Monday, February 20, 2006

The Popcorn Guy ("Popcorn Bob") is back!

Today I discovered the most amazing and wonderful thing. Now, you faithful readers of this blog (if there are any) will know that I have long lamented the tragic loss of the Popcorn Guy when AMC bought General Cinemas almost four years ago.

That was March 2002. At the beginning of the new school year that fall, a couple friends and I noticed workmen dismantling the once-glorious Popcorn Bob sign on the face of our local General Cinemas 5. Today the pretentious - even downright EVIL - Filmstrip Man "Clip" stands atop Popcorn Bob's rightful throne.

As a sidenote, I just now noticed that AMC has just closed a deal to acquire Loews, too. Who knows what poor animated cartoon mascots will be mercilessly murdered in THAT transaction.

In any case, back to my wonderful discovery -- a copy of the mini-movie that used to precede every GCC movie. Here it is now, for all to see, courtesy of the kind and generous "pugpapaokc":



Enjoy. I know I have.

Until next time,
Toph Tucker
Loyal Devotee of the Church of Popcorn Bob

Friday, February 17, 2006

Web Site Version 5.0 & BSEC

I am happy to report that I am now hard at work on the next version of my web site. "Wait," you say -- "you haven't even finished upgrading 3 to 4!" I know, I know, but version four was already showing its age, and the design needed to be cleaned up. The new Flash home page improved things (certainly in terms of design, at least), but a couple people told be they couldn't see it for lack of Flash. It was a hard choice to abandon Flash for version 5.0, and I'll miss the animation capabilities, but in the end I think it will be nicer and more useful.

Gone is the strange color scheme, replaced by a theme reminiscent (for me at least) of Windows Live. Gone is the bad navigation, which improved in 4.0 but became pointless when 2/3 of the pages didn't yet exist. And here for the first time is a live feed from this very blog. This will make it easier for me to update the home page, and easier for you to stay up-to-date on all things Toph... not that anyone wants to... :)

Also, I've lapsed somewhat in my blogging efforts lately, averaging about one post per month. The BSEC blog, on the other hand, is doing pretty well. (BSEC stands for Beaver Science and Engineering Club, the rocket & robotics club at my school.) Check out the site for some new videos of our recent egg-drop (more like egg-smash) contest.