/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** ** NN NN SSSSSS XX XX ** NNN NN SS SS XX XX ** NN N NN SSS XX ** NN N NN SSS XX ** NN NNN SS SS XX XX ** NN NN SSSSSS XX XX ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** « an eclectic e-newsletter, e-published irregularly » ** Produced by Phillip Thorne ** nsx.underbase.org ** ** Volume 7, Issue 1: Thursday, 10 February 2005 ** Previous issue: Thursday, 23 December 2004 ** ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ EDITOR: Temp jobs, hot fudge ingredients, Hawaiian shirts. LEGO NEWS: EpIII models, DelVaLUG does trains, space in US/NC. INDUSTRY NEWS: Dreamwave closes, Vicarious Visions bought, ST:ENT ends. http://www.underbase.org/nsx/ - back issues http://www.underbase.org/blog - NSX::Blogmode http://www.underbase.org/nsx/index_plus.htm - extra content /* *************************************************************************** ** FROM THE EDITOR ** ** The best is the enemy of the good ** Latest temp jobs ** Cassini-Huygens ** Hot weather, hot fudge ** Hawaiian shirts: friend of fumblefingers ** ************************************************************************ */ In Issue 6.4, I wrote: "If we're all lucky, I may get another couple out during the last week of 2004." Yeah, right. And I've missed all the handy landmarks *since* then -- New Year's Day, the first week of 2005, the last day of the first month of 2005, Groundhog Day... Fine. Please consider this the Pre-Valentine's Day issue. If it seems a tad short, that's because I've decided it's more important to be timely than complete. A couple of weeks ago, I finished a 41-week temping assignment at the local offices of a major insurance company; and if I ever see a pink HCFA-1500 form again, I'll scream. After that I was sent to solve the belated filing woes of a landscaping company -- located, ironically enough, across from the pharmaco where I worked for three years as a programmer. And now I'm at a different pharmaco, putting my craft skills to work (scissors, glue sticks, stickers) by prepping lab notebooks for archiving purposes. (Yes, I'm bloody well overqualified for those jobs. It means I'm really good at them, but it requires extra creativity to give them a positive spin on the résumé.) Way to go, Cassini-Huygens probe! The first of this year was unseasonably warm here in the Philadelphia region; the nearly 60°F weather was a boon for the annual Mummers parade [1]. And on the first of February, the mercury hit 50°F; but for most of the interim, we'd endured the usual sub-freezing temperatures. Therefore I decided some hot fudge topping would be welcome on our ever-so-frequent after-dinner ice cream; but upon picking a jar of Hershey's brand off the supermarket shelf, I noticed the following: INGREDIENTS: HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP; MILK; SUGAR; stuff; stuff; stuff; contains 2% or less of: stuff; stuff; stuff; stuff; stuff; POTASSIUM SORBATE, A PRESERVATIVE; stuff and stuff; and VANILLIN, AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVORING. Why were those two items, alone and in particular, awarded with annotations? A while ago, the thought occurred to me (as they are wont to do) that Hawaiian shirts would constitute an ideal introduction for newbie seamsters and seamstresses. They're worn baggy, so they needn't be closely fitted to the wearer; the garish print should conceal imperfections in the stitching; unlike with plaid fabric, there's no need to match the pattern between adjacent panels. [1] The Mummers: if you don't know already, it's impossible for me to explain the phenomenon. /* *************************************************************************** ** LEGO NEWS ** ** New LEGO "Star Wars" begins ** DelVaLUG at train show ** Space-themed AFOL show in North Carolina ** ************************************************************************ */ The first of the "Star Wars Episode III" kits are now available in stores in the US: the 7256 "Jedi Starfighter and Vulture Droid," and the 7263 with light-up lightsaber Vader minifig. Other models will appear in April. Other 2005 themes include Vikings, Dragons, and Bionicle kits with minifig-sized Matoran to make the prime model look bigger. http://shop.lego.com DelVaLUG, the Delaware Valley LEGO Users Group, will be exhibiting a LEGO train layout at the Greenberg Train, Toy and Hobby Show in US/PA/Ft.Washington this coming weekend. The show runs from 10:00 to 16:00 on sat-12-feb and sun-13-feb; admission is $7.00 for adults, free for kids under 11. http://www.greenbergshows.com For NSX readers in the US southeast, DelVaLUG's sister group will be conducting a one-day space-themed "LEGOPolluza" at the Morehead Planetarium in US/NC/Chapel Hill, on sat-26-feb from 10:00 to 16:00. It will feature a Moonbase layout, various space-themed models, a landing area for visitors to display their own spacecraft, and possibly an exhibition of MINDSTORMS robots. DelVaLUG will be contributing some models. /* *************************************************************************** ** INDUSTRY NEWS ** ** Dreamwave Productions, publisher of "Transformers" comics, closes ** Activision buys Vicarious Visions ** "Star Trek: Enterprise" canceled ** ************************************************************************ */ 04 January 2005 -- Dreamwave Productions ceases operation. http://tformers.com/article.php?sid=4053 Founded in 1996 by brothers Pat and Roger Lee in Canada/Quebec/Montreal, Canada's only independent comics publisher achieved notoriety in 2002 with a new line of "Transformers" comics, based on the Hasbro-Takara line of robot toys; the first of several. Long-time fans soon became disenchanted with the "sturm und drang" style of writer Simon Furman (a celebrity since his days penning the 1980s-90s version, published by Marvel), and the ongoing contraction of the comics market sealed the company's fate. 20 January 2005 -- Activision acquires Vicarious Visions. http://vvisions.com/news/index.cfm Founded in 1991 by brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in US/NY/Rochester, PC game development company Vicarious Visions (VV) produced three original titles ("Synnergist," "Dark Angæl" and "Terminus") by 2000, none of which sold very well. (Although better in Europe than NorAm.) The company then switched to adapting licensed properties to handheld platforms (i.e. "The Matrix," "Powerpuff Girls," "Shrek 2") where it found success; five of its numerous titles have sold over one million copies. This made it an attractive target for veteran publisher Activision, founded 1979. Karthik and I happened to reside in the same dorm at college, and my obvious skill at illustration attracted his attention. I served as concept artist on both "Dark Angæl" and "Terminus" from 1996- 1998, during the period that VV was housed in the school's corporate incubator center. This demonstrates that (a) the most interesting business opportunities always happen with neighbors and (b) it pays to have artistic skills at an engineering school. 03 February 2005 -- "Star Trek: Enterprise" cancelled; season 4 is last. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/9469.html Although a new "showrunner" was installed for the fourth season (Manny Coto), and the stories improved markedly (at least in the opinion of the tiny subset of fans posting to the Usenet groups rec.arts.sf.tv and rec.arts.startrek.tech), the change was too little to arrest ENT's slide in the ratings. This season had been green-lighted only because there was strong incentive to produce a minimum number of episodes to support syndication, and because UPN cut the fee it charged Paramount to air the show. (Although both are units of Viacom, they have separate management and earnings goals; the same corporate phenomenon applied to "Babylon 5" when TNT interfered with creative operations by Warner Bros.) Fans now fear that the series finale will be assigned to long-time producer-writers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, the so-called "Killer B's" who are reviled for allegedly destroying the franchise, in part through their overenthusiam for time-travel stories. /* ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The original content {layout, text} of this newsletter is copyright 2004 Phillip Thorne. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted only as per applicable copyright law, if all copyright notices remain intact, and if citation trails (URLs or otherwise) are provided. That said, if you think colleagues would find an issue useful, please reproduce it -- but also suggest they subscribe. Those creative works {books, films, TV, websites, software, toys, etc.} referred-to {reviewed, synopsized, quoted, condensed, analyzed, etc.} herein are the property of their respective owners, are referred-to according to copyright law as interpreted in the U.S., and are cited whenever possible. No {endorsement, infringement, insult} is {expressed, implied, intended}, except where specifically stated. Other data sources: EuroBricks LEGO fan forum www.eurobricks.com LEGO fan community LUGNET www.lugnet.com Usenet rec.arts.sf.tv rec.arts.startrek.tech rec.arts.transformers.moderated If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special topical coverage, or maybe I've sent you a teaser issue. To subscribe and unsubscribe, use the addresses below. NOTE: If you're replying to the author, make sure the address is *not* "nsx-l." That would be the entire *list*. Publisher: nsx@underbase.org (human) Newsletter: nsx-l@underbase.org (automated system) nsx-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 7, Issue 1: Thursday, 10 February 2005 ** Copyright 1999-2004 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */