Tuesday, January 20, 2009

CAG mugs, Ramblings

Hey all.

I ordered an initial lot of Rapiers and Dark Angels coffee mugs yesterday, and the supplier tells me that they will be ready for pickup in 14 days, or, for those reaching for their calendars - February 4th. For those of you who have already confirmed your orders with me, you can expect updates on this as they come.

I head back to University for 2009 on February 1st, but I'll be visiting Sydney briefly between the 6th and 8th to see Top Gear Live, during which time I will pick up this order and have it shipped to you all first thing on Monday.

It's still not too late for me to order more. Remember the deadline for the first lot is January 25, so if you're interested - drop me an email and I'll let you know more details.

Now, some news on the Atlantis front.

Episode VI

Oh, yes, it's being written - the story has been sent to the other Atlantis staff, and has been finalized. Any further tweaks are being made only as it progresses. If Keith's reaction was any indication to how this one will be received, I don't think I'm going too far to say that I'm going to have more fun writing this than I did writing Rising Thunder.

On a related note, for the past several months, Keith has been working on the ships of the North Sea Confederation, from the old Polaris-class ESVs to the all-new Le Attaque-class cruisers. When he started, Keith had no working knowledge of Maya at all and to his credit, with very little instruction, he has produced some truly excellent work.



The above is the new Seafire "TV5", as used by the North Sea Confederation. This subfighter is Europe's answer to the UEO's SF-37 Raptor series and in Atlantis is the eventual replacement for the Tornado class subfighters previously mentioned in the series. The fighter's name comes from the Supermarine Seafire that many nations - particularly Britain - employed during the second world war was a navalized version of the more commonly known Spitfire. Keith's principle work on this model is finished, and now it's my (admitedly painful) job of UV mapping and texturing it.

Without saying too much, I will say that there is a Rapiers scheme for this fighter in the works, in addition to the standard sea-grey NSC livery that will come to be the ,most commonly-known image of the fighter.

Ramblings.

So, the new Battlestar Galactica is out. For those who do not watch Battlestar Galactica, I can only say this.

What are you doing here reading this blog!? Go away! You're missing out

I was a late-comer to the "nu-BSG" party a couple of years ago, as I was definitely not a fan of the original 1978 series (oh the tack...) and when I had heard that Ronald D. Moore (writing credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Generations) was re-imagining the series back in 2003, I was... sceptical. How could something so tragically bad be turned in to something worth watching?

I was wrong. While respectful to the original series, this BSG is all-new and all-improved, although I suspected while watching the mini-series a couple of years ago that the writers might have been fans of the game Homeworld. The art style and cinematic direction of space combat was very, very familiar, from the way fighters pitched and rolled in combat to the sound of the cannon fire, and even the way carriers performed. You reading this, Ron? I'm on to you...

Regardless, the new episode's big revelation - I hate to say - came as no surprise. Those who are fans will appeciate it when I say that from Baltar's initial "I'll never tell" to D'Anna's last "The fifth is not in the fleet", the writing was on the wall as to who was the last of the Final Five cylons. Alex? If you're reading this - you frakking called it.

As for Dee... Brilliant, is all I will say.

Now will someone please tell me what the hell is going on with Starbuck?

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