iPotato
February 2nd, 2010

Posted by Jeremy

This week’s video was not supposed to happen … or at least it was not planned in the way that such things usually are. Despite the rigorous scheduling that has kept LRR on track for the last few weeks, there’s always room for a bit of spontaneity–that’s where we started from, after all. When Steve Jobs took ill last year, one of my regrets was that we’d never been able to lampoon his ever-popular keynotes; we all love him, so we’re happy he’s better … and we’re happy we got the opportunity to make this video as well.

The rule around the office this week has more-or-les shaken down to the following: anytime someone new enters a conversation, that conversation becomes a heated discussion of the iPad. Personally, I would love it if some mathematically-minded person could up with an equation for this. It would have to represent the conversation as a thing of changing states; the iPad would either be one of those states, or just the initial state (as most conversations start with the iPad as well, let’s not kid ourselves). So it would end up as Con(whatever state) + New Participant = Con(iPad). If you can put that into a cool-looking equation for me, you are my hero.

iPotato began its life as a hypothetical example from  Paul as to how we might do an iPad keynote parody. As with many of Paul’s ideas, his rough draft came out so fully-developed that we decided to run with it. Tim pointed out math errors in the script, I covered them with that liberal arts line, Graham added a late international release date; it’s great when a team comes together.

We can’t wait for you to go watch it yourself.

We think you’ll really enjoy … the iPotato.

Is somebody doing science in here? [NOW CLOSED]
February 1st, 2010

Posted by james

A question that has rung true throughout the ages, and will continue to do so if you pre-order our swanky new T-Shirt!

Our very talented and good looking Graham Stark designed this one of a kind upper body apparel, and he would very much like you to buy it.

Pre-Orders close tonight at 9PM PST (Monday Feb. 1, 2010)

Remember if you pre-order you can pick your style (Hoodie, Mens, Baby-doll or Long Sleeved) and colour (Black, Grey, Dark Blue) If you don’t pre-order you will still have a chance to pick this shirt up but only in Mens Black, and only standard sizes (Small, Medium, Large, X-Large and then a couple 2,3,4 X Large)

UPDATE: Pre-orders are now closed and we blew our target out of the water! So, if you ordered, rest well in the knowledge that we’ll be printing the run in the next week, and shipping everything out as soon as they’re ready. Thanks everyone!

It interesting to note that, like we said in that video, the vast majority of the shirts ordered were Unisex style, on black. Ha!

Rejected ENN – Jan 27, 2010
January 28th, 2010

Posted by Jeremy

Every week, Paul, Graham, Kathleen and I get together to write ENN. Over the week, each of us actually writes stories separately, then we get together on Fridays to choose what to use, what to revise, etc. Sometimes the stories we throw out aren’t very good; other times, they are too obscure for a wider audience. Even so, sometimes very good stories have to be thrown out because there is just not enough space for them in the episode. Here are some of those stories for this week’s episode:

She Caught them All

Pokemon collectors are being forced to find something meaningful to do with their lives now that the Guiness Book of World Records has declared 21 year old Lisa Coutney the ultimate Pokemon champ for her collection of just over 12,000 specimens. When asked for comment on how he felt about living out the rest of his life in captivity, all Pikachu could muster was a weak, “pika… chu”, as he rattled a small tin cup against the cold iron bars of his cage.

Kindle My Love

Zero Punctuation isn’t the only game headed to the Kindle this spring, as Amazon has opened development up to third parties with the release of the Kindle development kit. Randy Destrier from Amazon told ENN that “with it’s snappy processor, and quick (for an e-reader) screen refresh times, we’re confident Kindle will be able to compete with whatever Apple has to offer. Heck, it already runs Marathon better than a Powerbook 170, one of 1991’s fastest and most capable portables. [cutaway of Marathon running like a slideshow in B&W on a Powerbook 100-series]

Digital … Story that kinda went off the rails

Web-tech-company-that-is-totally-not-a-robot-master Green Man is demonstrating a technology that allows users to trade digitally purchased products for credit towards future purchases. Other users may then purchase these virtual used copies at a discount. “We understand the appeal of pawnshops like GameStop, and are committed to fully capturing that experience in the digital realm,” said a spokesman, cradling an E-tank and carefully eyeing the gate to his boss room, “We’ve already added the sounds of crying children to our client, and are working on a peripheral to spray users with gamer musk as they use the online storefront.” the Green Man spokesman declined to comment further, after exploding in a starburst and surrendering both his power and dog to a nearby blue robot.

In which the LRR crew are “Con” artists
January 27th, 2010

Posted by Matt

It appears that February will be a busy month for the LRR crew, and an exciting one for LRR fans! We have no less than four appearances scheduled this month!

The first is GottaCon, which happens over the weekend of February 5-7 at the pearkes Recreation centre at Tillicum Mall. LRR has a panel and sceening block scheduled at the con on Sunday Feb. 7th at 12:00 PM. Please see their site (linked above) for admission details.

The following weekend sees us in attendance at two events. The Vancouver Island Short Film Festival will be showing two of our films (‘Mercenary Solutions’ and ‘The Secret of the Sauce’) on the evenings of Friday Feb 12th and Saturday Feb 13th, at the Malaspina Theatre on the Nanaimo Vancouver Island University campus. The Crew will be in attendance for the Saturday showing, but if you can’t make that one, you should try to get to the Friday show anyhow – the festival shows a ton of great short films from all sorts of local film-makers, and the festival really deserves your support. Tickets can be purchased at the doors (doors are at 6:30PM) or in advance from the Nanaimo Art Gallery at Vancouver Island University, Falcnor books at Port Place Mall in dowtown Nanaimo, The Nanaimo Arts Council in the Nanaimo North Town Centre, House of Indigo on Commercial St. in downtown Nanaimo.

The Sunday of that weekend, on Feb 14th, LRR will be attending the Phillips Comedy Night, a monthly shocase of Victoria’s local comedy scene, featuring sketch, stand-up, improv, video, and sometimes even musical comedy. The featured act for this show is Slut Revolver. Tickets are $10, ($8 for students), and are available at the door. The event is held at the Victoria Event Centre on Broad St. Doors are at 7:30PM, curtain at 8. (As an additional heads up, LoadingReadyRun will be performing a live set the following month for the Mar. 14th comedy night, so make sure you come to that one too!)

And finally, on the weekend of the 19th-21st LRR will be appearing at TsukinoCon (formerly Kei-Kon) at the University of Victoria. We have a panel and screening block scheduled for 8PM on saturday the 20th. The schedule is not yet available on their site, but my understanding is that we will be in the main auditorium. Check back on their site for details as they are confirmed, as well as for registration details and prices.

http://www.tsukinocon.com/

Hopefully you can make it to all (or at least one) of these great events, and we look forward to seeing you there!

Operation: Get Your Lem On
January 27th, 2010

Posted by Tim

When life gives you lemons… Force your friends to eat a bunch of them really fast so that their teeth get all squidgy, like we did in this episode of the Iron Stomach Challenge:

Then, after that’s over and you’ve posted the video of it on the internet, encourage all of your fans to do the same thing!

In this Loading Ready Runners Operation, your task is to compete with Lemon Race winner James Turner, who was able to eat fourteen lemon wedges in two minutes.

If you think you’re up to it, we want you to film yourself eating as many lemon wedges as you can in two minutes. A lemon wedge is a quarter of a lemon. You must eat all of the flesh of the lemon wedge. The skin of the lemon must not be removed before you start.

Upload your video (which will preferably be a single shot so you don’t do any trickery with video cuts) to YouTube and post it as a video response to the original Lemon Race video on YouTube.

Whoever eats the most lemon wedges in two minutes will receive mad props and a medal on the forums!

This contest will remain open until midnight PST on Friday, February 12, 2010.

January 31: The first challenger has clocked in!