Actually, in speaking off the top of my head, I was off a bit on the
Starfuries thing. I checked, was going to write it verbatim, but once again
forgot, and now I'm back to working off memory (which is always a scary thing
for me). Anyway, I seem to recall that it's not SA, and it has a longer name.
It's the FA-23 Mitchell-Hyundyne Starfury. I'll try to get the full specs and
post 'em sometime soon.

Incidentally, B5 is in this month's WIRED magazine, in the Wired vs.
Tired column. We're "wired." (Sort of their "What's In" and "What's Out"
column.) Not bad for a series that's not even on the AIR yet.

Spent almost all of Saturday in the editing room, working on the main
title sequence for B5, which looks very good. This coming Thursday and Friday
are big days for B5...we're going into the final mix stage. On those two
days, we finish laying in EVERYTHING...sound, music, EFX, you name it. And in
theory, at the end of Friday, we'll have our first episode totally and
completely finished. It's both an exhilirating moment and a scary one...once
done, it's *done*, we have to let go, we can't tinker with it anymore. At
some point, you have to just walk away nad (and) what it is is what it is.
And so far, what it is looks pretty darned good. (Our first full mix is "Soul
Hunter.")

Our sound designer has finished working on the gun-sounds, and they sound
very impressive. We've come up with a different way of handling the gun
sequences -- firing, impact, and sound -- based more on how these things would
actually work if they existed. And let me tell you, if you EVER ran into or
heard one of these things coming your way, you'd get the hell out FAST. We
actually sat down for hours and tried to determine the effects on impact, on
firing, on the surrounding atmosphere, and how to avoid the 30 mph problem
usually associated with TV lasers. (That is, you trace the "laser" across
screen, you see it move, which means that this beam of light is moving slower
than a bullet...which is silly.) By all rights, it should be nearly invisible
and nearly instantaneous...but then you don't see anything. We've managed to
come up with a nifty little solution to the problem.

jms