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It is with deep sadness that I post this. Yesterday Dec. 18th, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, widow of Gene Roddenberry, passed away at the age of 76. She was most famous for her character of Lwaxana Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
After finding out about her death on my lunch break today, I googled her name and came up with a few fascinating facts about her.
- In the first episode of the original Star Trek, she played the second in command under James kirk. Her character didn’t have a name, simply “Number One”. NBC execs didn’t like having a woman so high up on the ranks, so they demoted her to nurse. To this day, the designation of Number One has stuck, popularized in TNG (that’s The Next Generation to you non-geeks) by Cap. Picard calling Riker that at all times.
Even as Nurse Chapel, Majel was a foxy lady. She was so foxy she caught the eye of a certain emotionally reserved Vulcan on the show. Too bad, cuz at that time she was dating the married Gene Roddenberry. How scandalous!- Star Trek trivia that every Star Trek fan knows: Majel played the voice of the computer in TNG onward. For some reason, I couldn’t imagine any other voice playing the computer. To all you Star Trek geeks that didn’t know that, then you are utterly lame!
In the Next Generation, she played Lwaxana Troi, ambassador of Betazed and mother of the Enterprise’s counselor Deanna Troi. This is where she shined. She was probably the funniest most outspoken character in the whole show! The first time she stepped foot on the Enterpeise, she was mackin on Jean-Luc. And because she’s Betazoid, she can read people’s minds. Poor Jean-Luc had no chance! The second time she came on board, she moved on from Jean-Luc on to Riker. All the time being hilarious and uninhibited. Because of this, she was my favorite character.- She revisited the role of Lwaxana Troi in Deep Space Nine as Odo’s booty call. Meh.
- Because nobody else could do the voice of the Enterprise’s computer, J.J. Abrams (Buffy/Firefly/Serenity creator) asked her to be the voice of the computer in the new Star Trek Movie coming out in 2009. She finished the voice work on Dec. 4, so all of us geeks will enjoy her voice one last time when we go watch the movie.
I’m sure sci-fi geeks from all over the world will be sad to hear this, even if you’re a Star Trek or a Star Wars geek. The best thing about Star Trek is the characters it has, and man was she ever a character! Rest in peace, Majel.
As we true blue geeks know, there’s a new Star Trek movie coming out in 2009 that tells the story of how the crew of the USS Enterprise got together. I’ve seen it a bunch of times and can’t wait to go see this movie. Usually I put opinions and rants of stuff outta my head and don’t just put news flashes on here, but this was too juicy to not share.
First of all, I’m not gonna give out any spoilers cuz I don’t know much. All I know is from the trailer and stuff I’ve read on the internet. Secondly, all of the actors they picked out actually seem to fit perfectly. Thirdly, J.J. Abrams (he did Buffy) directed this thing, so I hope it has the same kind of dialogue as Buffy and Firefly and Serenity had.
They guy that’s playing Kirk looks like he’s gonna bring some douchebaggery to the scene. Sylar as Spock looks awesome. The guy from Hot Fuzz looks like he’s gonna be hilarious as Scotty. Lt. Uhura looks nice and sexy, I just hope they don’t make her out to be the damsel in distress so Kirk has someone in need to rescue. Zulu and Chekov are somewhere in there, so hopefully they’ll get some air time. Anyways, here it is!
Here’s a video I found of a dad interviewing his daughter about Star Wars. You can tell she has been instructed in the awesome ways of geekness. Of all the geeks, dorks, nerds, and back-table rejects I’ve known, this has got to be the cutest, most adorable geek in the world!. From the counter on the Youtube thing, this video has been viewed over 9 MILLION times. If that is accurate, then probably a good chunk of you have already seen it. To those that haven’t , make sure you turn up the volume to understand every word she says, you don’t wanna miss an iota of cuteness, and make sure you’re sittin down. You will undoubtedly experience a cuteness overload.
There’s been a handful of book I’ve read that have had an impact in my life. Some movies have been the same. But of all of those, I think these 10 moments had such an impact in my life that I had to share them. I ranked them in order of importance too. I do warn you some of these are spoilers, but only if you’ve been living under a rock and didn’t have access to a game console.
10. Lavitz’s death (Legend of Dragoon): He was my second favorite character in the game behind Rose, but for some reason, his death caught me off guard. I had him so leveled up that when he was gone and was replaced by the pretty boy with long hair, the game wasn’t the same.
9. Realizing I was good in Silent Hill: 
My brother, sister, and I started playing this game at the same time. My sister was the first to quit because it was too intense. Then my brother quit because he was gettin motion sickness from the game. I couldn’t quit because we wanted to continue the storyline and finish the game. I actually got good in the game, but that game sucks yo in and you have nightmares. I had nightmares.
8. Completeing Divine Might (FFXI): Yeah I know Im a big geek, I used to play the online version of Final Fantasy. Well mission after mission I leveled up my Samurai as well as my Blue Mage to 75. Yup, nerd alarm going off here. Well, Divine Might is this fight with 5 uber strong characters, all at the same time. 18 of us ganged up on them, and 13 minutes later of nothin but fightin and tryin to stay alive, we killed the last of the 5 Archangels. The prize was worth the fight (my new Bushinomimi!), but the fight itself was such an adrenaline rush. Ah, I miss Blackmamba…
7. My first Fatality (Mortal Kombat): I had read somewhere that if I did this special thing after killing someone in Mortal Kombat, something cool will happen. Well I did it, and lo-and-behold, Scorpion takes his ninja mask off to reveal a skull head, breathes fire and I toasted my oponent. Then I shrieked like a little girl.
6. Finishing Zelda: Link’s Awakening: All the Zelda games are amazing, but this one was very endearing for me. I collected all the instruments to go serenade the big egg, and face the nightmares. I beat it but throughout the game there was a lot of foreshadowin of what the ending is. Well, they were right and I was crushed. Ah, Marin, poor Marin. I fell in love with all those characters, then…
5. Playing Guitar Hero II for the first time: I recieved Guitar Hero II in the mail, mom was puzzeled. I started playing and she was diggin watching me. I was in the zone! When a game can take you out of reality, it’s so amazing. Playing that first song was like having ice cream for the first time.
4. Finishing Super Mario Bros.: I konw, everyone’s done it, but when you did it for the first time, it was such a rush when I beat it. The fight itself was pointless. Oooh i have to avoid the fireballs, bi whoop. But once I did it, and here was the princess waiting for me. I held her, and all was good in the world.
3. Experiencing Mega Man 2: 
From the levels, to the bosses, to the special powers and of course the techno music, OMG this is the perfect game! So fast paced that it hits you like a punch in the gut. There isn’t a time in the game that my adrenaline doesn’t go below Defcon 2. Some might say that the newer Mega Man games are better, with the Zero and Sigma. Well to that, I say B.S. Finish the Quickman level without any special powers, only your regular gun, then you can talk.
2. Using the Contra code for first time: It was 7th grade, first period Language Arts. My friend Jamie tells me to go home and push:
My life changed after that moment. There’s cheats to these games? OMG now I have 99 lives to beat this hard -ass game insead of 3 lives that get me to lvl 2. That was the first day I had my first geekgasm.
1. Aeris’ death (FF7). I know sometimes I come across a lttle insensitive. Well this is not the time. When I was playing Final Fantasy 7, I was a little dissapointed Aeris does her own thing runnin off to the City of the Ancients. In fact I was a little upset, I mean I leveled her up for what? Then it happened… I finally found her and then she gets taken away from me. NOOO!!!
I will admit that I got choked up when this happened. I was so emotionally involved in this game and the characters, I had to stop playing for like a week just to recover. I was all “Um yeah, that really didn’t happen, I think I dreamt it”. Then I angrily picked up the controller to continue playing but man was I pissed. How can they just take her away from me?!? I then heard that if you got Aeris’ Great Gospel maneuver, she would survive. Then I heard if you got all the materia before she dies, she survives. Maybe if I become a better player she wont die on me. When that didn’t work, I was so sad. All my efforts were for nothin. A while later, I guess I accepted her fate. If you look up the most shocking moment in videogame history, you will find her death to be up on top of every list. To think that a videogame can have this much effect on your life…
As if there wasn’t enough proof of how big a geek I am, I submit this to you. Today I really wasn’t in the mood to go out and do stuff outside, like running, swimming, driving around, etc. Instead I decided to clean my room. As I was cleaning I came across some boxes full of mine and my brother’s old Legos. One thing led to another and yadda yadda yadaa, and I spilled the pieces all over trying to build something.
This was the big mess that I made with the legos blocks. It looks like a lot because it is. I started getting legos when I was about 10, and it went from me to my brother, so some of these pieces are at least 20 years old.
Like any Legophile knows, you first start with the base or frame of the vehicle. The one that I decided to build is rather complcated, and requires plenty of very small pieces. That’s what probably took me the most time, finding all the damn little pieces in the big mountain of legos. Not only that, but I have little rubermaid drawers full of the bastards. Well, 3 enchiladas and 4 hours later, I was done.
I ended up building a Jeep just like the one I drive, except this one is yellow cuz I don’t have enough gray blocks. I put it on top of my laptop so you can get the scale of the project. My back is killing me from looking through that big pile of legos but man it was worth it! Even the steering wheel is in working order. I built it so if you turn the steering wheel, it moves the two front tires.
If you ask me why, I’ll tell ya its because I was in the mood for building something with the legos. Also, I found his website that has all the instruction manuals for legos, http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/. If you ever bought a lego set and lost the instructions, you will find them here. Ok, so now that this happy adult has finished playing with his legos, I reckon it’s Ovaltine time!
I just posted a list of how to survive a Zombie Apocalypse. I then realized its kinda long and wordy. I get like that with stuff I’m passionate about. Well, now here’s a list on how to die in a Zombie Apocalypse.
- Head towards the mall. You will be heading to your grave, but you can finally get that jacket from Express that is to die for! Literally.
- Become a hero. You will have the snazziest lines and garner all the admiration of the rest of us, but heading into a crowd of zombies with only a knife and your courage aint gonna cut it.
- Wander off by yourself. It worked for the Scooby Gang, so why not for you? Um, you’re not a cartoon.
- Have sex. Those people always die. What’s more importantly, if reanimated decomposing, foul-smellin bodies chasing you down gets you horny, you got bigger problems. Trust me.
- Pretend you’re a zombie and try to fit in. If you’re in the jungle and a lion comes up, do you pretend to be a lion and try to fit in with him so he don’t eat you? No! You shoot it!
- Dance like a zombie. It worked for M.J., why not for you? Plastic surgery worked for M.J., so why not for you? Nuff said.
- Skinnydip. Please don’t do this, unless you’re hot. Not temperature hot. Hot hot.
- Become an asshole. There’s always an asshole only out for his/her survival. If you don’t save someone, they aint gonna save you. So do onto others, and all that shit.
- Reason with a zombie. Because they were your mom/dad/bff before they became Zombies doesn’t mean they gonna remember you and spare you. Zombies eat the ones they love.
- Listen to lists on the internet on how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Most of the people out there are kinda wack and think they know what they’re talking about. Trust me.
There are many guides out there telling you how to survive the oncoming zombie. Most of these list have good things and bad things, but all sound very familiar. Yeah, you know yo need a weapon. Yeah, you know you need transportation. But come on, people, be specific! Well, here comes me to specify more specifically what you need to survive the zombie onslaught. You don’t really have to do everything on this list, but you also don’t have to survive.
- Ok, people. first you need to calm down. The second you loose your cool, you’ll be zombie chow! Yes, I agree that a corpse walking down the street to come eat you up is very upsetting, but just chill out! You’ve prepared for this day, so take a deep breath and RUN!
- As much as you may not like it, you can’t survive on your own. Organize a team of trusted people skilled in different ways of survivng. 4-7 people you trust with your life, and all need to be skilled differently: First aid person, mechanical/tech savvy person, weapons, expert on getting food and water, and the leader that keeps them all working towards a common goal: survival.
- Find a safe house. Like everyone, you will have friends and family that will most probably not survive. It’s sad but you can help them survive. One of those bomb shelters will be ideal to leave your loved ones there. A farm out in the countryside will be safer. With them being safe, you can better take care of your own survival. You will leave them there hopefully in a safe place, with enough provisions for about a month or so. You will have to check up on them, but thats better then lugging your family around while zombies are on your trail.
Now to the nitty gritty… You’ll be going into life or death combat, so make sure you dress the part. Zombies will be grabbing for you so make sure you don’t have loose fitting clothing or long hair. Also, make sure your clothes will be durable to go treading through mud and sturdy enough for a fight. Steel-toes are nice cuz they’re stury, and if you kick, they will do good damage. Drawback is they’re not good in a sprint, so make sure you weight both sides and decide accordingly.
Pick your weapons wisely. My pick is the machete, since my brother took my samurai sword and I can’t find it now. Some of you purists will choose a shotgun or rifle. That’s cool. Hey, maybe you can teach me how to reload my machete. Oh wait, I dont need to so I can just keep hackin heads off the undead while you cower behind me reloading your gun. If you don’t have a cutting weapon, a blunt instrument like a bat or mallet is also good. Remember, you’re aiming for their heads, so both a baseball bat and a machete will kill a zombie. I prefer the machete.
Choose your transportation wisely. Just like the machete/shotgun argument, what are you gonna do when you run outta gas? Also, the second youstart teh car, zombies will hear you and come runnin your way. If you’re on a bike, you can not only cover a lagre distance fast, but also very quietly. Also, make sure you have the right tires on your bike. I have hybrid road/off road tires. These are hte best because you will need both speed and traction. Yes, on a bike you will be exposed to the elements and to zombie attacks, but that just means you need to be on yuor toes while riding around looking for supplies.
If you all flabby and slow, you think the zombie chasing you will take it easy on you? Pleeze! The Zombie attack is imminent. You need to be ready for it, both mentally and physically. After hackin head after zombie head, your arms gonna get tired, trust me. You just survived an attack from a group of zombies. Kudos! Wait, there’s another group of zombies in the distance coming your way. Time to run, kids! Will you be in shape to hit the road after hand combat with the undead? Don’t risk it, get in shape before the attack.- I know I mentioned before how you need to find a safe place to keep your family alive. Well, that’s not gonna work for you. Like someone famous once said, in a zombie apocalypse “there’s no safe place, only safer”. You need to keep moving. You will see your loved ones once in a while, but if you really want to keep them safe, you don’t want to lead the undead to where they’re at. At the same time, you want to keep moving avoiding the undead, looking for supplies, and looking for other survivors. You can’t help these survivors as much as you would like, but at the same time them seeing you and your team will maybe insipire them to fight for their lives.
- Ok, now the tough one. You have to grow a heart of stone and replace all your blood with cold liquid nitrogen (thats hella cold by the way), because you will have to make some tough choices. If a loved one becomes infected, you will have mere moments to make tough decisions. You know what I’m talking about. The second they become infected, they’re gone. This is a war, and casualties are imminent. Not only you, but everyone on your team has to be tough in every way. I can’t say for sure I will volunteer my life if I get infected now, but zombies aren’t banging on the door at this moment. When the day comes though, I will make the sacrifice as well as expect everyone on my group to do the same. Hard, but necessary.
- Most importantly, don’t lose hope. Who knows how long the zombie apocalypse will last and we will come out of it. You just need to keep in mind that you will come of it. Even if the onslaught lasts your entire lifetime and you will face the remainder of your days fighting the good fight. Well bring it on!
These are just tips on how to improve your odds at survival against the undead. You don’t need to follow any and all, and you can add tips that will work for you. If I have missed any, please let me know. Nobody knows how long one of these zombie apocalypses will last, but if you survive it, you will get a tshirt and have braggin rights and impress all your friends, well 10% of them cuz the rest will be zombies.
Ok, So I recently heard about this show on the tely called Heroes. It’s about all these people with special abilities, almost like X-Men, but longer and more complicated. I’m sure some of you have heard of this show. Apparently this show has been on for like 3 years, cuz my friend Mindy has seansons one and two. Well, I borrowed the first season and I’m like 75% through it. There are a few things that are bothering me about the show, but other than these things the show will be my favorite show since Star Trek. (yeah that big!)
- They keep harping on evolution on the show. I know that the powers came across because of some genetic abnormality (very original, but I but it). They keep talking about Darwin this and Darwin that. According to this show, apparently there was only one famous scientist guy that knows about DNA and all that science shit.
- If they talk about destiny again, I’m gonna say something rude.
- I know that some of you might not like this, but I do not like those two Japanese guys. Those homers are loud, obnoxious, a bit dense and naive. At first I was all “That’s the special power I want!”. But if it’s going to turn me all annoying like them, thanks but no thanks. Them bozos are soooo anoying and trust me I know annoying. Isn’t that right Mr. Galapagos?
Other than all of the above, this is the best show I’ve seen in a long ass time! Last time I felt like this was during my Buffy days. The plot twists are incredible and everlasting. I simly love it when a movie or show have twists and turns and you don’t know who is who. It’s like the old mystery movies with that Grant guy or a Hitchcock movie. Of all of the characters, my favorite one is the cheerleader. I know what you’re sayin, typical. But trust me, not typical for me. I usually like the underdogs or the minor characters, and from the screentime she gets, she’s one of the major players. Still, her story and her special power are my favorite. For all the other stuff that I didn’t like, I’ll just have to talk to people from L.A. that I know. They’re in the bizzness . Together we’ll straighten it all out.
Yeah yeah, I know why beat up a dead horse? Why reopen old wounds? Because I feel like it, besides, good discussions are hard to come by. We know that both of these lovely ladies are good fighters, but they make it look so damn sexy. Both came back from the dead because they had more fighting to do. Both ladies changed their hair color to be the best they can be (Buffy dyed her hair blonde, Xena dyed it black. Trust me, I check my facts) So we will break it down on seemingly random facts to see who is the kick-ass majesty of mayhem, royal roughian, the absolute warrir princess.
1. Costumes and Weapons:
The lovely Xena is wearing a form-fitting leather corset and skirt, very attractive leather boots, metal forearm protectors and very impressive hand-crafted metal breastplate. To fight off the baddies, she can handle a spear, shield, knives, even cast iron pots and pans. She prefers a good sword though. She is master of hands down the coolest weapon since the lightsaber from a long long time ago: the chakram. She throughs it at bad guys and after it’s done, it comes back to her. Can you blame it?
Don’t get me wrong, Buffy always looked good. But honestly, with an unlimited supply of clothes from the Gap and Banana Rep. anyone can be Buffy. Like her counterpart, Buffy is skilled in the arts of swords, axes, spears, etc. Her weapon of choice: the wooden stake. Um, at least it’s biodegradeable. Overall, meh.
Point: Xena
2. Crew
Every hero needs a posse. Xena’s tagalong gang included Gabrielle: a blond, annoying Sappho-lovin friend of Ellen. That’s cool. It also included Joxer. He was dumb-witted and always needed rescuing, pretty much dead weight. Can you say nepotism?
Xena had the lesbian and the idiot. Buffy had Willow and Xander. Like Gabrielle, Willow started out a bit annoying. Then she found magiks and the joys of girl luvin and changed teams. I guess the girls are tied, so on to the guys. Xander was the weakest link of the team, always needin to get rescued. He even admitted this much. Then he redeemed himself against evil-Willow, and besides is cuter than Joxer. Go, Scooby Gang!!!!
Point: Buffy.
3. Hook-ups:
To tell you the truth, both kinda skanked it up. Xena was seen sluttin it up with Ares to Mark Anthony to Hercules before settling on Gabrielle. Buffy was seen with Angel (*cough* douche) to that army guy Riley before settling on Spike.
Point: Xena (Angel, eeew)
4. Closest competition:
Callisto was an OK fighter, almost being as good as Xena. Almost. Then he got her greedy hands on some ambrosia, and all hell broke loose. Best moment: Callisto paralyzes Xena with her own Chakram. Then kicks some more Xena/Gabrielle ass in the afterlife as a demon in hell. She single-handedly took Xena to hell and back. Bitch is good.
When Buffy had the unfortunate death, the world needed another slayer. Fortunately for us, Faith was activated. But wait, Buffy ain’t gonna give up that easily, so she came back. Lo-and-behold, now we have a power struggle. One of the best catfights was between these two ladies. Faith was as good as Buffy, if not better. She didn’t have a conscience to get in the way of some ass-kicking. At the end, both Callisto and Faith turned out to be good, but Faith was terrorizing d-bag, I mean Angel in his own show too.
Point: Buffy (I just don’t like the D-bag Angel)
5. Villains: (a hero is only as good as the baddies)
Xena fought against warlords and gods. Her first rival was the god of war himself, Ares. She not only fought, but killed the Olympian dynasty, finishing off Athena herself. She fought against Dehak, the evil of all evils. She duked it out with Julius Cesar. Of all those bad guys, the biggest villain Xena could ever face would be the closest person to her in the whole universe: her daughter Livia (Sorry Gabrielle). Livia was called the “whore of Rome”, she was vicious, evil, bloodthirsty. Just like momma! Could Xena face her own daughter in a fight of all fights? SHE DID!
Buffy duked it out with Angelus (*cough* douche), Spike (meh) The First, and the Gentlemen. Like Oscar Wilde said “Only a true friend stabs you in the front”. At first, Willow was the token annoying sidekick just like Gabrielle. Then she started messin around bad stuff with Tara (I mean the magiks). Once Tara bit the big once, Willow got craaaaazy. So carefree smartass redhead became a demonic, veiny brunette. Yes, brunettes are inherently evil, trust me on that one. She even had awesome black eyes. She was going to single-handedly destroy the entire world. Could Buffy face and bring down her former BFF? Technically, it was Xander that did the trick, but still, it was scary.
Point: It’s a tie.
TIE BREAKER
Best episode.
Day after day, Xena wakes up to the same day happening over and over. Think “Groundhog Day”. Been there, done that. That happens to be my favorite episode, but its not the best. Best Xena episode: Devi. Xena had the cojones to channel and become the kickass diety Kali? you better believe it!
Buffy’s best episode: Hush. The had the guts to have a complete episode with NO dialogue? Not only it was the best one, it was nominated for an Emmy for best writing. Go figure. (well deserved!!!)
AND THE WINNER IS…
I was reading Chicago Rachel’s blog today and was thinking ” this kinda looks fun, but who has the time to learn that HTLM shit?” Well, if anyone can do this, why can’t I? How hard can it be? Will I have enough time to post stuff? How many questions am I gonna ask? Can I even stop?
Well, here it goes. Mostly I will be talking about all the random stuff that comes outta my mouth. Yeah, that’s how I roll.
