What is On Jeffs' Mind

Today is my last day of my Vacation, and tomorrow it is back to work for me. Overall I am pretty happy with how my vacation went. I felt I got a lot accomplished around my house. I got a few rooms painted, and the basement development started. I kept fairly busy throughout , but it was nice to be busy with something other then my job. I feel refreshed enough to go back to work, and feel like I have had some time to unwind. The regular work day dos not bother me much just the extra hours that is really what drains me, I guess all I can hope for is that there is not a lot of Overtime left for the year and maybe things slow down a bit. If not it is really up to m to just push it back and handle what I feel I reasonably can.

This week my friend Rick sent me a cool CD he just finished working on called Stargazer. It is some music that he has composed that is meant to be listened to well watching the stars at night. There are 13 songs on the CD, each very unique with a different theme or feeling to it. Rick has also gathered some great audio clips from different space missions and included them with the music. It gives you a real sense that you are on a journey through our galaxy. I think my favorite song on his CD is one called Greetings, it has a great beat, and the organ sound he uses sounds so space age. Rick told me about this project a few months back, so I am amazed how he was able to write and record the music, and then get the CD created and distributed so quickly. This is really an inspiration to myself to maybe work a bit more on some of my own projects with a bit more focus and passion. To check out Ricks Stargazer CD, check it out at the official website for Stargazer.

I still have some more renovations to complete, and getting my basement complete will probably be my major project for the remainder of the year. I am really excited to get to painting it, and a few other finishing touches. Then I can start setting up my collection, that is going to be a lot of fun. Once that is done, I can start on some of my other hobbies such as model building again, I am really looking forward to that. I have quite a few models I have collected over the years, just waiting to be done.

I have to give a big thanks to my friend Dave as well. He helped me out big time on Saturday, as the battery in my car had died, and he came over and boosted it for me. After he helped me take some old paint cans to be disposed. Then to the mall where he pointed out the Diamond Select Back to the Future II Delorean Time Machine, that I picked up. Dave got the Diamond Star Trek II Wrath of Khan phaser, looks really cool, looks of cool settings and sounds.

Tags: Back to the Future II, Dave, Home Renovations, Phaser, Rick Moyer, Star Trek II Wrath of Khan, Stargazer

This weekend I picked up the new the Communicator, Tricorder and Phaser toys for the new Star Trek movie coming out in May. They are made by playmates, and have electronic elements to them. I had first saw them at Toys R Us, but they were priced at $25.00 each. I felt that was a bit expensive. Later in the day I was at Zellers, and saw them for $20 each, and felt that was more reasonable. Here is a very brief review of each. I will do a further review at a later date for my collecting podcast.

Communicator – A nice little device, but not quite a cool as the TOS communicator. It has 3 sounds, a sound when you open it, and then sound clips from the movie for Spock and Kirk. It comes with a Holster as well, but I really doubt they use anything like that in the movie. The face plate has the Delta symbol on it, and when you open it up it has a UFP emblem. With a click flick of the wrist, it opens up easily.

Tricorder – This is a bit reminiscent of the Original series, where it opens up to show a display. It is a lot smaller then the TOS version as it will fit in the palm of your hand. This is just a toy, so I am not sure what scale it is compared to the prop. It makes a sound when you open it and, and another when you close it. It has two scanner buttons that have 3 sounds each, and it also has some flashing lights. I found the finishing on it to be a bit sloppy, as the decals are a bit uneven.

Phaser – This is my favorite of the three. It is silver plated and has two modes, stun and vaporize. You twist the barrel between the two modes, and each make a different sound. The stun sound is a bit weird, as it sounds like it is shorting out. There is also a switch at the top to change the level, and it lights up and makes a cool sound. The design is interesting and a cross between the TOS phaser and the assault phaser from Star Trek 5 and 6. I found this fits really nicely in your hand,actually nicer then the Art Asylum TOS phaser.

For $20 each, not bad, and they have enough electronic to have fun with. I hope in a few years that Art Asylum will make some toys, as I suspect they will be more closer to the real prop then these are. But for what they are, they did a decent job, except for the tricorder decals.

Tags: Communicator, Phaser, Star Trek, Tricorder