Shane over at X-ile has released some new footage about the various shooting locations for "Trenches" and it even has some footage of me as the transport captain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hjGFMCTf4w
I know that Shane is working himself sick trying to get this project done and we're all pulling for him and hoping to see him get the success and recognition he deserves.
I am so busy I can't even remember my own name most of the day these days. However I
wanted to put something fresh up for the holiday so here he is, one of my favorite characters ever,
the Futurama Santa Bot.
Here are some quick quotes:
"Let's see who's been naughty, and who's been naughty!"
"Mobsters beating up shopkeeper for protection money: very naughty.
Shopkeeper not paying protection money: exactly as naughty!"
The Xmas song:
He knows when your are sleeping,
He knows when you're on the can,
He'll hunt you down and blast your ass from here to Pakistan.
You better not breathe, you better not move,
You're better off dead, I'm telling you, dude.
Santa Claus is gunning you down!
And finally from The Futurama Encyclopedia
Santa Bot:
"Santa Bot was created by the Momcorp subsidiary Mom's Friendly Robot Co. to determine who had been naughty and nice, and distribute presents accordingly. Unfortunately, Santa's standards were set too high and he invariably finds everyone to be naughty (except Dr. Zoidberg). He then stalks the streets, hunting down the naughty people and kicking some naughty ass with his arsenal of high-powered weaponry. In the future everyone stays inside after sundown on Xmas Eve unless they have a death wish, as the suicide booths all have long queues at that time of the year."
Merry XMAS . . . everyone!
They hunted till darkness came on, but they found
Not a button, or feather, or mark,
By which they could tell that they stood on the ground
Where the Baker had met with the Snark.
In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away -- -
For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.
- Lewis Carroll
This episode explores the Quantum Revolution
"i am a clone
i am not alone . . . .
if you had ever seen us
you'd rejoice
in your uniqueness
and consider every weakness
something special
of your own" - Hawkwind
This episode focuses on the Biotech Revolution.
"Every day we're standing
In a time capsule
Racing down a river from the past
Every day we're standing
In a wind tunnel
Facing down the future coming fast" - Neil Peart
Thoughtware.tv has part 1 of the BBC three part series hosted by Dr Michio Kaku.
I suggest watching it, mulling it over and then watching it again.
I don't agree with some of the time lines he puts forward, a lot of this stuff looks much closer to me than he seems to think it is - but that is, after all, almost entirely beside the point.
Good stuff!
As bad as you think it is. It's worse!
Check it out here.
Here's a few highlights:
October 2006
John Warner Defense Authorization Act is passed. The act allows a president to declare a public emergency and station US military troops anywhere in America as well as take control of state based national guard units without consent of the governor or other local authorities. The law authorizes presidential deployment of US troops to round-up and detain “potential terrorists”, “illegal aliens” and “disorderly” citizenry.
May 2007
National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51) establishes a new post-disaster plan (with disaster defined as any incident, natural or man-made, resulting in extraordinary mass casualties, damage or disruption) which places the president in charge of all three branches of government. The directive overrides the National Emergencies Act which gives Congress power to determine the duration of a national emergency.
http://www.thoughtware.tv/videos/show/1105
Asses kicked. Names taken. 'Nuff said.
Gina had some new head shots taken and we are working on posting them and updating her comp card and website. I've lost so much weight, and changed my look overall, that I will need new shots as well. In my case however there is, of course, no hurry. Also we're headed down to MD this weekend for a read through with the Farragut folks.
It's been a strange time. Between a bout of food poisoning, the holiday and some problems with work there hasn't been a moment to spare. Things are smoothing out now though and thank goodness for that. Overall things are looking up.
There is much to report on over the next few days and weeks but I just wanted to quickly chime in and let everyone know I'm still kicking over here.
By way of catching up let me just say Happy Birthday to Talia (the 16th) and Joseph (the 25th).
OK. I know I'm going to sound like a total geek here but I'm really close to freaking out about this.
If this is what it certainly looks like it is, it's a really, really big deal.
Of course it's not in the main stream news.
It's only the key to unraveling the secrets of the universe.
That's all.
Vilayanur Ramachandran takes us on a tour of what we know now about the Brain.
This is good stuff. I first saw this guy in a show called Brainman on the Science Channel.
I find him clever, witty and deeply insightful.
Only two showings.
Oh, of course I'm going.
Thanks out to Patrick and Dawn for taking the time to bring this to my attention.
A US astronaut has carried out a dangerous spacewalk to fix a damaged solar panel on the ISS.
I've been following this as it has unfolded. Damned exciting stuff!
Check out what this guy had to, do with his feet locked into the robotic arm arm suspended out over the whole planet, literally in the middle of nothing. Totally heroic!
Could you do it? Would you want to try?
I would.
All in good fun.
Here is a shot of Gina as a victim on one of those cop shows she seems to keep ending up in these days. I think this was "Law & Order".
Despite the evidence above, Gina's acting career is on track and she's starting to work pretty steadily.
This should be played before every movie! Every Movie!
Also I'd like this played at my funeral.
It's Thursday night, and me and the boys sit down to watch the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie and I'm not kidding we could not get past this opening.
Patrick almost blacked out, I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe at all, Collins almost choked to death on his drink. The rest of the movie is okay, whatever, but this was unbelievable!
WARNING: This is profane. Not work safe! No kids in the room please.
Sit yourself down take a big sip of of you favorite drink and hit play, quick before they pull it.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/97982.html
Sundiata steals the show with his new site update including some behind the scenes shots from our little film project. Check it out here and be sure to check out the entire site.
Here are a few quick shots from our Halloween around here. That's Doug A. in my Superman costume and me as a Sandman from Logan's Run. Gina Looks so good in that Jessica costume. This picture does not do Gina or the costume justice at all. Am I Francis from the movie, or am I Logan from the TV show? The answer is . . . it makes no difference at all, because when I wore the costume to work today, out of the entire company only two or three other employees knew what a Sandman was or had ever even heard of Logan's Run . . . dammit.
This is actually another substantial breakthrough because it has the potential to lead to more precise testing and more, even bigger, breakthroughs, not least of all for neural electronic interfaces.
On another note, I'm sorry for the recent lack of posts here, but I've been ill. For the first time in a long while I managed to get a hell of a sore throat but I'm shaking it off finally.
Universal Turing Machine Is Proved!
This is a major breakthrough that of course the mainstream media is just too plain stupid to recognize. (There I said it!) What is noteworthy here is how long it didn't take and how simple the actual machine itself can be.
From the article:
"I had no idea how long it would take before the prize was won. A month? A year? A decade? A century? Perhaps the question was even formally undecidable (say from the usual axioms of mathematics).
But today I am thrilled to be able to announce that after only five months the prize is won--and we have answer: the Turing machine is in fact universal!
Alex Smith--a 20-year-old undergraduate from Birmingham, UK--has produced a 40-page proof."
Good news everyone, I found Jesus! 
Turns out he's been back for awhile now and has been hanging out at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.
He looked good.
I spoke with him a bit and he was nice.
He says he likes the fair and that he just feels more comfortable hanging out there. I asked him about the world of today and he said that it was cool but that people should take more responsibility for themselves and their actions.
Also he suggest that everyone should read more Science Fiction.
I asked him about some of the things people have done in his name over the last 2000 plus years and he was somber.
He said, "Listen, did you ever play telephone? You know, where everyone stands in a circle and the first person whispers a message to the next person and the next person whispers it to the person after them, and so on, passing it along, and then you see how the message has changed by the time it reaches the last person?"
I said, "sure".
"Well" he said, "try playing that over two thousand years, and half a dozen languages, and see what you get."
I said that I saw his point.
Then he went off to drink some more.
That's the thing about baloney, no matter which way you cut it, no matter how thin you slice it, or what else you serve with it
. . . it's still baloney.
Oh, and also, censorship is bad.
I like the idea of bypassing the nay saying and finger pointing and just figuring out what we need to do. Also I easily see myself employing this technique in my arsenal of decision making tools.
Even those of us original Trek fans who bought into warp drive and phasers thought the cloaking device was more fantasy than science fiction. Yet here we are. Note the casual reference in the article to the "technological singularity". It's not even a question of 'if' anymore but simply 'when'.
Juan Enriquez: Decoding the future with genomics
Watch this over and over . . . until you get it.
Here are some of what I think are the top science stories this week. Notice that in most of these the news is current or in the very near future. We're not talking about speculation for the next thirty years, but within the next three years.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will join scientists from SETI
The first mission for the Allen Telescope Array will be to scan several billion stars across a vast swath of our own Milky Way galaxy, said astronomer Seth Shostak, of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. That broad-brush survey will be followed in the coming years by detailed examinations of a million stars — a quantum leap in coverage of celestial real estate. In the 45 years since scientists first started looking for signals from alien worlds, only about 750 stars have gotten such close scrutiny.
"This is an exponential increase in speed," Shostak said.
Craig Venter is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
The announcement, which is expected within weeks . . .
The Guardian can reveal that a team of 20 top scientists assembled by Mr Venter, led by the Nobel laureate Hamilton Smith, has already constructed a synthetic chromosome, a feat of virtuoso bio-engineering never previously achieved. Using lab-made chemicals, they have painstakingly stitched together a chromosome that is 381 genes long and contains 580,000 base pairs of genetic code.
University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent.
The researchers created this new composite plastic with a machine they developed that builds materials one nanoscale layer after another.
Darpa hatches plan for insect cyborgs to fly reconnaissance
Cyborg insects with embedded microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) will run remotely controlled reconnaissance missions for the military, if its '"HI-MEMS" program succeeds.
Insect swarms with various sorts of different embedded MEMS sensors--video cameras, audio microphones, chemical sniffers and more--could then penetrate enemy territory in swarms to perform reconnaissance missions impossible or too dangerous for soldiers.
Here is a shot from this past weekend. That's me as Snake and Greg Hastings.
I had a really good time and I have to say that I was impressed by mister Hastings positive attitude and kindness. The guy just seeps positive energy, plus (as you might expect) he's a really excellent Paintball player. I ran along with him during one of the scenario sessions and I learned a lot just doing that. Also while everyone else was focused on Paintball, I was able to focus on the scenario and I wound up as the guy with the suitcase. So we ended up with the actual guy who was dressed as Snake Plissken running around the Paintball field with the suitcase.
Much fun was had by all.
This is a bit long but certainly worth reading.
Hat tip to Posthuman Blues and KurzweilAI for pointing this out.
Today is Gina's first day on a set as a member of SAG.
She's working as a stand in, as a detective and I think she said a CSI investigator.
I don't even remember what the show is, she's put in for so many. She keeps making plans and then having to rearrange or cancel them as jobs and other things come up.
For the record - she's never been happier.
I'll be playing Paintball this coming Saturday at the new "Cousins" field John O. is now managing in Staten Island.
October 6+7 they're having a 2 day scenario event at the field.
It's "Greg Hasting's Escape from New York".
The address of the field is 2727 Arthur Kill Road, Staten Island NY 10309.
Prepaid cost for the 2 days will be $49.99 per person.
Walk-ins will be $60 per day.
Paint is $79.99 for a case of 2000. Field Paint only!!
Play runs from 9:00 to 4:00.
I did it. I just finished running slightly over a mile.
You know, to the best of my memory, I don't think I have ever been able to run a full mile.
It's silly, I suppose, I mean I know it's not a major accomplishment or anything, but this makes me very happy. I had tried it again yesterday morning but my legs let me know in short order that they were having none of it after my last couple of runs, so I settled for a brisk walk.
I am, after all, not a teenager anymore.
Now I just want to maintain the distance and do it until it gets a little more comfortable.
As those of you who have known me for a long time can attest, I have never been able run for any kind of distance. The problem for me is not muscle endurance or strength, I can walk just about forever and I'm plenty strong, no for me the the problem is air. Once I start running I simply can not breath. This has also been a problem with hiking at high altitudes and I have always believed that this inability has kept me from reaching some of my loftier health goals over the years. However, after my recent success with all this weight loss, I thought I'd attack the problem again. So I charted a course through the neighborhood and started trying to run it. Needless to say I ran into the same old problem. This time however I had another resource - my boss at Avenues. This guy is an ex-army DI and knows a fair share about getting men in shape. I sat him down and talked it over and he came up with some really good advice that I was able to use. In short I was able to adapt a new breathing technique. I told him about the progress I've been making and, well, he still thinks that I'm still not really getting it, but perhaps he doesn't understand how serious this problem has been for me over the years. In any case, the deal is I can now run the entire original course I mapped out through the neighborhood.
So how far is that? I got in the car last night reset the tripometer and measured it. I was pretty sure this was going to be a humiliating experience when I was done, but I was surprised when it turned out to be seven tenths of a mile. Then I reset the tripometer again and mapped out a new course that is just over a mile and that's my new target. I've also checked out how many calories each run burns off and plugged that into my caloric spreadsheet and I'm keeping a close eye on my progress.
The bottom line of all of this is that I am probably in the best shape of my life right now and I am setting some really lofty goals for the coming year. In the next couple of weeks I'm looking forward to a new wardrobe as my current clothes are starting to look pretty ridiculous on me.
Just a few moments ago, it became official. Gina has joined the ranks of the Screen Actors Guild.
She just left their offices in NYC with her SAG card, a list of agents and all the productions filming in the NYC area for the next month. As regular readers will know this has been a long time coming.
This is the fulfillment of a dream for Gina and I could not be more proud of her.
We shared our first day with friends and drink. We kept the blood spill'n to a minimum so as not to get chased off before the first night.
Ah, Pirate love.
The second day we were in high spirits and met up with even more friends
Ah, the very spirit of the day.
Drinks and songs at one of the local taverns.
This here be the very king of the port. First we were gonna hold him for ransom. Then we thought to just kill him outright, keep his rings and sell his clothes to cover our bar tab. In the end, he turned out to be so merry a fellow, we shared some laughs and some drink and let him go.
I can't remember clearly who some of these scurvy dogs are, I know Mary of course and there's Bonny Kate back there, and . . . ah . . . that other lass was named Mellisa, I think,Uh . . . . what?
This makes the technobable on Star Trek: The Next Generation sound reasonable by comparison.
Read all about it - if you dare.
As anyone even remotely familiar Quantum Mechanics knows, certain sub atomic particles change their behavior based on whether or not they are observed. Well I have discovered that Calories are Quantum Particles, or at least, they behave in the same way. Those of you who know me, know of my lifelong struggle to avoid diabetes and control my weight. I’ve been too heavy for too long a time. The trick is I don’t always look too heavy because I have a Mesomorph body type and I carry it pretty well, but really I’ve been too heavy. I have been really careful about my diet for, well, just about forever. I almost never eat any fast food or pork of any kind if I can help it. I rarely eat steak or chicken, and then only the leanest, best cuts I can find. I do eat a lot of fish, grains, and vegetables and so on - but even after years of working out, cutting down and watching my portions; I was healthy, I was strong, but I was still just too heavy. When I did “Revelations” for instance I was over 200 pounds, I won’t say how much over, but I was over. (As an aside there is nothing like having lots of video of yourself to really inspire you to watch your diet, let me tell you.)
In any case, as of today, I can report I’ve got it beaten. Today I am 185 pounds and I plan to lose just a bit more in my efforts to get “really ripped” as the body builders say. How did I finally and at long suffering last do it? What was the final thing that I changed allowed me to start really losing and keeping off the weight?
Nothing.
Well, that’s not exactly true. It’s true that I’m eating the same, very careful diet and now it’s working, but not because I changed the diet itself. As near as I can tell it’s working because I made a spreadsheet of the foods I eat, with the calories for each food and I keep a week long list of what I eat per day. I also weight myself every morning and 'presto' now it works.
So it seems that calories like quantum particles behave differently if you watch them very carefully. I want to stress here that the actual amount of the calories isn’t all that relevant. What is crucial is the exactitude with which you measure your calorie intake. Check the labels and don’t round the numbers, count everything and see if it works for you.
I'm probably going to alienate some of my friends (to say nothing of my family) with this, but it needs to be said and this guy says it right.
Mr. Condell, I agree with you 100%.
Just a couple of quick pictures here.
We took the grand kids on Saturday.
They had a great time
but they wore us out pretty quickly.
On Sunday though we went back for more and stopped in for some shopping.
Next weekend we're headed to Maryland Renaissance Festival for
Pirate weekend.
No, it's not a mistake, you read that right.
I got to watch a sneak preview of the pilot for this upcoming series and I was seriously surprised.
Take one part Nikita, three parts transhumanism, mix in a few actors from Battlestar Galactica and what do you get? One really excellent new show! Like most of you I thought this was going to be just terrible. I thought three, maybe four episodes - tops and this show would probably be among the first of the new shows to be canceled and to be fair that might happen I suppose but it won't because this is a retread of a weak idea.
This is a whole new ballgame and I'm planning to stick it around.
Sorry for the lack of post here lately. We've been all over the place, Virginia, Philadelphia, Maryland. Gina has landed a role in an independent film, and has been chasing print, and some other auditions. We were waiting for some good news for Gina on a particular show, but it hasn't come through yet. As I tell her though, if not this time, then the next time, if not the next time the time after that. She's sending out her new comp cards and we're getting a very positive response all around.
My daughter Jessica turns 22 tomorrow.
We went out for Sushi to celebrate.
Here is a blurry cell phone picture of the Polaroid picture we took for their wall of fame.
Much fun and Saki was had by all.
This time for me, that gives me two, for anyone who is counting. Gina and I both went down again and worked today. It was a bit of a rush job, but it was totally worth it. Special thanks to Steve and Ann who let us spend the night at their place . . again. I say "again" because we had just been down there for Steve to take our new head shots. Look for updates to our acting web-pages shortly. Seriously guys thank you both very much for your generosity and hospitality . . . and patience.
My buddy Patrick sent this to me and I think it's worth a look.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/index
Here is my score:
Economic Left/Right: -1.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.95
Where do you stand?
Okay, where to start?
This past Sunday Gina and I worked on the HBO show “The Wire”.
Special thanks here go out to Larry Carter and the whole Carter Clan for getting us in on this job and for letting Gina and I stay with them the night before, respectively. It was great meeting Larry’s family and they made us feel very welcome and comfortable. Also thanks to the good folks at http://patmoranandassociates.com/.
Thanks again guys!
Now back to the BIG news, doing an HBO show, in and of itself, is not really a big deal for us.
As to the details Gina played an on air reporter and I played her cameraman. We both got some excellent camera time, especially Gina.
However, you’ve heard this kind of thing before.
We did such and such for (insert show here) and look for us as background blur one and foreground blur two in this episode - blah , blah, blah!
So what, who cares?
(That’s some attitude you’ve got!)
Okay so what is the really BIG NEWS?
(Keep your shirt on I’m getting to that.)
The really BIG NEWS is that Gina and I both worked under Sag waivers.
(Again, so what? I hear some of you asking.)
Well, I’ll tell you ‘so what’.
What this means is that Gina got her last Waiver and that as of today Gina is now a full time, professional Actress - that’s ‘so what’.
That’s the REALLY big news!!!
This means that Gina (and I) will have to bow out, as gracefully as we can manage, from some upcoming amateur projects. This can’t be helped, especially in her case, but it also means that Gina will be auditioning for all kinds of high paying SAG projects. Some of which we already have leads on. I hate to say anything here, because I don’t want to ‘count my chickens before they hatch’ but just allow me to stretch a metaphor here and say that there are suddenly a whole lot of eggs and a few more pregnant chickens to spare around here, so to speak.
Not just for Gina - but for both of us.
As a side note, related to all of this, yesterday was my first SAG waiver and, while again I can’t say too much here, I have been given good reason to expect the others in really short order.
But I don’t want to steal the spotlight from Gina on this.
This is her moment, Gina is now a professional actress, she has worked very hard for this and I am very proud of her. 
So, what now?
Now:
New headshots all around
Website updates
IMDB updates
WAY more auditions for Gina
Notices going out to agents, casting directors and to other groups we are (or have been) working with
and on and on and on.
Stay tuned.
Is being featured on Lance Berry's site "Lance Reviews . . ." under the "Film Score Spotlight" section.
Pretty cool stuff.
Here is a quote; "Bouchard's score is moody, wistful, dark and powerful."
It's great to see "Revelations" still making waves out there.
This guys expresses my position perfectly:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_dave_lin_070805_tomasky_on_impeachme.htm
Shane was interviewed about "Trenches" while at Comic Con on The Daily Reel. See the link at the top of the page with Shane's face next to the "Trenches" trailer or check it out on their site here.
Scooped you again my man.
Now don't tell me, let me think.
That looks like something, something I've seen before, what was it? The Jupiter II?
No, no that's not it. Darn . . . why can I never remember these things.
Actually this is just an idea not an actual design.
Still though . . .
Last night I was talking with some friends and one of the many topics that came up was global warming. I said that I had seen a map of temperature anomalies but I couldn't remember where. Well here it is.
Here is the link to the NOAA page:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2007/feb/global.html#Temp
Shane's trailer for his new project "Trenches" is out. I have a small but cool part in this project, as does Gina. (We're not in this trailer, but that's okay - it's still pretty good!) It was fun to get back together with Shane, Jack and the rest of the old crew. Take a look and tell us what you think. I'll leave the video link at the top of the page for a while.
http://www.trenchesonline.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19859124/
"Hey, who is that bell tolling for?"
Check out this link to a clip over at Thoughtware for a movie called "Waking Life".
Really interesting stuff.
http://www.thoughtware.tv/site/show/534
Watching this makes me think of some of the dreams I sometimes have like this, where I'm suddenly sitting across from someone, in a really intense conversation, with no recollection of how I go there, who they are or what's going on. In my dreams though the conversations tend to be two way and more confrontational.
Well here we are on the new BLOG.
What do you think?
Feel free to leave a comment or suggestion.
Frank
Here is a cool story on robotics.
Some people who have known me for a long time may recall that I said this kind of distributed system solution was the way forward for robotics many years ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6291746.stm
Frank
Just wanted to expand my options and see what this was all about.
I'm going to try this out and see how I like it and see how it works with my other stuff.
