Our Star Trek Christmas tree

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I’ve gathered a lot of ornaments over the years. When I was a kid, it was a tradition that we’d get several from various family members on Christmas morning. So I came into our marriage with a bin or two filled with ornaments. Given my geek history, a lot of my ornaments were Star Trek-themed.

Dina was a good sport about it, but eventually pointed out that the shuttle craft Galileo and Lt. Commander Worf didn’t exactly fill her with Christmas cheer.

So she made an awesome suggestion: how about a second tree, one devoted to all things geeky? For going on ten Christmases now, we’ve been assembling our “Star Trek tree,” with blue and white lights, blue and silver ball ornaments, and an assortment of Star Trek ornaments punctuated by a few other geek-friendly friends, like Spider-Man, Godzilla, Superman, and Star Wars. (Alex, world’s biggest Luke Skywalker fan, takes particular delight in our two Star Wars ornaments—classic only, of course. No Jar Jar here.)

The tree topper is my classic Mego Captain Kirk, the topmost branches sliding under his belt.

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to post a few pictures this entire holiday season, but finally got around to it. Enjoy, and I hope you had a great Christmas.

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Star Trek,decorations

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Which is more painful?

Today's question of the day: Which is more painful?

William Shatner's rendition of "Rocket Man"?



Or Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"?



Please respond in the new poll I put up, then check out DeForest Kelley's response to Shatner's performance.

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Make it so. Or maybe not...

This image on the left isn't from a new Star Trek show. It's not from a movie. It's not from an attraction in Las Vegas.

No, this is some dude in his own apartment, which he has lovingly, painstakingly, and expensively designed to look like part of a Star Trek ship.

My initial reactions:

• Hey, that's kind of cool.
• That would get pretty old in about 15 minutes, and I like Trek a lot.
• This guy is going to have serious trouble getting women (or men, as the case may be) to visit his transporter room. If you know what I mean.
• What are his power bills like? How much time does he spend dusting those consoles?
  
• Wouldn't you feel weird walking around that place in jeans? Of course, you'd feel pretty weird walking around in a Starfleet uniform, too. Except for you, Larry.
• The article I linked to above refers to this as the guy's (Tony Alleyne's) "ultimate bachelor pad." Uh huh. It doesn't exactly go with Barry White, you know.
• I can envision a really bad reality show where a dozen or so Trekkies have to live in this apartment together, and every week one of them is "fired out the photon tube" or "sent to the transporter room" or "put in a red shirt."

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My Star Trek inspirational thought for the day

There are more like this at this web site. Funny stuff.

Confession: I've had this one hanging in my cubicle at work for a while now.

Confession two: Yes, I know that the astronaut game is too wide for my site, so I'm bumping it down a bit lower.

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Inventory: 13 memorably unpopular characters from popular TV

Check out the fun article on AV Club. I always disliked Scrappy Doo as a kid, but never quite realized why. Of course, this list includes a few I'm not very familiar with, and omits a few that I would definitely include:

1. "Lil" the crazy lady in the Boy Scout uniform on Survivor: Pearl Islands
2. Uni the unicorn on the classic Dungeons & Dragons cartoon (soon to be released on DVD, by the way!).
3. Dr. Gaius Baltar on the modern Battlestar Galactica, a character horribly out of sync with the rest of the show.
4. Ana-Lucia Cortez on Lost, for reasons that should be obvious to most who watched the show. Partially for a poorly written, poorly realized character and partially for Michelle Rodriguez's two-expression performances.
5. Dr. Pulaski from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
6. Rosalind Shays on L.A. Law (man, that actress had kind of specialized talent!).

I imagine I'll think of more later and regret not having included them. What are yours?

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Mourning James Doohan

I'm saddened by the news of James Doohan's passing. As probably anyone reading this knows, Doohan played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on Star Trek, various Star Trek sequels, and even on a memorable episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I've seen a number of cringe-worthy "Scotty beams up" headlines that make me want to smack the writers--they seem to cheapen Doohan's death. He was a vastly talented man who was more or less stereotyped as this single character, but he nevertheless made that character seem very real to generations of viewers.

I had known for some time that he was in failing health and suffering from Alzheimer's disease, but I'm still very sorry to see one of my icons pass away.

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