The Ultimate Journal of Yotto

East Coast Meteor Shower

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 06:42:59 GMT

Remember me? It's been almost a year since I posted last, but the site seems to still be here, so I figured why not?

If you live on the East Coast of the US, or anywhere in Europe, check the sky on the night of November 18. In the US, check the Eastern Sky (only if you're in the Eastern time zone) between 11:15pm and 12:15 pm. Ideally, watch at 11:45pm.

With luck, you'll get about 2 meteors a minute, and maybe 5-10 right around 11:45.

More Info

First Find!

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 04:01:27 GMT

Okay, anybody who knows me knows I'm not one to spontaneously do anything. If it costs more than $5, I'll research the item to make sure I'm getting exactly what I want. I am not sure the last time I agreed to do anything more involved than going out to lunch without first double checking a schedule, calling my wife, or at least sleeping on it to make sure I really want to do it. I'm a bit wary of quick decisions. Always have been. Always will be.

However, on Sunday November 20th, I was at work, listening to TWiT, and they mentioned something about Geocaching.

I won't say I didn't do a fair amount of research first, but still, my $114 purchase of a GPSr* roughly 8 hours later was a bit... How should I say it... Abnormal for me.

The order went through on Monday, they said it was ready to ship on Tuesday, It made it to Ohio by Wednesday, and... Well, Thursday it sat there all day and did not nothing because it was Thanksgiving. But on Friday, it arrived.

Friday was the third day of a 3-day cold snap that brought us the first snow of this very young winter weather season. It was also Black Friday and, considering my job is directly tied to retail, I was kind of busy working Friday, so I could not go out and do any Geocaching.

Saturday, I was too busy. Sunday, I was too busy. As was I on Monday and Tuesday.

Today, though, I found something extremely interesting on the Geocaching website. It seems there is a geocache (I'm not sure, yet, if it can be called a 'Cache' or a 'Geo'. But I'm a newbie) right outside my work! Literally 1/10th of a mile from the door I use to access my department, maybe 150 feet from the main front door.

On my second break, after most of the company had gone home, I snuck out in the dark, armed with my GPSr and a heavy P-Coat, and I searched for the cache. And I searched. And searched some more.

Someone left work, and they slowed down as they drove past me, hunched down in a little group of trees. I will likely be asked what in the blazes I was doing. But no matter.

My 15 minutes burned up, I headed back in, more resolved than ever to find the treasure at 9:30 when my day was over.

9:30 rolled around, and I was back. I let the GPS find 10 satellites (Before, I think it only had about 4 before I started looking, which I think caused a bit too much error). I zeroed in on the trees, and finally found the one tree that had to be the one. I checked the base of the tree. Nothing. I checked some pinecones around the base of the tree. They were all actual pinecones, and none hid anything. A truck drove by, and didn't seem to see me. A bit flustered, and with my legs starting to ache from being hunkered down under the tree, I tried to stand and got poked with a branch. I turned my head, and saw something. No, I thought, false alarm. It's just a bird's nest.

Then something happened in my mind. Something that I can only assume, in my newbieness, is the barest hint of the feeling that a seasoned Geocache veteran gets when their "geosense" tingles. That bird's nest seems a bit too bowl-like, doesn't it? It's dark, too dark to even see if it's made out of wood, but something looked odd. I touched it. Definitely wood, but more wicker than twigs. I stood up (Nearly poking out an eye on another branch) and, lo-and-behold, my find! My treasure! My booty!

Well, okay, it was a lip-gloss container, roughly one inch in diameter and another inch tall. It contained nothing but what they call a "logbook" but it was really just a piece of paper. I ran to the car, excited and happy. I dug through the glove box, located a pen, and wrote my name (Well, my online name) and date in the log. I then ran back to the hiding spot, hid very deftly as another truck drove by, and replaced the cache for another to find.

Yeah, I think I'm hooked.

*GPS stands for Global Positioning System. the added 'r' stands for 'receiver'. I don't know exactly why you need to add the 'r' as it's very unlikely that I'd be carrying a geostationary satellite around with me. But, as I said, I'm a newbie at this so I'm erring on the side of caution here.

I've been teh tagged!

Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:00:55 GMT

KJToo tagged me on this one, and (in spite of my totally sporadic livejournal reading lately) I happened to catch it before it scrolled off my main page. So here goes...

5 songs I know all the words to:

Barenaked Ladies - One Week

Joni Mitchell - Carey

Joni Mitchell - Both Sides, Now

Sting - Seven Days

The Bee Gees - A Fifth Of Beethoven

5 snacks:

Chips and Salsa

Veggies and Dip

Popcorn

Ice cream sandwiches

Whiskey Rocks

5 things I'd do with $100 million:

Move to some Caribbean island

Buy a beach bar

Get Broadband for my entire island

Buy a lot of Hawaiian shirts, Bermuda shorts and other clothing named after islands.

That's about it.

5 places I would run away to:

See above.

No, I'm serious.

5 things I would never wear:

Never is a long time. Do you mean wear outside?

Or take a picture of me wearing?

Okay, I'll assume never, ever ever. Even alone at night just to see what it looks like.

Human flesh.

Any other kind of flesh.

5 favorite TV shows:
(I'm assuming all-time)

Daily Show

Firefly

Battlestar Galactica (The new one with hawt chix cylons)

X-Files (Pre-movie)

Northern Exposure (Pre-new-doctor)

5 greatest joys:

Lisa

Yotto/Zoe

Maxx/Piper

Staying in on the occational Friday or Saturday night

Lung capacity

5 favorite toys:

MP3 player

Big-ass TV

Phorbe

The Future Moreau (Sorry current laptop, but you suck)

Hyde (My main computer)

I am going to not tag any of you due to the fact that I may miss the post and then I'll feel bad.

NaNoWriMo!

Fri, 04 Nov 2005 03:01:46 GMT

I've been too busy to post (What with working 50+hours, most of them before 9am, all week, AND a budding podcast to plan, AND NaNoWriMo to write for) but I'm on track.

Tonight, I wrote about 1500 words, the vast majority of them in two 20-mintue "sprints" in which I wrote an average of 750 words in each sprint. I was very productive.

Right now, I'm at 5087 words (87 more than the goal for today) and I'm ranked number 4065 out of the entire NaNo community. Go me!

If you wanna read my novel, head over to my new forum at Planet Retcon, sign up, and post that you want to read my stuff.

Stargate Cafe

Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:07:33 GMT

More to come.

planet retcon

Wed, 19 Oct 2005 02:31:10 GMT

More to come.

They need a "You find everything funny" category

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 15:13:53 GMT

I'm so close to the middle, I doubt my placement is accurate.

the Cutting Edge
(57% dark, 50% spontaneous, 36% vulgar)

your humor style:
CLEAN | SPONTANEOUS | DARK

Your humor's mostly innocent and off-the-cuff, but somehow there's
something slightly menacing about you. Part of your humor is making
people a little uncomfortable, even if the things you say aren't
themselves confrontational. You probably have a very dry delivery, or
are seriously over-the-top.

Your type is the most likely to appreciate a good insult and/or broken bone and/or very very fat person dancing.

PEOPLE LIKE YOU: David Letterman - John Belushi

The 3-Variable Funny Test!

- it rules -

If you're interested, try my latest:
The Terrorism Test

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 61% on darkness
You scored higher than 64% on spontaneity
You scored higher than 49% on vulgarity

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I got my Firefly DVDs today!

Sat, 08 Oct 2005 19:34:17 GMT

Shiny!

Serenity Review

Wed, 28 Sep 2005 02:44:20 GMT

I was treated to an advanced showing of Serenity, the continuation of the story that was begun in the ill-fated Firefly television series. This review will NOT HAVE ANY SPOILERS. Because of the lack of spoilers, I will have to be quite general, and as such this review will likely be short.

The general quality of the movie was roughly that of the television show. The scale was a bit more grand (which is expected) but I saw nothing that would have surprised me to see in the show, special-effects wise. Some of the scenes seemed a bit poorly-delivered, especially the first "in the ship" scene which was more a tour of the ship than an introduction to the crew. That scene was filmed all in one long part, without editing any scenes together, and traversed much of the ship from the cabin to the engine room down past the medical bay and into the hangar. I know this was one long, unedited scene not because I had any insider information about the movie, but because the acting was so forced and wooden that, had they spliced it together, they would have been able to pick better scenes. I figure they, after about 10 failed runs through, said "To hell with it, let's use that last one, they only screwed up 3 times." Don't get me wrong, that scene was a one-shot thing and the rest of the movie, in total, was much better acted and filmed, but as the introduction to the characters that you're supposed to care about, that scene bothered me.

The characters were, for the most part, well done. Yes, for those of you who wonder, they're ALL in it. No, I'm not going to say anything else because the characters and what happens to them falls VERY WELL into spoiler territory. In fact, saying that it'd be a spoiler is itself falling into spoiler territory, as is saying that. But I digress. I will say no more about the characters, except this: I felt that they were far more cardboard than they were in the show. The pilot of the television series had far more character development than the movie did, which is kind of sad (Though, to be honest, the pilot had more character development than most 2-hour spans of entertainment available to mankind).

Now, for the part that's nearly impossible to do with no spoilers: The plot. The plot was... Good. Not bad. Not great. Good. Several questions about "the verse" were answered, and I did not find the answers very palatable. A couple new characters were both not explained very well, nor did they act in ways that I thought they ever would. Perhaps if their personalities were a bit more fleshed out, I would feel differently. In particular, a character named "Mister Universe" was never, ever, explained at all. He seemed pretty important and powerful, but really he wasn't. He seemed like he knew the crew of Serenity quite well, but really, he had no reason to. He had a big cloud of... Something... Around him, but anything could get through it (We see ships fly through it, and he's got a billion TVs that he can watch anything on, so you can send signals through it). Yes, that's almost a spoiler, but as I kept expecting to find out more about him, and may have missed something important thinking about him during the movie, so I figured I'd let you in on that little bit of info.

All in all, I liked the movie. Due to some plot twists (that I will not be discussing in this review) the movie has left quite a bad taste in my mouth. But that's in a good way, really. Because if things always happen exactly the way you figure they will, then movies won't be worth watching.

Cryptic enough? Good.

Braggidty braggidy brag brag

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 23:12:45 GMT

I get to see Serenity tomorrow. For free.

(And in English. This is just the only poster of its type I could find)

dot.dot.dot.com!

Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:58:11 GMT

I always wanted my website to be dot.dot.dot.com, just say it, it rolllllls off the tongue. Well, of course, to have that webpage you need to own dot.com (or be friendly with the owner) so that's out for me. So, for fun, I checked the nearest alternative, dotdotdotdotdot.com, and was a bit surprised to find it was taken.

So I tried dotdot.com, dotdotdot.com, and dotdotdotdot.com. All taken.

In fact, until dotdotdotdotdotdotdot.com, all are taken. But that's just too many dots.

Hey, I likes me the memes.

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 05:25:26 GMT

LJ Interests meme results

blaq lily:
A band. kinda celtic sounding. Sounds like something you'd hear at a Medieval Faire.
delirious:
No, this is not how I spend my day. It's another band. The odd thing is, I don't have any of their music, so they must have sucked or something. That or it's that Eddie Murphy movie, No, I'm pretty sure it's the band.
hot hot heat:
Gee, another band. They kinda sound like the Cure. I don't know. I'm a child of the 80's.
jenny galt:
She rocks. She's in a band named Cherry Bomb. She's hot. She's from Canada. And she was in a live show named Canoe Jam. No, it wasn't porno, why do you ask?
marcella detroit:
Okay, this is getting as repetitive as the Baab meme. This is yet another musician. Give her a listen, but listen to at least a couple songs because she has quite a range.
perla batalla:
This is a feng-yui dance that I've been doing since I was... Oh, who am I kidding, it's another singer.
shannon campbell:
Guess. I dare you to guess anything other than "singer". Go on. Do it. Nope, you're wrong.
sundownradio:
I don't even know what this is. I think it's a band, and I ahve some music that has it as an "artist" tag, but it sounds more like a radio station than a band. And they have no website.
the police:
This isn't the band, it's actually cops. I find them interesting. No, really.
writing:
I was lying above. It's actually the band.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.

ARRRRRRRRRRRR!

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 12:57:48 GMT

Well, mizen me poop deck and scuttle me timbers! It's talk like a pirate day!

So, what did the pirate say when the man pointed out to him that he had a steering wheel wedged in his crotch?

Arrrr! It's drivin' me nuts!

The Many Faces of Vic

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:42:20 GMT

Yeah, I'm thinking of starting up Vic Gentry again, in a whole new format: Inkscape!

Are you REALLY Hilary Duff?!?!?!

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:19:34 GMT

Someone with the user name hil__duff_s0me has added me to his/her/its friends list. He/she/it shares no friends with me and, even though I'm in his/her/its friends list (and I put him/her/it in mine, just to make sure), All I get when I go to his/her/its page is a 'friends only' post from May of 2004.

Anybody know who this is? hil__duff_s0me, you still reading? Who are you?

Not...

Spam thoughts

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 19:21:39 GMT

Looking at my last 8 spam emails, just the titles mind you:

Go wakeup a scraps foolhardy
by dance be reasonably
do play in breast ox
A spend is cozy presumable
With turnoff at op
by borrow an hereditament unkindly
his have in code
Which explain a selenium

(I linked to the dictionary.com page on hereditament above just to save you the trouble)

Now, I find it very funny that none of these eight "phrases" make any sense. They're almost sentences, but not quite, and were obviously created by a computer program. The person who coded that program took no pains to make sure the phrases made sense, but he /did/ make sure to take change 'a' to 'an' where appropriate.

I wonder if his boss gave him a gold star.

The Baab meme or: I should meet more of you IRL.

Fri, 19 Aug 2005 05:47:13 GMT

1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.

1.~How did you meet baab? We met online and found we lived in the same city, so met in real life. No, he wasn't pretending to be female. No, neither was I.
2.~What would you do if you had never met baab? Pretty much what I'm doing now, but without knowing him.
3.~What do you honestly think of baab? Good guy. Honest, dependable. Good kisser.
4.~Would or did baab and baab go out? Dude, you really need to check on that RNG.
5.~Have you ever liked baab? Like, "liked" liked? Or just liked?
6.~If kjtoo died tomorrow, what is one thing that you would need him/her to know? Nothing. Sorry, dude, I'm not keeping any dark secrets from you.
7.~Would yotto and baab make a good couple? Would?
8.~Describe jonobie in 3 words: Met her once.
9.~Do you think baab is hot? Were I female, I'd take him in a manly fashion. Er, wait.
10.~Would kjtoo and baab make a lovely couple? Smashing.
11.~What do you think of when you see baab? Bulls and China Shops.
12.~Tell me something humiliating about baab: He... Um... I can't think of anything.
13.~Do you know any of baab's family members? Yes. I work with his brother.
14.~What's baab's favorite color? No clue.
15.~On a scale of 1-10 how cute is baab? 11. Totally.
16.~What would you do if baab just professed their undying love for you? Baab is one person.
17.~What language does baab speak? English. And. Um. English.
18.~Who is baab going out with? Nobody. He /is/ married though.
19.~Is baab a boy or a girl? Well, he's not a /they/, that's for sure.
20.~Would baab and baab make a good couple? Didn't you ask this one already?
21.~Who do you think baab would be great with from this list? You've really got a thing for baab, don't you?
22.~When was the last time you talked to baab? Like, today.
23.~What is baab's favorite band? He has several.
24.~Does yotto have any siblings? Yes. One, six, seven, eight, or nine, depending on how you count.
25.~Would you ever date baab? Sorry, but no.
26.~Would you ever date jonobie? Likely not, but she's cuter than baab.
27.~Is baab single? I already told you that.
28.~What is baab's last name? I'm not telling you.
29.~What is baab's middle name? Mmmm. Maaa... Maaarrrrrk? Melvin? I'm moderately sure it starts with an M.
30~What is baab's fantasy? Two chicks at the same time. I think Japanese chicks.
31.~Where does baab live? In his house.
32.~Would you make out with baab? Would?
33.~Are baab and baab best friends? Yes. He's like a mawg.
34.~Does jonobie like baab? I would suspect so. Very few people don't like Baab.
35.~How did you meet baab? Seriously, you asked this one.
36.~Is baab older than you? No.
37.~Is baab the sexiest person alive? He's in the top 6.5 billion, that's for sure.

Issue #2 is out!

Sat, 07 May 2005 00:08:13 GMT

Remember when I said I wouldn't advertise Vic here?
Screw that. I'm too jazzed. Issue 2 is in the bag, and I'm considering drawing the cover for issue 3.

Check it out here!
____

Movie Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Wed, 04 May 2005 14:07:25 GMT

This will be a spoiler-free review, because I'm nice like that.

All in all, I enjoyed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I would recommend it to anybody who has read the book(s) but is wondering if the movie will be "good enough" to be worth the $7.50 (or whatever) to sit in the theater. I would NOT recommend it to anybody who has never read the book and is considering seeing the film because [it is getting good reviews|it has the guy from The Office in it|they've already seen Miss Congeniality 2]. Rumors that the movie is disjointed and incoherent are true. I know the story quite well (I'm what you would call a rabid, frothing fan of Douglas Adams) and I felt like they weren't describing things very well. They jump around a lot and if you don't already know about certain things that they don't bother explaining, the movie will (I assume) not have nearly the comedic or dramatic (Yes, there is drama) effect that it is supposed to.

So, I am not gearing this review to the person who has not read the book. I'm sorry, but I think you should see something else. Or, better yet, read the book first and then go see the movie. You only need to read the first book, and it's a good read. Even better, find a time machine, and go back to when you were 10 and make your 10-year-old self read the book. That way, by the time you get to the present, you'll be as rabid a fan as I.

So, what works?

The new stuff. The new stuff is fantastic, and there's a lot of it. New gags, new scenes, new plot lines, and old stuff twisted in new ways. I found nothing that was changed or added that removed any bit of fun from the movie. This, to me, was the second most important thing to make the movie work, and they nailed it.

The comedy. This movie is funny. Even (and sometimes especially) the slapstick parts are good, and there is quite a good amount of Adamsesque social commentary to go around. This is the first most important thing (And these two things are why I recommend the movie).

The Story. The plot line is well constructed and follows a logical path, and comes to a satisfying conclusion. I'm not going to give anything away, but I will say that the ending of the movie is not the same as the ending of the book, and some may not like it (But not for the simple reason that it's different than the book). Am I being cryptic enough? Good.

The Music. There is a musical number of "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" that I'm still humming today. And they have the music from the TV series in there as well. That was nice to hear.

The Special Effects. Some of the special effects are top-notch big-screen amazing kind of "wow" type special effects. Others are low-quality b-movie back-lot type special effects. All, however, fit exactly where they should.

The Guide. The guide was nice, updated for a more sophisticated audience. You'll like it.

The Heart Of Gold. I liked the "new" Heart Of Gold.

Mos Def as Ford. I think he nailed the part. Period.

Warwick Davis as Marvin. Superb.

Marvin Himself. After the initial "I never ever imagined him that way," Marvin quickly grew on me.

Martin Freeman as Arthur. Again. I can't add to it. He was perfect.

And what doesn't work?

The pace. This movie moves FAST. The new stuff that I mentioned above was not really needed sometimes, and they shrank the scenes and dialog down to the bare essentials (or less) to fit it all in. I would have happily traded one or two side plots to have a bit more explanation of what the hell was going on.

Zooey Deschanel as Trillian. I had two problems with Trillian. First off, Zooey is HOT with a capital HOT. I think I missed a couple of things because I was looking at her. Second, and I don't know if it's her or me, but she didn't really seem to be acting so much as reading lines off of a teleprompter.

Humma Kavula. I didn't like the entire scene, from how they found him to when they left. John Malkovich did a fine job, and the special effects were good, but the story... Meh. (Yes, I'm being vague. No spoilers, remember?)

And what was I indifferent about?

Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox. It was hard to decide if I should put Zaphod in the plus or minus category, so I made this new one for him. He was supposed to be over the top, and was. ALL THE TIME.

Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast. I liked Slarty, but I preferred the one in the TV show. Plus, you can't have a numbered list with only one item. They taught me that in high school.

So, all in all, go see it if you know the story. If you don't know the story, learn the story and then go see the movie.

____

Rachael Sage Night

Wed, 04 May 2005 12:21:41 GMT

I mostly want this in my journal to remember, both the good and the bad, of Rachael Sage night at the club.

First, the good: Rachael Sage was in the club! She sang, she bantered, she played, and all was well. The song I had heard 15 months previously I heard again, and was promised it would be on the next album, so I have something to look forward to. Also, I think baab enjoyed himself, as did our mutual friend Jeffrey, and several people who were there who said that they would likely leave early because they wouldn't like the show ended up staying until the very end.

Second, the bad: The entire club membership, outside me, Lisa, her father, and the DJ, suck total balls. The ones that didn't spend the entire night in the bar sat in the center table and TALKED OVER THE MUSIC. I mean, come on.

So, as an upside, we're going on a mini-strike. We're not showing up on Friday. I hope that 3 of the people who are supposed to cook aren't there, and they're expecting me to cover for them again. I'll not spare them a second thought as I sit home with my wife and watch National Treasure on Netflix.

The Message: Mailed

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:41:13 GMT

I mailed The Message off to Analog today. Still haven't heard back on The Hoff, but it hasn't been 3 months yet (It's hard to believe, but it's barely been 2 months) so I need not fear, yet, that they've lost it.

U.M.P.I.R.E. needs a complete rewrite which is why it has yet to be mailed. I will likely make that my project for the next NaNo meeting.
____

Snow report

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 12:00:02 GMT

For everybody who's not buried, here's a little report from Northeast Ohio:

I have somewhere near a foot of snow out here. Were it fluffy snow, and not packed, wet, viscous snow, it may be about 1.5 feet or so.
+I just got up early to remove a branch from my driveway so my wife could go to work.
+She got disturbingly close to stuck.
+She drives a 4-wheel-drive truck.
+I drive a Saturn coupe.
=I have to shovel the driveway.

New userpic

Fri, 22 Apr 2005 16:17:53 GMT

Some change their pictures daily, some weekly, I add a new one every six months or so, so humor me. To the left you can see the newest addition to my userpic family. Enjoy it, and make your own at The Acme License Maker. Thanks to kjtoo for showing this to me.
____
Note: Jennie Stearns, the below musician, is fantastic. And she makes me feel like when I was climbing the rope in gym class.

An Evening With Yotto: A Conversation With KJToo

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:28:26 GMT

Recently I sat down with KJToo for an impromptu interview. He asked me a few questions and I answered them as candidly as possible. Below are the results of this conversation.

(Note, these are answers to an interview meme that you'll find the rules to in my journal entry preceding this one. I'm not duplicating the rules here because... Well, I don't have a reason. So there)

KJToo:What is the single best video game (PC or console) you've ever played, ever?
Yotto: I am going to answer this two ways:
1) What game did I enjoy the most, at the time of playing it? Stars! wins this category hands down. This is the only game that I have ever spent more than a year playing, to the near exclusion of all other games. I even co-edited the strategy guide for it.
What is the single best game evar? This is a harder one. For all-around funness, I'd have to say Grand Theft Auto III and/or/in-conjunction-with the sequel, Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City. These are the only games I can think of that are still fun to pop in and play for a half hour without even thinking about accomplishing any goals.
KJToo:When the unabridged audiobook version of Twins is produced, who do you want to do the reading?
Yotto: I have never listened to an audiobook, so I don't even know whose voice would be good to listen to for several hours straight. Surely not mine. The Moviephone guy? No. The teaser trailer voiceover guy? No. Adam West? Hmmmm.
KJToo:NASA is planning to launch a shuttle on May 22. Do you think it's time NASA ditched their current orbiter design and formed an alliance with folks like Richard Branson?
Yotto: No, it's not time they did something like that. That time was roughly 1998. In fact, NASA's so redundant that It's time they gave up and just donated their budget to the war in Iraq in total. I mean, I'm sure they could fuel up all the Hummer(tm)s and maybe even have enough left over to stage another "Mission Accomplished" press release. But I'm off topic. In short: Hell, yeah.
KJToo:This is the one I'm going to ask everybody: If you could take any work of written fiction and adapt it to the screen, which work would you choose and what three aspects of that work would you be most concerned about translating properly?
Yotto: I am still waiting for a decent movie to be made of an Asimov book or short story. So far, they're 0 for about 4. I really honestly think that Caves of Steel would make a great movie, but I'm not going to say that one, I'm going to say Fantastic Voyage 2: Destination Brain. The first Fantastic Voyage book was written, by Asimov, on request of a movie studio. That movie studio placed many restrictions on him, which caused him to write a book that was sub-par. Then, they took that book and made an even worse movie. Asimov fixed all these problems in the second book (which isn't so much a sequel as it is a cleansing) which is, excuse the pun, fantastic. As to what I would be afraid of Hollywood doing wrong, I would worry about all the stuff I normally worry about: That they would screw up the science (Brownian Motion is a fairly major plot point); that they would add a love story for no reason (The two main characters are a man and a woman, and while there is attraction, there is no sex. I'm sure they'd hop out of the ship for a quickie in the movie); and that they would add useless action scenes (In order to appeal to a wide audience, I'm sure Wesley Snipes would be added to the crew as a bad guy whose sole purpose is to get in the heroes' way). There. I didn't say Twins OR Vic Gentry!
KJToo:What would be the Yotto action figure's special move (e.g., GI JOE's Kung-Fu Grip)?
Yotto: This was, somewhat amusingly, the most difficult of your questions for me to answer. My "signature move" would likely be either raised eyebrows or a walk with a bit more bounce than normal, and neither of these transform well to an action figure. However, I will press on regardless and suggest to Mattel that they endow my action figure with Super-Fast Run-Away(tm). See, you squeeze my action figure's arms together, and his legs move like they're running. Because, when push comes to shove, I'm saving my own ass.

An Interview of Yotto: The Baab Papers

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 18:30:55 GMT

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Baab: Given the opportunity, knowing everything you know now, would you choose to run screaming the other way on that fateful day in May of 1994?
Yotto: My brain don't work so well, but I'm guessing you're referring to our first meeting? I would not have run the other way, at least not at a full sprint. And I'm not just saying that so you'll fix my laptop.
Baab: What's the first thing you plan to do after becoming a best-selling wordsmith?
Yotto: I will not be content until Yottovision Industries has taken over the world of media. All media. Movies, television, music, the written word (including all newspapers), blogs, and even human thought will be mine. That, or I'd like to scrape up just enough cash to get a really good gaming rig.
Baab: Big Wheel or Green Machine?
Yotto: Big Wheel. Green Machine's for posers. Plus, I damn near killed myself (literally) on a Big Wheel by trying to pop a wheelie. Gotta respect that.
Baab: Is there a historical figure that you particularly idolize or identify with? Why?
Yotto: My knowledge of history is pretty piss-poor. Many people split history into "things that happened before I was born" and "things that happened after I was born." For me, it's more "Things that happened before the year 2004" and "things that I can actually remember." Anyway, I have lately become intrigued with Bertrand Russell. From what I've read of him, we mesh in personality quite well. If I believed in reincarnation (I don't) and thought well of myself (I do) I'd suggest that, considering he died not too long before I was born (1.5 years. If you assume some time for processing and selection of a new body, and maybe a good vacation before returning to the mortal realm), I got a bit of him mixed in.
Baab: How do you feel about Fark photoshop clichés?
Yotto: I love them. I laugh at pretty much every single Admiral Ackbar reference (Hell, I've made a few), baby face, masturbation kitten, nutsack squirrel... There's not a one that I don't at least smile at (so long as it's done well, of course).