saturn return to sender

I can’t explain it, but some specimens of the Star Trek TNG photoshop meme are unbearably hilarious to me. Especially when they involve silly hats.

If you haven’t seen it, the new trailer for J. J. Abrams’ Trek has been out for about a week. Looks action-packed for sure, and I’m glad the franchise is getting a facelift and some fresh blood. But I can’t shake the sense that they’ve given the bridge of the Enterprise to a boy band. Kirk and Spock look like they’re in high school. Maybe I’m just getting old.

My reading of the Wikipedia entry (and with Karl Urban’s McCoy completely missing from this poster) suggests that the traditional tripod of character dynamic among Kirk, Spock, and Bones will be reduced to two: Kirk’s and Spock’s fragmented personalities. (This along with with the boyish casting will undoubtedly get the K/S culture all atwitter … er … FYI, that link is safe for work, but potentially unsafe for your world view.) So that’s something of a departure from the standard Trek framework …

Also I have wondered if Abrams’ Trek won’t be so bleak as to violate the spirit of hope that was so important to creator Roddenberry. Based on Cloverfield and Lost, Abrams’ work—to me—reads dark and fatalist. But, according to Wikipedia, “[Abrams] does like Star Trek’s optimism though, being an optimist himself, and [he] felt the film would be a refreshing antidote to films like The Dark Knight.” So that’s good, I guess.

Anyway. Here’s my contribution to the meme. Not so funny, but oh well.

Another historic moment: I woke up around 6 with an insect in my mouth.

Box elder bugs taste weirdly like apple.

Eewww.

I was at a bar in Boulder when a black man became president-elect of the United States of America. Not just a black man, but a person of maturity, intelligence, and compassion. A person who comes to power honestly, by promise of his merit, who meets irrational onslaughts of fear and prejudice with clarity and grace. A public servant with some quality that looks startlingly like integrity. I fought back tears during his acceptance speech. I’m genuinely proud and grateful. Giddy. Tomorrow the world will be different. And also, I’m sure, quite the same.

Where were you?