More random conversations while biking:
I'm biking home on Friday, headed down Government Hill, crossing the two ramps that connect the Hill to the port and the port to the southbound lane on the Ship Creek bridge.
I cross the first lane without incident, but notice a large truck coming up the second on-ramp. I stop my bike and wait patiently. Doing so, I also notice a guy on a motorized bicycle coming my direction on the bridge bike/pedestrian path on the other side of the ramp. He stops his bike hurriedly on the other side of the crosswalk, cutting his motor, and waits for the same truck to go by.
I quickly pedal across the ramp while the other cyclist situates himself and tries to start his motor again. As I pass by, he tells me: "Everybody's happy."
I just say "Yep," and bike off in earnest.
Old Man Travis is turning 30 in about a month and I need to throw a party for him. Any suggestions on what to do for a 30th bday party?
The first thing that came to mind was an 80's themed party because he was born in 1981, but that just seems too easy. I could still go with that, but was wondering if people had better ideas. There's always the black/over-the-hill theme, too, but I feel like that's better suited for a 40th bday.
I'm thinking a keg and beerpong are needed, too.
Keep forgetting to link this: Die (http://idkfa.com/die), a dice-rolling, randomness generator, tailored towards board games.
I threw it together while I was bored one day, and had played board games the weekend before, and had the idea. It lets you roll any number of any sided dice, but also do things like pick random elements from a list, give a new order to elements in a list, as well as shuffle elements in a list.
As you roll more and more dice, the output will stop outputting individual results, and start outputting "buckets," that is, start reporting "5- 5's" to mean that you rolled 5 a total of 5 times.
And one final step further: you can have it only report on "successes" on a dice roll, that is, how many in a set of dice met a certain condition. For instance, "2d6>4" will report something like "1 success" if one of the 2 six-sided dice rolled a 4 or a 5, "0 successes" if nothing meets the condition, or "2 successes" if both dice meet the condition. You can do greater than (>), less than (<), and equal (=).
For as long as you have the page open, it will list the result history, timestamp, pattern used for each bit of randomness you generate. Click on any pattern to have it "rolled" again.
I know people are sort of partial to dice when playing board games. I've thrown enough dice on the floor, or knocked over game pieces, etc., to understand that there can be a better system. Not sure if I'd use (or be allowed to use this, under suspicion of tampering) this during actual games, but a fun toy, nonetheless.
Enjoy!
Also, since I drank three cups of coffee this afternoon, and it's raining, I added two new sets of syntax to make it more feature complete: the ".." operator and the "-" operator, both for picking numbers within a range.
"1..10" picks a number from the set of 1,2,3,...,8,9,10.
"1-10" picks a number from the set of 2,3,4,...,8,9. (excluding the upper and lower boundaries).
Similar to the "1d10" types of rolls, but a little easier on the mind if you're having to repeatedly do things like "sum up 10 different dice."
Just a few moments ago I was pulling into the parking lot at work. A cyclist used our parking lot as a shortcut for getting from 9th Ave headed towards 8th Ave for whatever reason instead of using the sidewalk or street along F street. That is the wrong direction in a one way parking lot. She was: not wearing a helmet, listening to earbuds, and going at high enough speeds that when she saw the front corner of my truck (I didn't see her yet since I was still coming around the corner of another vehicle) that she left a 6 foot long skid mark in the parking lot. I didn't even know she was there, or knew how close she got to my truck when she stopped, until my truck came far enough around the corner of a vehicle that I could actually see her. Nothing really I could have done to avoid it, since I had no idea she was there. I was thankful I always drive slowly in that lot, and frustrated that she'd be that irresponsible in her cycling behavior.
Another place, different people:
Lady A: "God damnit. I almost hit a biker trying to cut through our parking lot coming in this morning. He was going the wrong fucking direction, and was going way too fast. He didn't see me come around the corner and had to skid to a stop."
Lady B: "Was he hot?"
Lady A: "I don't know. He was wearing flannel."
(Cue hacker montage of me pulling public feeds from Craigslist Personals, Facebook, Twitter, keying and filtering on words like "bike" and "cyclist" and "flannel." There's a graphical display of a 3x3 cube made of other cubes. It occasionally falls apart, which makes me say "No! No! No! No!" Then I put it back together with hacking skill and continue on with a celebratory "Yes!")
Do what I can, and also I've been busy the last ten years or so and have been unable to periodically revisit pop cult from my your to keep up on these references and shit.
also it was a shitty movie I think that only tween girls liked even at that time. So I barely remember half of the stuff that happened in it.
Glad it didn't end in anyone getting hurt.
I know I've made dumb choices cutting across parking lots or going the wrong direction, but usually they're still calculated choices, in that going the "right" way through an area ends up being more dangerous than the wrong way plus common sense.
For instance, the (fucking) intersection of C and 7th, coming home:
In their infinite wisdom, the traffic designers put traffic calming sidewalks (read: the sidewalks jut into the bike lane, causing an obstruction for bikers) on a street that has a speed limit of 45, forcing bikers to bike out into traffic with cars coming behind them at speeds at least 30mph faster than they're going. I can try to jump the curb, but the light pole makes it difficult, and usually there's a lot of foot traffic waiting to cross. Taking the red path, I'm most likely to get hit by a car.
If I take the yellow path, cross further back and try to maintain the sidewalk until I'm out of downtown, I run across the large bus stop that always has people in the sidewalk leaning out to see if their bus is coming. I'm not sure what the deal is, but bus riders are the worst pedestrians to deal with. Hence the frowny face.
The blue path is through a pretty desolate parking lot, with no discernible "one-way-ness" about it, and provides a windy, but usually unpopulated path around the bus stop. The only bad part about it is a blind corner (the arrow and the question mark), which thankfully only surprises me with people or bikers, and not cars. I take it slow around this every time.
There are probably 3 or 4 of these types of things going to and from work. I make the best of them by listening to cars and whether their tires are accelerating or decelerating (decelerating means somebody is probably going to make a right turn into you), and wearing my goddamn helmet. Wearing headphones is idiotic, and doing so without a helmet is asking for brain damage.
Maybe the lady was trying out a new route. Hopefully, she'll learn to watch out for cars coming from your direction next time.
"I fucking love this graphic illustration."
I feel like this is analogous to me writing a crude, unwieldy and obsolete script in BASIC (or...something?). I present it to Josh with an expectant smile, only to see abhorrent revulsion clear on his face, his shaky voice betraying his insistence that no, it is indeed beautiful.
No Josh this illustrates your chance to get out there and totally be the dick I know you could be, if you'd just set your heart free.
Starting half a block before this intersection move out into the middle of the lane and just ride it like the glorious bastard you are, cruising through that intersection with not a care in the world and the honking of impatient drivers behind you.
I'll get there someday, man. Every time I do something crazy, I remember your advice: "Ride like a shark, sharks don't have necks and never look back!"
Also why I'm "trending" away from Twitter: I got my name early enough in Twitter's short Internet history that I was the first "kaiden." Which means anybody who mis-types their "kaiden1234" or "kaidenWeezyFbaby" or whatever shows up in my list of "mentions," and puts a notification icon on my phone. I realize I can disable these things, but I'd prefer to not have to do so.
The following are my "mis-mentions." Which I think are entertaining. If not incomprehensible.
RaynBowVanity
Who do you think should be the next president of the United States? — Snookie... just kidding.. @Kaiden Blake http://4ms.me/hlXkun (4ms.me)
1 Jan
SPOILEDBRATMELA
@kaiden is singing say it to me.its soooo kaute
13 Jan
cuntCOUTURE
Peacing out .. Its been real concrete jungle. I'll see you next wknd! I miss @Kaiden and @juicedbaby already :-(
6 Feb
Barumenfe
@Kaiden oin the Ron and Fez March Madness Contest to win a basketball autographed by Bill Walton: http://wp.me/p1ksja-29 (wp.me)
19 Mar
tdsdavis
Today is a special day! Happy 3rd Birthday to grandma's bird, @Kaiden. You are my heart.
23 Mar
TheOnlyNessie
@_PimpNStilettos @Single_n_Looken @MrMateFinder @ThePimptress_ @PimptressJailed My soon-to-be-born son @Kaiden… (cont) http://deck.ly/~1rvVU (deck.ly)
18 Apr
jolieetrose
smh you just mentioned a WHOLE REAL twitter account lbs RT @prettiestgrlEVA: @xlegallyPINK hahaha smh @kaiden ass lbvs
11 May
MiimiiV23
Lovin life with my baby @jaytay n @kaiden :) mwaaaah
14 Jun
cdchord
@kaiden. first you need to have ladies follow you on twitter. chances of that are low.
22 Jun
cdchord
@kaiden. fuck you, i have a hot girlfriend.
9 Jul
FrostThaBoss83
Aww that's cute is he old enough to have a twitter #Doe RT @Kaiden Miss U too Mommy RT @SharWeezyFbaby: I miss my son like crazy :-((
23 hours ago
SharWeezyFbaby
RT @FrostThaBoss83: RT @Kaiden Miss U too Mommy RT @SharWeezyFbaby: I miss my son like crazy :-(<---- AWWWWW
23 hours ago
LOVExposed
LMAO hahaha , @Kaiden???? I'm dead. @SharWeezyFbaby @FrostThaBoss83 @Kaiden
23 hours ago
SharWeezyFbaby
@honeyb808 @lovexposed. Yess boo. @Kaiden is Jimmy Neutron!! #boywonder
23 hours ago
FrostThaBoss83
That's crazy he got a twitter #Doe RT @LOVExposed: LMAO hahaha , @Kaiden???? I'm dead. @SharWeezyFbaby @FrostThaBoss83 @Kaiden
23 hours ago
SharWeezyFbaby
@FrostThaBoss83 @LOVExposed @Kaiden he'd have more followers than you'd expect. Lol
23 hours ago
FrostThaBoss83
I know my nephew would RT @SharWeezyFbaby: @FrostThaBoss83 @LOVExposed @Kaiden he'd have more followers than you'd expect. Lol
23 hours ago
SharWeezyFbaby
RT @FrostThaBoss83: I knw my nephew would RT @SharWeezyFbaby: @FrostThaBoss83 @LOVExposed @Kaiden he'd have more followers than you'd expect
23 hours ago
Passed my Physical Agility test, bloodwork, physical, and written test...newest memeber of the Alpine Fire Department! Along those same lines, I re-discovered muscles in my back and arms that I forgot I had after taking my PAT yesterday. Pulling a 65 lb hose reel up 3 stories sucks! Also makes me chuckle that they are going to have to special order extra small gloves for me since I swim in the smalls :)
Stopped going north through downtown Anchorage. A semi truck and trailer honks at me on the corner, alerting me to the fact that he's making a right on red, and that I should pay attention. He starts the turn, making it very wide. I look behind me, and the rear wheels start to make the turn fairly close to the curb, and me. I've seen and had this happen before, and I know truck drivers are goddamn surgical with their vehicles, but I'm still a little nervous when the rear wheels come within six inches of my front tire.
A pedestrian appears behind the now-departing truck, and says to me:
"Big truck."
Again: random people saying ambiguous things to me while I'm biking to work. Was he commenting on the fact that the truck was big? Or that I failed to realize how big the truck was? Or was he saying it in a manner that said "Big trucks are jerks?" Or was he just providing a narrative to his and my shared experience of a big truck?
i think he was commenting on your balls of steel since you apparently didn't back up at all from the BIG F****** TRUCK that would have crushed you and your measly bicycle without a second thought or even a little bump to let the driver know he just munched something. Cause even I get the hell out of the way when I'm in MY TRUCK, nevermind a bike. Jeebas, dude.
I knew the guy was turning, was watching him and his trailer the entire time, and was prepared to back up more than the bit that I already had if he had come any closer. I was fairly sure that he wasn't going to hit me, judging by his turning radius, and by the fact that if he was going to do so, he was going to take out a light pole and a cement wall with me.
Admittedly, I've made worse choices while biking. I didn't feel like I was in danger.
On second thought, maybe I shouldn't have been doing this:
My compiled history of ST:TNG-related Tweets. I was using the service to log things I thought were funny/silly with the episodes, or provide brief insights, but I figured out that it was going to be increasingly difficult to extract them or compile them at a later date. So, here they are, if you need to catch up.
First episode: saucer separation. It's been too long. #sttng 8 Mar
8 Mar
"Bevahley!... Bevahley." #sttng 102
12 Mar
"Which... Isn't important at this time." #sttng 104
13 Mar
Also, an episode about honor, and Worf is nowhere to be found? What? #sttng 104
13 Mar
Oh man. They're going to have to do some serious retcon with the Ferengi. #sttng 104
14 Mar
"I'm sure that's all very fascinating, Wesley, but not right now." #sttng
16 Mar
Also, rape gang? Purely for the purpose of raping? Thanks for being clear, #sttng, context clues weren't enough.
16 Mar
Wait: one of the peace delegates is missing, and Picard goes and takes a nap? What? #sttng 106
21 Mar
LaForge: "And they make love at the drop of a hat." Yar: "Any hat." #sttng
21 Mar
Oh god. Male cameltoe before first commercial break. #sttng 107
21 Mar
"In what became known in Starfleet as the 'Picard Maneuver.'" #sttng
22 Mar
"Klingons admire strong women." Thanks, Worf. That had nothing to do with our conversation. #sttng
30 Mar
Class M. Rigid matriarchy, won't comply. Send in Riker. Make sure he's wearing a v-neck. #sttng
30 Mar
Nobody likes you, Dr. Pulaski. #sttng 202
10 Apr
Pulaski condescends to Data. Dropping the hard C in my basement. Justified. #sttng 203
11 Apr
Teri Hatcher: biggest slut in starfleet. #sttng 204
12 Apr
"And to know him was to love him." #sttng 206
16 Apr
Dang. First good episode. Data is not property. #sttng 209
18 Apr
"Careful, those will suck the iron out of your cells." Way to hold the supermagnet by your balls, Wes. #sttng 210
20 Apr
Riker, Data, and Worf, buying a casino. What? #sttng 212
25 Apr
"These planets live hard and fast." Riker has no concept of geological time. #sttng 215
1 May
Yesss. Pulaski begone. #sttng 301
3 May
"Good tea. Nice house." -Worf #sttng 303
3 May
Man, the Prime Directive was written to be violated. #sttng 304
4 May
Sorta makes sense that Geordi would be making out with a hologram of the Enterprise's designer. #sttng 306
5 May
Hispanic sighting number two. #sttng 308
15 May
Wait, wait. Who's the officer posing nude for Picard's painting class? #sttng 314
5 Jun
Klingon/Starfleet exchange program: worst idea ever. #sttng 317
10 Jun
Wait, so, four prisoners, food bricks in the center, there for at least twelve days... where's the bathroom? #sttng 318
11 Jun
Apparently, all of Riker's shore leave has been spent wenching on Risa. #sttng 319
12 Jun
"Words... come later." -Worf #sttng 325
18 Jun
Man... 402. Not bad, #sttng, not bad.
23 Jun
Picard and Wesley survive. Buuut Captain Dirgo dies a horrible death by being encased in selenium fibers. #sttng 409 #nooneweepsfordirgo
3 Jul
Data's Day... (sigh) is Josh's Day. #sttng 411
3 Jul
"If being human is not simply a matter of being born flesh and blood, if it is instead a way of thinking, acting and... feeling, then I am hopeful that one day I will discover my own humanity... Until then, Commander Maddox, I will continue learning, changing, growing, and trying to become more than what I am."
Twitter annoyed me because there's no (easy) way to export my tweets without turning my profile to world-visible. They're my tweets, damnit, mine!
Hmm. You can put this into your Google Reader, and have direct, specific access to my post within this thread: http://idkfa.com/v...den%2Cthread%3A3160. It's almost the same thing.
And no, I haven't seen the Onion stuff on TNG.
ST:TNG, Galaxy's Child, Episode 416.
Sort of hit close to home. I mean, who hasn't been disappointed when the folks you are romantically infatuated with turn out to not live up to your expectations set by the holographic computer simulations you built in their image. Poor Geordi. Oh yeah, and Picard kills a giant, pregnant space crepe.
ST:TNG, "The Mind's Eye", Episode 424
Why can't the writers stop screwing with Geordi? Four episodes ago, the goddamned hatch on the warp core fails, irradiating engineering. Seven episodes ago, Geordi was infected with a virus that metamorphosed him into an alien chameleon humanoid. Two episodes before that, his hopes are dashed on the rocks of reality as his only successful (albeit virtual) love interest turns out to be a jerk, and married.
ST:TNG, In Theory, Episode 425
Hard. To. Watch.
Jenna: "This is all part of a program?"
Data: "Yes, one which I have just created for romantic relationships."
Jenna: "So I'm just a small variable in one of your new computational environments?"
Data: "You are much more than that, Jenna. I have written a sub-routine specifically for you, a program within the program. I have devoted a considerable share of my internal resources towards its development."
Jenna: "Data, that's the nicest thing anybody's ever said to me."
ST:TNG, Redemption, Episode 426
You know, the more episodes I watch, the more I like the guy who plays Gowron. Watching as a kid, the character always struck me as sort of a conniving shit, and also an asshole to the Federation despite their repeated help. Considering that the Enterprise abandoned Gowron's ship to destruction at the outbreak of a Klingon civil war (to keep the Federation from choosing sides in the civil war), I can sorta see why.
Also, Klingon females are hilarious.
Reading the description, that episodes sounds pretty decent. But seriously, how could Data's head still work without the body? I would think that his powercells would be in the body..
Also how was La Forge and Crusher not killed when they got rid of all the air in the airlock? Reminds me of the Casino Royale remake where Bond gives himself a shot of adrenaline right when he dies.
Eh, Data was plugged into something. Stands to reason that one of the cords was a power feed.
And it's a pretty common trope (tvtropes.org) in scifi to decompress an airlock or cargo bay in order to expel something (contaminants, explosives, villains, etc.). Some even go so far as to say people can survive in space for a few seconds via this method, in order to escape emergencies, etc.
and scene: Total Recall (www.youtube.com)
Also while looking up that picture/scene, I found that they are doing a remake of the movie.. They better not screw it up! The original is a classic Governator movie!
It is a good ep, one of my favorite. Worf is midwife to Keiko's baby in Ten-Forward!
There is a long tradition of Data's head working without his body. I reference Nemesis (the film, although they can hardly be considered canon) where they pick up B4, data's predecessor, and he talks to them headless while they drive. I also feel like he may have been talking in Time's Arrow when he was detatched from his body, but the more I think about it he was really only talking when he was attached.
ST:TNG, The Game, Episode 506.
Wesley Crusher returns to the Enterprise on vacation, makes out with the curiously named Ensign Robin FuckYouWesley, played by Ashley Judd. Also, the Star Trek franchise tries its best to alienate its video gaming audience by claiming that the addictive nature of games turns the crew of the Enterprise into pliant pod people.
All around frustrating episode.
ST:TNG, The Masterpiece Society, Episode 513.
First time it's been mentioned that the Enterprise might have people on different sleep schedules / time tables than the planets, ships, space stations, whatever random floating objects they've encountered.
Fun, too, because it's used as a thinly veiled excuse for why Troi woke up in regret after doing the leader of an isolationist colony of genetically engineered humans. "Oh, I'm still on Enterprise time..."
To say I use Twitter and not Facebook isn't quite right. I still use both, to some degree, but only in the limited capacity of what I trust them to do.
I still log in to Facebook occasionally to check people's status updates, frustrating though they may be. I try not to expose any more information to Facebook than necessary, but I do try to make it so people can find me on there if they try really, really hard. It's also the case that some people I interact with choose only to interact via Facebook. Completely abandoning Facebook at this point would mean potentially abandoning a set of contacts that I've spent years collecting.
Twitter is along the same lines, though much simpler, maybe a little more utilitarian. They may have a better track record with data, but that doesn't mean I'm going to put much of my information up there. Again, people can find me if they try really, really hard. And all Twitter hears/heard from me is inane updates about Star Trek.
I haven't really decided on the usefulness of Google+ yet. I appreciate its data handling, but it's still a lot of information that Google could easily make available if they made a mistake, or didn't care to protect my data. I also dislike that they automatically associated my Picasa account with my Google+ account. Granted, the information is technically public, but I didn't want it that easy to get to.
Fair enough. That makes sense. I personally am quite nervous about opening up to google+. As much as I adore google and rarely find major issues with most of their products, I really dislike the idea of having all my "social" stuff linked so easily with an account that I use for more professional emails, applications, and even communication with professors and school groups since I have my gwu and gtown email addresses filter into my gmail inbox. When Buzz came out, it freaked me out when all of a sudden a random family friend who knew me when I was very young, and got my email address from my mom to get in touch with me when she was coming to DC for business and wanted to take me out to dinner, was suddenly able to comment on a random comment that one of my friends made on Buzz. Those are not exactly the worlds that I would like to so easily have collide!
(nods) I see what you mean. I do wish there was maybe a little more granularity to Google+ (though it's leaps and bounds better than Facebook), or at least, a few less things exposed by default. I was a little disturbed when I updated my profile picture on Google+, and it suddenly appears in all my emails, my chats, my contact lists, other people's contact lists, their phones, their emails, etc.
I mitigate the risk a little by conducting super-important business stuff through either my @idkfa.com or @intersectionthereof.com email addresses, and having them simply backed up to Gmail in case of failure.
ST:TNG, "The First Duty", Episode 519
Decent episode. We're introduced to Boothby, the groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy and one of Picard's mentors. We also see Robert Duncan McNeil (Tom Paris from Voyager) in a supporting role as another cadet.
Wesley gets one of his classmates killed, and all Starfleet does is discredit him for his classes for the last year. Wesley is already younger than most of the cadets, and could probably use another year, in addition to the fact that he's a goddamn genius and retaking classes wouldn't be a punishment, just boring.
Also, this episode has some really great dialog on the part of Picard, and incredibly shitty dialogue for everyone else. At least twice in the episode you have characters saying "You hold on a minute!" then "--No YOU hold on a minute!"
Episode 119 of 353, 234 left to go. (33% watched)
@ 5 / week, TNG will be done by: Tue Nov 1 09:09:36 AKDT 2011
@ 5 / week, DS9 will be done by: Tue Jul 3 09:09:36 AKDT 2012
While I agree with you about the times that Patrick Stewart is given bad dialogue (see, EVERY TNG MOVIE (YES FIRST CONTACT TOO)), even this episode has some great dialogue. Case in point:
"The first duty of every Starfleet officer is to the truth, whether it's scientific truth or historical truth or personal truth! It is the guiding principle on which Starfleet is based. And if you can't find it within yourself to stand up and tell the truth about what happened, you don't deserve to wear that uniform! "
ST:TNG, "The Cost of Living", Episode 520
I remember this episode from when I was a kid. I didn't really understand why everyone was taking mud baths. Or why people were sometimes naked. Alexander didn't understand the rules, and Worf did his best to make sure he knew them.
Upon later viewing, however, had a few gems. Lwaxana Troi's short monolog about being older and alone was pretty decent. Actually, most of her lines were pretty good when they weren't non-sensical crap from the holodeck.
"Deanna, I love you, but you make everything sound like an epitaph."
---
Episode 120 of 353, 233 left to go. (33% watched) @ 5 / week, TNG will be done by: Tue Nov 1 19:09:09 AKDT 2011 @ 5 / week, DS9 will be done by: Tue Jul 3 19:09:09 AKDT 2012
ST:TNG, "The Perfect Mate", Episode 521
Riker: "If you need me, I'll be in Holodeck 4."
I'd hate to be the poor ensign on holodeck cleaning duty.
---
@ 5 / week, TNG will be done by: Tue Nov 1 22:56:22 AKDT 2011
ST:TNG, "I, Borg", Episode 523
I liked the episode. But upon repeated viewing, Hugh's transition to individualism from being part of the Borg Collective seems... rapid. I understand the time constraints of the show, and the fact that it was less about Hugh and more about the ethics of war, but still.
Bah. The Borg have the right of it. You don't change for anyone. It's assimilate, or be assimilated.
In other news: while I was intently watching a soccer game last night, I was halfway listening in on two ladies having a conversation about:
I thought about talking to them about Wesley Crusher's character arc through the series, but then I remembered it was rude to eavesdrop.
ST:TNG, "Time's Arrow", Episode 526/601
Wait, so... there's a time portal on Devidia II... that goes back to 19th century earth... which gives the crew of the Enterprise the opportunity to dress up in period garb.
So... campy. Aside from Data's monolog about the certainty of his death.
ST:TNG, "A Fistful of Datas", Episode 608
I was... expecting a little more. The opportunity to see the unconscious landscape of Data's positronic brain? And they put it in a crappy spaghetti Western theme? C'mon.
37% watched. @ 5 / week, TNG will be done by: Thu Oct 27 22:09:08 AKDT 2011
ST:TNG, "Face of the Enemy", Episode 614
"THIS GIVES ME THE RIGHT!"
Pretty alright episode. Political intrigue, espionage, all that.
Episode 140 of 353, 213 left to go. (39% watched) @ 5 / week, TNG will be done by: Mon Oct 24 11:38:25 AKDT 2011
ST:TNG, Tapestry and Birthright, Episodes 615-617
(Episode spoilers)
Picard effectively "dies," and is shown (by Q) what could have been as a result of different decisions made when he was young. As a result of taking the "safer" route and avoiding getting stabbed through the heart (literally), he's shown a lackluster career in a lackluster life. He demands of Q to return him to his past life, where he dies a Starfleet Captain rather than a Lieutenant Junior Grade in the Astrophysics department. He even has an emasculating blue shirt rather than the captain-y red.
A goddamn horrible episode to watch after coming home from a frustrating day at work. Okay, Q... I've seen enough.
Birthright was interesting enough, even if it was the same old what-it-means-to-be-Klingon story. A decent two-parter, and had a fun sequence (that was ignored in the second half) where Data was dreaming. Oh, and Doctor Bashir for some reason was on the Enterprise? DS9 started airing three months prior, so I guess they were doing some sort of crossover.
ST:TNG, Starship Mine, Episode 618
Man, lots going on in this episode. Data tries out small talk. Chatty Starfleet officers are vaporized. Tuvok is subdued by Picard, hypo-sprayed, and left unconscious to be incinerated in a baryon particle bath. Probably best summed up by Data's line: "It has been quite a day, has it not?"
Thinking this is the writers' attempt to put more "action" into TNG.
ST:TNG, Timescape, Episode 625
Pretty decent episode. I get the sense from this episode that all of the actors are "comfortable," if that's a way to describe it. Everyone knows their characters, and seem to be having fun with it. Deanna and Picard are doing accents, Data completely misses a sexual innuendo (and ends up being hilarious in his own right), and Geordi again faces the peril that only a black man in space can.
Also, reminds me of playing the game Braid (with all the time manipulation and such).
Episode 151 of 353, 202 left to go. (42% watched), @ 5 / week, TNG will be done by: Thu Oct 20 AKDT 2011
ST:TNG, Descent (Parts 1 and 2), Episodes 626 and 701
Interesting as a season finale. I generally enjoy the episodes with Data and Lore. The characterizations Brent Spiner does between the two characters is fun, if a little... heavy handed. Considerably so in Data's emotion'd state, as though he's only supposed to be experiencing anger and hatred as a result of Lore's mechanism, he seems to emote almost as much as Lore himself.
In terms of quality of episode... well, I fell asleep towards the end of the first one. I did like that the Enterprise's C-squad managed to activate the metaphasic shield technology brought up in previous episodes, as well as kill a Borg ship by poking at a sun.
Also, Geordi has his brain systematically replaced by nanomachines throughout the episodes, potentially causing brain damage or death. Picard and Troi? Get to chill in a comfortable Borg prison cell.
ST:TNG, Liasons, Episode 702
This... was not a very good episode. In fact, I think the concept was pretty much flawed from the start. And that it's surprising that this episode ever made it into production.
...It was fun to see Worf throw an ambassador across the room in the name of diplomacy, though.
ST:TNG, Interface, Episode 703
Geordi can interface with a fancy probe... which they've only now decided to use after 7 years they've been beaming into exploding starships.
An interesting concept, at least. And again, Geordi's brain is forfeit when it comes to getting a plot point across.
ST:TNG, Attached, Episode 708
I remember seeing a teaser trailer commercial on TV for this one, where they spoiled the entire episode where Dr. Crusher tells Picard, "You're in love with me." For some reason, I never got a chance to see the episode until now. An despite the bizarre subterfuge / "the Federation is holier than thou" side plots, the concept of being forced to share thoughts with another person remained a compelling plot point. Picard is forced to reveal his feelings towards Crusher as a result of being joined at the head by a strange and unexplained thought transceiver.
I like this concept for a lot of reasons. Mostly, because if such a thing were to exist, I would find it infinitely entertaining to experience the foreign landscape of other peoples' mind, and also to watch them reel and writhe at mine.
At first I thought this episode was dick cheese, but man, leave it up to Patrick Stewart to make shit shine. Even the oh-so-cliched forbidden romance.
You know, I was thinking there were better episodes in this season, but I guess I'll have to remain satisfied with character driven plots. The one with Data's mom is kind of interesting, if dull (SPOILER ALERT).
ST:TNG, Parallels, Episode 711
Interesting episode, if a little... hmm. I don't know what's a good word for it. "Explain-y?" The writers at this point have stopped apologizing about the bizarre, pseudo-scientific language they're using at this point to drive plot points. I wonder if it's almost be better if people weren't trying to "open spacetime rifts" with "low energy warp fields" so that Riker can get a better visual. Just say, "I'm attempting to compensate for the visual display." Or really, anything better than nonsense.
But yes: decent episode. Worf is trapped among parallel quantum eventualities, and has to figure out a way back to his "own universe." Lots of fun is had with the differences between universes, from Data's eye color, to the lighting on the bridge, to whether Wesley Crusher is still on the Enterprise (possibly in a universe where he wasn't held back a year or so after failing his entrance tests).
I also appreciated that the writers established consequences for Worf's actions, even though in terms of canon, his universe is the only one that mattered. I liked it a lot that they acknowledged that in the universe he was leaving, he was actually abandoning Diana without hopes of having her actual husband return. Even more awesome is when one of the hundreds of Enterpises that end up collapsing "into" a single reality don't want Worf to go back, as their universe has apparently been led to destruction at the hands of the Borg.
Uber-beard Riker yells at Riker Prime "I'm not going back!" and begins firing on Worf's shuttle as it moves to close the "rift." Riker Prime is forced to kill a version of himself from another universe. Apparently, there isn't room for three Rikers in a given universe... two is fine, though.
(working through a backlog of notes)
ST:TNG, The Pegasus, Episode 712
Interesting episode... though, thinking back on it, I'm seeing now a lot of influence from this episode on Battlestar Galactica. A whole lot of warcrimes, a whole lot of "we did what we had to," a whole lot of questioned loyalty... and they named the ship exactly the same.
That's fine, though. Got to see Locke from Lost when he was younger (but still bald).
Also, as a shining example of how my brain processes information: I'm starting to identify inconsistencies with how the audible feedback on the panels on the Enterprise. Riker entered a command, it was successful, and the panel issued a "something wrong happened" chirp. (flips table)
ST:TNG, Homeward, Episode 713
Medium-quality episode. We're introduced to yet another previously-unmentioned (I think) member of Worf's adopted family. And they have a really weird relationship. Whatever. Normally I'd skip a blurb about this one, as it's kind of a filler episode, but I wanted to bring the attention the fact that Worf has to undergo facial reconstruction surgery at least 3 times to maintain a disguise amongst a pre-Warp culture.
Also, awesome that Picard goes so far in upholding the Prime Directive to let an entire planet and its indigenous culture die in plasma storms. Less awesome that it comes to light, after all the bullshit people have pulled with the transporters in the past 6 seasons, nobody has put a password on them.
Seriously. O'brien? Worf? You are goddamn idiots.
ST:TNG, Sub Rosa, Episode 714
This episode is absolute shit. It does the exact same sci-fi trope that made me hate reading Mote in God's Eye. That is: "An entire planet that represents culture/country X." In this case, X is Scotland. Which, in the set of cultures/countries that might represent X, Scotland is the silliest.
How long does it take the Federation to terraform a planet? To move a few million people from one planet to the next? To have those colonists/tourists/travelers make homes for themselves, have children, and pass their own inherited culture down to their children? Would there still be a Scottish brogue after 300 years of the Star Trek universal translator? Would mutton chops and flannel still be fashionable?
I think, given the timeframe it would take to accomplish such things, the culture (whether it was Scottish or not), would scarcely represent its original form. Exposure to alien culture, or no.
(Also, I should note, they do this same trope in the Ender Saga, but with the subtle twist that entire planets represent certain religions and philosophies. This concept is probably equally silly, but somehow, a little more imaginable, or at least palatable, in terms of what could possibly happen, or what would remain in a culture after faster-than-light travel.)
ST:TNG, Lower Decks, Episode 715
If I had to describe the plot of this episode, it would probably sound simplistic and trite: A few low ranking officers and civilians serving on the Enterprise vie for promotions while dealing with a Cardassian spy plot. It almost sounds as bad as "Something turns the crew's senior staff into children" or "A virus turns the crew into their primordial ancestral animals. (both are episodes, both are... less than great)
This one I actually enjoyed. It was well-written, introduced new characters I could immediately relate to, and actually felt slight attachment to towards the end, particularly when one of them died in the line of duty. A successful hero's arc.
I also laughed out loud when Picard completely tore one of the ensigns a new one. I liked it less that they later explained the dress-down as yet another example of Picard's amazing leadership (something to the affect of "I wanted you on this ship, despite your past mistakes, to give you a second chance," or something). I honestly would have preferred it just have been a side of Picard we haven't seen since the first season: the one who hated children, didn't get along with anybody but the senior staff, and spent his vacation on Risa reading Shakespeare instead of wenching.
I miss that Picard a little.
For the record, "Rascals" and "Genesis" are two of my favorite eps.
I love lower decks for a few reasons: Nurse Ogawa! Taurik becomes Vorik, a recurring character on Voyager. I guess technically they are different characters, but I like to think they are the same, just like Nick Locarno and Tom Paris.
Speaking of Nick Locarno, Sito was originally from that episode! It's a clever call back, and it sort of validates her missteps from the academy to give her life in the line of duty.
I always wondered what happened to Sam, though.
Damnit, I knew I recognized her. I kept yelling at the screen (Erik's out of town) "Picard, why aren't you giving her the same speech you gave Wesley when he killed his classmate?"
I do sort of like Nurse Ogawa. In fact, probably the biggest appeal to the episode is having some fresh blood on the show, even if all we hear about for Ogawa is Dr. Crusher asking awkward questions about Ogawa's shaky relationships. In Trek terms, that's like an encyclopedia written about a red-shirt.
I'm guessing Sam went the way of Ben, the waiter. Which brings up the question: if you aren't a member of Starfleet, or family of Starfleet, how do you get on board the Enterprise? And why, of all things, do you wait tables in a society that has eliminated the need for currency? Or food preparation? Or food transport? Is it... fulfilling to learn about Troi's love for chocolate, only to have her snap at you "Don't tempt me!" when you bring it up again?
ST:TNG, Journey's End, Episode 720
This episode had been mentioned to me a few times throughout my watching of the series. It's "the one where Wesley goes off with the Traveler."
Yeah, yeah, Wesley is special. I've had that beaten into me the entire series. Finally, we sort of see why, and get some closure on it. That's pretty much what they have to do in these last few episodes: wrap up secondary characters with plot ties to the mains.
But seriously: this episode aired in 1994. Which I seem to recall was long after calling Native Americans "Indians" in any context was a more than a little bit offensive. But apparently, the 24th century has all but forgotten that, as well as the horrible treatment of any religious or cultural heritage presented in the show.
Seriously: Wesley goes on a spirit journey. People talk about speaking with their spirit animals. And thinly-veiled references are made to the righting of ancient wrongs.
ST:TNG, Firstborn, Episode 721
Wrapping up Alexander's character. And by wrapping up, I mean not really resolving anything. Will he choose the path of the warrior? Will he make his father proud? Will the time paradox introduced by his late-life travels screw things up further as Alexander grows up to realize he met himself when he was young? Or, how would future Alexander known which of his past fathers to return to, given that Worf was switching between realities not 10 episodes prior?
... The Klingon bat'leth opera / street performance was pretty awesome, and something I'd expect to see during a Klingon holiday.
Also, I understand it's all about the firstborn son with Klingons, but does Worf not have any further children?
Seriously, adopt a kid that's less of a pussy. Fuck you, Alexander Rashenko.
Anyhow, we're so close to being done Josh, I can taste it. I watched Sub Rosa last night and didn't kill myself, so I should be good to go until the series finale (which is awesoooooooome). Maybe we should watch these last few together??
ST:TNG, Emergence, Episode 723
The Enterprise starts tripping balls, has a baby made out of tinker toys and lightning, and shocks be bejeezus out of Geordi when navigation relays short out.
Also, new physical phenomena: the "data flux." Apparently, this is the phenomena in the Star Trek universe when the writers stop caring, and start making fun of us for accepting the Trek-babble.
Well, I did a little more research, and it's apparently a theta flux distortion (en.memory-alpha.org). However, it is the same phenomena as you described above.
ST:TNG, All good things..., Episode 725
It's... over. It's finally... over.
Well. The Next Generation, that is. There is, of course, Deep Space 9, Voyager, Enterprise, The Original Series, Original Series movies, Next Generation movies, Star Trek 2009... this... trek through the stars continues...
The final episode of TNG is satisfying. It is arguably some of the better storytelling in the series, ably combining the components from the early seasons with the later, and even beyond. The finale was about perspective, that is, showing the progression of the show from the perspective of what the writers started with, and where they wanted to go. And even though the "moving through time" styled episodes had been done multiple times, this one seemed to finally get it right.
As for how I feel about TNG at the end... I feel that it got away with a lot. As I've mentioned, watching TNG as a kid had a kind of wondrous feel to it, in that my child-like wonder happily devoured the treknobabble that drove the plots and explained away why they couldn't just shut the damn holodeck off. I didn't understand any more when I was young than I do now, but damned if there wasn't a good reason if Geordi or Data said so.
Watching as an adult... I had to actively suspend my disbelief for much of the time. Maybe that's because there have been other great shows in the Star Trek franchise and the scifi genre in general that focus much more on gritty realism and character-driven plots. By comparison, some of the episodes of TNG, even in the latest seasons, were absolutely intolerable. And I feel that they were largely due to mistakes that the writers made early on, either by ignoring certain character traits, or not developing them enough in order to make their importance feasible later. Why is it that episodes featuring Reginald Barclay, a secondary guest character, are often far and beyond those focusing on Deanna Troi? Why is Riker's most distinguishing character trait after the second season his beard? Why isn't every episode about Data? (kidding*)
I look at shows like Battlestar Galactica, and think about how so much of its early praise was on how "retro" it seemed compared to the shiny, warp-nacelle'd universe of Star Trek. Spooling the FTLs? How ancient does that sound! Phones with cords? Oh my! But what if BSG didn't have those points of comparison? What if we didn't have the ability to hold it up to the fantasy scifi universe that TNG developed so well (if a little haphazardly)? Would it still stand on its own? Or would we wonder why these people on an old spaceship are having illegal boxing matches?
(I think BSG was a great show, and could easily stand on its own, but my point is that much of its groundwork had already been laid, and by the same writers and producers, no less. I think the early seasons of BSG learned from some of TNG's mistakes. And then they ran out of ideas.)
As TNG was airing at a relatively formative time in my life, it inhabits a sort of sense of a science fiction "golden age" for me. The craze that surrounded TNG was precedented only by that of Star Wars, and TNG was airing on a weekly basis. As I mentioned before, my family had Star Trek nights of the week, of which I have fond half-remembered memories, and probably have a lot to do with where I'm at now in my life. Watching through, and flaws notwithstanding, I can understand the phenomenon... there are moments in the show that are hard to describe, that resonate in my imagination, get inside my brain, and set up shop.
That's why, after 8 months of watching this show, I feel the same despondent, bottomless sadness after 178 episodes that I do after watching the short 13 episodes of Firefly I've watched and rewatched so many times. Sad, yes, that it's over, and that I have to appreciate it for what it was and move on.... but also because that golden age is simply gone. We live in the future, friends, and unfortunately, the future doesn't sell. As someone said, we stopped dreaming (www.youtube.com).
That's sort of why I love the science fiction genre as much as I do. More often than not, the stories are lackluster, the characters wooden, and the writing... well, you probably get what you pay for on a SyFy original movie's budget. It really isn't about that, though.
I feel that TNG demonstrated that sometimes it's better to ask the question, rather than worry about some of the answers.
--
* Sort of. My favorite Data quote, still.
Love the finale, I think it wraps up the series quite nicely.
"I should have done this a long time ago."
"You were always welcome."
In any case, the show definitely has its flaws... and I've come to notice there are far fewer 'great' episodes than what I remembered before we started. However, the writers didn't just learn from their experience with TNG to apply to BSG; they also applied it to DS9. So just wait, my friend, for the glory to come!
Interesting post, still don't understand why you devote so much time to re-watching the Star Trek series when there is so much more good entertainment to move on to, but no judgement, I re-watched the TMNT cartoons on VHS, Clear and Present Danger and The Rock more times than I can count.
Pet peeve I try not to let bother me, but usually does because I'm an ass hole: Suspension of disbelief in entertainment medias, regardless of classification of Science Fiction. Don't understand why people would be dissatisfied with something because they don't find it believable. I typically try to learn from medias outside of entertainment, and even then I just end up forgetting because I have a tough time internalizing concepts that don't interest me in general (I don't know how I'm making it work in the engineering world). Are people trying to learn from television and movies, does that set certain movies apart from the pack? I think you shut yourself off to a lot of quality product with this notion and set a standard too high to meet, thus creating an inevitable destiny of disappointment in your movie and television choices.
Yeah, Chuck fucks my shit up...
In this case, it wasn't re-watching for the most part, it was watching for the first time, as I hadn't seen upwards of 95% of TNG. I didn't have access to a TV during school that wasn't already dedicated to Friends or PTI. And sometimes... sometimes you just have to acknowledge your roots.
As for my complaint about believability, it comes down to the quality of storytelling. We live in a culture of cynicism, and on top of that, my brain has a bad habit of voraciously flagging logical inconsistencies when it's running on idle. This doesn't mean I can't or won't enjoy a story despite its flaws, but it certainly makes things harder when I have to work uphill to constantly say "Ok, fine, I have to accept this." The quality of a story, I feel, is directly proportional to how hard I have to work to overcome bad storywriting.
As a (bad, amateur, bloggy) writer myself, overcoming these things takes an additional path: "If I was the writer, could I have done better?" Sometimes I say no, as I recognize that certain plot points, certain character choices, certain points of inconsistency are kept because of the decisions of other writers, other points of "canon" that are in direct conflict with a potentially more interesting bit of storytelling.
But other times... other times the violations of the rules of storywriting are hard to accept. I've said these somewhere else, but I'll say them again:
Take for instance to concept of the pattern buffer for the transporters in TNG. In earlier episodes, people are brought back to life because an informational copy of a person is stored in the computer after transport. However, in later seasons, this is absolutely forgotten, ignored, or brushed under the carpet with treknobabble. And in some cases this is fine: if everyone could simply be brought back to life based on your most recent transporter trip, there wouldn't be a case for half of the episodes. The stakes for any away mission would mean nothing, and the show would become less interesting.
All it would take is something like Geordi to say "the storage it would take to store that many atoms would overload the ship's computer," or explain how the pattern buffer is meant to be temporary storage and has an inherent "decay" after more than a few minutes after transport. That way, the pattern buffer is a limited "power," and can be sanely used in some cases, and not in others.
Otherwise, somebody like me constantly asks why the pattern buffer isn't used everywhere. And the actions of every character following makes their decisions and actions all the more unlikely. We know it's impossible with today's technology to have something like transporters, but we can be told "There is such a thing," and we'll believe it. But have an entire episode about suicide, and have characters feeling grief and confusion when there's such a thing as pattern buffer recovery, and everything becomes contrived.
I feel storywriting is as much plot and dialogue as it is world building. World building is important because it defines the rules by which the characters can act and interact. When the rules are inconsistent, or poorly thought out, the... poignancy of some of the plot points can be undermined. It's the writers job to make sure this doesn't happen, and when they do, I feel this represents poorly on the overall product.
Better stories and writing are more air-tight, or at the very least, less inconsistent. There's also how certain things are introduced. For instance, take the introductory sequence of Serenity. In the span of maybe 5 minutes, it introduces the world, the characters, most of the major plot points, and some of the backstory that was brought together over the course of 13 prior episodes. It does this very skillfully. In Star Trek, we would have had Data explaining that a number of ship's systems were degraded as a result of repeated abuse, damage, misrepair, and lack of replacement parts. In Serenity, Captain Reynolds asks "Did the primary buffer panel just fall off my gorram ship?"
The more effective the storytelling, the more consistent the world, the less inclined I am to wonder why, in a universe where most people can speak fluent Chinese as well as English, there are so few Asian characters, primary or not. When Star Trek gets "explain-y," it becomes less effective.
Yes, my standards are high. Because my brain thrives on logically consistent systems, because those are the ones that my imagination has the most fun with. And has problems with things to the contrary.
TNG, Hollow Pursuits Article: http://tederick.tumblr.com/post/56876535461/st-tng-3x21-hollow-pursuits (tederick.tumblr.com)
When “Hollow Pursuits” was written, we all thought “Virtual Reality” – of the type for which the holodeck represents the ne plus ultra – was in store for us in the immediate future. This didn’t prove out, of course, or at least not in fantasy environments which are as clearly demarcated as “now you’re in the holodeck; now you’re not.” Instead, fantasy and identity fucked for about twenty years and had a bajillion creepy social media babies, and if this generation is having understandable growing pains handling it, the next few decades’ worth of children are going to be some really strange dudes.
I watched the episode "Final Mission," the ninth episode of the fourth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation this weekend (original air date: December 2nd, 1990).
The episode had Wesley Crusher and Captain Picard traveling in a mechanically dubious alien shuttle to get to a planet that is in need of Picard's galaxy-renowned diplomatic arbitration skills. The trip is intended as a "final mission" for Wesley, as he is about to leave the Enterprise to study at Starfleet Academy, and Picard wanted to use the time on the mission to give him sagely advice. As is predicted, the shuttle's propulsion system fails, leaving Wesley, Picard, and the captain of the alien shuttle stranded on a desert planet.
Picard maintains an uneasy command of the shuttle crash survivors, convincing the shuttle captain to make for the mountains as their best chance for food or shelter. They make their way across the desert and to a cave, with what appears to be an active spring welling up from the bottom of the cave. However, upon approaching the spring, they discover that a force field surrounds the water, and a number of energy-based sentries attack the survivors when they try to take down the field with their phasers. The sentries cause rocks to fall from the ceiling, injuring Picard. Wesley tries to help Picard, but discovers that the injuries will eventually prove fatal, and cannot be treated in the cave.
The alien shuttle captain grows impatient, and convinces Wesley to try another plan to use the phasers to take down the field around the water spring. Their plan again fails, and the alien shuttle captain is killed after being encased in "selenium fibers" by the sentries.
Wesley, tending to an ailing Picard, tries to keep Picard awake and in good spirits while he works on a way to disable the field. Picard, on the verge of death, tells Wesley how proud he is of him, gives him advice on Starfleet, the Academy, and life.
Up until now, the episode was a pretty standard "away team" story, with the added bonus of Patrick Stewart doing a good job on acting, and Wesley not being annoying and actually growing a pair.
What was more interesting about this episode is that I realized, watching the concluding scenes, that watching this episode is actually one of my earliest memories. Wesley, furious punching away at his tricorder while the energy sentries whirl around him, and then suddenly, his plan works, and the field goes down, and he's able to get the lifesaving water to Picard.
This is probably the most compelling reason I have for watching these shows. I may not have seen all of the episodes, but for the ones that I have (and no longer consciously remember), the characters and the imagery are buried deep in my memory and subconscious. And I think it's interesting to recall what a 5-year-old Josh thought about Star Trek.
Here's how it would go:
Josh: (starting up Voyager after thoroughly enjoying DS9) "Well, might as well finish the fight. I watched it a bit with my dad when I was a kid, but seemed to fall out of habit after the second season or so..."
Josh: (watching) "Wait. What is Neelix's purpose on the ship?"
Josh: (watching more) "He's the cook. Well, a cook. On a ship with a replicator, that renders cooking an almost obsolete profession, amongst a crew of military space explorers who have been recently marooned on the opposite side of their galaxy, and don't really need to dedicate food resources and ship space to anything except the efficiency of their replicating machines. Maybe... maybe he'll be important later? Have interesting alien powers? Be... comedic relief."
Josh: (5 minutes later) "Nope. Not happening."
Then with Enterprise:
Josh: "I'm not listening to this theme song 98 times."
There's also every time John has called me in the last 5 months:
Josh: "'Ello"
John: "Hey, whatcha doin'?"
Josh: "Oh, you know... watching Star Trek."
John: (deep, disgusted, bottomless silence, followed by a pained and pitying sigh, followed by a quick muttering under his breath) "(For fuck's sake...) ...And did you want to do something else?"
I have to set attainable goals, otherwise I will never succeed.
You know, Josh, not EVERY character on ST can be a Spock/Data/EMH/Seven-like non-human robot character. It doesn't work with more than one, otherwise the "fish out of water" character has other fishes. The reason Seven worked is because she came around once the Doctor had become human enough to fit in.
I know, I know. I just don't like the idea of impossibly happy characters, whose defining traits are that they... are happy, cheery, optimistic. No matter what. See Trance Gemini from Andromeda.
(I understand later in the seasons Neelix gets better depth, etc., but that he's introduced as such just irritated me at the start.)
Indeed I have. Nice fellow, though.
Thinking more on it, the science fiction genre, while usually inhabiting the future and space and such, has the primary function of holding a mirror to the current human condition and human thinking (rational, emotional, or otherwise). Each character's personality represents a specific and exaggerated collection of human traits, and the interaction of those personalities and traits is what creates drama and helps us to relate to the drama, even in a bizarre and foreign environment.
When you have characters that are "impossibly happy," or otherwise don't have an "off switch," or almost never exhibit off-days, bad days, bad moods, are never in conflict with others or themselves, etc., they strike me as unrealistic, unlikely, and inhuman. I stop relating to them, at least to me. Contentment isn't something I'm terribly familiar with, nor does it make good fiction.
Did you see later seasons of Andromeda? Where Trance changes colors to this dusty gold instead of purple and is kind of scary and intimidating? They totally realized that her impossible optimism wasn't working. Also, in the finale or something it was revealed that she was actually a planet or a star or something. It was weird.
I noticed that somebody had left open the "doors" on the electrical sockets on the front of my house. The same day my neighbors were working on some project in their yard nearest the sockets (though, still farther away than their own sockets), so it may have been them using them while I was at work.
I'm not adverse to them doing so: if it's more convenient, or safe, then I guess I'm alright with them using them. But asking first is the adult thing to do.
Either way, my paranoia reaches new levels:
My sentiments as well, thanks for tolerating us.
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| 2011 Kimmet-Peltier Wedding (picasaweb.google.com) |
Well, the bewildered look on his face as I was walk-dancing away was somewhere in between "where's my shotgun, I'm gonna kill that boy" and "where's my lap dance?". I decided to err on the side of caution, so as to certainly live another day.
That being said, I think that the next time you and Travis get married, I won't attempt to fulfill my drink quota. The excel sheet was probably the best drinking motivator I've seen in quite some time, even if Travis might not have understood the implications of telling me my drink number (lol, akin to sleep number but opposite, I'd say). Also, I'll have fond memories of your mother forevermore every time I hear "Pour Some Sugar on Me".
The photographer posted some of his photos on his blog tonight. They're great!
http://ngwphotogra...rdwood-wedding.html (ngwphotography.blogspot.com)
Apparently between the two photographers they took over 9000 photos. After sifting through and paring them down a bit he sent us almost 3000 on CD.
"A highlight for me, for sure, was the curly headed guy that caught the garter and proceeded to steadily boogie down the rest of the night--even riding atop Megan's lap at one point--to her shock and surprise! You'll have to watch the slide show to see what I'm talking about."
I... well, your grandfather was smiling. Mission accomplished? Lol.
These are gorgeous.
Although it seems like a bad night for the children. Between the cowboy abducting a child and some woman in a nice summer dress ripping a girl away from everything she's ever known makes it clear that all children were probably terrified the entire time.
If any were still around/alive by Erik's lap dance, well, I'm sure they were scarred for life.
I totally forgot about Falling Skies, and I wanted to watch it!!! But, of course, GoT all the way. In the midst of reading the books, which are incredible. Perhaps my favorite fiction series ever, albeit that excludes LoTR since it is, and shall be forever timeless.
Should try for Falling Skies this sunday...
Hello IDKFA! I have a request for assistance here... One of my best friends brother is moving to Anchorage for a temporary posting for work from Jul to Dec. Does anyone here have any ideas or suggestions for temporary housing (roommates/rentals/etc) or temporary access to a vehicle? Please let me know if you do! Thanks!
(Scene: Late at night. Josh returns from hiking up a mountain after biking 12 miles. Tired, thirsty, covered in road dust, feeling his years. He thinks he's finishing his last act for the day, responding to forum posts...)
Josh: (hits enter) "... Ah, shit."
Josh: (refreshes) "Damnit."
Josh: (looks at clock)
Josh: (considers opening up the database, searching for the post, updating the record to to the correct reply ID, typing at least four passwords, verifying changes...) "Fuck it."
Josh: (goes to bed)
We climbed Flattop with a trampoline.
This is my facebook photo album with what are probably the best pictures selected and organized:
My Mom Told Me This Was A Bad Idea (www.facebook.com)
Here's the Picasa web album that has every photo, at full size. Most here are with my point-and-shoot, some are with the ifone.
J-Rho - one of the group of three girls found me on twitter. Some follower followed someone else who followed someone else who was one of the girls, and saw the retweets, and then mentions were the breadcrumbs trail. small world! their twitpics were just as epic as ours, and apparently we are a "group of crazy guys."
I didn't take many stills with my phone, but still, a few choice ones.
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| 2011 Flattop and a Trampoline (picasaweb.google.com) |
Videos to follow, if I can bend things to my will.
Videos:
Josh: http://vimeo.com/25388948 (vimeo.com)
Dave: http://vimeo.com/25390227 (vimeo.com)
Dave's friend Dustin: http://vimeo.com/25390945 (vimeo.com)
Password is 'idkfa'.
