On Thanksgiving I also watched the blu-ray of Star Trek with the audio commentary on, finishing off all the bonus materials that were included on the disc. Unlike,  G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, this blu-ray was packed with bonus material.

With the Star Trek blu-ray there is a second disc just for all the short documentaries on the making of the film. They are entertaining and informative. There are also a few deleted scenes, most are unneeded for the story but I do wish that they had kept the longer version of young Kirk takes the car. In the longer version you see Kirk’s older brother George — I wonder if he’s going to end up toast in this alternate universe — and more importantly to me you learn that the car does not belong to Kirk’s stepfather, but rather belonged to his actual father. Stealing it was an act of rebel and taking back from the stepfather what was not his. It was kind of nice.

The transfer for the film to blu-ray was perfect. Even while listening to the commentary track I kept getting sucked in the beauty of the images on the screen. the Commentary track is Director J.J. Abrams, two producers, and the two writers of the script. You can tell that these people enjoy working with each other and have a passion for the material. The writers even joked about putting in an after credit sequence with the S.S. Botany Bay, but decided against it.

If you like bonus material this disc set is for you.

So here is  a story that is about to be placed into the trunk. It was a semi-finalist in the Writers Of The Future contest, but has been unable to find a paying home. Please enjoy it and others of mine in the trunk.

The Station On The Edge

by

Robert Mitchell Evans

“We’re going to die!” Peymon’s voice cracked as he trembled in his seat. I can’t say I blamed him. Things didn’t look at all good right then, and they grew steadily worse. Paymon was a small man with a thin frame, nearly nonexistent chin and a enough nose for three men. His short black hair was as unsettled as Paymon himself.

“Shut up or I’ll eject you right now!” An empty threat; the police cruisers shooting at us held my attention, not his bloody whining.

“Can we make the jump?” Carol was cool, either from manipulated genes or a natural ice-queen personality. I couldn’t tell which. Carol was much more to my liking. she was tall with long rich blond hair, more than ample curves, and blue eyes that color I’ve heard Earth’s sky used to be.

Continue reading →

So I’m looking for things to do beside what I have already planned and I came across this.

The Atomic Testing Museum. They used to detonate atomic weapons near Las vegas and so of course there is a museum dedicated to those tests and blasts.

Bounding around on the SFWA websit I found this link to a site on the history of food. What was avaiable when and the history of a number of dishes.

Really this can be a time waster, but loads of fun.

Over at National Review’s The Corner blog there have been some comments about the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Mainly the comments are about how women today seem to be falling for Jimmy Stewart’s character, Ransom Stoddard, more than John Wayne’s character Tom Doniphon. Many of the people at NRO seem to feel that this is a shame and are more sympathetic to Doniphon as a heroic character.

A number of email reposes from ladies supporting their love for Doniphon were posted and I just had to say something. I emailed one of the writers to let her know my thoughts of the characters and I thought it would make an interesting post here as well.

There are spoilers so do not follow the link unless you’ve seen the film or do not care about spoilers. Continue reading →

Right now in America we are debating health care which changes, if any, to make to our current system. (I believe that change is required, but that is not the focus of this post.) What I think is very difficult to see is how much things are going to change and change soon.
I think we are currently in a phase of history where health care will be the most expensive, but soon that is going to change. I think the transformation in health and biology by the year 2050 is going to be as massive and world altering as when physics changed the world from 1900 to 1950. We are going to get a great deal of control over the biological processes and be able to mold them to our purposes.

This can be the greatest boon to mankind since fire, or it can be a greater threat than nuclear weapons ever presented.

Take a look at the following article. In mice scientist have completely reversed MS. This is big and it’s big for more than just MS. This is about learning to control the immune system. (I’m personally interested in this. I have arthritis and I have friends with MS, arthritis, and other auto-immune diseases.) Clearly controlling the immune system can be a benefit to those like me with an autoimmune disorder, but it could also be a terrifying weapon.

God, I hope we use this power wisely.

So last night I was doing the dishes after dinner and inspiration “struck like sudden lightening out of a clear sky.”

This time it was about D&D, the d20 combat system and a new way to deal with damage and death in combat. (I have always been unhappy with ever increasing hit points as a system. This creates the situation where high level characters simply ignore the guy with the bow ’cause 1d8 even tripled for a crit simply isn’t going to slow them down.)

I am not going to go into my new system here. It is simple and it can be overlaid on the existing D&D 3.5 rules with a minimum of fuse and alteration. Perhaps in a notehr post I get into the whys and hows of the combat system. (I hope to test it soon.)

What I find interesting is how often I get my spark of creation while doing something utterly mindless. Brushing my teeth – fixed Space MacBeth; washing Dishes, fixed D&D; cleaning a floor – solved the ending of a tough story. It happens again and again. Clearly having the body engaged but the mind wandering the paths of a mental Fangorn Forrest is good for creativity.

So should I seek out mindless physical activity in hopes of more creativity? Would exercising two or three times a week in the complexes gym make me a better writer?

The neutering and castration of the Star Trek franchise started with Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the series the people and officers of the Federation became boring in the homogenous perfection. I didn’t watch all seven season of that series, and watched less and less of the following series until when it finally degenerated into Enterprise I could only stomach the pilot and no more.

I pine for the days when real men captained starship and had the grit to issue general order 24. I’d enamored that the Federation had such a bloody gun-boat history that the destruction of all life on a planet surface was a General Order. This is something that used to be part of every captain’s tool-kit. Check with HQ? Heh, that’s for weak fools without the stomach for command. Shout the order and just sit back and wait for your crew to eliminate a pesky and annoying civilization from the spin of the galaxy.

A lot this post is tongue in cheek, but Star Trek did become a very cautious environment. We went from Kirk ordering the destruction of Eiminiar Vii to Janeway and Picard surrendering.

This was not progress.