Category: Media

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Birthday Week Highlights

Saturday, February  18th: PARTY!

Sunday, February 19th: NBA All-Star Game (boring)

Monday, February 20th: Holiday, saw The LEGO Batman Movie, picked up Mansions of Madness

Tuesday, February 21st: breakfast with Dad at Gunther’s, dinner at Dave and Busters with Dad and Rob and Annie and Jen and Rubin (and families)

Wednesday, February 22nd: started to feel congested in the evening, played day two of the 1917 MLB season (6 games)

Thursday, February 23rd: BIRTHDAY! spent the morning and afternoon downing generic Mucinex, while watching Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman: The Movie, dinner with Nels and Glenn at Izzy’s (San Carlos)

Friday, February 24th: still a bit cough-y and congested. Ran errands. Played Mansions of Madness.

Also watched the usual TV shows over the week, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is still my favorite this year.

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No Cons

After giving it much thought, I have decided to not go to any comic-cons this year.

Silicon Valley CC was the only one that I was planning to attend, but that was nixed when Carrie Fisher passed away, who I had planned to get a photo op with this year.

If anything, I may go to the smaller cons around here, like South City CC.

I think I’m over the whole waiting in lines to attend panels for information that will be on the internet moments after it’s revealed.

The only celeb that I currently want to meet is Lee Majors, but he never travels out this way.

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The 50s

February 23, 1967: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘A Taste of Armageddon’.

On the day I was born, this episode premiered.

On Eminiar VII, the Enterprise finds a civilization at war with its planetary neighbor. Unable to discern any signs of battle from orbit, Captain Kirk leads a landing party to the surface where he discovers the entire war is fought by computer. Even though the war is simulated, citizens who are listed as virtual casualties still report to termination booths to be killed for real. After the Enterprise is destroyed in an attack simulation, Kirk must fight to keep his crew from death.

I always liked this episode, because it was basically a real live war game run by computers.  Much like what I’ve been playing most of my life on my computers and game consoles.

This episode includes one of my favorite Spock lines:

Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.

Since I bought the entire series on DVD and later blu-ray, I make a point to watch this episode on or around my birthday.

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Birthday Shindig

It feels very odd to get home from a gathering of friends and family, and I’m not uploading any pictures from it.

My niece and nephew told me to put my camera away, since it was my own birthday party.

It was a fun time, with the previously mentioned friends and family present, and it was good to catch up with them all.

Plenty of food, as usual, with a great cake that my sister Jen made.

I got lots of cards and a few gifts, even though I didn’t expect any.

The best part of it all?

Seeing almost everyone in Star Wars t-shirts, and a couple of costumes.  That was my requested theme, as Star Wars truly rules my own life, and affects everyone else around me.

Heck, my cake was Chewbacca’s face!

Thank you to all who attended today, and to all who have wished me an early birthday.

T-minus 5 days and counting.

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The 50s

February 16, 1967: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘Space Seed’

One week before I was born, an episode of Star Trek premiered that would one day be the catalyst that rejuvenated the franchise.

The Enterprise discovers an ancient sleeper ship, the SS Botany Bay, which escaped from Earth’s Eugenics Wars in the late 20th century. The genetically engineered passengers, led by war criminal Khan Noonien Singh, seize control of the Enterprise and attempt to destroy the ship. (This episode serves as the backstory to the second Star Trek film)

Admittedly, this was never one of my favorite episodes.  Indeed, when the first news of the second Star Trek film came out, and that the producers were going to base it on this episode, I had serious doubts about how that was going to work.

Ricardo Montalban was known by me for his Chrysler Cordoba commercial, with the ‘rich Corinthian leather’ seats, and as Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island.  I was totally unaware of any of his other work in TV and film.

The movie itself was a huge success, and still remains as my favorite of all the Star Trek films.

It was also the first film that made me cry like a baby at the theatre.  It still makes me tear up when I watch it.

Doubts aside, if it wasn’t for this particular episode, and the foresight of Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer, Star Trek may have never reached the popularity it achieved to this day.

And while I say that Star Wars rules my life, I was first, and foremost, a Trekkie.

LLAP

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Holiday

Nice to have a day away from the office.

Although I had to wait for the new refrigerator to arrive, after which I went to the grocery store to pick up some replacement groceries, like milk and condiments and soda.

I managed to play a baseball game (John D’Acquisto 1974 season, game 5) and catch a few more episodes of Thunderbirds are GO on Amazon streaming.

How’s your day?

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Randomness

Edit: I forgot to hit ‘Publish’ on this one late last night (Wednesday).

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I have way too many sports games at this point.

Hell, I have way too many games, period, at this point.

Thing is, I want to play them all, even ones that I haven’t even read the rules for yet, because at some point they appealed enough to me that I actually shelled out monies for them.

Ack.

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Arrow was not annoying for the second week in a row.  This may be due to the writers getting better, or the addition of Dinah Drake and Talia al Ghul, both of whom added some substance to the story through their observations on Ollie.

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Watching the Warriors game, and I STILL am in awe that KEVIN DURANT IS A WARRIOR.

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I checked out the first half of Legion on FX.  I’ll watch the second half before I make some comment about it.

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TV Viewing

Crap, 24: Legacy is on Monday nights, opposite Supergirl.

Yeah, I can DVR one or the other, or have them magically appear on my PC, but Dad will want to watch 24.

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Super Bowl Sunday!

So that was one helluva game.

To be honest, I was just rooting for the Pats to lose.  But what a comeback.

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24: Legacy was a lot better than I was expecting it to be.

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It still takes me quite a while to play a game of Second Season football.  I was distracted by the actually football game, though, and I just finished the 1st quarter at the end of the real game.

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Game Day food was BBQ pulled pork sliders.