CCEE- Battlestar Forum

I was a little surprised that Michelle wanted to come with me to the Comic Expo, but she was excited about seeing Tahmoh Penikett, Battlestar Galactica's Helo. Then they added Kandyse McClure (Dualla) and we were in BSG heaven. While we were standing in that crazy line to get in, the lady in front of us mentioned that Edward James Olmos was a late addition to the guest roster. This is akin to being Catholic and going to Mass and being told that the Pope would be presiding. Mr. Olmos walked by us twice during the course of the day, once with Kandyse McClure. Which is good because in the very crowded forum room we were in the very back, with a crying baby girl and her stroller.
Anyways, for whatever reason Tahmoh never showed up for the forum, maybe he wasn't even at the Expo but it didn't matter. Admiral Adama and Lieutenant Dualla were there! The two of them sat down and just talked for an hour, answering questions and joking around. Remember when Billybob was a billlyboob to Jian Ghomeshi? Olmos and McClure were the exact opposite, classy and gracious, generous in their answers and incredibly passionate about BSG.
ONe of the better questions asked was, if they had to choose a different character to play in the series, who would they choose? Kandyse chose Tory of all people, and Starbuck as a backup, and Olmos picked Colonel Tigh. Ooh- and he also mentioned how mad Michael Hogan was about . . . you know (for the sake of spoilers I won't say exactly what). We were mad about it too. Anyways, at then end EJO shouted out a "So say we all!" and we all answered in turn.
So say we all!

Back from Calgary! The Comic Expo was fantastic. I think it will take me several posts to get through all the stuffs. So I thought I would start with the things that were lame about it, since those are very few and then I can get on with the things that were great.
Lameness #1- it seemed to be poorly organized. We bought tickets in advance and still had to stand in line for about 35 minutes to get in. I feel bad for the people who bought tickets at the door and had to stand in line twice. And later, we were standing in line for the BSG forum, but we were never 100% sure we were even in the right line. A simple sign might have solved that problem. At least we got in- the people who were already in the room for Ray Park but wanted to see the BSG forum had to vacate the room, go all the way to the back of the line, and be told it was overcapacity and that they weren't allowed in. Ouch. It sounds like there was a shortage of volunteers so maybe they did the best they could.
Lameness #2- this one is all my fault and no one else's. I took hardly any pictures! When you are busy buying stuff and pushing a baby stroller pictures take a backseat, but I wish I had taken more, since the ones I did take didn't even turn out very well! Here are the two pics I took that turned out half-decent:



But look- a baby wookie! Well, we thought about dressing Pallas up but I was at work all week and we ran out of time. It was quite hot in there anyways and she just would have been unhappy. As it was she did really well.

Oh no! Snow!
It just snows and snows. Oh well. On the plus side we saved a duck! Poor little girl got caught in the blizzard and buried in snow, or was hiding in the snow or something and she got hit by a van. She spent the day hiding under a dumpster so me and Robin went and rescued her. Fish and Wildlife said bring her in so hopefully they can help her. Turns out today is Earth Day so that is my contribution. I guess working in a coal mine pretty much damns me for all time.

OKay I know I sorta promised but the truth of the matter is that I have nothing- at least as far as hockey/mining analogies that aren't totally dumb. Though it would be fun to play some sort of hockey type of game with the heavy equipment. So on to something else.
Next week we will be going to the Calgary Comics Expo! The last comic con I went to was in 1989, I think, shortly after I moved to Edmonton. Todd McFarlane and Stan Lee were there! But I don't really remember that much about it. Hopefully this one will be more memorable. A lot has changed in 20 years. One interesting trend lately has been "covering" covers. In the same way musicians will cover favorite songs, artists who grew up on comics are covering their favorite covers. Incredible Hulk #340 is one of the classic covers of all time, and there have been a few takes on it, including some zombified versions. Here is the original, and then the zombie version that appeared in Marvel Zombies:


Personally I like Josh Medors' zombied-up version:



Shaun Ward has been doing a series of classic covers, including Hulk 340 and Spider-Man #1 (both McFarlanes):



And House of Duck posted 12 covers that he hopes to cover in his own cartoon style, so far he has one. You can do it!

I think tomorrow after I've had some sleep I might blog about the similarities between hockey teams and coal miners. But for now, a story about sleep.

On the first night, around 3:30 AM I was hanging out with my buddy Robin the pumpman. He had helped me with a bunch of oiler stuffs and now we were going to investigate why one of his pumps- nay, his most important pump- mysteriously stopped pumping. Such mysteries occur frequently and can have many different solutions, from pressing a reset button and everyone living happily ever after to having to replace a pump in a deep dark pit at 4 in the morning accompanied by cursings of all and sundry.
But first, coffee break. So I fell instantly asleep, and apparently was snoring. I never used to fall so deeply asleep at work but babies have that effect on you I guess. So next thing I know it's 5:45 and Robin is leaving in the coal van to pick up the coal haulers- his final duty of every shift. Groggily I slide over to the driver's seat of the pumptruck and drive away to kill off the last 45 minutes of the shift. My main concern is finding somewhere isolated to hide and try to wake up. Vaguely I wonder if Robin got that pump going or not but really, it's almost home time and I don't actually care.
Suddenly here comes the big boss, doing his morning tour in his pickup. He's making a beeline for me, thinking I'm the pumpman since I am driving the pumptruck. Oh no! I pretend I don't see him and take off. Luckily it's dark enough that I can sort of get away with that. So I drive away towards a different pit, the one with the mystery pump, and to my dismay I see Big Boss is following me. No doubt he wants to debrief about the pump but I really can't see how that conversation can possibly go well for me- I can just imagine it: Hi Homie Bear, did you get that pump going last night?
Ummm, I don't really know. Maybe?
What do you mean you don't know?
Well, I . . . am just very very tired.
So anyways I had no choice but to pretend I didn't see him. It was a little awkward when he passed me and waved but sometimes you just have to stay the course.

I'm still an oiler! So everything remains status quopacetic. Since the Edmonton Oilers didn't make the playoffs this year (again) maybe you can cheer for me!

Happy Easter! I have to go back to work tonight after nearly three weeks of blissful laziness. Great timing, eh? Here boys have three weeks off see you on Easter! Oh well.
Anyways here is an Easter homily for you, courtesy of Stephen Jay Gould, from Bully for Brontosaurus:

But no battle exists between science and religion- the two most separate spheres of human need. A titanic struggle occurs, always has, always will, between questioning and authority, free inquiry and frozen dogma- but the institutions representing these poles are not science and religion. These struggles occur within each field, not primarily across disciplines. The general ethic of science leads to greater openness, but we have our fossils , often in positions of great power. Organized religion, as an arm of state power so frequently in history, has tended to rigidity- but theologies have also spearheaded social revolution.

SJG was a great man, co-author of the paper that introduced the idea of punctuated equilibrium in evolution. He also championed a pet idea in his essays and lectures- that science and religion comprise "non-interfering magisteria". I admire his effort to bring peace between the two, but I don't quite buy into the idea that these are two areas of human endeavor that have nothing to do with each other. But anyways, happy Easter! I'm off to work!

Yesterday a present arrived alla way from New Zealand courtesy of aunty gabrielle! Pallas says thanks for the bear paws! Or yeti claws.
And here she is modelling the onesy sent us from my dA friend the rebel-penguin!



Anyways did you happen to catch Billybob Thornton on Q this morning? It was such a cringe-inducing interview that if you missed it you should listen to the podcast.

Drood: A Novel

So Dan Simmons has a new book out. Luckily he must have told Michelle about it so she could buy it for me because otherwise I don't think I would have known. I'm not sure how I feel about living in a world where a new Simmons novel is not front page news or at the very least trumpeted in the blogosphere. Maybe I just hang out with the wrong crowd.
Anyways the new book is called Drood and is, like most Dan Simmons books, a horror-tinged exploration of a literary giant or two. The Hyperion Cantos explored the works of John Keats and had a killer robot thing called the Shrike. Ilium/Olympos was all about Homer, Shakespeare and Proust and had a killer monster in the form of Caliban from The Tempest. Drood is all about Charles Dickens and has a killer vampire thing named Drood. Unlike those first examples, Drood is not sci-fi but rather historical fiction with, as far as I can tell, very few liberties taken with historical fact.
What really? How can that be? Well, the narrator is Wilkie Collins, someone I only knew of because gabrielle read The Woman in White on our Malaysia/New Zealand excursion. Collins is tortured by professional jealousy of Dickens and "rheumatical gout" which he medicates with laudanum and other opiates. And if I tell you any more you will perhaps not enjoy the book as much as I did.

I've always thought it was cool that, despite their size and miles of electrical wiring and computer chips and dips, that the shovels we have at work are not all that different from Mike Mulligan's steam shovel. In fact the first steam shovel was invented in 1839, and the design which we essentially still use today originated in the 1870s.
Check out this video of a vintage 1921 steamshovel, still running in a museum or something:



And a rather shaky video of a 1924 shovel- looks like it is about to tip over several times but that is just the cameraman!
I love that the operator had to yank on the trip cable. So much nicer having a little button! But otherwise, exactly the same principle.
Next week when I go back to work I will no longer be a shovel oiler. I was asked to step up and take one of the open shovel operator bids and I turned them down. Politely, but firmly. It is too hard on my back to operate those full-time. So it looks like I will have to go back to driving truck. Or else they will promote me anyways. We'll see I guess.

For an April Fool's joke we are taking our tiny little daughter and poking her full of holes! It's Pallas' immunization day today. That's okay -she plays plenty of jokes on us- she loves to wait till after I change her diaper to have a poo. Sometimes while I'm changing her.