Here's some mindless fun: a variety of name generators to translate your name (or alias) into something else.

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A couple of Stormtrooper pics that have grabbed my fancy recently:

Happy Trooper (via Wizbang):

Female Trooper (via Michele Catalano):

I just got an idea for a theme costume for my wife and me next Halloween...

Posted by: JohnL at 11:00 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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This week's poll is yet another variation on the Star Trek theme.

Though the odd-numbered Trek films are commonly considered inferior to the even-numbered ones (at least for the first 6 or so), they did feature some striking ladies.

From Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Lieutenant Ilia (portrayed by Persis Khambatta):

From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the other Lieutenant Saavik (portrayed by Robin Curtis):

And finally from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Romulan Caithlin Dar (portrayed by Cynthia Gouw):

(P.S. I'm taking nominations for future poll candidates and themes. I'm also thinking about giving the poll a summer hiatus, since it takes about an hour or two to put each one together. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!)

Results (Posted 17 May 2005):

Ilia: 16 of 57 votes for 28%
Saavik: 16 of 57 votes for 28%
Dar: 25 of 57 votes for 44% -- WINNER!

Posted by: JohnL at 10:02 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The Japanese word otaku is used casually among the anime subset of SciFi as a synonym for "geek." I bet few know the word really carries a much stronger negative connotation than geek (or nerd or dweeb or dork), meaning a seriously unhealthy obsession with a hobby.

Unhealthy is the operative word here.

Though it's been 15 years or so since I played the game, D&D still comes to mind occasionally. And I suppose it makes me a real otaku that I thought about what my real-life D&D character traits would be while lying in a 103.2 F fever dream this weekend:

S: 12
I: 17
W: 14
D: 11
C: 4
Ch: 13

Don't even know my best character class based on that anymore. Wizard or Cleric, probably, as both involve fast talk, just like lawyering.

Be sure to note the low constitution score. I swear, this year has not been a good year for my health. First the colitis incident a couple of months ago, and now I've been laid up since Friday with some sort of nasty virus. High fever, aches and pains, constricted chest. Saw the doctor yesterday and she told me to keep doing what I was already doing: take Mucinex (my new best friend), alternate Advil and Tylenol to manage the fever, drink plenty of fluids and get plenty of rest. She also gave me a Z-Pack in case there was a secondary infection that didn't present itself in the exam. Today I finally feel mostly human, as my fever never got above 99. I plan to go back to work tomorrow, for at least long enough not to take another PTO day (that's what really burns me -- I've now wasted a week of paid time off on illness this year. Grrr.)

That accounts for the slow bloggage around here. Thanks for your patience and continued support.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:58 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Glad you're getting back to near normal. Take it easy and make sure you're completely recovered. My wife works in a medical office, and this year has been unreal with seeing the same people over and over from trying to come back too soon.

Posted by: Ted at May 12, 2005 05:47 AM (blNMI)

2 It's been so long since I've played I can't even remember what traits the letters stand for... Strength Intelligence Wisdom D=? Constitution CHarisma Hope you continue to feel better.

Posted by: Jack Grey at May 12, 2005 02:54 PM (Jq8H8)

3 D is for Dexterity. I'm average; klutzy at some things, very dextrous at others.

Posted by: JohnL at May 12, 2005 03:19 PM (YVul2)

4 OK, so you're opting for the wizard. (For what it's worth, us 'Learned Counsel' types are what they now refer to as Rogues in that now-somewhat-less-than-blasphemus-3.5 Edition.) That's cool; always need fire support in a party. Just remember, noone (or at least, very few) puts Vin Diesel in the geek category, and he's cursed the Gods of Game Balance and Wayward Dice as much as either of us. (Yes, Ranger, with bastard sword > )

Posted by: Lysander at May 13, 2005 12:42 PM (ShW/G)

5 Hope you get better soon. Z-packs are always handy. Geekitude is relative, by the way.

Posted by: Owlish at May 13, 2005 11:33 PM (sBj9U)

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Are you looking for some news sources to provide fodder for your blog?

Graham at Point2Point has assembled a helpful list.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Happy Cinco de Mayo! Hoist a Dos Equis and eat some good Mexican food.

Cinco de mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, as some in the blogosphere seem to believe. Instead it celebrates Mexico's surprise defeat of a French expeditionary force in 1862. From the Wikipedia article:

The battle between the French and Mexican armies occurred on May 5 when Zaragoza's ill-equipped militia of 4,500 men encountered the better armed French force. However, Zaragoza's small and nimble cavalry units were able to prevent French dragoons from taking the field and overwhelming the Mexican infantry. With the dragoons removed from the main attack, the Mexicans routed the remaining French soldiers with a combination of their tenacity, inhospitable terrain, and a stampede of cattle set off by local peasants. The invasion was stopped and crushed.

I really love that bit about the stampede of cattle helping to do in the bad guys, which reminds me of one of my favorite Westerns.

Unfortunately for the Mexicans, the French returned in greater numbers and won a rare victory in 1864, installing Archduke Maximillian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico. His reign ended three years later as all good tyrants' reigns should end: in front of a firing squad. His wife, understandably, went mad.

So even if you're not into sharing a fun excuse to celebrate our nation's considerable Hispanic heritage, you can at least celebrate a French defeat, right?

Posted by: JohnL at 09:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Reading Random today, I was reminded how the blogworld recently noted, and analyzed, General Motors' decline.

The Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins, quoted by Virginia Postrel, provided this damning (to me) assessment of GM:

GM's boss should be the media's darling, running his company to provide job security and health care for its workers first, second and third. Wonder why GM invests just enough in new product to keep the game going, not enough to make its cars really sought after? Because the extra capital that would have to be invested goes instead to doling out gold-plated health care -- no copays, no deductibles -- to workers and to plumping up their pension fund, which two years ago required the largest corporate debt offering in history to top off....

Has anyone else here read Atlas Shrugged? Remember the Twentieth Century Motor Company, where the book's hero was originally employed? Remember how that company met its end?

"Were you familiar with the production of that factory? With the kind of work they were doing--or planning?"

"Certainly. I took a personal interest in all my investments. I went to inspect that factory very often. They were doing exceedingly well. They were accomplishing wonders. The workers' housing conditions were the best in the country. I saw lace curtains at every window and flowers on the window sills. Every home had a plot of ground for a garden. They had built a new schoolhouse for the children."

"Did you know anything about the work of the factory's research laboratory?"

"Yes, yes, they had a wonderful research laboratory, very advanced, very dynamic, with forward vision and great plans."

"Do you . . . remember hearing anything about . . . any plans to produce a new type of motor?"

"Motor? What motor, Miss Taggart? I had no time for details. My objective was social progress, universal prosperity, human brotherhood and love. Love, Miss Taggart. That is the key to everything. If men learned to love one another, it would solve all their problems."

It seems that GM might have gotten its priorities mixed up, much like Twentieth Century Motors. Let's hope they can find a way out of the trap their workers' union and social conscience have led them into.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yesterday I was leafing through my new issue of IP Law & Business at the office and was happy to see some coverage of a CopyNight gathering in New York city. It's unusual for an industry magazine to acknowledge the existence of another side of the debate about intellectual property rights and the public domain.

Unfortunately, the article's author (or editor?) chose to run only one quote from an attendee regarding technologies like Grokster:

"Why can't it be like in headshops? ... You know, you can sell a bong but like not explicitly for weed."

No bias there, hmm?

The rest of the article was somewhat more balanced, exploring the parallels of the free-culture movement to environmentalism. But it didn't really delve into any of the really interesting strands in the current debate over technologies that enable widespread duplication and sharing of copyrighted materials.

If you want to better understand the contours of the debate over IP rights, avoid IP Law & Business and check out Timothy Sandefur's article from yesterday instead.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I get a few regular commenters, whose input I really value (please keep it up, folks!). But I really love getting comments from readers I didn't even know I have (ahem), and "BadLiberal" left this great gem in the comments of last week's SF Babe Poll pitting Lt. Marlena Moreau against Lt. Marla McGivers:

You've gotta be f'-in kidding.

One [sic] the one hand we have a woman who's slept her way to the top while incinerating entire planets, and on the other we have a woman who gets all googly eyed over fine Corinthian leather.

Lt. Moreau walks away with this one. Probably after leaving McGivers at the bottom of a convenient river.

Very nice generational joke there about "fine Corinthian leather" -- most people much younger than I wouldn't catch the reference. I couldn't have agreed more with the other sentiments and was quite pleased with the outcome of the poll. (And for what it's worth, note well that I included McGivers at the request of another so-far-one-time commenter, "Ishy.")

A neat thing that's showing up in some of the polls is how the personality attributes of the characters influence certain voters more than just surface appearances. That's how I usually vote and also why I try to make the poll pics purely of the characters "in character." The Gallery is where I sometimes feature more flattering pictures of the actresses "out of character."

Posted by: JohnL at 09:43 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Only two-and-a-half weeks to go before Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith hits theaters. So let's jump on the Sandcrawler bandwagon and build some hype:

Do you have questions? Read the script to find the answers. It actually reads like a well-paced movie with some fantastic action scenes and only a small amount of franchise-appropriate cheesy dialogue.

Challenge yourself with some obsessive fan trivia, while perusing a serious SF analysis of the screwed up values reflected in the Campbellian (non-Enlightenment) universe of Star Wars.

Of course, you have your outfit picked out for opening night, don't you? (Just make sure it's bathroom-capable!)

The Dark Side's not your style? Then try this, Rebel scum.

More links to follow as we draw closer to opening day...

Posted by: JohnL at 08:52 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, Eric helped us finish this interview meme with an outstanding set of answers. I'll have to try to track down the wine in his answer to number 6.

Thanks to Owlish, Gunner, LDH, Lysander, and Eric for playing along!

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Do you read Engrish.com? You really should. It requires a 10-second commitment per day to take in a picture depicting a humorously incorrect or inappropriate use of the English language.

In the extended entry, you'll see a recent posting (from April 29 -- I copied the pic, since I couldn't figure out where it would end up in the site's long-term archives), which plays on the juvenile pronunciation of the seventh planet's name. more...

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Via Bryan's Basement, an interesting link to many pictures of abandoned Japanese buildings. Bryan made exactly the comment I would have, expressing surprise that these sites had not been rebuilt or recycled in some way, given the scarcity of land in Japan.

My favorite was this abandoned amusement park (at least I think that's what it is), including the creepy Gulliver lying before Mt. Fuji (see in extended entry).
more...

Posted by: JohnL at 11:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Don't let the existentialist title fool you. There is a point to all of this. Oh yes, there is. A few points, in fact.

This week's poll was inspired by Rob at the Llamabutchers (see post here), who urged a write-in campaign for pointy-eared previous poll loser Lieutenant Saavik (of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan):

Interesting idea, I thought, to run another previous "loser": the sometimes pointy-hatted Princess Ardala (of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) (who only "won" her earlier poll against Colonel Deering thanks to the machinations of a corrupt poll author):

Vote early and often (and for Ardala, of course).

Enjoy!

Results (Posted 10 May 2005):

Princess Ardala: 41 of 69 votes for 59% -- WINNER!
Lieutenant Saavik: 28 of 69 votes for 41%

Posted by: JohnL at 11:02 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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No surprises here:

Via the Llamabutchers.

(Rob, were you really an English major? I'd ask for my money back if I were you ;-)

Posted by: JohnL at 07:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Gunner has already asked Eric some good questions at his blog, so I have to think a bit differently here for the final interview. You all should be acquainted with the rules by now. Without further ado:

1. My standard first question: for readers new to your blog, explain your blog-name.

2. Which fictional Sci Fi universe would you rather live in, and explain why: Star Wars or Star Trek?

3. (Shamelessly stolen from my interview of Gunner): What do you think about the current long term force "transformation" policy of the DoD, i.e., the "modular" Army based on swappable brigades like the new Stryker brigades? (On that note, what do you think about the Stryker vehicle? Competitor or complement to heavy armor?)

4. What do you think about Heinlein's controversial premise in Starship Troopers, namely, that the voting franchise should be available only to those citizens who had performed military (or conscientious-objector-alternative) service?

5. What single amendment would you make to the US Constitution, assuming that it would be ratified (make it a single-issue amendment, not an omnibus provision)? Feel free to suggest a text, or just describe your goal.

6. What California wine (or winery) delivers the best value (good quality at a reasonable price)? (Winery, vintage, varietal, and price, if possible).

I'll link to his answers when posted.

Posted by: JohnL at 07:41 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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