Space Shuttle Discovery: The Final Mission

The Space Shuttle Discovery is on its last mission before being retired, and today it arrived successfully at the International Space Station. Wow, I cannot believe it finally made it into space since it should have completed the mission last November, but hey, it made in one piece and will spend a little over a week at the station. The shuttle also happens to be carrying a humanoid robot! I sure wish a Data from Star Trek could be created sooner than later, and since I am wishing, it would be nice to have a space craft that could travel throughout the galaxy and encounter new worlds, one day! For now, I will continue to read and watch science fiction stories that will take me there in my mind.

Ths Box (2009)

The Box is a movie that was based on a short story entitled "Button Button" written in1970 (1970!!!!) by Richard Matheson. The movie is well acted, interesting, and disturbing, at least to me anyways. The story is science fiction with a heavy emphasis on actions have consequences and the main characters have serious problems both financial and physical but that does not justify selfishness and callousness in exchange for personal well being and gain. The main characters are given a choice between instant cash vs. a significant amount of money but in exchange someone in the world will die. So the story goes that if you do not know the person who dies but you will gain then it does not matter in your life, but as the story progresses we learn that it does matter and what comes around goes around. The movie and short story both have more detail and without spoiling the story, the plot is interesting, curious, and deep, and I feel the movie is worth seeing. It is not a light or easy to watch film but the message to me is clear: your actions do have consequences no matter how far removed.

Star Trek: My Favorite Couple For St. Valentine's Day

I was inspired by Star Trek on Facebook who had asked the question: "Who is you for favorite couple in the Star Trek Universe in honor of Valentine's Day?" I thought that was a creative question and being a die-hard Trek fan this prompted me to think about the characters from the entire Star Trek franchise.
The Original Series had Capt. Kirk who seemed to always get the girl, but I have to say, in my favorite episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever," I loved Kirk with Edith Keeler, that was a classic episode and great story.
In The Next Generation I liked the long term off again and on again Riker and Troi relationship. I have to admit, I liked the sexual tension,the love and respect they always had for each other, and the eventual marriage in the movie "Nemesis." I also loved the Data and Lt. Yar hook-up in the first season and how Data always remembered that experience in subsequent episodes, that was cool.
I do not know enough about Voyager to pick out a couple and in Enterprise, T'Pol with Commander Tucker was the best, I loved how their relationship started but I was very disappointed that they killed him off at the end of the series. I would have liked the image of T'Pol and Tucker together off on missions with their baby.
Last but not least of all, Deep Space Nine is my favorite of the all the series and they had so many good couples. I liked Nog and Leeta, Odo and Kira, Quark and gold pressed latinum(just kidding), but of course, my all time favorite has to be Dax and Worf. They had great chemistry, were opposites, had fun, and were both warriors and explorers at heart. My favorite episode is "You are Cordially Invited," because it has humor, cold feet before the wedding, trouble with the in-laws, and great bachelor parties!
Well, there it is, Dax and Worf, my favorite Star Trek Valentine's Day couple and I wish you a Happy Valentine's Day with your special partner!

Hannibal Lector and Thomas Harris

Hannibal Lector is an interesting and rich character created by the author Thomas Harris who first wrote the novel Red Dragon in 1981 and later in 1988 wrote The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal in 1999 and then Hannibal Rising in 2006.
I have not read the novels but I sure have seen the movies! The Silence of the Lambs has to be one of the classics in the horror genre and introduced us to the chilling Hannibal Lector the cannibal played by Anthony Hopkins and Clarice Starling played by Jodie Foster. The story is interesting and startling but I have to say the I preferred Hannibal Rising which could not have been as good as it was without The Silence of the Lambs. Hannibal Rising gets to the root of how the cannibalism began in Lector and the horrors he suffered at the end of World War Two as a young boy from a wealthy family in Lithuania. I have read history and I have learned that due to hunger, cannibalism was a common practice in the colder areas of the Eastern European countries and Russia during the war, so the story for me, anyways, does not seem that far-fetched. I read that the film was not that popular with critics for whatever lame reason, but I have to tell you I think it was fantastic and as I watched the movie kept thinking back to The Silence of the Lambs saying: "That is why Hannibal Lector did this or that!" The movie is slightly different than the novel but not by much so if you prefer to read the story or watch the movie it is well worth the time if you like horror movies with blood and guts and a great story!

Superhero : Data, Vincent, or Hellboy?

I have been watching old episodes of Beauty and the Beast as I mentioned in a previous post, and I got to thinking about Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman who are the stars of the series, then I happened to watch both Hellboy(Ron Perlman is Hellboy) and Terminator I and II, in which Linda Hamilton stars, and I immediately ruled out the good Terminator in the second movie because those things (the machines) just give me the creeps. Ron Perlman is amazing as Hellboy, I love all of his cats, his good nature, and his looks are very other worldly. In Beauty and the Beast, Vincent also has unusual looks but a heart of gold who is always ready to help and protect Catherine, he is wise, smart, and strong. Since I am on the topic of Ron Perlman, I loved him as the Reman Viceroy Vkruk in Star Trek Nemesis, Perlman is really the master of disguises, but this brings me around to Data, the endearing android from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He is strong, obviously smart, yet he strives to learn human emotions and be sensitive. The thing with Data, is he could outlive me but what would be wrong with that?! I realize this is all from a chick point of view and I am not going for the typical superheroes such as Superman or Spiderman, but I cannot decide who I would like to have as my superhero, so I will look at the cons. Vincent stays in the tunnels under the city in New York, so I would see him once in a while if I lived in New York, Hellboy works for the US Federal Government( I couldn't see him on a whim) , and Data works on a star ship, so unless I would not mind being on the Enterprise(which I would not) I could be with Data more often. I cannnot decide, I like all three superheroes and I would not mind knowing all three, I just like musing on the idea that there could be a superhero out there looking out for us all!