Random Thoughts Monday: More Star Trek

This post will contain my idea for the 4th Star Trek reboot movie.  I know I am jumping the gun, the 3rd movie is still a year away, but what little has been released about the 3rd movie indicates it will take place in deep space.  My idea takes place in federation space.  If I were to be absolutely honest I think this idea should have been the 2nd movie in the reboot, but I liked Into Darkness (it kicked off my current obsession with Star Trek) so I will say no more.

In my opinion the 4th movie should take place on New Vulcan.  The Enterprise is returning from their 5 year mission when they are ordered to stop by New Vulcan for memorials honoring the 7 year anniversary of the destruction of Vulcan.  As the only federation ship to survive the confrontation, and the ship that saved the elders, the Enterprise has an honored role in the ceremonies.  Unfortunately it quickly becomes evident that not all is well with New Vulcan.

I am going to backtrack a moment.  In TOS episode 47 "The Immunity Syndrome" Spock feels the death of the crew of the Intrepid, a Federation Star Ship with an all Vulcan crew.  If my memory serves me correctly, at one point during the episode Kirk asks Spock what the Vulcan's felt before they died, and Spock replies astonishment at being defeated.  Vulcan's are a peaceful, but proud race.  I don't know much about Vulcan history, but I got the impression that they were never the underdog. If they ever were they soon found a logical solution that brought them back to the top.

There was no warning and no logical reason for Vulcan to be destroyed (a Romulan from the future drunk on vengeance decided to destroy the Vulcan home world because a Vulcan ambassador failed to save the Romulan home world from a natural disaster in the future.  Can you get any more convoluted?).  If Vulcan's had never experienced a major defeat before they got hit with one to top all others with the destruction of their home world and consequently the decimation of their population.  We are talking a population in the billions unexpectedly and in a short time being reduced to thousands.  An event like that doesn't happen without effecting the cultures identity. 

The Enterprise arrives at New Vulcan to discover a cultural battle being waged over the Vulcan's identity as a people.  On one extreme you have the traditionalists who wish to carry on as if nothing had changed.  On the other extreme you have Vulcan's who are questioning Surak's teachings.  The first group is being led by some of the elders.  The second group is being led by Spock's older brother Sybok, who embraced emotionalism before Vulcan was destroyed.  Sybok survived the destruction of Vulcan because he and like minded Vulcan's were in voluntary exile.

The situation is further complicated by the younger Vulcan's (around Spock's age) being prone to emotional outburst following the destruction of their family links and the simultaneous death of billions of fellow Vulcans.  Some if this group resorted to Kolinar (removing all emotion) to cope, others chose to follow Sybok.  The remaining  find themselves marked with the proverbial scarlet letter because of their emotional outbursts.  

When the Enterprise's landing party arrives this third group rally around Spock as a Vulcan who has had emotional outbursts and yet follows Surak and holds an honored position as part of the crew that saved the elders.  Spock is blindsided by this turn of events when he realizes that the same individuals that persecuted him as a child because of his human half are now honoring him for the same trait.  He also realizes that part of the reason he was able to bounce back from the emotional outbursts was because he worked with a human crew.  While human's expect emotional outbursts after extreme events they also expect a return to the norm once all is said and done.  The Vulcan's turning to him are being treated like ticking time bombs.

There is fear that the situation will result in another split (the first being when the Romulan's split from the Vulcan's during Surak's time).  This would be illogical in that it would divide the Vulcan's dwindling population.  Additionally the destruction of Vulcan was caused by a Romulan, a species that resulted from the first split.  This feared split causes one of the opposing groups (or a Kolinar adept who seeks to find the most logical response to the situation) to unleash some kind of technology to ensure that everyone gets along.  Something that in the past would never have been considered.  (I haven't been able to define what this is, but I vaguely conceive of it as similar to the Borg collective.  Something that artificially heightens the telepathic links that bind the Vulcan race).

While all this is going on Spock is facing tangible proof of his own mortality when he visits the grave of his older self who died while the Enterprise was on it's 5 year mission.  In addition Old Spock did as he told Young Spock he would and contributed to the re-population of Vulcan, leaving behind a child.  On top of mourning his older self Spock has to figure out what his responsibility is toward this child, and at what level he wants to be part of his/her life.  To further complicate personal matters, Spock is introduced to his new step mother, and brother/sister.  As his father also did his duty in repopulating Vulcan.

Week 6: Linen Closet

I know I am late and I have the audacity to inflict more poor photography on you, but I am back on the band wagon at least.

As I mentioned in past posts the only way, in my opinion, to clean up my craft room was to find permanent homes for the stuff stored there. (FYI the before picture looks particularly empty because there was a minor problem with the kitchen sink that involved all my towels that week).  My linen closet was ripe for redevelopment into new homes for my junk.

The first problem I tackled was the small stuff:

I measured my shelves and purchased a storage compartment to collect my extra makeup, spare toothbrushes and toothpaste, and other such small toiletries.  I paid a little extra for this one because it had adjustable compartments.  All of this was in my craft room in random bags and containers.  I might actually use eye shadow again now that I can find it.

The next problem was the dead space created by the tall shelves:

Notice the leaning tower of hand towels under the p?  This particular problem I solved with a shoe rack (again I carried the measurements of my shelves with me to make sure it would fit).  The shorter shelves allowed me to fit all my hand towels, extra dish towels, and wash clothes on one shelf with room to spare.

Next my cleaning supplies moved in.  I am still debating the best location for these.  In their current home anything that leaks or spills will dribble down to my towels, and if anything should fall out there is a chance of spatter hitting my face.  These would be less hazardous on the bottom shelf, but also more accessible to small hands.  I don't have children but I have friends and relatives who do. (I tend to over think things.)

The rest moved into their most logical locations.  The large toiletries (shampoo, spare hand soap, spare mouth wash, etc.) moved in next to my small toiletries.  My photo albums and memorabilia from my college band trips found homes on the top most shelf, and my bath towels found there way out of the laundry and back to the linen closet.

That only leaves one thing displaced, my spare blankets.  They moved into my craft room (it sounds like a worse idea than it is).  In its finished state the craft room will have more than one function.  One of which will be its continued existence as a storage space.  One thing that will be stored in the craft room is my luggage.  Which also happens to be the new home of my spare blankets (see not as bad an idea as it originally sounded).  

Random Thoughts Monday: on Cooking

It's Lent, the 40 days before Easter where practicing Catholics give something up.  Most often meat on Fridays, but sometimes something else as well.  I don't participate in the New Years resolution, but I like to make a resolution for lent (40 days is much less daunting than 365).  This year I have several, one of which is getting my craft room in order, another is to go partially vegetarian (or pescatarian to be more precise).  Partially meaning I cook vegetarian meals at home, and eat what ever is put in front of me everywhere else. 

Don't use meat products when cooking seems easy enough, but I did it all wrong.  I didn't realize how many of my winter dishes depended on sausage or fat to taste good.  I found myself eating half my egg salad sandwich, not being able to finish the pasta and canned vegetable marinara sauce, or  resorting to peanut butter and jelly.  The food just wasn't appetizing.  It would have been a great diet plan if I didn't make my way through half a box of girl scout cookies (tis the season) a few hours after dinner each evening.  I realized I needed to change things up.  A trip to the grocery store to buy fresh vegetables and fruit and reinstating Monday cooking sprees (where I make several large meals that I can eat off the rest of the week) was the plan.  It was a successful plan, minus a few hick-ups.

I first made carrot and ginger soup.  It caused a big mess.  First, I learned not to put carrot shavings down the garbage disposal.  There is standing water in both my sinks and a plumber will likely need to be called.  Second, I used my immersion blender to puree it.  Anyone who has used an immersion blender knows that having enough liquid to be able to move the blade up and down without breaking the surface is key to a successful result.  My pot was two wide, the liquid too shallow, and I was covered in carrot splatter.  My stove, my counters, my walls, my paper towels and toaster, even my refrigerator (a good few feet away) was splattered in carrot soup.  On the bright side it tastes quite good (much more appetizing than the canned marinara sauce).

My pumpkin bread was a success.  I just don't have anything to store it in to keep it from drying out.  And, then there was the tilapia casserole.  The tilapia has been in my freezer for an unknown number of months.  I suspect it is coming up on a year, so using it up was a priority.  I found the easiest recipe possible on line (tilapia, canned cream soup, and cracker topping) and added some frozen vegetables to the mix.  The problem arouse when I decided to take one of the suggestions from the recipe's reviews to broil it a few minutes to crisp the topping.  I forgot it.  The topping was crisp and black as coal, smoke was tumbling out of the oven, and I was scrambling to get things back under control.  On the bright side once the blackened top was removed it looked pretty good.

This week should be more appetizing, and hopefully a more successful vegetarian diet.

Week 5: Excuses

I tried to recycle some old batteries and empty ink cartridges from the craft room this week, but it turns out Best Buy doesn't recycle batteries after all.  They would have probably taken the ink cartridges but I set off the security alarm when I went into the store, and was being politely quizzed by an employee who told me to see if the city would take them.  I just wanted to get out of there by that point.  Not sure what I am going to do with the old batteries and ink cartridges.

That is the extent of what I did this week, which essentially amounts to nothing.  In my defense I worked Friday, Saturday, and Monday and have been (still am) at a conference the rest of the week.  I could have done something productive on Sunday, so the conference isn't much of an excuse, but I didn't.  I promise to get back on the band wagon next week with a whole lot of progress on the craft room.

Random Thoughts Monday: On Carol Marcus

My current obsession is Star Trek.  These obsessions come and go, so bare with me while I am on this one.

I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness.  There are some Star Trek fans that didn't, but I did.  That said there were some things that I didn't like.  One of those is Carol Marcus.

Why don't I like Carol Marcus?  I don't have any problems with her character in Into Darkness.  What gives me a foreboding feeling is what the character represents in Star Trek cannon.  That is: a romantic interest to Kirk, and the mother of his child.  Why is this a bad thing?  Let's break it down:

1. There is a reason fairy tales end after happily ever after.  Romance isn't interesting unless there is conflict.  I don't want Star Trek to become an angsty romance.  It's about discovery, humanity, brotherhood, and adventure.  I prefer the romantic entanglements as back story.

2. I must confess I don't like the original Kirk.  He had a propensity to fall in love with every pretty woman he saw.  He was Romeo, confessing his undying love to Rosalind, and having an epic love affair with Juliet a few scenes later.  It was irritating.  I don't want to dislike AU Kirk, and I fear I will if they turn him from a lone ranger into a Romeo.

3. Why are all the strong female characters in Star Trek romantic interests for the lead male roles?Carol Marcus, by any other name, is an intriguing character.  She is an intelligent scientist who, led by her moral compass, betrays her corrupt father.  I don't want her to become a Kirk girl.

4. The potential kid is a problem on multiple levels. First, Star Fleet is set up like the military.  It isn't hard to believe that a baby on the ship would be a big no-no and instant angsty Kirk/Marcus (see #1). Second, is it so hard to believe Kirk would take steps to ensure he wouldn't accidentally have a kid?  Especially after joining Star Fleet, and especially with his promiscuous nature?

In the end Carol Marcus represents the stumbling block that I believe many Trek fans ran into when it came to Into Darkness: expectation.  I have a beloved image in my head of the AU Trek characters and I fear the 2016 movie, which I hold in much anticipation, will stone it to death.

Week 4: Organizing Other Rooms

I have lived in my place for a little over a year, and though I optimistically call my spare room a craft room, it has really been a junk room since I moved in.  It was were the unpacked boxes went, the stuff my parents were no longer going to store went, were anything that didn't have a place went.  Which is the crux of the problem when cleaning it out.  Things ended up in my craft room because they didn't have a place to go.

Last week I divided the room into three piles: keep, throw away, and move out.  This week I began tackling the issue of what to do with the move out pile.  Which meant cleaning and organizing by bathroom and linen closet.  For the linen closet I bought plastic storage drawers to sit on one of the shelves.  My make-up, travel sized shampoo/conditioner, and extra toothbrushes and toothpaste moved in here. The bathroom cabinet under the sink got a complete makeover with whatever I had on hand.  

I had originally planned to buy drawer organizers for the bathroom, but I am a cheap skate and balked at paying three dollars for a small plastic tray without any divisions, or seventeen for a whole organization system for one drawer.  So, I got creative.  I had a bunch of glass jars in my craft room (you can't recycle glass in my condo, and I dislike throwing it in the trash) which I decided to use to gather similar things in the drawers, these along with some small plastic containers I already had made for a good makeshift drawer organization system.

I only have a before and after image for the first drawer.  I got involved in figuring out where things should go and forgot the camera for the others.

And the final product with everything in its place:

The craft room is still a mess, but things are slowly finding homes in other areas of my place.

Random Thoughts Monday: Fan Fiction

I wanted to do another post on Star Trek, but every way I thought about it fan fiction always crept into it.  Once fan fiction is mentioned there is inevitably a tangent on why I (or anyone) would want to read fan fiction.  There would be excuses, explanations, justifications, and then inevitably a defensive 'because I can like whatever I want to, dang it'.  So, I am going to get this out of the way up front.

Wikipedia describes fanfiction thus:

"Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic or fic) is fiction about characters or settings from an original work of fiction, created by fans of that work rather than by its creator"

I personally am a fan fiction lurker.  I have tried my hand at a few drabbles (stories that are generally less than a 1000 words in length) and am occasionally inspired to leave a review, but mostly I just read.  Perhaps if I was more involved in the community I would be less defensive about admitting to liking fan fiction.  So why read works by rabid fans when I could read edited finely polished and vetted works from professional authors?  There are a dozen different ways I have answered this question and I will likely have a different answer tomorrow, but today it is because you can choose your own adventure.

First it is difficult to read fan fiction without having consumed the original (I say consumed instead of read because there is fan fiction about books, movies, tv shows, comic strips, games, ect.).  In the case of Star Trek my progression went like this: I saw the movie Star Trek Into Darkness; I wanted more so I searched out fan fiction; the fan fiction referenced the original 1960s Star Trek series so I searched those out and watched them; I discovered story lines being referenced that were not in the original series which led me to discover the 1975 animated series; I found the official novelization of Star Trek 2009, hated it, decided it didn't exist (eventually I will give the novelization of Into Darkness a shot); and through all of this I continued to read fan fiction on line.    

One other tangent, before I get to the point.  Fan fiction suffers from a 'which came first the chicken or the egg' conundrum.  I have read fan fiction for many different works, but if there isn't an active community I quickly run out of stories I want to read.  Then my interest dies and I move on.  An active community needs two things to exist: writers and reviewers.  Fan fiction writers don't get paid, except in social interaction and encouragement from reviewers.  If there are no reviewers writers move to another fandom.  If there are no new stories reviewers move onto another fandom.  Because of this the most popular fandoms tend to be those attached to largely popular original works (Harry Potter and Star Wars being prime examples) making it more likely that a sufficient amount of writers and reviewers will converge on the fandom to create a sustained community.

Now the point, with a large sustained body of work being created around a fandom a reader can choose the direction they want that fandom to go and what kind of story they want to read.  For example reading a story that pairs off Harry and Draco (or Harriet and Draco, gender bending is always an option for an author) is almost guaranteed to include some kind of conflict relating to the characters status in society.  Whether this takes the form of being on two different sides of a war or in navigating the differences between their social standing there is almost guaranteed to be a clash of classes.  Perhaps, instead, the reader wants a story that explores a darker Harry that decides to put his life before everyone else's.  With a large enough community all of these stories would be out there to find and read.  A reader literally gets to choose their own adventure.  

Week 3: Piles of junk

This week I sorted.  I went through everything in my craft room and divided it into three piles. 

 Pile 1 was gathered on top of and below my tables.  It contains things that will stay in the craft room.  Pile 2 had a conglomeration in the center of the room and contained things that will be moving out.  Most of this was bulk toiletries: soap, toothpaste, etc.  There is also cleaning supplies, empty ink cartridges (I need to find out where to recycle these), and my medicine cabinet (or medicine shoe box if you want to be literal).  Pile 3 is blocking the entryway into the room and contains a mountain of empty boxes.  Anytime I could consolidate two or more boxes I did.  The result is a trip to the recycling center.

If anyone has viewed my first two posts you may have noticed an improvement in photographic quality.  That is because I found my camera charger!  It turns our clear images of piles of junk are just as interesting as poor quality images of piles of junk (that being not very), so I tried Photoshoping some words to cover it all up, and add a little visual interest.

Next week, either a trip to the recycling center, or I tackle the pile of stuff moving out.  The second will be an interesting endeavor.  These things ended up in my craft room for a reason: they have no where else to live. 

Random Thoughts Monday: Two Tales

I have a distinct memory of a high school writing assignment where we were asked to write two stories that had nothing to do with each other, and yet were told together in order to be better understood.  I have no memory of what I wrote about, except that I didn't "get" the assignment.  Which is why it may be somewhat ironic that I am going to use the technique now.

When I was in college I did a study abroad in London.  I lived there for two months with a group of fellow Americans.  Anyone who has been to England knows that despite our (mostly) shared language, and brief shared history (we were one of their colonies), there are also distinct differences.  Not least of which being they drive on the wrong side of the road.  Or, more accurately they don't drive on the right side of the road.  This I knew before going.  If I hadn't the signs painted on the cross walks telling pedestrians which way to look would have clued me in (I did have to wonder how many tourists got run over before they decided to spell it out for us, literally). So, when over a month into the program I observed a driver getting out of the right hand side of their car (something I must have seen dozens of times before) it should not have struck me as being so odd.  But it did. Maybe it was because I had become comfortable living in the city, perhaps I just hadn't looked before, but suddenly it hit me as being very alien.  I commented on it to one of my fellow Americans and their response was predictably "Duh, didn't you know that?"  Yes I did, but in that moment I suddenly felt like a foreigner in a strange land.

Star Trek, for those uninitiated, was at its height of popularity in the 90's.  Between 1988 and 2001 there was always a Star Trek series on TV.  Between 1993 and 1999 there were two (93-94 Next Generations and Deep Space Nine, 95-99 Deep Space Nine and Voyager.)  As a child born in the 80s I was lured out of bed in the evenings at the sound of the Star Trek theme song.  As far as I was concerned as long as there had been TV there had been Star Trek.  This belief was confirmed when I was taken to a Star Trek movie.  Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley it continued the story of the original Star Trek series from the 60s (which as any child would tell you was forever ago).  And then the last Star Trek series ended.  This fact should not have made me feel like I had stepped into the Twilight Zone.  Except it did.  By this time I had lived long enough to have experienced the phenomenon that was the end of a TV series.  It is just, I had never associated this phenomenon with Star Trek.  How...odd.