Category: Uncategorized

This was one of three submissions to ConnectiCon XVIII (2021) and one of two submissions to Anime Boston 2020, both in the action category. Sadly neither submission made it to the finals. You can watch it here.

You can thank the podcasters on Blank Check who, during their discussion of this film, speculated on how cool it would be to set this film to Toxic by Britney Spears. I agreed and thus you have the AMV you see before you.

I really like how this AMV came out, but it did underperform in the sense that it never became a finalist. Still I love the combination of the two and I had a great deal of fun making it.

Director’s Commentary:

0:14-0:16: I love the cut during the high note to show just how big this Ohmu is. I hope to use that trick more going forward.

1:25 – 1:37: I never really knew what to put here, so I went with the flashbacks from the movie.

1:37 – 1:50: I never really liked this part underneath the forest. It seems long and not a lot happens. The strongest parts of the AMV come after this section.

2:53: I love the tank firing lining up with the music.

3:11-3:12: I needed an extra beep of the Ohmu feet advancing so I had to loop this clip which you can notice if you are paying a lot of attention.

This was one of three submissions to ConnectiCon XVIII (2021) and was a finalist in the FMV contest in the comedy category. You can watch it here.

Originally I wanted to take the comedy song “Wassup Holmes” and set it to Sherlock Hound, but after watching the anime I figured it was not going to work. I love the song, but I just could not find the clips in the anime to make it work. I therefore started to look for funny songs about detectives as I still wanted to make something. Luckily I found the Sherlock Holmes musical which fits nicely into the anime in an ironic fashion.

Overall, I am happy with how it turned out. It is not my favorite AMV, but it is humorous in parts and it was fun to make.

Director’s Commentary:

00:00 – 00:06: I like this intro, it helps set the stage for the tone of the whole AMV. I recall struggling a while to find what would work here.

00:25: I love the exploding flask scene. Just one of many with a great reaction from Watson.

00:42: I froze the face on this attacking guy because the lips flaps are distracting. It is noticeable if you look closely. I still think it was worth doing.

1:17 – 1:20: I never could get the timing on this right. You want Sherlock to hit the ground on the final beat, which I do achieve, but the preceding bumps our out of sync with the beat so it is a bit disjointed.

1:39: I love the cut to this person’s concerned face, but this clip could use a little more motion. Now a days I would add a subtle zoom in on the face.

2:06: The high note here timing up with the last of the trap spikes is probably the best section in this AMV.

Introduction

As a continuation of my series on reloading archaic cartridges I am going to discuss loading 11mm Chassepot ammo today. The Chassepot is a French breech-loading needle fire bolt action rifle from the 1860s. Although not as much of a revolution as the earlier Dreyse rifle it evolved from, it still represents an interesting bridge between muzzeloading rifles and bolt actions. It loads via the breech and fires a unique paper cartridge using a long thin “needle” to pierce the paper and hit a percussion cap igniting the main power charge. it fires a rather typical for the time 11mm bullet.

Obviously, given the age of this rifle and the unique ammo it uses, no commercial loadings are available. We must (literally) roll our own. As always you do this at your own risk. I am not an expert.

What You Need

1. A bullet mold. I went with Accurate 46-365C, which is a reproduction of the original bullet.
2. Black Powder FFg
3. A 7/16 inch diameter dowel
4. A 1/4 inch diameter dowel
5. Basic white glue
6. Cardboard (about 1/4 inch thick)
7. CCI Four-Wing Musket Caps, although I suspect any caps will do.
8. Some thick packing paper, like this.
9. Basic white printer paper (optional based on how you want to load)
10. Toothpicks for spreading glue

Pre-Loading Steps

1. Get your bullets either by buying a similar bullet or casting your own. Wikipedia says the original loading used a 386 grain bullet with an 11mm diameter.
   1. I used Lee Alox Bullet Lube to lube these as there is no lube groove.
2. Measure the length of your Chassepot chamber using the 1/4inch dowel.
   1. Close the bolt and put the dowel in until you feel it touching the exit point of the needle on the bolt. Mark the dowel at the muzzle end
   2. Open the bolt, put in the bullet you are using as far as it will go (you may need to use the dowel to push it in deep).
   3. Put your dowel back in and mark where it stops.
   4. You should now have two marks on your dowel that represent the overall length of the cartridge you are trying to make. Using the accurate bullet I got an overall length of 3.094 inches.
   5. Using a bullet you will be loading with mark on the dowel the maximum length of the cartridge, minus the length of your bullet (my bullet measured at almost exactly 1″). This represents the length of the powder charge. I got 2.059 inches.

The Loading Process

The loading process will take some time and it does require a bit of finesse. I based my process on these two posts and this video.

1. Make a powder tube
   1. Measure and cut out a 48mm by 80mm rectangle on your packing paper. This is based on the original cartridge diagram here.
   2. Use your 7/16 inch dowel to roll the paper into a tube. You want the tube to be 80mm tall. Ultimately we want a 12mm diameter tube. The 7/16 inch dowel + the width of my paper got me 12mm, but you may have to add duct tape to your dowel to increase the diameter of the resulting tube.
   3. Right before the two sides of the paper touch, glue the inner edge and complete the roll.
2. Create an end cap for the tube. The original design uses a paper star, but I deviated here as its very had to get the star in place correctly.
   1. Punch out some cardboard discs for the end cap. Ideally this will match the diameter of the tube (12mm), but I only had a 7/16 punch so I used that.
   2. Apply glue to the the wings of the percussion cap. You can either gently dip the cap into your glue or use a toothpick
   3. Glue the cap, wings down, onto the cardboard.
3. Apply a thin layer of glue to the inner bottom of the powder tube.
4. Put the tube over the end cap, gluing the end cap (with its percussion cap) to the bottom of the tube.
5. Using your measuring dowel, mark on the tube the maximum length it can be. This will be the total overall cartridge length minus the length of the bullet you are using.
6. Fill the tube with black powder up to your mark.
   1. The original loading was 86.4 grains. I have seen as low as 66 grains. I ended up with 75 grains FFg.
   2. Compact the powder as best you can. If you have a drop tube you can use that. I crushed the powder with a dowel. You may wish to drill a 1/2 inch diameter hole in a block of wood to hold your tube straight while you crush the powder. You do not want the tube to break.
   3. If you powder is compact, but you still have space remaining add a filler like cream of wheat or poly fill to take up the extra space.
7. Add another cardboard disc to top off the powder tube.
8. The original design calls for the remaining powder tube to be twisted close and the excess trimmed. I had difficulty twisting the paper I used so I cut most of the remainder off leaving just enough to glue closed the top.
9. Cut out a bullet wrap using the plain printer paper.
   1. I took the measurements from the original diagram
10. Put the bullet at one end up wrap (the shorter side facing up) and wrap the bullet in paper. You should get a cone of sorts. Glue the ends together
11. Combine the bullet with paper cone and the powder tube.
    1. The original diagram has these two parts tied together with the tie happening just under the cardboard disc you topped the tube off with. I had difficulty with this part as my string was either too big or too weak. I continue to investigate other options, but for now I just glued the edges of the cone to the tube

Alternatively, you can skip steps 8 through 11 and just cram a bullet in on top, folding the the top of the tube down to hold the bullet in place. This is the most expedient method, but you must be sure the bullet does not separate from the powder charge. Space between black powder and the bullet can be dangerous.

You now should have a cartridge that is the exact overall size you measured on your dowel. I recommend building a couple test cartridges without black powder (I used corn grits instead). If you get the length wrong the needle will not hit the cap. If you get the tube size wrong then the cartridge will not insert all the way.

Final Product

If you attempt to match the original design with the paper cone (steps 8-11) you should get something like this:

If you go with the expedient solution, you get something like this:

Shooting Results

I had mixed results. If I could get the round inserted and the bolt closed I got 100% ignition. Accuracy seems fair for a 150 year old rifle with a group of several inches at 50 yards. Occasionally not all the paper would clear the chamber and I would be left with some burnt crumbs, but usually nothing major.

That said, about 50% of my rounds fail to chamber. I usually end up with the bolt stuck with about a quarter of an inch to go. I suspect my cartridges are right on the edge of the correct size and as the chamber fouls I run out of space.

As a final note, if you are going to shoot your Chassepot I recommend replacing the bolt’s obturator and needle. If your rifle still has its obturator it has most likely hardened over the years and will be ineffective. Your needle may still work, but I would not risk having it break as I have heard they are prone to do. You can find replacement obturators and needles via Naah Tool Works.

Next Steps

I need to figure out why so many of my cartridges end up just a bit too long or too wide. To that end I need to figure out how to get more consistent paper tubes. I also want to experiment with some slightly smaller dowels and thinner paper to see if that helps.

You can follow the discussion at NorthEastShooters.

As tradition dictates, as a year passes I must reflect.

What Did I Learn This Year?

1. Reloading archaic cartridges. In the previous year I had reloaded some fairly modern cartridge to prove out the process (30-40 Krag, 45-70 Government, 7.35 Carcano). This year I loaded .577/450 Martini–Henry and 7.5mm 1882 Ordnance. The 7.5 is pretty straightforward, but the Martini-Henry was a step above that and I am very happy I was able to make a number of rounds that worked flawlessly.
2. WordPress. I am happy to move on from the old “GhandiBlog” to the sleek and modern wordpress platform. It is a little more pricey, but I have so much more control and way better tools.

What Am I Looking To Explore This Year?

1. I am looking to continue to grow my panel catalog. For the last two years I have run a panel at ConnectiCon (and this year for the first time at Arisia) on firearm history and federal law. I am looking to create and run more panels this year. Although, given the lack of conventions this year, that may prove to be difficult.
2. A new computer/VR. My old rig has been limping along for a few years now and I think it is time to take the plunge and upgrade it. I also would like to take the opportunity to get into VR, if only to play Half Life: Alyx.
3. Books. I have a healthy audiobook/podcast habit, but I am looking to start working down some of the physical books collecting dust on my bookshelves.
4. Oddball AMV ideas. I certainly cannot win any awards doing something conventional so I have to go for the weird angle.

What did I Fail at This Year?

1. The downstairs bathroom is still unfinished. I did tear out the carpet though.

Conclusion

Not a whole late has changed from last year. I am not sure if that is concerning or not. Part of me thinks that is fine as I am certainly enjoying the day to day, but the other part of me thinks that is concerning as I should be trying new things.

It has been one year of full employment at NetNumber, which means the
revival of the year
retrospectives!

What Did I Learn This Year?

1. Being more efficient programming in Java. Now that my job requires me to
care more about efficiency in the Java language I have picked up a couple new
tricks in this area. Chief amongst them is thread
locals which are a bit verbose to use, but helpful. I also am getting
better at working with threads which still bend my mind on occasion.

2. I have an expensive gun fetish. It seems I realized this year I I could
buy guns and just like that I went on a bit of a buying spree with an eye
towards many more acquisitions. I think this newfound love is driven by two
factors. One, I have a thing for old rifles which (since they are not making
them anymore) means the stock is always being reduced and the price always
going up. Better to get them now before they get more expensive. Two, the legal
situation may make it so some pieces may be harder to find (e.g. AR-15s) which
again means I should get them while I have a chance. And of course with all
these nice pieces I need a place to use them which lead to me joining a local
shooting club. It is nice, but I wish the range went out farther than ~100
yards. I would like to try some long range shooting at some point. Furthermore,
it would be a shame to have my rights further restricted, so I have joined all
manner of gun advocacy groups (GOA, NRA, GOAL) to protect what I have now. It
remains to be seen how long this expensive affair will go on, but I am enjoying
it so far.

3. I can win AMV awards! This was a
pleasant surprise, especially for such a high profile convention, but I am a
bit baffled about the disconnect between the AMVs I like and the ones that
actually win awards. My tastes may be too eclectic for mainstream appeal. I am
not sure if AMV hipsters exist, but I am happy to pioneer a new subculture.
That said, I plan to keep experimenting and hopefully find a happy medium.
Expect more progress in this area this year.

4. I can work on cars. I have joined a Lemon’s team and we have been working
feverishly for almost a year to get our car ready to race. We should be ready
for our first race in August, but I will not feel comfortable about it until
our car is actually running. That said, I have learned quite a bit about cars
and with that knowledge I feel a lot more confident about conducting repairs.
Luckily for me aside from needing some maintenance and basic repairs my daily
drivers keeps on trucking. I do hate how dirty cars become though. I go through
a lot of gloves when I work.

What Am I Looking To Explore This Year?

1. Ammo reloading. This is mostly as a way to save money as some of the
pieces I shoot can be pretty expensive ($1.70 a round for 30-40 Krag for
example), but I also like the idea of being able to reload what I shoot from a
self sufficiency perspective. This also has some interesting offshoots like
forming your own bullets or brass. For now I have acquired a book and I will be
looking for some local classes so I have a good sense of what I am doing before
investing in some equipment.

2. Some oddball AMV ideas. I have some ideas which are a bit out there as
far as my next AMVs go. I am not sure how that will help me win any more
awards, but they should be different from the usual fare if nothing else.

3. Home improvements. I am looking to tear the carpet up from my lower floor
bathroom in order to make it a little less awful. I also need to do some work
on the shower in there too as the lining is cracked and peeling. The yard also
reminds a bit of a sore spot. I half want to make it very nice and half do not
care. We shall see how it goes this year.

4. Cooking. I have grown a bit tired of my usual recipes. I need to branch
out and find some new flavors. I hoping to solicit some simple recipes from
people I know.

5. Video game development. I keep thinking about video games I would like to
make myself, but I keep not doing anything about it. I hope this is the year I
carve out some time to do some experimenting. I am thinking using unity would
be a good start as it seems pretty feature rich and free.

What did I Fail at This Year?

1. Saving money. Despite my grand plans I am not saving as
much money as I thought. Between unexpected house costs, my gun hobby, and our
race car my savings rate has slowed. This is kind of concerning because I do
want to retire by 40 still, but I also want to invest in my hobbies. It seems
that the hobbies are winning for now, but I am disappointing a bit by my lack
of will to save. I shall think on this.

2. Civil War Reenacting. I keep wanting to do this, but I keep delaying
looking into it. I think this might be the year since it pairs nicely with my
gun habit and new found willingness to spend money on my hobbies.

3. Blog writing. Nuff said.

In summary, I had a really good year. I will work to make this year even
better.

Today is the third year of my full time employment by Oracle. And with that
I say hello to Oracle’s one and only longevity perk: five more days of paid
time off a year. Jokes on them though because I rarely take it. Long time
readers of the blog will remember last year’s post on the subject and even longer
readers will remember my first
post about this

Let us review the year.

What Did I Learn This Year?

1. I am addicted to process. I hope to write more about this, but the short
of it is I find myself getting mired in why something happened and how we can
prevent it. Which is helpful in a small way, but in conflict with the guiding
principle of all workers: getting things done.

2. My patience is growing shorter along with my temper. It may just be a
function of the quantity of work we have left on the project I contribute to,
but I find myself with a shorter and shorter amount of patience each day. The
end result is terser conversations, less guiding hands, and more links to the
development guide.

3. I have a better, if still incomplete, sense of how large scale
applications are built. Before I understood only pieces of the whole. Now, with
another year of experience, I have a much broader and holistic view of the app.
The benefit here is knowing where to put code, not just what to put.

4. The money is in management, but the passion is in engineering. This is
the second year I have split my engineering time with management time.
Management is a lot harder. In some ways, this is frustrating as I much prefer
to be programming compared to making slide decks or charts. On the other hand,
helping keep three sites supplied with relevant work and pushing a project
forward is an interesting challenge. I am not ready to hang up my still shiny
programming spurs just yet, but I understand now why managers make more money
than the people they manage.

What Am I Looking To Explore This Year?

1. Different conventions. Last year we went to DragonCon for this first time
and it was awesome. I want to broaden our horizons and check out some other,
perhaps further away conventions.

2. My investments. I made steady progress this year increasing my
investments. I continue to work with Betterment and I have happily broken the five
figure mark. It is that sixth figure that will be my next challenge. It is hard
to say how much this is helping my ultimate plan, but it certainly
is the right path.

3. Small film projects. Last year I
made my first AMV which was quite fun, but simplistic. I want to try and
make a few more things this year, AMV or otherwise.

4. Improve my technical skills. Like every year, and like every programmer,
I must continue to improve my technical skills. This year, I am less interested
in the technology and more interested in the design or architecture. To be
sure, I must continue to learn the tools I have at my disposal, but using tools
without purpose is inefficient. I must concentrate on learning how to build
large scale apps so that I can be judicious about the code I write (or need to
write at this point).

Things I Failed at This Year

1. Buying a house. For a second year I remain houseless. This is causing me
increasing consternation, but I remain committed to this campaign. It just may
be I will not find the house that meets my exacting specifications so I must
learn to compromise on some parts or be without home for a very long time.

2. Car maintenance. My car runs fine, and I do change the oil when I should,
but I cannot dodge the feeling that I should be doing more. Everything is still
working, but I feel like I am missing something and it will all fall apart on
me. For sure, the brakes will need to be replaced soon, but how soon is the
part that is vexing me.

3. Writing more for the blog. There are a number of topics I want to
pontificate on, I just need to settle down and get writing.

I have been growing the neck beard out lately, much to the chagrin of people
who know me. I must confess it does look awful, all scraggly and unkempt. Some
people grow nice full beards, but all mine ever seems to do is grow down, not
out. Still, I have got to make out for my losses up top somehow. I do this
about once a year, partly to see if it looks better (it never does), but mostly
just to prove a point to myself: that I still am myself and not what others
want me to be.

To be a part of a society is to conform to that society. To uphold a common
set of rules and standards. In many ways this is a good thing, you probably
would not like to live next to someone who thought arson was ok. This gives
rise to the good side of society: our laws. There is an inverse side though, an
insidious side: the drive to create automata. Automata (singular automaton), as
Wikipedia defines, is “a
self-operating machine, or a machine or control mechanism designed to follow
automatically a predetermined sequence of operations, or respond to
predetermined instructions”. What is an automaton as it relates to a person
though? It is a person who has lost their identity, who has become what society
expects of them. It is a person who gets married, has 2.5 kids while working 60
hours a week. It is a person who works 40 years and retires at 67, who owns a
house, likes football, and vacations once a year. Yet, despite how negative I
have made this all sound, there is nothing wrong with this if that is what you
want. Not surprisingly, If you were to look at the things I like (football),
and the the things I want (a house), you would see the automaton reflected in
me. Is that what I want or am I just playing along because that is what
everyone wants for me?

This is the the little death. It is the slow subjugation of yourself as you
integrate into a society. Each time you think to yourself, “Well, it is just
what people do.” or “That is what everyone else is doing.” a little part of
yourself dies. A unique piece of the multifaceted color of you goes gray. Make
no mistake, this is what some people who know you want. They want you to be
like them, they want you to like the things they like, to have the same goals,
the same aspirations. They are not evil for trying to do this, it is just their
nature. If that is what you to want, great, but if not, do not suffer that
little death.

So too do I often wonder if the things I like and want our my own wishes or
simply my desire to be part of society. How can I prove otherwise? How can I
prove I am my own man. Simple, do the things society shuns, do those things
that are frowned upon, relish the embarrassed laugh you get when you surprise a
person. Cherish that look of disgust and disappointment. This is not an excuse
to be a bad person, but an excuse to be you. So yes, my neck beard is awful,
but it proves I am me.

Star Trek has never had the video game pedigree other Sci-Fi properties,
like Star Wars or Warhammer 40k, have enjoyed. For every well received Elite
Force or Bridge
Commander there are a dozen more Away Team and Borg waiting in the Briar
Patch. Sadly, Hidden Evil, a 1999
Presto Studios game, joins this unremarkable bunch. It is short, difficult to
control, and forgettable.

Story

You may be forgiven for forgetting the great contribution Insurrection made
to the Star Trek canon. A film in which the best scene involves Data acting like a life preserver. To
be fair there is probably a decent
episode’s worth of material in the film, maybe a two-parter. Yet it loses
its way somewhere between Picard and crew becoming leather clad action heroes
and the enterprise being maneuvered by a joystick. Thus, it may surprise you to
realize this game is a sequel to that masterpiece. Our main character is Ensign
Sovok, a human raised by Vulcans. He joins Picard and Data on the planet of the
film to investigate a hitherto undiscovered alien artifact the Son’a and Ba’ku
found while constructing a colony. There is not much story to ruin as the game
is quite short, but suffice to say the Son’a still do not like the peace loving
Ba’ku, Romulans are evil, and the alien artifact is actually really dangerous.
It ends up being pretty well traveled territory, both by Star Trek’s and other
show’s standards. It is enough to move the plot along, but it will never
surprise you.

Gameplay

This is not an action game, despite what the publisher’s screenshots may
tell you. This is an adventure game in the same vein as Grim Fandango. Walk
around, collect items, solve some light puzzles, move the story forward, etc.
Fans of Fandango will find a similar awkward control scheme at work here. Sovok
controls much like that of a high schooler’s car: poor maneuverability, slow
acceleration, and no speed. This is a troubling foundation on which to base a
game that requires a fair amount of phaser shooting. There is some light
auto-aiming going on, but you still have to slowly rotate to face enemies. Your
best tactic is running in circles until they miss then trying to get a quick
shot off. This is if you can remember the key to select your phaser. All your
equipment (tricorder, communications badge, phaser, nerve pinch!) is accessed
via the number keys. This is functional, but every time I wanted to get at an
item I hit the wrong button. Most of these items end up being useless anyways,
occasionally you have to scan the environment, but it rarely tells you anything
interesting. Nerve pinch sounds cool, but it is ridiculously hard to get in the
right position to use it, and the enemy has to be unaware for it to work. Most
of the time you will be blasting away with your phaser. Occasionally you can
pick up a hypospray for healing or another equally powerful weapon, but for
most of the game what you start with is what you got.

Lengthwise You are looking at 9 missions, for about 5 hours of ok to
frustrating gameplay. Everything is pretty easy, except for the last two
missions which have you navigating corridors that look very similar. With no
minimap except for the weak imposter they use with the tricorder in the last
mission. Most of your time in these last two missions will be spent trying to
remember what is where.

Graphics

An unexpected high point. Despite being released in 1999, the game looks
pretty decent. Backgrounds are static in the style of Myst and are suitably
detailed. Actual characters and objects are 3d models which, though rough, are
pretty good for the time in terms of detail and animation. It is a bit of
mishmash putting 3d characters in 2d paintings, but it works.

Music, Sound Effects, and Voice Work

Nothing egregious here, Christopher Gorham, voice actor for Sovok gives an
unremarkable performance, backed up Patrick Stewart (Picard) and Brent Spiner
(Data). The actual plot does not give them much to work with, but you will not
be clawing your ears out either. The music is forgettable, but all the sound
effects from TNG are faithfully replicated. Phasers and transporters sound like
you would expect.

Summary

Overall, its a short game that is occasionally frustrating, but has a
decently moving story and some of your favorite TNG characters. I give it 5 Lt.
Cmdr. Datas out of 3 Stargazers.

Notes

1. If you are going to play this, I recommend this walkthrough. 2. This game
does run on Windows 7, but you must install the packaged version of Quicktime
player and install a NoCd crack. It also helps to run it in Windows 95
compatibility mode. 3. There is no quicksave, it was a 90s thing.