African Americans that have encouraged my inner nerd

It's the last day of Black History Month, and I rarely pay enough attention to it here.  So today, I'm going to list some of the black nerds that I appreciate.

Nichelle Nichols--Not only can black women go to space, but they can look fabulous doing it!  And as season two and three of the the original Star Trek Series went on, she got more spotlight and made sisters look intelligent with poise and respect.  This was a great thing to see when I was in junior high becoming a woman: black women can be smart and pretty at the same time.

Dr. Mae Jemison--She may not have had as huge an impact as some of the others listed, but as a kid having a black woman succeed in the field of space means that I can do anything.  And believe me, there were a lot of people down the road telling me I couldn't, whether they knew it or not.

LeVar Burton--Obviously, he played an engineer on Star Trek: The Next Generation.  But he also was the host of Reading Rainbow!  So not only can I be good at math, I can be well read too!

Octavia E. Butler--another person who I had limited exposure to, but reading Parable of the Sower is inspiring in the tapestry that she weaves with character development and how to write a future world.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson--He is this generation's Carl Sagan, which is something we desperately need at this time.  He will lead us to the future of Galaxy-rises.  Also, the only person who I would like to officiate my wedding.  It's never going to happen but a girl can dream.

Finally of course, I have to make a nod to my grandfather and my mother.  They saw in Sci-fi a world where we can all be equal, or worlds that showed why not making that choice is disastrous.  They saw in it the future they wanted their children to have, and in that encouraged their families to do anything and everything they wanted to do.  Specifically thanks to my mom.  I don't think I would still be pursuing my writing dreams without her encouragement.

Rules of Acquisition fair?

The Occupy Wall Street Movement is now a staple of culture, and is probably something that will be fleetingly mentioned in my children's 7th grade text books, but we're in the middle of it right now.  And that means there will be humor, like this nerdy meme.

Hilarious, yes, but then it got me to thinking:  Is this fair?

For those of you who don't know, the Ferengi of the Star Trek world, when not being horribly misogynist, are capitalists to the extreme.  The Rules of Acquisition are essentially a capitalist code to live by, where clever selfishness is rewarded, and getting ahead is considered the ultimate goal in their culture.  It's something for a lot of viewers to look at and reply "Oh my that is soooo savage!"

However, when you think about it in multiple ways, it's very fair.  For one, it's Darwinism evolved.  In a trade based society having the best connections and more ownership guarantees survival.  Mercantilism, within the Ferengi at least, is still somewhat valued within an intergalactic society.  Trade will always be necessary.  

Also, one of the things that make it fair is how ruthless the system is.  There isn't any laws protecting anyone, so it's all fair game.  You can get to the top from being on the bottom if you're ruthless and cunning enough.  When there are no rules set by no one person, anyone can win.  

But those are the cultural values of the Ferengi, which may be rooted in some scientific reason for why this cut-throat race to the top has survived.  And also, they have gone to the furthest extreme of capitalism.  The system works merely because no one is safeguarded.  This also gives more incentive to "work ahead".

I'm a dirty hoo-man who likes to look out for my own, and even when we're having discussions about the elite protecting themselves, they're still protecting themselves as a group, not necessarily on the individual level.  I think as time goes on, the definition of "our own" will widen to include the entirety of the human race, and it's a slow progress.  It makes figuring out a democratic system that benefits everyone harder, but it's not impossible.

So in a way, the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition are fair, but we as a culture have to decide what we value and how that can help our survival as a species.  We're some of the most complex organisms to ever live, alter, and explore Earth.  There's definitely a possibility that we can finally find a way to exist on it together without being ruthless.

Congrats to Quinto on coming out.

I'm a nerd who appreciates people of all different backgrounds, so when I just read this morning that Zachary Quinto has come out of the closet, I want to say "Hooray!  Congrats!  Here's to knowing what you are and being proud of it!"

But to be honest, my first thought was "Aww!  I'll never make out with Spock."

Yeah, I was disappointed a bit at first.  But let's be honest, not like I would've been able to make out with Quinto in this universe.  I'm sure I'm not the only nerd girl who felt that way.

However, now there are another group of nerd girls who are excited for the new possibility of their fan-fiction fantasies becoming true.  I'm not sure how scared I should be now.

Uh... well congrats anyway Quinto!

WHAT! It's been that long?!?!?

I'm sorry guys!  It's been crazy over on my end!

I have a new full time job that has me working 6 days out of the week most of the time, but also has half days.  So I still have time to be a writing nerd. I just need to schedule it more.  I also got a car because of the job, so AWESOME.  It's official color is super-black.  Just think about how ridiculous that is.

So if you need an apartment in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, hit me up!  After a week I like the job, so I'm happy.

Please forgive my lack of posting.  For forgiveness, I'm going to post a link I got from the treknobabble blog.  It's pictures of the cast and crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Looks like they're having a lot of fun.

Thanks for sticking with me, guys!  I'm sure I'll have some more substantial and thoughtful posts up soon.

Mary-Sues? In my web comic?!?!

I have just stumbled upon a hilarious comic called Ensign Sue Must Die by Clare Moseley and Kevin Bolk.  It makes fun of the prolific use of Mary Sues in fanfiction on the internet.  Don't know what a Mary Sue is?  Well first look at the wiki article, and then go to fanfiction.net and read a fair number of tales based on super popular franchises.  Mary Sue is a term first coined from a satirical Star Trek story, but they are ridiculously prevalent in a number of fandoms.  When I was in high school, the one was Pirates of the Caribbean.  I'm sure right now Avatar and the new Star Trek movie are being mercilessly ravaged with self-insertions of perfect characters who solve anything.

Oh don't think I'm being too judgmental.  I did it too.  I did it with the original series of Star Trek.  Her name was Amelia, she was McCoy's niece, Chekov's love interest, and a 17 year old Starfleet nurse who was raised on a ship by her captain father.  I at least had the forethought to not make her save the day all the time.  No, instead she was the reason the ship got in trouble.  In fact, if she did have a flaw it was that she ALWAYS was the reason things went to hell.  She should've been kicked off the Enterprise because she was a walking flight risk.

I feel ill just thinking about this horrible writing.

Anyway, this webcomic reminds me of the days when me and my friends would write self-insertions and pass them around and get all giddy about the cutesy parts.  Here's a sample of the hilarity.

Enjoy!  It's got a cute story arch and everything!  And it's now in a book.  Support making fun of Mary Sues everywhere and buy it!

I will when my new job gets sorted out.  That's right!  I have a new job!  *dances*

I'm now 23 and I now want CAKE!

I turn 23 today, and since yesterday I spent 14 hours with camarilla people which included LARPing and good food with good company I'm having a quiet birthday Sunday.  A nice dinner with family while me and The Boyfriend continue with Skies of Arcadia.  Totally chill.  I am getting together with friends at home next weekend so that's pretty much when cool stuff will happen.

But for the years that I actually do want a spectacular birthday bonanza, I think I am going to consider some of these cake ideas.  What do you guys think?

Resistance is futile.  Your birthday will be celebrated.

Cakes that I wish I could find included ones for Bioshock, Mass Effect, and the Sims 3.  Has anyone seen one of those?

And if you want a good cake blog, go to cake wrecks.  It's hysterical to see the bad cakes during the week , but on Sundays the blog showcases great work.  And they have a book of wrecks out right now, and they're on tour for it!  Go go go!

My thoughts on J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.

Let me explain the delay in actually going to see this movie.  First of all, like I mentioned many times before, I was graduating from college.  Second, the Boyfriend decided that he wanted to wait and see it with me.  It was very sweet of him but I kept on hearing about the movie everywhere, and I've been avoiding websites like io9 for accidental spoilers (which were revealed more than once for me).  All my other friends had seen it and told me their opinions, but as much as I can trust my friends' opinions, I wanted to make my own.

I have mentioned in earlier posts that I am very protective about my Trek.  It's a family heirloom almost.  On my father's side we have war relics and fine china to pass down through the generations.  On my mother's side we have an appreciation for Star Trek.  Being part of a black family the U.S., you realize that you don't get a lot of heirlooms to pass down.  I'm taking wait I can get, and it is Trek.  I was hoping Abrams wouldn't "break" Trek so I cold possibly pass it down to my kids.

What are my thoughts?  Well first...

WARNING: STAR TREK SPOILERS AHEAD

Now with that necessary warning out of the way we can continue, can't we?

Let me start out by saying that everything that I love about Star Trek was not destroyed by this movie.  Everything that I loved about Star Trek was still there, to varying degrees.  Now was this the most intellectual Star Trek movie?  No, it absolutely was not.  But with the fresh start that Abrams is trying to give the franchise, I can concede one movie taking a break from questions of philosophy to introduce a fantastic group of characters.  And that's what Abrams swapped out philosophy for: fantastic character building.

Let's be honest: although there was a good amount of character development throughout the entire series, the original series was not focused on the characters as much.  In the movies that followed there's actually more development, and if you're like me you'll take all this development except for the fifth movie.  Why not?  Because it's filth, that's why.  End of discussion.

Moving on, the character depth in this movie was INTENSE.  You couldn't help but to know these characters.  I definitely wept several times in this movie because my investment with these characters was so  intense.  I don't expect people new to the franchise to be as invested as I was, but considering that I have never felt that deeply attached to a movie before, I know it enticed new viewers in.  And although I knew these characters from before, it was great to see them younger, fresher, and less professional for a few scenes here and there.

The story line itself actually worked.  The only person who's timeline is completely screwed up from the get go is Kirk's.  His father is killed by the mysterious Romulan vessel (although meaning Balance of Terror could never work the way it did before, I'm sure those racial hostilities could be explored again if desired) screwing up the first 20-something years of Kirk's life.  Kirk, although still the same in many ways, it now a rebellious dick because of his father's death, not inspired by his father's accomplishments.  And Spock is still suffering from the ever-present identity crisis.  Though I have to say, when he essentially refuses to study on Vulcan because they insult his mother, I was excited.  The biracial characters in Star Trek always seemed to suffer from "Who am I" crises way too much, and for Spock to acknowledge who he was made me extremely happy.

From boarding the Enterprise on was a great ride.  There was action for those of us who appreciate explosion, theoretical time travel stuff that I'm sure people are still debating on forums, and great character moments.  Meeting a younger, more boorish Scotty was hilarious.  Uhura's sass was very present.  McCoy is still my favorite, just because I have a soft spot for cynical bastard.  It was a little weird to see him fumbling around when he injected that flu into Kirk, but then again he was just a cadet.  Sulu was awesome, and I'm glad they kept his love of fencing for that fight scene.  Chekov was hilarious!  "Oh oh! I can do this!" with the transporting scene helped cut through the buckets of tension getting poured on the audience.  Spock was still very much Spock, although he seemed too human at some points but ragging on that would make me nit-picky.  And Kirk was the 100% jerk that we always knew he was deep down inside.  The characters were consistent with the original series but at the same time accessible to an audience of this decade.

I keep on talking about the characters, but the flow of the story was great too.  You didn't get too comfortable in one feeling, you were waiting for the next surprise.  And for a movie like this, it's great storytelling.  A movie is not like a book or a tv series, you can't wait forever for stuff to happen.  And I never did.

I do have one complaint though.  The relationship between Uhura and Spock.  It's not that I think it shouldn't have happened.  No, I'm willing to concede that it could happen to some extent.  I felt that since it was so abruptly introduced, the relationship was there merely to justify all the screen time given to Uhura.  Which it shouldn't be there to do.  Uhura is awesome with or without a man.  She deserves screen time because she was a great snarky force initially opposed to Kirk's command style.  Putting her with Spock also seemed to force Spock to appear more human to the audience.  Why is that necessary?  The whole point is that Spock is an alien.  Even if he is human, he's still obviously different.  That's why Roddenberry added him to the crew of the original series.

Also, one other minor complaint.  Some of the new alien designs seemed too similar to me.  Let's give you a weird head with a dino-crest in the back and some weird coloring and big eyes, and you'll be an aliens.  I liked the old races they brought back, but they could've been a bit more creative with the ones they decided to introduce.  I did like the one that they had when Kirk was being born, where they only real difference was a bigger eyes in a weird skull.  

Costumes: great.  Set Design: beautiful and made more sense the the original designs from the 60s.  Music score: sounded great, but I would like to hear it again.  Make up: pretty darn good, but didn't blow my socks off.  Lighting: good, but I could've have less lense flare.  who do I blame for that?  Editing: pretty solid, but I am very intrigued to see the deleted scenes. Directing: It's Abrams, it can't be bad unless he lost his brain or something.  Acting: Exciting interpretations and of very high quality.  Obviously this was a well cast movie. 

All in all, I loved it.  Not your typical Star Trek movie, but definitely a good one.  If I had to give this a score, I'd give it a 4.75 out of 5.  It ain't perfect, but it definitely achieved some greatness!

And now to anticipate the next one! 

What's in my nexus

Tonight, with some nerd people at school, I watched Star Trek Generations.  It's not the best Star Trek movie, but it's got it's moments.  One big plot point made me wonder.

Spoilers for a movie that came out in 1993.

The goal of the evil scientist Sauron is to get this nexus ribbon of infinite happiness to him efficiently, regardless of who has to die in the process.  He's even willing to destroy solar systems to this end.  At one part of the movie he does succeed and Picard, who has been dreaming of carrying the family line recently, gets pulled into the Nexus as well.  Here's part of that sequence if you would like to take a gander.  

Picard not only gets the family he wants, but gets to see the nephew that just died in the beginning of the movie (Renee) alive and well.  In this nexus, you are in a heaven that goes forwards and backwards in time.  You can go and do (or even redo) everything you've ever done or wish to do.  You can also exit the nexus into whatever time period you want.  Picard does the honorable thing and goes back with help to save the Enterprise and a solar system, instead of staying with the family of his dreams.

This turns into a great question: What is in your nexus?  What would you be reliving or doing in your personal time-traveling heaven?

Me personally?  I think I would have it so my maternal grandfather was alive and well, and that I was able to talk to him, and hear him share his stories.  I never got to know him but I know he's a big reason why I am the way I am today, and due to his lack in health late in his life I never got to know him.  I would go back and have all the time I know I'm missing out of from someone who would've been a wonderful grandfather.  I might even go to before I was born to see some of the great things he did around the civil rights movement in chicago, and then go forward again in time to ask him questions about it specifically.

What about you all?  Apparently a good number of you read this, so what would be your nexus?  Email me (d20sapphire@gmail.com) what your nexus would be and I will post the answers up on the next blog, anonymously if you want me to.  Keep in mind it's not just what your heaven would be, but what your heaven would be if you would jump forward or back in time.

I'm excited to see what people respond with!  

Happy First Contact Day!

Although I am wishing it a bit belatedly.  

For those of you who don't know, in the Star Trek universe today, April 5th, in the year 2063, Zefram Cochrane will make the the first warp flight in space by humans which will help initiate the first contact with aliens.  So in 54 years we'll meet Vulcans if all goes according to plan.  Of course, this will be after a devastating World War Three... maybe we don't want to follow that timeline.

My senior project that involved a pool (and hence no time to myself whatsoever) is over, so I should be able to post more often these days.  There's a lot to look forward to in my life, including the next Star Trek movie on May 8th.  I'm less cautious about it than before.  I'm giving it a good chance.  Let's hope it all goes well.  Hooray Trek!

Museums: Great for Dates

Happy Valentine's Day readers!

I just want to quickly vouch for museums being a great date space.  Now I'm not talking about tiny museums that are run by a small staff, but big ones with multiple exhibits and hallways full of displays.  As a kid in Chicago, I was raised on going to either the Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Shedd Aquarium, the Alder Planetarium, or the always free Lincoln Park Zoo.  It turns out that these places are great as adults to go on dates.  Unlike a movie, you can talk while you're enjoying the experience.  Unlike a park, you have a lot of instant conversation starters around you, and more to talk about when you get to dinner.  And who wouldn't want to share their first kiss in front of a T-Rex?

That's mother-fuckin' romantic, I tell ya.

Imagine holding hands excitedly at the IMAX feature about space collisions.  Isn't that awesome? Or doing the silly interactive stuff for the kids together.  Looking at all the little baby chicks as you see how life works, and wanting to squeeze the little yellow puff balls.  Watching the hourly dolphin show on the uncomfortable bench and your guy finally puts his arm around you while they demonstrate how high those bottle-noses jump.  Now the Chicago museums were my examples, but there are tons of great places to go all over the country, especially if you're fortunate enough to live near a big city.  Museums are just waiting to be your next date destination.

Now if you're super nerd like me, you need something with more pizzazz since you go to museums all the time.  The Detroit Science Center is opening Star Trek: The Exhibition today.  It's full of replicas and props and tons of other really neat stuff.  If you look at the picture you can even see they got their whole staff into it too!  And if you're looking for something even more romantic, it turns out the Science Center will also rent out the space for marriages.  That's right, propose while you're with the away team, get married on the bridge.  It's a trekkie girl's dream come true!

Hope For A New Trek

Today I happened upon the second half of an interview in the LA Times with J.J. Abrams about the newest Star Trek Movie.  Now I have been a critical skeptic of this project because of how easy it is to ruin a good franchise, and the appreciation of the Star Trek universe is almost like a family heirloom on my mother's side.  I hold Star Trek very dear to me.  I would be heartbroken if the universe was needlessly torn apart just in the hope of making huge money.  But this interview gave me hope.

Abrams talks about how he's trying to keep the balance of staying true to the universe while at the same time appealing to a general audience.  I think this is a good idea, but a tricky on at the same time.  But I think it will work, and it's because of how he's addressing the movie in relation to the original tv show:

"... it was one of the things that was incredibly important for me that was this film--in addition to being character-centric and having the classic "Trek" debates and rapport between the characters--that it also be a movie that actually realized the promise of the adventure that "Trek" often had but didn't always have the resources to pull off."

This was the clincher for me.  Abrams is trying to preserve everything that I  know I loved about Star Trek: great characters, intense ideas and fantastic adventures.  These are qualities that lead to good stories in any genre.  Science fiction is no different.  The only thing that Abrams is hoping to take out is the outdated technology that made the original series. (And in some people's opinion, the bad acting of a certain captain.)  I feel that those are great goals to achieve for this new movie.

How true will the movie stay to the original series in those regards is the only question I hold now.  There are some nit-picky things that I have turned a blind eye to because in the whole scheme of things, they don't ruin the Trek universe.  The constant debate of where Kirk can drive stick shift is one of those petty things I don't bother with.  However, when I found out that Romulans were fighting Starfleet that early on, I was afraid that Abrams was trying to fit in whatever potential action sequence he could for serious money.  Thinking about that made my heart break.  One of my favorite episodes is Balance of Terror, which is supposed to the be first time Humans ever sees the Romulans.  This is important to the entire history of the Star Trek universe and to The Original Series.  It was a great discussion on the fear factor that happened in the Cold War (and you could relate it now to the fear of terrorists in America).  I could also relate to Spock, who looked like the enemy.  Officers suddenly couldn't trust him just because he shared physical features with the Romulans, despite the fact he was a dependable commander.  I didn't want to lose all of that depth in the entire universe just so a movie could have a legit fight sequence in space.

I've taken a somewhat closer look at the way Abrams is manipulating the timeline and I am ready to give it another shot.  Come May I'm going to go out of my way to see this movie.  I'm still somewhat apprehensive, and if things get too ridiculous I have told people I will walk out of the theatre.  Sure, this makes me one of those whiny purist.  So shoot me with a phaser set to kill.  Star Trek is ingrained in my family history.  I feel I have every right to be protective about it.

Congrats to Obama: President and Confirmed Trekkie

I really do want to congratulate Barack Obama for becoming the 44th president of the white house, and the first African American President of the United States.

Some of you may know that Barack is also a confirmed Trekkie, and believes in the final frontier.  I can see why too--Star Trek has forever been talking about people like him and I.  People who are from two extreme distinct backgrounds that may not always get along.  I think this is one of the many reasons Gene Roddenberry is a genius.  He was talking about interracial people and their identities  before there were a lot of us in America to talk about in the first place.  It's a big deal for me.  Today, in honor of our President's many backgrounds (and hopefully a finer appreciation of mine)  I want to discuss how being interracial was dealt with on Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, two shows from my childhood that in some ways taught me how to accept who I am.

Gene Roddenberry dealt with a lot of issues dealing with different alien races because the censors back in the day didn't like dealing with real race issues.  For example, when he first thought of doing Star Trek, he wanted the first commander to be a black human.  This would be a great way to talk about race relations.  However, he knew it wouldn't fly with the censors.  So instead he tried to make Majel Barrett first in command as a woman and put Spock on the bridge in the pilot.  The censors didn't like a woman first in command, stating that is wasn't believable to the audience.  When the first season aired, there was Spock as first in command, a half human half Vulcan.

Spock was the archetype of "the other" on the ship.  He constantly was representing his Vulcan heritage, choosing  suppress his emotions as is standard custom.  He was logical in thought and hardly ever let his feelings dictate who he was or his actions.   This played well against the over emotional McCoy, who says some nasty things to Spock.  If I were part Vulcan I wouldn't want someone just going around calling me Green-Blood, even if it is true.  I have a name, thankyouverymuch.  But Spock looked past his ignorance and merely carried on his customs.  He even had to defend his heritage in the great episode Balance of Terror, having to aid his ship being attacked by Romulans while at the same time suffering prejudice because he looked just like them.  

What I think allowed me to relate to Spock the most was the episode where his parents were on the Enterprise.  Sarek, his father, was a Vulcan Ambassador known for his many achievements.  It seemed his mother, Amanda, was being the dutiful politician's wife but also a caring, loving mother.  The tension between Sarek and Spock at the beginning of the episode was thicker than butter.  Sarek was disappointed that his son went to Starfleet instead of becoming a scientist on Vulcan.  It seemed that Spock could never be Vulcan enough.  Here we have the classic struggle for interracial people seen time and time again: Never could Spock be human enough to Starfleet peers, nor Vulcan enough even to his own father.  Spock chose to be more Vulcan than anything else, and was embarrassed to let his human emotions out.  Yet he could never satisfying either side of his heritage.

Would I say Barack can relate most to being Spock?  Actually, no.  Although a lot of interracial people can understand what's happened to Spock by finally picking a background to stick to, I don't think Barack has done that.  He isn't just black, and he isn't just white.  He's both.  He accepts both sides and how each of them have affected him as a person.  I can relate to that 100%, because that's how I feel about the issue too.  Unfortunately Spock never gets to that point in the series, unless of course you're awesome and you see the director's cut of the first Star Trek movie.  But that's a rant for another day.

Who has accepted both side of their heritage in the Star Trek universe?  Deanna Troi, that's who.  She's half betazoid and half human, and accepts both of those cultures as part of her own.  She even helps Worf's ex-wife(who's half Klingon and half human) with the question of how to deal with one's heritage.  Deanna's character is all about acceptance, and because of that she accepts herself, every part of it.  Of course there is the episode where she loses her empathy powers and doesn't know how to relate to people, but that's something she's always had so it's almost like if I had lost my left eye or something like that.  

Barack is more like Deanna.  I'm more like Deanna.  I didn't choose to be more black or more white.  I'm both.  My history is from both of those culture in America.  And I'm glad I have the opportunity to appreciate both to the fullest.  Barack does the same.  I think with that idea of acceptance, he has become one of the most relatable and open presidents that America has had in a good time.  

Also he's a trekkie, so I trust the next four years of America are in good hands.