Sadly, this weekend’s schedule isn’t letting me get down to this year’s Brickcon. Running today and tomorrow at Seattle Center’s Exhibition Hall, if you’re into Legos, you’ll be in heaven.
Brickcon This Weekend!
Tag: geek culture
The New Captain Marvel Trailer Now Live!
As a life-long geek/comic fan, I adore all these movies (even the DC ones that so many revile). It’s awesome to see these films making the mainstream. When I was a kid loving comics was a definitive beat-me-up-at-recess thing.
And bringing a powerful, heroic woman character and I’m delighted to the nth degree.
Life is looking pretty good for geeks of my stripe!
Happy 50th Birthday Star Trek
So, today is the 50th anniversary of Star Trek’s premier back in 1966. I have no memory of life without Star Trek because, well, there wasn’t a life before Star Trek…for me at least. My 50th anniversary of being ex post utero isn’t for a few more weeks. So, Star Trek has been not just part, but a significant, perhaps the most significant part of my entire memory.
One of my earliest memories is watching the Apollo 11 lunar landing on TV. From that moment on, I was a space nut. All things space, then aircraft delighted me.
With that, my father loved Star Trek. When the programming gods deemed it appropriate to beam the show, our tv was turned to it. Pretty much without fail. Though MASH was a close second.
I don’t remember a first episode. Star Trek was always there. After falling in love with space, though, I would plop down when my dad had the show on. Trying to be non-obtrusive.
Getting older, I connected more and more with the show. The cartoon show helped, but only some. Even the passion that erupted in me for Star Wars didn’t dilute Star Trek. Maybe pushed it to the back for a spell. Battlestar Gallactica, Buck Rogers, no other show displaced it. I remember being asked, when I worked at Microsoft, “Star Wars or Star Trek”. I, in my style, answered “behold my gom jabbar!” I refused to choose one element of sci-fi geekdom. I love them all. But Trek has been there the longest.
After movies, Next Generations, Deep Space stations, journeys of the Enterprise and voyages with Voyager, my delight with the now universe of Star Trek grew deeper and richer. I adore them all.
Science Fiction forms the core of my personal mythology. Both Star Wars and Star Trek exist within the core, the deepest kernel. Delighting in the Jedi way, but also dreaming of attending the Vulcan Science Academy. Deep challenges will always be Kobaysi Maru, and not Jedi Trials.
So, a thanks to Mr. Roddenberry for bringing this whole thing to life. Also, the cast and crew of TOS, and all that followed. My life is unimaginable without you.
Some Game of Thrones Thoughts
I didn’t part of the morning reading about the storm surrounding the Sansa rape scene from Game of Thrones. The backlash had been fascinating. Please note: I haven’t seen the scene, and, as I don’t watch the show, it’s unlikely I shall. And, there’s no protest: my current tastes run towards other content. I have had enough brutality in my life to seek it out.
Reading some of the commentary, I’m left with a key thought. It appears the scene was ugly and brutal, as rape is. I’m not reading anything that portrays the scene as anything less than horrific. Gruesome, disturbing; perhaps, there value in that. Facing the reality of rape; that all the attempts to justify rape culture really are justifying ugly brutality.
Maybe the producers meant to impart a social message. I don’t know, and don’t care. More importantly, this can be leveraged. We can erode the justifications and minimization our culture throws up against rape and it’s victims. If this scene starts a deeper debate about rape and culture, then perhaps it’s net effect will be positive. If more people deeply understand the evil brutality that is rape, good can come of this. So I hope.
Long-Suffering RadioShack, My Geeky Youth Paradise
It pains me a bit to see RadioShack suffering so (see No new bidders emerging in RadioShack’s bankruptcy as 2,000 stores face closure over at Geekwire). It doesn’t surprise me, just saddens me. As an electronics enthusiast growing up (back in the 70s and 80s) this was THE place to see stuff, to get your gear. I loved their electronics training kits, for instance.
There was one in Lynnwood right next to Wilcox Park off of 196th street; a rather quick jaunt from home. I would routinely ogle shortwave and HAM radio gear, various electronics kits, then the life-changing TRS 80. I coveted the affectionately titled “Trash 80” for some time. Well, until my father opted for one of the IBM clones on the market, which dwarfed the capabilities of the humble TRS. And my interest started to wane.
RadioShack lost their je ne sais quoi ages ago. I haven’t set foot in one in years. There were (and are) far better places to buy gear, especially computer gear. They failed to pivot at a crucial juncture and just can’t get their legs back under them. I fully expect this brand will die, whether a with a splendid crater or quietly vanishing into a sub-brand of Sprint remains to be seen. But I don’t see how it’s relevant anymore. Perhaps, just maybe, they can snap into the “maker” movement, but it’d need to happen NOW, as they’re behind. Thus, I doubt any such thing will materialize. So, in my heart-of-hearts, I bid this venerable icon adieu. May it rest in peace.