2015-06-27

Words and Pictures

I've been noticing something odd.  There's been some popular attention on the topic, split into two camps based on medium as much as preference.

"Nerdier" by CollegeHumor

Yes, this:


I love it, especially because it is all original-universes for both.

My comment on it on their Youtube channel:

I appreciate the fact that they un-self-consciously had a canon debate while arguing who's nerdier.  That's like using metrics to decide who looks nerdier by calculating facial feature nearness to the golden ratio.

Either way, I certainly can't make fun of anybody for being a Vs. nerd.  Have you *seen* my screen name?

2015-06-22

Midichlorians & Anaphasics

I can't believe I never posted this here, though it was something I whipped up when the blog was dark from 2010 through 2012.  It was just a fun little effort to connect the "magic green clouds" of both Star Trek and Star Wars.

To reiterate, this was tongue-in-cheek, though I suppose one could make the case more seriously if one was bent on the connection.  I say that since I was reminded of it by, and went hunting for it for, this thread on the Force in Star Trek's Milky Way.   But, it would be best to review the Yoda arc of TCW's sixth season and update/discard this as needed.

The below is a minor edit with pictures for clarity and episode names added, plus relevant tweaks:

2015-06-18

ISD Crew

Saw that the blog was getting hundreds thousands of extra views from Reddit, and followed the trail back to the interesting question of ISD crew counts. Given the remarkably low population densities seen on Republic Attack Cruisers (Jedi Cruiser) in wartime plus clone numbers in the millions, I rather doubt the idea of 25000 or 50000 guys on Imperial Star Destroyers.  In The Clone Wars there would've only been a handful of ships, or else a bunch of non-clones stacked like sardines somewhere.  But I could go with up to 5,000 or so, though I would prefer rather less ... 1500 or thereabouts.

But the point here is to refer to the other link from Redditor Mailanka on sub crew duties.

2015-06-16

The Idazmi7 Response


 . . . with apologies to Sothis5 for ganking his title.

Basically, the Idazmi fellow noted in the "Elsewhere Be Dragons" post has supposedly responded via an intermediary in the comments thereto. Well, actually, that's not quite accurate . . . he's responded via an intermediary who has posted it as a Google doc, because supposedly Idazmi cannot post to Google stuff even anonymously due to some sort of ISP thing.

I consider this rather odd given his voluminous comment postings to Google's own Youtube (which demands Google+ access), and given that Blogger is also a Google property to which one could post anonymously anyway, but let's just roll with it.

First, let's give his response a clean quoting:

2015-06-13

Elsewhere Be Dragons: Partisanship Mapping

A sort of "big picture" post, but with specific references to assorted Vs. Debate personalities

I have more than a passing interest in politics, so I think this makes for a helpful representation.  Let us imagine a Vs. Debate nerd spectrum.  While we could use color or any direction, let us use the common "left" and "right", with psychosis meeting on the extremities in some sort of Atari wraparound of weirdness, just as in real political life where the anti-vaxxers and 9/11 Truthers and such occupy both edges.

2015-06-10

Admiral Narsu

I can't vouch for the validity of the below . . . it's just something an old friend forwarded to my first e-mail address in December of 1995.

Waitasec.  Holy crap, that's just shy of 20 years ago.  I've had e-mail for 20 years.  God I'm old.  Wow, the internet is old.  Let's do something else now.  Who's with me?  We're going outside!  The big blue room beckons!

Er, ah, er, ahem.  Um, where was I, again?   Oh, right.

Anyway, that was an e-mail address associated with a bulletin board.  For you youngsters out there, that doesn't mean the old cork thing on a wall . . . it was like a micro-internet that you dialed in to with an actual modem.   And briefly, things got wild where you could actually get an e-mail address through them, but that was toward the end of the whole BBS thing-as-a-thing anyway.

Oh god, I'm still old.

Right, so, moving on, I've redacted as much of the below as I felt appropriate.


===========================================================================
 BBS: #######
Date: 12-26-95 (17:17)             Number: 2768
From: Z#######@AOL.COM             Refer#: NONE
  To: #######                      Recvd: NO  (PVT)
Subj: Fwd: #######                 Conf: (103) INET E-MAI
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Z#######@aol.com
To: #######@final.com
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 00:43:39 -0500
Subject: Fwd: #######

Got this the other day....
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:   #######@####### (Uttam Narsu)
Sender: #######@#######
To:     z#######@aol.com
Date: 95-12-21 12:40:27 EST

Cool page!

Just wanted to point out a misprint. You've got my name spelled as
Admiral 'Uttan' Narsu, instead of 'Uttam'. An old friend who was a
writer on STTNG, inserted it into an episode of the series as a lark.
Unfortuanately, his handwriting is far from the best, and it has made it
into print (STTNG Encyclopedia by Okuda) with the misspelling.

If you had a name as different as mine, who's put up with it for too
long, you'd understand why I'm particular about the spelling!

Anyway, if you have the time and desire, could you change the 'n' to
'm'? If you can't, or it's too much of a hassle, no problem.

Live Long and Prosper.
--
"I don't believe that libraries should be drab places, where people
sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of
employing wild animals as librarians."
                         -The Late Library Board Member Graham Chapman

+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+
| Uttam M. Narsu                      E-mail: #######@#######        |
|                                                                    |
#######, Inc.                     Tel:  (401) ###-#### x ####      |
################ RI #####       Fax:  (401) ###-####             |
|                                                                    |
+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+-=+


Incidentally, there's an Uttam Narsu who apparently pitched a story to CSI.   Any Trek alum at CSI who might've had a hand in that?   Was Ira Behr involved?   He's the one who joked that he was a luddite who still used paper, after all.

Of course, at that point, we all did.   I remember, because I'm evidently a fossil.

2015-06-07

QotD 2015-0607: About Your Childhood

... And What So-and-So Hollywood Person Supposedly Did To It:
"You know, it really pisses me off how some fans [...] take a writing decision they don't like and treat it as a personal attack on them/fans by the creator, as if they generally spend their time coming up with ways to spite the fans. I mean its possible, but it doesn't seem like something that would happen a lot. Frankly it comes off as paranoid and creepy." 
- "The Romulan Republic", "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" thread at SDN, Fri Jun 05, 2015