Star Trek

You know, I catch a lot of flack for being a Star Trek fan. First of all there are the Star Wars fans who just can't see anything of value beyond the Star Wars universe. Then there is the people who just hate Star Trek, and for almost no reason just hate everything about it, or at least dislike it a whole lot. Then there's the Trekkies. Did that surprise you? I like Star Trek, but I'm not a fanatic of it. I would never argue with some Jedi wannabe over which franchise is better, it's not worth it. However, to hear some of the people I've talked to about Star Trek, it would be throwing the baby out with the bath water if you just dismissed it completely.

What is ST good for? It's definitely good for some not overly complicated compartmentalized science fiction stories that are over in 53 minutes. For me, this is really good. I don't always get a ton of time to devote to a movie or a book or a TV series, and Star Trek is written in a way that almost every episode is autonomous and if you haven't seen it for a while, it doesn't matter. This was probably most true with TOS, and least true with DS9, but even in DS9, it was still true over 90% of the time.

There's also a ton of books written for this franchise. There have got to be about 300 books written and they are still writing them. I'm all for this, except for William Shatner. He's writing books where Kirk is back from the dead, and working with the whole TNG crew, and some of the VOY crew. To me it's just a feeble attempt to keep the past alive, and see if he can milk Kirk just a little bit more. Plus, now there are two Spocks helping Kirk . I do however enjoy reading the books, and aside from a few series (New Earth being one of the best) they are easy short reads, good for an in-between book.

Someone almost always asks me who my favorite character is, and instead of being annoyed at this, I'll just say that I was always intrigued by Riker and by Kira. I think they are some of the most interesting characters, but Jolene Blalock is the hottest. However, I kinda stick by just saying DS9 and TNG are my favorite series, followed closely by ENT. I don't know if I just couldn't get into VOY all that well, or maybe it was just to 90's-ish. Whatever, I'm one of the rare fans of DS9 out there, so :P

So take that for what it's worth, and in the mean time, have a wonderful New Year!

The Shannara book series

Where to start. It's been a long long time, but when I remember back to when I got into reading Sci-Fi, the first two books I read were The Sword of Shannara and Ogre, Ogre. I remember my friend Ken kinda trying to get me into Westerns, but um, lets just say no. However, I knew I'd be interested in some Sci-Fi, I started. My bud William had The Sword of Shannara, and was showing it to me one day in church, and I read a chapter or two of it during the service. He was still reading it too, so I had to wait for it, but while I was waiting for it, I was at the old Sunshine Thrift store for some reason, and I was looking though the books, and the only Sci-Fi I could find was this book called Ogre, Ogre. I bought that and read it during the interim of waiting for The Sword of Shanarra, and by the end of these two books I was hooked, and have been addicted to reading ever since.

When I started reading this series, it was a trilogy. Currently if my count is correct, there are 20 of these books. I've been reading this series since the late 80's, and actually having to wait for each book of the Talisman series was awful. Since then, I've seriously branched out and waiting a year for a book doesn't bother me at all anymore. It's also good to note that the most interesting love story in my opinion happened in this series, between Par Ohmsford and Damson Rhee.

The original series, or at least the first book really has a great potential for a movie, so that's why they are making one. A younger Owen Wilson would make a great Shea if he could keep serious for a while. I'm torn whether or not Oded Fehr is tall enough to pull off Allanon, but other than that, he would be great. I know this one sounds strange, but Seth Rogan as Flick is something that popped immediatley to mind. I'm sure I could come up with the rest of the cast if needed, but pressing on.

The books are an involved read, where you need to pay attention to really get everything out of it, but that's what makes it all the more special. Also, most of the stories come out in trilogies, which I like. One book is never really enough. Also, over the last 10 years or so, the Shannara series has been going into prequel mode, tying in the established magical world of the Sword with today's Earth. I haven't got to all these books quite yet, and have some reading to catch up on, but I'm going to wait until I have all the books to do it. Of course there's the library.

Dungeon Crawler Video Games

I've got a rule. Between Christmas and New Years, I play video games as much as I want, and it normally means that I am thoroughly sick of them until the next holiday comes around. Yes I admit it, I'm not the Uber-gamer that some people are, and I do get sick of video games once in a while, but at the same time I need my mindless video game time every once in a while.

My favorite kinds of games are the dungeon crawlers where I can just run around and hack and slash. It's a great stress relief. I just get a kick out of busting skulls once in a while, evil undead skulls. It's amazing just how relaxing this can actually be. You definitely achieve a sort of transcendence where everything you are thinking about gains a lot of clarity and your perception is heightened.

Some of the better games that I've played recently have been the D&D or EQ games for the PS2. The whole Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance gamies and the Everquest Champions games are all really good games that have a lot of replay value, if not for the story, for the mindless violence. Strangely enough, the Justice League games and the X-Men Legends games have the same kind of effect for me. Granted these are not the same type of games, but they have the same feel. The Bard's Tale is the only other game I can think of of this style that isn't a superhero game. I think Ultimate Alliance is also the same kind of game, but I haven't played it yet, so who knows.

Patty Melts

Carmelized Onions + Burger Pattie Cooked Medium + Melted Cheese + Greasy Rye Bread = Yum!

Merry Christmas tomorrow!

Summer Bowling

Alright, I'm not sure why I chose the dead of winter to blog about something I like to do in the summer, but there is definitely something cool about bowling in the summer. It isn't like the winter. Everyone bowls in the winter. The alley is packed, and there are tons of obnoxious drunks there who are on 17 leagues, and really only work to be able to afford their league dues and cheap beer.

See the thing is I don't really care to wade through all the empties an unconscious people just to throw a ball into some pins. I'd much rather wait until the summer and practically have the bowling alley to myself.

I took one trip up to my alley to test out my new shoes in the middle of July, and it was about 95 degrees outside, and I thought I was about to die, when I walked through the doors, and was hit by that chill of 65 degree alley breeze wafting through the door. Ah, paradise. I walked up to the counter with my shoes, my ball, a coupon for a free game, and a winning smile. As I wait for the guy to ring up a couple extra frames for me for $1.50 each, I notice that of all 40 lanes, there are 2 in use. I ask for some lanes on the other side of the alley, which happens to be right by the snack counter, so I grab a pop and head over to play. As I'm lacing up my shoes, and putting my keys in my street shoes (cause, that's where they go when I'm bowling, duh) I notice one of the other two lanes is finishing, so it's me and one other group playing, with about 32 empty lanes between us. So I get up, and bowl a pretty mediocre game and realize that I'm actually feeling pretty good. I go ahead and bowl through all three games, and about half way through the second game, the only other people in the place leave too. Now it's just me alone, playing much like a bowling championship in every way other than how many pins are being knocked down. I played a game and a half and was finished before anyone else even came in. To quote the immortal words of both Bill and Ted, "Excellent".

Now I guess you might think I'm a bit of a loner if you read through that story. It's not really true. I really like spending time with people. It's just I also value my personal time as well as efficient air cooling. I don't bowl for the social interaction of it though. I bowl for the fun. I also like bowling with some of my best friends too, but they all live 60 miles away, and sometimes it's hard to justify an hour in the car to bowl a few hours.

On a side note, I've started amassing a collection of bowling balls. I've got a nice blue one that I really like, and I just picked up a black one with red swirls through it that looks pretty cool too. I had a few other ones too, but I just end up selling them in a garage sale, or giving them away.

Diet Mountain Dew

Here we are nearing the end of the year, and I'm sitting here drinking some Dew thinking about the end of the year, and the Christmas season and everything. I've got two weeks off and I'm going to spend some of the time (when I'm not at some Christmas function) playing video games. The thing is my yearly venture into the world of the gamer is always made better by the application of Mountain Dew. Actually everything is made better by the application of Mountain Dew.

Dew makes things better. The difference Dew makes at work is amazing. The days when I'm too cheap or too busy to go out and pick myself up a couple of 2-liter's, work just drags on and I'm barely awake and I know I'm not functioning nearly as well as I could. When I've had a glass of that sweet nectar not only do I approach a state of consciousness, I start talking faster, I'm nicer and work ends much quicker. This happens at Band Practice too, however the Dew makes me belligerent to the leader, so hey that's an added bonus.

One thing to remember about the Dew is if you really like Mountain Dew, never switch to the Diet Dew, because when you do you will never go back. The first case tastes weird, the second case is OK, and the third one is great, but the regular stuff tastes funny now. The biggest problem there is with this is while there are very few restaurants that serve Mountain Dew, there are almost no restaurants that server the Diet Dew, and that is the suck.

Antiques Roadshow

Alright, the Roadshow is not really in the same category with what I normally blog about, but there's something really cool about it. There's just three things that are cool about it. I'll start with the first one, cause it effects me.

First of all the Roadshow gives me a good idea as to what antique might just be valuable. This being said, I certainly keep my eye out at garage sales or flea markets or similar stuff.

The second thing is watching people who thing they have something really valuable being told that the item is worthless. I think I've actually seen someone throw a worthless treasure away at the end of the show before. That's priceless.

The final thing is when someone brings in what they think might be worth a few hundred dollars, and are shocked to find out that their door stop is an ancient one of a kind treasure that is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm just waiting for someone to either have a heart attack or for it to be brown trouser time for one of these people. That would be great.

Childhood's End

To me, this book is the highpoint for Clarke. I'm not saying that some of the other stuff wasn't great, because it was. All I'm saying is that this is an awesome piece of work that hits all the coolness buttons. It's a little campy, it explores the last man on Earth scenario in a totally new way, it's extremely anachronistic and deals with everything from science to the occult. I like campy and unintentional anachronisms don't bug me, I kinda think they lend a nostalgic feel to the work.

I really don't want to get too much into the story as there are some good twists that I don't want to reveal. Let's just say that Jan is a cool character, but the children are what's cool. The last third of the book is great. The trip to Carina is interesting, but the last few chapters is where Jan shines. I also like the overlord's names.

I really like the whole book. Pick this one up when you can.

Thai Fried Rice

Food, more posts about food. I probably shouldn't post about food while I'm hungry, I probably sound like I'm desperate for a snack. Oh well.

You know, I've often thought I should have been born somewhere in Asia as I like just about every type of Asian cuisine, but I guess you can't have everything. However, I do consider myself fortunate to be born in a very diverse city. There is just a ton of ethnic restaurants in the Metro Detroit area, and I like them all. Within just a few miles of my house, there are something like a dozen Chinese restaurants, a couple Korean restaurants, a Japanese steakhouse, three or four Thai joints, four Vietnamese restaurants and even one Laotian place. That's a lot of Asian food, and me likey!

Just a couple of things about Thai food though. First of all, just about everything can be eaten spicy. That's cool with me, but I have a problem with a dish when all you taste is spicy. The heat factor of a dish should complement a dish, not be the only discernible flavor. So I generally stay at about medium heat for most dishes, because whenever I've ordered hot, it was to the determent to the overall flavor of the dish.

This said, there's nothing much I like more than going to a Thai place and sitting down for some fried rice. First off, the meal begins with some soup. Normally the soup is either hot and sour soup, or sizzling rice. At most places, you also get some shrimp chips, and these will dissolve in the soup in a most gratifying way. It's a good time to mention that if you have a cold, there is no better cure than a bowl of Thai soup.

The soup is just about the right amount of time for your food to reach you, so it hardly seems like you are waiting. Then comes a large portion of excellent tasting fried rice. Now I'm a little jaded by the house fried rice at Bangkok 96 (Dearborn, MI). It has chicken and shrimp, with carrots, snow peas, broccoli, onions, and cashews. This might just be my favorite dish of all time.

eBay

I guess this one goes along with the whole garage sale thing, but I really enjoy eBay, at least the sales aspect of it. As I sit here playing an internet game and trying to write about this, while I really should be working, I think about all the stuff I've bought and sold on eBay. Ah, it's been a good time.

I think 2007 was a good year for me. I think I sold about $2,000 in 07. There was a lot of shipping involved, but since you can ship online, that got a lot easier to do. Not having to hit the post office is great, and I bought a scale just so I didn't have to worry about screwing up shipping.

I've bought very few items on eBay, not because there aren't great things out there, but because I'm a cheapskate. I've sold tons of stuff though. I think the heyday of when you could sell practically anything is gone, but that doesn't mean that there isn't any potential out there. Back in the 90's when it was new, it seemed that everything sold. as long as you weren't a jerk pricing. Now however, it is common to see only one out of ten listings end without any winning bids. Seems that for most things, there is more supply than demand.

This brings up a kinda negative point of eBay, but there is definitely a silver lining to it. The problem is that collectibles have lost some of their value because all of a sudden you have a global supply for a local demand. I had a hockey card that was worth $40 in 1994 when I pulled it out of a $2.50 pack. It went up to about $50 in the next few years, and should have been a valuable card today. I just ran a search and that same card is now priced anywhere between $1 and $10 and doesn't sell a lot. The thing is the card became available, and of course if there were 10 on eBay all listed for $40, someone decided to undercut the competition and list for $35, and set a new standard that someone decided to undercut and list for $30. Eventually collectors slowed their buying so that they could get a deal. This means that the real value of their collectibles kept going down because demand was artificially lowered, and this happened, the collectible market collapsed. I think this happened about 4 years ago, but it started about 10 years ago. I don't care what you were into, Sports cards, comic books, Beanie Babies, coins, stamps, depression glass or whatever, if all of a sudden there is a supply explosion, demand is going to go down causing cost reduction. I guess what I'm saying is if "video killed the radio star", eBay killed the collectible market.

That silver lining is that if you are trying to sell a collectible, and you aren't hung up about the value that price guides put on your collectible, you can probably get a fair price for your item if it's in good shape.

Renaissance Festivals

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet. I know that a lot of people think that Renaissance Festivals are nerdy and yeah they are a bit, but they are also a lot of fun. Just about the only problem I have with them really is the people who get totally into character, and give you a really hard time about it. I'm not talking about the people who get paid to get dressed up and screw with people or people who just get dressed up cause they think it's fun. I'm talking about the people who harass people because they literally don't have anything better to do and take their "role playing" way to seriously. Other than that, most people are really kinda fun and are just there to have a good time.

I tell you what, the artisans are kinda cool, and the stuff they are selling is most of the time really neat. I stock up on incense every time I go and end up buying at least one thing I just don't need. I've also got an awesome collection of crockery mugs from these things.

Beni Hana Lunch Boat

I like food. Always have, always will. The problem with this is that most of the tasty food is not good for you, and the really healthy food is either bland or disgusting. Really healthy food is also expensive and I'm a cheapskate and I'm more about money in my pocket than health food in my stomach.

The Japanese have found a nice way to marry a love of cheapness and tasty, and they call it sushi. Now sushi can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be for it to be good. As a matter of fact there's a fruit market around the corner from where I used to work that would sell good California rolls for six dollars a pound. But that's not what this is about.

Most of the time, lunch leaves me feeling flat. Either the food is so greasy I feel like dying, or I've eaten too much and feel like dying, or I go somewhere where they expect me to be full on like half an ounce of food or something, and then I'm hungry and my blood sugar bottoms out and I feel like dying. As you can see, lunch is a perilous journey for someone like me. To be honest there is only one restaurant where if I order lunch I feel good after I've eaten it. That's Beni Hana.

Now Beni Hana is actually a little on the expensive side if you order sit around the hibachi and let one of the chefs grill you up something, but if you hit the sushi bar, it's not too bad. My favorite thing to order there is the lunch boat. To start it comes with a small cup of miso (bean) soup. The onion soup is better, but miso is good too. Then I order it with all California roll instead of the mix of that and Sashimi, which doesn't really sound appetizing. It comes with a bowl of rice, several kinds of tempura, a small cucumber salad (which I normally skip too), a portion of teryaki chicken and half an orange. Really it's a well balanced meal, and by the time I'm ready to walk out the door, I feel good, not like dying. Not dying is a good thing, at least as far as I've been able to figure it.

Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold!

Alright, I know that Terry Brook's biggest work is definitely the Shannara series, and that the Genesis trilogy has bridged the Word series with the rest of the Shannara series. As of right now there are twenty Shannara books and the Magic Kingdom series only has a quarter of that, but it's a nice if somewhat whimsical series.

I've read three and a half of these books. I own the first three and the fifth, and as soon as I find a copy of the Tangle Box at the used book store, I'm going to pick it up and finish the series. I guess I'm just cheap. Actually I borrowed this from the library while I lived in Tennessee in late 1995 and got through about half of it and just haven't got back around to it. Now isn't that procrastination at it's best? Thirteen years I've been meaning to get back to this, and one day I will.

The whole story revolves around a guy named Ben Holiday who's lost his wife and decides to check out from reality. He finds a catalog in the mail that was sent to his wife that lists a magical kingdom for sale for $1 million. He thinks it's a joke, but he decides to go for it anyway, and to his surprise it's true. There's good guys, wizards, a dragon, a witch, and hot green chicks. Gotta love that.

The first book is about Ben becoming the king of Landover, while the second and third books revolve around the other characters. I haven't read enough of the forth book or any of the fifth book, so no telling what they are about, but it still has got green chicks.

Black Adder

Alright, I have to admit, this is a new interest for me. In the past when I would say to my friends that I liked British television, they would inevitably reference either Benny Hill or Mr. Bean. I shudder to think that all of British TV has been reduced to Benny Hill or Mr. Bean. I guess those shows are alright for anyone who likes them, but they are just not for me. I understand the humor, but I'm just not a fan of it.

However, British Telly is really so much more than that. Are You Being Served is better than either Benny Hill or Mr. Bean, and so are shows like Red Dwarf, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python just to name a few. There are also shows like Britain's Got Talent and Cash in the Attic that while not humorous, are equally entertaining.

The problem is that British TV works differently from American TV. It's government run and supported by licensing to start with, and on top of that shows have to apply for money, kinda like a grant to produce and air. Where there are benefits to this like no commercials, there are also some problems. Short series (not season) is one that immediately comes to mind. Also ratings may not reflect what is made or what is not. So a short good show that lasts maybe six episodes might be cancelled where in an American market, it would be a hit. Of course then you also have things like Dr. Who that runs for 42 years, and just doesn't show a sign of slowing at all. Funny world.

I said that to say this. Blackadder is a set of 6 episode series that really hasn't got much play in America. It's one of those things that is less known than Benny Hill, Are You Being Served, or Monty Python, but dang it if it's not hilarious. I'll go on record now saying that yeah, maybe it didn't hit its stride until the second series, or at least until the end of the first season, but taken in it's entirety, it is a gold mine.

Blackadder is a person. In the first series, Edmond Blackadder is the second son of the King. He's also a bumbling idiot. His faithful companion's name is Baldric, who although also stupid has a good heart. Edmond wants to be king and goes about conniving and scheming to try to accomplish this goal, but is too much of a jelly brain to pull it off.

The second series is set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the Edmond and Baldric are the descendants of the originals. I think the second series really shines and some of the humor really is top notch. The episode with Blackadder's priestly relatives is just hilarious.

The third series is set at the end of the 18th century, and Edmond is the servant of the Prince of Wales, who is played by Hugh Laurie. Hugh Laurie absolutely makes this series and the next one too. Rowan Atkinson is great in this whole series too, but Laurie really shines.

The fourth series is set during World War I and Edmond and Baldric are both soldiers of the line. I'm torn as to whether this is the best series or whether the second is. I lean toward the second, but this one is at least a very close second. Laurie is good in this one too.

One really funny part is that everyone seems to end up dead at the end of each series. Did I mention that Laurie is really funny?