Rogue Ponderance

So, I listen to a lot of podcasts.  I've been listening to Kevin Smith's (and Scott Mosier's) "Smodcast" since the beginning.  I also listen to "Fatman on Batman", "The Nerdist", "The Thrilling Adventure Hour", and "Still Untitiled: The Adam Savage Project".  Plus I've got several queued up for when I get caught up on "The Nerdist".

I'm only about 4 years behind on that one, but caught up on all of the rest.

Being mostly based on the nerd/geek community, most of these have been talking about Rogue One, and what come across universally is how good K-2SO voiced and motion-captured by Alan Tudyk is.  Something I'd seen that just makes me cackle is the following video with Tudyk relating how Anthony Daniels reacted to his portrayal:



But back in one of the podcasts, someone brought up a comparison C-3PO as a nervous wreck who spouts things in fits of cowardice while K-2SO says things because he has no filters.

And then I had a geek-piphany.

• K-2SO says things because he has no filters.
• K-2SO's loss of filters is because he was reprogrammed from being an Imperial droid to being given free will (of a sort).
• Some of the things the K-2SO spouts freely are the odds of an event's failure.
• C-3PO regularly spouts off the odds of an event's failure, in the original trilogy.
• C-3PO was reprogrammed after the end of Revenge of the Sith to blank his memory.

Now, sure, this is all easy to explain afterwards, but did the writers of Rogue One see that pattern, and write that in?

Some may scoff that anyone would be that detailed.  First off, to those people, have met Star Wars geeks?  Second, check out this bit from the Rogue One soundtrack by Michael Giacchino that fits so well against John Williams' "Imperial March".

And then think back to how cool it was to learn about Hans Zimmer using the Edith Piaf bit in all of the levels in Inception.

Yeah, you can never go deep enough.

The Duck Army Videos

Have you seen the Duck Army video?



When I showed this to my wife and friends, there were 8 million views, and as I compose this there are over 9.6 million views.

Now, Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) saw this video and had to have his own collection.



And we all have the same reaction as Adam does.

But Adam made a duck bomb.



Adn then now, he has made a hanging bomb.



And here's how he made it.



Now, as Adam says, these are dog toys.  My Dad and I could not imagine them lasting long against a dog, but apparently, they are pretty sturdy.  Also, pretty annoying.



I'll admit that I did this post mostly to have all of these videos together for myself, but...  Share and Enjoy!

Hearing the Martian

So, I take regular walks at work to keep from sitting all day.  I thought it would be good to listen to something other than music, so I've been catching up on my podcasts.  Until I started walking, I hadn't listened to podcasts since finishing fieldwork in Lodi.  You see, I like to read while on BART, and so I have music for that, and I would listen to podcasts while I was driving to and from Lodi.

Now my two main podcasts are Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier's "SModcast".  I've been listening to it pretty much since the beginning, and it's lots of fun.  However, I ran out of those.  I also listen to Kevin's "Fatman on Batman" in which he interviews people associated with Batman in movies, TV, and animation.  Lately it's become an overall celebration and chat about all things comic books with Marc Bernardin.  I have also recently run out of those as well.

So, I went looking and found out that Adam Savage does a podcast called "Still Untitled".  Now, it's not news that I really like "Mythbusters", so this just kind of follows along.  And this podcast is all kinds of fun.  My only complaint about it is that it is too short.  Or at least, it seems that way.

I've already written about Andy Weir's The Martian, but there is more to the story now.  Adam interviewed Andy in the video below:



And recently, I listened to the podcast spoilercast of The Martian.  I won't embed that one because if for some reason you haven't read it yet, and want to, the temptation to watch may be too strong.  Just remember that the movie opens Friday (tomorrow).  One of the things the guys brought up regarding how good the book is, is how great the audio book is.  You see, the majority of the book is written in first person journal format, and the act of having it read to you is a lot like hearing a real first person account of a tale.

So, I picked up the audio book.  It's about an 11 hour MP3.  I started it on Tuesday, and with travel to work, daily walks, and lunches and things, I have managed to be about 8.5 hours into it right now.  It took a bit of will power to get over personal the stigma of smiling, giggling, and snorting at the funny bits while I'm walking around the block in Walnut Creek or while on BART.  And those BART rides haven't all been just from MacArthur station to Walnut Creek, yesterday it was going through Oakland on the way to and from San Leandro.

If you can take the time, listen to the book.

And then tomorrow, go see the movie.