February 6, 2008

  • New News on Star Trek (2008) & Updates

    A halfway sense of relief upon hearing the words of Roberto Orci's on the topic of the established canon:
    "Roberto Orci: We surely understand the concern. I can
    only say that no decision will have been made out of ignorance of canon or details. — anything you see that you feel deviates from canon will
    have a canon inspired reason    ." (Italics mine).

    Now we just have to hope that by the conclusion of the film, it also won't have erased canon altogether through an equally canonical alternate timeline switch!


    See the interview transcript with director/executive producer J.J. Abrams, executive producer Bryan Burk, executive producer/co-writer Robert Orci, numerous other crew members, principle cast members, and including pictures from the set at trekmovie.com:
    http://trekmovie.com/2008/01/25/jj-abrams-trek-team-fan-chat-transcript-pictures-from-the-set/

    Another interesting noteworthy item I just now came across: In yet another case of art imitating life and then life imitating art, Michael Okuda - the graphic designer responsible for over a decade of Star Trek designs, display screens, patches, and assorted other art - was hired by NASA a little while back to design patches and graphics for new space exploration initiatives including the new Orion space exploration vehicle intended as a replacement for the Space Shuttle. After years of designing patches for fictional departments and projects of Starfleet based upon the mission patches of NASA, Michael Okuda is now himself designing NASA's project patches for the future! Star Trek has had a long history of these odd intermixings with history, most famously the long campaign by Star Trek fans that resulted in the very first Space Shuttle prototype being named the Enterprise after Star Trek's famous fictional flagship.

    To see some of Okuda's work on Star Trek and for NASA, check out this archive online:
    http://homepage.mac.com/michaelokuda/portfolio/PhotoAlbum45.html

    Sadly, it seems that after all this time on Star Trek, and his other current project supervising the continuing work on Star Trek (The Original Series) Remastered edition, he has had no input and no involvement on the new feature film. I'd sleep easier if I knew that someone who has had such a fundamental role in and understanding of Star Trek were involved in the new movie: he is, after all, the one who has written all the recent official Star Trek technical manuals and encyclopedias. We'll all just have to trust in the skill of the current team to step up to the plate and impress us with their treatment of the material.

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    Personal Updates!

    On another note, I got the new job! Christine called downstairs on Monday while I was at work and while everyone was on break and let me know I'm one of two people who have been hired to share the position of Rentals Facilitator at Science World. Futhermore, I'll still be able to continue working at the GS when I'm not involved in Rentals Facilitator responsibilities.

    *whew*, they almost had me sweating - Christine and Tammy had said at he interview on Friday that they would decide by Monday and it wasn't until Monday afternoon that they let me know. It should be fun, a new challenge at the big Golf Ball.

    --

    Saturday 26 Jan: Dine-Out at Tantra Waterfront Lounge in Lonsdale Quay with Vivian, Anna, Amanda, and Roland; 8:00pm seating. Got there at just after 6, wasn't informed by Vivian that she'd switched it to 8:00pm, had to wait (and they missed their ferry, lol). We had to eat on their undercover outside patio with heat lamps because their inside was all booked out, but it really wasn't too cold since several sides had glass walls, it was undercover, and the heat lamps were right above us. Hung out at Starbucks at the Quay for a little while after - played cards.

    Weekend Updates:
    Thursday 31 Jan: had work at SW

    Friday 1 Jan: had work at SW, interview at noon with Christine and Tammy, after work went out for Dine Out ($35) dinner with Denise, Mark, Pineby, and Mark's friend Karen at Cin Cin on Robson Street. Sadly contrary to Roland's glowing recommendations, there was no steak with reduced sauce. Luckily, found parking right on Robson half a block down, ran into Denise on her way as I was paying for parking. Wine experts as waitresses, a wall of wines, and the others ordered wine to taste. Ritzy immediate coatcheck service right at the door. Desert: profiteroles. yup. balls with cream. Thanks Pineby =P Went out to Fog'n'Suds after dinner to hang out, chat, drinks.

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    Saturday 2 Jan:     saw Walking With Dinosaurs: A Live Experience for the 7pm show at GM Place with parents. Huge slog getting down there through all the traffic, especially since they had a truck rally going on at the same time next door at BC Place with 21,000 spectators. Missed the very beginning bit, caught the end of their bit on the Triassic era (the show covered all three eras of Dinosaur dominance: triassic, jurassic, cretaceous). The "wobbly-head" problem that I'd observed in the youtube videos of the show with some of the smaller dino's and some of the larger ones was still somewhat apparent during this show. Birds don't have wobbly heads when they move - they've got an amazing stability system that always keeps their heads level and their eyes pointed nomatter how much they move. Highlights of the show included the two brachiosaurs (would have been even more amazing if I'd been sitting on Stadium seating rather than the balcony... still a little far), the stegosaur (very impressive!), the two jockeying Torosaurs battling for dominance, and the adult Tyrannosaurus. The ankylosaur's head looked a little fat imho, but it was still pretty impressive. The movements of the Torosaurs when fighting were incredibly lifelike, though I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't actually lock horns at all - probably would have damaged the robots I suppose. It was still fun to see the swooping ornithocheirus (don't think that was life-sized... real ones had a wingspan of greater than 10m), the allosaurs, the utahraptors (even though these ones were featherless!), the baby T-Rex, and other dino's life-sized and in somewhat lifelike motion. You could still see the little platforms underneath the big ones that the large ones really moved upon and the puppeteer's disguised legs sticking out of the smaller dinos' legs - somewhat disappointed they couldn't have them *really* walking on their legs but I knew that going in. They could have had a little bit more 'girth' to the walking motions of some of the larger herbivorous dinosaurs, but the Torosaurs were pretty darned good nontheless - even the parts where they wandered around the edge of the arena 'chewing' on the inflated flowering set pieces. Really would have loved to see them close up. Oh well - tix were expensive! I kinda envied the big group of 20-something friends sitting in the row right in
    front of me; all my friends who had said they wanted to see it decided
    it was too expensive. Instead, though, I saw the show with mom and dad, which was nice for them since they always tell me I don't go out with them enough these days. I really enjoyed the show - this is the closest anyone has ever come to seeing real live dinosaurs walking around - but I do have one more gripe: It was just so very cheesy how they made a point to work in the words "Walking With Dinosaurs!!!" into the 'paleontologist guide' narrator's dialogue every third of the show. The original BBC documentary never stooped to that level. Oh well. We rushed out to the car to try and beat the traffic as soon as the show ended, or else I would have liked to see what kind of things they were selling at their souvenir table. haha. Yes, I'm a big kid. Too many little kids there too though, lol.

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    Sunday 3 Jan: Met up with Anna, Amanda, and Lap at the Aquarium at 3:30pm, spent the next hour and a half there. Took pictures of the super-cool jellyfish! Saw the 4:30pm otter feeding demonstration. Hung out at their gift shop at closing - they've got these cool glass spheres with neon 'jellyfish' inside that actually glow in the dark! Too big for my apartment though, and a little expensive ($49). I bought a shotglass for my OddPods cacti transplants and a nifty neon-green-inside white plastic mug with transparant bits the shape of jellyfish. Back to SW after the Aquarium, waited for them to close, Lap left for his volleyball, Jane and Michelle went with the rest of us to dinner at Sip lounge restaurant downtown. They had space so we did Dine-Out there without a reservation. Close to the best food I've had at dine-out. Appy: two skewers of steak with sauce and a chicken drumstick so tender the meat slid right off the bone. Entree: Yum, steak. Shoulda ordered medium-rare instead of medium, but still decent nontheless. Desert: filling but mouthwatering cheesecake creatively served in two teacups - one with strawberry syrup topping and the other with an oh-so-scrumptious mango syrup topping. Dropped everyone home and had after-dinner coffee with Jane at Waves on Commercial after (where I've been meeting Kirstie for thesis updates). Fun.

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    Monday 4 Jan: Worked at SW. Slow day at work; Zainab, Jane, and I were in the GS; Maggie upstairs. Christine called in the early afternoon and let me know about the RF job. Jane went home, but still caught a movie after work with Lap. lol, pretty bad movie. Lap thought it was funny tho.

    Today (Tuesday 5 Jan)    : Haircut in the morning. Tomorrow, meeting with Kirstie on campus at noon and New Years dinner at sister's in the evening.