Star Trek Sightings!

There's a little game I like to play-- Find the Star Trek! This happens when you're out running errands or doing something completely not related to Star Trek and you find some fun bit of Star Trek merchandise or memorabilia. For example, finding Captain Kirk pez dispenser at the grocery store. I mean, a grocery store is the logical place to buy candy. But still when you walked into Stop & Shop you didn't expect to see James T Kirk's head in a bin along side Tweety Bird, right?

I recently had two fun findings at the movie theatre. Tim and I when we went to see Bridesmades at the local theater near his Mom's house in Danvers, MA. The halls of this particular multiplex are decorated with older movie posters. For example, you might walk past a poster for Free Willy on your way to see Thor. I knew this but I didn't know they had a Star Trek IV poster! I was very excited when I saw it! (photo below)

But the fun didn't stop there. They also have the Star Trek Voyager Arcade Game! I'd never actually played this first person shooter game before. I wasn't very good at it and died pretty quickly. It's basically a zombie game with the borg standing in for the living dead. You have to shoot them right in the chest several times. As soon as they adapt to your phaser you re-modulate by shooting off of the screen. Ok-- I made that up. In reality it's not a phaser. It's totally a gun and when you run out of bullets you reload by shooting off the screen. But... it's fun to pretend that the game designers knew something about Star Trek. :) I did a YouTube search and found a vid of the game to share with you. :)



[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAWMyrImuVw]

G'Morning!

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog entry about how Captain Janeway is OBSESSED with coffee. In that entry I said " I'm not a slave to caffeine." But since then I've had to re-examine myself a little. I drink a lot more coffee then I'd like to admit. I often pop into Dunkin Donuts for a "medium iced coffee with french vanilla, skim milk and two equals" when I'm out in the city. It gives me energy. Perks me up when I'm out running errands. I'd say I do this maybe twice a week. I also tend to drink coffee when I'm in rehearsal for a show. If I have 6 rehearsals in a week I'd say I go thru maybe 3 cups. And since getting the Keurig coffee pot at home (thanks to Gail) I'd say I brew a cup of my own a couple times a week as well. That puts me up to like 7 cups a week! This is a dramatic increase compared to a couple of years ago when I never drank the stuff. If I continue to increase my coffee intake I may soon be as addicted as Janeway herself! Then what will I be capable of?! Stay tuned to find out!!

Marina Sirtis Should Be the New Voice of the Computer!

Ever since the passing of Majel Barrett Roddenberry in 2008, there has been talk of who should voice the computer in in Star Trek 2012. Often called the First Lady of Star Trek, Ms. Roddenberry voiced the computer in every version of Star Trek dating back to the original series. She even recorded the computer voice for the J.J. Abrams film shortly before her death. Here is a You Tube movie with a compilation of her Computer Voice work:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJfkYjrbPS4]

But who should take over where she left off? Who should be the new voice of the computer in the upcoming movie! For me there is an obvious answer. MARINA SIRTIS! She is best known for playing Counselor Troi in The Next Generation and Voyager. And Majel played her mother, of course. Not only would Ms. Sirtis do an amazing job-- it would keep the computer voice sort of "in the family". :)

I'm not the only want who wants Ms. Sirtis to be the new computer voice. There are online polls addressing the matter and Marina herself is talking about it! check out this recent interview from OMGWire.com:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epCQR9QEdBg]

My Star Trek Birthday Party!

Sunday was my 32nd Birthday! Tim threw me a fun Star Trek themed birthday party and really went above and beyond! He made a kick-ass Enterprise Bridge Birthday Cake for me. :) Check it out below. He even added "Happy Birthday Mike" to the main viewer display. :) Very cool! BTW- there are Star Trek figures and playsets from the 2009 movie on clearance at Toys R Us in Queens right now. :)

In addition to eating delicious cake, my friends and I watched some of my favorite fun episodes of TOS and TAS, played some Star Trek Scene It and enjoyed some food even Neelix would approve of-- 5 different kinds of nachos! :)

I also got some pretty cool gifts including comic books like Star Trek: The Motion Picture Trilogy. It's a fascinating look at the three films. I also got a Star Trek bathrobe! It's gold and looks like Captain Kirk's command division uniform. Check it out over at thinkgeek.com.

My Birthday!

My Birthday is the day after tomorrow! To celebrate, my partner

Blinking Lights & Glowing Diagrams

There's a great Star Trek screensaver out there called System 47 from the folks over at mewho.com. It's been around for years and simulates a computer display on the U.S.S. Enterprise E circa Star Trek: First Contact. The graphics and animation are really nice (video below). I've had it on my Macbook for... well... as long as I've had my Macbook. (The program is also available for Windows for you PC lovers.) System 47 has served me well but I'm kind of bored with it now a days. What I really want is a TOS era screen saver! True, the special effects on the bridge of the original Enterprise aren't all that great by today's standards, but a screensaver that shows the computer displays from Lt. Uhura's Communications console would be pretty awesome! It can be animated more like the graphics on Star Trek: Phase II and have sound effects-- the whole works!

I've searched the net but no one has made this yet. I don't really understand how to but it wouldn't be too hard I think for someone who understands programing. I did find some pretty cool photos of the original bridge on Greg_Weir's Flickr Photostream. Below is a shot of Uhura's station from one of the Star Trek: The Exhibition. Come on computer people! Somebody make this! :)


Photo (c) Greg Weir


System47 Enterprise E Screensaver Demo:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaCP-sTXMlc]