I'm always looking to get my geek on with some cool ships to drool over. Found some.
Eve Ships Video
It's a phenomenal video, set to great music, all put together using 3 workstations. Most impressive.
Update: Because so many people had commented on the above video asking for better scale comparisons, the videographer went and made this one.
The Minmatar are still by far my favorites, followed closely by the Gallente.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Sci-Fi Ships to Scale
I love these! I've seen a few like it before, I think I even posted them a while ago, but nothing as cool as this one.
Sci-Fi Ships to Scale
I think my favorite is the Minmatar Ragnarok. Yours?
Sci-Fi Ships to Scale
I think my favorite is the Minmatar Ragnarok. Yours?
Monday, June 10, 2013
Prophets of Science Fiction
I recently found the Ridley Scott hosted documentary on Netflix. It profiles the sci-fi giants of Robert Heinlein, George Lucas, Jules Verne, and several other. I'm only watching 1 episode a week to really give my brain time to steep in their genius juices. So far I have covered Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. I don't know which I'll choose next.
Definitely give it a watch.
Prophets of Science Fiction
Definitely give it a watch.
Prophets of Science Fiction
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Where to Begin?
Tonight I was sitting out on my patio enjoying the gradually improving weather and just letting my mind wander.
Rather than going over already established worlds I've built or stories/characters I've woven, my imagination was just loose on the breeze. I surprised my own self by thinking of sci-fi instead of the usual fantasy bent. Not swords and sorcery at all, but star dates and space travel!
I came inside to Google "Star Trek star dates" and wasn't shocked to find out that like many things in the ongoing series, the dates were inconsistent. I can't have that, no sir.
So now I'm sitting here racking my brain about how to do it, what to call it, and what will be the beginning point....
A lot depends on how far in the future this is, and what got us (the run-of-the-mill, bald monkeys known as 'humans') there. I'm wondering if I should go with things that have actually happened regarding space exploration, such as the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the first manned spaceflight in 1961, or the moon landing in 1969. Another idea would be based off the Voyager 1 probe launched September 5, 1977 that to date is the longest running NASA program and the farthest reaching man-made object in space.
If using Sputnik, I could call it FLD (First Launch Date) aka "field date".
The Moon landing could be 1GL (One Giant Leap) which occurred 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969.
If I go kinda Trekkie with it I could add years, months, and days since the Voyager 1 launch. Today's date of 6/2/2013 is 35 years, 8 months, and 28 days (since Voyager 1 launch) would be written as 35/8.23 and read as three five eight point two three - the / is not read, it's only marked to differentiate the year from the month. Or it could be written 35-6.23 where it is read with the "dash".
Since the years would get to be a mouthful, 894-5.12 would sound like "eight hundred ninety four dash five point one two".
It could be VL (Voyager Launch) SV1 (Since Voyager 1) or a combination SVL (Since Voyager Launch).
If I go with the Voyager idea, I could springboard it into a first contact scenario in which it finds aliens or they find it close to its termination period of 2025-2030. The golden record aboard would lead them to contact Earth. This leaves it open for the classic Earth vs aliens kind of story, or I could ride past that and say our interaction with them is what got us the advanced technology needed to vastly improve space travel....maybe even enable intergalactic travel. This would greatly simplify a need to explain in every detail the hard science of how the tech works. Date and time could be measured from launch date, or the first contact date.
Perhaps more significant than when we as a species reached out with Voyager, is when we put us in space. The very first manned spaceflight was April 12, 1961. Using that as the marker for when man literally entered the cosmos, today's date would be stardate 52/1.21. The abbreviation could be FMS (first manned spaceflight).
Or I could just use UTC (coordinated universal time) which began UTC instant 1 January 1961 00:00:00.000000 exactly. This results in really long numbers though because it counts fractions of seconds.
Rather than going over already established worlds I've built or stories/characters I've woven, my imagination was just loose on the breeze. I surprised my own self by thinking of sci-fi instead of the usual fantasy bent. Not swords and sorcery at all, but star dates and space travel!
I came inside to Google "Star Trek star dates" and wasn't shocked to find out that like many things in the ongoing series, the dates were inconsistent. I can't have that, no sir.
So now I'm sitting here racking my brain about how to do it, what to call it, and what will be the beginning point....
A lot depends on how far in the future this is, and what got us (the run-of-the-mill, bald monkeys known as 'humans') there. I'm wondering if I should go with things that have actually happened regarding space exploration, such as the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the first manned spaceflight in 1961, or the moon landing in 1969. Another idea would be based off the Voyager 1 probe launched September 5, 1977 that to date is the longest running NASA program and the farthest reaching man-made object in space.
If using Sputnik, I could call it FLD (First Launch Date) aka "field date".
The Moon landing could be 1GL (One Giant Leap) which occurred 2:56 UTC July 21, 1969.
If I go kinda Trekkie with it I could add years, months, and days since the Voyager 1 launch. Today's date of 6/2/2013 is 35 years, 8 months, and 28 days (since Voyager 1 launch) would be written as 35/8.23 and read as three five eight point two three - the / is not read, it's only marked to differentiate the year from the month. Or it could be written 35-6.23 where it is read with the "dash".
Since the years would get to be a mouthful, 894-5.12 would sound like "eight hundred ninety four dash five point one two".
It could be VL (Voyager Launch) SV1 (Since Voyager 1) or a combination SVL (Since Voyager Launch).
If I go with the Voyager idea, I could springboard it into a first contact scenario in which it finds aliens or they find it close to its termination period of 2025-2030. The golden record aboard would lead them to contact Earth. This leaves it open for the classic Earth vs aliens kind of story, or I could ride past that and say our interaction with them is what got us the advanced technology needed to vastly improve space travel....maybe even enable intergalactic travel. This would greatly simplify a need to explain in every detail the hard science of how the tech works. Date and time could be measured from launch date, or the first contact date.
Perhaps more significant than when we as a species reached out with Voyager, is when we put us in space. The very first manned spaceflight was April 12, 1961. Using that as the marker for when man literally entered the cosmos, today's date would be stardate 52/1.21. The abbreviation could be FMS (first manned spaceflight).
Or I could just use UTC (coordinated universal time) which began UTC instant 1 January 1961 00:00:00.000000 exactly. This results in really long numbers though because it counts fractions of seconds.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Get While the Getting is Good
Imagine stepping into a gigantic elevator reaching to the stars. A voice comes over the PA speaker "Ground floor, the extinction of humanity. Going up." As you ascend the outlook becomes much less...cataclysmic. That's the great thing about looking up from rock bottom; you are as low as you can get, but you can see where you could be. The only thing left to do is start putting one had over the other and climb.
Do yourself a favor and read this timeline about the continued rise of humanity.
Do yourself a favor and read this timeline about the continued rise of humanity.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Nuclear Crisis story idea
There is easily a story here. A good officer over a lackadaisical crew who could end the world with their ineptitude.
In the story I think it would be hard to paint the lead officer as good at his job if all this ho-hum garbage is happening under his command. The easy fix to that is say that he has recently transferred and this is his first assessment of the station. Maybe he has actually seen first hand what these nukes can do. He was in another sector on a ship in a holding pattern that was charged with a massive nuclear strike on a planet. They were always on alert, yet inactive, just waiting for the call they knew would eventually come.
After the strike, he's planetside, or in atmo, cruising surveillance of the damage. He speaks out against the decision to hit what turned out to be a mostly civilian population. He realizes that the scorched-earth policy claimed millions of lives to take out 1 military facility that wasn't even weaponized - it was just a plant/factory where parts of powerful weapons were manufactured. The civilians didn't even know what they were making because they only saw the piece that was immediately in front of them. It was just a job for them.
I would call the officer J.T. Ford. His CO that ordered the strike and later sends Ford off to this crap-tastic new position is G. (George) Harold "Harry" Sherman.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Obligatory Firefly Post
I think Alan Tudyk has a great idea about how to bring it back. The BIG question is how far forward is it set? Say 10-12 years? 15 or more? I think that might be pushing it. What is the thing that sent Mal "into hiding?" Was it Alliance attention as backlash to the Miranda reveal in Serenity? What would Mal look like - is he still soldierly and clean shaven? What kind of jobs still have him aiming to misbehave, but really small time compared to the earlier episodes? A good joke would be to have him being known as the guy to go to if you love wobblie headed geisha dolls. And since it's been established that Jayne is a superb tracker, he could be the grizzly and super shaggy dog that finds Mal. I like to think that the Miranda experience, or seeing Book die, really serves as his Han Solo-like hero awakening and he's now all in.
Inara is off doing her thing. Is she even still alive? I don't think fans would take too kindly to yet another character dying. Kaylee and Simon could have a whole passel of critters underfoot. Is Zoe living relatively nearby to Mal? Maybe she's the only one that has any kind of clandestine contact with him - they have to tread very carefully because the Alliance is after them both. I don't know about River. It's really hard to wrap my head around her being not crazy anymore. Maybe she's stuck around with Simon and Kaylee. Sadly Wash and Book are (obviously) still dead. That brings me to....
What's Adam Baldwin's one worry about bringing back Firefly
I have read some of the comics - shamefully I've probably missed a few - and I don't recall Zoe being pregnant. But as I was reading this article that very thought occurred to me. Why couldn't you introduce a Wash Jr in the future? Why couldn't you have Alan Tudyk cameo in some flashbacks? I think I read somewhere about there being a competition between Wash and Mr Universe....something about Mr Universe getting the highest scores in flight school by cheating and Wash actually being the better, nay the best, pilot. I'd like to see more of that. I think a great gag would be to have Wash just starting to grow his mustache.
Joss Whedon explains how to (unrealistically) bring Firefly back
I'll admit I've scribbled more than a few pages of fan fic. And all the constant chatter of "what ifs" and "how would theys" really get the imagination going.
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