June 7th, 2009 by Calvero
  • while wating for ex, I put in laundry and going to see how much writing I can do. Still working on the Star Trek review followup. #
  • Mark just left with the girls. Hope they have a good time #
  • home from work. Heard that the kids had a good time with their dad. #
  • read that last Titanic survivor died. 97! She was 2 mo old when it sank http://bit.ly/T6K4i #
  • good night, one and all! #
  • morning! just ate lunch #
  • morning! folding laundry while Katie is playing #
  • listening to Daily Breakfast “Angels, Demons, Spock and Kirk” http://ping.fm/sj3yv #
  • listening to music from No Idle Frets podcast #213 http://bit.ly/11C9nX #
  • watching @FatherRoderick live on ustream for a little bit before heading to work http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sqpnlive #
  • home from work, and ready for my weekend! 😀 #
  • finishing up my dinner and watching @FatherRoderick ‘s Daily Breakfast ustream from earlier today http://ping.fm/TM2k0 #
  • fixed the small problem of my blog posting both daily and weekly digest tweets. Now it should be just weekly. http://ping.fm/1F2Uk #
  • gooood morning! 🙂 Already dropped Kristi off at school and took Katie to the store to pick up some things. #
  • watching Wheels on the Bus with Katie…sung with Roger Daltrey? Yup, it’s her generation now 😉 http://bit.ly/8HrQZ #
  • is singing “There’s a hole in the bucket” to Katie. Here’s the Muppets version that I 1st saw: http://bit.ly/omjFs #
  • @NameCheap Sydney, Australia? in reply to NameCheap #
  • Struggling to find out why my external hard drive is not being seen by my pc. Everything is connected but not showing up in My Computer #
  • good night! will have to tackle hard drive problem tomorrow #
  • good morning! watching kiddie songs on Youtube with Katie #
  • RT @NancySBrandt says RIP David Carradine. http://plurk.com/p/yex76 #
  • oh, how lovely… Yellow water coming out of the tap! Anyone want a glass? #
  • found this: prayers for this little boy with GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) http://bit.ly/kLK8v #
  • noticed some of my pants are getting baggy. More fruit and nuts and less sweets does actually work! Just call me fruity and nutty! 😀 #pabl #
  • watching @ipadre on ustream http://ping.fm/0rhMj #
  • still working on my Star Trek movie review followup (hard to do any writing with crazy work schedule and kids! ack!) #
  • if you’re into string theory, it’s being discussed on TWIT.tv http://live.twit.tv/ #
  • listening to Pray As You Go’s breathing exercise http://ping.fm/x05Id #pabl #
  • Does Tonight Show’s new backdrop looks like a Super Mario game? http://ping.fm/22bOF and tweet from @BigBley http://ping.fm/8CADG #
  • having fun watching Red Wing and Penguin fans’ tweets #
  • very nice… I can do a Google search for Orlando Magic (Go Magic!!) and find out what the score is jsut by looking at the top search result #
  • Good night! #
  • watching @Father Roderick live on ustream http://ping.fm/u13pa I’m a bit late, already an hour #
  • listening to Travel with Rick Steves podcast “Rome: Beneath the Surface” http://bit.ly/WiiB2 #
  • raining and 82F #
  • @GSPN love the new look Cliff in reply to GSPN #
  • I like Google’s Tetris logo today. Can it be that the game is 25 years old already? http://www.google.com/logos/tetris09.gif #
  • after a tiring day at work today, I think I’m ready for bed. good night! #
  • home from church. making mac & cheese for the kids. Katie is being really impatient, wanting it *now*! #
  • trying out Ping.fm’s song posting. Should be U2’s Beautiful Day http://tinysong.com/4aN #

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June 5th, 2009 by Calvero

One thing I should have added in my last post was the Jewish connection with Spock. I had know for a while that both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were Jewish. But what I found out a few days ago was where the Vulcan salute came from.  I was curious and did a search on YouTube.  I could tell you about it, but Nimoy does a much better job:

(if the below video does work, here’s a direct link)

So there you have it, the Vulcan salute is the name of God :D.

For more info on the  Jewish connections in Star Trek, check out TrekJews.com run by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom.

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May 26th, 2009 by Calvero

(warning: some spoilers)

I’m a casual Star Trek fan.  I don’t own any ST memorabilia, VHS tapes, DVDs, soundtracks, or anything like that. I just enjoy watching the show.  And I was looking forward to seeing the new one that was released a couple weeks ago.  The last one I saw in theaters was First Contact.  I heard so many bad things about the last two that I did not bother.

I watched it a few days ago and it still is running through my head.  This new one really kicks! Oh my gosh! It throws you into the action right away and doesn’t let go until the credits.  I think I blinked 3 times, maybe 4.

PROS

First, the cast was great. The main characters look and act the way you expect them to be.  You didn’t need to try and keep track of who was supposed to be who.  That was awesome!  Except for Nero. I’m no expert but I don’t remember ever seeing bald Romulans.  That took a little while to figure  out and remember.

Leonard Nimoy is in it as an older Spock! And I’m not giving away anything with that.  He appears in the trailer.

Time travel.  Always love time travel stories.  There have been some complaints that it using time travel has been used to much in sci fi.  But then again so has using aliens and traveling around in space :P.  I say, if it’s used wisely, go for it!  And I had no trouble with it.

Roman history.  Having been a huge history fan and currently writing a time travel story taking place at different times of the Roman Republic and Empire, I was enjoying spotting the ancient Roman references.  I had never really paid attention to them before in Star Trek, until I began to study more about Roman culture and history while writing my time travel story.

No secret that the T in Kirk’s middle name stands for Tiberius.  Tiberius was one of the big Julio-Claudian emporers of Rome, sandwiched in-between Augustus Caesar and Caligula.  Then there’s the villain of the movie, Nero, who shares the same name as one of the other Julio-Claudian Roman emperors.

And then there’s Spock’s race, Vulcan.  In Roman mythology, Vulcan was the god of fire and blacksmiths and walked with a limp because his mother, Juno, thought he was an ugly baby and threw him off of Mount Olympus (that’s gotta hurt!). After falling for a day and a night, he landed in the water, breaking his leg.  I have not figured out any connection with Spock’s race and the Roman god though :/

Then there are the Romulans.  They have two home planets Romulus and Remus, which are also the same names of the twin founders of Rome.  The Romulan form of government is modeled after the Roman Republic (which existed between the Roman Kingdom and Roman Empire)

Sherlock Holmes. For the second time (or would it be the first? hmmm… )  Spock quotes the great detective “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”. Being a long time Sherlockian, I was sitting there lip syncing the quote :D.  The first time was Star Trek VI “The Undiscovered Country” where Spock credits a ancestor of his.    The quote is originally from one of four Holmes novels, “The Sign of Four”, and one of the best of the 56 stories  (To see the quote in action, watch this it’s 6:18 of the way through, though I recommend the whole video. The amazing Jeremy Brett plays Holmes, with Edward Hardwicke as Watson). For more Sherlock Holmes/Star Trek connections check this page out.

Lack of nude scenes/unnecessary language

The trailer made it seem like there was a heavy making out scene between Kirk and another woman. Turned out that he was wearing shorts and the girls was green (classic TOS green skin) and wearing a bikini. (gasp!) No nudity? What was Abrams thinking?? (and yes, I am being sarcastic 😉 )

And I didn’t realize it until after it was over, but there was only a couple bad words in it.  Kudos for that as well!

CONS

There isn’t a whole lot of negative things I can say about the movie.  Other than there being bald Romulans.  And I’m not to crazy about the Spock/Uhura matchup.   Also Chekov had blond curly hair which was different.  But the personality and accent was good.  Funny scene when he’s trying to give the computer a command and the computer does not understand because of his thick Russian accent :D.

Favorite scenes

Just about every scene with Scotty was great.  James Doohan would have liked him.

Leonard Nimoy is awesome (as always) as Spock!  In this case he’s referred to in the credits as Spock Prime.  And wow to young Spock meeting older Spock.  In fandom, that would definitely be a squee! moment.

New, unknown crew member? You know what that means!

Nice fight scene on the drill with Kirk and Sulu versus the two Romulans.  And the diving was pretty cool.

A tear for the destruction of Vulcan :'(

And just about everything was great.  As I said earlier, I barely blinked.  It moves along at a good pace. I’m getting the DVD for sure!

Below is the trailer for it:

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