Soda Can Turrets

I painted a pair of 3D-printed turrets made to incorporate soda cans. Cute! I'll use them for Star Schlock objectives. 

Tacoless Tuesday

I wish I'd made tacos tonight. I didn't. This photo of tacos and fried (actually microwaved) rice is months old. They sure look good. 

Tacos, tacos
I wish I'd cooked you
I wish I'd assembled you
I wish I'd garnished you
I wish I were eating you
Right about now

 

So Say Me Earl: Some Thoughts on Caprica

The 2003 reboot of Battlestar Galactica  was a dynamite show, chock full of intense action sequences and hard-hitting drama--a story not just about the survival of humanity, but about whether or not our species even deserves to survive. 

So I was initially excited to watch Caprica, the 2010 prequel series set several decades before the events of its parent show. And yet, I didn't watch the series until a couple of years after its original broadcast, and even then I watched only the first 10 (of 19) episodes. My interest waned, though, and I gave up on the show. 

But over the last couple of weekends, I re-watched those first 10 episodes and the nine I'd never seen before. I think the world has changed sufficiently to somehow make Caprica a better show than it might have been; its themes of religious fanaticism and the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence seem much more timely now. 

The Plan

Caprica is the story of two families: the Graystones, native to the planet Caprica--the dominant culture of the Twelve Colonies that make up the human family--and the Adamas, Tauron immigrants to Caprica. The Graystones are filthy rich, and their patriarch, Daniel Graystone (Eric Stolz) is a roboticist and pioneer of incredibly immersive virtual reality technology. The Adama family is more middle class; Joseph Adama (Esai Morales) is a lawyer with Tauron mob ties. 

Trouble unfolds early in the show's pilot; Zoe, the Graystone's only child, has gotten mixed up with religious fanatics who believe in a pseudo-Abrahamic god, whereas the vast majority of Colonial citizens are pantheists. Zoe and her boyfriend get on a monorail; what Zoe doesn't know is that her boyfriend is wearing a bomb. It explodes, killing dozens, including Zoe, but also Joseph Adama's wife and daughter. The Graystones are left childless, and Joseph is left alone with his young son--though he is supported by his brother and mother-in-law. 

Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama strike up an uneasy friendship when they connect at a briefing for families of the victims. But that friendship breaks down when Caprican police suspect, correctly, that Zoe was involved with the train bombing. 

How does all this lead to apocalypse to befall the Twelve Colonies some 58 years after the events of this show? Well, it turns out that Zoe is perhaps even smarter than her father; she created a virtual version of herself before her death, and that version of Zoe lives on in the virtual space created by her father. Daniel Graystone discovers this, initially writes her off as just a really good software simulation of his daughter (and he may be right); Joseph Adama finds out, and, moreover, convinces Graystone to create a similar avatar of his dead daughter, Tamara. 

Over the course of the show's run, the Graystones and Adamas pursue their own goals--mainly to bring their daughters into the real world by placing their avatars into robots, allowing them to live in the real world rather than a virtual reality. (Or at least that was the original plan--Tamara's story is explored only in fits and starts and is left unresolved by the end of the series.)

Meanwhile, the Caprican police are trying to track down the monotheistic terrorists as Joseph Adama gets pulled deeper and deeper into the underworld he's tried to avoid and the Graystones struggle to hold on to their business in the wake of the scandal created by Zoe. Complicating manners, the monotheists learn of the avatar technology and see it as a means to create a guaranteed afterlife for members of the faith. And they're planning their biggest attack yet--to blow up a sports stadium and kill thousands in the name of their one true god, punishing the pantheists for their blasphemy. 

The Graystones manage to thwart the plot by taking control of a bunch of several "Cybernetic Life-Form Nodes," AKA Cylons--the robots Daniel Graystone has been building for the Caprican government. The Cylons save the day, Zoe Graystone turns the monotheists' virtual heaven into a virtual hell, and the people of the Twelve Colonies embrace the Cylons as their new robot servants take over all the menial tasks that no one on the Twelve Worlds wants. Zoe gets reborn into an advanced robot body, one that appears fully human, reuniting the Graystones in the real world. 

But the cult of monotheists hasn't given up. As the series closes, they have a new congregation--one made up of not only humans, but Cylons. And thus the stage is set for the Cylon uprising that nearly exterminates the human species during the events of Battlestar Galactica. 

The Outcome
I enjoyed Caprica. It's not trying to be a clone of its parent show, and while the plot may meander and lose its way more than once over the course of its 19 episodes, the story raises important questions about faith, being, and the ethical lines we cross in the pursuit of our dreams. Moreover, despite being cancelled, the show ends on a reasonably satisfying note rather than a frustrating cliffhanger. The creators had more stories to tell had they gotten more seasons, but the ending they wound up with dovetails nicely into the Galactica reboot. 

So Say Me Earl. 

Where I've Lived, and When: Part One

In 2014, we went back to Flin Flon and shot a photo of our old house. 

A few years ago, not long after Dad died, I asked Mom if she remembered when we moved from Flin Flon, to Thompson, to Leaf Rapids, and finally to Edmonton. Yesterday, I found the post-it note upon which I jotted down the dates she gave me, allowing me to determine where I've lived, and when: 

Flin Flon, Manitoba: February 1969 to July 1971
Thompson, Manitoba: July 1971 to September 1973
Leaf Rapids, Manitoba: September 1973 to March 10, 1979
Edmonton, Alberta (Millwoods): March 1979 to June 1979
Leduc, Alberta: July 1979 to September 1987
Edmonton, Alberta (Lister Hall, University of Alberta): September 1987 to April 1991

When the Monsters Came to Edmonton

Sylvia and I went for a slow, cautious, leisurely drive around west Edmonton last night to see some Halloween decorations. Here are some of our favourites: 

I didn't get a photo, but I think our best creepy moment of the night was passing by some maniac who dressed up as Michael Meyers (from John Carpenter's 1980 slasher, Halloween). Whoever created the costume and played the role did a masterful job of looking really threatening without really doing anything other than standing still and staring out from blank, featureless eyes. Yikes! 

Have a Boo-tiful Halloween

False Paladin Maximus

 

Bad Dog, No Biscuit

Here's the Fallout: Wasteland Warfare version of Dogmeat inspired by the one we see on the recent television adaptation. Here we see him feasting on a human hand and wrist. You eat what you can get in the wasteland. 
 

Gatorclaw

Here's something I painted a while ago but never shared: a fearsome gatorclaw for Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. 

Someone didn't read the sign. 

Boucher Birthday 2025

Sylvia celebrates another birthday today! To celebrate, here's one of the very first photos of us together, before we even started dating. It all began with Scrabble . . . 

This Year's Halloween Decorations

BOO! 
 

Skull Cave

Jeff printed this creepy cavern entrance for me, and I painted it. Dare you enter the maw of Skullos the Dreaded to explore the horrors within his labyrinth? 

Sinister Cyborg Superman

 

Dada Comics #18

 

Dada Comics #17

 

Bridge Over Table Canyon

 

Nova Scotia Mermaid

I met a lass in Lunenburg
Fair of skin with wooden curves
I posed with her upon the docks
Admiring her painted locks
A being sculpted by the shore
Gazing south forevermore
Enduring the selfies selflessly
Always ready for one more
 

An Island of Flowers on Cape Breton Island

 

Wakes

Atlantic Sunrise

It was only six years ago, but because of the pandemic 2019 feels a century away. I shot this photo of the run rising over the Atlantic Ocean on August 6 of that year, but it feels more like a sunset to me now--the fading glow of better days, the inflection point when hope vanished over a lost horizon. Doesn't the sun, in this image, look something like a death's head? 

 

Farewell to Pencil Kong

Alas poor Pencil Kong, truly you were the king of sharpeners. You served me well, but your eyes have ceased to glow, your lips no longer palpitate, and your throat no longer sharpens. Safe journey down the River Pencil Styx, old friend. 

Mom and Me at the Etsell Farm

Here's another new-to-me image from Aunt Jean and Uncle John's collection. I'm back at the Etsell farm with Mom and Smokey the "don't pull his tail, he'll put your eye out" cat. This image brings me peace. 
 

Earl in the Hay

Aunt Jean and Uncle John recently took a large collection of their old slides to get scanned, and there are some beautiful shots in there--some that I honestly think could have been used in Life or National Geographic. 

I wouldn't consider the (cropped) photo above one of those truly outstanding shots, but it has a young me in it--one I'd never seen until my aunt and uncle gave me access to their new digital collection. I believe this was shot on the Gray farm, near the Etsell farm in southern Manitoba, sometime in the early 1970s. I'm terrible at guessing ages; do I look, say, two here? If so, this would have been summer of 1971. 

 

Generative AI Fail for Chekov's Gun

Back when I wrote "Chekov's Gun," I tried to get Bing to generate some images of Spock, Chekov, and an alien to accompany the story. Despite many attempts, there's no sign of Chekov nor the alien I described...just the Alien alien. Human artists remain superior. 
 

Aggravating Whoopsie

Be careful not to set your refrigerator's temperature too low. Your root beer may freeze, expand, and explode its container, creating a mess and safety hazard in one loud pop. Pun not intended. 
 

Crimson Raider

I wound up with a second Star Schlock Star Raider model, so for the sake of telling the two miniatures apart, I gave this one hues of crimson.