Just when you thought the goons at Paramount couldn't find another way to rape Star Trek...

Word on the street is that Paramount is planning to distribute an "updated" version of the Original Star Trek series for HDTV channels. This version will have *SIGH* updated special effects using CGI, such as new ship shots and the like. Also, the theme song will be re-recorded. This is the kind of stuff that really pisses off the original series fans.

Perhaps that's it: maybe Paramount is just making a concerted effort to piss us all off. Maybe they have a giant machine in their main office that feeds off people's annoyance and turns it into raw energy. They call it the Vexation Engine.

Posted at 09:00 AM | Comments (2)

So Angela and I are walking in Queen's Park in New West and we decide to sit by a little waterpark where kids are playing. As we watch, some of the kids try to tempt an inquisitive squirrel with some kind of golfball-sized green nuts that are scattered all over the park. Finally, a kid just chucks one of the things, but it lands in one of the shallow streams. The squirrel awkwardly tries to chase it as it rolls downstream, but the critter doesn't want to get wet, so it gives up. So some other kid plucks the nut-thing out of the water downstream. The kid who originally threw the nut doesn't get upset or anything, he just watches as this second kid washes the gunk off the nut.

Then, out of nowhere, the mother of the first kid comes stomping up to the second kid, "Hey. Hey! Excuse me. I believe that's my son's nut. You took my son's nut." And she's all down in this kid's face when she puts her hand out expectantly. The second kid just slowly puts the nut in her hand, and she officiously returns the nut to her son.

Like, what the hell? They're just playing. It's not like he went and stole something out of your son's hand, and even if he did, it's a big green SEED; there's tons of them all over the ground. Why do you need to intervene and get all authoritarian with some poor kid. Is she gonna do this when her son is 20?

Lady, don't worry about other kids, looks like you're doing a pretty good job of taking away your son's nuts yourself.

Posted at 09:50 PM | Comments (1)

This article on this year's wild Blackberry crop was in the Vancouver Sun on Friday. Turns out that this year's combination of alternating intense rain and sun have produced a bumper crop of wild brambleberries. All the better to make into wine... yes...

Posted at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

Kitty just saved this server.

We're installing a bunch of new equipment today and I had my server set aside, precariously perched on the edge of Kitty's desk next to a cupboard. The fellow doing the installation tripped and fell against the other side of the cupboard, pushing the server off the edge of the desk. Fortunately, Kitty's lightning-fast reflexes allowed her to grasp it just before it plunged to its doom.

I carefully moved it to the floor, then grasped her hand tightly and uttered, "Thank you."

Posted at 11:21 AM | Comments (2)

Are you ever sitting somewhere in a completely random moment, and find yourself reminiscing about some ex... then all of a sudden snap into an embarrassing, "Fuck. What the hell was I thinking?"

I'm having one of those moments right now.

Posted at 05:33 PM | Comments (4)

This is a post I'm writing with a mish-mash of stuff to document what's on my mind right now. It's been busy at work, so I haven't had a lot of time to coalesce my thoughts. Here's some random snippets:

I've been watching a lot of animated Justice League on DVD. Quality television from the same people who brought you the Batman animated series.

There's tons of ripe wild blackberries near where I live. I've been collecting, washing, squashing, and freezing them in preparation for another run of Brambleberry wine. I've got scratches on my right forearm and a tiny nettle-like thorn in my thumb somewhere. Grrr...

Mom's gonna hate this part, but such is her fate for reading her son's blog. So, the original American Pie introduced the acronym MILF as slang for an attractive mature woman. Since the movie came out this slang word has stuck in the internet vocabulary. A few months ago, there was an Evil Inc. comic that featured a screenshot of the Legion of Justice web forums. One of the threads was entitled "VILF" (the first letter now meaning "villain" or "villainess") and also warned "nsfw". Fans noticed, and the joke became a smash hit; funnier than the actual punchline of the comic. This snowballed until recently Brad Guigar (the strip's author) designed a VILF T-Shirt. It's a cute design, and a testament to the fact that nearly every geek has a villain or villainess that he or she secretly lusts for. (There's a few ladies I know who like The Joker)

That is all.

Posted at 10:10 PM | Comments (4)

I've finally done it. I've made my very first Wikipedia contribution. It was nothing, really. I was trying to find the name of a variety of Rubus (ie: raspberry, blackberry) Angela and I had found while walking in Minnekhada park. Wikipedia has an extensive array of plant varieties, but this particular one wasn't there. So I made the article for Rubus Laciniatus, or "Cutleaf Evergreen Blackberry". Hopefully some overzealous editor won't have deleted it by the time you read this.

Posted at 09:45 PM | Comments (2)

Ever since the middle of Voyager, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have been trying to "fix" Star Trek: Make it hipper and more appealing to other audiences. Apparently they'd never heard of the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Readers of Geekman's World are no stranger to my opinion that Enterprise singlehandedly ruined one of the biggest Sci-Fi franchises in history. I think most fans would agree that Trek needs some serious time to lie fallow and grow new grassroots fandom.

Instead, someone has chosen to haul the still fresh corpse out of the closet, slap a thin veneer of shiny new paint on it and try to whore it to audiences who just finished vomiting up their disgust for Enterprise. There's going to be another Star Trek movie. This will star a young Kirk and Spock just out of Starfleet Academy. James T. Kirk will be played by.... *sigh* Matt Damon.

Continually, I can't fathom why the people in control of Star Trek can't understand what they're doing wrong.

Posted at 11:12 AM | Comments (6)

What would you call this? I guess it would be "Darth Hello Kitty Vader"? You know what else you could call it? Freakish. Wrong. An abomination.

In case you haven't heard, the unthinkable has happened: Fidel Castro has resigned. Interesting that just last Sunday night we were watching a Nature of Things program about how the energy crisis in Cuba (caused by the fall of the Soviet Union) has led to innovative methods of food production, such as the creation of vast, urban gardens known as Organoponicos. They're a unique solution to food production, check it out.

Posted at 12:42 PM | Comments (2)