Just Your Standard Rambling Post About Nothing

This post was supposed to go up Friday afternoon but my computer decided to be a complete twat. "Oh, you want me to open that link? Let me think about it... computer says no." So I decided that socializing with other humans was a better option than swearing at my computer. Take that, computer!

Then it was supposed to go up yesterday afternoon but my Internet decided to be a complete twat. "Oh, you want me to connect to the World Wide Web? Let me think about it... computer says no." So I went to the apartment Christmas party and unintentionally got drunk instead. Take that, liver!

Note to self: Eat dinner before going to the Christmas party next year because if you have as much fun as you did this year, you're not going to stick to your 30-minutes-chit-chat-back-for-dinner plan.

Part of the problem with not going up on Friday is that I missed the chance to talk about 'Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars' Day on the actual day. Last September, Katie headed off to school with her Star Wars backpack. She got teased for liking Star Wars because it was just for boys. Her mom blogged about it, it was picked up by Epbot - a wonderful site for all geek girls - and it snowballed into a huge movement. Katie became the hero for legions of nerdy girls who had also been told they shouldn't like something because that's for boys.

'Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars' is about more than just Star Wars, it's about showing your geek pride regardless of where your geek love lays. It's also to encourage people to donate a sci-fi themed toy to a local charity and make sure to specify that it's for boys and girls. It's about being proud about being a geek.

Just in time for WSTSST 2011, Jen at Epbot shared another story about a GGIT (Geek Girl In Training) getting teased. This time, Bryden dressed up as Spock for Halloween and was made fun of for dressing up as a boy. (Even one of the teachers made a remark about it which angers me to no end. A teacher should know better!) Once again, my heart went out to that little girl. And once again, the internet has proven what a wonderful place of support it can be! Go Geeks!

UPDATE: Um, awesome!
I found this BBC advert online Friday and shared it with facebook and twitter. Figure it's only right to share it here as well.

The natural world is such an amazing place, filled with so much wonder and beauty. It can be so easy, in our day-to-day lives to forget how fantastical the idea of life even is. All these plants and creatures that have evolved over millenia and adapted to their surrounds is no small feat and yet, here we are!* Something about this video must have kicked up all the dust in my apartment because something kept getting in my eye as I watched it.

Of course, I needed to remind myself that despite all that beauty, some people just don't like the world so I watched another episode of An Idiot Abroad. I stumbled across the show a few weeks ago and have been recommending it to anyone who will listen. The hilarity of watching Karl (who hates everything) travel to foreign places is just priceless. To get the most out of it, I'm limiting myself to two episodes a week. I tried to find a clip that summed the show up but ended up deciding instead to just share an advert for Series One. (Yes, they some how convinced him to do a Series Two.)

Christmas is in full swing around here. I've put up my one string of Christmas lights and I've blasted the Bing Crosby. Despite my love for Christmas, I don't do a whole lot in the way of decorations. Because the holidays are still mostly spent at my parents' places and I live on my own, I keep it pretty low key. (Also, we're not allowed real trees in our apartment building and I refuse to buy a fake one so...) At least I'm getting out to enjoy the festive season around me!

And on that note, I have to go shower and get out to enjoy the festive season around me!

*One of my biggest pet peeves about religious people's misunderstanding about those of us who are non-religious is that we can't appreciate God's work as it's all just science to us. It was realising that random happenstance of the interaction of molecular properties which brought us such beauty that helped me see how amazing this world is. When I still thought maybe it was just some guy in the sky, the world never was as amazing as I find it now.

Photography That's Out of This World!

(Random Note: I really need a drummer to follow me around just so he can play a *rimshot* any time I make a pun... like the above title.)

I could talk about the Canucks won tonight but there's probably 7,482 bloggers in Vancouver who will talk about that so I'm going to geek out instead because that is just so something I would do.

A few days ago, I came across an awesome picture of the Endeavor docked at the International Space Station (ISS). The following day, Bad Astronomer* posted a link to the European Space Agency's (ESA) gallery of these photos (this link starts a slide show). I took a quick gander through them and then moved onto my next blog meaning to return.

I never did.

At dinner with my mom, I remembered the link and that I had made a mental note to send it to my step-dad as he likes astronomy as well. I returned from dinner, found the link, emailed it, and then really started looking at the photos.

As Bad Astronomer would say: click the photo to spacestationsizenate!

[credit]

As a race, we're pretty amazing. We came out of the plains of Africa, spread all across this globe, and now we're exploring space. Within a year (according to the current schedule) we will have a fully armed and operational Death Star space station for long term studies. Less than 100 years ago the reality of space travel was still a distant dream, now scientists will be living in it. And I think that's much more impressive than a Maxim Lapierre goal (even if the goal was awesome).

Why should we try for space travel? It cannot be a substance of any kind that can be expected to pay. It can only be something intangible, not involving haulage, which is at the same time more valuable. There is something like that: Knowledge. — Willy Ley

*The Bad Astronomer (aka Phil Plait) writes an awesome blog over at Discover magazine online (well, all their blogs are awesome) and you should go check him out.

Victoria Film Festival: The People vs. George Lucas

I never saw the original Star Wars on the big screen because I was born the year The Empire Strikes Back was released. I have no stories of first time viewing, no life changing moments brought about by the films, just that I always remember them being a part of my life and I always loved them.

When the Special Editions were released, I eagerly lined up with everyone else to see them. It made me so happy that I was finally able to see these three films on the big screen after years of watching them on warped VHS tapes, but a little part of my love died as I watched Greedo shoot first. HAN SHOT FIRST!!

I don't hate the prequels but I also don't love them. 'Meh' is the best word I can find to describe my feelings towards them. Instead of getting angry about them and indignant at what George has done to the Star Wars franchise, I prefer to pretend they don't exist. My children will grow up believing that 'IV' is the roman numeral for 'one'.

Enter the Victoria Film Festival and its showing of The People vs. George Lucas. I attended tonight's showing with Darth* and I do take a little bit of dorky pride in saying that we were second and third in line. The film was well worth the wait in the cold.

It was a very funny and interesting look at how people feel about George Lucas. We have a man who created this incredible world and shared it with us through his films. He shaped pop culture in a way that could never have been anticipated prior to the first movie's release. He was the driving force behind our childhood imaginations. And then he tinkered with it. People got angry. But did they really have a right to get that angry? It is, after all, his original work. Where are his rights to do with it as he wants? The film wasn't a deep, philosophical look at the subject matter but it definitely did make me stop and think on a few points.

It's a film that I think even non-geeks would enjoy and I was glad it was my first film of this year's Film Festival. Now, bring on the werewolves!

*Names have been changed to protect the evil.