On Thanksgiving day, the fine folks at Star Trek: New Voyages released their third fan-film, "To Serve All My Days."  To those of you who know-- go download it and watch it right now before someone "spoilers" it for you.  I won't be giving any spoilers away here, but people are already starting to shout about it.

Now to those of you who may not know, Star Trek: New Voyages has become the bar to which all other Trek fan films are measured.  Not only have they rebuilt the original sets, but they've managed to bring in writers and actors from the original series to work on it.  The results have been some fantastic Trek, especially at a time when CBS/Paramount is making no Trek at all.

To unite Star Trek fans at a time where Trek fandom has collapsed under its own weight is no small feat.  (See my old Platypus Power blog to hear me rant on about that, if you've got nothing better to do.)  Over the last 10 years, Trek fandom has degenerated into negativity and division, usually over the quality of the Trek being made and aimed at those who were making it, with fans often turning on each other when their opinions didn't fall in line.  But like someone caught in a co-dependant or abusive reationship, many of these embittered fans couldn't bring themselves to leave something that was making them unhappy. 

It hasn't been a very fun place to be.  Since I was one of the few who was still enjoying Trek (well, maybe not always enjoying the quality of the Trek being made, but certainly not hating it),  I pretty much just dropped out of Trek fandom.

Along came New Voyages.  Unlike other fan films that were set on different ships with new crews, these people actually dared to recast Kirk and Spock.  And the same fans who swore this would be sacrilige if Paramount did it took to it really well.  (And I have to include myself among them.)  But it was easy to-- you could just shrug and say "It's a fan film."

And the fan films were well done.  Their first episode, "Come What May," captured the look and feel of the original series, with some spiffy new effects.  It also had that spirit, that hope for a better future that seemed to be missing from a lot of official Trek.

With their next episode ("In Harm's Way") they started getting recognition.  They got some of the guest stars from the original series to work on it with them, as well as Gene Roddenberry Jr. to help produce.  The finished product was great, even though some of the internal time-travel logic left fans so perplexed that the producers eventually had to post a timeline on their website to explain what was actually going on in the episode.  But since it was so darn good, we all accepted it with a shrug and said "It's a fan film." 

(A side note here-- it was also completely inaccessible if you weren't a Trek fan.  I showed it to my friends on a movie night once, and the ones who knew their Trek history liked it, and the ones who were only casual viewers were completely and totally lost.)

Well, now New Voyages was in the big leagues.  Trek had left TV, there were no plans for any new movies at the time, and the Paramount producers were saying "The future of Trek is in the hands of the fan-film makers."   New Voyages got D.C. Fontana (one of the key writers of the original 60's show) and Walter Koenig (the original Chekov) to work on the newest episode, "To Serve All My Days."

And Trek fandom rejoiced.  "This is now the one, true Trek!" we cried out jubilanlty.  All our previous complaints about the sacriligious recasting of our icons and the convoluted timelines were forgiven.  Because The New Episode Would Be Perfect.

And now "To Serve All My Days" has been released.  It is beautifully written and acted.  D.C. Fontanta's script shines and Walter Koenig shines in it.  The effects and music totally blow you away.  There's lots of little continuity touches, both acknowledging the latest official prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise and forshadowing events that will come later in Trek history.  New Voyages once again raises the bar on fan films.

But there is a major continuity derailment to Trek History that is essential to the plot.  D.C. Fontana wanted it.  Koenig absolutely loved it.  It really had to be there.  It was a jaw-dropping moment for me, and I was sitting there right along with the rest of my fellow fans wondering what they were going to do to resolve it.

The official answer?  Nothing.  Things will be back to status quo next episode, and the producers feel the fans can fill in the blanks for themselves.

And here's where the controversy has come in.  Many fans are saying "Yeah, okay, I can see why the episode had to be done this way.  I'll accept that, it'll be fun to come up with our own theories now that we can't argue about why the Klingon heads got bumpy anymore."  Other fans are saying "Well, okay, I'll accept that, but you had better come up with an explanation in the next episode."  And other fans are saying, "No!  I can't accept that!  You've destroyed continuity!"

Fandom had united and proclaimed New Voyages the new One, True Trek.  And now some feel the One True Trek has forsaken them.  Have we raised the bar so high that we've forgotten what we're dealing with here?

THIS IS A FAN FILM!!!!!

And it's a damn good one, at that.  Okay, so it's "sloppy" with they way they handle continuity.  But this is not official here, people.  CBS/Paramount didn't release it, so no matter how we want to look at it, this is and will always be a fan film.  If the producers are saying "We're assuming something happened to return to status quo by next episode," then hey, that's their call.  We can either shrug and play along and have some fun here, or we can degenerate back into the murky depths of mud-throwing that we've been doing for the last 10 years.

I'm going to chose to just shrug and have some fun with it.  I hope my fellow Trek fans will do the same.  If not, that's cool; but please, let's not turn on each other again.  Let's keep it fun.

With thanks to Evan & Jonathan.

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 70% Green Lantern 65% Supergirl 62% Spider-Man 60% Robin 49% Wonder Woman 47% The Flash 40% Hulk 35% Batman 35% Catwoman 25% Iron Man 25%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

I was in a bit of a hurry when I first posted this, so pardon me while I clean it up a bit and add a few comments.

I was kind of surprised to see Superman come up, but hey, who can complain about that?  And it was rather cool to see Green Lantern show up as #2 since I'm a huge fan of the Green Lantern Corps right now.  And rounding out the top 3 is Supergirl, so I've got both the male and female versions of Superman.  Well, I guess that's just me all over, lol!

The mouse kept coming and going all day yesterday and today.  Snickers kept his vigil the whole time, and anytime that little squeaker stuck his nose out Snickers let him have it.  Wouldn't actually put him out of his misery, mind you; but this meant he wasn't harassing Ivanova for once, so the rest of the household seemed to be okay with this new arrangement.

At one point today Joy actually did break out the video camera and got a few shots.  She seems very upset that Roxanne's suggestion to crop the actual mouse itself didn't occur to her first.  But as usual, Snickers kept playing with his food and it got away.

What follows are some video captures:


Snickers carrying his catch.

The mouse tries to leap away, but Snickers lays the smack down.

Oh, that poor mouse, it's a miracle he didn't die of a heart attack.  For heaven's sake Snickers, do your job as the house mouser and get rid of the thing already!  But nooooo, not our Snickers. For him this is a toy worth waiting for.

So at the end of the day Snickers finds him again and fairly quickly the mouse stops moving.  "I think it's finally dead," Joy says.  "I'm not so sure," I say, hesitant to try and clean it up if it's not dead yet.... I don't want to get bit by a panicked mouse.  "I think it's just stunned."  "I saw it move!" chimes in Mylene.  Ivanova, for her part, finally notices the mouse for the first time, strolls right in and starts licking it and decides, 'Wow, look at what I found!' and starts gleefully batting the comatose mouse around.  We definitely see it start moving then.  So Mylene holds Snickers back while I push Ivanova back (making a mental note that there's no more kissies for her until I've thoroughly rinsed her mouth out with Listerine), grab the shoe box, scoop up the mouse with some tissues, drop him in the box and take him outside. 

The poor little thing was having spasms and I wondered if he was too injured to live anyway, but once I dumped him out in the yard he perked right up.  So I think he'll be okay.

So what have we learned?  Snickers can root out mice, but won't kill them.  Ivanova is no mouser at all, she'll just swoop in after the hard work's been done.  And if you let your cat scare the hell out of a mouse for two days then you can just easily catch it on your own.

...So I'm taking a page from Roxanne's book on being a Serial Killer of Time, wasting time farting around on myspace when I could/should be cleaning, sleeping for work tonight, watching TV to catch up on some shows, or any number of more important things... when Snickers (my daughter's bad cat for the few of you who haven't met him) starts trying to pull something out from under my desk.

At first I didn't think much of it, because everything's a toy with him.  But then he pulls out what appeared to be to my (admittedly not very attentive) eye-- a mouse.

I think to myself, did he just uncover an old cat toy? But no, he then proceeds to strut around the room proudly displaying his catch.  A live, albeit very tiny, mouse.  With, like, real mouse legs and everything.

So I watch him for a moment and wonder, what do I do?  Let nature take its course?  Try to save the mouse? Go to bed?

While I pondered my dilemma, Snickers decided he wanted to keep playing with his new friend.  So he drops the mouse, who takes off, and Snickers then chases him under the kitchen table.  I went back to busily doing nothing  on myspace until the poor mouse's squeaks started playing at my conscience.  So I move in to try and catch the mouse in a shoe box.  And Snickers just keeps chasing him back and forth under the table.  And I'm trying to explain to Snickers that if we work together and just one of us catches him, we can put him outside and then I can go to bed, but Snickers is paying absolutely no attention to me at all, which is pretty typical of the evil little beast, but then again even if he had been listening then he wouldn't have wanted to let me put the mouse outside anyway, and all the while the back of my mind is thinking, Hey, maybe I should try and get some pictures of Snickers torturing this poor innocent little mouse because it might look pretty cute for Joy to put together in the scrapbook.

So I start moving the bench and table out of the way to better get at the mouse, and now Ivanova (our other cat, the one pictured on my shoulder in my profile pic) is getting curious as to what all the commotion is about and comes over to join in the fun.

The thing is... the mouse is now gone.  Dissapeared.  Bamf.

Snickers and I continue hunting, both perplexed.  Ivanova wanders off bored, convinced we're both just being crazy.  I wander back to my computer.  Snickers decides to take up a vigil by the kitchen table.

So I decided if we can't scrapbook the mouse... then I guess I'll at least blog the mouse.  Which is just as well, because now I've stayed up too late doing nothing and won't get around to telling Joy about this. Oh, so honey?  When you get around to reading this, there's a mouse in the house somewhere.  Unless the cats have caught it.  You might want to get a camera ready and pick up some mouse-themed embellishments.

Good night.

This has been just an amazing year for music for me.

It started off fairly slow... I signed back up with eMusic just so I could get the music from Winx Club for Mylene, and then while I was there I found Human League's latest album, "Secrets." And by "latest" I mean it's about two to three years old, but hey, it's still new to me. I'd heard good things about it so I thought I'd give it a chance. Now normally with Human League I find two to three songs off of each album that I'd drop into my mixes and the rest of the album would be forgettable, but I loved all of "Secrets."

So I expected to play it a lot, only very shortly afterwards Information Society got back together and started posting new songs. Most of them weren't downloadable for the longest time, but between the songs getting included in downloadable interviews and the occasional sponataneous burst of generosity where they would make them downloadable for only a day or two (not to mention various other people's generosity), I wound up with practically a whole album's worth of new InSoc material, and man, they are ALL winners. There's not a bad track in the bunch.

Meanwhile, I kept discovering new stuff on eMusic that I actually liked! Pansy Division, Moby's latest album "Hotel" (not to mention Moby adding new tracks here on myspace), albums I didn't have from Meco and Dr. Demento... (Okay, I wasn't really taken with the "Star Wars Party" album by Meco, but it had a few good tracks in it.)

Then Pet Shop Boys released their new album "Fundamental," which has been fantastic, even more so than usual...

And now in the last week I've discovered AudioBody thanks to Criag sending me that Diet Coke & Mentos video, and The Pinker Tones thanks to them just sending me an invite out of the blue. And yes, eMusic had both of The Pinker Tones' albums, too.

Plus Weird Al has released two free downloads so far this year leading up to his next album, "Straight Outta Lynwood" coming out next month. And if these two songs have been any indication, it's gonna stomp "Poodle Hat" 'til it's flat.

And to top it all of, Michael Bradley has a remix CD of all his Yellow Dancer music coming out by the end of the year. Is this real? Am I dreaming? New InSoc, Pet Shop Boys, Weird Al and even Yellow Dancer?!? Dude, if the Talosians have gotten to me and this is all a hallucination, then don't rescue me.

Normally one album stands out among all the others for me as the album I've played the most and gotten the most enjoyment out of that year, which I always dub as the "Better than Radio 'Album of the Year.'" But this year's gonna be tough with so many great albums.

Man, what a great year for music!

Another cool survey-game from Evan.



Here's the deal: Look over the list below. Consider how many of these things you have done. Add up the money amount along the way. Then, post the total dollar amount as the title of the bulletin. Be honest!

Smoked pot -- $10
Got drunk, passed out, and don't remember the night before -- $20
Went skinny-dipping -- $5
Had sex in a pool -- $20
Kissed someone of the same sex -- $10
Had sex with someone of the same sex -- $20
Cheated on your g/f or b/f -- $10
Cheated on your g/f or b/f with their relative or close friend -- $20
Done oral -- $5
Got oral -- $5
Done / got oral in a car while it was moving -- $25
Prank-called the cops -- $5
Stole something -- $10
Stole something worth over more than a hundred dollars -- $20
Had sex with someone 10 years older -- $20
Had sex with someone under 21 and you are over 27 -- $25
Cried yourself to sleep -- $5
Cried during sex -- $20
Been in love -- $25
Been in love with two people or more at the same time -- $50
Said you love someone but didn't mean it -- $25
Went streaking -- $5
Went streaking in broad daylight -- $15
Been arrested -- $5
Spent time in jail -- $15
Peed in the pool -- $1
Played spin the bottle -- $5
Done something you regret -- $20
Had a crush on your best friend -- $5
Had sex with your best friend -- $20
Had a crush on someone at work -- $5
Had sex with someone you work with at work -- $25
Lied to your mate -- $5
Lied to your mate about the sex being good -- $25

Don't forget! Repost with the dollar amount that you get. ;-)

Okay, Evan, you finally got me to repost one of these!

===============

Rules:

- Don't change your MySpace top 5 for this...
- Note who the people are below, and...
- Answer the questions truthfully. Have fun! =)


Number 1: Joy
Number 2: Payson
Number 3: Roxanne
Number 4: Derek
Number 5: Dan


Have you ever done anything illegal with 4?
Does selling Taiwan CDs and watching him shoot off fireworks of questionable legality in that state count? Then yes. Otherwise, no.

Have you ever loved 5?
No, but he's one hell of a nice guy.

Have you ever thought about kissing 2?
No, he's too much of a brother to me.

Have you ever danced with 3?
Not that I can remember.

Have you ever hugged 1?
On a daily basis.

Have you ever gotten drunk/high with 2?
Oddly enough, no.

Have you ever played a sport with 3?
Does Playstation Golf count? Then no.

Have you ever had an inside joke with 3?
Oh sure, I'm sure we've had plenty of them. Of course 1 and 4 would be in on it too.

Has any of your top 5 ever seen you naked?
Joy, definitely. I think Roxanne did once, but it was dark and I don't think she saw anything. As to Payson, I have no idea.

Have you ever had a crush on 2?
No, that would be a bit too incestuous for my liking.

Have you ever seen 4 in a swimsuit?
I'm thinking I must have, what with all the convention pools and summer parties and stuff, but I can't honestly remember.

Have you ever ridden in a car with 2?
DUDE!!! Our cruising stories are legendary. Someday I'll write a blog about when we invented Carting.

Have you ever traveled anywhere with 1?
Everywhere! Buffalo, Ohio, Philadelphia, Texas, Iowa, Detroit, Chicago, Hell and back...

Have you ever eaten anything in front of 1?
Again, on a daily basis.

Have you ever hated 4?
Nope. How could you? He's too damn easy-going.

Have you ever fought with number 2?
Oh yeah, from staged fights to a real falling out to debates where we both refused to yield.

Have you ever seen 1 do something embarassing?
Probably something she was embarrassed about, but I doubt I was... I was usually the one embarrassing her.

Has 2 ever given you a present?
Oh sure. He's brought more music into my life than I can list.

Have you ever seen anyone in your top 5 cry?
Yes.

Has 5 ever called you?
Well, not for a few years, but back when we were local we used to call each other, sure. Come to think of it, for quite a few years after we stopped being local I'd get a call from him. He's good at keeping in touch like that.

Have you ever slept in the same bed as 2?
Yes, after I made him remove enough of the stuffed animals to make room for us!


Repost this as:

Have you ever _______ with your top 5?

Back when I was in my "crazy 20s" I always wanted to make a 3D model of everyone I was virally linked to -- and who they were all linked to in turn-- using painted styrofoam balls of various sizes connected with those long six-inch toothpicks that you find in the craft stores. I thought it might be amusing.

Recently a friend of mine got me hooked on watching "The L Word." One of the elements of the show that enticed me was "The Chart," which was similar to my 3D model concept only on a giant dry-erase board.

So I was inspired to sit down and finally work out my own chart on paper. And wow, was I amazed by the results.

Now keep in mind-- I really was not all that promiscuous. (Remember folks, that's just a bi stereotype, some of us are quite monogamous, thank you.) As you'll see on the chart, I can count all my partners and still have not run out of fingers. (Well okay, I only have one finger left over, but hey, that still counts!)

So when I saw how high and how far the chart went, I was pretty stunned.

Also here's the real kicker-- almost every number from 10 on up I know little to nothing about. So each and every one of those people could make a chart of their own that would end up being as big as mine, or BIGGER.  And I have no way of knowing how responsible any of those people were!

Here's the chart, with all the names removed to protect the not-so-innocent. ;)

Some actual quotes from people on this chart:

"I don't need to get tested."
(Well, looking at this chart... I'd say, yes, we all do!)

"If I had [HIV], I'd know."
(Umm....no, you wouldn't. HIV itself can be dormant for years, with no noticeable symptoms until it turns into AIDS.)

"Don't you think that after watching [a close loved one] die of AIDS I wouldn't already know if I had it?"
(AIDS? Sure. HIV? No. See above. And I'd rather find out *before* we reach the AIDS point, thank you! Plus this was said to me when I brought up getting tested, so the person in question was actually referring to knowing if they had HIV. (But to also be completely fair, even though they were arguing against it, they did consent and we did both go to get tested.))

"I'd rather not know."

"They wouldn't give me the test results on the phone, and I'm too scared to go in to find out."
(Now, I can't speak for other states, but here in PA they apparently NEVER give out results over the phone. So just because they wouldn't say over the phone doesn't mean it's bad news. And the person never did go in to find out. This is what lead me to get myself tested for the first time.)

So what started off as a fun little project was a real eye opener. I was irresponsible early in my 20s, and then I started getting myself tested on a regular basis, with my last test being six months after I started being monogamous. So I'm confident I'm clean. But looking at this chart, I'm relieved to know I am.

Lots of places have medical centers that do free HIV testing. It's quick, easy, and doesn't hurt any worse than getting a shot. You can find one closest to you (totally anonymously) at www.hivtest.org. You owe it to yourself and your partners, and it really does give you peace of mind.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Now that I've got more than 8 friends, I've been coming up with "themes" for my Top 8.  Previously I had it so that it was all "real-world" friends on the top and musicians on the bottom (although I cheated with Dan, because he qualifies for both, so I put him in with musicians).  For my new set-up I'm doing them in columns... Joy and Payson are both friends since childhood, Derek and Roxanne are a couple, the last row is for the musicians... okay, Dan and Evan don't really have much to do with each other, but you get the idea.  :)  Oh, oh wait, Dan and Evan both have last names that start with the letter C and end with the letter S!  Damn, I'm good.

So anyway I have lots of other themes in mind and I'll be shaking it up a lot, so if you find yourself bumped out of the Top 8, just relax, it's only temporary.  I still love you all.  Now don't you feel special?

Sometimes I look at my screen and I want to reach out... but I don't.

Part of it is my brain.  Ever since I went on permanent night shift about six months ago (good gods... has it really been six months?) my brain's gotten fuzzier.  It's harder to think clearly.  I call it my "brain cloud."

And as Joy will tell you, I can sit here and rewrite posts & e-mails over and over again to try to refine what I'm trying to say to rediculous lengths, and that's without the brain cloud.  So nowadays I'm even more hesitant to say anything.

But I want to.  I sit here and I think of all the people I want to get in touch with.  But when I try to think of how to phrase what I want to say... my brain feels fuzzy.  So I don't.

So instead I surf myspace and read what other people are saying.  Sometimes I chime in, but usually I just think of what I'd like to say and don't say it.

So... what's up with that?

Part of it's the brain cloud. 
Part of it is that I feel like I don't really have anything interesting to say. 
Part of it-- depending on the forum-- is that people just don't know how to be nice to someone they disagree with anymore. 

That doesn't go for my friends, of course, they wouldn't be my friends otherwise, but there are some forums where I just lurk because people are too eager to flame over the slightest disagreement of opinion.  It's like the internet has desensitized us to the fact that hey, that's another actual person that you're attacking.  I like a good debate on different points of view, but it's no fun to just flame people.  I feel like either the rest of the world has lost their compassion, or I've just become way too sensitive, or both.  Most likely it's both.

Sometimes, when all three of those thoughts pile up together, I worry that I'm losing my grip.

See, right there!  I'm doing it right now.  I just reread this and was about to delete it.

Think I'll just post this now before I can change my mind.

Tell you what, we'll call it an experiment.  I'll try to blog more just for the sake of trying to teach myself to reach out again.