Chocolate Is My Prozac

Second Life - Relay For Life

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:04:00 +0000

Second Life - Relay For Life

Lactose is continually keeping himself busy with filming and editing SecondLife Machinima. This time it's partly in aid of the Second Life contribution to Relay For Life.

Top 25 Geekiest Free Fonts

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:19:00 +0000

A great list of fonts that sci-fi/fantasy film and television geeks will recognise and appreciate. Fonts listed include Blade Runner, Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien etc.

The question remains though if I could ever utilise any of them in my designs - unless of course I was using anyone of them in the context of the film or televsion series they came from.

Regardless, it's a still a pretty complete list of relevant sci-fi/fantasy fonts for the geek designer.

The Microsoft oPhone

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Tue, 15 May 2007 00:23:00 +0000

The Microsoft oPhone

A mock video has surfaced on YouTube advertising a fictional "oPhone" presumably produced by Microsoft in response to Apple's iPhone.

The phone is shown as a strange triple-layered device that is difficult to use. The video also appears to interview the developers of the phone, revealing distorted engineering views and ironic statements from a would-be software developer.

The Golden Compass

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:13:00 +0000

The Golden Compass - First Look

The Golden Compass movie website was recently updated with lots of new goodies including a small behind the scenes and completed footage sneak peak plus an additional detailing section containing numerous information about Daemons. Why not take the interactive personality questionnaire and find out what your own Daemon is? You can see my Daemon here.

For further His Dark Materials and The Golden Compass movie details visit www.bridgetothestars.net

searchmash

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sat, 12 May 2007 10:02:00 +0000

I've been periodically using Google's searchmash over the previous 6 months. If you're after a bare bones layout without all the usual sidebar adverts cluttering up your SERPs complemented by additional results simultaneously displayed from Wikipedia, Videos, Blogs and images you could do worse than give it a try.

My favourite feature is the "more web pages" link at the bottom. Click on this, and you'll be rewarded with the next 10 results appearing on the same page, inserted below the first 10. You can keep going, adding 10 more results at a time.

Although "Infinite Scroll" / "Continuous Scroll" results have appeared before on rival search engines I prefer the way searchmash have implemented it. As for the lack of Google branding, the concept behind this is to help gather more objective data about user response to new interfaces without the usual Google fanboy's skewing the data.

Regardless, searchmash is rapidly becoming my search engine of choice.

Collectormania 11 Video

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Thu, 10 May 2007 10:22:00 +0000

Collectormania 11 Video

If you weren't at the Collectormania 11 convention last weekend (and if not, why not?) there's now a short video available online highlighting some of the happenings that took place.

Thanks to YouTube user shuichishindo2211 for uploading the video, apologies about the soundtrack...

Someone Feed Cate A Burger!

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Tue, 08 May 2007 18:51:00 +0000

Someone Feed Cate A Burger!

Stepping out at a New York fashion gala the always slender and ethereal looking Cate Blanchett either appears to be ill, method acting a junkie or has fallen victim to the "Size 0" craze that until previously was only confined to the younger generation of Hollywood actresses.

Granted, it's well known that the Hollywood machine imposes greater pressure on its middle aged actresses and the competition for a seemingly ever decreasing selection of quality acting roles gets increasingly fraught but I've always believed that Cate had her head firmly attached to her shoulders and had the intelligence to rise above these fickle fads that Hollywood forces its female stars to conform to.

Cate, you were beautiful, you still are but at least try and eat something! I only hope she's not thinking of permanently ruining her looks by going the route Melanie Griffith has deemed necessary and subjecting her once beautiful face to the ravages of extreme plastic surgery.

Collectormania 11 Convention Report

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:28:00 +0000

Darren and I returned yesterday from visiting the Collectormania 11 convention held in Milton Keynes over the bank holiday weekend. This was my second visit to the city of Milton Keynes and bar future Collectormania conventions I won't be returning soon.

Don't get me wrong, it would be unfair to disparage Milton Keynes solely based off the small segment of the city we visited over the weekend, but the prefabricated construction and grid layout we experienced made me believe I was trapped inside Toytown on steroids. I mentioned to Darren that it reminded me of one gigantic skateboarding park - all the concrete, steel and glass panelled exteriors making everything appear cold and artificial. I understand the thinking that was behind the construction of Milton Keynes, the first of a new generation of new towns, but to quote a line from Prince Charles - the place is a "concrete carbuncle".

Unfortunately for Daz and I the convention was held at The Centre: Mk, one of the largest shopping centres in the UK and the longest covered centre in Europe. Basically if your idea of hell is being trapped in a shrine to corporate greed with alters dedicated to the Gods of Starbucks, McDonalds and Costa Coffee etc. then look no further. Believe me when I say that if Dawn of the Dead was happening in Milton Keynes I wouldn't be taking refuge in The Centre: MK as the zombies are the ones inside of this shopping mall.

I suppose we should be grateful that we even made it to the convention as fate seemed destined to prevent us from arriving. We left for the train station at 5.30am and made our pre-booked train at 6.10am only for it to stop and start three times before finally pulling out 40 minutes late. I had this gut feeling that the train wouldn't make it to Birmingham and was proven correct 5 minutes later as it slowly limped back to Derby station. Virgin trains provided us with a replacement service but we'd now missed our pre-booked connection at Birmingham New Street and in the time that they'd attempted to fix our original train we could have caught another train to Birmingham and made our connection.

Arriving at Birmingham we bought a couple of cups of expensive coffee just so we could sit down for a while and let off some steam before making our connecting train and arriving in Milton Keynes - or so we thought. As we supposedly approached Milton Keynes train station we were informed by the driver that there had been a fatality on the tracks and the train station we were arriving at wasn't Milton Keynes but Northampton! Daz and I just looked at each other with this slow look of dread forming over our faces.

As we stepped off the train we came to realise that there was no way in hell that we were leaving this station as hundreds upon hundreds of people were debarking from all the diverted trains and milling around trying to look for any possible escape. Luckily, it was pretty easy to spot our fellow convention geeks so we approached two people who were getting a taxi to Milton Keynes and made a deal to share their ride and split the cost four ways. Finally, we made the convention - 3 1/2 hours late.

We originally deciding to book a hotel room because Michael Biehn was scheduled to appear on the Sunday (until he cancelled) so unfortunately this meant we had to carry our bags until checking in time which was about 1pm. Daz and I hate shopping centres and having to carry 3 bags whilst fighting against the tide of buggies, motorised scooters and families of screaming kids was enough to make both of us lose our tempers.

Collectormania operate a virtual ticketing policy which is where they provide you with a numbered ticket for a scheduled time frame to which you can queue up for a particular guest. This allows you to plan your day around your guests therefore preventing you needlessly queuing for hours on end and probably missing some of other guests you may have wanted to meet. Luckily for Daz and I we didn't want to meet any of the Buffy and Angel guests which were almost out of virtual tickets by the time we'd arrived. Our guests had pretty much open queues in the afternoon meaning that no virtual ticketing was required - you could just walk right up and join the end of the queue anytime.

Being a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fan I made a beeline for Rene Auberjonois who played the shapeshifting Founder Odo. He gladly signed my Worlds of Deep Space Nine: The Dominion and Ferenginar book, a photo and a group poster. Daz commented that he was real gentlemen taking time to shake his hand even though he himself wasn't there to meet him. Rene came across as very sweet and genuine taking time to answer all of my questions in his quiet calm voice.

Next I proceed to make my way to meet Aron Eisenberg who played the Ferengi Nog in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. When he was 17, Aron received a kidney transplant having been born with only one kidney that wasn't working properly and stunted his growth at 5' (1.52 m). He came across as full of energy and enthusiasm. He might have only been the most recurring guest character in the television series but in the Deep Space Nine relaunch novels, his character Nog, plays a much larger important role. When I handed him my Deep Space Nine novel, Mission Gamma: Cathedral to autograph he was so made up with the book. He said

"Hey look everyone - I'm on the cover and right at the front. Tell me - do I kick ass in this book?"

I replied that he did. Bless him - I might have just made his day!

After checking into the hotel we walked back free of our bags which made a big difference to our enjoyment of the convention. Note to self for next time - try and do the whole convention in one day if possible and leave the overnight bags at home!

Made my way to see William Sanderson who played my favorite character in Blade Runner, that of J.F. Sebastian. William Sanderson is often found playing tragicomical roles and can most recently be seen in brilliant HBO series Deadwood. He happily obliged to sign my Future Noir: the Making of Blade Runner book which is considered the bible for all Blade Runner fans and a photograph of him and Rutger Hauer. Now all I need is Rutger to attend a convention to get his autograph "I want more autographs fucker!" - That would be perfect!

And so to my main reason for coming to Collectormania 11- well joint main reason if Michael Biehn hadn't cancelled at the very last moment, that of meeting Avery Brooks better known as Captain Benjamin Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and all round cool dude - Hawk. This guy is a legend - the original Black Alpha Male! He autographed my Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Unity book, my DS9 group poster and a couple of photos. I chatted to him about his upcoming CD and title role in the Shakespeare Theatre Company production of Tamburlaine and proceeded to go for my photoshoot with him.

When it was my turn for the photograph Avery remembered me and his face lit up "Victoria" he said waving me in. We started to pose for the photograph with his arm around me then abruptly stopped the photo session and told me off, saying in that deep cool mellow American accent

"Victoria - you're a tall beautiful woman now stand up straight!"

Apparently I'd started to stoop a little to lower myself down to his height. Hell, when the Emissary commands you to do something you do it!

I'd just wished I'd had more time to chat to him as I had plenty of further questions to ask but I was a little worried I wouldn't get to meet him and so rushed through my questions. Later on the Sunday afternoon he was completely free but I didn't feel like spending more money to buy an autograph just to chat to him. Shame, but maybe next time as he seems to be making more appearances now on the Star Trek convention circuit.

So that was me - what about Daz? Well before Collectormania 11 he vowed to only get a few autographs but eventually he ended up meeting and getting autographs from Michael Winslow (Sgt. Larvell Jones from Police Academy), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca from Star Wars), Grace Park (Sharon "Boomer" Valerii from Battlestar Galactica), Terry Jones (Monty Python) and Sophie Aldred (Ace from Doctor Who). You can read Daz's convention report here.

I also wanted to meet William Hope and Trevor Steadman (Lt. Gorman and Pvt. Wiezbowski from Aliens) but with Michael Biehn having to cancel I felt I'd spent enough money already. What made up for them though was the chance to meet the United Kingdom Colonial Marines who were parading around the convention with their captured Alien. They were definitely one of the highlights allowing you to pose with them, the Alien and their weaponry. Those M41A Pulserifles are damn heavy, however if you feel the need to build one then click here for a guide!

I was a little disappointed with the Doctor Who exhibits as they seemed to be spread across three different places but meeting K-9, the visual effects designer and K-9 builder Mat Irvine and Sophie Aldred made up for it. We couldn't for the life of us find Peter Davison even though he was definitely present.

Also appearing amongst others were Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), James Marsters (Buffy), Anthony Head (Buffy) Charisma Carpenter (Angel) and Zach Galligan (Gremlins).

Overall, we both had a great time, regardless of our travel plans going pear shaped on the way up, the ruined viewing of Spiderman 3 by a large group of chav scum kiddies talking, shouting, swearing and using their mobile phones throughout the entire performance and finally the general dreariness of Milton Keynes. If you're into the whole sci-fi fantasy geek stuff you should really make an effort to attend.

Next up - The London Film and Comic Con where Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner and Louise Fletcher are already scheduled to appear.

Click here to view my entire collection of Collectormania photos

This Isn't The Postal Box You're Looking For

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:25:00 +0000

This Isn't The Postal Box You're Looking For

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars IV: A New Hope the United States Postal Service has issued 400 of the above postal boxes designed to look like everyone's favourite droid, R2-D2.

No sooner had the postal boxes started to appear when the above photo began circulating across the blogasphere perfectly capturing the geeky homage to a classic piece of pop-culture iconography.

I'm only jealous because I wish that I'd thought of it first. "Move along. This isn't the postal box you're looking for..."

Project Open Letter

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:41:00 +0000

I'm hardly involved in Second Life at the moment due to being just way too busy but Lactose, if this possible, is even busier in the metaverse. However over the last couple of years with the explosive growth of Second Life it's become apparent that its creators Linden Lab haven't been able to keep up with infrastructure and software updates.

The situation has now come to ahead with the creation of Project Open Letter initiated by Cristiano Midnight.

In the past eighteen months, Second Life has expanded, growing from a small community of early adopters to a platform supporting millions of users. Linden Lab has created a world that inspires a deep level of passion in its users and provides unprecedented opportunities to share creatively, socially, and financially.

With explosive levels of growth often come unexpected problems. In keeping with your company's policy and rich history of resident involvement, we the undersigned would like to take this opportunity to address some concerns that we feel have gone unanswered for too long.

There are some consistent, ongoing problems that are getting worse under heavy load, not better, and are not simply irritants but problems that are causing financial loss in some cases, which is unacceptable. Here is a brief list of the main concerns:

* Inventory loss - this is a devastating problem that is worsening. We have no ability to protect our own inventories through backups, and are trusting you to protect that data. This is the highest priority. Sensible inventory limits (on non-verified accounts only), combined with better management tools and ways to protect our inventory ourselves would help to mitigate the problem as well. Regardless, this cannot continue - we will not accept financial loss as a feature of Second Life. It is your responsibility as service provider to ensure our data is not lost, and you are failing us.

* Problems with Find and Friends List - we continue to see search outages on a far too regular basis. It is bad enough trying to get anywhere without being able to use search, but many users are also paying money for classified ads. Our friends lists just do not work reliably any longer, after years without an issue with them. If America Online/MSN/Yahoo can provide presence information for hundreds of millions of users, surely there is a way to make our friends lists work again.

* Grid stability and performance - teleports fail quite regularly, especially under heavy load. Attachments end up in places they did not start out in, and sim performance varies wildly. None of this makes for a very pleasant experience for users. Long promised improvement to physics and scripting would help dramatically to reduce these problems, but there are a lot of other scalability issues as well. It often feels like the grid is coming apart at the seams. The promised use of limiting logins of non-verified accounts during peak load has been severely lacking. This would be an effective interim solution to load issues, but Linden Lab seems unwilling to use it.

* Build tool problems - the importance of build tools that actually work as promised cannot be overstated enough - we rely on them to create content. Prim drift, disappearing prims, imprecise placement, problems with linking and other issues with the tools need to be addressed. Too much time is being spent trying to work around the problems.

* Transaction problems - inventory deliveries are failing with an alarming (and annoying) frequency, leaving merchants with the burden of replacing missing content and having to try to confim the transaction in the first place. We trust that our L$ balances are accurate, but given recent problems, that is a cause for concern as well, and one we place our full trust in you to ensure its accuracy.

We remain fully supportive of Second Life and are more than willing to continue doing our part to help, but our confidence is steadily being eroded due to a general lack of communication and the apparent failure to successfully address the many issues detailed above. What we are asking for is that these problems are addressed immediately, ahead of new features, and that we are able to see tangible improvements. We accept that this will not happen overnight but it also cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely either.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Yippie Ki Yay... MelonFarmer?!?

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:38:00 +0000

Die Hard - Music Video

Die Hard - 1924 Style!

I can't believe that the new Die Hard 4.0 film is being rated PG-13 in America which will probably translate to a 12-A over here in England.

So thanks to Tom Rothman, Chairman of Twentieth Century Fox, John McClane just got his balls cut off. How many more great adult movie franchises are going to get emasculated by studio executives chasing the teenage greenback? Robocop, Total Recall, Terminator, Alien and Predator all now available as either watered down TV shows or kiddie happy meals at your local hamburger bar.

Look, when I go to watch a Die Hard movie I want to see Bruce Willis fucking over terrorists, shooting them into a bloody pulp in an adult gore fest and not some Mary Poppins kiddie piccy. I want to see the bad guys getting sucked through an airplane engine, heads crushed in a conveyor belt or getting ripped in half by a steel cable.

What I don't want is to be stuck in a cinema with a room full of pre-pubescent children talking between themselves, playing with their mobile phones or running to the toilets because their kiddy size bladder can't handle even a "small" Pepsi bucket and so interrupting John McClane fucking up some Eurotrash terrorist's nefarious scheme. Edit - this being Fox they've probably switched over from European to Muslim terrorists by now.

*Sigh* So I guess I'll have to re-buy the original trilogy on DVD/Blu-ray to get my Die Hard kicks but until then I'll just repeatedly watch the above videos and lament all the previous good times...

John McClane - R.I.P.

Avery Brooks Photo Shoot

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:32:00 +0000

(Note to my boyfriend) : Daz, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that I’ve managed to purchase our train tickets to Collectormania 11 in Milton Keynes for just half the original price we thought they’d be. Bargain! Err… and the bad news is that I’ve spent the money saved on an Avery Brooks photo shoot. Foxy x

Please let me explain. It's not like it was my fault. Honest! I'd just booked the train tickets and when FireFox indicated to me that I’d received the email confirmations, I checked my Inbox and there it was, an email from Collectormania saying that they were offering an Avery Brooks photo shoot.

But seriously though, what’s a DS9 girl supposed to do?

Daz, if it makes you feel any better there’s still tickets for the Charisma Carpenter photo shoot available!!!

SOCOM Hell Week Vs Keyboard Commandos

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:02:00 +0000

SOCOM Hell Week Vs Keyboard Commandos

I'm currently watching season 2 of Sony's SOCOM Hell Week where a bunch of SOCOM players get the once in a lifetime opportunity to take part in infamous US Navy SEALs Hell Week training course.

I've always preferred Counter Strike to SOCOM but regardless of the game you'll always get a percentage of guys who believe that just because they can in-game storm a building single handedly or maybe pwn every other player on the map that they possess what it takes to be a member of their country's Special Operations Forces and relive their gaming glory days on a real battlefield.

Well, watch the above video and see these sorry n00bs get their asses handed to them by Navy SEAL instructors. Don't get me wrong, fair play to all of the trainees for just turning up because even the most deluded of them must have realised somewhere in the back of their minds that they were going to get ripped a new one.

Who in their right mind thinks that Joe Public can just swagger in off the street and take part in SEAL training? The closest some of these guys have come to witnessing SEAL training was renting out a copy of G.I Jane. Hell, one participant only started swimming four days before commencing the training. Talk about disrespect to the Navy SEALS. It takes the best of the best American forces to pass SEAL training and so every one of the Keyboard Commandos taking part better accept that they're going to be ringing a brass bell that signifies that they want to drop out pretty soon.

Guys, take part, push yourself to your limits and walk out like men. Either that or provide us viewers plenty of laughs as you puke your guts up when those instructors cream you.

My favourite part so far? When the Chief Instructor starts calling them up front by their gaming nic's and hands them their dog tags. "President Pain! Are you shitting me?" Fucking priceless. Welcome to the real world. Navy SEALS - I salute you.

Trivia - The actor and all round gorgeous hunk of loveliness that is Michael Biehn has played a Navy SEAL three times on film. The Abyss, Navy SEALS and The Rock and twice he's died. Best not give up the day job. I was thinking about what I could perhaps ask Michael when I meet up with him next month at Collectormania 11. I guess I at least now have one subject of questioning.

One final thought. US Navy SEALS Vs British SBS - who'd win in a stand off?

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 22:25:00 +0000

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

With Terry Jones confirmed for Collectormania 11 I thought I'd post one of my favourite video mashups from 2006 which combined the famous "Knights of the Round Table" song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail with a video montage from the original series of Star Trek.

Some well chosen clips and some sharp editing makes for almost perfect lip synchronisation between the actors and the song. Regardless of the technical achievement behind the video, anything that manages to combine two of my all time favourite television series, Star Trek and Monty Python, is bound to make me laugh.

Speaking of Terry Jones, I believe he might be the only guest attending Collectormania 11 that Daz might possibly pay to acquire his autograph. However, knowing my boyfriend as I do, he's probably gone and spent the money on a copy of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars earlier today just because Michael Ironside is in it. Or more likely Grace Park and Tricia Helfer...

Collectormania 9 - Video Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:58:00 +0000

Collectormania 9 - Video Highlights

Since Daz and I are Collectormania virgins, I thought I'd try and track down some video footage from any of previous Collectormania conventions so we'll both have a rough idea of what to expect once we arrive.

I've been to sci-fi conventions before but nothing on this scale. Judging from the above video, Collectormania 9 looked fantastic and had some great guests including Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Jamison Newlander, Mira Furlan, Patricia Tallman, Julie Caitlin Brown, Al Matthews, Colette Hiller, Lance Henriksen, Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, LeVar Burton, Carl Weathers, Robert Llewellyn and Marc Singer - and that's just the people I would have liked to have met and got autographs from. So maybe it's best that I didn't get the opportunity to attend as it would have probably bankrupted me...

Anyhow, Daz and I have managed to book a great hotel just around the corner from the convention and finally bought a new camera. With just under a month to go there's still plenty of time for Showmasters to arrange a few last minute guests but I've got my fingers crossed that they'll just be B-listers that I don't want autographs from as there's only so many queues a girl is willing to put up with to meet her sci-fi heroes...

The current line up can be viewed here and the autograph price list here.

Star Trek: Borg War

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:42:00 +0000

Get ready for one of the greatest galactic wars ever created in machinima! Borg War, an independently produced, feature-length, animated science fiction adventure, was created using machinima, a filmmaking technique that harnesses computer games to create raw footage.

Despite its humble origins, Borg War has proven wildly popular among science fiction fans, and has now achieved over 750,000 downloads. Borg War is notorious within the machinima community for being the first video to earn more views in a single month on Machinima.com (the leading machinima distribution network) than "Red vs. Blue," the winner since July 2003.

Borg War was nominated for "Best Series" and "Technical Achievement" by the Academy for Machinima Arts and Sciences (AMAS), and has been featured in the exhibit "Star Trek: 40 Years of Fandom" at New York City's Museum of the Moving Image.

By recycling sound clips from computer games, Borg War has allowed actors from the original Star Trek television series to reprise their roles in the form of animated characters. Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Tim Russ (Tuvok) and Lieutenant Barclay (Dwight Schultz) character's all appear in the movie.

Finally, I haven’t managed to watch all of the episodes yet but what I’ve seen so far has blown me away. I don’t want to spoil anything for you so below is the background to the plot taken from the official website.

It's 17 years after the return of Voyager. The Alpha quadrant has been preparing for the return of the Borg, primarily by investing massive R&D in offensive and defensive weaponry. During the long peace, the Federation/Klingon alliance has been wearing thin, with the younger factions seeking a return to the old ways.

Meanwhile, the Federation, taking advantage of a detent with the Romulans, have cautiously begun to work to with them on holocloak technology -- a combination of a holodeck and a cloaking device. Technically, this is a violation of the treaty of Algeron, which forbids the Federation the use of cloaking technology. While the treaty is technically between the Federation and the Romulans, the Federation's willingness to forego cloaking is a lynchpin of the Federation/Klingon alliance.

The consensus at Starfleet is that the free races of the Alpha quadrant must work together if the next Borg invasion is to be successfully repelled. However, because the Klingons, due their racial hatred of the Romulans, are unlikely to agree with this strategy, Starfleet is keeping the holo-cloak research under wraps. Because of his broad understanding of both the Borg and Alpha Quadrant interracial politics, Captain Picard has been given full authority over the entire project.

Meanwhile, a Borg cube visits a desert planet searching for additional biological diversity to strengthen the collective. When a Borg unit becomes infected with an viral exomorph, the infection forces a break with the collective. In order to prevent re-assimilation and to find a safe haven to propagate, the infected cube leaves Borg space. By chance, it stumbles onto a Klingon mining freighter that belongs to the House of Mi'qoch, the Klingon clan that's responsible for the Klingon Empire's anti-Borg programme.

Jureth, the eldest son of the House of Mi'qoch, though the liaison between the Klingon Empire and the Federation on anti-Borg projects, has not yet learned of the growing cooperation between the Federation and the Romulans. His brother, Kephren, is of one of the young rebels who despises both the Federation and his Federation-tainted brother.

The A-Team Gears of War

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:48:00 +0000

Pity The Fool Who Crosses Delta Squad...

Hands up! You got me. I'm a Sony PS1/2/3 Fangirl. Always was and always will be regardless of the current immature Sony backlash bullshit the PS3 crowd is having to face daily from all of Digg’s Wii360 Fanboys.

So admittedly it’s rare that anything about Microsoft's console gets mentioned in this blog’s pages but the above A-Team / Gears of War video mashup brought a smile to my face nearly as wide as hearing that Sony shifted a record breaking 165,000 PS3’s in their first weekend over here in Britain. I digress, but anything that pays homage to one of my favourite 80's television programmes deserves a mention – even when connected to the Xbox 360.

Speaking of the A-Team, Collectormania have announced that Dirk "Faceman" Benedict and Dwight "Howling Mad Murdoch" Schultz have been forced to pull out of the Sci/TV convention that Daz and I are planning to attend in May. Damn! Where's Colonel Decker when you need him?

Star Trek - The Television Continuation

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:15:00 +0000

Women In The Mirror Universe Are Just So... Badass!

After a set of new straight to DVD / television movies expanding the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine universe (hopefully filming the DS9 relaunch novels) my second choice for continuing the Star Trek franchise on the small screen would be for an all new series set entirely in the parallel Mirror Universe.

I'm not too sure how well this concept would be accepted as it's widely known that many Star Trek fans initially disagreed with Deep Space Nine being much darker in tone than Gene Roddenberry originally envisionaged his Star Trek universe to be. However as the above video demonstrates, life in the Mirror Universe is that much darker, machiavellian, violent... and sexier!

But what would be great about this series is that since the Mirror Universe has already been established across numerous Star Trek series, DS9 especially Mirror Universe heavy with 5 episodes, and a large percentage of established characters (mainly from TOS, DS9 and ENT) appearing, the writers would already have a wealth of history, scenarios and characters to start building a new series around.

Finally, if we envisage each season of the series to encompass each of Star Trek series in chronological order from the beginning of Enterprise through to the end of Voyager we could then see how the Mirror Universe has developed through that same time frame, and hopefully trying to use as many of the original cast from each of the series – TOS characters excluded due to the obvious reason being that the original actors are either dead or dribbling geriatrics. Recasting would probably be necessary.

As I’ve previously mentioned numerous times in this blog I prefer DS9's much darker and grittier stories so I guess that makes me more accepting of the aggressive and depressive nature that the Mirror Universe offers. Discounting the pathetic Deanna Troi, the majority of female characters in the later Star Trek series were shown as equally tough and resourceful as their male counterparts - and in the Mirror Universe especially, the women were definitely in control.

Personally I can do without the new Star Trek movie as I believe going back into Star Trek history is too constrictive as witnessed by Enterprise. It’s time to accept a darker and grittier Star Trek universe and that means either filming a Mirror Universe series or continuing on with Deep Space Nine.

How Atheism Will Survive

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 18:18:00 +0000

"I Will Survive..."

...or

maybe

not!

Hahh, to live in a free country and be able to laugh out aloud at religion. You have the option to practice your faith and I have the option to ridicule you. The faster this country drags itself out of the dark ages and becomes a secular nation, the faster we can thwart the many people hiding behind their indoctrinated religious beliefs which actively discriminate against various sections of our society.

Maybe then our country and our out of touch rulers with their inflated wages and egos can stop pandering to the religious rabble that is intent on riding rough shod over the voice of the people, labelling anyone who speaks out with common sense a racist, blasphemous xenophobe.

Don't get me wrong, everyone should have the right to believe in any religion or worship any deity they want to, but the right to live freely from discrimination and persecution based off your genes must come before thousands of years old invented dogma that may have been relevant when it was written but is surely backward in today’s more enlightened science based world.

It’s a fact that you can't change many of the fundamental characteristics that contribute to your being, but until anyone can prove that their deity exists and their doctrines of faith are real and not some work of fiction to control the masses, then no one should be allowed to practice their faith blindly protected by the law of the land.

Regardless of what many people are brought up to believe in, the belief in religion is voluntary. Wake up. We’re living in 2007, not 1007!

The History of Final Fantasy

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 22:37:00 +0000

The History of Final Fantasy

Why don't you pull that tartan blanket over your varicose veined legs, ease your tired feet into a pair of comfortable slippers, grab yourself a hot cup of cocoa and take the load off your feet for the next 30 minutes?

Does that sound like a vision of your future self as some decrepit incontinent old age pensioner? Whatever, but you'll almost definitely be feeling old by the time you've finished watching the above video chronicling the history of the Final Fantasy gaming series.

Beginning in 1987 with the original Final Fantasy game on the Nintendo Famicom, the movie documents and describes each and every game through to the twelfth and current instalment on the PlayStation 2.

I've played many of the Final Fantasy games but never realised until watching the movie just how prevalent certain core themes are to the series that include: creatures (Chocobos / Moogles), vehicles (airships), incarnations of characters (Cid), magic and crystals are all there throughout nearly every one of the games.

At 32 minutes long the documentary only scratches the surface of the Final Fantasy universe and so lacks the time or scope to delve too deeply into each of the games, for example there’s no mention of Sephiroth, surely the franchises' most iconic nemesis? Shame...

If you’re wondering why the video doesn’t mention Final Fantasy XIII or Final Fantasy Versus XIII, it's because the documentary was commissioned for inclusion in the Special Edition of Final Fantasy XII.

I'll leave you now to reminisce over 20 years of gaming history...

Further Guests Announced For Collectormania 11

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:50:00 +0000

Following on from my previous post, after a long wait the website for Collectormania 11 has finally been updated. Daz and I were getting slightly concerned about the lack of updates, myself wondering if we were going to get treated to any further Star Trek celebrities and Daz questioning where all the Sci-Fi totty was? Thankfully Showmasters, the people organising the Collectormania 11 convention, have been pulling out all the stops in attracting some great new guests.

I'm pretty excited about seeing Aron Eisenberg (Nog) and Rene Auberjonis (Odo) from Deep Space Nine together with my star of the convention Avery Brooks (Capt. Benjamin Sisko) it appears we're getting a small but great Star Trek: Deep Space Nine reunion going!

I'm hoping that Showmasters can pull off a real coup and get Nana Visitor (Col. Kira Nerys) to join Avery, Aron and Rene as she's already appearing over here in Blackpool for another convention. To see her and Rene back together again as Kira/Odo would be fantastic as they were my favourite Star Trek couple. Finally, managing to get some of the DS9 crew together would prove quite timely as I'm currently reading the DS9 Relaunch novels so to see them in the flesh would be fantastic.

Also I can't wait meet with Dirk Benedict (Face) and Dwight Schultz (Murdoch) from the A-Team even though I prefer their other character roles more. Benedict as the original and best Lieutenant Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica and Schultz as Lieutenant Barcley (Broccoli?) from Star Trek: TNG / Voyager.

Other guests that I'll be trying to meet with are William Sanderson whom to me will always be JF Sebastian from Blade Runner, Peter Davidson (my 3rd favourite Dr. Who) and Michael Winslow from Police Academy. Most of the remaining guests are from shows like Buffy and Angel which I positively hate. Oh, and I nearly forgot that there's a smattering of totty to keep Daz happy too!

And of course I can't forget the professional photoshoot with Michael Biehn I've signed up for. Yes, I'm a totally sad geek girl but £20 to get my body next to Dwayne Hicks? Daz (my BF) - pack your bags... Speaking of the Aliens film, also confirmed for Collectormania 11 are William Hope (Lieutenant Gorman) and Trevor Steadman (Pvt. Wiezbowski). All we need now is for Showmasters to try and persuade Jenette Golstein (Pfc. Vasquez), Mark Rolston (Pfc. Drake), Ricco Ross (Pvt. Frost) and Lance Henriksen (Bishop) to appear. All of them are familiar faces on the convention scene so hopefully there's a chance they might turn up.

The one downside to all these new guests is that convention is starting to get expensive and will keep Daz and I busy for more than just the Sunday we originally decided to book. So we've decided to get a room for the night so we can now do both the Saturday and the Sunday and maybe money permitting do the party on Saturday night.

Unfortunately I can see myself going through about £100 just on autographs and memorabilia - plus we've decided to get a new camera between us. God help my bank balance...

So roll on May 5th-6th!

Wake Up Leon - Time To Die!

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 20:16:00 +0000

Resident Evil 4 - 100 Ways To Die"

Between us, Daz and I have played Resident Evil 4 on the Sony PS2 to death (pardon the pun) but even after completing every single mission and acquiring all of the bonus items I don't think we've died nearly a hundred times. Why? Because we're awesome fucking gamers… that's why!

So for your viewing pleasure I present the above video "Resident Evil 4 – You Are Dead" aka "How To Die In 100 Different Gruesome Pixelated Ways". Truth be known, there's probably more ways to get Leon decapitated in RE:4 than Madame Guillotine went through French nobles... Enjoy!

Final Fantasy XII Arrives And The World Stops...

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:53:00 +0000

Final Fantasy XII Main Intro

Final Fantasy XII New Game Intro

...well at least any regular entries to this blog for the previous two weeks.

Daz made the slightly silly and naive mistake of purchasing Final Fantasy XII for the Sony PS2 a few weeks back. I was originally happy just to leave him playing it and maybe on the odd occasion watch as not to try and spoil it for myself. The last Final Fantasy game I played was FFVIII but I hated the super deformed cutesy characters of FFIX so by the time FFX came out I'd kind gone off the Final Fantasy universe.

I originally thought to myself that I'd let Daz play FFXII and I'd stick to DS9: The Fallen until Bioshock comes out for the PC. But watching Daz play FFXII brought all the memories back of FFVII and FFVIII and before long I'd wrestled the game off him and selfishly hogged it for myself. The game's look is reminiscent of Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace with its cityscapes modelled off Naboo's technological and architectural styles. Populated with hundreds of NPCs and as ever the beautiful soundscapes which the Final Fantasy series is renowned for the game seductively sucks you in with its politics heavy plot lines and the new fluid and much more exciting combat system.

I'm now fifty hours plus into the game but only about 2 locations further than Daz who's only put about twenty hours in. It appears we play these types of games differently with him rushing through the game trying to force the plot on as fast as possible whilst I choose the classic Final Fantasy tactics of completing every subplot, collecting every weapon and routinely going on massive enemy killing sprees to boost my stats up. Hence, whilst Daz's characters hover around level 18, mine are around level 24/25 and it makes killing the enemies so much easier which in turn allows for more of the side plots to be discovered and completed.

I have no intention of playing FFXII again so I would like to complete as much of it as possible this first and only time. So I apologise for the lack of blog entries but if it's a decision between playing one of my favourite series of games or blogging, than Final Fantasy will always win out.

My Top 10 Adam And Joe Toy Stories

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:42:00 +0000

As a follow up to a previous blog entry "My Top 15 1980's Cartoons" I thought I'd quickly throw together another list, this one being My Top 10 Adam and Joe Toy Stories.

For anyone who hasn't heard of Adam and Joe, the eponymous pair had their own late night pop culture parody show on Great Britain’s Channel 4 television station.

Ask any of my friends and they'd tell you that chances are their introduction to this hilarious and juvenile (which, honestly is why we liked it) show was probably coming back from the pub pissed, nonchantly flicking from channel to channel, before settling on the bizarre comedy show hosted by two twenty somethings – one of them wearing a Captain Birdseye hat. Purportedly filmed on a camcorder from their Brixton flat in London the show is probably best remembered for their spoofing of Hollywood movies using fluffy toys and Star Wars action figures.

And it’s these toytastic piss takes that are the subject of my next list. So without further a do, I present FoxyTallChick’s Top 10 Adam and Joe Toy Stories.

1) Toy Trainspotting

"Choose bedtime stories, relentless dribbling and some baby ripping your fucking arm off."

2) Snatch

"Well that scene there I used a technique I got off Tarantino,
known as copying."

3) Saving Private Lion

"Hey Captain, how come we haven't seen any British Soldiers yet?"
"Don't be ignorant, everyone knows the second world war was fought entirely by American Actors!"

4) The Crystal Maze

"Shut up you bickering bastards! Either we win or I destroy you all!"

5) Stuff This Life

"I never see her anymore, she's always working late and she's started to wear men's aftershave for some reason, maybe she's trying to tell me something?"

6) Toytanic

"Being poor is fantastic!"

7) American Beautoy

"Damn these visual metaphors, I can't see anything!"

8) Furends

"Here comes the science bit. Concentrate!"

9) Se7en

"What's in the box?"

10) Tufty Club

"Did you know that if you typed 58008 into a calculator and flip it,
it spells boobs?"

Honourable mentions should also go to: Stuffed Trek, Chew Wants to Be A Millionaire?, EPR, Creche, Starwars in Their Eyes, Toykids, ShowToys

Adam Buxton's website is located here whilst Joe Cornish lives the life of a virtual hermit and consequently has no web presence of note. Either that, or he doesn't give a shit about this passing fad called the internet. If after watching the above and you long for more A&J you can both of them on XFM Radio every Saturday afternoon from 1pm until 3pm. You can also find more information about their previous shows at the fansite www.adamandjoe.co.uk.

Finally, if you liked the above then check out the below videos entitled "The PrisonBear". Created in the same style as Adam and Joe's Toy Stories, the videos are a homage to the the late 1960's classic television show - The Prisoner.

Ep 1. Revival

Ep 2. Stalemate

openID - Good Riddance To Manual Account Creation

noreply@blogger.com (FoxyTallChick) — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:21:00 +0000

I’ve finally gotten around to organising a couple of openID’s for myself. OpenID is an attempt to provide a solution to the growing problem of users having to remember all of their website account details or the process of manually registering a new account. OpenID defeats this problem by allowing a user to register with an OpenID "identity provider" and when in future they’re asked to login in or register a new account they can just link to their identity provider and log in using that website's URI instead in turn allowing them to connect their identity to that website.

With openID being decentralised any website can employ openID software as a way for users to sign in. Numerous websites have already started to employ openID and with this ground swell of success it would be inevitable that some of the largest players in the corporate world are taking notice and making noises about future deployment across their websites.

Unlike Passport, Microsoft’s own failed universal login solution, openID appears to be gaining enough momentum to hopefully one day provide us all with an answer to the misery of remembering all of our website account details.

You can find a list of the current websites that are openID enabled here.