Zophiel

Thom Truelove for President (Part 2)

2007-11-06T08:59:04Z

I've shot about ten takes for video #2 in the Average American project. I need to select one and upload it to YouTube. I expect to do that some time later today and I'll post a link to it here.

Here's a start...

2007-10-19T12:47:31Z

I've taken the first (visible) step and finally posted Video One for the Average American Project. Here - http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ThomTruelove - is where you can find it.

Campaign update and POB

2007-06-29T11:27:16Z

Due mainly to a turn with poison ivy and a strong suspicion that folks will not vote for a candidate with a rash of any kind on the face - the Average American Project candidacy was unavoidably delayed.

The Post Office Box details, for those who're wishing to write in the classic style, is as follows:

Thom Truelove
c/o The Average American Project
PO Box 566
Bristol, PA 19007

Thus far - people in 14 states, 3 Canadian provinces, and 5 foreign nations (other than Canada) are aware of the AVAM Project.

The first video goes up on YouTube very, very soon. Stay tuned and thanks.

The 2008 Election

2007-04-13T00:23:57Z

As some of you already know, I have begun a presidential campaign. I truly am running for the office of president of the United States. I have been working on the details and particulars for nearly all of 2007.

There will soon be an active website and there's already a PO Box. The campaign has not yet officially begun. There are two or three pieces not yet in place - so, please stay tuned.

For a little more information, some reactions, and one of the campaign pictures you can visit Thom Truelove for President and Yes, I know that man.

For those who came late...

2007-02-01T19:08:34Z

Last night, I was at Shampoo. A number of folks I know walked right by me without noticing me. One ferret even looked directly at me and (as I found out later) said to himself, "Hmm. I don't know that guy."

Here's why:

There's a reason for the new look and I plan to be more specific in about a week. For those of you who already know what's going on, "Mum" is still the word.

Count your lack of curses...

2007-01-19T04:06:48Z

For a day or two, I wasn't in the best of moods. This might be my own fault for taking a break from sculpture.

Then there's this: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/13/water.intox.ap/index.html

The news about Jennifer Strange drinking herself to death on frikkin' water is about the saddest, most unfortunate event I've heard of since Maricica Irina Cornici left the planet almost two years ago. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/24/world/main704206.shtml

Jennifer was only trying to win a Wii for her kids and she lost her life. The reports about this story, which - if you want to - you can hear about every half hour, mention that ten people have lost their jobs. Has anyone gotten a Wii for her kids? Do they even still want one?

Her story and Maricica's don't come close to being as completely OMFG-sad as a book I just finished. http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/006099486X

These kinds of things remind me - regardless of how depressed I might ever get - that I am not the last man in the There's Always Someone Who Has It Worse line. Nor is anyone I personally know.

From the ridiculous to the...

2007-01-17T16:11:02Z

For the past few days I've been more-than-the-usual-level-of-concerned about our King and his Knights of Inscrutability. So, I am rather deliberately changing gears here.

What are the Top Ten Sound Effects of Science Fiction?

10. The "effort" sound, The Six Million Dollar Man

When I was a kid, you were almost guaranteed to hear some other kid attempt this sound — even if it often sounded more like Jackie Mason in Caddyshack II.

9. The Neuralizer, MiB

Apart from being a very handy device that (let's be honest) everyone wants on their key chain, the flashbulb-on-crack sound suggests a pressure or shockwave that really does communicate the function.

8. The proton pack (or whatever it's called), Ghostbusters

Proton pack. Positron glider. Who cares? The contraption doesn't sound eerie and it shouldn't. It sounds like a hastily built, dangerously unstable bit of tech. I wonder what one sounds like when it's going to blow up.

7. Cylon, Battlestar Galactica (original series)

Apparently the Galactica found Earth in 1980 and the crew started trying to subtly improve technology. Within 2 years, they must have succeeded in creating Knight Industries because one of their products makes a remarkably similar noise.

6. Transporter, Star Trek (original series)

I'm not sure that it sounds like a machine that converts matter into energy, beams it to another location, and then reassembles it. It does, however, sound a lot better than the plastic grinding and flap-passing-flap of the MEGO playset.

5. The T.A.R.D.I.S., Dr. Who

It is probably the best-known time machine and it has always needed a few months in the shop. Not only is the Chameleon circuit broken but the core works of this thing seem to include a hand-crank starter somewhere. I really wouldn't be surprised.

4. Godzilla's yell

It IS humanly possible to make this noise: 1) Sneak up behind a friend with an ice cube. 2) Touch their lower back with it...

3. TIE fighter, Star Wars

This sound is technically a scream. What else would you call it? But it isn't a scream of pain or fear — it suggests the "speedy" variety of,... as in "screaming around the universe."

2. War machine probe, War of the Worlds (1953)

There have been interviews about the sound design since the classic film was made. And no one could ever remember how the noise was made. Pity. The probe noise almost says, "Ooo, something bad is going to happen. Wait for it. Are you waiting?"

1. Hypnotoad, Futurama

Well...
All Hail the Hypnotoad.

These were the "rules" for the above selection.
Each sound had to be easily called to mind. It had to be so distinctive that any listener familiar with the sound could (at least in theory) pick it out if dubbed over some other scene. When you hear the TIE fighter sound, some part of your mind says, "Hey, that's the TIE fighter sound."
Once a source had provided a sound, all other sounds from the same source were out of consideration. Otherwise, this would have been a list of Star Wars and Star Trek noises. And, at the risk of being corrected by some technician, the sound effect in question had to be one sound. The time travel effect from Back to the Future is, imo, at least three sounds: the car's engine, some lightning noises, and some sort of whoosh. Disqualified. Sorry, Michael.
The last rule was "No Voices." That leads to quotes which is an entirely different list.

The President's plan II

2007-01-13T10:57:19Z

Yesterday, William Polk and George McGovern spoke about their book - "Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now" (http://www.amazon.com/Out-Iraq-Practical-Plan-Withdrawal/dp/1416534563). They were overwhelmingly erudite and brilliantly clear about the failures of the plan and recent past plans.

The element of their statements that most plainly stands out is that foreign troops have never once in history been able to stop the sort of war that's now going on in Iraq. Insurgents fight (and always have) to remove the foreigners. We did it here and that's now called The Revolution.

The prediction they made based on analysis of insurgent war is that after an occupying force leaves, the insurgency collapses because the people who have participated in and supported it are too tight to continue fighting. They turn their attention to building a future, which is precisely what Bush is always claiming he hopes for.

Instead, we have a plan from a demonstrably out-of-touch, delusionally power-mad, foolish martinet whose foreign policy is devoid of diplomacy and seems to be a mixture of vendetta and wanna-be war profiteering. Bush has sold our nation's future in the form of debt to China and weakened our military on a war that's daily compared to Vietnam.

And his "new" plan, in my opinion, can be summarized thusly:

"The desert has dried up more blood than you could think of."
~ Auda abu Tayi as portrayed by Anthony Quinn in "Lawrence of Arabia"

The President's plan and the new Congress...

2007-01-11T18:30:59Z

Our entire country seems to be sucking down paint chips at an alarming rate.

Otisberg?!

2007-01-07T15:49:48Z

A few days ago, my wife and I watched "An Inconvenient Truth." The documentary is, in my opinion, a must-see and it prompted me to wonder what would a 6-meter rise in sea level do to my town.

I've long been of the opinion (and, no, I can't say why) that our house is 60 feet above sea level. It turns out, I wasn't right about that. We're something closer to 35 to 40 lower than that.

I don't know when the sea level will rise to the level shown below but we do seem headed toward that event with this week's record, unseasonable temperatures in mind.

The flashing circle indicates our house — right on the river by the end of the animation.

A plateau for the virtuous unbaptized...

2006-12-12T02:20:00Z

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to the First Level of Hell - Limbo!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	Low
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante Inferno Hell Test

Back from Italy...

2006-12-04T03:16:02Z

Our trip to Italy was 7 days in Sicily and 3 in Rome. We happened to be in Rome the same night Tom Cruise was. There were about 200 people loitering outside his hotel waiting to glimpse the star. But... "It's frikkin' Rome!" How completely star-struck was a person be to waste hours waiting to see one in Frikkin' Rome!?

We had to pass his hotel a few times on our way to other parts of Frikkin' Rome. One night, on our way back to our own hotel, these two British guys were coming up the street towards me. I assume they were making their way to see Mr. Cruise - because this is what they were saying as they passed:

Brit #1: "That's Johnny Depp."

Brit #2: "No. Tom Cruise."

Brit #1: "That's not Tom Cruise."

Brit #2: "You idiot."

No. I don't think I look like Johnny Depp. I do get compared to Captain Jack Sparrow a lot but that's another story, really.

Back to our hotel. Some of the other guests there were delegates to a meeting of Nobel laureates. They were escorted to their conference each day by the Carabinieri. I asked a few of the delegates what they were discussing and learned that they were preparing a document for the United Nations - concerning nuclear weapons and methods that might be used to enhance diplomacy.

But every single night we were in Rome, all the news seemed to be concerned with was Tom Cruise. No report was made about the Nobel prize winners. This is probably why the wandering Brit didn't say "That's Muhammad Yunus."

The high point of my trip was actually not in Rome. It was getting to see (and hear!) Mt. Ætna. For about 2 minutes I just stood on the mountain and watch the smoke and ash coming from the summit. Each new cloud was preceded by a very powerful "Boom." I'm not sure why, but after a while I wondered if anyone ever bothered to look away from the mountain. I'm glad I did.

This picture wouldn't have happened otherwise:

Just had to say...

2006-11-09T09:46:00Z

With the election over, CNN is asking what sort of President we each believe we might be.

http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ireports/topics/forms/election/if.president.html

Here's what I told them:

"Were I to be elected to serve this country in the White House, I would certainly make strides away from the present administration's "If you're not with us, you're against us" attitude. This sort of stance is not diplomacy and through its presentation to the United Nations, I feel that much of the good will abroad for America was squandered almost immediately after Sept. 11, 2001.

At home, I would make every effort to demonstrate the root causes of the issues facing this country and to show Americans how each policy was designed to address those causes rather than merely fighting symptoms (while talking down to citizens). Immigration would be the best example here. The real issue is not that so many Mexicans are crossing the border but, rather, what conditions are they fleeing? A true solution is not a wall on the border but cooperation with Mexico to address those conditions.

There also seems to have been a loss of understanding (on the part of American leaders) that our legal system is based on precident. Abortion is the case in point here. Legal death is synonymous with brain death. Consistency would indicate that legal life begins when brainwaves can be detected.

Strangely enough, during the 2004 Presidential race, I received one of the 11 write-in votes in Montana. This is a state I have neither visited nor campaigned in. I do frequently imagine what sort of President I might make (not based on the strength of this one vote, of course) or at least how my interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would go.

Thanks for reading.

Thom Truelove"
__________________________________________________

And now, off to Italy - for about two weeks - with my lovely wife. We are treating this as a second honeymoon after 14 years (and 1.5 months) of marriage.

The more things change...

2006-10-10T18:38:46Z

I'm pretty sure most of you know that my twin brother forgot my birthday 6 years ago. I'm not so annoyed about that as I was; I'm really just mentioning it here to have an excuse to post this:

http://www.blingyblob.com/countdown/countdown.swf?tyear1=2006&tmonth1=12&tday1=15&thours1=0&tminutes1=0&event=My%20twin%20forgets%20my%20birthday%20(again)...&clr=0xCC00FF&tseconds1=0

Colorful thinking…

2006-05-10T02:30:43Z

Last week, I sent the following email to Crayola:

About six years ago, I wrote your company asking why you did not produce colors
by the names - Delayed Green, No Turn on Red, and Flashing Yellow. I was quite
surprised to get a reply but astonished by it once I opened the email.

"Don't write to us again." was all it said. I kept the message for quite
a while but have suffered at least one computer crash since then, so it is lost.

I couldn't imagine such a colorless response from Crayola. I'm writing again, even
though I was forbidden to do so, in hopes that there might be a different answer
this time.

Yours,

Thom Truelove

I was a little shocked to get a response just one hour later:

Dear Thom,

Thank you for your e-mail and for making us aware of an e-mail that you had sent
to us six years ago. I apologize but we have no record in our system of receiving
a prior contact from you. I am sorry for the message that you received in response
to your e-mail. I wish there was a way that you would be able to share it with
us.

We certainly appreciate your comments about new color names and have recorded them
along with other similar suggestions from consumers.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail back or call (800)
272-9652 weekdays between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM Eastern Time and a representative
will be happy to assist you.

Thank you again for your interest in Binney & Smith and Crayola products. Make
www.crayola.com your online destination for creative solutions, colorful ideas and
fun developmental activities!

Yadda blah, yadda blah, yadda blah…

I think what I was hoping they'd say, "Ooo. We remember you. You're still not allowed to write to us."

A Sundial in the Shade, Part II (pics)…

2006-04-03T07:56:38Z

So, here are three pictures of — as one person who does not have a particularly high opinion of Mayor Street put it — "an award from one sort of vampire to another sort…":

The Award itself:

Me and some guy:

A Happy Ferretman:

Thanks go to Brian for taking these pictures. There are more pics taken at Shadowland that night here.

Some days the iceberg gets you…

2006-03-31T18:41:26Z

In the late 80s, Game Designers' Workshop released a combined role-playing and miniatures-based ship warfare game setting called Space: 1889. I remember hearing some of the early press about the game before it would presumably hit the stores. RPGs up to that point were slavish copies of D&D, irredeemably silly (Gamma World), or utterly inaccessible (Empire of the Petal Throne).

But Space: 1889, on the other hand, was very new and clever — and I thought it would become my new hobby.
Unfortunately, production and/or shipping delays for GDW and a corporate chemical job for me meant I never saw the miniatures part of the game. In fact, the company went out of business in 1996 making it completely improbable that I'd find an old box of NM, or at least VG, sky galleons and ether flyers.

This was the end of my search:
Their final press release — It is no secret that GDW has been financially stressed for quite some time. It has now reached the point where it will not be possible to continue to do business. GDW will be closing its doors on Feb 29th, 1996.
We appreciate the loyal support that you - the gamers, retail stores, and distributors - have given to us. We will do our best to see that our game lines are continued with companies that will take to heart the needs of the gamers who have supported our lines for so long. Thank you for supporting us for the last 22 years.

Last night I discovered — that as early as Sept. 2000 — another company was making a similar miniatures game. Steve Blease and Matt Hartley had produced Aeronef for Wessex Games (UK-based). Someone should have told me!…

A bit more research indicated that even Aeronef had crashed:

But improbable things happen in my life all the time. Aeronef got a second chance with Brigade Models (also UK-based; apparently these things fly better over London than they do here):

True and utter awesomeness. Hours of geek-fun.

A Sundial in the Shade…

2006-03-26T18:17:52Z

Last night, I was given the opportunity to present an award from the Mayor of Philadelphia to a good friend — Patrick Rodgers. The story behind this is very, very long and a little odd. I'll spare the details until when I see you in person. :)

Here's the text of what I said before I surprised him:

"Brothers and Sisters of Shadowland —
What you're about to see we hope you find thrilling. It is the only remaining part of a show that never happened, at the request of the intended guest-of-honor. His reasons were sound. However, one cannot present something of this nature and simply say, 'Here.'
Therefore, it is my proud pleasure and honor to present this citation – from the City of Philadelphia and the office of the mayor – in praise and recognition of ten years of contribution and achievement by Patrick Rodgers."

These kinds of things make me nervous and yet I keep doing them. My online friends kept saying, "You'll do fine." or "What's the worst that could happen?" One of them said, once I'd told him what I was planning, "Why doesn't anyone ever give this kind of award to a pimp?" I thought it might be too long a story to explain to him who Patrick was.

Ulana, who was recently similarly honored by the governor of Pennsylvania, came to my DJ station after the presentation to comment that I "really have a talent for these kinds of things." I was a little shocked to get a compliment from her but was a bit more surprised that while gesturing she actually managed to get her finger in my nose. I'm usually not at a loss for words but what does one say to that? I think I might have been less nervous if she'd done the nose & finger trick before the presentation.

I am half-planning to do this again, as I know how to obtain awards from the mayor's office. I suppose the question now is, "Who's next?…"

Port security

2006-02-24T19:12:35Z

I've talked to too many people about Curious George's plan for port security and I got myself depressed about it.

Until I saw this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/US-Border-Patrol-Agent-Little-People_W0QQitemZ6038450335QQcategoryZ19176QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Full circle, with spinning wheels and all…

2006-02-07T10:48:19Z

About a week or so ago, for no particularly good reason apart from curious nostalgia, I looked on eBay for the Fisher Price, Little People Castle. (The vintage version with parts that a child could choke on.)

It had been my favorite toy for quite a long time. I don't really think I expected to own it forever but I wasn't finished with it, in my estimation, when it left the house forever. My mother decided — about a year before she left the house for three years to vacation in a mental institution — that things would be better for our family if we were more charitable. (I should point out that we had steak about once a year.)

I can't say if she asked my sister which of her toys she'd be willing to part with. My brother was and he surrendered his Fisher Price Hospital. Well, it seems that his statement about not playing with it any longer set the notion in my mother's head that I was done with the castle.

I was not asked; I was told which toy of mine I was done with. I protested. I lost. My mother stated that she was quite well aware of all the pieces and that I'd better produce them all in ten minutes. She was going to have to prove she knew all the bits.

There was a little pink dragon to the set and I still have that (just that) from the set. I think I remember telling him that I wouldn't be seeing him any more and that I had to keep him safe. I think I was ten or so and it seems likely that's about when I started to realize my mother was psycho.

For decades, any time I was in any kind of toy store I'd look for the castle. There's a new one. I have one. My brother bought it for me (hmmm.) It's lame. About 30 years after losing the favored one, the eBay pictures reminded me what it really looked like. I almost cried. (The internet does that too much, I think.)

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has little arguments with themselves about eBay purchases. "Where are you going... what are you going to... this is silly... you don't need..."

I sent an email to Chris at work, more or less telling her this story for the first time.

She bought me a castle! It should arrive tomorrow.

http://www.thisoldtoy.com/L_FP_Set/toy-pages/900-999/993-castle.html

In return, I promise not to play with it in bed.

The power of Invisibility v. Thought…

2005-10-25T07:56:16Z

There are times when I swear I'm invisible. This is often a lot less inconvenient than it might seem.

This past weekend, Christi was at an event belly dancing and helping the Fanged One with a show. This meant I would be taking the train into the city to spin Shadowland. Train fare is usually in the $5 ballpark, depending on the time of day and that's not so bad.

But more often than not, SEPTA employees seem collectively to have an ocular affliction that prevents them from seeing me get on their vehicles. I suppose a more virtuous man might stop the conductor near the end of the trip and say something like, "Excuse me. You forgot to ask for my ticket."

Let me know when you find that guy, Diogenes.

This latest trip was free — like so many of the rest — and I was dressed for the venue not the public transportation. I kinda wonder if this one was due, in some twisted way, to Scott Edgar Dyleski. (That's the kid being tried for the murder of Pamela Vitale.) "Don't see the goth. He might kill me."

Frikkin' ostriches.

And they don't all work for SEPTA. Take a short trip (for free, also) to here: http://www.epsilonminus.com/godhatesthescene/

The world is in increasingly dire need of the aphorism, "correlation does not imply causation." Fashion and music are not subject to the commutative property. Fetishist ≠ Satanist ≠ Goth ≠ free rides on trains.

But I'll continue to search for the cause of this odd, social myopia.

The real Curse of the Were-Rabbit…

2005-10-10T11:52:32Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4326286.stm

:(

Mars project

2005-09-17T07:32:34Z

Some friends of mine and I have been developing an online game set in the future and on Mars. One of the objectives for you (assuming you'll play when we launch it) is to terraform the planet. This will, among other things, create an ocean in the northern hemisphere.

This image was a true mind-kicker to generate. All of the images of the might-be ocean are polar and equal area. Most of the maps are rectangular and quite distorted at the poles. How many times have you been using a program you think you know well and thought — "I know you know how to do this! Just do it!" — and then realized you're having an argument with an inanimate object?

Are there even words for this sort of thing?

2005-09-01T05:43:15Z

I went to the Walmart today, which (no offense) hires a lot of "challenged folk". When I reached the exit, the gate alarm went off because I tend to use the automated cashier stations rather than deal with their trained professionals. The automated thing does not have a pad to disable the security strips they place in more expensive items — so, of course, the sentinel at the door wanted to inspect my purchases and receipt.

Once this formality had been attended to, I headed back to the exit and (now here's a surprise) the alarm went off again.

They asked to see my receipt.

I am at a loss for words…

2005-08-27T05:54:55Z