Carl Setzer

​My love of things geek manifests in strange ways at time. A huge fan of Ghost in the Shell, I wonder about Wi-Fi protocols and data throughput when people "think" at each other. Or how many servers are on the Death Star? RAID drives? How much email gets sent daily? What kind of data connection is needed for holographic communications? What about the Rebel Alliance's security chief? I'd be wondering, loudly, why you'd throw someone with as much critical detail regarding the Alliance as Leia into operations with a high likelihood of capture and exposure to, um, enhanced techniques. Imagining Rebel IT. I'm picturing Hoth. When we see Vader enter the base, all the equipment looks rather operational. I would've, at least run some kind of worm that destroys everything. I'd rather pull the hard drives, at bring them with us on the evacuation craft. Or manually destroy them. So, that's how my brain works...at night, when I'm weary.

So, today is the 50th anniversary of Star Trek's premier back in 1966. I have no memory of life without Star Trek because, well, there wasn't a life before Star Trek...for me at least. My 50th anniversary of being ex post utero isn't for a few more weeks. So, Star Trek has been not just part, but a significant, perhaps the most significant part of my entire memory. One of my earliest memories is watching the Apollo 11 lunar landing on TV. From that moment on, I was a space nut. All things space, then aircraft delighted me. With that, my father loved Star Trek. When the programming gods deemed it appropriate to beam the show, our tv was turned to it. Pretty much without fail. Though MASH was a close second. I don't remember a first episode. Star Trek was always there. After falling in love with space, though, I would plop down when my dad had the show on. Trying to be non-obtrusive. Getting older, I connected more and more with the show. The  cartoon sho...

A blogging friend posted this a little while ago ( Say hello to Cafe Book Bean ). I've loved the Dune books and have always found this to be a fantastic mediation. I'm often prone to anxiety and fear-based paralysis. “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” – Frank Herbert (Dune)

I'm more excited than I should be. This awakens the 10 year old within me, the one whose life forever changed the moment the Star Destroyer flew over Tatooine chasing the Tantive IV. Star Wars has forever dominated my path. Seeing that this is in Imax, I intend to see it at the Pacific Science Center come December.

Well, another attempt at the Godzilla franchise. This one looks pretty powerful, though.

One key weakness of mine of late has been time. Time for such things as film watching. Though I watched such gems as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , I must admit to a key geek failure. One that might strain my geek-cred to a near breaking level. So, here goes: I hadn't watched the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot until yesterday. Yep; took me 4 years. FOUR! Sigh...I hang my head in geek shame. That said, I actually like the film. [Spoiler Alert: (Ok, come on, if you haven't seen it by now, you really shouldn't be put off by plot revelations) ]  I know that will annoy some, and delight others. I liked the way the characters were recrafted. The time-continuum disruption theme was pretty cool. I wondered how they would reconcile the story-line when they killed Spock's mother. Clever. I particularly like the edgier, closer to human Spock. I admit that the lens-flare business was a bit distracting at times. However, it's hard to extract Heisenberg from this (I was f...

I don't watch network TV much anymore, so missed this. Thank goodness for the YouTube. Enjoy your mind-growth moment of the day.

We went to the Pacific Science Center's member's preview for their Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination production. As a (nearly) life-long Star Wars fan, it was a delight to be part of. Many other geeks my age were there; I'm pretty sure there were more adults than kids. The official show starts today, and I expect the attendance to be more balanced.

My, how the style of the franchise has changed.