How to Find a Nerd in Hiding

So this morning at our job site, we were gathering for our daily safety meeting.  One of the crew was in socks and flip-flops.

Now this is okay, because we're outside of the work zone.  But it still got him some ribbing.

People were asking if they were the new style of steel toed shoes.

I said, "No, their transparent aluminum."

And off to my right, I heard someone snort.

That's how they'll catch us in the end: obscure jokes we can't help but snigger at.

Alert *** Geek Ponderance *** Alert

So, I'm reading Leonard by William Shatner which is a biography of sorts of Leonard Nimoy, but more of a story of their 50 year friendship.  I've just gotten to the time in the past when they had finished Star Trek II.

And I began thinking of Star Trek III in terms of the military.  A crew of 6 steal a ship for personal reasons.  One of them sabotages the flagship of a new kind of ship.  And then they end up destroying the ship they stole.

Think about that.  They destroy the ship.

Okay, so there's no money in the Star Trek world, but think of the exotic materials and time it required to build that ship.

And then by the end of Star Trek IV, the Enterprise A is ready to go.  And it lasts for two more movies before being mothballed, because the Enterprise B is introduced in Generations.

Enterprises don't have the best record.

Original: heavily damaged often

Mark II: Dealt with V'Ger, beat up pretty badly by Kahn, self-destructed by Kirk

A: [REDACTED], and fought Klingons and Saboteurs.  Presumably mothballed

B: Bridge ripped apart by nirvana fragment

C: Sacrificed itself to save Klingon settlement against Romulan attack

D: heavily damaged often, destroyed several times in time loop, battle bridge destroyed and saucer section crashed after fighting a Klingon Bird of Prey

E: severely damaged after fighting Romulans, but retrofitted

Replicators must be awesome.

RIP - Leonard Nimoy - UPDATED

You will be missed, sir.

Here is the NY Times article.

---  UPDATE ---

And a fitting farewell posted on another site that I feel needs to be borrowed.

The Best Dr. King Story I've Heard

Nichelle Nichols relates this story in These are the Voyages: Season Two.



It's even better hearing her tell it.

Wrongness

I came across a Tumblr stream from Comics Alliance today as I got back into the swing of the net.

This picture is just wrong.

The Coolness Approaches

Okay, this is a bit of a Star Trek themed post.

First off a little video from Germany's Sci-Fi channel:



And then there's the new nearly transparent aluminum.

Trek Viral

Yeah, you're gonna wanna see this.

And it goes so well with this.

Boldly Going Late into the Night

Today was a wonderful day in the field. Nice and sunny, and a strong wind most of the day. It kept the vapors under control, and most of the heat off of us.

We managed to get the rest of the extraction wells (2 vapor and one groundwater) completed today. All that is left is to set the well boxes.

Tomorrow we'll be drilling in someone's backyard.

***

And even with the great field accomplishments, I managed to go see Star Trek tonight. My coworker was incredulous that I would go see a movie at 10:00 PM, and then plan to get up in time to be on site in Stockton at 7:00 AM.

Perhaps.

But the film was amazing. Everyone gets there one line. The new crew is great, and the story is pretty tight (for Star Trek).

The sign to watch for in engineering is the gratuitous oxymoron: INERT REACTANT.

Happy New Year

Last night was a very sedate evening. Jennifer and I watched three episodes of the original Twilight Zone, and two episodes of the original Star Trek. On TZ we saw Art Carney become Santa Claus, Agnes Moorhead repel tiny invaders, and Robert Redford as Death. On ST we saw one of my favorite episodes, "A Piece of the Action". Seeing Kirk and eventually Spock talk like '20s gangsters becomes hilarious, as is Kirk driving a manual transmission.

Then we played "Life" and "Perplexcity". Jennifer beat me good at "Life", and I ran the board in one turn on "Perplexcity" which is like "Trivial Pursuit". All the while listening to classic rock on satellite.

And then I tried to read Paul of Dune. I've stopped after four of the little chapters that Herbert and Anderson write. All I can think as I'm reading this is "Where's the tension?" I've read all of the Dune books so far, including the originals, and so I know what's going to happen. I just can't bring myself to care what happened one year after the fall of Emperor Shaddam IV, when I know in a few years Paul and Chani's son Leto will be born. And then Children of Dune and the rest will take off.

I enjoyed the two prequel trilogies, and the wrap up of the series, but I think it's time for Brian Herbert to let his father's legacy lie now. Move on and write your own stuff.

And so on this first day of 2009, I pledge to finish Serenity Found and Jumper, and then I'm going to re-read my Roger Zelazny.

I shall also endeavor to post every day.

Netflix Madness

Sunday Jennifer and I watched three DVDs.

Well, kind of.

We tried to watch the final DVD for "Planet Earth" but the three shows on it were all about conservation and save the planet and stuff. We're kind of the wrong people to watch that in the same way it's not necessary to tell boys that dinosaurs are cool.

(I'd say "...and girls that ponies are cute", but I'm afraid Miss Em would smack me long distance.)

We also watched two episodes of the original "Star Trek": "A Private Little War" (mugatu!) and "The Triskelions" (quatloos!).

The third thing we watched was George Carlin's second HBO special. This one was done in the round. In 1978. We're working through his shows as chronologically as I could arrange them.