Dark Reality

Oh... I'm pretty new to the scene, and I'm just starting to like it. There are the big superstars that anyone who watches 2-3 episodes will know well... but I feel like they're always "adding" people, even though I know it's just people who are not on as much.

 

I saw part of one episode of TNA, but mostly my girlfriend and her sister and sister's boyfriend just stick with WWE, Raw and Smackdown (is TNA WWE or independent?), so that's what I'm sticking with as well, for now. Besides, I don't have cable...

For those on Limewire... you ain't seen nothing yet.

 

First, you deserve better than a Spyware infected program. Limewire accesses a network called Gnutella, which first of all is not very good... and second of all, there are a bunch of programs that access Gnutella. Just like MSIE and Firefox both access the Web, Bearshare and Limewire both access Gnutella... and BitComet and Azureus, my BT client of choice, both access the BitTorrent "network". BT doesn't have a network; rather, each "torrent" is its own network, in which everyone shares only one file, and it's the same file, so speeds are incredibly fast.

 

ISO Hunt isn't a very good site in my experience. It has some things but it has a lot of junk, too. In the BT world, you don't say the network has fakes, it's web sites that have fakes, or abandoned torrents, or junk. Because a web site collects .TORRENT files, and those tell your BT client how to get on the Torrent's network. I've had only marginal luck with ISO Hunt. I am not familiar with TorrentSpy, but I've heard of it. Mininova.org is the one I used when I was on DSL three months ago. I don't know if it's around anymore, but that's where I found stuff.

 

With BT, I was able to get every episode of the Star Trek series The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. I only wish I had gotten The Original Series and Enterprise as well, but I'll have to get those when I get Cable internet out here.

 

BT isn't so good for songs. With BT, people trade full albums, so if you want a song, find out what album it's on and search for that. You don't have to keep the whole album, but you may have to download it...

 

...another cool thing about BT is you don't just download one file. When I said everyone in the Torrent downloads and shares the same file, that's not entirely correct. They share a "torrent", which is a container, like a folder. It can contain one file or it can contain a hundred or more files. With most BT clients, you can go in there and tell it which files you want and which ones you don't want. Some (BitTornado for example) will download the ones you don't want anyway, it'll just do them last. And in most cases, downloading only some files means you get it slower, actually. Because BT works on a give/take system... you're giving less, not taking some files, so people who need chunks of those files will give you less. It's tricky to explain. But when I downloaded the Star Trek series, I downloaded them one season at a time, each season having all the episodes in that season. Very cool.

 

When the download is done, you can continue sharing - this is called seeding, I believe - but if you want to stop it, you can simply delete the .torrent file you got from the site, and you'll leave the Torrent. (Some clients, you must close them first, or issue a command within the program to back out of the Torrent before deleting the file.) The .torrent file is separate from the download, though they may be in the same folder, so you're not deleting the download, just the information on the torrent (as in the network).

 

It's confusing, but if you do it for a while, you get the hang of it.

There are some things Adaware can check for that Spybot cannot and vice versa. Run both to be safe.

 

Running Firefox won't solve the problem. In fact, MSIE 6 Sp2 (which you get when you upgrade Windows XP to Service Pack 2) can now block spyware, so for anyone keeping up with the updates, that point is moot. Besides, Spyware can also come in with other programs. Kazaa (filesharing) was notorious for installing a few spyware apps such as Cydoor, Brilliant Projector, and Bonzai Buddy.

 

For those who want to learn how to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows... it's not as hard as it seems. I made my girlfriend do it (with my supervision) when I moved in - it's a snap. I recommend reading one of my guides I posted on my board a year and a half ago - "How to Keep Your Computer Running Smooth with Acronis". The first part deals with reformatting and reinstalling. The next part is about using a program called Acronis True Image to back-up your entire hard drive so that you can do a "quick restore" - that is, within 10 minutes getting your hard drive back to that state in like 3 steps.

 

Any questions you have about reformatting/reinstalling, ask me. I've done it at least a couple dozen times on this and the last two computers I've owned. I don't mean ask me here, either PM me here or on my board (link's in my signature) or send me an email at darkreality@gmail.com. And it's best if you have a second computer with which to get online while you're working with the first one, so you can get help in realtime.

That's Jambalaya, as I know it. When I moved in with my girlfriend, she had a box of the Chicken Helper Jambalaya. Bad experiences with Hamburger Helper have led me to distrust the Helper boxes, but she assured me this was good, and it's now one of our favorite dishes. I have a from-scratch recipe I've been meaning to try, but haven't got around to it.

 

If Mr. Sisko gets everything for free, and in the tradition of 24th century economics, is doing his job to better mankind, then he's getting something for it. :blink: Best not to try to debate Star Trek economics; it's always been a weak link in the series.

OK, thanks for clearing this up for me. I had a heck of a time finding this - I posted it in the Holodeck/20th Century Entertainment forum, and it wound up here. Makes sense, I guess... good thing I know how to search for my topics. :blink:

 

Cameos are always nice to see when you catch them. B)

Smackdown Spoilers? Creative? Correct, Batista and Mysterio are the new tag-team champs, but I didn't know it was posted to the Net before the match. Anyway, DR's summary... out an hour after the match ends, no less. :blink:

 

[smackdown summary for 16 December 2005]

 

Like the past few shows, tonight's Smackdown started with clips of the whole Randy Orton/Undertaker scene which you're probably all familiar with by now. In case you're not, Orton thought he killed Undertaker, putting him on Guererro's lowrider and then backing it into the wall, but as they say, "you can't kill who's already dead". Ever since, Undertaker has been haunting Orton via bell chimes and hallucinations. Hopefully WWE will move on from this after the Armageddon Pay-Per-View match this Sunday, where Orton faces "Hell in a Cell" with the Undertaker.

 

The first match involves newcomer Boogeyman, known for his Mudvayne-like costume, and more so for eating worms. His opponent, Nunzio, who doesn't stand a chance. After pinning Nunzio, Boogeyman makes Nunzio eat the worms, while the rest of the Smackdown roster watches in horror from the locker room.

 

Then we go back to Randy Orton; his father, Cowboy Bob, is telling him a prominent sports therapist is in town and will see him about his problems, his fear of the Undertaker. The shrink counsels Orton, telling him that he must make a choice, that there are two roads before him. Cut to the locker room... there's an upcoming match between Batista and Rey Mysterio, and MNM (Mercury-Nitro-Melina), and Melina is trying to seduce Batista, trying to get him to bow out of the match, because she wants to keep the tag-team championship in MNM's hands. The camera cuts away as Batista and Melina start making out...

 

The second match is Kid Kash, whom I've never seen before, and Supercrazy of the Mexicools. Kid Kash pretty much runs the show, pinning him twice and failing both times. Supercrazy gets up and hits Kash with three consecutive drop-kicks, gets him in a submission, but Kash turns it around, slams him, pins him the third time, and gets the three-count. But he doesn't stop there, no... he brings a chair in, sets it next to Supercrazy intending to slam him on it, but the other two members of the Mexicools come running and chase him out.

 

Back to Randy yet again, he's talking to his father about the choices he must make in life. Cut back to the locker room, Melina's getting dressed. She asks Batista if they have a deal, and he just laughs at her and thanks her for the warmup. Pure class.

 

Now we have the Batista/Mysterio/MNM match they've been leading up to. We start with Mercury and Rey Mysterio - and note, I can't tell the difference between Nitro and Mercury, unless they say and I was paying attention, so forgive me if I get them mixed up or just say one or the other. The players all circulate, getting their turns, except Melina, who alternates between looking pissed off and hurt at her little antics in the locker room backfiring. Then we have Batista staying out of it, and Mercury and Nitro double-teaming Rey Mysterio, who at first throws them both out of the ring, but it quickly changes, and for a while, they're giving him a good pounding. They try to pin him at least four times, but never get past a two count. Batista doesn't cheat, though, staying within the rules, getting up on the ropes but never entering. Finally Rey tags Batista, and it's on. From outside the ring, Rey Mysterio 619's both Melina and Mercury, and Batista does the Batista Bomb on Nitro, then pins him.

 

For the next filler match, it's Lashley and Paul Burchill. I've never seen Paul Burchill, but I get the impression he's part of a tag team, as there's another guy watching closely, but never enters. Lashley I've seen before... why he's not a champion is beyond me. This dude is unstoppable... he must have gotten teased a lot in school for having such a feminine name (albeit a last name) to the point where he had to get tough... that's my guess anyway. But no one gets past this dude, or lasts very long. I bet he'd wipe the floor with Batista, given the chance. Anyway, Lashley throws Paul Burchill out, lets him get back in, rams him three times with his head, slams him twice, and pins him - it's over.

 

I didn't quite get the next segment, as people were talking and I was eating ice cream, but Matt Hardy's talking, and JBL comes out on crutches, talking smack to Matt, but then points out that he's under doctor's orders not to fight - then sucker-punches Matt, who turns around and tackles him. Next, Smackdown's General Manager, Teddy Long, is talking to the psychiatrist, worried about this big announcement that Randy Orton will be making, but the shrink doesn't budge, citing doctor/patient privilege. Meanwhile, Randy meets Batista and Rey in the locker room, congratulating Batista, and then he says he thinks he's the best, but they'll never know... and shakes with Batista, leaving him and Rey dumbfounded over what he meant.

 

The next match is Booker T and Matt Hardy, with JBL guest commenting. Booker T is bragging that he's three-nothing on Chris Benoit, who never appears (and I guess isn't supposed to anyway). JBL talks more smack to Matt Hardy, but Matt holds back, concentrates on the match. It goes back and forth a fair bit, but in the end Booker T takes it with a pinfall.

 

For the finale, Cowboy Bob is asking Randy Orton if he's sure he wants to go through with his decision. Orton assures him he's doing the right thing. He then proceeds out to the ring, where he tells the thousands of people in the audience and millions of viewers back home that he has his whole life ahead of him, and as such, he's retiring from WWE and backing out of the Armageddon Pay-per-view match this Sunday. GM Teddy Long comes out, telling him he's under contract and WWE will sue him for every penny he owns, but Orton says he'd rather face court than Undertaker in Hell in a Cell. He's about to walk out on his boss when the bell chimes, and eight druids come out, followed by the man himself, the Undertaker. The Undertaker's scaring the crap out of Randy Orton again, until one druid takes off his hood, and it's Cowboy Bob with Undertaker's urn. Randy Orton suckers the Undertaker, beats him with a chair five times over the back, once over the head, and then once over the head again with the urn. He gets out of the ring and tells Undertaker, and us as well, that he's going to beat Undertaker this Sunday - so the whole retiring thing was a scam.

Well, isn't this interesting. I was flipping channels at my girlfriend's sister's house (they have cable - we don't) and I noticed Stargate SG-1 was on. I saw one episode that didn't really impress me, but nothing else was on, and I liked the movie (Stargate, 1994) so I thought I'd give it another shot. I came in late and ended up missing most of the episode, but what I did catch was a cameo appearance by John DeLancie, who plays Q in several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and a few episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (not sure if he pestered Capt. Archer's crew on Star Trek Enterprise or not - haven't seen that one).

 

I had my digital camera with me - really, I never leave home without it :blink: - so I took a couple pictures of the TV set. The first didn't come out very well, but I did alright with the second one.

 

 

Sorry if this has already been posted; the only Stargate area I see is a link to the Stargatefans.net forum. Also I don't know if this was a new episode or a rerun.

 

DeLancie played some kind of auditor; he was asking the entire SG-1 crew about an incident, involving Col. Jack O'Neil, if I remember correctly. The general or captain or whichever leader they have (see, I'm not that familiar with the show) was making all these phone calls trying to figure out who DeLancie's character is, but not getting anywhere. (Unless I was missing something, if his credentials didn't add up, he should have been tossed right out - they are in a government facility, aren't they?)

^^ same. And I was beginning to think no one else thought so.

 

I liked all six Star Wars movies a lot, none I really disliked at all. My favorite though, will always be the original. The other five could never have happened, and it would still be one of the best movies of all-time. The sequels and prequels added to it, but none came close to topping it.

 

As far as the prequels... I was a little too juvenile, and III was bound by the original trilogy; we knew how it would end (those who have seen the original trilogy). I think II had the best mix of action, sci-fi, and romance of the prequels. It had more SW-ness to love than I and III, I thought.

I just started an "Official WWE Thread" on my board, mostly because my girlfriend works nights and misses it every night. I basically recap everything that happens on WWE that night, RAW or Smackdown. I also try to keep it clean profanity-wise... if I trip the badword filters (copying here) then I trip them and all is good... if I hear one word from the moderators about my language, though, I'll stop copying the posts here, but in this thread I'll link to the thread on my board, so if you want to bookmark that and get the updates... Well, I checked WWE.com and they have no information on tonight's match, so I'll have the info up before them, if you want it... If you're all watching it, then I guess it's redundant... but I'm posting for someone who can't see it. So we'll see how long this lasts... :blink:

 

[RAW Summary for 12 December 2005]

 

Recap: Eric Bischoff fired by Vince McMahon... We got to see highlights from the "court case" (gotta love the scene where McMahon goes "oh, sorry, I didn't hear a word you said... I was listening to Ashlee Simpson on my new iPod... boy she SUCKS" - yep, they showed that too) as well as McMahon taking out the trash.

 

McMahon introduces with those clips, talks about looking for a new General Manager for RAW, and concludes that he'll be the "interim GM" for the time being.

 

A cage match is announced, "New Years Revolution", where five contenders to be determined tonight (see below) will face John Cena for the WWE Championship.

 

The first match pits Kurt Angle against Ric Flair... it's a pretty good match to start the night, and Angle eventually takes it. Ric Flair's been wrestling for a long time, back when I was a kid watching Hulk Hogan, Million Dollar Man, and Andre the Giant (RIP) when it was WWF (I didn't really like it, but watched a little, played a couple of the games), so he's got the respect, but he's also in his fifties, so losing to Kurt Angle wasn't a big surprise. Then Kurt Angle starts talking about this charity event WWE is doing in Afghanistan for the soldiers, and he's just going off on the soldiers, saying they haven't caught Osama bin Laden, and they represent a country which doesn't show him any respect, so he's saying all kinds of bad things about America's troops overseas. This isn't going over very well with the audience, and John Cena has a little something to say to him over it - nothing special, just common sense stuff.

 

Next we had Carlito and Shelton Benjamin... I really don't like Carlito, don't see him as a serious contender for any title. He's like a punk, a punching bag to get beat up on by the more serious characters. He's got that big hair, that dumb apple shirt, and "COOL" written across his arse with the O's replaced by the silly apple logos. I don't know who Benjamin is, but he was talking smack to Shawn Michaels after the break, before this match, saying he hopes he could get in the "New Years Revolution" with him - but that won't happen. Benjamin had a chance to take Carlito out, but dawdled, and left the ring to get an apple Carlito had left, to mock him before the pin... well, he gave Carlito enough time to recover, and that's what he did... made Benjamin look like a fool.

 

The third match was Big Show and Shawn Michaels, a fairly good match. It was funny, I said to Jen's sister and her boyfriend, "I wouldn't wanna get hit by Big Show", and within 30 seconds, one of the announcers said "I wouldn't wanna be exchanging punches with the Big Show". Heh heh. It was getting to be a good match, but when Big Show had Michaels down, and was on the other side of the ring getting ready to come at him, all of a sudden here comes Triple H, drags Michaels out of the ring, and hits him with a nearby chair, knocking Michaels out. For that, the ref disqualified Big Show, calling the unconscious or maybe just dazed Shawn Michaels the winner of that match. As you can imagine, Big Show wasn't too happy about this. (More on that later...)

 

The five matches were the main event tonight, but a couple other things happened... you'll have to forgive me if I haven't got the timeline just right. But all throughout, different people (none of them very interesting) approach Vince McMahon about the RAW GM position. The latest is Candice, who tries to seduce McMahon in his office, when John Cena and Daivari bust in - John Cena asking McMahon some dumb question I can't remember - I think he wants an early shot at Kurt Angle or something. So McMahon announces there will be the first-ever "You Can't See Me" match - John Cena against the other guy, Cena blindfolded. Then we have Mickie Davis and Victoria in some kind of catfight match, and Trish Stratus guest commenting... I actually wasn't paying attention, I think I was eating at the time... but I'm pretty sure Mickie Davis won that one. It was a pretty short match, and seemed to be just filler as opposed to the rest of the events.

 

The fourth main match is Chris Masters "The Masterpiece" and Viscera. I thought Big Show was the biggest guy on the roster, and he may still be, but Viscera is pretty big himself. I would much rather have seen Shawn Michaels against Chris Masters and Big Show take on Viscera, that would have made more sense, but it was OK. Masters got Viscera in the Master Lock, and won by submission (Viscera tapped out). Lastly (before the blindfold match) we had Triple H take on Kane. Triple H was dominating, but one of them accidentally hit the ref, knocking him out... Big Show comes out, does a number on Tripe H, gets him down... drags the ref over, wakes him up, then Kane pins Triple H for the 3-count.

 

Finally, we had the blindfold match, John Cena with his head in a black velvet-looking bag Vince was testing out, said he couldn't see out of. The match was pretty lame really, Kurt Angle outside the ring, him and Daivari making noises, getting Cena to run at them. At one point Cena hit the ref (who was dumb enough to be that close). I can't remember who won (probably Daivari - but it doesn't matter because it wasn't for a spot in the New Years match, it was a "just because" match) but afterwards, Cena took the bag off and kicked Daivari's arse, then whooped on Kurt Angle, chased him out of the ring.

 

"The Official WWE Thread" on the Dark Reality Message Board

Here's a lot more information on it from Amazon. There is ONE for $9.95 - hurry!

 

Thanks for sharing. :blink:

The two episodes were originally directly linked. Those alien critters were supposed to be THE big villian of TNG, which is why the signal was sent out, and then colonies were destroyed. The producers dropped them in favor of the Borg, though the destroyed colonies still fit in with the Borg.

 

I'd like to see, if they make another TNG movie, the return of the Conspiracy aliens.

OK, this theory (fact?) makes sense. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, thanks for the pictures!

 

The first picture identifies it not as an ATM, but as a "Ferengi Credit Exchange". So, you put in whatever money your species uses, and it pops out slips, strips, or bars of gold-pressed Latinum? Not quite an ATM as we know them, but it's close enough in concept.

 

Is this credit exchange thing used in any of the episodes?

 

I will certainly be keeping a look out for this when my girlfriend and I watch Deep Space Nine together.

My theory: the images in the original post are Photoshopped. You can see the basic outline of what could be interpreted to be a face in the screenshot posted by sea trooper but the two images are not identical. The first one is a little more defined. And quite coincidentally, the provided image of Spock just "happens" to fit the clouds, and for effect, it's mixed in for that middle image.

 

If they really meant to put Spock in, why that exact frame of him? And how much time did the author of the image in the original post spend finding that exact image of Spock, based on a cloud formation? Think about it.

 

If there is a face in the clouds or dust or whatever, it's probably a reference to something being out there that we can't explain. The main story arc dealt with Sisko growing to accept the 'wormhole aliens' as gods, so maybe it was a subtle implication that there's some benign force looking over the space station.

 

Paramount knows Trekkies will go over everything with a fine-toothed comb, but something this specific, something so hidden? I don't think so. Are there any other hidden references? A better way to do it would have been to occasionally dub Spock in with the crowd on the Promenade. Have a Vulcan walking by off to the side, out of the way, and it's really archive footage of Leonard Nimoy as Spock from one of the movies.

Who said anything about her body, or at least the lower half? When she asked Data if he was capable of physical intimacy... those of you who are under 18, don't click on the link, but

I don't mean to get crude, but y'all are talking about it, and that's my interpretation. I don't believe there was any intimacy beyond the scene in question, however.

 

I'm not sure I'd say Data was "traumatized". He's an android. I realize they've done a lot to push his humanity, but at the end of the day, he's still running a computer program to keep his body running and his positronic brain functional. Unless his emotional chip includes trauma subroutines as well, but that's kind of pushing it.

I watched First Contact again (I'm watching them backwards now - X, IX, VIII...) to see what all the hype was about. I still don't particularly care for the Borg aspect (though I did when it first came out) but what worked for me in FC was the whole idea of witnessing First Contact with the Vulcans, and how Lily was able to smack some sense into Picard. I had a couple problems with it, but I'll make that into another post if I think up enough points against it.

 

Did it occur to anyone else that the Sona were part of the Dominion? That's right... the connection is not made officially in the movie, but Riker says that they are known for making the narcotic Ketracel (sp?) White. The first dozen or so times I watched this, the reference went right over my head. But I hadn't watched any DS9 at the time. Now that I have, I know that the White is what the Jem'hadar need to live, and that it was very hard to replicate in the Alpha Quadrant. But the Sona, with their enhanced mental abilities, were able to figure it out, like they were able to figure out the Collector, when the "Federation's best scientific minds" couldn't. So it never comes out and says the Sona are Dominion, but if you put two and two together, it becomes apparent. Is this in dispute?

 

So if the Sona are Dominion, they are NOT a third-rate race; their ships are not third-rate. The Federation had plenty of problems with the Dominion on DS9. Granted, the Enterprise-E is the most advanced ship in the fleet (so says Geordi LaForge in First Contact, anyway), but like I said, they're pushovers in any fight. So I see no problem with the Enterprise's handling of the Sona in the nebula fight.

Well toilets are something left out of TV shows as a matter of taste. As far as I know, we have no idea whatsoever how people in the 24th century take care of business. They do have bathrooms in the quarters, and I've seen a sonic shower once, but we have to assume there are toilets in there, and they probably read books or magazines or ship-duty stuff on those flat pads while they're on the john. It's just not covered because covering it would be tasteless, even in a novel. The only way they could approach it would be like a joke, someone from our time (in a time-travel episode, or holodeck) asking if bathrooms have improved much in the last 4 centuries.

 

I concede, the source I quoted is questionable. IMDb is a good resource, but they're very flawed. I found this fact in question, and also another one... They say that director Kevin Smith was going to call his new movie "Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks" but cut the subtitle because of the "South Park" episode "The Passion of the Jew". And that's all that they say about that. Umm... what about the Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ" on which both (Clerks and South Park) titles are based? I think IMDb's trivia is written by its members... or monkeys. In any case, they're not official. Some even contradict or repeat in different wording. So perhaps the bit about an ATM in Quark's bar is based upon an assumption. In any case, the Federation doesn't have a monetary system - this has been explained in the movies "The Voyage Home" and "First Contact" and has not, as far as I know, been repealed by any canonical source. (The Federation people on DS9 do have credit, but this has been theorized that it is in exchange for the shopkeepers' nonexistent rent payments they would be making if the Federation did use money.)

I've seen it for a while. Some of the favorites have it... I have an "STFN" folder with links to my favorite forums. I believe the ones that don't have the icon haven't been visited from that link since I last reformatted my computer. But the icon does appear to the left of the address bar and on the tabs.

 

*hiss* at the partial screenshot of MS Internet Exploiter...

there is another IE "browser" called crazy browser or silly browser (i dunno if this link is it.. i din't click the link)

 

Personally, i hate IE.. i only use it to go to the microsoft.com update site.. which is.. NEVER!

No, the link is to a Firefox extension called IE Tab, which uses the MSIE rendering engine within a Firefox tab to display MSIE only sites within Firefox. Within an IE Tab, none of the page-specific extensions (like BBCode and Adblock) have any effect... it's like MSIE in a tab, literally. This is no magic trick... MSIE is designed to be used in this way. Winamp for example is one program that does the exact same thing.

 

Crazy Browser (see crazybrowser.com) is an MSIE front-end. I can tell you that just by looking at it. Firefox with IE Tab on all the time would be an IE frontend, it's the same idea. A new browser, in fact based on MSIE, that does a few more things. Other MSIE frontends people use are called Maxthon and MyIE 2. Both of these as well as Crazy Browser, as well as IE Tab, are all vulnerable to MSIE's vulnerabilities - that's why with IE Tab, you only want to use it on trusted sites. If you do not like Firefox and you still want an alternative to MSIE, I strongly recommend Opera. It used to be paid or ad-supported, but now the ad-free paid version is free and the ad-supported version is no more. Opera has a ton of features MSIE and Firefox lack. MSIE to Firefox to Opera is like Notepad to Wordpad to Microsoft Word 2003. Opera is LOADED with stuff. But it doesn't block ads and as far as I know it doesn't do BBCode, though I haven't tried it recently.

Insurrection was at least better than Nemesis. Nemesis did have its moments... the Scimitar was a cool ship, the ATV scene, the Enterprise collision scene, flying the shuttle in the Scimitar's corridors... it had its moments, but I thought Insurrection was the superior film. As far as weak villains, I never did like Shinzon. The Sona had the whole revenge thing going for them... Shinzon just had an identity crisis or something. (And he looked nothing like Picard, but for the fact that both men were bald, so the whole clone aspect bothered me.)

 

Is every Starfleet admiral corrupt? Not Admiral Janeway. :( What other film had a corrupt Admiral? Oh yeah, The Undiscovered Country. How cool was that? Not very... that Admiral's treachery was only just mentioned, they didn't really go into it, and it wasn't much of a surprise. Admiral Dougherty's trek from the slightly corrupt but well meaning admiral to the really corrupt admiral was done much better. I won't argue that Undiscovered Country was or wasn't a better movie... that's not the point. (In my opinion, they're on equal footing, each good for its own reasons.)

 

Oh, and it didn't take the Baku 300 years to make the blanket, either. The blanket was made by students, who are on their way to taking their place among the artists. That's what was said about the blanket. In 300 years the Baku woman never learned how to swim and never married. And who's to say that's not paradise? Those people were living a simple life by choice and they were loving it. That their homeworld is the most beautiful world in a Trek film yet has not been disputed, so I'd say they did have paradise.

 

I can understand why some of you might not be comfortable with humor in Trek films. The episodes didn't have much humor. Some did, but a lot of it was the same. Like Data always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, or rather the right thing at the wrong time. Or Worf getting frustrated, just being a Klingon on a Federation ship. Generations and First Contact, and Nemesis, but mostly Insurrection, really pushed the comedy. I thought it made for a more well-rounded movie experience. Remember, these films aren't quite as serious as the episodes, they're made to make money at the box office, and so, they want to appeal to the most people possible, including non-Trekkies who need something beyond what makes Trek a great franchise, by which to enjoy the film. Those of us who like Trek for what it is may have a hard time seeing that, but despite having seen all of DS9 and Voyager and most of TNG, and all the movies, I consider myself a movie lover more than a Trekkie, and Insurrection is a heck of a good movie.

 

For me, the order of TNG films would go Insurrection / First Contact / Generations / Nemesis. It would be hard to integrate the Kirk movies into that, because they were so different. But I will say that Star Trek IV is one of my favorite movies of all time, and easily my favorite Trek film. The Wrath of Kahn is below that, but not far below... and yes, I do prefer TWOK to Insurrection. But as far as TSFS, TFF, and TUC, I can't say where I'd place them in my "list". Too many tough choices.

I had the Apocalypse Now Redux, but it was one that I had left in California when I moved. I had never seen the original, saw the Redux and it was just OK. War movies are really hit-and-miss with me, so it's not that it was a bad movie or anything, just not my thing. :(

Dominion War? Didn't Picard or someone say, in the Turbolift on the way down to Ten Forward, that negotiations with the Dominion were underway? This would put Star Trek IX at the end of Deep Space Nine. The Dominion is no threat anymore. Besides, we didn't see a single Sovereign-class ship in the Dominion War. I was looking. So that there has me confused... if the Enterprise-D was already a junkpile on Veridian III and Picard had the Enterprise-E, and as Geordi says in First Contact, it's the most advanced ship in the fleet... why WASN'T it in the Dominion War?

 

Starfleet didn't send the Enterprise to the Briar patch. Picard disobeyed orders again and went there in Data's defense. They were supposed to be going to some archaelogical dig or some other mundane task.

 

First Contact was OK, but I actually preferred Insurrection. I liked the Borg a lot more in Voyager. Their coolness in First Contact, to me, was limited to their initial broadcast ("We are the Borg..."). That sounded cool, but after that they were just rather annoying. I used to like them a lot more, but it's since worn off.

I have IE Tab, but STFN looks fine for me. What doesn't display properly is of little consequence for what I do. IE Tab serves other purposes. ^_^

 

A couple other tips for Firefox users here: BBCodeXtra is an extension which adds helpful tools to the context (right-click) menu. Highlight a word in the reply or fast-reply form, right click on it, choose BBCode, and you have a world of options. My favorite use... I'll highlight, right-click, Copy a URL, then type some text, highlight, right-click, BBCodeXtra, Clipboard, Make Selection URL. It's a heck of a time saver.

 

If you're on Dialup, perhaps you know that with any Invision-powered board such as this one, you can go into My Controls and disable Signatures, Images, and Avatars. That's what I've done. Well, another extension will further help here... Adblock. That's right... I don't know if ads are used here or not... I don't see ads. Ever. But what I'm talking about is blocking the board image. It's not that big a deal, but every page load, it loads a new banner... The page loads a little faster if I block it. To do so, just add the following to your adblock filter:

http://www.startrekfans.net/random/random_image.gif

And if you'd like to learn how to block every ad on the Net, or at least 99% of them, read my blog post on blocking ads. It goes into how, as well as the consequences of doing so (don't worry, it's perfectly legal). And just so we're clear... the random images are cool, some of them are really nice... it's just I'm on Walmart's AOL service, and I cut corners where I can to get to the actual content quicker. :(

I'm just getting into wrestling on TV. I never cared for it much, but my girlfriend is a big fan. Every other week I have both Monday and Friday off, so I watch RAW and Smackdown at her sister's (we don't have TV) and tell her what happened when she gets home, or the next morning. :(

 

Her sister's boyfriend has WWE WrestleMania 21 on the Xbox. If you don't already have it, avoid it like the plague! This thing skips like a pirated PC game running on a system with half the required specs. I went to create a new career wrestler, and it crashed. So you can only do one-time matches... supposedly you press the white button and the direction the other guy is during a tag team match, to tag your partner... Neither he or I could get it to work. We were on the same team, against the computer... and every time I got in the ring, the ref would chase me out... yet the CPU's second character could get in and team up on my brother-in-law. I could fight outside the ring, if I could get the other guy on the ropes out there. No, you can't pull him off the ropes... he has to come down willingly. When all four of us were out of the ring, in the same area, the camera stayed way back, so all the characters were tiny. It could have zoomed in, gave us a better look. I tried a bra-and-panties match, and it said you hold B to get the other girl in a grapple, and then B + direction to tear her top off... all that did was drag her around the ring. Utterly trashy, untested game... do not get it. I remember playing an old Wrestlemania game on the original Nintendo, with Hulk Hogan (before he was Hollywood), Andre The Giant (RIP), Million Dollar Man, and a bunch of others. This was really old school. I wasn't very good at it, but at least it was a good game, it worked right.

Indeed, I did. I did not watch the entire episode. I stopped somewhere in the first part. I don't remember it at all... just that the Vulcans were a little more condensending towards the humans. And that it didn't really impress me.

 

I think I was expecting too much of it to give it a fair chance.

Well, to answer the first reply, I am very much in love (and my first love, so I'm sure some of you know how that is) but I still feel an attraction to the Vulcan way of life. Tuvok loved his wife and his children, he did have the emotions, but he simply didn't let it interfere with his life and his duties. I thought it was very inspiring how he could detach himself from being separated from them, as there is nothing he could do about that, but do his best to ensure that they all get home alive.

 

Being that I haven't watched the original series, Tuvok is really the Vulcan that I know. Spock is my favorite Vulcan, but only from the movies. I would watch TOS just for Spock (and McCoy), but I haven't got them, nor do I have high-speed Internet, so I'll have to hold off on that goal for now.

 

I do have some of the emotional detachment of a Vulcan. I don't get emotional at movies, and I've never cried over the loss of a family member. It's not that I don't care, and it's not that I'm not saddened by their loss, it's just that I'm not prone to emotional outbursts. I just wish I had the rigid logic and honesty of a Vulcan. I'm not dishonest, but I have been known to stretch the truth, or omit things... Granted, Spock's able to do this as well, but to be able to state the exact truth without thinking of how people will "take it"... I don't think that's a bad thing.

 

Heh... if I were a Vulcan, I'd have the discipline to excercise and lose weight too!