Lost on Mars...

NASA had deployed a new space craft to help it explore Mars. Called the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter it is basically a really high powered camera that can take detailed readings and pics of an area the size of a coffee table.

In addition to exploring new areas of the red planet NASA also hopes to use this to try and track down earlier lost probes and missions... Which I think is futile. We all know the aliens got those!

Life According to Mal: Payment

Here is a new segment on my blog I recon I might do when the spell comes over me. Life wisedom put forward by my hero Malcom Reynolds from the greatest TV show and Movie Firefly/Serenity.

Based on the current events of my life (see previous post RAGE!!!) my getting shafted out of money by Tim Hortons has reminded me of this awesome moment from the pilot episode of Firefly Serenity in which our dear captain Reynolds faces a slightly different (and sadly more cool), but yet thematically identical situation to mine. His response to a local Moon aristocrat who tries to kill him rather then pay him; shot her hired help, nearly crush her with a horse, and walk up to her gun in her face

"I do the job, and I get paid!"

Excellent words to live by. Now in my case I'm doing the best I can. Sadly I'm not in a position where I can put a gun in the Timmies supervisors faces and demand the coin they basically stole from me (today I asked the head manager if my facial hair, which is the same as it is on any day, was "unshaven" to which she replied no. So I am safe in saying it's a clever corporate means of paying me less while they can claim the moral high ground...). I can however live by yet another of Mal's great statements from the movie Serenity.

"I mean to confound these bongers..."

This I can and did do. Power to the prolitariate! I may not have the means to get back the money, but I do control the means of production (and being the bleeding heart pinko I am, I'll use that to the max!). The manager wasn't to happy when I handed in my letter of resignation this morning. Seems they might have some trouble finding a replacment for two weeks. I even gave them a more flexible and reasonable out then Mal's solution. Rather then crush her with a horse I offered the manager that I'd be willing to reconsider if I got my money, and had this incident count as a warning (without any more even). She refused. So I'm off to Miranda... or uh rather a new job.

That's Payment according to Mal. The side moral being don't mess with

Craig Dylke Browncoat

RAGE!!!

So as I'm sure you've noticed my attitude and tolerance for my job at Timmies has steadily been declining throughout these posts. Well as of today I'm officially done with them... Not just in a casual manner either


Today I just got my second paycheck. I discovered they unilaterally reduced my pay by $1/hr for the whole two weeks due to a single uniform infraction. Not just that it was due to being "unshaven" cause I'm known to walk around with a ton of %#$ing facial hair...

So due to this removal of $105 (I also worked a bunch of overtime, making it that much more infuriating) I'm done at Tim &%$ing Hortons as of this week. I am now on the hunt for any job. I'll even work at Earl's if it comes to that!

New Living Fossil Discovered!!!

So turns out the ever beloved parasitic Lamprey is a living fossil! Who'd have thunk it...

Arthis in question

Here is a possible direction for the vilians of the new movie... Not sure, and thus looking for opinions

Dinosaur Parasite Discovered

Fossil trace evidence of parasitic worms were discovered in a well preserved Brachylophosaur. Burrows were found in the duckbills bones resembling ones left by modern worms such as Annelids and Nematodes...

This is an interesting find that sheds light into a little seen aspect of Mesozoic life.

Delta Patrol: Wyvern Ready for Animation

Tonight was my first weekend I've actually spent not doing homework. An odd thing for me to be sure. Typically in the poli sci era it'd be very unusual for me to be doing my homework at all!

So first thing on the agenda (well probably isn't... just what I ended up doing) was Delta Patrol. Got a new version of the beginning done, and I think this is it's final layout. As of such I figured time to get some effects ready. As of such I was going to need some 3D models to do so...

As our heroes ship the Wyvern was not done, but very critical first thing was first. I'm happy with their final version. Probably even more happy with my new laser effect...

So check them out. Be sure to click on any you like to enlarge them






These were modeled to resemble Star Trek type ships like Bajor Interceptors, and of course my fav Romulan Warbirds







Might have a little trouble incorporating this nebula into actual animation. The 3D models I use to generate them add up to 4 times the render time...









Was very very happy
with this new model for
a laser projectile!







First example of the whole patrol together.
You'll notice that each ship has it's own color.
Allowing for easy identification of whose ship
is whose...



Now the Patrols returns to homebase in Delta System itself
Symbolic I guess. As now I need to return to the whole project
from this one specific task.





Next on the list have to design the villians ships, and finish Delta station itself.

Blown Out of Proportion!

Man it's getting harder and harder to go back to Timmies everyday, and you'd think with me getting better at it all the time that wouldn't be the case. At least I'm 1/4 done!!!



So starting work tonight I get pulled aside by the evening supervisor, and she was friendly about it. Immediately putting me on alert... Normally the supervisors are jerks!

She wants to talk to me about my incident three nights ago. Which there was one, but I didn't think it was that big a deal... She starts off by saying how I was very brave, and that I dealt with it fine. Uh okay sure... Suddenly she asks why I didn't call 9-1-1... ?????

Okay so picture Wednesday night, a fairly busy one though. Lots of cars coming in, and ordering sandwiches and food (this takes a lot longer to make then a coffee of course). Our front end is closed by this time but people are still there finishing their orders from before closure. At some point they snuck out in the middle of our sandwich blitz, and thus prevented our locking the door after them.

Well this middle age East Indian guy comes into the store, and comes up to the front counter... Me and my coworker are WAY to busy to even pretend to deal with this guy... Suddenly he rudely yells at me "Hey I'm waiting for some service!". I tell him the situation. He'll have to come through the drive through as we're closed. "NO I'm not leaving this spot till I get service!". Okay i think to myself, have fun then. So for 10 minutes I completely ignore this guy, frantically keeping up with sandwich orders.

Trouble starts when my coworker Ren, who is just too nice for his own good tries to tell this guy the same thing. Suddenly out of no where he goes off the handle, swearing, pounding the counter, yelling... All at my coworker, who was only being stupid nice, and defiantely wasn't the one brushing this guy off.

At this I got pissed. Had it been me sure, but Ren didn't do anything to this ass. I intervened and basically told this guy to get out of the store as we're closed to him. It was statisfying see him quite literally have a temper tantrum out of the store. Slamming the door oh so scarily...

So at worst I figured we'd get a complaint. He threatened to phone my manager about my refusing to serve him at that time. Oh no. I didn't serve him after closing hours. I'm going to get fired.

Well suddenly here's my supervisor talking to me about it... Call 9-1-1 though. He was a dick, but not dangerous.

She tells me of how Alan, a british tourist who is ALWAYS in the store till like 2am just reading, relayed to her the following story. The same build up to his getting angry and screamy. Suddenly in this version he picks up some of our merchandise and throws at us behind the counter, and on his way out throws a chair at a window...

Man I am brave. Got to remember next time not to play the lone hero, and call the police... you know for backup at least.

Thought that might amuse you. It sure made me laugh. We on the graveyard shift in spirit of this new elaborate tale (not sure why my brit friend built it up that much... he was right there for a bunch of it) invented a few of our own. My favirite is the one where the dude has a bomb strapped to his chest, and I not only have to tell him we're closed, but pin him down and defuse the bomb while he's trying to blow us all up till he gets service!

Cloaking Device

Finally I might be able to have that Warbird I've always wanted... Scientists have built the first primitive cloaking device

Palaeontology News

This week's been kinda a busy one in the world of palaeo...

Scientists in China discovered a microscopic fossil of a embyro. Pretty cool stuff.

In Austrilia an new fish was found with profoundly amphibian like traits, but much earlier in the Devonian then would be expected. It was described by my main man John Long (author of such great books as The Dinosaur Dealers, and Dinosaurs of Austrilia and New Zealand)