Picked me up some Underworld: Evolution passes over the weekend. Looks like the sequel will try to explain how the war between the Death Dealers (vampires) and the Lycans (werewolves) came to be. Kate Beckinsale is back as Selene, along with Scott Speedman (Michael Corvin) who are trying to discover the secrets of their bloodlines.

The first one came out right about this time three years ago, and it wasn't that bad of a flick. They left the ending open for a follow up, and I'm sort of interested in which way they go in telling the tale between the two. Plus, Kate Beckinsale in vinyl & leather = Hawt!

Wrapped up the day at the museum by doing a planetarium show entitled Cowboy Astronomer. It was a skillfully woven tapestry of star tales and Native American legends, combined with identification, star-hopping, and astronomy tidbits - all told from the unique viewpoint of a cowboy astronomer who has traveled the world plying his trade and learning the sky along the way.

(Yeah, I know you can't see anything in the photos, I was taking them without the backlight on. I am, however, slightly impressed I got a few shots to come out a tiny bit decent.)

Bonus points to anyone who knows where the subject line comes from, without looking it up.

After checking out the trains, I walked around to the back of the museum to find the Bubbles exhibit.

Developed by Wolfgang Munch and Kiyoshi Furukawa at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany, and sponsored by the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

You walk in front of projected light beams, you shadow appears on a giant screen where bubbles of various sizes are generated on the top of the screen and move downward towards the bottom. Then computerized bubbles will recognize the shadows and bounce off their outlines, making cool sound effects. By moving your body visitors can play with the bubbles and the sound composition. You can pop a bubble by poking it or crushing it between clapped hands, you can also tap it and send it back up in the air, like a volleyball.

Went over to the Schenectady Museum to check out the model trains display which has been donated by the Upstate Train Associates. The exhibit ran in a oval shaped pattern with 2 tracks on the outter loop which had 1 train on each running in opposite directions and 2 shorter tracks on the inside that had a train crossing a working bridge and a trolley car running back and forth.

The set up and display were very impressive, the trains emitted real smoke which came from a small pellet place in the smokestack. There was a working cattle car that used a magnet similar to those that make magnetic football games work. It would push the cows up a small ramp and into the boxcar, then the conductor would lap the train around the track a few times, stop it and unload the cows.

Those that saw the Boost Mobile episode of ATHF will get it :)

Nephew dropped by to show me his vertical leap.

Got a Zen Vision:M, Creative's answer to Apple's 5G iPod. It's got a 2.5 inch screen at 320x240 resolution and a 30GB hard drive. Navagating takes a bit of getting used to if you're accustomed to an iPod Click Wheel. The "Vertical Scroll" makes increase selection accuracy, at least to me. Also, by tapping the left or right side of Vertical Scroll will move menu selection laterally.

It's hard to see in the photos but the four corner buttons are blue backlit.

On a final note, the device is a tad bit scratch happy, I'm sorry to say. The hard, but flexable, plastic sleeve that it came wrapped in left a few noticable nicks on the screen.

Number 14 & 15 in line for a shot at 40 XBox's available at Best Buy.

A day after NY gets hit with its first major snow storm of the winter, I expected Frear Park to be jammed pack with kids, teens, & adults all zipping down the hills on their sleds.

Apparently I was wrong, dead wrong. There was a total of 6 kids on the one hill, way on the other side, and that was it. Its weird to have the entire hill to yourself, it sure wasn't like this last year.

The only person I saw on the main hill was a guy on an old wooden sled. He tried to make it down all three hill in succession but the flats are too huge to maintain your speed.

Went over to RPI to check out the FIRST LEGO League Challenge (FLL). Sixteen middle school teams from around the Capital Region competed in the Ocean Odyssey Challenge. This year the FLL teams take action to ensure the health, diversity, and productivity of the world’s oceans for present and future generations.

Area children, ages 9-14, are among the record 63,000 students around the world who have risen to the 2005 FLL Ocean Odyssey Challenge to help solve mounting problems in the world’s oceans. To successfully complete the challenge, teams of young people must build and program a LEGO Mindstorms robot.

The game is played on a Challenge Field which is an obstacle course on a mat. The obstacles are called Mission Models, and the mat is called the Field Mat. Some of the challenges include Release the Dolphin, Deploy the Submarine, and Find and Recover Archaeological Artifacts.

The global competition is being brought to the region for the first time through a partnership between GE and Rensselaer. The tournament, which is supported by nearly 100 GE Volunteers and Rensselaer students, faculty, and staff, puts eight weeks of research, design, and programming to the test, giving local students the chance to participate at the FLL World Festival at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.