"Where No Man Has Gone Before"
ST: TOS
30 minutes
1.22 mi/2.5mph/2.0 elevation
It's been most of a week since I've posted last. A friend was in a car accident last week, and some of my self-care time has been spent either worrying or taking care of the people who are more directly taking care of him. I count it as a victory today that I got on the treadmill rather than napping or vegging in front of the TV.
Today's episode is yet another example of mental powers, and how unlimited power makes humans pretty close to evil -- indifferent to the fate of lesser humans. That taking the shortcut to superhuman abilities means knowledge without the wisdom to use it. The villain this week is a bridge crewman, Gary Mitchell, who has latent ESP abilities triggered by crossing out of the galaxy and is gaining in power exponentially; he is eventually defeated by the only other crewman who has latent ESP abilities triggered, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner. The two of them contemplate being gods together, but she turns against him and saps his power enough for Kirk to kill him.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
"Charlie X"
15 minutes
.6 mi
2.5mph
3.0 elevation
I'm still sore from biking 32 miles on Saturday, so I'm calling it a win that I got on the treadmill at all today.
Today's episode, "Charlie X", is yet another alien who gets inside people's heads -- though this time it's a human boy that was somehow messed with by aliens, and who can make reality do/be what he wants. He makes people disappear, makes Mr. Spock recite poetry rather than give a report, changes the cards for a magic trick. Janice Rand is the first girl he's ever seen, and he falls for her hard -- and exhibits every "nice guy" trick in the book, figuring that he's entitled for her to love him back, right up until she slaps him and he vaporizes her. Charlie wants Janice and he wants to go to Colony 5, where he'll have more people to work with -- and he's perfectly willing to make whatever changes he needs to make that happen. Charlie is eventually defeated when the aliens who raised him come to get him and take him away (and bring Janice back, along with setting right the other changes Charlie had made). Turns out that Charlie was escaping from them.
Of note:
* Kirk giving a 17-year-old dating advice is just painful to watch.
* The episode is ultimately sympathetic to Charlie, doomed to live out his life with incorporeal beings he can't touch, who don't have the emotions he does. Janice cries for him. But it also seems pretty convinced that the universe just wouldn't be safe with Charlie roaming free.
* Teleplay by DC Fontana! Woo!
15 minutes
.6 mi
2.5mph
3.0 elevation
I'm still sore from biking 32 miles on Saturday, so I'm calling it a win that I got on the treadmill at all today.
Today's episode, "Charlie X", is yet another alien who gets inside people's heads -- though this time it's a human boy that was somehow messed with by aliens, and who can make reality do/be what he wants. He makes people disappear, makes Mr. Spock recite poetry rather than give a report, changes the cards for a magic trick. Janice Rand is the first girl he's ever seen, and he falls for her hard -- and exhibits every "nice guy" trick in the book, figuring that he's entitled for her to love him back, right up until she slaps him and he vaporizes her. Charlie wants Janice and he wants to go to Colony 5, where he'll have more people to work with -- and he's perfectly willing to make whatever changes he needs to make that happen. Charlie is eventually defeated when the aliens who raised him come to get him and take him away (and bring Janice back, along with setting right the other changes Charlie had made). Turns out that Charlie was escaping from them.
Of note:
* Kirk giving a 17-year-old dating advice is just painful to watch.
* The episode is ultimately sympathetic to Charlie, doomed to live out his life with incorporeal beings he can't touch, who don't have the emotions he does. Janice cries for him. But it also seems pretty convinced that the universe just wouldn't be safe with Charlie roaming free.
* Teleplay by DC Fontana! Woo!
Thursday, September 15, 2016
"The Man Trap"
ST:TOS
30 min
2.5mph, 2.0 elevation
1.20 miles
Walked wearing my work shoes -- the Naot heels
Didn't walk yesterday, and I am decidedly NOT beating myself up about that. (Or at least reminding myself not to.) At this point, if I walk 30 minutes a day for most days in the week, I'll be happy. Work up to 5 of 7 days (or 7 of 9?) as a regular thing, then start increasing the time gradually until I'm walking for full episodes of 50 minutes. Gotta remember -- baby steps are so much better than not doing anything!
Tonight I came home after work, scanned some docs for Carrie, and then popped in "The Man Trap" and started walking.
Plot: The Enterprise arrives at a planet to do a health check on a pair of husband-and-wife scientists (and the wife, Nancy, is McCoy's ex-girlfriend). They do not realize that the Nancy has been replaced by a shape shifter who can read minds, and who shifts form as needed to go unnoticed -- and who craves salt. The shifter kills a crewman by sucking all the salt out of his body, then two more when Kirk brings a second away party down to investigate. But then the shifter shifts into the form of one of those dead crewmen and is transported back to the Enterprise. It continues its salt quest there, nearly attacking Uhura. Kirk eventually corners the shifter in McCoy's quarters, where it appears to be Nancy. The creature stuns and starts draining Kirk, Spock tries to intervene but loses in a brute force fight, and McCoy eventually has to intervene -- shooting the creature with a phaser, but only after it reveals its real, grotesque form to him.
Of note:
ST:TOS
30 min
2.5mph, 2.0 elevation
1.20 miles
Walked wearing my work shoes -- the Naot heels
Didn't walk yesterday, and I am decidedly NOT beating myself up about that. (Or at least reminding myself not to.) At this point, if I walk 30 minutes a day for most days in the week, I'll be happy. Work up to 5 of 7 days (or 7 of 9?) as a regular thing, then start increasing the time gradually until I'm walking for full episodes of 50 minutes. Gotta remember -- baby steps are so much better than not doing anything!
Tonight I came home after work, scanned some docs for Carrie, and then popped in "The Man Trap" and started walking.
Plot: The Enterprise arrives at a planet to do a health check on a pair of husband-and-wife scientists (and the wife, Nancy, is McCoy's ex-girlfriend). They do not realize that the Nancy has been replaced by a shape shifter who can read minds, and who shifts form as needed to go unnoticed -- and who craves salt. The shifter kills a crewman by sucking all the salt out of his body, then two more when Kirk brings a second away party down to investigate. But then the shifter shifts into the form of one of those dead crewmen and is transported back to the Enterprise. It continues its salt quest there, nearly attacking Uhura. Kirk eventually corners the shifter in McCoy's quarters, where it appears to be Nancy. The creature stuns and starts draining Kirk, Spock tries to intervene but loses in a brute force fight, and McCoy eventually has to intervene -- shooting the creature with a phaser, but only after it reveals its real, grotesque form to him.
Of note:
- Uhura flirts with Spock in her very first appearance. Heh -- I didn't remember that.
- And does Uhura have a slight southern accent here?
- We don't see Sulu at the helm until the very end of the episode, He's introduced in a room full of plants, caring for them, and then later sitting next to Uhura behind the Captain's chair.
- The first episode with the usual crew -- we see Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Rand, at least.
- Two episodes in a row where aliens mess with the crew's minds? This is more Twilight Zone than I remember.
I have to thank Carrie Crow for the phrase TREK TO MORDOR. Clearly, that's what I'm going to be calling this from now on!
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
To boldly walk where no one has walked before...!
Heh. Well, I didn't keep up with THAT blog, did I? Last posted 6 years ago, for all of 1 post. Let's see if I can do better this time.
Tonight, I'm trying to start a new habit -- watching one episode of Star Trek a day, and walking on the treadmill during it. Starting with ST: TOS's pilot "The Cage" and working my way toward the most recent. And logging my walking time against the Walking to Mordor challenge -- two nerdy quests at the same time. (More on that some other time.)
This is sheer bribery -- convincing myself to get off the couch and move by tying some fun viewing to it. (And yes, I know there will be some *awful* episodes in there.) Don't have to walk the WHOLE time, because it's a little disheartening to tell myself that I have to walk for an hour right at the beginning; though I hope that I'll work up to that being a normal part of my routine. So today, I walked half the episode, and I'm spending the rest setting up a place to post about it -- here.
9/13
30 minutes walking
1.24 miles
2.5 mph
ST: TOS
"The Cage"
(+ another 3,788 steps on S Health during the day = 1.58 miles)
I think I must have seen "The Cage" before, but it's been a damn long time. The production values are ... not high, though better than old-school Doctor Who. The story is surprisingly good, though -- messing with the Captain Pike's mind, leaving him in a position of very little power. That's always more interesting than when the Enterprise can just swoop in and rescue a situation.
Summary: The Enterprise is lured to an unexplored planet by a distress signal, sent 18 years ago from a long-lost vessel. Once they arrive, they find a group of survivors, but this is just an illusion -- Captain Christopher Pike is taken captive by the natives, who are able to get inside minds and cast illusions. They want Pike to be a specimen in their zoo, and they provide him with a lovely companion, Vina, the only actual survivor, so that they can be a mating pair. They offer Pike all sorts of inducements to stay, all sorts of fantasies-come-true, even capturing two of his female crew members in case they'd be more appealing. But when Pike and his crew choose self-destruction over luxurious captivity, they're released. Vina stays behind -- turns out that she's not the 18 year old nubile blond she seems. She's instead a scarred 60 year old, damaged and disfigured by the crash two decades before, rebuilt by aliens unfamiliar with standard human anatomy -- and she chooses to stay, safe in the illusion of being young, healthy and beautiful. (Oh, and she gets to keep an illusion of Pike staying behind to keep her company, too.)
There are shades of Doctor Who in that ending for me -- with the Ten clone that got to stay with Rose on the alternate earth. And I feel like I've seen this basic plot in a million places since. But that's what happens when you go back and watch groundbreaking shows; you then discover the acorns that grew into better known (and better produced oaks) in the decades to come.
This episode is more progressive and interesting than I expected it to be, for 1967. Number One (played by Majel Barrett, who will become both Majel Barrett Roddenberry AND Lwoxanna Troi) is a competent and respected first officer, even though she seems to have given up her femininity in trade -- Pike can't get used to the idea of a woman on the bridge though "of course you don't count, Number One". <sigh>
SO many differences compared to the Trek that is to come! Pike is captain, not Kirk. Number One is the first officer and helmsman, Spock is seemingly still on science -- and he SMILES a few times. No McCoy -- it's Dr. Boyce instead who breaks out the drinks in order to make the captain talk. (A ship's doctor is always a dirty old man and a bartender, it seems.) It makes me wonder what this Trek would have been like.
A better episode than I expected. I don't expect that to last.
But at least I got started! TO MORDOR!
Heh. Well, I didn't keep up with THAT blog, did I? Last posted 6 years ago, for all of 1 post. Let's see if I can do better this time.
Tonight, I'm trying to start a new habit -- watching one episode of Star Trek a day, and walking on the treadmill during it. Starting with ST: TOS's pilot "The Cage" and working my way toward the most recent. And logging my walking time against the Walking to Mordor challenge -- two nerdy quests at the same time. (More on that some other time.)
This is sheer bribery -- convincing myself to get off the couch and move by tying some fun viewing to it. (And yes, I know there will be some *awful* episodes in there.) Don't have to walk the WHOLE time, because it's a little disheartening to tell myself that I have to walk for an hour right at the beginning; though I hope that I'll work up to that being a normal part of my routine. So today, I walked half the episode, and I'm spending the rest setting up a place to post about it -- here.
9/13
30 minutes walking
1.24 miles
2.5 mph
ST: TOS
"The Cage"
(+ another 3,788 steps on S Health during the day = 1.58 miles)
I think I must have seen "The Cage" before, but it's been a damn long time. The production values are ... not high, though better than old-school Doctor Who. The story is surprisingly good, though -- messing with the Captain Pike's mind, leaving him in a position of very little power. That's always more interesting than when the Enterprise can just swoop in and rescue a situation.
Summary: The Enterprise is lured to an unexplored planet by a distress signal, sent 18 years ago from a long-lost vessel. Once they arrive, they find a group of survivors, but this is just an illusion -- Captain Christopher Pike is taken captive by the natives, who are able to get inside minds and cast illusions. They want Pike to be a specimen in their zoo, and they provide him with a lovely companion, Vina, the only actual survivor, so that they can be a mating pair. They offer Pike all sorts of inducements to stay, all sorts of fantasies-come-true, even capturing two of his female crew members in case they'd be more appealing. But when Pike and his crew choose self-destruction over luxurious captivity, they're released. Vina stays behind -- turns out that she's not the 18 year old nubile blond she seems. She's instead a scarred 60 year old, damaged and disfigured by the crash two decades before, rebuilt by aliens unfamiliar with standard human anatomy -- and she chooses to stay, safe in the illusion of being young, healthy and beautiful. (Oh, and she gets to keep an illusion of Pike staying behind to keep her company, too.)
There are shades of Doctor Who in that ending for me -- with the Ten clone that got to stay with Rose on the alternate earth. And I feel like I've seen this basic plot in a million places since. But that's what happens when you go back and watch groundbreaking shows; you then discover the acorns that grew into better known (and better produced oaks) in the decades to come.
This episode is more progressive and interesting than I expected it to be, for 1967. Number One (played by Majel Barrett, who will become both Majel Barrett Roddenberry AND Lwoxanna Troi) is a competent and respected first officer, even though she seems to have given up her femininity in trade -- Pike can't get used to the idea of a woman on the bridge though "of course you don't count, Number One". <sigh>
SO many differences compared to the Trek that is to come! Pike is captain, not Kirk. Number One is the first officer and helmsman, Spock is seemingly still on science -- and he SMILES a few times. No McCoy -- it's Dr. Boyce instead who breaks out the drinks in order to make the captain talk. (A ship's doctor is always a dirty old man and a bartender, it seems.) It makes me wonder what this Trek would have been like.
A better episode than I expected. I don't expect that to last.
But at least I got started! TO MORDOR!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Drafting my life.
Yesterday, I found myself at the grocery store and frustrated. Caught between what I might enjoy eating, what I have been told I should eat for my health, and what I should eat for the good of the planet. In the Venn diagram of those three things, there does not seem to be much overlap. And when I'm trying to make these choices all in the context of daily life -- heck, I just want to go out and have a Philly cheesesteak. Yes, the kind made with Cheez-whiz.
Plus, it seems like there's so much information out there on what I should eat, most of it contradictory. Low-fat or low-carb? Vegetarian? How bad for me is soda, or steak, or fries -- I mean really?
But surely there has to be. There HAS to be a way for me to reconcile my taste buds with the doctors and the ecologists. That's why I've started this blog, to record my investigations into this matter. I'll record here information that I gather along three different lines of investigation:
I'm 41, female, about 180 pounds. No real health issues, though they'd like to see my LDL cholesterol a bit lower. My tastes in food run to salty, meaty crunchy foods. I adore grilled cheese sandwiches, garlic, a good steak, french fries, BBQ...well, you get the idea. This blog will be ideosyncratic to my own tastes, but I hope that others will add in their own findings and suggestions along the way, and maybe find something interesting or useful for themselves.
Plus, it seems like there's so much information out there on what I should eat, most of it contradictory. Low-fat or low-carb? Vegetarian? How bad for me is soda, or steak, or fries -- I mean really?
But surely there has to be. There HAS to be a way for me to reconcile my taste buds with the doctors and the ecologists. That's why I've started this blog, to record my investigations into this matter. I'll record here information that I gather along three different lines of investigation:
- What healthy eating looks like
- How to eat in a way that's good for the planet
- What I like to eat
I'm 41, female, about 180 pounds. No real health issues, though they'd like to see my LDL cholesterol a bit lower. My tastes in food run to salty, meaty crunchy foods. I adore grilled cheese sandwiches, garlic, a good steak, french fries, BBQ...well, you get the idea. This blog will be ideosyncratic to my own tastes, but I hope that others will add in their own findings and suggestions along the way, and maybe find something interesting or useful for themselves.
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