SSgt Baloo

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Been watching reruns of Dr. Who. I also saw some science programs about how science mines nature for ideas about how to make stronger materials than we have presently.

Re: Cool Guns for your Games Excellent find. I'd rep you but I've already used up my quota today.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched the 2-hour premier of The Cape. I wasn't expecting much and was pleasanly surprised by more than I expected. Watched an old episode of Mythbusters where they destroyed huge numbers of cars for Science! I love that show and eagerly await new episodes. I also watched a program on CNBC about how Ford weathered the recession without requiring an influx of taxpayers' money. I really hope they manage to kick their addiction for profits-right-now-at-the-expense-of-future-corporate-survival. I'd really like to be proud of the American automobile industry for reasons unrelated to denial or ignorance.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos I like this kind of music.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? More silent Our Gang films, No Ordinary Family, and most of the Eighth Doctor's only appearance, downloaded from Youtube.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares A Build-Your-Own-Bear shop run by Dr. Frankenstein. With real bear parts. No Ordinary Family Matters Gulliver's Travels with Charley Candy and Flowers for Algernon Harry Potter and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Colonel Potter and the Deathly Hallows WWE Smackdown Babies Studio wrestling for children Scott Pilgrim vs. the Tick

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? They had a 24-hour marathon of Our Gang comedies on Turner Movie Classics and I DVR-ed them all. I'm about halfway through them now, and so far they've all been silent films. These movies are a time capsule of what a 1920s audience would consider family entertainment, despite what are now considered unacceptable cultural attitudes. Also watched these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB_PpoGs8Q4

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Rowan Athinson as Doctor Who? Who knew? (~20 minutes long) Music made from real wolf howls at http://199.85.208.220/video:1935464 Creepy! http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1935635

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Sigmund and the Deep Ones? I've been playing about with the Sims 3. I present the Santa Quantumizer, the device Santa uses to create multiple duplicates of himself (actually, it merges several nearby realities), allowing him to deliver gifts in several different regions simultaneously: More about which here, if you're interested Actually, it's a foundation dressed up with some columns and special effects. I'm still trying to figure out how to create a Tesla-style power transmission tower: [ATTACH=CONFIG]37710[/ATTACH]

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched a few episodes of Dr. Who I hadn't seen before. Because of my mental disorders I am unreasonably reluctant to start watching an episode but I'm glad I did when it gets to the end. The only thing I don't like is when there's a multi-parter my Dish Network listings don't make it perfectly clear whether that "Part II" episode showing several hours after another Part one (and several intervening other episodes) is actually part 2 to that episode. Often they (multi-part episodes) don't have the same title, so "Part II of two" isn't that helpful. I watched Jay Leno last night as well. I love the Headlines segment.

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? Santa Claus (1959) A Mexican movie about how Santa Claus does his job, how the devil tries to make children not just bad, but downright evil, and how Merlin the Magician helps save Christmas and thwart the Devil. Entertainingly Bizarre, in a Santa Clause Conquers the Martians sort of way. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated) It just doesn't seem like Christmas until I've seen this one.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) I dreamed I was aboard the (Next Generation) Enterprise. They were investigating a planet that was identical with 20th century Earth, right down to the nations and borders. It's true! From space I could see Laos printed in big black letters across that country. The borders were solid black lines also visible from space. For some reason, the artificial gravity polarization reversed in close proximity to this world, and the Enterprise had been refit so the ceilings (oops! I mean overheads – sorry, Navy guys!) could serve as decks when this happened. Data was going to be the only person to go down to the planet. There were a lot of extra personnel in the transporter room when Data was ready to go. Several of these extra people were time travelers who wanted to change history. Others were from time-lines where the first set of time travelers had been successful and were trying to stop the first bunch. There were recursive groups of time travellers all over the room trying to ensure or prevent “their” timeline did or didn't happen. Finally, the Enterprise crew subdued the time travellers and Data proceeded with his mission. I suspect Picard was not in command because otherwise the rest of the dream would have devolved into a discussion of the ethical ramifications of changing/preserving/interfering with history. When Data transported down, I immediately recognized that a large temple-like structure visible in the distance was actually constructed from the wreckage of Babylon 5. There weren't just Earthlings, but also a lot of Minbari. We snuck in close to the temple and I overheard someone saying that there was no danger that the orbiting vessel (the Enterprise) or its landing parties would see anything, since they had shifted their frequencies and were effectively invisible. I relayed this information to Data and he rolled his eyes up into his head, bringing a different set of lenses to bear that could sense the people and structures there. We walked around the settlement gathering information and I was trying to spot a restaurant because I was getting shaky with hunger (something that happens to me IRL). I disguised myself as a dog because we knew that the B-5 people knew the Enterprise wouldn't send a pet down with a landing party. We found a restaurant where I could get food (Data explained that I was his service dog so it was okay for me to come in) and were really lucky because after we sat down, the B-5 command crowd came in and started discussing their plans. They weren't sinister plans, just secret.

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Finally! A version with a good animation to accompany it!

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I haven't been watching a whole lot lately since I started playing the Sims 3. I did see the new American version of Top Gear, and I am delighted to say it doesn't suck. Better than not sucking, it resembles Motorweek in no way whatsoever. Yay!

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life. Me explaining to someone why there would be a delay before I could take them somewhere to pick up their check: "Give me a minute, will ya? I just woke up and my brain doesn't show up for work all at once. Just a few braincells drag in at a time, going 'Wow. What a night!'"

Re: A Thread for Random Videos Doctor Demento isn't broadcast in my area any more. Pity. I miss the novelty Christmas music the most. And a couple of clips, one from each of my favorite Christmas specials: The Grinch Song

Re: "Neat" Pictures That ain't magic, boy! That's biology!!!

Re: I have a dream. (and MAN was it wierd!) The first entry below was written on the Friday before thanksgiving Friday morning I dreamed I lost my cellphone and my wallet. My friends were going to look for them while I stayed near a landline so they could let me know what they came up with. The police came by and took me in for questioning, and I was worried that I might be in some kind of trouble. Instead, they showed me printouts of my own online writings and wanted to recruit me as a freelance superhero. They got Batman (Adam West, in this case) to mentor me, and supplied me with a computer, a “supercar” (actually a converted 1959 Cadillac Ambulance with lots of extra lights, buttons and levers on the dashboard) and a garage to use as my secret lair. In the dream, my dad was still living and trying to get me to find a “real” job.I explained that I wasn't wasting my time and that I had been recruited by the police to perform a valuable public service and I would appreciate it if he would stop trying to judge my success or failure without knowing (or even being privy to) the facts. Later, I was helping rescue people stranded in a prehistoric world. There were giant crocodiles (Deinosuchus) everywhere. They were about 50 feet long (15 meters?), and the babies that were hatching out were as large as adult alligators. Fortunately I arrived in time and we (there were other superheroes with me) were able to rescue the innocent victims. One guy got eaten by a giant crocodile, but it was his own fault. He was the guy who mounted the expedition without telling anyone of the dangers involved. He figured the Crocodiles would be busy eating the other guys so he would be free to find the Lost Treasure. He was evading our attempts to rescue him because he “knew” there was treasure there and thought we were just trying to cheat him out of it and walked right into the mouth of a huge crocodile. Sunday I dreamed that I had time-travelled to WWII ( actually, it felt like one of those war-era comedy/propaganda movies). I was a civilian helping out with a large-scale military exercise. What my duties were was unclear. Secretly, I was a superhero with the powers of the Red-Blue Blur from Smallville (The Superhero Whose Name Must Not be Spoken™). I was surreptitiously helping the blue forces against the red team (IIRC, the smaller Blue team represents US, while the larger Red team represents THEM). Some Axis agents dressed as Red team forces had surrounded part of the Blue Team and were going to kill them to sow confusion and dismay. I went into action and as the Axis agents began firing I was able to see the bullets coming out of their gunbarrels and swatted them aside, rescuing the blue team.

Re: Genre-crossover nightmares Paul Rubens is Batman in The Dark Knight's Big Adventure Of course, he might be better cast as the Riddler: Batman: (hoarsely) "I'm Batman!" Paul Rubens/the Riddler: "I know you are but what am I? Watership Down and Out in Beverly Hills It's a Wonderful Day After Tomorrow How the Grinch Stole the Tardis Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesin National Lampoon's Animal House II, Now it's Literal! An Inconvenient Truth about Mary Dark Knight at the Museum

Re: What Have You Watched Recently? I watched The Battle for Terra. Earthlings haven't just exhausted their own planet, but Mars and Venus as well, then they blow them all up in a war over the remaining resources? Then it's more efficient to travel across the stars so they can take someone else's world rather than exploit the resource-rich asteroid belt or the even richer Oort cloud? Do we really need to keep playing this "Humans baaad!" meme over and over and over? This could have been a much better movie if they hadn't gone for the easy "Military guys are just power-hungry murderers waiting for a chance to take over and rule" theme. Other than that I thought it was enjoyable.

Re: Your PCs might be Underpowered if... ... If the villains have ever offered your heroes a puppy to "stay out of this" -- and it worked. ... If the villains have ever sent Get-Well cards to your heroes, and really meant it. ... If the villains give them a week to get their affairs in order before giving them a beat-down.