The first television show that was ‘appointment TV’ for me was The Six Million Dollar Man.
To this day, it still has the best opening credits sequence, even better than Star Trek.
MoviePass vs. Movie Club
After a couple of days of rumination, I decided to cancel my MoviePass account and signed up for Cinemark’s Movie Club.
MoviePass simply had too many hoops to jump through, and felt restrictive. The unlimited movies per month is nice, but truth be told, I only get out to see maybe 2-3 movies per month, at best. And if I don’t see a movie at all that month, the $9.99 charge is wasted. Like last month, when for some reason it wouldn’t let me see Black Panther during opening weekend.
Movie Club, on the other hand, will roll over any credits I don’t use in a month. I can buy tickets online instead of 100 yards from the theatre, I can buy multiple tickets at a time, and I even get to wave the online service fee.
Oh, and there’s the 20% off at concession stands.
We’ll see how this goes.
Martha’s Mix Tape
Every morning at 7:30 AM, on the local 80s station (I Heart the 80s), Martha Quinn plays a ‘mix tape’ of 3 songs linked by a theme, like 3 songs with the word ‘love’ in the title, or something similar. Sometimes she’ll say ahead of time what the theme is, sometimes she’ll give a hint.
This morning before she played it, she asked, “What would link Information Society and the Bangles?”
Geek-that-is-me thought that the obvious answer was Leonard Nimoy.
She then revealed that it was indeed 3 songs associated with Leonard Nimoy, or Spock. The songs were:
Spock sound clip
Artist is the name of a famous Vulcan diplomat who officiated at Spock’s wedding in “Amok TIme”
Hey, look who’s in this video!
And I was not aware that Leonard Nimoy was a family friend of Susanna Hoffs.
I Don’t Want To Grow Up…
What can I say about Toys R Us closing that hasn’t already been said?
Like many folks, it’s a place where I grew up.
It’s the place where I grew up.
The Colma location was where my parents took us for birthday and Christmas gifts, and the occasional time for doing a good thing.
It’s where my friends and I would stop on road trips, in our 20s and 30s, and for me, through my 50s.
It’s where I think we got our first home computer, the ViC-20.
The big Space: 1999 Eagle One Transport, a Christmas gift.
Micronauts.
Most of the Star Wars toys that I ever owned, including the Millennium Falcon that my parents bought for me after telling me they would if I cleaned the house, which I did from top to bottom, to their shock, er, surprise that same day when they got home from work.
Great Mazinga, a birthday purchase after my godmother gave me money in my birthday card. I saw a $20 bill held by a paper clip attached to the card, and when I handed the clipped money to the cashier, she handed a second $20 bill back to me, along with the rest of my change. Talk about surprised, that was more money than I ever had, prior to getting and saving allowance from my parents.
The first Jeff Gordon die cast car that I owned, still sitting in my workstation at the office.
Midnight release of toys for the Star Wars prequels, I think I went to all three of those. They had them for the last three recent Star Wars films.
G.i. Joes and other action figures, from Megos to Marvel Legends.
Fisher-Price Little People.
Plastic model kits.
Estes Rockets, which my Dad was reluctant to let me get into, until he saw a launch at Candlestick Park when my brother was learning how to drive and park. Dad took me to Toys R Us to pick up the Estes Rockets X-15 starter kit, later that day.
I’m not 100% sure it’s where I got the Six Million Dollar Man, or the first Battlestar Galactica toys, or even various early Star Trek toys.
I do recall getting the 12″ Indiana Jones figure there in 1981, but never seeing the original 3.75″ Indy figures.
And the last thing I got from Toys R Us?
The Infinity Gauntlet.
With time I could go on and on about other items acquired from TRU over the years, but I won’t.
I’ll just say that I’ll be sad when the stores close. But the memories will stay with me.
I’m a Toys R Us kid. And I always will be.
Space Tea
Tactical Retreat
Guh
Sleep
Flash!
I’m not sure if I’d continue to use my camera often enough to justify getting a flash for it, let alone that new Auto Intelligent bounce model that comes out soon.
Canon Speedlite 470EX-AI$399.99. Flashes aren’t cheap. Neither are lenses, but I got more use out of the two extra lenses I have than I think I would from a flash, either this one or one with less bells and whistles.
And how often do I do portrait photography, anyways?
Ah well, maybe I should get back into taking candids/pictures in general, and then decide if I want to invest in new gear. I hardly use my monopod, for example.
As I tell people, I take pictures. I’m not a photographer.
The 50s
March 8, 1968: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘The Ultimate Computer’
A new computer system causes havoc while being tested aboard the Enterprise.
This episode is one of the few that greatly benefited from the HD remaster process from a few years back.
I love that they utilized a similar starbase design from the Star Trek: Vanguard novel series.
Original:
Remastered:
The camera rotated around the war games task force as the got into formation for the attack.
“Hit on the Excalibur.”
In FASA’s Star Trek The Role Playing Game, my ‘ego’ character (Commodore Christopher Saguisag) was aboard Excalibur (as a lieutenant or ensign) when the M-5 attacked and destroyed her. Salvage parties found my character in auxiliary control, wearing an experimental ‘life support belt’ which saved his life. Years later that character would serve aboard the rebuilt/refitted U.S.S. Excalibur (NCC-1788) as her commanding officer until the Battle of Wolf 359.
This one is certainly in my top 5 all-time favorite episodes list.
Say goodnight, Dr. Daystrom…