Just a quick note
to all that haven’t
come to this blog
to read the developments
on the sidebar…
The new server is in, and all of DreamForge Media’s clients have been moved!
I’ll have some boring ass server photos up later on.
For the present, we now have room to grow a bit more.
Thanks to everyone involved!
We’re finnish-ed!
This morning I found this link over at Digg and figured that our resident sicnce and geologist geek, Walt, would love this, so I IMed him with the link, then I figured that everyone would want in, and figured that I’d post it as well.
What we are looking at is a high definition picture of the surface of Mars:
This breathtaking 3D landscape was constructed with high definition images taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. The new observations show Hebes Chasma, a strange mountain region nested inside the canyon, with channel-like fingers reaching out into the Martian landscape. The imaged region shows features down to a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, an awe-inspiring view… in stereo!
The Perfessor
If you thought the Texas Democratic precinct caucuses were overwhelming, you knew what to expect with the next level of fun. The “county” convention, or in Texas’ case, the (State) Senate District caucuses were held today, and I was there, snapping photos and witnessing a bit of historic overcrowding.
In general, the mass of Democrats took things in stride. As crowded and as slow to start as it was, all the Democratic faithful showed a great spirit and cheery willingness to put up with the conditions, some of which I’ll go into in a future post.
I took several dozen pictures, and I’ll post many of them very soon.
As you might read in the upper corner of the blog, at the moment I’m doing some server maintenance of note this weekend, and that takes priority.
You might have read my last post on the caucus process, where I played the role of Temporary Precinct Chair to an overcrowded room of caucus goers. I decided on the spur of the moment that, having attended the Senate level as well as the State level conventions in the past, I’d leave that opportunity for others. So, I chose not to attend the Senate District 7 (SD7) as either a delegate or an alternate. As it turns out, I needed a break from this server move business, and thought I’d go anyway, as a Guest.
First off, the map to the SD7 convention was at a community college south of the Galleria — according to the map that was given to all the precincts on the primary election night. That was before the record turnout in the March 4th primary. Those in charge of SD7 had to find a new location — why? Because in prior Democratic primaries, only a fraction of the alloted delegate and alternate slots were committed to. In my precinct, 603, we got to field 14 delegates and 14 alternates. I think the most we ever sent to the Senate convention was eight, and of those, maybe five showed up. Not so much this time, as all 28 delegate/alternate slots were filled.
So, a new location had to be found on short notice. The pavilion at the horse racing track. hmm… Is this like the air conditioned bleachers?
Well, more on that later.
I show up late. Well, late if I was a delegate like in previous conventions. Around 9:45am. For this convention, that was gloriously early.
I’m greeted by a line of hundreds outside the race park gates.
–
And it wasn’t moving.
–
Now, this all has a happy ending, so don’t despair. But for the crowd of delegates outside, being outside of the convention hall when you’re supposed to be inside has got to be frustrating. But there was nothing to do.
So I went picture taking.
– –
Fun stuff!
Anyway, more to come.
For more background on today’s convention as well as some conventions that did NOT go as smoothly as SD7’s, here’s an article from the Houston newspaper. [Chron.com]
One of the wildest conventions was Senate District 19 held at a San Antonio warehouse.
When there was a fight over the list and credentials of registered delegates, the warehouse owner threatened to expel the convention. Also, the San Antonio Fire Department cited the convention for overcrowding and finally the delegates voted to abandon the rules. The convention halted at one point so people could move their cars from parking spots reserved for a nearby wedding.
I always did like this come-on line from the David Cronenberg remake of the movie The Fly. For me — in this instance — it works in that Guild Works Productions is getting set to release the third installment of Psychosis! their illustrated Horror anthology. As I might have mentioned, I have a(nother) short story included in this issue. The cover for this issue is painted by the very talented and always lovely .
It is the long-awaited follow-up to my Never Judge a Book… short that appeared in issue #1. It was there that I introduced you all to my two young lovelies, Hope and Grace, or as I have come to call them, the Wülf Girlz. In this story, (again with art from the very talented Matt C. Ryan), I tell the tale of how they came to be who they are.
I’m told that there will be a second (flip) cover to Psychosis! #3 That will spotlight the Girlz, but I haven’t as yet seen that cover, and I’m not entirely certain who will be painting it. When I get to see it, I’ll display it for all of you to see.
The Perfessor
Well, you can, but it certainly wouldn’t be this creatively entertaining.
Sound required.
The Perfessor
There’s three songs to talk about this year on American Idol so far, and this one is one of them.
The first two were shortened for time and made me want to hear more from each:
David Archuleta did “Imagine”
Brooke White did “Let It Be”
and now David Cook has done “Billy Jean”
Sorry for the embed with the crap about David’s early life. The other versions on YouTube were advertising for something, and I’d rather have the early stuff you can fast forward through to get to the song than anything else. So, hit play, but feel free to hit Pause and let the thing load so you can drag the play bar over to where the song actually starts.
This version of the song was done first by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. Cornell certainly gets credit for the arrangement which few people had heard before. One of the side effects of the Death Of Radio is that some songs just aren’t well known, and Cornell’s certainly should be.
If you are like me, and you only remember Michael Jackson singing this song, this will help you forget the crotch grabbing idiot’s version, because trust me, this is like an entirely different song.
In a good way.
UPDATE: If you want JUST the MP3 to put on your iPod, I’m sure ITunes has it. However, if you go here or here, you can also download it before it gets yanked.
This is the Doctor Who trailer that BBC prevents from being watched in the USA.
If you’re not a Doctor Who fan, don’t bother. Nothing of interest here besides the good Doctor.
There are no spoilers in this trailer, per se, but there are spoilers out there in the British newspapers and other YouTube trailers that talk about several guest stars Doctor Who fans already know.
The sound track is the new Doctor Who theme song it seems… suitable for running away from aliens in rubber suits.
