When did Washington's Birthday become Star Trek Day?

It's a ponderance. A question. One of seriousness, I believe. This last weekend was Presidents Day weekend. (Since we magically manage to have the "Federal Holidays" fall on either Monday or Friday, I call them weekends, because that's what they are.) I love Presidents Day, it's a day that should be steeped in history. Looking back at where we've come from. Remembering our great leaders of the past and what they taught us, as well as learning from the mistakes of the foolish few. I see the office of President to be a noble, ordained, and almost holy calling. A man (or woman) is called upon by the people, for the people, to lead us, guide us to a better and brighter future. These men are not perfect, but then, neither are we as a nation perfect. We, as a nation, have been fortunate, though. Through our darkest moments, we have been lead out, back into the light of a new era by our elected officials. These people deserve a day of remembrance. But I think we've forgotten that.
I can understand, slightly, when we have a current administration that we all are currently praying we survive, much less that we are tolerating. It is one thing to be thought a fool, it is another thing to open your mouth and prove everyone right. Unfortunately, that is what this President seems to be doing. I do not know what the history books will say of the time of G.W. Bush. I know that time is forgiving, and looks back oft with rose colored glasses. That being the case, maybe much of the childish antics of this President and his officers can be seen as just one trial that we endured and made us as a nation stronger.
I doubt he will be remembered as Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, or FDR. Sadly, though, it's been brought to my attention that there are too many of the nation that don't know who Washington, Lincoln, Teddy, or FDR were, much less Polk, Adams (either of them), or Jackson. This is inexcusable. Presidents Day has become not a day of respect, ponderances, remembrances, and introspection on the nation. It's become a day of car sales, movies, and now... Star Trek? Let's get back to that. Let me explain a little about Presidents Day.
When Ronald Reagan (Yes, the former actor who became President, and died recently. I cried when I heard he died. I didn't cry when Ford died, but then, I don't remember his Presidency. Still, I felt loss when he died. When ever a great man dies, one should feel at least some loss.)... anyways... when President Reagan combined the holidays of Washington's and Lincoln's Birthdays into one day, it was to serve two purposes (I believe).
First, instead of focusing on just two of our great leaders from the past, we would have one day to honor all the Presidents. This was a day to look back, see where we've come, and where we are going. A day to understand that (most) of these men were not seeking greatness. To remember that the office of the President is not a dictatorship or elected kingship, but that the President was a servant of the People. President John Kennedy said, "Ask not what you country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." While poignant, and meaningful, I believe now days it is misunderstood. Yes, we should not be asking to be coddled by the State but neither should the State should not be coddled by us. We are all in it together. The President should be an extension of the People. He (or she) should be working as our voice, our representative to the world. He should embody the best of what the People want. He should not be a self-serving greedy potentate, that seeks to keep power above all else. Sadly, we have had these Presidents. G.W. is not the first, and I fear he will not be the last. I look forward and see too many candidates that do not speak for the People, but that speak for themselves, for their special interests, and for the "status quo". There are reasons I wore "Lex Luthor for President" buttons a few elections ago. It's become a vote for a lesser evil, and I don't see that changing. This is sad because the second reason for the combination of holidays was meant to mark change.
The Second Reason, to allow for the nation to remember Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The sacrifice of one holiday was meant to provide the opportunity for the Nation to come together in the spirit of brotherhood, and unity. Now, sadly, not every state has adopted the holiday as their own. Or they have named it differently. That's okay. I'm fine with that. The point is, that they take a day and remember that we are all brothers and sisters, children of Uncle Sam and Lady Liberty. It doesn't matter if you are white, black, tan, red. Have we, as a nation, done some terrible things? Yes. Have there been crimes committed against our fellow man? Yes. Have we seen past our errors, and looked towards that green valley of brotherly love that Dr. King spoke of? I would hope so. We are still human, though. We need reminders. We need to remember that which we did not live through. We must learn from the mistakes of those who strode here before us, or we will be doomed to repeat it again and again. If I'm wrong in my understandings, let me know.
Do we take these opportunities that have been provided for us? The fact that the History Channel aired "The Presidents" in conjunction with "UFO Files" and had "The Final Frontier" Star Trek 40th anniversary shows in place of... oh... I don't know.... HISTORY! Rassellfrassel... I love Star Trek, maybe not as much as Firefly and Star Wars, but I don't think pop culture is history.
I come before you a sinner. I will admit it. I spent most of Presidents Day weekend watching things about the Majestic 12, the Star Trek auction, and how William Shattner changed the world (That was rather funny.). Still, there really wasn't much else to watch until Heroes came on later that night. That isn't fair. I should of been able to watch something, somewhere about the Presidents of the United States. On the Discovery Channel? Nope... Futureweapons (Though they did have some cool booms) Biography, History International, even? Nope, nope... How about a Law & Order marathon? Oh... no... wait... every one's gone out shopping, or apparently abducted by aliens. There are times I wish I would be abducted by aliens. If only to escape the idiocy of Corporate America. Of course, they'd have to abduct my wife with me. Oh! And Kieth Olberman and Joe Scarborough... two of the few sane news show types out there. I think they could use a break from all the madness as well. The guy from Hardball I don't think I want on my interstellar abduction vehicle... he seems to get a bit of the OCD of the mouth at times, but that's my personal opinion. I have OCD of the keyboard at times (looking back on this segment of rant that is just waaay too long...).
Needless to say, I think we should get back to roots at times. Maybe that's just because I'm a storyteller at heart. I think it'd be great to sit around the fire at night and listen to stories, as opposed to sitting around the TV and wondering if Donna is ever going to win James back from Kelly... Blach! That's not storytelling... that's drivel.
What is storytelling, though, is Heroes! OMFG! Oh, my frelling goram!!!! If you did not see it last night, you are reading this blog in error! Repent ye, repent ye, and get thee to thy freinds or neighbors DVR, Tivo, or other some such contraption (does anyone other than my Father still use VHS?). That's all I can say about it right now... still trembling from shock when I think about the guns... and the bullets... and the dying of the... WOW! And the Ando and Hiro... and the time thingy... and I think Ando does have a power. I think he's got Luck, karma, joss, fortune... really good juju. That's my speculation.
Take a deep breath. Mantra time... restore balance.... Ooohhhmmmm what a loon I am....
Much better.
Anyways, so since this last weekend was Star Trek weekend (apparently, since the history of the United States is so not good for the ratings). It's gotten me thinking. I think I know why the Star Trek franchise has gone kaput. I think they lost Gene Rodenberry's vision. I know the world's going to hell in a hand basket. I've said it myself more than once. That being the case, I don't think that means that Star Trek should. When I turned on Star Trek I wanted to see humanity overcoming that which is worse in our natures... not reveling, filtering back and forth, in those aspects of things. I think that what Star Trek fans want to see is "Hope". Hope for the future. Hope that no matter how bad things get, there is always a chance that things can get better, and that things will get better. I don't know about anyone else... but I like seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. Isn't that we join a faith?
Lately, TV has tried to hard to create the grim and gritty future... and those shows fail. (Well, except for Battlestar Galactica... which was supposed to be grim and gritty from the beginning.) Sci-Fi needs to go back to hope.
We need to go back to hope. As a people. We had hope when we remembered where we came from. Where we really came from. No offense, Mr. Shattner, but yes, you changed the world... but those changes are being... used... for evil... purposes.
Now... how do I write to Paramount? I have a story I want to pitch...

Oh, for the luva...

Peter, James, John, and the rest of the Twelve!!!!
I figure I should post a little something today. Sorry, not much cool to rant about today. I just wanted to put my two cents in, considering the news from last night and today.
When I posted yesterday, some teenager hadn't gone into Trolley Square and killed five innocent people. At this point, they don't know why, and I'm not going to go through the work of updating this blog as a news cast. There are just somethings that I want to express.
I don't care who you are, what your creed, color, who or what you sleep with, or whether or not you agree with me that tuna is of the devil. There is never a good excuse for terrorism. Honest to Father, unloading a shotgun into a crowded mall (much less the sanctity of the gaming store there) for any reason is stupid, foolish, and is liable to get you rooming with some very unpleasant people of the Eternities. I'm fine, by the way. Wasn't there. None of my family were there, that I'm aware of, and neither were any of my friends. I am outraged, though, that someone thought walking into a place like that was a good idea. I mean, even if he was angst ridden, mentally ill, whatever... I am sickened that what ever he wanted to do, say, or express, he thought could only be done through senseless slaughter. We are human beings. We have been given gifts of compassion, love, reasoning, and understanding. We also seem to be too stupid to use them to prevent things like this from occurring. I know that somewhere, sometime, someone will come forward with the key to this tragedy, and it will come down to love (most likely a lack of it, either on his side, or expressed to him).
I also want to vent about NBC News. At the very least, I would like to inform them that Utah has news reporters. Heck, we're so fangdangled high tech we even have one o' them gosh darn neato TeeVee studio thangs where they broadcast news from. Actually managed to work pretty well when that little thing called the Olympics were here. I don't understand, then, why they felt that some guy from Los Angeles was better suited to tell what happened at Trolley Square than one of our guys here? I mean, unless he was visiting from out-of-state, eating at the Rodigio when the shots got fired I feel kinda insulted that NBC decided to ignore out own broadcasting team. (Ummm.... Rodigio... I could really go for a trip there right now.)
Next little rant... You would think that after all that's happened in this world, and all the people out there... why is the fact that Mitt Romney a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints such a "powder keg issue"? For that matter, why is the chance that Barack Obama may possibly be Muslim be the same? Are they good men? Yes, I think so. Do they have valid stances on the issues? Yes. Do they want what is best for this nation? Yes I think Mitt, Barack, Hillary, and Gulliani all want what is best for this nation. I feel that is what they have in the hearts. I may be wrong. But I am very sure that there is not some secret religious conspiracy behind ANY of the candidates that will summon forth the Elder God Cthulhu to crush the world should they win. It would be an interesting campaign (role-playing not political) to run through, though.
I will say this, get over it! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is no more a cult than the Roman Catholic, Judaic, or Protestant denominations out there. I don't understand why people can't see that? Do we pay tithing? Yes, but what faith does not express the concept of financial sacrifice for the Kingdom of God in some way. We don't drink, we don't smoke, so we get in less car accidents, and die older. Yes there are things that are different about us. There are things that are different about the Orthodox and Roman Catholic faiths. It is differences that explain why I go to church on Sunday, and why you go to church on Sunday (or Easter, or Saturday, or five times a day... or when ever you go).
Religion is another part of who we are. We all need to believe in something greater than ourselves (even if you an atheist and believe in gravity). We all strive to look beyond our mortal shells, and strive to touch that which is just beyond. Why must that be a source of contention? Jesus taught that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Muhammad taught that the people of the Book should get along. Jews, Muslims, Christians, all should get a long. It's the 21st century, people. We're never going to form a United Federation of Planets if we keep going at this rate. So, I say, don't let the title cause fear. Look at a person for who they are, and the works they bring forth. Just because a man says "I go to church every Sunday" and then orders schools to be bombed... that doesn't actually make him a Christian does it?

Last word on this little tirade. I want the world to know that I love my wife. She is everything to me. She is my joy and my happiness. If not for her, I'd probably be locked up somewhere bouncing off the walls. That, or I'd of taken a gun into a mall somewhere.
I love my wife, and I want her to know that I always will. Forever an' ever an' ever an' ever.

The Evolution will be Blogged

At least the evolution of this blog. Well, that and the evolution of a few other things, I think. One never knows though. Personally, I want to speak a little on The Good Shepard Gunn's Opinion of Evolution. All those who are seeking for deep mysteries of the universe, please, turn the page over to the "not doctrine" side of the paper, this may seem a little odd. I believe in Evolution is a way. More particularly, I believe in a concept of Adaptation. Let me explain it as this:
I believe that God created the Earth, the Heavens, and all that lives and breathes. I believe that God created everything in Seven "Days". God said "Let there be light." The angels and spirits all nodded, and working with God, there was light. Now, did this take exactly 24 hours as our Earth rotates around the sun? How could it? Our sun wasn't around yet. How ever long it took, though, to separate the light from the dark, is how long it took. When it was all said and done, God and his angels all took a step back, and looked over what they had done. God saw that it was good, and he called it a day.
Ta-dah! My little creation theory. Now on to that misunderstood concept of evolution (at least as how I like to think of it).
Dinosaurs lived, they were placed here on the Earth during the creation. It was building blocks... kind of like the BIOS on your computer before the Operating System's put on. All sorts of animals walked on the face of the Earth as creation was going on. Now, did tyrannosaurs become birds... does that really pertain to my eternal salvation? I don't think it does. What I do think has happened at least over the times that man has been on the Earth, is Adaptation.
When God said to Noah, "There's gonna be a floody floody, get those animals out of the muddy muddy." Noah took a deep breath, looked into the heavens and said, "You want me to do what?"
The ark was huge! Massive! And made out of wood! And Noah was ordered to put two of every kind of animal on the ark. No arguments here. What I think though, in my personal opinion, is that Noah put two elephants on the ark. Not two African and two Indian elephants, just two elephants. He put on two big cats, not two lions, and two tigers, and two leopards. When the rains came down, the ark floated up. When the raven took off, and the dove came back, and the ark ended up on the top of the mountain (whether it be in Turkey or the Himalayas), the animals did as they were commanded. They went forth an multiplied. And they Adapted. Adapted to where they were. The elephants that were in Asia, didn't need the big ears, but the ones that moved farther onto Africa did. The lions, tiger, cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, all found their homes and their niches, and adapted to where they settled down.
Where's my scientific proof? Where's my irrefutable evidence? Sorry, I'm a theorist, not a scientist. And I'm probably going to be lynched because of it. To be honest, I'm not even sure where I'd start too look. If someone else does, though, let me know. Heck, if the Discovery Channel decides to take up my little idea, I'd be friggin' tickled pinker than a baby in Easter PJs.
Now, back to the real world... kinda...
First, my little niece Gracie is the cutest little button. I got to spend a while holding her last night, thinking how great it'll be once we get through the bankruptcy and get to working on the adoption. I so want a little one. I know my wife does too. I can only hope we'll be as good of parents as our parents were.
Next, I finally managed to pick up Cityscape! Hmm... interesting. I'm not going to go off and say something as silly as "It's the best book ever!" It's not. It's got some interesting concepts. It also does well to flesh out a city adventure. If you take Cityscape, Waterdeep: City of Splendors (I love that book, by the way... oh, how I love it...), Races of Destiny, the Dragon Compendium, and the few issues of Dragon magazine that specialize in Waterdeep, you can run a hum-dinger of a campaign in that city. It's a great book for flushing out a city. Kinda putting somethings into perspective is great.
Now, I will say this about it, though. Feats must be starting to get scarce. There's some good feats in this book, like Deceptive Spell (I cast magic missile, it enters, stage right...), but I think almost half the feats are a reprint of feats found in Races of Destiny or DMG II. Also, the prestige class are well thought out, and actually have a lot better context than how most PrCs are presented. They're linked to organizations they may belong too. It's interesting. The thing is... you have to go through the book with a fine toothed comb to find the prestige classes, other wise you can lead people astray. I told Bob that there weren't any PrCs in this book, after flipping through it like five times at the book store before I bought it. Hmm.... WotC should sign me up to be a reviewer, and then I'd get the books for free... hehehe...
One may notice that I've got banners now, stating with my clan affiliations. I am proud to say that I am Scorpion Clan. If you're someone interested in story lines, samurai, and some fun, I advise you to get over to www.legendofthefiverings.com and go through the Clan questionnaire "Which Clan Are You?". L5R is looking like they're headed in an interesting direction. I will admit, I have some trepidation that some fool's going to win a tourney and send Rokugan to heck in a hand basket. I am upset that they kill off another Emperor (and you'd think with the mortality rate that job has, there'd be less people interested in claiming it...) but what can you do? Oh.. yeah.. participate in a the tournaments and make a difference. Man, that is sooo much cooler than "This storyline makes no sense, but what can you do? Nothing" Magic: The Gathering. I will admit that I used to play Magic (aka Card Crack), but when I was a child I did childish things... now that I am a Man... I do different childish things, that I think are less childish.
Okay... maybe I'm not a candidate for Evolution... but maybe I can just adapt.
(I mean, I adapted... Once... I was a Crab....)

Down with the sickness

Wah-ah-ah-ah!
All joking aside, I really have been down this last week or so with this whole nasty cold bug that's going around. I refuse to take too much time off, but it's really been hurting my attendance, let me tell you.
I hate being sick. I hate it worse, being sick and poor. It's not an easy combo to deal with. Fortunately, I have faith that it will all work itself out. Now... if I can just breath for longer than ten minutes, and not have my brain rattle every time that I blow my nose...
So, this evil virus has grasped me by the chest, and given me that which is most dangerous. Time to think and read. Let's get the serious stuff outta the way.
First and foremost, ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for NASA. Let's break down the facts. We've got a 30 year old space vehicle that keeps orbiting the planet, there's no word on when, much less if, there's going to be something new to replace it any time in the near future. We've dismantled all of our moon going technology, so if we actually want to GET to the moon, we need to start at ground zero. We have decaying technology at every aspect and level of the space program. The best that we can hope for is the brave astronauts who boldly go where every astronaut has been prior to them, and return to Earth heroes. Until one of them decides that taking a 900 mile road trip in adult Pampers, and trying to off another NASA employee is a good decision.
I know that no one in NASA will actually ever read this, but honestly, guys. You need to step up here. I'm as giddy as a school girl that we've got 'bots on Mars, but we need to do more. We need to actually step "forward", not just side to side. I know we don't have the Russian Commie Pinkos anymore to compete against, but when Virgin is doing more for the space program than NASA, it's definitely time for some re-evaluation. And not just the psyche kind.
Second, is my school the only one in the world that thinks that all classes should not be about what the curriculum says it's going to be about. My poor wife is locked in heated augment with the fourth teacher here at Stevens-Henager in Orem, UT, that Resume writing class is not meant to be a "how to write paper" and "project management" class, which is what her class is currently about. The poor students of this class, the teacher just really doesn't seem to care. Man, when did education become "Us vs. Them"? Teachers aren't supposed to play "Here's what I want... oh, wait, here's what I want instead, in three hours. Oh, you don't like it... you're not the teacher, are you?"
Third, Games, games and more games...
I've had the chance to read through a few more D&D books. Let me break them down as I see them.
Complete Scoundrel- I like this book. Not surprising, since I seem to like most of the Complete series. The addition of Skill Tricks is a nice twist. It's a good chance to add some abilities that I've been kind of running off the cuff. Personally, some of them should just be part of the skill description (like being able to cast unnoticed with high enough ranks of Sleight of Hand), but they do make for a more cinematic game. I'm going to be introducing that information to my gaming group this week. I know of at least one character who will be all over the idea of increasing her scout-ranger-sneaky-sneak's little ability portfolio.
I also found that this book makes interesting use of Prestige Classes. They're not all meant to be a stand-alone prestige class. It's nice. The magical trickster can be used to supplement another prestige class like the Mindbender, Arcane Trickster, or even a roguish Red Wizard... now there's an interesting combination. Most of these trickster PrCs are only three or four levels long. They're more like L5R Paths. You know, like where a Bayushi Bushi enters the one school, and comes out with a different ability than the standard Bushi path. It's like that.
If I had to rate it, I'd give it a definite 4 out 5 wings up.... or something like that. There's a bit of superfluous fluff stuff (more organizations than I can shake a campaign setting book at) that has some context, but not a lot.
Magic of Incarnum- Hmm.. yes... well, let's see... where do I start with this. Actually, it's a fascinating concept. An interesting approach to creating something and fangdangled. Sadly, I think a bit of the book falls kind of flat. There are a few aspects to this book that I found fascinating and I may actually incorporate into one my games in the future.

• Azurins, Rilkans, and Skarn- Three new races that I actually found very interesting in presentation, and creativity. I like the flexibility the Azurins present to introduce into any campaign setting. The Rilkans and the Skarn are both nice, since they present opposite side of almost the same race. Also, since the Skarn remind me so much of Nietzscheans from Andromeda, I think they're pretty darn cool.
• Totemist- A new class that creates soulmelds (kind of quasi-realistic items formed out of Incarnum... yeah... the explanation kinda sucks, but the concept itself is interesting) with an animalistic bent. Kind of a shamanistic mask dancer that makes his masks out of the thin air, and they actually do things. Of all the classes presented in the book, this is the only one that caught my attention. I like the "becoming one with nature" this class presents. It's an interesting interpretation and expression of this games concepts. That may be the reason that I'm able to find more totemist information, and not the other classes.

Sadly, that's it. There are some good maps in it, and there's a few PrCs that may or may not work in a campaign setting. I liked some of the stuff in it, but I found it fell a little flat to my tastes. Maybe I'm just a putz, or maybe it's not twinkie enough for me (That I doubt because I flipped through the other class and stuff and just tasted the sugary filling...), but I'd have to give the whole book about a 2 out 5 dancing monkeys eating Ho-Hos.
I still haven't had a real chance to look through Cityscape, yet. I also am hoping to get a chance to look through Dungeonscape soon. I don't know though... when are they going to come out with a jungle book? Honestly, I'd like to see a jungle environment book, that or maybe a Chult Jungle book for the Forgotten Realms. I mean come on... a book on how to run a Tarzan game. Huh? Huh? Huh? How'bout it? Yeah, like anyone from WotC actually reads this thing. Pahaff...
In a related vein... Star Wars miniatures. Namely the Space Battles set. I kind of hope they come out with more of these. I'd like to see a few more sets of the capital ships coming out. There's a lot of ships out there in the Star Wars universe, and I'm interested to see if WotC decides to come out with things like the Hapan Battle Dragon. I've got a Star Wars game that really needs to have a miniature for the Battle Dragon. I just think I need to come up with my own rules. That's the only real complaint I've heard from people about the miniatures. The rules are difficult to follow from what I'm told. I won't know for sure until I get a chance to play the game itself, though. I do know one complaint I have already.
Scale! I think there needs to be some work on scale. Honestly, an X-Wing
should not be as large as the Rebel Blockade Runner!
It's a little frustrating, though I can understand why WotC did it (::cough:: cheap ::cough::). I just have found some cool miniature from Battle Fleet Gothic that I want to paint up and use an a "new fleet" for the Star Wars campaign that I've had on hold for over a year... hmm... I should pick that back up one day. Ship battles are such an important part of that game, though. I think I'll have to pick up some minis.
Hmm... pictures. I know understand how to put in pictures. Now, I need to get a good head shot of myself, and post it somewhere. That's a good way to ensure no one EVER reads this thing.
Well, I should go over medicate myself again to make sure I don't get sicker than I already am. Until next time... umm... 7 out of 3 swinging leopards doing the hula say, "Never eat soup with your tail."
... or something like that.

By the way, let me know what you think of the fact I'm putting pictures in this thing. I know no one reads it, but maybe look at it?