Note on photo above: Me n friends went down to check out the art museum party on Saturday.  Some of them looked they came right out of a nightmare.

1) For my actions: Because I want to be happy.

Note on photo above: Neither my friend nor I dared to enter the room at the back... it was too eerie.

2) For The Boy: Because she wanted something different.

Note on photo above: Some installations were dreamy, cosy and wonderful.

3) For The Bear: Because you hunted me down after 10 years and found me. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photo above: I can bring my G10 everywhere!

4) For the cheesy TV dramas with perfect families: Because you are a lie.  Blatant.  Foolish.  Lie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photos above: And the forest sleeps on.  Beds of flowers are left untended by their winged counterparts. 

5) For Mr and Mrs Gandalf: Because both of you evoke happy memories.

Note on photo above: I took ages to get a good shot of this pair. 

6) For Love: Because you taught me to be independent and self-sufficient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note on photos above: Pickings are far and few between.

7) For the butterflies: Because you all irritate me so much by being so uncooperative but I can't help but be happy when I see you all flutter around drunkenly in the sunlight. 

Note on photo above: I found a stretch of quiet trail.  Where there was literally nothing except a low gutteral rumbling amongst the trees and this butterfly.  I can't figure out what's making that sound.

8) For the monsoon rains:  Because you drive me nuts when you are hot and sunny and beckoning while I'm in bed and then cold and rainy and forbidding when I'm outdoors.  But then again, recently you've been very nicely aligned with my activities so I'm grateful.

Note on photo above: What a nice lil forward strutty pose you got there with all your tails nicely straightened out.

9) For the labrador shaped chocolate: Because you just make me wanna give you a nice biiiig hugga!

10) For Raymond: Because he's pretty much disappeared and I wonder what's happened to him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11) For Nikki: Because she made so much progress in only 1 year.  And I'm proud of her.

Note on photo above: That is so true.  But only if you also learn to let go.

12) For the hunters: Because the difference between an avid hunter and a real friend is the selfish motive for a kill.

A mass of conflicting impulses.   - Spock and V'ger Nomad

The Great Star Trek Project of 08-09 has been slowly drawing to a close.  While Mr. Val and I finished Enterprise last month and will soon tackle the pre-boot on blu-ray we've been busy with fan films and parodies for a while.  My intention was to blog my progress throughout the project but that was overly ambitious.  I think I am at the point, though, where I can step back and make some pretty good observations about the project as a whole.

Star Trek: The Original Series

Oh joy, what fun.  There are few shows that can be so genuinely wonderful but still have enough cheese that they don't even warrant parody. TOS does enough to parody itself, so much so that, at times, it's painful.  Let us all recall Spock's Brain.  Ok, let's not.  Instead, let's let some genius with a YouTube account condense it into 4 minutes that are far more enjoyable than being subjected to the entire episode.

This clip is also sure to highlight one of my favorite lines from all of Trek: Brain and brain, what is brain!?!

Clearly the original series stood for a lot of good in addition to the cheese.  Yay brother.  The show was one of the first to spotlight minority actors and actresses and show them working alongside white people as if it was no big deal.  And despite some seemingly sexist overtones, I feel like Gene Roddenberry saw much of the sexiness of the women on the show as an expression of female empowerment.  Let's face it, throughout all of the different series it's clear that women can do anything, however, the amount of quality face time by powerful women in Star Trek pales in comparison to that of the men.  To me, that shows that we have a longer way to go in current society.

One of the primary missions of Captain Kirk was to destroy every Eden he could lay his hands on.  Apparently space is populated by peaceful and beautiful worlds that all hold a different, dirty little secret. Each has its own version of the snake.  While I kept a list of characters who said, "I'm a doctor, not a ______", I should've also kept a list of Edens destroyed by the glorious Captain Kirk, a man with no need of a Prime Directive.  Every time it happened, I know I turned to Mr. Val with my best Kirk imitation and spat, "so this...is...your...Eden".

For the best of the original series we turn to the first, and shockingly, the third season. 

Easily one of the most famous episodes of TOS is The City on the Edge of Forever.  I dare you to watch it and not shed a tear.  According to the Wiki page, writer Harlan Ellison recently settled with Paramount over royalty issues despite at one time disowning the script.  Ha!  Sounds like Ellison.  But he certainly deserves credit for this, even if the final version is someone dissimilar to his original script.

Another outstanding episode in the catalog was penultimate episode of the entire show's run.  They should've ended the series with All Our Yesterdays since the final episode, Turnabout Intruder was a poorly executed look at what the glass ceiling in Star Fleet can do to a poor girl.  Anyway, back to the good one, here's All Our Yesterdays, featuring one of my favorite Ladies of Star Trek.

Now for the fun part.  Let's turn to YouTube for some hilarious splices and clips.

First, there's the ever-famous video featuring all of the variations on: "he's dead, Jim".

I love this next one.  The person who uploaded it simply calls it, "Shatner at his finest":

It would be impossible not to include, I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!!
As I mentioned in an early review (part of that misguided ambition), Captain Kirk once imparted some good advice to that little d-bag Charlie, "there's no right way to hit a woman".  I beg to differ.
I'm probably sending some mixed signals here on my feelings about feminism, but bitch had it comin'.

All in all, the Original Series is a wonderful show, I can't wait to get the remastered versions on blu-ray with the beefed up effects.  I'm always happy to revisit this universe.

Coming tomorrow (if I feel like it): a look at the Original Series Films

NOT !!!  Not another word...

Or I shrink you next !!!

Our nephew Shane and his girlfriend Maggie eloped yesterday in Atlanta.  We are very happy for them and will see them on Thanksgiving at Charlotte and Randy's house.

A year ago tomorrow Kevin's brother Shawn married Kim in San Jose.  Kevin arrived in California the day Proposition 8 passed to celebrate his brother's happiness.  This week we got to watch people a thousand miles away vote on the civil rights of their fellow citizens in the state of Maine.

So, since we have lived in Nashville we have celebrated our nephew Billy's wedding, Shawn's, Shane's, and in June next year Megan and Ryan will be married. My sister and her boyfriend Bob eloped also.

 

If, suppose, I died tomorrow Kevin would be left alone, lose his Medical Insurance, forfeit my pension, and have to ask my family's permission to bury me. 

Each time we celebrate the union of those we love we quietly get to reflect on just what the implications are for us.  We have only been together for 18 years. Collectively more than all our newly married loved ones combined as far as the time they have been together prior to getting married. There has been no party or anniversary wishes.  No invitations to send out or thank you notes to write.

But we have each other for as long as we are alive and perhaps one day somebody will "allow" us the same basic civil rights as the people in our lives have.

As you know we love our families dearly and support them all and share in their joy each time a milestone occurs.  It would be nice to invite them all to share in our joy but we have decided that we will wait until we can do it legally rather than do something symbolic. They all treat us as though we are married so it would really just be a technicality anyhow. Oh, and then there are the 1,200 legal rights we would enjoy in addition to a new toaster and a few gift cards.

 

English title: The Rules of the Game, though a literal translation would be The rule of the game

I love this movie so much I don't even know how to begin to talk about it. is it a comedy? yep. a drama? indeed. a 'dramedy'? thankfully not. a comedy of manners? absolutely. an allegory, an analysis, a critique? yes. yes. yes.

a perfect snapshot of a moment in time? very much so. set between the wars at a time when an aristocracy on its way down was meeting a bourgeoisie on it way up; when the servant class was morphing into the working class.

that we even have La règle du jeu to watch is little short of a miracle. its remarkable story, lifted straight from imdb:

"

Despite now being considered one of the best films made by many historians, the picture almost became a lost art. Claiming that it was bad for the morale of the country (due to impending war), the French government banned the film about a month after its original release. When Germany took over France the following year, it was banned by the Nazi party as well, who also burnt many of the prints. Allied planes then accidentally destroyed the original negatives. It was thought to be a lost picture. In 1956, some followers of director Jean Renoir found enough pieces of the film scattered throughout France to reconstitute it with Renoir's help. Renoir claimed only one minor scene was missing from the original cut.

Another Apple II.  This time an enhanced Apple IIe. Would that be then an enhanced apple II enhanced?  The Apple IIe came out in 1983 and the enhanced version came out in 1987.  Basically the IIe was cheaper to build, had 64K built in, 80 column support and support for an external numeric keypad as opposed to the II+.  The enhanced version of the IIe had a built-in numeric keypad and used a 65C02 processor.

This example was purchased from the University of Kentucky in a surplus auction.  I think I paid either $1 or $5 for it.  It was when they closed the old library and opened the new one. I like the fact that someone has colored in around the apple logo.

The big debate in teaching primates, among other animals, is that while some say they are learning language, others insist it is merely communication, generally for a reward like food, that the primate has learned. In other words, simply a learned response, no different from a dog learning to sit or roll over for a treat. Are primates just a more trainable subjects?

There's a specific notation that I can't copy the first article I want to point out, so here is the link. It is an opinion piece on an online freelance site. I do not know anything about the author so I can't tell you what her background is.

The next article is long and I don't want to clog up anyone's Neighbourhood view, so here is a link from the New York Times, June 6, 1995 edition. The article is titled "Chimp Talk Debate: Is It Really Language?"

Additional interesting link:

Nova audiovisual slideshow.

Here's the first video of the kitties investigating the passion fruit and passion fruit rinds. It's shakier and not as well-lit, but the cats are cute.

It's so tiny..and green!

at least that was my conclusion after reading the excellent series of articles on dental health by June Thomas of Slate
it is long, enlightening and I can't recommend it enough.
some key points:

- why ist dental care separated from health care? there is ample evidence that dental health (lack of) correlates to serious chronic conditions including heart disease, diabetes, digestive problems, etc,

-  dentists are doctors but not "really doctor doctors". the significant differences between medical and dental practices

- dental insurance 'separate and unequal' from health insurance

- the prevention model has been very successful in dentistry yet not in medicine

- the appalling lack of dental care to large numbers of individuals

- dental care hasn't gotten barely any mention in the current health care reform debate