Current Gaming Projects

Saturday, October 25, 2008

The Zen of Penguins

A few pictures that I took in Antarctica


Tuesday, October 21, 2008

At the Mountains of Madness...discovered?!?

Well, for those who don't really know me, I am a big H.P. Lovecraft fan. I am not a big reader of fiction, and I probably read some where between 5 to 10 non-fiction history, bibliography, political science, science, philosophy, or work related text for every one novel that I read...and H.P. Lovecraft is one of my favorites.

It also happens that my favorite novel by Lovecraft is "At the Mountains of Madness." It is a novel about a paleontology expedition to Antarctica that discovers an unknown mountain range in Antarctica along with amazing fossils finds. Then things go terribly wrong.

As you can see from my photograph on my main page, I have had a deep love for Antarctica for many, many years, which I think started with the novel, "At the Mountains of Madness".

Now, what does this have to do with this posting?!?! In today's news, the following little article came up:

"Huge Mountain Range Should Not Be There"

LiveScience.com livescience Stafflivescience.com – Tue Oct 21, 10:21 am ET

"An Antarctic mountain range that rivals the Alps in elevation will be probed this month by an expedition of scientists using airborne radar and other Information Age tools to virtually "peel away" more than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) of ice covering the peaks.

"One of the mysteries of the mountain range
is that current evidence suggests that it "shouldn't be there" at all.

"The researchers hope to find answers there to some basic questions about the nature of the southernmost continent
, including the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet. For instance, it is unclear how Antarctica came to be ice-covered in the first place and whether that process began millions of years ago in the enigmatic Gamburtsev Mountain range."

rest of story here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081021/sc_livescience/hugemountainrangeshouldnotbethere

A mountain range in Antarctica that 'should not be'...that is the stuff of Lovecraft!!! I am very excited about this and will definitely be keeping tabs on this...maybe they will find a cute, cuddly shoggoth!!!

MST3K pictures as promised

Here are the promised pictures from this year's Archon convention in St. Louis, as I talked about in my last post.

The pictures are from the Friday's night Q&A panel: In the first two pictures, the panelists are:
Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, J. Elvis Weinstein, and Mary Jo Pehl.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

ARCHON 2008 Convention in St. Louis

Well, hello again...it has been a while!

On the weekend of Oct. 3-5, I went to the Archon Sci-Fi & Fantasy Convention in Collinsville, IL, just outside of St. Louis, MO. This was the first time that I have been to Archon since 1997...that has been a long time! (But that was the first time back since 1993...I missed the old 'Henry the VIII', the previous convention location.)

Anyway, I decided to go for various reasons...1) I was actually in town that weekend!!! (that really is amazing!), and 2) the cast of 'Cinematic Titanic' or the old cast of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 [MST3K] for their 20th Anniversary of the launching of MST3K. I am a fan of MST3K and have been from the days that used to be on the Comedy Channel in 1991.

So...I went!

I went on Friday and Saturday only. I did not have the time for Sunday's events.

I enjoyed myself for the most part. I ran into several of some my friends and some people I have not seen in probably 10 years...it was like a family reunion...but with weird vampire freaks walking around you! [Ok, I might be too hard on the vampire freaks...but back the days of 'Henry the VIII' and the early years of the Collinsville Convention Center, I was 'volunteered under duress' to be on security...especially on the early, early morning shifts when the vampire freaks were in rare form...]

Wait, let me get back to this years convention and bury this wooden stake! 8)

So, I did take a few pictures of the MST3K panel on Friday night, but forgot my camera on Saturday...and oddly, I forgot to take the camera's disc with me when I left for Utah where I am working! I will add the pictures later, if they turned out ok.

Saturday I sat in a 3 hour panel on podcasting...hmmm...nah, I can't have that much to talk about...or do I? Don't hold your breath.

I also got into to one game, which is typical for me at conventions...I don't know why? It was a 'Call of Cthulhu - Dark Ages' game. I enjoyed it...I have not played CoC in eons...at least I died before going insane in the game, so I won!!!

But on another note...I am going to have a treat on midnight, 10/17-18th! I am going to see one my all time favorite movies...2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen!!!! I am so happy!

Well, that about wraps it up for now.