So we're sitting around watching the first episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 (one of my birthday presents) tonight, and as is de riguer for TNG, Troi was babbling about how some character or other (in this case a scientist who seriously seemed to be hitting on Westley) was feeling. And if you ever watch ST:TNG you know that everything Troi says is always completely and patently obvious. "Captain, I sense deception from the Romulan commander." Oh really, Troi? You think? Oh and you used your fantastic telepapsychic powers to determine that, rather than his shifty eyes and the fact that he kept fingering the disruptor button and licking his lips?

When suddenly it hit me: Why Troi is on the show. Why she's constantly stating what emotions people are feeling even though Star Trek actors are so hammy that it should be painfully obvious what they're trying to convey. It's all so striking clear that I can't believe I never thought of it before: Autistics! I mean, who's your stereotypical Star Trek fan? The ultra nerdy guy with Asperger's Syndrome, am I right? And those with Asperger's or other forms of autism typically have trouble reading other people's emotions. Hence we've got Troi around to make sure everybody is on the same page. I mean, really, it's the only possible reason for her to exist. That or else Gene Roddenberry hated mankind. Those are your only options.

And you know, it really makes watching the show easier. Anytime Troi opens her fat annoying mouth you can just be like, "Ah, yeah. Ok Troi. Get everybody up to speed. Meanwhile I'm gonna be looking elsewhere because it's no longer the 80's and you're not considered hot anymore." It's like, clouds part, beams of sunshine and all of that. Yes I'm a genius, and yes you're welcome.


Matt on 07.14.07 @ 12:45 AM PST [link]  [2 Comments]

So, I finally got around to watching X-Men 3: The Last Stand (aka X-Men: The Last Time I Let My Agent Talk Me Into This) and wow, what a bad movie. I guess it started out ok and could have had some promise, but then they kinda just took the whole concept and threw it away. Of course, it seems pretty apparent that other than Hugh Jackman and Hallie Berry pretty much all the other major actors considered it beneath them to do a threequel and had their characters rubbed cut out.

And now, I'm not as much of a nerd as to complain too much (not that I won't complain, but not too much) about them changing the source material (although it was wrong of them to make Marrow a dude) but at least give the previous two movies a little respect. They weren't brilliant cinema by any means, but they were at least clever and fun. Ah well, whatever. I'll just file it in the part of my brain where Star Trek: Nemesis dwells... the part that was a weird fever dream that NEVER HAPPENED DO YOU HEAR ME IT NEVER HAPPENED!!!

Ahem.

In other news I updated my blogging software again, which didn't fix the archives (and actually really messed up the blogging console...) but should have fixed the comments so that it doesn't tell you you're trying to "break the script" if you try to post anything. Of course I say should but that's hardly guaranteed. Meanwhile, I'm going to pretend that you've all been trying to post comments and have been getting errors, and that it's not just that I stopped posting for too long and nobody comes here anymore.

Matt on 07.12.07 @ 10:56 PM PST [link]  [2 Comments]

So I was just now skimming through my old archives (which I did notice happen to be broken if you try to look at them by month... I'll have to fix that one of these days) and I noticed that, wow, I used to post way way more than I do now. Which we already knew. But even more odd was that picking a few of those posts at random they all seemed very chipper and upbeat. Not the usual "Man, life gots me down." or "Sigh, I'm posting. Are you happy?" or "This ghetto got me crazy!" that I tend toward nowadays. I wonder what happened. I know I've gotten progressively more shy over the years (though maybe I'm starting to come out of it?) but that really shouldn't extend to blogging of all things. Blogging was practically invented by shut-ins, after all.

Anyway, I guess it's my birthday. Woooooooo. Or something. So far it's been a pretty dull day, although I just got home from work and Lynnea and I are going to go out and eat Afghan food and fun things like that so I imagine it'll pick up.

Of course, I'm not used to having to go into work (or anywhere for that matter) on birthdays so it always seems a little strange to me. Having had a July birthday meant never having to go to school on my birthday when I was a kid, and most summers since employment I've been up north working remotely, which means that I've probably had to spend 3 or 4 birthdays ever at someplace I don't really like. But I suppose that's neither here nor there.

Well, um. Yep. I guess I'll go and frolic now or whatever it is you do when you turn 28. Cower in fear of shortly turning 30?

Matt on 07.11.07 @ 06:46 PM PST [link] 

So, I feel it necessary to point out that the previous post was brought to you almost entirely by blood loss. I actually have a picture of my horrible wound that I considered posting on here, but my better judgment prevailed and I decided not to. Oh, I'm not weird or nothin', I just took a picture because I was waiting for the edges of the cut to dry off enough for me to apply a new bandage. Well, maybe that's a little weird, but there's a part of me that found the whole thing rather novel.

Anyway, wounds aside, I'm not really sure what I have to post about. All I know is that I've been meaning to for several days now. And I was kind of hoping that once I started typing the reason for posting would come back to me, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case. I guess I'll just babble incoherently for awhile.

So, it's July apparently. I'm not really sure how that happened. It's still sometime in late April as far as my internal clock is telling me. I'm really hoping that this isn't the normal pace of time perception for me from here on out. I'm starting to think that I really need A. Discernible seasons and B. Summers off. Which means it's probably time to start doing a little more in the way of grad school shopping.

Umm... let's see. You may have heard me at some point calling myself a nerd. Well, we went to an author reading/signing thing by Jeff VanderMeer (who wrote some somewhat interesting sounding books which I have not read) up at Mysterious Galaxy the other day and... let me just say, compared to most of the people there I am Hipster McCoolguy. It was like, beards, ponytails, glasses, and tech company t-shirts as far as the eye could see. Nothing wrong with those guys, but ending up in a crowd of them really does wonders for resetting where you rate yourself on the nerd scale.

Well, anyway, I'm off to play Pokemon then.

Matt on 07.07.07 @ 12:17 PM PST [link]