The Pirates of Orion

Well it is Wednesday and I have been thinking it is Tuesday all day. Somehow this week has flown by which is a blessing and I’m loving that. There really isn’t anything that special going on which again is a really nice thing. I hooked up on the treadmill today for ½ hour because I had to watch my two favorite shows. Happy Endings and Hot in Cleveland, the damn shame is that Happy Endings was a rerun so I could have spent an extra episode on the treadmill. As it is today there are now only three days left before I start watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Pirates of Orion

The Enterprise is in route to a conference on Denab 5 when Spock comes down with a rare disease that is nearly always fatal to Vulcan’s. The Enterprise  contacts a nearby cargo ship that happens to be carrying the only known cure to Spock’s disease. The Cargo ship is then attacked by an Orion ship who steals the entire cargo including the medicine. The Enterprise tracks down the Orions and strike a deal with them to get the medicine back. The Orions attempt to destroy the Enterprise but they are outsmarted by Kirk and crew. In the end the Orions go their own way and Spock is healed. This show is the first time we see the male Orions, up until this time we have only seen the female Orion Green Slave Women.

The Eye Of The Beholder & The Jihad

Today marks a very special day in the life of this Trekkie. I would liken it to the day a young Jewish boy has his Bar Mitzvah and states that today I am a man. The Trekkie equivalent for most I suppose would be the day those nerds finally get laid but that is not what I am celebrating today. Today I ordered and got confirmation that Star Trek Enterprise Seasons 3 & 4 are on their way to my house. This means that I now own every season of Star Trek ever produced on TV and all 11 motion pictures. I know it is incredibly dorky but I am so happy that I feel like having a photo taken of me and my DVDs. I may have to take one someday to post on this blog. Other than that today was a great day.

Today’s Workout: Treadmill- 1.5 miles and 200calories

The Eye Of The Beholder

The Enterprise is investigating the disappearance of an entire Starship crew that happened several months ago. Upon beam down Kirk, Spock, and McCoy encounter some very strange life forms and ecosystems and are finally captured by a couple of large intelligent slugs. The three men are placed in a holding cell in a gigantic zoo and soon meet the remaining crew from the missing ship. The slugs are incredibly intelligent and wish to keep the humans as exhibits. Kirk and Spock find a way to communicate with the slugs and things get a little messed up when a baby slug is beamed up to the Enterprise. The baby slug reappears and has learned the truth about the humans and all is put right.

The Jihad

A group of specialists from across the galaxy are assembled to help the Skor, a race of bird-like aliens, recover a missing artifact. The team assembled leave for a mysterious planet and the adventure begins. The team of faces several challenges but finally make it to the artifact and attempt to capture it but are faced with a saboteur within the group. The saboteur ends up being Char, the Skor representative. He hopes to start an intergalactic jihad to return his people to glory. Of course this doesn’t happen and all is set right in the universe again.

The Ambergris Element & The Slaver Weapon

The holiday weekend is over and that is ok because I am ready to get myself back to work. This week is going to be excellent and that is all there is to that. Nothing really great to report today,,, sorry folks.

The Ambergris Element

The crew is exploring and surveying a planet that has been destroyed by earthquakes and is now entirely submerged under water. The crew lands in a shuttlecraft that is also a submarine and are immediately attacked by a gigantic sea creature. The ship is destroyed and Kirk and Spock disappear under the water. They are found five days later and have been mutated into water breathing creatures. They seek contact with the people who did this to them below the surface of the water. The people, who look like a population of aquamen, do not wish to help but some of the younger creatures break the rules and help. Kirk and Spock find a cure to their mutations and also end up saving the planet’s inhabitants from a deadly earthquake. In the end all is well and Kirk’s webbed hands are gone!

The Slaver Weapon

Spock, Sulu and Uhura are transporting an ancient box from the Slaver Empire and find another ancient Slaver box coincidentally. They are on an ice planet and are soon attacked by the Kzinti, a new race of cat-like aliens that are fiercely powerful and evil. They are however not supposed to have weapons but of course they do. In an attempt to steal the box they capture Uhura. Now Sulu and Spock must rescue her before the Kzinti get the weapon and eat Uhura. In the end the Kzinti don’t get the weapon and the shuttle crew  get out alive.

The Slaver weapon is unique because it only features Sulu, Uhura and Spock. None of the other Star Trek cast is even featured in the storytelling here. It is also unique because it is basically a completely different science fiction universe being incorporated into Star Trek. The story was written by Larry Niven and it uses his ‘Known Space’ setting and characters for the story. ODD

I have eight episodes of the Animated Series left and I will be happy when they are over. I love Star Trek and enjoy the episodes but not nearly as much as I enjoy the live episodes. The quality of these shows was quite low and the scripts were just a little to wack-a-doodle for me at times.

The Terratin Incident & The Time Trap

Thanksgiving Part Deux!!!!!! Today I volunteered to make the Green Bean Casserole,,, there is nothing more Minnesotan that a casserole or a hot dish. They are of course two separate things not that anyone not from the Midwest would understand that fact. I actually don’t like green bean casserole because it is semi-gross but I know several family members love it so it is all good.

Today’s workout: Treadmill 180 calories and 1.5 miles

Weekly  Weigh-In: 228 nothing gained nothing lost J

The Terratin Incident

The crew of the Enterprise is surveying a super nova when they intercept a distress call. Shortly after visiting the planet in distress they are scanned by a mysterious signal and shortly after begin shrinking. Throughout the episode the crew shrinks to about 1/6 of an inch tall and are transported to a TINY city on the planet. The inhabitants are in danger of being destroyed and the only way they could communicate is to shrink the Enterprise crew so they could communicate. The crew is restored and the entire city is transported aboard the Enterprise just in the nick of time.

The Time Trap

While investigating a mysterious “Bermuda triangle” in space the Enterprise is attacked by the Klingons and both the Enterprise and Klingon ship vanishes in the triangle. They reappear in a strange place where there are hundreds of ships from the past centuries, all of which have been trapped in the same fashion as the Enterprise. While there Kirk and crew encounter the now inhabitants of “Elysium” who are content to stay stranded and attempt to impose their laws on the two crews. The Klingons and the Enterprise crew agree to work together to escape the triangle and succeed but not without the Klingons first attempting to blow up the Enterprise. They don’t succeed of course and both crews are off in their own directions.

By The Way... Is it just me or does this random RED SHIRT look exactly like Barack Obama???????

Once Upon A Planet & Mudd's Passion

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!! I will be completely honest that I have been fearing the holiday season because the thought of eating all of this food scared me because I don’t want to gain weight over the next few weeks of holiday joy. YIKES. The food was great as usual today at mom and dad’s house and I was fairly responsible about the amount I ate. Today was small because it was just mom, dad, my sister and my grandparents… apparently everyone else had something going on. I missed them but thankfully I get to see them all at Christmas. Tomorrow is the big day though because it is dad’s family which is about 25 people all having fun, drinking, and joking around. If I had to compare the Olson family to anything it would be an odd combination of the The Klumps from the Nutty Professor and the family from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, of course we are not black or greek.

Today’s Workout

24 minutes Treadmill and 24 minutes Elliptical

339 calories and 4 miles

Once Upon A Planet

The Enterprise is taking some needed shore leave on the “shore leave planet” from the original series episode Shore Leave. Things start off ok until once again the fictional characters start trying to kill everyone and Uhura is kidnapped. We find out that keeper of the planet has died and now the super computer that runs the planet no longer wants to be the controller of the planet. The computer intends to kidnap the crew of the Enterprise and transfer itself onto the ship so it can find other super computers to hang out with.. or something. In the end everything is sorted out and the computer becomes happy to do its job again.

Mudd’s Passion

The Enterprise once again picks up the loveable pimp Harry Mudd. They find him trying to sell love potion to some surly miners on a distant federation planet. Mudd wants no part of being put back into jail and attempts to get off the ship by slipping some people the love potion, namely Spock and Nurse Chapel, and he hijacks a shuttle craft. Kirk, Spock, Chapel, McCoy and Mudd end up on a planet and are being attacked by gigantic space monsters and thankfully get beamed up before anything bad can happen. The crew is all back to normal and off to the next adventure and Mudd is off to jail.

Two very fun sequel episodes from the live action series brought into the animated world.

The Magicks of Megas-tu

Two Lasagnas are in the fridge and ready to be cooked tomorrow afternoon! Traditional lasagna and an alfredo lasagna, they are like my children and I love them equally! Well ok that is a bold face lie, I love my alfredo lasagna so much more. I would even consider marrying it one of these days and changing my name to Paul Lasagna, which sounds so sexy I know. The lasagnas are for a small gathering I am throwing tomorrow at my house. I love entertaining but at times would love to hire someone to do all the grunt work before the party so I can just welcome people and be social with my friends. Oh well that is life when you are not Oprah, which means maybe I have to become the gay male Oprah and get a show… but damnit there already is one, blast that Ellen and her trickiness. Next plan I guess. Maybe this blog will make me famous enough??? I’d better get used to cleaning and cooking I guess.

Treadmill today for only one episode. I am starting to feel like such a lazy bastard for only doing 25 minutes a day. I suppose that is 25 minutes more in one day than I used to do in a month so it is all good now and then.

The Magicks of Megas-tu

This episode is to the animated series what Spock’s Brain is to the original series… what a clunker. The Enterprise is trying to explore the center of the galaxy and gets magically teleported to an alternate plane of existence. There they encounter a planet and are basically greeted by a character that looks like the devil who calls himself Lucien. He reveals himself to be of the planet and goes into a long bit of plot exposition that details the history of his planet and how they once traveled to Earth but left because of cruelty. The Enterprise crew is captured by the rest of the inhabitants of Megas-tu and is put on trial as a society. The aliens reveal themselves as puritans in Salem Massachusetts during the trial and Kirk and Spock are charged with defending all of humanity. They are set free and it is revealed that Lucien is really Lucifer (the devil).. who saw that one coming?? EVERYONE! Lucifer is portrayed sympathetically and Kirk saves his life. Edgy stuff for a Saturday morning cartoon.

The Infinite Vulcan

I officially feel out of the loop and really need to start listening to the radio more often. This was made so extremely clear to me today when I was shopping at Banana Republic. I heard a great song that I was really enjoying on the radio and so I pulled out my iphone and “shazamed” the song so I could listen to it again later. The song was called “Here’s Where The Story Ends” by The Sundays. I have never heard of the band before but that is not an atypical occurrence, so I downloaded the song. I decided to look up the artist and possibly load the CD onto my phone. Here comes the sad part… This really good song I thought was current came out in 1990! 1990! WTF! I was 8 when it came out and here I’m thinking it is current. In my defense it does sound like something one would hear currently Cities 97 or The Current here in Minnesota. I have gotten into a rut listening to my iPod and the music I already know and love. To all of my readers.. PLEASE LET ME KNOW ABOUT ANY COOL NEW MUSIC THAT I MAY ENJOY!!!!!!!

here is the link to the video if you are interested in listening to the song:

http://youtu.be/FHsip5xOenQ

Other than that sad occurrence I went shopping and bought some really cute clothes that I can’t wait to wear to work. I am often told that I am one of the more stylish guys on the staff which I take a bit of pride in! Also It snowed today and OMG everyone is driving like a dipshit,, ugh Minnesota.

So I only got to one episode today… I just was not feeling the work out but at least I got up and did 25 minutes right??

The Infinite Vulcan

The Enterprise is investigating a new planet that we find out is inhabited by intelligent plants! The plants called Phylosians seem very helpful until they help their leader capture Spock and attempt to kill the rest of the landing party with these really odd bird/plant creatures that fly and make a really annoying noise. The plant’s leader is a clone of a former earth man who lived in the 1990’s but escaped during the fictional “eugenics wars” of that time (the same war mentioned in the episode Space Seed). The mater’s intention is to clone Spock to use as a peace keeping force in a brutal and unloving galaxy. The only problem is that since he hasn’t been off Phylos for years he doesn’t know peace is already in place. WHOOPS. The clone of Spock and the mater stay on Phylos to help rebuild the Phylosian society and the Enterprise along with the regular Spock are off to the next planet.

What a bizarre episode! The only interesting fact is that it was written by Walter Koenig who is most famous for playing Chekov. For some reason it was decided that they would save money during the animated show and not Koenig to voice Chekov,, stupid I know.

More Tribbles, More Troubles & The Survivor

Friday is finally here..yeah. What an interesting day I must say. I went to do an observation at another school and witnessed something that I would really rather forget soon. I have never seen a teacher be so mean and ridiculing to a student in my life during this observation. It really took a lot of energy not to say something or just come right out and hit the woman. It is so frustrating when people who should retire  and have clearly lost the passion for working with kids continue to teach kids to negative results for all involved. Anyways enough about that and onto the fun stuff. I’m heading out to see a play that my friend directed in Elk River. I am very excited to see the show and wish her well!

Today’s Workout: Treadmill

More Tribbles, More Troubles

The Enterprise is escorting two robot ships to Sherman’s Planet  to help with a grain crisis. They stumble across a small ship being pursued by the Klingon’s. The Klingon’s have a new weapon that immobilizes their attacker. While the ship is immobilized the Klingon’s interrupt the beaming process but are soon over powered by their own power failure. The Enterprise beams aboard Cyrano Jones, who previously was seen with a boat load of tribbles on station K-7. The new tribbles are engineered not to reproduce but they eat and grow and grow and grow. The Klingon’s only want a small creature that Jones stole. The creature was designed to eat tribbles on the Klingon homeworld. In the end everyone gets what they want and move on, even though the creature cannot eat the enormous tribbles.

This episode is a fun sequel to The Trouble With Tribbles that was to be a live action episode but the powers that be did not think that Star Trek should be a comedy. Bummer it would have been fun to see a second live action Tribble episode.

The Survivor

The Enterprise picks up a living legend and intergalactic hero, Carter Winston. The man is somewhat strange and does not seem to be the man everyone thinks he is. Carter ends up being an alien spy who is a shapeshifter and he guides the Enterprise into the neutral zone by taking Kirk’s shape. Intergallactic war nearly breaks out but the spy is revealed and the Romulans suddenly don’t want to fight.

In this episode we meet Lt. M’ress the cat like humanoid who is the fill-in communications officer. She purrs and meows while talking.. too funny. M’ress paired with Lt. Arex, the three armed navigation officer, are part of the more odd that could be used in the animated format.

The Lorelei Signal

I took my cat to the vet today because she needed a booster shot and she has been pissing on stuff so I took her to get that checked out. Turns out she may have some idiopathic thing a ma bob. IDK what the hell it means but it sounded complicated and very odd. I got the vibe that it was going to be a problem for a while but could be managed so that I is good. I am also going to take and get her spade and declawed sometime in the near future. I have never ever ever ever been in a room with a vet who talked more than this guy. He is really nice so I just deal with it and the prices are pretty decent there so it is worth dealing with. In other news… there is no other news at the moment.

Again I was super busy so I couldn’t get through two episodes but still worked out and ran for about ten minutes of the 24 minute episode.

The Lorelei Signal

The Enterprise is trying to investigate a mysterious occurrence that has happened every 27 years in a specific portion of the galaxy. It seems that every 27 years a ship has disappeared at the exact coordinates the Enterprise is patrolling. The Enterprise picks up on a mysterious signal that affects only the male members of the crew and Uhura and Chapel pick up on it real quickly. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a random red shirt beam down and discover a planet inhabited by the “most beautiful women in the galaxy”. The women soon try to overthrow the guys and fit them with headbands that drain life energy. Uhura sees things going to hell in a hand basket and then takes command of the Enterprise in time to save the men and help the bizarre women of the planet.

Finally a woman gets to take command of the Enterprise and who better than Uhura. Nichelle Nichols herself has stated that this is one of her favorite episodes of the original Star Trek because she finally got to do something great. I wish this had been made into a live action show because it really could have been expanded and would have been awesome. 

By The Way Blooper Alert Below... LOL

That is Chapel in a red shirt... The animated series often made minor mistakes. Even the animated show's production value was limited at times. 

One Of Our Planets Is Missing

Cable and internet have been repaired and I am back in business. The big news of the day is that I have decided to drop out of the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. It is a wonderful organization with over 150 talented men from the Twin Cities Metro Area and you really should check out on of their concerts. I have just not been too busy and I have not been able to fully commit myself to the group because of time issues. The 2 hour round trip drive to and from rehearsal does not help either. I’m sad to go but glad to be a little less busy. In other news the new cat is pissing on stuff that she shouldn’t be and not using the cat litter box as much as she should be.. UGH.

I got distracted by Cat pissing on stuff tonight so I only got through one episode tonight.

One Of Our Planets Is Missing

The Enterprise is on a routine mission when they encounter a gigantic cloud that is devouring planets in its path. So this is the same plot as “The Doomsday Machine” thus far but it takes on a different twist about 8 minutes in.. which is the equivalent of about 35 minutes into a normal episode. The Enterprise enters the cloud and determines that the cloud is a living organism. To get through to the organism Spock performs a mind meld and convinces the cloud to leave the galaxy and return to its home.

Beyond The Farthest Star & Yesteryear

Monday has come and gone and it was a good day. Nothing really earth shattering has happened with the exception of the big change up at my house. I have finished moving my rooms and rearranging/repurposing the rooms. My office is now in the open area upstairs,, the office is my bedroom, the bedroom is now a lounge and the downstairs is more formal. It looks awesome but I can tell it will take some time to get used to the changes that have been made.

Treadmill: 1.88miles and 250 calories

Today is the first animated series post! I will be doing two episodes a day because they are only about 23 minutes each.

Beyond The Farthest Star

The Enterprise is exploring and charting the farthest reaches of the galaxy when they encounter a strange spaceship orbiting a dead star. Kirk and company beam aboard the ship and encounter a tricky alien entity that attempts to kill the four landing party members. Kirk and crew are beamed back before they are killed but the evil entity has followed them and is now trying to take over the Enterprise so that it may conquer the galaxy. Kirk and crew outwit the alien and leave it stranded alone on a dead planet. The crew is then off to the next adventure.

Yesteryear

The crew is revisiting the time portal from “The City On The Edge Of Forever” when something goes wrong. Upon return to present day the crew of the Enterprise does not recognize Spock and have never met him apparently. It seems that while he was away on a mission he was unable to travel back in time to rescue his 7 year old self during Vulcan manhood test. Spock travels back in time to set the mistake right and succeeds in his mission. Spock returns and all is well again in the world.

The Animated Series is often considered not to be part of the true Star Trek canon or history but I say that if Roddenberry himself was involved it is real. The animated series present the opportunity for the show to go to the more alien places and engage the crew with different types of aliens and different planets. The show was not always a great amazing success but it is unique and interesting enough for any Star Trek fan to enjoy. Plus I remember watching reruns of this as a child on Nickelodeon so the nostalgia factor is enough for me!

The Cage

Oh What A Night! I had so much fun hanging out with my coworkers who are really friends and great people. Drinks, Drinks, Drinks and Mexican food and Drinks were the order of last night and it did a number on the weight for today but that just means I need to be conservative today and tomorrow. Things are really going well with this diet and exercise plan. The support from friends and other readers has been very nice and has helped to keep me motivated. I have lost a total of 28lbs since July 7^th. I would like to make goal until January first be to drop an additional 2 pounds and not gain anything over the holiday season.

Treadmill today but didn’t snap a picture of the stats in time before I unplugged the machine. Oh well.

The Cage

The Cage is the first pilot the network produced and it was quickly dismissed as being too “cerebral” and odd for network TV at the time. The Episode is centered on the adventures of the Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. The Enterprise picks up a distress signal from a planet that has never been explored. They beam down and find out that the survivors were all a fake by the true inhabitants of the planet a group of highly intelligent and mentally powerful aliens. These aliens are able to produce wild illusions in the minds of other people. They capture Captain Pike and submit him to several experiments using their illusions. The aliens desire to produce a race of humans to be servants and slaves to do the work they have forgotten how to perform. Pike and crew outwit the aliens and they are set free to move on.

The only member of the crew that remained from the pilot to the regular series was Mr. Spock who was deemed the only interesting character. The show had a female first officer, which was wildly ahead of its time but the network did not agree and she was axed. Also axed were the women’s pants in favor of the miniskirts worn in the regular series. The good news was that the show was deemed interesting enough for a second pilot and the rest as they say is history.

So I guess I should have watched this episode first but my DVD set did not include it until the third season so I decided to follow the original air dates of the episodes instead. This works because this episode was produced in 1964/65 but it was never aired on TV until 1988.

Tomorrow I am going to take a day off from the workout and then I will return on Monday with the Animated Series. There are only 24 half hour episodes of that show so I will do two episodes per day. I hope to start Star Trek: The Next Generation by December first.

Turnabout Intruder

Quick  post for today because well I am heading out tonight in about 45 minutes and just got off the treadmill. So excited to go out in St. Cloud with my wonderful co-workers!!!

Today’s Workout

2.2miles and 278 calories

Turnabout Intruder

The final episode of the regular run Original Series episodes and it is not as bad as some people say it is. While beaming down to a planet to help some sick and injured Miners Kirk is attacked by an old flame who has been jealous for years because she can’t be a starship captain because she is a woman. Dr. Lester deeply hates being a woman has a major case of penis envy or something. She initially is able to pass as Kirk but she starts going a little crazier as people start to question her/him and we are left with basically Kirk as a “hot tranny mess” in a sense. Spock does a quick mind meld and believes the story told to him by the female body of Kirk. A huge trial ensues in which “Kirk” charges the whole crew with mutiny and wants to put them all to death. The transference is broken and Kirk is Kirk and Lester is Lester. All is well and the Enterprise is off.. and wouldn’t be seen again for another 4 years until the beginning of the animated series in 1973.

We could also call this episode "Star Trek: Freaky Friday". Some people claim this is the worst episode produced but I would have to argue that there are far worse episodes and that this one has some redeeming qualities to it.

All Our Yesterdays

A wonderful day at work and a wonderful evening cleaning and getting ready to massively redo the house. I am planning on moving my bedroom into the smaller bedroom in my house and turning the large bedroom into a “den” or TV room where friends can come over and watch TV and hang out. It will also give me more space downstairs to have guests and entertain for dinner. I am very excited about the project. For the time being I will use the furniture at hand but will eventually be getting a better couch for the upstairs living space and new blinds for my new bedroom. Big News Here!

Treadmill- forgo to write down the details sorry

Weekly Weigh-in: 228 which means.. I am now down 28 pounds

All Our Yesterdays

The Enterprise is trying to determine where an entire planet of people has gone to before their sun goes Nova. Upon beam down Spock, McCoy and Kirk find a library and a cranky old man librarian who tries to get the men to where they need to go and is in quite a mad rush. We learn later that the library transported people to the planet’s past so that they would survive the impending nova that will destroy them all. Kirk accidentally ends up traveling to what is the equivalent of 18^th century France, and McCoy and Spock travel to the planet’s first ice age some 5000 years earlier. Kirk makes his way back to the library and convinces the librarian to help him find his friends. McCoy and Spock meet Zarabeth who has been exiled to the Ice Age by some past evil president of the planet. Zarabeth attempts to trick the two but they of course out smart her and make it back to the porthole in time for Kirk to save them. The old man makes it to his destination and the Enterprise heads off right before the star goes nova and destroys the planet.

Cost cutting is pretty evident here. I believe I have seen all of the sets and technology gadgets from this episode but in different forms before. Also the only cast members to appear in the show are Kirk, Spock, and McCoy which obviously saves money. We do hear Scotty’s voice a few times but that is all. There was only one more episode made after this episode.

The Savage Curtain

People say the darndest things this day in age and sometimes it is funny and sometimes it pisses you off.. and then sometimes it accomplishes both things. Apparently me and my sexuality are the talk of the townhome complex.. LOL. I found this out from my new neighbor who is pretty cool, who knew a nice person could live in Zimmerman.  All I can say is oh who gives a shit,, it kinda makes me want to mess with the good citizens of the South Side Villas Zimmerman but I won’t.

Treadmill time today and it went well until I almost fell off the damn thing but caught myself as my knee dropped mid step. Oh Well finished up my workout anyway.

The Savage Curtain

W…T…F? The Enterprise is examining a mysterious planet when all of the sudden Abraham Lincoln appears in the view screen. He claims to be the real deal but of course is not but the whole crew goes along with it and gets all gussied up in their dress uniforms and put on a formal welcome for the former president. Upon beam down Kirk and Spock accompanied by Lincoln are met by Surak the most influential Vulcan in all of history. The four are confronted by a gigantic rock like creature who explains that they have been brought to the planet to be studied and will be pitted against four of the most vial warriors in the history of the Galaxy. The initially refuse to participate but the Enterprise is put in danger and Kirk and crew have no choice. In the end Kirk and Spock are triumphant and everyone is safe and the Enterprise is off to the next voyage.

Again W…T…F? the episode does again have a nonviolence message which is great but the whole thing was just so tacky and over the top. Oh Well it still maintains the charm of the show and I’m going to be sad that the original series is coming to an end in the next few days.

The Cloud Minders

Have you ever had a day where you just feel that you can’t make it through until the end? That has been my Monday and well the good news is that I did make it through it but I’m exhausted as hell. And that is all the update I have for today. 

Today’s Workout:

Treadmill- 210 calories and 1.5 miles

The Cloud Minders

The Enterprise is on route to pick up some rare and precious mineral in order to save another planet’s entire vegetation population from utter destruction (a somewhat familiar scenario). When Kirk and Spock beam down to get the mineral they are attacked by the Troglites, the people who live on the planet’s surface. The pair is rescued by the residents of Strata the planet’s floating cloud city. The planet is outwardly known for its serine population and harmonious lifestyle. We learn quite quickly that everything is not as it seems. The Troglites are essentially a slave class that are treated as inferior beings and are seen as a plight on the cloud city population. The Troglites have hidden the mineral and wish to start a revolution. Kirk and Spock manage to piss off the cloud city leaders and must take matters into their own hands to get the mineral. They decide to break directives and work with the Troglites and insight a minor revolution essentially. In the end the doors are open for a revolution or at least a major change in the planet’s social structure and the other planet’s vegetation is saved by the delivery of the mineral.

The episode is a statement on bigotry and prejudices based on the most ridiculous of claims and how those assumptions can have long lasting impacts on an entire civilization. There are only three episodes left of the Original Series run and then the unaired pilot episode “The Cage”.

The Way To Eden

A trip to St. Cloud was on tap for the weekend as part of the annual St. Cloud Reunion with a group of friends from college. Now that everyone has returned to the Midwest I am hoping that this little tradition will happen more frequently. Last night we went to dinner and then a SCSU hockey game. I have never sat in the front row at a hockey game and all I can say is that it is an experience I was not ready to partake in. WOW it is really scary when the players bash up against the glass right in front of you, I think I jumped and yelled about a dozen times before I got used to it. Then the party moved to the bars which is always an interesting experience in St. Cloud now that I am out of college. I feel older and older every time I go out in St. Cloud because the college kids look younger and younger and I don’t feel I’ve aged, but I guess I have. The group also went to BIOLOGY 701 the first official gay bar in St. Cloud. It is right downtown and in a building space that used to be a Quiznos sub shop. That may sound tragic but actually it was a very classy looking place with good drinks, interesting people and good music. The one thing that could have been better  was a little more square footage,,, It was tiny. I figure though if it stays busy they will be able to move or expand. So if you are in St. Cloud and want to have a “Gay Ole’ Time” stop by Biology 701.

Today’s Workout:

Treadmill: 2.3miles and 330 calories

The Way To Eden

The Enterprise is in pursuit of a stolen Starfleet cruiser and captures the hijackers who are a bunch of 23^rd century “Space Hippies”. The group is lead by a distinguished scientist who has traded that life to pursue his dream of finding a paradise planet known as Eden. The group of followers consist of several  young adults who came from privileged lives who have given up all they had to follow this man. The group is to be taken to a starbase and tried for the crimes of treason, theft and other counts of space travel violation. The followers are separated from the leader but continue to try to get the ship to Eden. The Hippies take over the ship and release their leader and get to Eden, which apparently really does exist. Once the travelers have beamed down the Enterprise crew retakes the ship. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Chekov beam down to find the planet to be a near paradise except for the fact that everything is highly acidic and poisonous. This fact rendered the planet uninhabitable. The leader of the group Dr. Severin refuses to return to the ship and purposefully eats a poisonous piece of fruit. In the end the followers are dropped off at a starbase and all is well on the Enterprise again.

The ship would more aptly be titled “Star Trek: An Intergalactic Hippie Musical”. This is the closes thing to a musical Star Trek has ever produced! Yes in other episodes Uhura and others would sing a song but this  episode features well over 6 different songs/musical numbers. Most of the music comes from the Hippies who are totally annoying! The show does make an interesting statement about how adults and mainstream America viewed the Hippie counter culture of the 1960’s. The show also accurately depicts that these Hippies all came from upper middle class highly privileged and educated backgrounds just like the real hippies of the 60’s.

5 original series episodes left and then on to the Animated Series.

Requiem for Methuselah

What an up and down day! The day started off so well this morning with a great meeting and a fun time with the kiddos for the first hour. After that it went a bit down hill with some disappointing news, followed by even more disappointing news. The day was just starting to turn around when BOOM a rough ending to the day. Too bad of course I can’t vent concerns here and won’t vent about work. My job is stressful and sometimes overwhelming but I truly love what I do, and honestly I knew what I was getting into when I decided on this career so I really try not to complain (too much at least).

 I stopped by to pick up and old set of reins at my parent’s house and I’m so pumped to use them tomorrow. I have decided that 2011-2012 is the year for me to get back in the saddle as it were. I’m going to start riding despite how much it may hurt my ass and thighs! The pain has to be good right? I mean it comes from stretching and using muscles… has to be good.

Hit the Treadmill today though it was a bit of a slow workout!

Requiem For Methuselah

The Enterprise is in desperate need of medical supplies to prevent a plague from breaking out on the ship. They beam down to a deserted planet and discover that there is a person already living there with a floating robot and an oddly dopy woman. The man does not want to allow them access to the minerals they need but eventually relents but tries to keep the landing party on the surface as long as he can so they can be part of some crazy scheme. McCoy supervises the mineral refining process, Spock looks around in awe of the amazing artifacts, and Kirk of course seduces the woman. The man, Flint, doesn’t like this and gets mad at the crew and tries to frighten them by shrinking the Enterprise and putting it into a bottle. We find that the woman is an android and the Flint an immortal being who lived on Earth at a time and was actually Davinci, Moses, Brahms, and other important academic and creative people throughout history. In the end Flint allows them to leave, The girl is dead and Kirk is heartbroken but Spock fixes that with a mind meld to make him forget.

There are now only 6 episodes left of the original series and then we are on to Star Trek: The Animated Series and I will be watching two episodes per day to make for a full workout.  

The Lights of Zetar

Today I got to spend some time with two of my favorite colleagues! We try to get together now and then to laugh, vent and have a drink or two. I had one (very weak I might say) Vodka Cranberry and a few chips. I would like to think I had a fairly healthy happy hour. As I have always said clear liquids do not have calories and since vodka is a clear liquid life is all good! I know that there are calories in vodka and I find that completely unfair in so many ways, and all I have to say is Thank God I never really developed a strong taste for beer.

Today’s Workout:

Treadmill: 343 calories and 2.5 miles

I ran for a total of 8 minutes today!

Weekly Weigh-in: 229pounds that is a total of 27 down (nothing gained nothing lost this week)

The Lights of Zetar

The Enterprise is on its way to Memory Alpha a library planet set up by the Federation to store the collective knowledge of the galaxy. While there they are supposed to deposit some equipment and a library scientist (from what I gather at least). It is also revealed in a very heavy handed fashion that Scotty has taken a shine to Lt. Romaine, the new librarian. While on the way the Enterprise is attacked by a mysterious Light Storm and several crew members are affected but none more than Lt. Romaine. When they finally make it to Memory Alpha the entire place has been destroyed by the Light Storm. The Enterprise is then attacked again and the persistent Lights finally over take the ship. Much talk and research is done to see why Lt. Romaine is so greatly affected and it seems that she has been invaded by the Lights and is becoming a host for them to live. The Lights reveal themselves to be the collective unconsciousness of a dead planet called Zetar. They Zetarians wish to live in Romaine’s body until they die but as a result she will die. Lt. Romaine is placed in the pressure chamber which will kill the Zetarians but not Lt. Romaine. All is well in the end and everyone is happy and fin. Funnily enough we never see Lt. Romaine again even though she and Scotty were sooooo in love. And also of note is the fact that no remorse is shown for the deaths of the Zetarians who were somewhat of a sympathetic bad guy,, huh?

Leprechauns and Lots O' Drama (A Glee Wednesday Post)

Wednesdays are great! I love my Star Trek but I really like watching Glee on Wednesdays on the treadmill. The problem here lies in the fact that Glee this year is not really full of Glee but is more like despair and heartache. I don’t think the show can call itself a comedy any longer. I am becoming more frustrated with the level of bullshit and unrealistic plot points. Sue went into a rant about how special education is being cut more than the arts. If the show’s writers would take their time and do some research they would know that Special Education is a federally mandated program that cannot be cut. I will say that the government does not fund it the way they should and does not fund it to the extent it should but the programs are not being cut. I can’t image the hell a district would have to pay if it refused to offer special education services. I know several of the shows unrealistic elements are for comedic purposes but sometimes they are just ridiculous.

I am continuing to run on the treadmill and I made it ten minutes today!! WOOO HOOO and the worst part was that I didn’t find it painful or awful. I am afraid I’m turning into a runner. Reminds me of a time I was driving in the car with a few friends we saw a man running and a friend from the back seat shouted out the window “You can’t run from Jesus”… LOL omg.

Treadmill: 340 calories and 2.50miles