Category Archives: Cool

My admission to the Rocket Poppeteers Astronaut Program

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This is an update to a post I originally wrote about a little tidbit I discovered through /film back in May. It’s a pretty cool “viral marketing” campaign for an upcoming movie. This one just happens to feature North Dakota. It all started with this movie teaser trailer:

At the end of the trailer there’s a flicker of film leader that someone took still images of to get the words “SCARIEST THING I EVER SAW.” From there they decided to visit the website “scariestthingieversaw.com.” On that website was a simulator for a PDP-11, an old mainframe computer like the ones I used to get in trouble on in the 80s. It displayed a timer, and once the timer counted down certain features were enabled. One of those was to print these two images:

Click to view/download: Image 1 – Image 2

When you print them out, they appear to be newspaper pages from the 1940s that have some hidden features. One of the not-so-hidden features is an ad for Rocket Poppeteers, a popsicle-like treat. JJ Abrams is known to put fictitious foods in his movies and mention them by name, but this one’s getting some prominent treatment. (Yes, there’s a rocketpoppeteers.com website, but it doesn’t do anything…yet.) The ad contains a form to mail in to “Become a Rocket Poppeteer and Join the Race to Outer Space!” Where do you send it? Minot, North Dakota.

Naturally, being the curious sort, I filled out one of these forms to see what might happen. So far, nothing has been mailed back to me. No MIBs have showed up at my house, even ones posing as census workers. If that changes, I’ll let you know.

Why does Minot tie into this? Well, the teaser trailer seems to center around Area 51 and UFOs & aliens. UFO believers have reports of UFO activity around United States nuclear weapons facilities going back for decades, so it makes sense that the movie would include a reference to North Dakota…a somewhat remote, maybe even mysterious to some, place with lots of nukes. The X-Files featured an episode where a UFO was hidden in a hollowed-out nuclear missile silo in North Dakota, so why not take the idea to feature film?

Being familiar with central North Dakota, the presence of Air Force bases and nuclear weapons in our great state, and the whole UFO conspiracy theory subculture to a degree, I got a kick out of this viral campaign. While I’m not one of the UFO conspiracy theorists, I find them entertaining to watch. It’ll be interesting to see where and how far this movie takes this campaign and how heavily it features our great state.

—————————— UPDATE ———————————-
 

Here’s where the new stuff starts: I got a letter in the mail from Rocket Poppeteers yesterday. Enclosed is a congratulatory letter, in 1940s-era typewriter font, with my name handwritten in a blank salutation.

As you can see, the letter has the Minot PO Box return address and a legitimate Minot, ND postmark. Whoever is checking the post office box, filling out the letters, and mailing them out is presumably from the Minot area.

This is the text of the letter, although there’s more on the page. The letter mentions a ‘Captain “Coop” Cooper’ a couple of times, so I suppose he’ll be featured in the movie. There’s no official information available at this time, at least none that I found.

Since the letter asks, “Are you ready to begin?” I can only hope that this is the start of a continued Rocket Poppeteers adventure – and that North Dakota may feature heavily in the upcoming Super8 movie. If I receive any additional mail or details, I’ll post it here!

There are 10 kinds of people…those who can read binary and those who can’t

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I spotted this “leetmobile” in a parking lot a while back and had to nab a quick cell phone shot of it. I couldn’t actually tell you if the binary code thereon means anything, since I haven’t remembered how to read binary code since the 1980s. While I’ve blurred out the license plate, I can tell you that it’s a ham radio operator plate. That means the owner of this car is likely quite tech-savvy, even beyond spraying ones and zeros across the hood of his little Ford.

Here’s a little more information about binary code. It’s basically a way of breaking down letters and numbers to the simplest form, combinations of ones and zeros. “10” means 2, which is why I made the joke in the title.

I actually spent way more of my time as an old Apple II geek using hexadecimal numbers and can still convert it to regular numbers in my head (although not quite as quickly as I could back during the Reagan era). It’s commonly used to program website colors, which is why I like the joke “Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base, are belong to you.” That’s also only funny if you get the corny 80s video game reference.

Okay, now I’ve illustrated my geekdom. No, it’s not my car. 🙂

So how do those letters and numbers appear in the capitol windows every July 4th, Christmas, and New Year’s Day?

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Sunday night some of these windows will be lit up with “4TH” as part of the Independence Day celebration on the front steps of the capitol. Every year the celebration features the music of the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestra and finishes with a dramatic fireworks finale. Have you ever found yourself wondering how those numbers or colored Christmas tree shapes appear in the capitol building’s windows every July and December?

That’s where Bill comes in. He works for the Facility Management Division up at the state capitol, and it’s Bill and his crew who oversee the window shade pulling (and opening) to make sure it’s done right.

While Bill can pretty much do this by habit now, he does have an interesting aid: a diagram of the capitol with the relevant squares (the ones to be lit) highlighted. Facility Management and Bill were kind enough to let me tag along for this year’s window shade operation.

Bill has his custodial crew of around thirty people close all the shades on the front of the capitol as well as the east and west sides. The idea is to have the sides completely blacked out for the celebration, with the “4TH” visible only on the front. Once the crew closed all the shades on those three sides, Bill and I roamed the necessary floors and pulled open the shades forming the text.

Some windows are in spacious offices, and some are in pretty tight spots such as narrow supply rooms. Some are in such tough spots that I got to lend my lanky arms to Bill’s aid in order to snag & pull the cord. Because of that, I can lay claim to part of the 4 and (I think) the H!

The whole process took about a half hour, and I don’t think I held up Bill at all. This was an easy one; the letters were small and compact, and only one side is lit. During Christmas there is the complication of colored shades and two sides to do. For New Year’s there are four sides of the building to do. Also, for displays that are left up for more than one night, it’s important to stay on top of things to make sure the right shades are up and down and lights left on.

‘Til the Storm Passes By

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Like the line in one of my favorite gospel hymns says, the storm in this photo has passed by. It’s about to pound Wishek, if I recall. I was so sure, having checked the radar at 4:05pm, that Bismarck was gonna get pounded. Then the storm hooked a sharp right and proceeded to miss us almost entirely! My roof and siding are happy, but all the vehicles were inside the Garage Majal.

On a 9:30 taco run I stopped to take some video and a brief time-lapse of this storm as the clouds continued to boil in the eastern sky. The light changed while I was shooting so there’s a little bit of flicker as things adjust, but that’s the nature of time-lapse I suppose. Enjoy:

Odd convergence

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I was a little bummed tonight when clouds rolled in and blocked the sunset. I had envisioned a trip north, perhaps to Double Ditch, but soon realized that such a journey would be all for naught. As I nosed the truck eastward on Highway 1804, however, I did see something worth a quick photo: these rays.

These are really bizarre when you consider that the sun was behind me. The only explanation I can come up with is that they were caused by the sun breaking through the clouds behind me, really really high, and the apparent convergence of the rays of light is only due to the distance involved. The technical term for this is “vanishing point”, the point at which parallel lines seem to converge. Any other theories, since we know there wasn’t a second massive light source over the eastern horizon?

Pretty sharp, but I bet it’s hard to pop a wheelie

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From my “There’s something you don’t see every day” department comes this photo of Dan on his late-1800s style bicycle! I spotted him while driving down River Road and knew I had to get a few shots.

Isn’t this cool? It looks just like a blast back to the late 19th century. The high center of gravity along with that really short wheelbase and large wheel probably make this an activity unsuitable for the faint of heart.

By the way, I got a TON of Buggies & Blues photos this weekend with my family. Once I’ve sorted through some of the coolest ones, they’ll appear here. Stay tuned!

Corona

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As I was chatting it up with a guardsman at the Veterans Cemetery on Monday, I looked up to see a blazing ring around the sun. I took the opportunity to get a little artsy with the new camera, and this is the result.

Once again, here’s a ROCK that’s more patriotic than Earl Pomeroy

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This enormous rock, about five feet tall and parked in a very remote location outside of Bismarck, has more patriotism than the American left. The owner of the land on which it sits, I presume, has adorned it with an American flag, the names of some North Dakota soldiers killed in the global war on terrorism, and the following quote from our President:

“We will not waver; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail.” George W Bush

 

It’s just a shame that very few people will ever see this rock; I stumbled upon it by accident while out getting the truck dirty. Can you imagine the heartfelt pride in our soldiers the artist must have felt as they painted this tribute to their sacrifice? It’s very moving and I had to tell you about it. At the bottom of this post I’ll give you directions on how to find it; it’s not that hard, really.

On the other hand, this reminded me of the cowardly Earl Pomeroy, the hapless US Representative from our fair state. While I and several hundred other motorcyclists stood guard outside the funeral of a fallen soldier, he came by to attend the funeral and offer waves and salutes. This happened less than 24 hours after he voted against House Resolution 861, titled “Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.”

This is so typical of the liberal Democrat mantra of “I support the troops, but I don’t support the mission.” Have you seen the text of the resolution that Earl voted against? If not, click the link above. But first let me point out that this resolution was a show of support: it didn’t promise funding, it didn’t have any policy riders in it, it was simply a declaration that Americans are doing a good work and that they’ll succeed. Earl disagreed.

Here’s some of the text. I left out all the “whereas” clauses because, while they’re part of the text, they are not the meat of the resolution:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

(1) honors all those Americans who have taken an active part in the Global War on Terror, whether as first responders protecting the homeland, as servicemembers overseas, as diplomats and intelligence officers, or in other roles;

(2) honors the sacrifices of the United States Armed Forces and of partners in the Coalition, and of the Iraqis and Afghans who fight alongside them, especially those who have fallen or been wounded in the struggle, and honors as well the sacrifices of their families and of others who risk their lives to help defend freedom;

(3) declares that it is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq;

(4) declares that the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq;

(5) congratulates Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and the Iraqi people on the courage they have shown by participating, in increasing millions, in the elections of 2005 and on the formation of the first government under Iraq’s new constitution;

(6) calls upon the nations of the world to promote global peace and security by standing with the United States and other Coalition partners to support the efforts of the Iraqi and Afghan people to live in freedom; and

(7) declares that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the noble struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.

What was so objectionable to cowardly Earl that he couldn’t vote YEA on this? Did he object to a “Whereas” in there somewhere? The only one that should count is this one:

Whereas the United States and Coalition servicemembers and civilians and the members of the Iraqi security forces and those assisting them who have made the ultimate sacrifice or been wounded in Iraq have done so nobly, in the cause of freedom;

That clause alone is worthy of a YEA vote. Instead, spineless Earl the Pearl voted along with such notorious wackbags as Nancy Pelosi and Charles Rangel, one of the guys who keeps saying our soldiers are too dumb or poor to choose other career options. Then he has the nerve to show up at the funeral of a fallen soldier the very next day, putting on his North Dakota face on the flight back, and presumes (correctly) that it will go largely unnoticed.


“Representatives” like Earl Pomeroy do not represent North Dakota or the majority of Americans. Some of them, like our beloved Representative, are backstabbers when it comes to our soldiers at home. They make all the right somber appearances here in North Dakota, then run back off to Washington to be who they really are. I’m glad people like the person who painted this rock are up to the task of supporting our fighting men and women worldwide. If I was a member of Travis Van Zoest’s family the day of the funeral, I’d have denied the two-faced Earl Pomeroy entry into the ceremony…at least until he explained to the hundreds of real patriots outside why he voted the way he did.

The official roll call of the vote can be found here. Pomeroy’s name, quite appropriately, appears right next to that of Nancy Pelosi.

The full text of House Resolution 861 can be found here.

I know right now the struggling Earl Pomeroy is running TV ads claiming he’s such a friend of the veterans. If that’s the case, perhaps he’d like to answer a simple question: Why couldn’t he break Democrat party ranks even ONCE and cast a symbolic vote in favor of soldiers representing North Dakota and the USA as a whole?

To visit this rock, something that might be especially appropriate this Memorial Day, simply take Expressway north from where it intersects with Century Avenue. When you reach 57th Avenue, take a right and head east. It’s at the end of the road a short while later with a little cul de sac where you can park and/or turn around. Here’s a little map I put together:


View Bismarck-Mandan Blog in a larger map
On a side note, I’m messing around a little bit with Google Maps and may post some favorite photo spots (or simply points of interest around Bismarck-Mandan) from my GPS as time allows. Happy Memorial Day! Please thank as many soldiers, veterans, and their families as you can this weekend (and all year ’round). Stand with them in support for their mission; your United States Congressman chose not to do so.

North Dakota featured in new movie viral campaign

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Thanks to the guys at /film for pointing this out, because it’s actually a pretty cool little “viral marketing” campaign for an upcoming movie. This one just happens to feature North Dakota. It all started with this movie teaser trailer:

At the end of the trailer there’s a flicker of film leader that someone took still images of to get the words “SCARIEST THING I EVER SAW.” From there they decided to visit the website “scariestthingieversaw.com.” On that website was a simulator for a PDP-11, an old mainframe computer like the ones I used to get in trouble on in the 80s. It displayed a timer, and once the timer counted down certain features were enabled. One of those was to print these two images:

 Click to view/download: Image 1 – Image 2

When you print them out, they appear to be newspaper pages from the 1940s that have some hidden features. One of the not-so-hidden features is an ad for Rocket Poppeteers, a popsicle-like treat. JJ Abrams is known to put fictitious foods in his movies and mention them by name, but this one’s getting some prominent treatment. (Yes, there’s a rocketpoppeteers.com website, but it doesn’t do anything…yet.) The ad contains a form to mail in to “Become a Rocket Poppeteer and Join the Race to Outer Space!” Where do you send it? Minot, North Dakota.

Naturally, being the curious sort, I filled out one of these forms to see what might happen. So far, nothing has been mailed back to me. No MIBs have showed up at my house, even ones posing as census workers. If that changes, I’ll let you know.

Why does Minot tie into this? Well, the teaser trailer seems to center around Area 51 and UFOs & aliens. UFO believers have reports of UFO activity around United States nuclear weapons facilities going back for decades, so it makes sense that the movie would include a reference to North Dakota…a somewhat remote, maybe even mysterious to some, place with lots of nukes. The X-Files featured an episode where a UFO was hidden in a hollowed-out nuclear missile silo in North Dakota, so why not take the idea to feature film?

Being familiar with central North Dakota, the presence of Air Force bases and nuclear weapons in our great state, and the whole UFO conspiracy theory subculture to a degree, I got a kick out of this viral campaign. While I’m not one of the UFO conspiracy theorists, I find them entertaining to watch. It’ll be interesting to see where and how far this movie takes this campaign and how heavily it features our great state.