Month: September 2004

And for your dose of morning humor, here’s my favorite snopes story for the day:

The Kern County, California, Sheriff’s Department orders plain white patrol units and has the graphics applied locally. In this case: What they ordered . . . was not quite what they got.

This car was driven for 1 week before an officer noticed what the graphics company employee did on the passenger side of the car. The employee did this on his last day working for the graphics company before he retired.

Read more at snopes.com…

As many of you know, I am back working with QO Theatre. I have been doing alot of set design / lighting / and construction. This fall we are doing Peter Pan.

Here is my question…

We need a “voice” for tinkerbell. We have heard of another theater digitizing / sythisizing someones voice to create a voice for Tinkerbell.

Any ideas on how we can accomplish this?

-JB-

So I was prompted to upgrade my Windows Media Player to version 10. And the new thing isn’t working. Crashes everytime I boot. No problem, I think, uninstall, download the install.exe from microsoft.com, reinstall.

You can’t uninstall WMP. There’s no uninstall function. And then you can’t physically delete from Program Files. I’m sure this thing is spyware.

Anyway, can anybody recommend another XP-friendly free media player for download?

Thanks!

Hi gang,

Thought I would drop a line in and let everyone know what is new. First of all my Angelina is crawling foreward now, and to top that off, she is pulling herself up on furniture!!! Started doing both of these one day after the other.

Kinda excited to see what they are gonna do with Enterprise this friday, as they left it in weird place at the end of last season.

Have been contemplating if this years election is gonna be a repeat of 2000, and we end up with an honorable president select, instead of elect, or if anyone is even gonna bother voting.

Oh and I am still trying to find an invitation to gmail, if anyone has an extra they can spare :):) Anyway ttyl Curtis

Thought you’d be interested to note that Tim Clarke stopped in 🙂 Check out his comment at http://barnson.org/node/view/432#1448.

How much do you love Star Wars? Well, Matt could tell you about me, he was there! In the middle of a Hoth-sized snowstorm, I drove an hour to see the re-release in 1997, on the DAY OF MY WEDDING REHEARSAL! I could have missed it, but it was that important to me to see it on the big screen with good sound.

4 years later, frustrated with the lack of Star Wars in Dolby Digital sound, I purchased import VCDs from Japan, but I think they were bootlegs… and thus, I have not been able to enjoy my favorite movies of all time in the way I’ve wanted to.. until now.

This week, I picked up the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, and have spent five days so far watching it. Here’s the gist..

DISC 1: Star Wars (A NEW HOPE) – Its almost exactly like the 1997 special edition, with 2 exceptions. First, Greedo doesn’t shoot first anymore.. its at the same time. Second, Digital Jabba looks a LOT better. Its still the same movie you remember. The commentary is the highlight here, with Lucas, Carrie Fisher, and others talking about the Behind the Scenes (and dropping hints about Ep. 3)

DISC 2: The Empire Strikes Back – Again, almost like the 1997 special edition, with a couple of exceptions. First, Boba Fett is now voiced by the actor from the new trilogy, which is jarring if you’re not used to it. Second, the Emperor is played by the same actor as Jedi and the new trilogy (originally, it was a different guy). Third, and best, Luke no longer screams when he lets himself fall – which was my biggest beef with the special edition, now corrected. The commentary here is awesome too, with all the others plus the Director, Irvin Kirshner. Yes, this is my fave movie of all time, and its fun to see it again.

DISC 3: Return of the Jedi – This is also like the 1997 release, with some exceptions. Unfortunately the dance number is still there. So are the ewoks. The biggest thing here is at the end of the movie. When the ewoks are celebrating, we cut to Naboo, where the Gungans (Jar jar’s people) yell “Weesa Free!!”. Also, when we see the Jedi ghosts, Anakin is now played by Hayden Christianson from the new trilogy. The commentary here is good too, but beware if you want to avoid all spoilers about Ep. 3.

DISC 4: Extra stuff: This is the cool stuff. A 2 hour documentary called Empire of Dreams is candid and detailed about how Star Wars came to be, and it is AWESOME! Also included are 2 other lesser shorts about the Lightsaber and the influence of Star Wars on other directors. For real fun, watch the old TV and Trailer commercials. And, beware here.. there is a Documentary about Episode 3 whose name is a spoiler, and it has images of lightsaber duels and costumes that will spoil stuff in Ep. 3 if you want to keep it all a secret. I watched it and it got me pumped, but some people may think it gives away too much.

The sound and picture on these discs are AMAZING, the best of any DVD release I’ve ever seen. The box is elegant silver, and is reasonably priced (you can find it for 38 bucks – for four discs and 3 movies, that ain’t bad!)

So, yeah, as a fan, Bug Big thumbs up (especially for the commentaries) and label me Psyched for Episode 3 next summer: Revenge of the Sith

This afternoon I was listening to an “All Things Considered” report on how blogging contributed to the CBS acknowledgement of their goof in reporting the Bush-National Guard story.

NPR was talking to a blogging expert (however that’s defined) because some blog group is claiming responsibility for breaking the source of the mistake to CBS. Anyway, NPR wanted some techie on to rap about the purpose of blogs. This guest talked about how people use blogs as a way to find others who share their opinion.

I’m glad that on barnson.org, we have different opinions, and we use the forum as a way to discuss our differences. It would be lame if we all thought the same. It’s good to know that we can have a place to discuss our different social, cinema, and political views, even if the majority of you are psycho, right-wing Republican nutcases.

Also, I offer that “All Things Considered” is the best news programming in the world.

Sammy G

Penjacking – Safety alert: Kryptonite brand locks can be picked with ordinary Bic pens. [Snopes]

Yep, it turns out the vaunted “Kryptonite” locks, which I’ve been using on my bicycles since 1992, can be easily picked with an ordinary Bic pen. I always thought they were excellent locks, and very difficult to cut even with bolt cutters.

Heh, there’s this old bike lock that’s been attached to a fence across the street from the ZCMI center in downtown Salt Lake City for the last three years. Maybe I should try this out on it and rid the city of a minor eyesore?

Ok I know there is computer geeks galore here, so tell me, what internet browser is best for the windows xp platform and why.

Thanks Curtis

Hi everyone, I guess I have finally joined the elite club at barnson.org, yippeee, now have a barnson.org email addres, how exciting!

I have been following the threads over at trekweb.com and it looks like kirk may return, for you trekkie fans that care anyway.

Angelina is pushing another tooth in, so maybe by christmas we might have 3, guess she decided to shift into gear and get with the program.

I will graduate June 5th, yippee, I will have a degree so I will be dangerous.