Booyor's BLOGgh!

Caution: This post is a treasure trove of marshmallowy goodness, just like this awesome VCR hack.

The Holmes Part
I’m researching the history and motivation behind the creation of Professor Moriarty. He’s been showing up every ten chapters in Vanguard, doing his supervillain thing (being one of the first supervillains).

But have you heard of Adam Worth?

This is the original “Napoleon of Crime” that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may have used as a reference point. Worth had been marked accidentally as killed in action in the Civil War. Having no identity, he floated from regiment to regiment earning sign-up bonuses and then leaving. He then took his earnings to Boston, coordinated a pickpocket ring, and then took the show over seas for bigger heists.

Having exhausted Tchaikovsky for the moment, I’ve been listening extensively to Johnny Cash. I don’t know if that can coexist in the Scion, but we haven’t had a matter/anti-matter baryogenetic explosion yet, so I think we’re cool.

So now, as I’m typing chapter 50 of Vanguard (remember: short, James Patterson-esque chapters), I wish I had Ghost Riders in the Sky or Folsom Prison Blues playing through my head as The Hessian Horseman tears apart Wilbur Gloaming Junior High.

Nope. Oh What A Dream. D’oh. (At least it’s not Ghost Chickens in the Sky.)

The Star Wars Part
Sadly, I’ve actually wanted to see this happen to Donald for a long time:

It’s better than if I wanted to see Minnie in a Slave Leia bikini. Oh, wait. I guess some guy at Disney thinks that’s important. Check out the figurines. The crazy part? Think limited edition Star Wars collectible. Now add a Disney character into the equation:

f(How much you’ll pay) = (Ability to name Ellorrs Madak)^{Number of Mickey shirts worn this year}

The math is staggering.

Slade, you’ll be happy that the MMO has the marketing force behind it, meaning they’re committed to finishing the product.

Devin, you’ll be happy that it’s by Dark Horse.

Mike, you’ll be happy that “Peace” is a “Threat”.

Myself? I’m just happy it’s free. (Well, considering it may end up being more marketing than story, a la car commercials with Hiro and Ando.)

Click here to visit the webcomic. It does have Rob Chesney from Bioware as the head scriptwriter, so I am excited. Was the first issue only three pages, though? Definitely need to add the RSS feed.

1. A straightforward bear is valuable indeed. Don’t give me excuses about needing to rearrange your sock drawers or how much you plan to work out. Just tell me it’s because you’re lazy. Thank you for your honesty, Nate Bear.
2. Office is a re-run. Crime Aid was funny the first two times. Argh.
3. Taylor Swift is a gelfling.
   
   
4. Hunger, book two to Gone, is amazing (finished it in 7th hour today). Comes out in June and it will rock.
5. Norman Gentle/Nick Mitchell will survive tonight. He must! (Slade, like Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln…”You must live!” whispered too close in my ear.) Much cooler than Sanjaya, he’s got a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust thing going on.

I’m reading through a writer’s guide to characters, and I came across this:

Brass players are more extroverted and happy-go-lucky.
String players are more neurotic than other musicians.
Pop musicians have psychological problems.
Opera singers are extroverted and conceited.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

What I find funny in Scope magazine is what celebrities recommend for teen readers. Jack Black suggests A Wrinkle in Time.

Miley Cyrus recommends Don’t Die, My Love by Lurlene McDaniel. I can believe that.

Also of note – I guess Massachussetts has an official state epic novel.

Given that I just put a Lean Pocket on a plastic plate in my toaster oven, I would like to say, “Thank you” to all who helped me to live this weekend.

Jim Gaffigan would say that the Lean Pocket was the most dangerous part of the weekend.

Our survey takers agree that Jack Bauer is the most dangerous part of dinner.

And yes, anyone who grows close to Jack is either a traitor or is gonna die. I mean, look at the statistics.

Thanks again to Jeremy with the save on contact solution and children’s Tylenol.

While driving around this weekend (which, given my previous condition, is probably not wise) I’ve been listening to a lot of Tchaikovsky, specifically his Greatest Hits (Greatest Works? I don’t know…better than his Unplugged album). I remember playing the 1812 Overture in high school and loving it. (The quiet parts as well as the cannon parts.)

Another of my favorites from him is the Marche Slave. I’ll be honest, my first real exposure to the song was in one of the transition scenes in Karateka.

Karateka, grandfather of Prince of Persia and mispronounced by elementary school kids owning an Atari 7800

In it this weekend I heard some folk songs from other countries, but mainly I heard some themes from the 1812 Overture. Here’s the story: Tchai-guy wrote it in five days when his friend Nikolai Rubinstein asked for a song to honor volunteer soldiers killed/wounded fighting the Ottoman Empire in 1876. The whole bloodshed started when the Ottomans killed some Serbian Christians. The Russians felt a connection with their Slavic neighbors and volunteered to fight.

That explains why it has a funeral march sound at the beginning but then gets all crazy at the end (my oldest thought I had a new Star Wars soundtrack. She said, “It’s kinda loud, but I like it.”).

But what about some 1812 themes that show up in Marche Slave?

So, me being so proud of my non-American-centricness, thought that the 1812 Overture was about the War of 1812 (that’s a different song altogether (Vern, I think you’re familiar with this song)).

No, the 1812 Overture refers to the Russian defense of Borodino versus Napoleon’s army. It gave the little guy time to reconsider an invasion of Russia. The emphasis on the cannons in the song is because Napoleon showed up with roughly 1,200 pieces of heavy artillery.

Tsar Alexander I had commissioned the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour to commemorate the French defeat. The cathedral was almost done and once again Nikolai Rubinstein showed up to challenge Tchaikovsky to write some music. The song was supposed to be performed when the cathedral was done. They had planned on the church bells ringing alongside cannons firing and musicians going crazy. But then Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and the performance never happened like Tchaikovsky wanted. It became a very popular song, though, with the Russian people and has been revised by different composers who added in more Russian folk music/anthems.

What blows me away is that Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture in six weeks.

But why the similar themes between Marche Slave and 1812? Russian soldiers whooping up. (I’m sure that’s what your notes say from Music History, right, Slade?)

Click here for a full orchestral score of Marche Slave.

Chalk it up it a fever-crazed state (what in this site isn’t, really?) but today we introduce a new category:
Pop Quiz, Hotshot

Make sure to click on the “Submit” button to have your answer count.

The sick people of Peoria thank you.

That doesn’t sound right.

The people who had to stay home but wanted to go to the tournament thank you.

That’s more like it.

Thank you, Jeremy, for allowing my oldest daughter and I to watch the HWT wrestle. We hooked the MacBook up to the big screen TV to subject my parents to Jobing.com in all of its semi-finals glory.

Here’s the Skype in fullscreen, with me in the bottom-left cheering.

Even though the season ended with this semi-final, I’m glad we got to see it.

$10? There must have been a successful Persuasion check somewhere in the process.

Should I buy it? I rolled a 1 on Timely Purchases.

I stumbled across a really cool blog today about the New York Times stylebook. It’s interesting to see a non-MLA organization’s take on the written word. Check out why they capitalize Marine now, as well as a quiz to see if you can catch the real grammatical errors that showed up in The Times.

Check out After Deadline

Also, the Times revised their rules for whiskey vs. whisky (but long-time readers of the bloggh were already well-informed).

Slade, you’ll be pleased to hear Penny Arcade’s reactions to RE5:

Contrary to the industry’s building momentum toward welcoming new players into beautiful, gently designed spaces, this game is having none of it. This is not a game where you play some rascal zephyr in a flower’s dream. This is a game where you run for your [crazy] life, for hours, until you die.

And it’s co-op. Finally. No goofy Resistance 2 failings. Straight-up running from zombies. They’ve actually got a really interesting take on the race issue.

We’ve killed Middle Eastern terrorists in video games for how long?