What is On Jeffs' Mind

A few weeks back, I got all my books sorted out and picked up on my reading again. I had been reading very consistently earlier in the year, but when the move came, I stopped, and was never able to get it back on track again. Reading at time for me is like exercising, in that I can get into a rythme and do it, but once I fall off, takes some effort to get back on. I really do like reading, and it was not that I wanted to stop, but for whatever reason, it took awhile to pick it back up.

I really like reading Star Wars and Star Trek books, to the point that those are really the only ones I read. I guess for me, I just like the thought of continuing in a universe that I am very familar with. The stories I really enjoy, and at times I find them much more deeper then what we have seen on Movie or TV screens. Another reason for me, is that I find it much easier to get into these books, as I know all the characters and situations so well. Some times with other books, not based off any particular series, I struggle to really understand the environment and the characters, since I don’t have a frame of reference to start with.

Not to say that I would not like to stray from Star Wars and Star Trek books, and try something different. I hope if I can keep up with my reading, that my skills will get better, and maybe at some point I can give something else a try. I really like series based books more so with Stand Alone books. I have read a few Star Wars and Star Trek stand alone books, but just prefer the series based books. I like the idea that the stories continue to grow and there is a flow from one book to the next.

So far I have been doing well, since picking up books again on late October, I have read 2 Star Trek books, the last 2 in the Destiny 3 part series, a great series I really enjoyed. Right now I am read the second book in the Coruscant Nights series, and will probably read the 3rd when I am finished to complete that series. After that I got another Star Trek Titan book to read, Star Wars the Force Unleashed novelization and a Star Wars 501st troopers book. I have been trying to put in at least a hour a day with reading, and there are so many great stories I want to read, hopefully I can pickup my pace.

Tags: Reading, Star Trek, Star Trek Destiny, Star Trek Titan, Star Wars, Star Wars Coruscant Nights

The past few months I have been so busy with moving, I have had to put my geek habits to the side. I must admit it has been hard to do, and felt that I could only really watch from the sidelines. This weekend I did some work around the house getting things organized and unpacked, and I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am hoping when fall comes, I might have a bit more time. That might sound odd as it is summer, but I haven’t really taken any vacation this year. I have some banked time from OT plus my regular Vacation days to use up in the 4th quarter.

This weekend was fairly productive. Tao tao and her mom went on a trip to Vancouver, so I have been home alone for most of the week. I did not get much done earlier in the week, as I had work to do. But the weekend I was able to get to some things. I setup my Stereo and got a lot of things cleared out my TV room, so it is nice to have everything setup now. I watched some DVD’s in the evenings, so started feeling more like I was home. On Saturday I set to work on getting my office organized. With a little bit of thought, I was able to get all my desks into the office, and be able to move around easily. There are still a few odd things left to do, but at least things are out of the way. My Dad came over today to help me with a problem with my Bathtub Faucet in the main bathroom. We thought it was going to be a big task, but in the end, it was just tightening a screw on the faucet know. Thanks to my Dad, I probably would have never figured it out and called a plumber.

In September and October I am going to start painting some rooms. The colours in the bedrooms are pretty dark, so I want to repaint them and brighten them up. I will have to think of a good colour for them.  I am bouncing some things around in my head, but most likely it will be something neutral and brighter. After I am done with the Bedrooms, I can set one up with all my clothes, and my bookshelves as well. My office I will need to paint as well, since it is a bright Yellow, but it is not to bad, but probably something I will wait until the Winter to paint.

The room that I am most anxious to get done is the basement. I have all my collectibles down there right now, but want to do some renovations so that I can expand it a bit. As well the there is a room down there with a chocolate brown colour, which I want to paint to a neutral color as well. Once I am don’t that, then I can get to work setting my collectibles up. I am really eager to do that, so to have to wait, it making it tough. I will go down stairs and try to visualize what it might look like and where things will go.

I am hoping soon that I can get back to more geeky type things I like to do. Such as working on my Websites, my podcasts and to start back with plastic models that I haven’t been able to do for the past few years. I see other people doing fun things, and I feel a bit frustrated that I can’t do those things as well. All I can do is enjoy what they are doing, and motivate myself to get the things I need done completed. The hardest part is done the moving, no things are starting to fall into place, so I should start seeing more time to pursue some other things I haven’t been able for awhile.

On Saturday, I bought myself a couple models as motivation. I have plenty of others as well, but I bought these to Battlestar Galactica models as a bit of a carrot to keep me inspired to get the renovations done.

Here are some Pictures I took this morning of my house. Hopefully over time I will have some more. The toy room will be the one I will want to get sone and pictures taken

Tags: Battlestar Galactica, Dad, Moving, Plumbing, Tao tao

After a real long delay, this is the followup to a post I made on my top 10 favorite Star Trek characters part 1, here is Part 2. This is the final 5 characters in my list of my favorite characters. After I have listed them, I will followup with why some did not make the list.

 Captain Benjamin Sisko – Deep Space Nine

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Another reason why I liked Captain Benjamin Sisko was that over the series, his character really grew. He started out as a commander like I mentioned, but he was promoted through out the series. He became a very important person in the Dominion Wars, and helped starfleet and the federation in that war. Captain Sisko always seemed like a really down to earth captain, and one that I could see myself serving under easily.

The Doctor – Voyager

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The Doctor had a bit of an abrasive attitude at time, but that was probably what I liked a lot about him, was that attitude, as it never got boring to me. I think that Robert Picardo who played the character did a great job, as that sort of attitude could wear thin on people, but he made sure not to over do it in my opinion. In later seasons they really started to show a more human element to the Doctor, as he explored more elements of that character. I think matching him up a lot with the Borg 7 of 9 was a great idea as well, as they explored aspects of humanity together. The mobile emitter that the Doctor got in the series really helped expand the character a lot, as it got him out of Sick Bay, and gave more chances for the show to do more with the Character, and some of the later episodes proved that. I got to meet Robert Picardo a few years ago at a comic convention for a few minutes, and got my picture taken with him. He seemed a lot like the characters he plays on TV so that was cool.

Charles Tucker III (Trip) – Enterprise

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Over the course of the series, the Trip character went through a lot, and arguably was the character that may have grown the most. His character was given some pretty good stories, most likely because the actor Connor Trinnear did such a great job with the role. For an engineer, he was a pretty cool guy as well, and came across very beleivable in the role. At the end of the series, I was really saddened with what happened to the character, and really left an empty feeling with me on the series coming to the end. If the series had continued for another season, from what I read, things would not have been so final for the character. They have expanded on his character in the books following the series, but it still leaves me a bit sad, I would love to see the character in his familiar role as Chief Engineer on Enterprise

Geordie Laforge – The Next Generation

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A lot of things in Geordie I relate to. Off course there are some obvious difference from me and the character, but some of the challenges he went through, I also had, like meeting ladies. A few times throughout the series they showed Geordie lack of luck with the ladies, and then the episodes with Leah Brahms (Holographic and Real) seemed very well done as well. Another thing I liked about the Geordie character was that he had such a positive attitude, and seemed like a very good motivator to the people he worked under. I could see myself working under a person like him, as he was such a likable person.

Captain Jonathan Archer – Enterprise

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I have been watching a lot of Enterprise lately, and I have been very impressed with the Captain Archer character. Each episode I like him more and more. I will admit, when I first heard that Scott Bakula had been cast in the role, I had my doubts, as I was thinking a lot of his previous role in Quantum Leap. I did not see how he could carry off the role of Captain, but pretty much by the start, I really bought into the character. I liked how they Character started off as a pretty easy going guy, but could get Angry when he had to. In the later seasons, they added a bit of an edge to his character that I thought was great. Captain Archer was pushed into to some situations, where he had to really become a different person, ruthless at times. You could see in his character that he did not like doing it, but had to do it for the good of the mission and for Earth. It always bothered me how many people put down the series, and said Star Trek had grown stale, but I have to disagree with them. Enterprise and Captain Archer were a great combination, and a lot of people have gone back and re-watched the series and said how much they enjoyed it. To bad more people did not do that well it was in its first run, as it would have been nice to see the series get a proper finish.

People I left off

There are probably some characters that people are asking why I left off. I guess it was a of 10, so not everyone can be on it. People may ask what about more of the Original crew. TOS is one of my favorite series, and I like so many of the Characters, but for me, at the end of the day, it was all about Kirk, as I mentioned. My favorite Episodes where ones with a lot of Kirk. I liked Spok and McCoy as well, but they always seemed secondary to Kirk for me, they complimented him very well. I guess as well, I was never as fascinated with Spock as others were, maybe I found some of the Vulcan back story to be a bit dry.

People might ask about Captain Picard and Captain Janeway. It took me a long time to really get to like Captain Picard, probably into the 3rd season before I really started to like him. I guess I found some of his hangups at the start of the series to make his seem a bit aloof, and even though he loosened up quite a bit through the series, there was still always an element of that. Captain Janeway was probably my least favorite Captain. I did like that she was as hard as nails when she had to be, but throughout the series, I questioned a few of her decisions, especially around the Borg and an agreement she made. I would think overtime serving with her, I would probably grow to respect her, but there were still elements I did not really care for.

Other people like Commander Riker, I thought he was alright, but at times put off by him, as I felt maybe a bit to much arrogance. I thought Worf was alright, but maybe to laid back for what I felt a Klingon should be. Dax I had a problem at times believing she had some many lifetimes in her, and found her character at times hard to nail down. But for the most part, most of the characters in Star Trek I grew to really like, so it was hard to make this list of 10.

Tags: Captain Archer, Captain Sisko, Charles Tucker III - Trip, DS9, Enterprise, Geordie Laforge, Star Trek, TNG, TOS, Voyager

This past weekend was a a lot of fun and geeky. I have been looking forward to this weekend for the past few months. It took a little bit of effort to make sure I did not have Overtime work, but my weekend was successfully cleared.

On Saturday, my friend Jason had his DVD Launch and Edmonton premier of his documentary Pegwarmers. He had it downtown Edmonton in the Public Library’s Theatre, and it was a way for him to thank the people in Edmonton area who were involved with the documentary. Turn out was ok, could have been a few more people, but the people who did show up were very enthusiastic. It was really cool to see Pegwarmers on a large screen and the final finished version. I had seen it a few times before, but only on TV and missing a couple shots. This weekend was also the release of the DVD, and was sold at the Edmonton Collectible Toy and Comic show on Sunday. The DVD will also be on sale at the upcoming Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo on April 25 & 26. The DVD can also be bought online at the Official Pegwarmers site.

On Sunday, for the second year in a row, I attended the Edmonton Collectible Toy and Comic show as a seller. The past few years I have been thinning out my collection, and the toy show is a great place to do that. I really like this show, as it gives me a chance to meet up with collecting friends, and see what they are up to. Dave and I shared a table again this year, and I had my doubts I would have much, but we filled it up. I had some toys that I did not sell last year, that I brought again, as well as some other stuff that I did not bring previously. It was mostly Star Wars items, but I did have a few Star Trek Items as well. I sold off a bunch of my action figures that I had no longer wanted, plus some loose ships. Last year Dave had sold some Loose ships, and they went very quickly, this year was pretty much the same as I had them sold within the first hour of the show. Dave had brought a lot of his boxed ships, and some hard to find ones like the Tie Bomber and a POTJ AT-ST, and was able to sell those as well. All and all it was a good day for both of us, and did not have to bring back to much.

I found that it felt good to sell some of this stuff. Some of my figures I sold for very cheap, and it was a lot of fun to see the kids dig through the box looking for characters like Han and Chewie. I think Chewie might have been the one the kids were looking for the most, as I had a few kids asking for them. I had a 12 inch Boba Fett figure I sold, and I felt good selling it to a collector, as I knew it would be going to a good home, as they buyer looked excited to buy it. That is what makes the show fun to sell at, as I recall when I used to find something, how excited I would get, and it is nice that I am able to do that for someone else. I guess as well, it is cool to see all the parents with their kids, and the excitement and the passion the kids have for it. It amazes me how Star Wars spans so many generations, as the youngest of kids, to Teens to Twentysomething and us older people are all still into it. But looking at all the kids that came past my table, I know Star Wars and all this geek stuff like Star Trek and Superheroes are going to be around for a long time.

It was fun to meet up with some of my collector friends as well, which I had not seen in quite sometime. I saw my friend Bob, he had a lot of stuff to sell, and one of the greatest people I have met in collecting circles. I cannot count how many times Bob has helped me out in the past, and he has a lot of knowledge on collecting. I also saw my friend Dale, he also knows a lot of stuff, and he is my Kubrick hookup, so I am hoping I see him again in the next few months when the next series comes out. Jesse from BC was there helping out Dale, and nice to talk with him about what he has been up to the past year. I was talking to my friend Ryan, who run’s Red 5 Collectibles, he was telling Dave and I the story of how his van caught fire two blocks from the convention centre, and all his merchandise was in it. Fortunately only the Van was damaged, and he was able to sell at the show. I also ordered a 1/6 scale Stormtrooper from him, which I will pickup at the Calgary show next month.

Here are a few pictures I took just before the Doors opened on Sunday

Dave and My table, Lots of stuff to sell. The Comic book guy behind us was complaining a bit as he thought we took up to much space, but we were not, as the shelf was on our side

Dave getting Ready to sell

Me in my Treks in Sci-Fi shirt getting ready to sell some stuff

Looking down one of the Isles, Many tables with Lots of Toys and other really cool things. Ando and the Voice of General Grievous were at the show as well, but I never got a chance to get up to see them.

Jason getting ready to sell the Pegwarmers DVD. That is Paul’s TV in the back ground, The artwork for the DVD is really cool. Jason made up some cool T-Shirts as well

Tags: Pegwarmers, Toy Show

Last night was the final BSG of the Ron Moore re-imaged series. To be honest, I was not really sure what I was feeling after it had ended. Probably the feeling I was feeling most was disappointment, but not really sure why. I spent some time after reading peoples posts on forums, and they were heaping a lot of praise the final episode, but for me, I was just not feeling the same as others. There were some nagging thoughts in my head, and how some things unfolded did not feel satisfying to me. Sleeping on it, and reading some more this morning, has changed my perspective somewhat, and I am more satisfied with the finale now.

Spoilers below, some buffer space in case you do not want them

Really like the Galactica, great ship. The episodes that stand out the most for in the series are the ones where the Galactica shepherds the fleet through difficult places

Like in the Original, the relationship between Apollo and Adama was an important one for me. Even though it was not as cordial as in the Original, I could tell the Apollo and Adama cared for each a lot, and even when they were at odds, the son and father relationship was still there.

Apollo/Lee was my favorite character on the series. I really liked the qualities that the character had, and would be ones that I would like to have. He stuck to his beliefs, even if they went against his fathers and the presidents. I liked Lee the most in his pilots role, and weird to say, that I missed him a bit when he left the military and went into politics.

Spoilers ahead, I tried to warn you…

Before the finale they had an 1 hour special, and went through the series, talk with the actors, the creators, production people and network execs. The only thing I really pulled out of it, is that I felt at times maybe the people working on this, took it far to seriously. I can never really understand why some actors seem to have a fear of something that is Sci-Fi related. Some of the actors stated that since it was Sci-Fi, they were not sure if they wanted to do it, and that they wanted it to be more then what is typically found in a Sci-Fi show. I guess some of those statements disappointed me a bit, maybe this show will help change some peoples mind about the genre, but even if a show is not as deep and thought provoking as this one, it should not be dismissed just because it is Sci-Fi. I do hope some of these actors appear in other genre work, as I think they have a lot to add.

The first part of the finale dealt with some flashbacks of Caprica, and I did not really care for them. This second part continued on with them. I must say, I really did not care for the scenes with Tigh and Adama in the strip club. It just took me out of the show, maybe just to real world for me, not sci-fi enough. I really hated the scene later where Adama is outside the club puking on himself, I found myself smirking and laughing at the scene. The scenes with Roslin and the younger man I did not like as well, just made me feel less about the character, and I think at this point of the series, those types of scenes don’t really add much. I could have done with none of the Caprica scenes, none of them really added anything for me, maybe they added them in to promote the new series Caprica coming out. I would have preferred to stay in the present, as none of those story lines did anything for me, and did not care about any of them.

The confrontation between Galactica and Cavil and the Cylons was fantastic. I really liked that they mixed the Old School Cylons and the New School Cylons, such a great visual. The shots of them running down the halls were great. The differences between the two were cool, as the older style were clumsy and awkward, and the newer ones much more graceful in their moves. The scenes when Galactica fist arrived at the colony were great as well, I just marvelled at how much the Galactica could take in terms of an assault, and then to take the ship and ram into the colony was so cool. I did wish that there would have been more scenes with Vipers and Raiders doing battle, as I have always loved those scenes in both series.

My one little grievance with the battle, was I felt they were able to save Hera a little to easily. Basically Boomer had a change of heart, and returned Hera to Helo and Athena. It was a nice touch that she did it to pay back Adama, and she knew it was her last act. But after that exchange it seemed a little to easy for the rescuers to return back to Galactica. When they reached Galactica, and they started showing scenes of Roslin looking for Hera, I knew that it would tie in with the Opera scenes, and that Baltar and Six would actually be saving her, and not taking her away. When I first saw the Opera Scenes a few years ago, I was interested to see how that played out. It might not have been a real wow moment in the finale for me, when that scene was explained, but it did tie in nicely. It was nice to see Baltar and Six redeemed to a certain degree, and that they were not villainous as the Opera scene may have alluded to.

The show sort of slowed down for me when they reached Earth. It felt sort of like the last Lord of the Rings movie, with multiple endings, and me just wondering when we would get to the actual conclusion. The scene with Kara and Lee was nice, and even though I was a bit disappointed the way they handled Kara, that was a nice way to bring her to an end. I sort of went to bed unsatisfied with that story, but sleeping on it, and the explanation that she was an angel, and that her work was done is ok with me. The explanation that Head Six and Head Baltar are angels as well is ok with me. Maybe not a real startling revelation, but seems to fit in with the story. How it relates with God as we know him, I am still thinking about it, and most likely will discuss with my friend Rick,as I am sure he will have some great in-site to it. If I look at the Original series for some idea, I might think of Kara/Head Six/Head Baltar as maybe similar to the Beings of Light that the original crew encountered. I sort of figured as well, that when they did find Earth, that it would be in the past, and it is sort of cool, that we have Cylon in us .

Probably the scene that made me smile the most, was when they sent the fleet into the sun. The homage to the Original series, and the music in the back ground was very moving for me being a Original series fan. It was a great scene, and it might be the one I remember most from the finale.

So over all, even though after I watched the episode, I was disappointed, with some sleep, I feel more satisfied with it. There was no real big twists, or anything that made me fall out of my seat well watching. But for the most part it wrapped things up in a nice manner. Great series, looking forward to some of the other series that will be spun from this. Probably gets me really excited for another re-imaging of the Original that has been rumored.

Tags: Battlestar Galactica, BSG, Galactica

Over the weekend, I started working on a Podcast Idea that I started up over a year ago. At the time, I decided I would do a podcast that would review all the collectibles and toys that I have acquired over the years. I produced my first podcast, but for different reason (mostly work) it got dropped. After some self reflection based off my post from last week, I have decided to start it up again. Actually it had been bouncing around in my head a bit for the past month or so, but I finally sat down and started working on it again. This time I decided that I will lay the ground work of the website first, and then I will get to recording the next batch of Podcasts.

This weekend I started working on the building the website. After some thought, I decided to use WordPress as the website software, as I did not need to use a CMS type program for this. The Podcast is called Whats in Jeff’s Basement, and the URL is www.jedijeff.ca/wijb. It is still a Work in progress, but the core of the site is there. I am still debating the site color, as I would like to use blue, but not sure if that is the shade I really want to use or not. The header graphic needs to be updated, since it is still the default of the template, when I start taking pictures, I will update it. I will also add it to an iTunes feed, but want to get the Podcast graphic/logo done.

The first podcast I have renamed Episode I – The Phantom Block People. Even though at the time I did not call it that, I have decided that each of my podcast would have a fun name or theme to it. The first review is for series 8 Star Wars Kubricks based of Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace. I have planned out the next two podcasts. Episode II – Attack of the Mini-Bust Clones and Episode III – By Your Command: The Next Generation. For Episode 5 of the Podcast, it will be something based off of my favorite movie, so check back for that. As well, from time to time I am going to throw some other fun things up on the site and the feed. They will be toy and geek related, and I think I have some pretty cool ideas. One of my earlier posts on my blog gives a little bit of a hint of what I am thinking for these.

A few other small things. I read a bizarre story this morning about a man in Winnipeg. He had a toy prop in his house, and he had a service person come to his house to do some work. Later he was reported to the police, and they busted in and cuffed him over the prop. Makes me think about the props I have at my house, and I will have to be careful who I show them to, as I would hate for someone to jump to the same conclusion as what happened to the fellow in the story. Never was something I had ever thought about, but I could see where some people may view some of these props as the real things.

I also read a story over the weekend about the wrestler Test who used to wrestle in the WWE, who had passed away at the age 33. Very sad news and reminds me why I do not watch wrestling anymore. The business seems to be very hard, and for me I just did not like the guilt of watching something where peoples lives were lost in tragedies. They had given everything to entertain me at the disregard of their own well being. I am not going to get into any debate of the evils or wrestling, or even judge anyone for watching it, as this is just my personal view, and it is neither right or wrong, just my view. I guess all I will say, is that these Wrestlers deserve to make a lot more money then they do, and have better regulations and unions to protect them, like in other professional sports.