Category: Hobbies

Once upon a time

Once upon a time I called myself a writer. That was 2 years ago now. I wrote a bunch of short stories, two of which were published; the rest of them were not. I wrote one first draft of a novel based on Star Trek. I wrote a second novel in a world of my own invention. And rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote.
My inability to wrap up my second novel to my satisfaction and my waning enthusiasm for short stories, combined with the demands of my family life and my so called career led me to put aside writing.
I figured I should concentrate on what paid the bills; my job. And on my family.
Now I find I need a creative outlet, which my job doesn’t provide. It’s time to get back on the horse and see if I still know how to ride.

Star Trekked

I’ve put my money towards the Star Trek sequel (seeing it 5 times), because it was probably the most fun I’ve had at a movie in years. I had planned to review the movie initially, but there are billions of bytes already taken up with those. Instead I just wanted to say what it meant to me.

As a long time trek fan, this movie, was pretty much everything I’d hoped it would be: fun, exciting, funny and moving. It also cleared what I feared would be the biggest hurdle; that it wouldn’t respect its source material. I was quite happy how they treated the characters, how they respected the spirit of the original, and how they forged a new path (boldly going) without nullifying everything that’s come before.

I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Boldly going anew

The new trailer for Star Trek is out. I’ve watched it a bunch of times. More than I want to admit. It’s exciting and flashy. It’s not the Trek I grew up with. The new movie caters to a new audience. And why not bring in a new audience? Catering strictly to the old school guarantees that Trek dies with the old school.

The old Star Trek hasn’t gone away for the purists or naysayers. In fact the original series look better than ever in restored versions that I can watch any time. We can have both new and old existing together.

I’m looking forward though to a new take on the Trek mythology. New actors, new people, and a fresh take on the franchise can be a good thing. Star Trek on TV died in large part because of what I saw as fatigue with the same old same old. Enterprise purported to bring us something we hadn’t seen before, but it was the same tired plots in large part that Voyager had borrowed from its predecessors and contemporary series (Deep Space Nine and Next Generation). So bring on the new movie. 

What I’m hoping for is a vision of the future that has the old series’ optimism. I want something that says going boldly is a journey worth taking.

LEGO love

Came across this link today and wanted to share.

http://gizmodo.com/349929/best-lego-sets-in-history

I remember so many of the LEGO space set box covers and LEGOLAND town, and Technics.

Anyone else recognize some of the sets they owned?

The vault of Heaven

Here’s an excellent tour through memory lane for those of us who owned LEGO as kids and still have fond memories of it.

http://gizmodo.com/5018990/lego-secret-vault-contains-all-sets-in-history

I recognized several of the sets in the video including the space LEGO and the Technics Jeep.  I remembered the pictures on the fronts of those boxes even 25 and 30 years later. I loved putting these sets together. I loved even more to mix them all into one huge bin and make my own creations afterward.

I think I might have to pull that bin out again and share it with my daughter.

Great geek weekend

This past weekend two great shows aired their season premieres; Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who.

It looked as though the FX crew on Battlestar cranked things up a notch or two. The opening battle scene was nothing short of spectacular. As impressive as the Star Wars movies. It worked well to set up some new story threads, like what the hell happened Starbuck? What was it the cylons did to Sam, implant new orders or programming? Was Tigh’s daydream of shooting Adama indicative of his fear of what he would do? Baltar’s set-up as a messiah figure is something I’ll have to wait on and see. I’m not sure if it makes sense yet.

And Doctor Who. Interesting new pairing with the Doctor and Donna. I like that they’re dropping the sexual tension of the last year. The story functioned well enough to serve as a vehicle for pairing Donna and the Doctor; mostly light and fun. But what the F#@#? Rose? I can’t wait to see where that tease leads to.

Serenity: Better Days

Just finished reading the first issue of Serenity: Better Days, a 3-issue mini series from Dark Horse Comics, and it made me happy.

Now in the ideal world, we’d have the show back. But until then, it’s great to get more time with these characters Joss Whedon created, and even better that he’s the one doing the writing. The cover art is great and spot on. The interior art is good, but doesn’t convey quite the nuance that the actors who inhabitted these characters could. C’est la vie.

I’m hoping that the very limited run of 3 issues is only Dark Horse testing the waters, and that if it sells strongly they’ll extend the run. We’ll see. I know I’ll be buying issue 2 next week.