The Best-Laid Plans

Of the 70ish pictures I took on my last venture to Disneyland, this time for Christmas pics, I think this little guy is my favorite shot of the night:

I've been trying to get his buddy the owl for a couple of years, but if I don't use a flash, my camera exposes for the castle and you can't see him.  If I do, the flash reflects off the carving, making him overexposed and yucky.

This one was a lucky shot (something like a 14ish second exposure that I manually focused because I couldn't convince my camera that I was trying to take a picture of something so far away) while I waited for Patrick to use the restroom.

I Knew It

I knew buying gloves and a scarf would jinx the weather in Orlando....

Maybe it'll drop between Thursday and Saturday.

Loss of an Original

Majel Barrett has passed away.

Even casual Trek fans would recognize her voice immediately: she's been the voice of the computer since the original series.  She, of course, also played Nurse Chapel in the original series, as well as the Enterprise's first officer in the unaired pilot "The Cage," known only as Number One.

But -- maybe because Next Generation was the first Trek series I watched during its first airing and not on tape or as reruns, or maybe just because I found the character more memorable -- she will always be Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Riix, and Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed.

My favorite delivery of that began with a proud "I am . . . " and ended with a muttered " . . . and who are you?"

She, of course, went on to produce two of Gene Roddenberry's long-abandoned projects: Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda.

You know, it's funny -- when DeForest Kelley it was a bit sudden but not really shocking. Reports had circulated that he had really struggled even during the filming of Star Trek VI several years before.  When James Doohan passed, it was after a long battle with Alzheimer's.

I dunno...I think I'd have been less surprised had it been Leonard Nimoy, or even Nichelle Nichols, who looks spunky but frail at the same time.

Rest in peace.  Be assured that you'll be remembered.

Internet, How I Missed You

It's been...quite a week.  You may have read on Cat's blog that one of my students was hit in our school parking lot.  Turns out she has broken toes and something is wrong enough with her ankle to require a visit to an orthopedist.

Plus, my Internet connection went out, about which I whine frequently on Twitter.

However, while trolling around the Internet, trying to accomplish the last three things on my to-do list before winter break (with the goal being to leave school stuff behind for an astonishing two weeks), I found this compilation of clips of famous speeches.

I was pleasantly surprised that Picard's "This far, no farther!" speech from First Contact was included.  That speech packs more emotional punch for long-time fans -- because we know Picard's history with the Borg -- than the oft-quoted "how many does it take, Admiral!" speech from Insurrection.  Both are classic HERE COMES THE MESSAGE moments, but the first strikes a deeper chord, I think.

Also...Bastian.  On Falcorn.  From the end of Neverending Story.  Not a speech, but...yay!

And Azeem, from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  (SOOOO not a Kevin Costner fan, but I do love that movie.  Largely because of Azeem, now that I think of it.)

I only recognized the clip from The Great Muppet Caper because Patrick nearly wore out that tape when he was little, and I don't get how it's a "great moment," but whatever.

(I now have "The Happiness Hotel" stuck in my  head.  Nifty.)

Charlie Brown of course, and I'm pretty sure Brad Pitt (as Alexander the Great? Or was that from Troy?) snuck in there too.

But what intrigued me, from a fandom standpoint, was the choice of Aragorn's speech to his troops from Lord of the Rings.

Why?

Well, to my mind, there are three iconic moments in Return of the King.  The first is Sam's Moment, with a capital M:  "Come on, Mr. Frodo.  I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!"

The second two are fascinating to me from a psychological standpoint.

Yes, a psychological standpoint.

I think a lot of The Two Towers and Return of the King, at least from the films' standpoint, was a contrast in Aragorn and Theoden's leadership styles.  In TTT, Theoden refuses to ask Gondor for help in their battle, but then refuses to help Gondor in RotK because they didn't offer help themselves.

When the battle seems lost and Aragorn suggests one final stand, Theoden responds with "For death and glory!" while Aragorn replies with, "For Rohan.  For your people."

Basically, I think the goal here was to show that Aragorn is thinking of others, thinking ahead, while Theoden is focused on himself.

Then, before each person's big battle in RoTK, they each muster their troops.

Theoden does it thusly:  "Forth, and fear no darkness!  Arise!  Arise, Riders of Theoden!  Spears shall be shaken!  Swords shall be splintered!  A sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises!  Ride now!  Ride now!  Ride!  Ride to ruin, and the world's ending!  Death!  Death!"

You might notice a certain...fatalism in the above.  It's basically, "ride to your deaths, but don't be scared!"

Meanwhile, King Aragorn (because by this point, he is King Aragorn) circles his nervous troops as they rear back in fear from the army coming out of the Black Gates:  "Hold your ground!  Hold your ground!  Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers, I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me.  A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.  An hour of wolves, and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day.  This day we fight!  By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!"

In other words, "I know you're scared, and so am I, but today, we are going to show our courage, in the name of everything we love."

It's this speech that always -- always -- gives me chills, even (good Lord) five years later, and it's this bit that is in the video referenced above.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

(Incidentally, I've tried to read the novel several times, but the farthest I've ever gotten is when they take an injured Frodo to Rivendell.  Something about Tolkien's information-dump style of writing is just very off-putting to me.  I admire the sophisticated world he essentially invented to explain the history of the language he'd invented -- I just wish he'd written a companion book to go with the actual story.  But I've always wondered how those three moments are rendered in the book.)

Quick Tech Hint

For Amie, and whoever else would need it.

To reply to a tweet on the web, hover over the tweet with your mouse.  On the right, you will see a star (to favorite, I think, a tweet?) and a curvy arrow thingie (just above the "reply to Amie31 -- when I took the screenshot, it ignored my mouse cursor).

Click the curvy arrow thingie, and the box at the top that normally looks like this:

will change to this:

Et voila, an @reply.  :-)

In semi-related news, if you've been following my tweets, you know that I'm looking for my wayward karma.  I'd say today trends to neutral, but I haven't tried to burn my News-2-You video yet (since I left my phone and iPod at school...I rock 8-/).

What the Heck?????

(How often do I resort to multiple punctuation marks to emphasize my point?)

CNN is shutting down its science-tech unit.

No, really.

No, really.

I just...there are no words.

Yes there are.

WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU THINKING?

I am spluttering in incoherent rage over here; I'm sorry.  Maybe someday I'll have a more eloquent post on the subject.

I'm gonna go listen to "Hope Eyrie" and "The Ballad of Apollo 13" now, and remember when science-type stuff united the whole world, even for a few minutes.

Unintentional Hilarity

So, I was watching the 720p Star Trek trailer (yeah, I'd only seen it on my iPhone), and the brief -- very brief -- scene with Sarek and Amanda made my eyes pop out of my head.

Why?

Could it be that Ben Cross bears an uncanny resemblance to Mark Lenard?

Nope.

It was, rather, that the profile of Ben Cross as Sarek bore an uncanny resemblance to Andreas Katsulas.

Bwahahahaha.  Sarek as previously violent then enlightened and passionate religious leader.  Bwahahahahaha.

Disneyland Halloween Time Photos

Once I made the momentous discovery (Tripods rock!  And my dad had two!  And you can attach them to a wheelchair with a bungee cord for easy carrying!) a few months ago, I've been enamored of night time photography

A couple of years ago, I went to Disneyland and took lots of photos of Disneyland's Halloween decorations.  I regretfully noticed that they looked gorgeous at night time but knew I'd never be able to hand-hold my camera well enough to get good shots.

Enter the tripod and my other new best friend: my remote shutter release.  ('Cause, really, do you want to put it on countdown mode and wait 10 seconds for every shot?  I thought not.)

It took some time to cull the best of the best out.  For one thing, though I'm having lots of fun, I'm still not certain of my ability to expose correctly, so I took about three exposures of each shot.  For another, I did mess up on the exposure quite a bit (all the lighting on Main Street threw off the metering, I think) so I had to spend some quality time with Aperture.

The full-quality gallery is here, but to my knowledge, you must have a current version of Internet Explorer or a relatively current version of Firefox.  If you don't, here are the low-quality versions.

Also included are some wanderings around California Adventure, and some night time shots of Paradise Pier, because going on Midway Mania before going to Disneyland is Patrick's new Routine.

(And, yes, a Routine carries enough importance to Patrick that it must be capitalized.)

For the Candy Corn Acres pictures, I was on a mission not to take normal "snapshot" touristy shots.  I was actively seeking out unusual compositions.  I hope I succeeded.

The one pumpkin head I missed last time around, in daylight:

My camera did not like the reds here, but I included it because I haven't seen many photos of these decorations out and about on the Internet.

The beginning of trip number two: the soon-to-be-gone Sun Wheel.  While the new entry plaza looks cool, I'll miss it.

Still working on how to expose sunset shots, but good for me:

The gondolas are missing! :-o  Actually, I just liked the pattern of all the steel supports.

When hinges creak in doorless chambers....

Oh, look.  It's light pollution.  I saw a magazine in the store the other day (Time? Newsweek?  Something reputable, at any rate.) that had an article titled something like "The Loss of Night."

Is it sad that I stood in line to take a picture of Mickey and not to take a picture of family or friends in front of Mickey, like everyone else did?

Hmm...what to do while Patrick rides the train?  Oh, yes.  Take pictures of the station.

This might, just might, be my favorite of the bunch.

Interestingly enough, its daytime-equivalent from a couple of years ago was my favorite of that bunch.

Yeah, so I actually stood in line twice to take pictures of nobody.

 
Christmas pics will be coming...well, if the Halloween ones are any example...probably sometime in January.