Diary Tuesday

Star Trek Exhibit

Last week I saw the Star Trek exhibit at Sacramento's Areospace Museum. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but if you're curious about the kinds of things I saw, you can look here. I think a large part of the reason we weren't allowed to take pictures was because they were charging obscene amounts of money to take pictures for you. There was a recreation of the deck from the original series and I got to sit in Sulu and the Captain's chairs, even if I don't have a $15 picture to prove it. Sulu's was more comfortable. The Captain's chair didn't even swivel! Although, there was a Klingon warship chair that swiveled. I guess the bad guys get all the comfort.

A lot of the props were recreations and not actual props. Probably the most puzzling was the Klingon sash "believed to be" an actual prop. How can you not know? There were several costumes and none of them said they were recreations so we assumed they were the actual costumes. They did look worn in places.

I also really enjoyed the recreation of the transporter set. They had a screen set up so we could see ourselves being transported if someone pressed a button while we stood there. My sister and I rose a simulartor ride where we destroyed some Borg ships and then we toured some of the rest of the Aerospace Museum with the group we went with. All in all a fun afternoon for someone who grew up watching the Next Generation and enjoyed the original movies and the reboot.

Best of 2009

So 2009 is drawing to a close. Some pretty horrible stuff happened to me and my family in 2009. I can't always shrug it off and look on the bright side. But I have been very lucky to have family and friends who love and support me. My sincere thanks to all these people. But for now, I'll just focus on the trivial and the little rays of light.

Actually, before I talk about trivial things, I will say that I'm currently editing the second to last chapter of my novel. For good this time. Last time I was just editing for the beta readers. Now I incorporated the comments of all those who finished in my editing. I'm so close I can taste it! So my New Years resolution is definitely to send my story to an agent in 2010.

Now for my exciting entertainment bests of 2009!

Best Movie: Counting both plot and special effects, Star Trek was the best movie I saw in 2009. Since we're counting plot, that's why Avatar's not here. My YouTube review of the film is the most watched of all my YouTube videos. Of course, this is just because I posted it as a video response to the amazing, hilarious, and beautiful CommunityChannel's video where she mentions Star Trek. But I still think my review's pretty good.




Best Novel: I confess I haven't finished reading it yet, but I highly suspect that Unseen Academicals will be my favorite novel published in 2009. Much as I love Pratchett, I normally don't like the wizard books of Discworld. But from what I've read so far, this one ranks up with Interesting Times as the best wizards' book. I mean, Ponder is the freakin' Carmerlengo! That alone is worth reading. But the rest is just as excellent.





Best Picture Book: I knew this was going to be published long before it was, but I'm ecstatic that it's finally here. It's easily my favorite modern poem ever. Although, I have to confess I'm not as crazy about the pictures. Dave McKean's always been a bit dark to me, which I wasn't sure entirely fit how I imagine the tone of the poem. But I know that Neil Gaiman really likes working with him, and the pictures aren't bad. It's just that they're more an acquired taste.

Anyway, I hope you all had a great year and happy 2010!

Star Trek Review

To boldly go where no short skirt has gone before.