Sunday, January 22, 2017

A long way down in a galaxy far, far away.


 

 

As I've mentioned before, I'm involved in training for longshore workers at British Columbia's cargo terminals. Obviously safety is a large part of that training, and after almost seven years of working on content dealing with hazard recognition and management, I've been left with a heightened awareness of workplace safety.

This awareness sometimes pops up at unexpected moments.  After seeing Rogue One, I was talking with Glen, our Safety Systems Manager, and I asked if he'd seen the movie yet.  He said that he and his wife had seen it the previous week.

"Tell me something, Glen - did it bother you that it was so easy to fall off of things?"

"YES!!!  I told Tina that!  Why are there no railings or safety cages??"







It's an odd thing, but every Star Wars movie offers its characters an opportunity to easily fall a long, long way. It happens twice in A New Hope, once in The Empire Strikes Back, once in The Return of the Jedi, once in The Phantom Menace, I think once or twice in Attack of the Clones, at least twice in Revenge of the Sith, once or twice in The Force Awakens (depending on your standards) - and, of course, three times in Rogue One. How is it that there are no occupational health and safety people demanding proper safety standards in the Star Wars universe?

Forget lack of faith, Vader - personally, I find your lack of guard rails disturbing.

- Sid

P.S.  There are much, much better examples from Rogue One than the shots I started with, but until it hits Blu-ray and iTunes I'm stuck with the trailer and whatever I can find online.



Friday, January 20, 2017

And a very young Yvette Mimieux.

You Know You're a Geek When, Part 5.

To be fair, I assume hard core sports fans get the same sort of questions about legendary forwards or whatever.


- Sid

"Looks like Bo and Abdul have gotten themselves into a mess of trouble with ol' Boss Hogg!"


Pointing to a chair, table, and pile of books, the old man now left the room; and when I sat down to read I saw that the books were hoary and mouldy, and that they included old Morryster’s wild Marvells of Science, the terrible Saducismus Triumphatus of Joseph Glanvill, published in 1681, the shocking Daemonolatreia of Remigius, printed in 1595 at Lyons, and worst of all, the unmentionable Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, in Olaus Wormius’ forbidden Latin translation; a book which I had never seen, but of which I had heard monstrous things whispered.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Festival
Trust me, this is a funny album title if you're an H.P. Lovecraft fan.

- Sid

P.S. Thanks to TIR music correspondent Christi for the update regarding the new album from The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, hopefully the only H.P. Lovecraft tribute band in captivity.