauntlet an Asgardian weapon, rather than from Titan. As you know, I'm not a fan of comic book movies changing origin stories around (mainly because it screws them when they want to a prequel...see X-Men: First Class), but to be honest, there's no way in hell that an Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade storyline could ever make it to the big screen, so I'm willing to let this one slide.

First off, wee_squirrel and her cat Professor Plum were featured on Mental Floss's "10 Bizarre but Cuddly Plush Toys yesterday!!


"Killed by being swung around by the heels by a circus clown". Man, what a way to go.

The Westboro Baptist Church protested at Comic-Con recently. Fortunately, since Comic-Con goers spend a lot of time on internet (unlike those homophobic barn-dwelling inbreds from Westboro), they knew they were coming and organized a delightful counter protest, with signs like "GOD HATES JEDI" and "MAGNETS! HOW THE #$&@ DO THEY WORK?" Yay for nerds!

Speaking of Comic-Con, Guillermo Del Toro announced his next movie. No, it's not At the Mountains of Madness. Nor is it Frankenstein, The Orphanage remake, Van Helsing, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Witches, Pinocchio, Drood, or any of other dozen projects he's attached to. His next movie will be Disney's The Haunted Mansion. It's not a sequel to the Eddie Murphy travesty, it's a fresh new reboot.

If Andrew Brietbart described movies.
- American Psycho: An earnest young businessman fights back against liberal attempts to control the free market
- The Lord of the Rings: Group of multicultural potheads engage in property theft
- Aladdin: Swarthy thief flees jail, abducts princess, kills trusted advisor & performs coup d'etat
- 2001: An intelligent computer heroically stops wasteful government spending on space exploration
- Inglorious Basterds: Deranged Jewish woman murders innocent moviegoers

I've been a bad blogger, I'm sorry. Twenty days since my last posting? Unacceptable. I've been doing mostly micro-blogging on Facebook, so feel free to track me down there.

Summary of the past month or so:

- Almost done with Nick Harkaway's "The Gone Away World". Quirky sci-fi war satire, touches of Vonnegut, plus mimes and ninjas. A refreshing change of pace from my usual Clive Barker-esque dark fantasy/horror stuff.

- Started an 8-piece illustration project. I want to get at least six of them done before I start posting them online, but when I do, I'll post one a day for a Beatles' week (8 days), probably around the end of August.

- Dr. Batman and Professor Plum still hate each other. She's using his litter box and eating his food, he's eating her food (which he SHOULDN'T, because needs Science Diet: Sensitive Stomach), and he's becoming increasingly chatty and active between the hours of 4am and 8am. I'm starting to think THIS is why his last family put him up for adoption, not the "Oh, their house foreclosed and they couldn't take him with him" story they fed me.

- My computer's graphics card went kaput on Saturday morning, so I have a new one coming in the mail, and I have a new favorite computer repair shop in Medford (Dynamic Computers). I took it to them just to confirm that it was the graphics card and not the RAM. They did a diagnostic, called me back a few hours after I had dropped it off, and only charged $20 for the testing.

- I'm also upgrading to Windows 7. First time I've actually bought an OS since, what, 2005? 2004?

- We had a yard sale a few weeks ago. Made $405, which ain't chump change. Kate got all excited and asked if I was going to take her out to a nice dinner with that cash. I said "No, we're getting a new vacuum and you're having leftover tacos tonight". She was equally excited.

- We discovered a Korean BBQ restaurant down the block from us. It's very unassuming from the outside, and for some reason, my idea of Korean BBQ was, like, pulled pork sandwiches with weird vegetables. Turns out, it's one of those places where all the tables have a built-in grill, and then bring you a bunch of raw meat and you cook it up to your liking, with all manner of fixins. Very, very tasty and enjoyable.

- I ordered a vanity license plate that says "ARKHAM". It should arrive early-to-mid September. I'M A DORK.

Redbox is testing slightly hire prices and game rentals.

Well, I'm disappointed in the price hike ($1 is such a nice, easy, justifiable price point), but it had to come sooner or later.

As far as the games go, apparently the kiosks in the test markets are 28% Wii games, 39% PS3 games, and 33% Xbox 360. You'd think they'd be putting in more Wii games, since A) there are more Wii owners than PS3 or Xbox 360 owners, and B) a Wii game is something you're more likely to play for only a night or two, whereas a good 360 game can take a week (or more) of your time.

Marvel may be developing 10-minute short films, most likely to be shown in conjunction with their tentpole movies (Iron Man, Captain America, Avengers, etc).

I love this idea. The studios can introduce a bunch of secondary characters to an audience without spending millions on a feature film, and the audience gets a little more bang for their buck when they buy a ticket. Plus, if one of the short films generates a lot of positive buzz and the audience wants more, the studio will feel safer in investing for a feature-length movie. Everyone's a winner.

It seems that the front runners would be Black Panther, a Luke Cage/Iron Fist "Heroes For Hire" short, and (hopefully) Dr. Strange. Maybe even Silver Surfer could work his way in there.

I just finished reading an early draft of the Beetlejuice screenplay, written by Michael McDowell. There were some large differences that didn't make it into the final script.

• The Deetz's have two daughters: 16-year old Lydia (from Charles' wife before he married Delia) and 10-year old Cathy. Lydia is written as a death metal goth, but a huge bitch. Cathy is the innocent, bubbly "I can see the ghosts, why won't anyone believe me?" character.
  
  
• Apart from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased, there is no mention of the bureaucratic afterlife (no waiting room, no meeting with Juno, etc).
  
  
• Beetlejuice is written as more of a smooth, charming demon character, which much less humor and slapstick. He is also able to leave the Maitland/Deetz house and travel to other parts of the town (and New York City).
  
  
• The third act culminates in a huge housewarming party that Delia Deetz is throwing. Adam and Barbara discover that Beetlejuice isn't just going to scare the people there, he's going to kill them and destroy the entire town. The exorcism scene is replaced with the family (and Adam and Barbara) surrounding Beetlejuice in a seance, where he exposes his true self (leathery wings, demonic face, etc), gets set on fire, and flies through the roof of the house, where he explodes overhead. Lydia ends up joining the cheerleading team (???), Adam and Barbara live in the tiny model of their home in the attic, and Cathy is her usual bubbly self.
  

I was hoping there'd be an explanation as to why the ghosts travel to one of the moons of Saturn when they step out the front door. There's also a scene where, instead of the moon of Saturn, Adam finds himself in a gray void, being chased by enormous clock gears. All in all, a very interesting read, seeing what was kept and what was changed to accommodate the final script.

You can read the early draft here. Also, if anyone can find the script for the unproduced Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, I'd LOVE to read it. I know the script exists, I just don't know if it's online.

Here's a way to make the Marmaduke movie a thousand times better:

( clicky clicky )

First look at the art for Captain America's costume. It doesn't look like anything they'd use in WWII (it's more "neo-retro" than "retro"), but I like it. Not too cartoony, but not a total departure from the comic look, either. And surprisingly, I don't miss the wings on his helmet, or even his red boots and gloves. Well done, Marvel!

Just got back from a long weekend of helping my brother move down to Nasvhille. On Friday night, we sent him off in style at Koopapalooza 2: The Boston Flee Party. It was a show at Precinct Bar in Somerville, featuring 3 bands that he's played with over the past few years (The Blue Ribbons, The Bean Pickers Union, and Dark Martini and the Dirty Olives), and a fourth band we threw together at the last minute. We did all Tom Petty covers and called ourselves "Pom Tetty and the Bart Rakers". I had the honor of singing while backed by the Dirty Olives and Steve Mayone (of the Blue Ribbons). I'll get a couple videos up on YouTube sometime this week.

We finished loading up the truck and hit the road on Saturday morning. Spending 18+ hours on the interstates of the South, we saw a LOT of roadkill. Deer, opossum, raccoons, groundhogs, armadillos, coyotes, squirrels, and many "unidentifiable" creatures, which I like to believe were kangaroos, tribbles, and penguins. Nashville's pretty cool, though. Sort of reminds me of St. Petersburg, FL, but with a thousand times more honky-tonk bars.

Anyway, on with the news!

Guillermo del Toro is no longer directing The Hobbit. I'm disappointed, but I'm sure it will fall into equally capable hands, so I'm not worried. And on the plus side, this frees up del Toro for some of the other projects he's attached to, like Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and (SQUEEE) At the Mountains of Madness.

And speaking of Lovecraft, the Observatory gallery in Brooklyn is hosting a Lovecraft-themed art show this month. darkdisney, go check it out for me!

Speaking of speaking of Lovecraft, have you guys seen the sinkhole in Guatemala? I wouldn't be surprised in the least if giant tentacles starting squirming out from it.

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Yes, I've seen the steampunk Ghostbusters t-shirt. No, I won't be buying it.
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CHUD answers the question we've all been wondering: What if Jaws had been made today?

At the recommendation of Guybrarian Extraordinaire (sorry dude, that nickname has STUCK) Philip Bloom, I have just purchased a copy of Rick Dakan's "The Cthulhu Cult". It's a Lovecraftian story that takes place in Sarasota, FL, a town that couldn't be more the polar opposite of Lovecraft's doomy n' gloomy New England (well, ok, so they both have a shoreline, but other than that, they're completely different). I'm really looking forward to reading it, if for no other reason than that feeling you get when you watch a movie that was filmed in the town you live in. "Hey, there's the So-and-So building! AHHH, I walk past there every day going to work!" Plus, you know, CTHULHU!



You can read the first chapter here.

I've only seen the first season of "Lost" and a few minutes of the pre-finale "wrap-up". That said, I watched the series finale tonight, and I have a question:

( come hither and give heed )