:: Captain's Personal Blog ::

Stardate: Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Ruminations on a birthday

Isn't a vocabulary nice? It took me 26 years to get the one that I have today, for better or for worse, and that number is accurate, as of two days ago.

You know, all things considered, it was the best birthday that I have had in a long time. While I didn't get time to spend with my friends, I believe that their thoughts and wishes are with me. Besides, I didn't exactly make it public knowledge, so there!! :)

As it turned out, though, everyone at work treated me stupendously. One colleague baked me a cake which, I later found out, was before she even knew it was my birthday. It feels good to know that you are liked. And, yesterday, the rest of the staff celebrated my birthday by treating me to the biggest Hershey's candy bar I have ever seen. It will take at least a week and a half to finish.

The weekend was nice. My uncle and his girlfriend came to visit for the weekend, with my mom's cousin and his girlfriend coming for a visit on Sunday. Both sets live out of state, so I don't get to see them often. All that with an unusual amount of reflection and nostalgia made the weekend one of the best birthdays I have ever had. It felt good, for some intangible reason. But I am starting to feel the ways in which I am getting older. For some reason today, for example, I realized that I was sitting in a meeting, and it occurred to me just how incredible that would seem to the me of 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

I am, as always, thankful for the life that I live, and the people that I know. This past birthday, more than others before, has brought the myriad of feelings to the surface. I have come through it with a continued deep appreciation of my life and everything and everyone in it.

Sap aside, I can't thank everyone enough for being in my life in their many capacities. Happy birthday to me.
:: J 5:00 PM [+] ::
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Profanity

I suppose this is a subject that I haven't broached at all. I sometimes wonder if it's even worth it. My stance on it is rather bland. However, having read a news item this morning which spoke of the possibility that profanity devastates communication skills, I feel I must say my piece.

1) I do not use profanity. For the most part, anyway. The F-Word, S-Word, B-Word, A-Word, etc., I don't use them. Why? I don't really know. Do I find them offensive? No. Do I dislike when others use them? Not really (see 2). So what's the deal? Well, to be perfectly honest, I just can't think of why I would want to use terms like that. Growing up, I always believed that profanity was to be used in instances when you wanted to emphasize something, or say something with great conviction. To that end, I suppose that I don't hold strong enough convictions in most of what I say to use these words. I feel that, if anything, I'll save them for when I truly want to emphasize a point, rather than everyday speech. Even casual speech.

2) The one time I can't stand the use of profanity is when every other word is a profane word. I once heard someone say that profanity was for people who can't think of anything else to say. I don't necessarily believe that this is the case, but in this instance, I can't think of a better explanation. Some people just use profanity for when they can't think of the word that they want to use. F*@% has become the new "like."

3) Despite #2, I do not believe that profanity is contributing to the devastation of communication skills. A devastation of communication skills comes from (get this) a lack of proper communication. End of story. People should just communicate more, and that would be the end of it. Speech patterns have changed over the course of centuries, this is just another one. Let it go.

:: J 2:09 PM [+] ::
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Examples of people who may have too much time on their hands, but who create cool stuff nonetheless
Story from AP NEWS WIRE
ON THE WEB: THE SEARCH FOR W-M-D -- ONLINE
(Cyberspace-AP) -- You might say it's the only place inspectors or the U-S military haven't looked in their search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- the Internet. Well, now, that's been done, too -- sort of. When you type "weapons of mass destruction" into the Google search engine, and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button -- you get a real-looking error message. The message says "These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed. The country might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your weapons inspectors mandate." The site was created by Anthony Cox back in February. He passed it along to friends, and they started linking to it -- which helped it get "noticed" by the Google search engine.
By the way the search for W-M-D's isn't the only serious topic that gets picked on on the Google site. For example, if you type in: "French military victories," followed by the "lucky" button -- a page set up to look like one from Google asks: "Did you mean: French military defeats."
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On the Net:
Cox's site: http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
Google site:http://www.google.com
:: J 11:21 AM [+] ::
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Sense and sensibility

What does it mean if you are "a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." Does this mean that I love you more than everyone else? Is this the sort of thing that I would say to a lover? Or to a son/daughter? Would I say this to one of my progeny with regards to them all? Is that the kind of parent I should be? If so, would that be right?

If I were a moral absolute, would I be right in making this claim? Don't, for one minute, think about what this child does versus what any other child had done before it. This is a newborn. An innocent. And before he/she has a chance to do anything, I say that he/she is "a peculiar treasure unto me above all people." Is that fair? Is that right?

Some people may have gotten the point to this little rant, right off the bat. Others may have already guessed the point. For those who have not, I shouldn't say, because you are probably the innocents. I have no desire to bash one person's beliefs or anothers, but I will say this. Exclusionary clubs are utterly ridiculous sounding when they are trying to preach solidarity.

As many wise people have said in the past, it's not about the stories itself. It's what you take from them. It's what you decide to do with them that counts. The lessons that you learn from life experiences. I'm not perfect. Anything but (despite what people may think I think about myself.) But I don't tell people that I am right and they are wrong. The moment you have the arrogance to say that you aren't wrong about anything, is the moment you had best be prepared to back it up.

As to being "a peculiar treasure unto me above all people," let me say that that phrase is so out of place from its source that I can't believe for one moment that anyone would believe it. That's like me deciding to build a mansion, for a family, and telling them that it's a great house, and that they should take care of it, but that this one little closet in the upper guest room is the prime real estate in the whole house. If they want to really live it up, it's in that one closet that they should live, and then leave the family to fight for that one little room which, upon any and all inspection, contains no differences from the rest of the house, other than the fact that it is small, uncomfortable and rather spartan.

Analogy much?
:: J 2:29 PM [+] ::
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Dependability......Ugh!

Now it appears that the COMMENTS link keeps appearing, and disappearing. When will the woes be over?
:: J 3:32 PM [+] ::
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Comments

FYI... COMMENTS are now available on all my posts. Feel free to leave messages and other miscellany of your own!
:: J 5:22 PM [+] ::
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Truth More Entertaining Than Fiction
The above statement is evidenced by the following cartoon, sent to me by Brian:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-07-04


and the writer commentary found here:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2003-07-04


As for my own feelings about STAR TREK, well this wouldn't be the first time that I mentioned it on this site......

To recap, Activision filed suit against Star Trek's cororate heads at Viacom (which owns Paramount, and subsequently Star Trek,) accusing the company of running the franchise into the ground and killing any fan interest in its videogame tie-ins.

Is this a terrible mistake? An inacuracy to say the least? Not on your life. I have been saying for many years that the good folks at Paramount are killing the franchise, beyond any hope for recovery. As for what the witty comic strip writer above wrote.......I agree -- sort of.

He had me going for a while, until he spoke of getting the show's writers to possibly write for the video games. What this one point lacks in sense is evidenced by the following statement. The writers are number three on the list of persons responsible for the demise of STAR TREK. Check this out:

1) Why number three?
Simple. Number one is the high muckety mucks at Star Trek (not to be confused with the head honchos at Paramount.) I am referring here to the so-called "keepers of the flame." They have gotten so out of touch with what the fans want that it has become tragic. If they were parents and the fans were their children, they would have been brought up on charges for child negligence. What Tycho says in his article is true. The expectations of the fans have been lowered to such a degree that any glimmer of quality is treated as an astounding feat. For further evidence see 2). Number two on the list are the head honchos at Paramount who are guilty of nothing more than allowing the high muckety mucks at Star Trek to continue.

2) Creative Hey-Day is over
Does anyone remember the calibre of writers who were writing for STAR TREK in the 60's? Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold, DC Fontana, to name a few. These were the cream of the Science Fiction crop at the time. Granted, Asimov and Bradbury weren't writing, and neither was Philip K. Dick, but for crying out loud, these guys weren't second stringers. You generally don't hear STAR TREK touting its writing/directing staff anymore unless it happens to be a former/present cast member. I get the novelty of that, but is it really necessary? Is STAR TREK really nothing more than a proving ground for inexperienced talent? I can appreciate the need to further the experience of the talent who work the show, in fact some of the best episodes of recent years have come from former/present day actors. However, I would gladly sacrifice those episodes for better CONSISTENT writing.

3)Eugene Roddenberry
It's funny that I should be writing this after their website went on summer hiatus, but what I am about to say is no less true. Maybe certain things SHOULD be kept in the family. Of all the sites that I have seen and all the companies that I have dealt with, none have been more consistent at offering fans what they have wanted in the way of merchandise than Roddenberry.com, run by the son of the late, Great Bird of the Galaxy. Granted, I don't think I wanted to buy Rod's old car (offered on the website) but past that, the offers are good. Quality prop replicas, uniform patterns, scripts, guides, apparrel, toys, it's all there. This is the kind of attention to fan desires that I haven't seen in a long time. Art Asylum is another company that is turning its attention to what fans have been clamoring for for years, but I fear that fan backlash may put their plans on hold prematurely.

As for STAR TREK video games, for the most part I have been pleased. Unfortunately, my favorite STAR TREK programs no longer function on newer computers, and I fear that they are lost to me forever:

1) STAR TREK: CAPTAIN'S CHAIR
This was the coolest program I have ever seen. Not only are you given a real-time Quick-Time VR view of the bridges of five different Starships (Enterprise - TOS, Enterprise - D, Defiant, Voyager, Enterprise-E), but you can interact with the consoles, firing phasers, activating the viewscreen, going to warp, even setting the ship to auto-destruct. Every fanboys dream, just short of an interactive tour of the whole ship, which leads me to:

2) STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - INTERACTIVE TECHNICAL MANUAL
Before Captain's Chair, this was fantastic. Not only could you walk around the bridge of the Enterprise-D, but you could go into Sickbay, the Captain's Quarters, The Ready Room, Transporter Room, Engineering, an much more. You could get technical rundowns on every aspect of the ship, and even a tour from Commander Riker. It was nice.

Other games were good as well, although I haven't played any of the more recent ones (the most recent being STARFLEET ACADEMY, which I had a great time with.)

When I started this post, I thought I would get around to expressing my serious distaste for modern STAR TREK, but this has just taken way too much out of me. Perhaps I'll get around to it another day. But, then again, how often can you beat a dead horse? Or a dead franchise?
:: J 11:31 AM [+] ::
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And tongues all over the world cringed.....

Courtesy of Excite.com

"Jul 01, 1847, The U.S. Post Office issued its first adhesive stamps."

:: J 1:45 PM [+] ::
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