Saw it. Loved it. It goes to eleven.

Literally, if not figuratively.

Disclaimer : I've watched every single episode of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY (that hurt), ENT (that also hurt) and The Animated Series. I've seen all the movies. I've owned action figures. I've read piles of books. I sleep on Star Wars sheets, but that's another story - the point is, I could have just as easily spent my youth (and adolescence and adulthood and 30s and so forth) sleeping on Uhura instead of Leia.

I haven't learned Klingon. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

I've steeped myself in Trek long enough to have a deep sense of loathing or disappointment (depending on the movie/episode/series) for the Berman/Braga tyranny. As much as I dislike Abrams and his progeny - Lost, Cloverfield, etc... Star Trek is good. Like, actually good.

Steeped as I am, I'll admit to a certain amount of confusion on my part:

It's either actually a good movie, OR I've been so thoroughly disgusted and sickened by the B&B assrape of Treknuity that I'd give anything done by anyone else the highest score possible. Their involvement in the TNG movies and the fact the TNG movies are all seriously weak sauce can not be a coincidence. The B&B era is Not Star Trek. It's sci-fi for the kind of people who Tivo Lifetime. The kind of people for whom Mind of Mencia is dangerous, cutting edge television. The Scary Movie crew could do better.

Clear the Neutron Blasters for firing!

Without giving anything away, I can say this - I welcome the 11th Trek. It's the best Trek film since The Undiscovered Country... which was the best since Wrath of Khan. To compare 11 directly to 6 or 2 would be unfair for a litany of reasons - but it damned sure blows 1, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 straight out of the water. It's deliciously, deliriously FREE! of the B&B POISON. It could be two hours of Spock singing karaoke in a shuttlecraft and it would still be better than the B&B era. The bar has been set low. So low that a drunken slug could fall over it and still be the Best Trek Since Six.

And yet, despite the standards having been torpedoed down to the level of American Politics, Star Trek 11 is good. Not good as in "better than the fifteen years of anal leakage that precedes it." No. The good kind of good.

Maybe not excellent. Maybe not awesome. But damned sure entertaining - entertaining, and (for the most part), respectful to the Right And Proper Trek that it draws from.

B&B tried for over a decade to destroy all that was Good And Holy about Star Trek. Star Trek 11 is all that is Good and Holy about Trek, giving B&B the finger.

Verily, I approve.

I liked it. Go see it. Decide for yourself.

It's not only farm animals.

... a breathalizer attached to the login box.

Think of all the time that would save!

... to develop a three week production and recreation schedule that can work with a two week pay cycle.

To clarify : Work is a three week rotation and has been for a very long time - five on, two off, four on, one off, seven on, three off, repeat. Pay is fortnightly. The "offs" are nice, but that "seven on" ? That Monday is BRUTAL.

I need to figure out how I can meaningfully augment that subsistence wage and continue to make meaningful, non-glacial progress on ATC.

Ram-assing around like I have been for the past ten years has resulted in incremental progress... but also an unclean floor, wearing dirty laundry all too frequently, and a massive email inbox, months and in some cases over a year old, that I still need to catch up on.

Might want to add blogging and DCR to that never-ending list of things I don't do enough of. Two comics projects stopped to redo the only thing I've ever actually finished, a basket of pushing-30, haven't-had-a-date-in-five-years neuroses, and a partridge in a pear tree.

In other news, the main drag of Bloomfield may not be very exciting, but it smells great.

It did today, anyway.

Postscript:

168 - week
===============================
49 - sleep (average, typically 48-54)
40 - work (37.5 paid)
5 - work commute, rounded up
11 (approx) "wind down" time (now)
5 - wake up time (work, unpaid - shower, packing lunch, etc)
5 (approx, depends) - chores (groceries, laundry, booze)
===============================
6-20 - "going out" (time in theater plus transit plus "drunk dialing")
===============================
33-47 - time for art (ATC, freelance, other), eating, smoking, masturbating*, watching TV, spending too much time alone, everything people call "life."**

If only I could buy groceries and do laundry through amazon. :P And by groceries I mean deli - I don't see half a pound of beef getting to my doorstep in useable condition, even with a Prime membership.

* That's technically filed under wind down time. But, yanno... sometimes I'm feelin' saucy.

** I may have more "free time" than you do right now Dad, but I'd kill for some OT. I won't trade you commutes, but I do envy your paycheck.

Spring has sprung. Weekend before last it was a whiteish centipede thing squirming around in the drain. This past weekend it was ants in the bathroom. This morning, this monstrosity.

Slow moving, fortunately. Slowed further with dish liquid and crushed with a glass.

I fucking HATE bugs.

Top of tonight's to-do list : clean the sink. Starting with a serious application of boiling water. Good thing it's garbage night!

Update, around 3pm : According to this site, that's an Oriental Cockroach. >_<

Update, around 1am the next day : I HAVE THE CLEANEST SINK IN TWELVE SYSTEMS. Pity the fucking drain connects directly to fucking R'lyeh.