You're Problably Not a Trekkie if...

Have you seen the new Star Trek Movie yet??!! You haven't? Well let me tell you it's fracking awesome. I think I honestly experienced all possible human emotions in the first ten minutes of the movie save one: self righteous indignation. I saved that one for after the movie (which by the way was a total sausage fest as Matt and I went on the first night) when a little slip of the a thing teenage girl who had clearly been dragged to the film by her "crew" was heard saying "OMG I can't believe I'm a trekkie, Dr. Spock is like sooo Hot!". A heavy sigh and a huge eye roll was enough of a signal for Matt to quickly usher me away from the scene before things got ugly. And every day since has just gotten worse.

All of a sudden EVERYONE has decided that they are and have always been a trekkie. Tom Hanks on the Daily Show pretended that coffee cups were Vulcan ears, the NPR host interviewing J.J. Abrams used Star Trek and Star Wars interchangeably when describing his long standing fandom. THE SACRILEGE!! Yes, yes you're aware that the red shirt always dies, that Vulcans have green blood, that Bones will probably not be able to save the red shirt because: "He's dead Jim", it doesn't make you a trekkie. Being a trekkie I believe requires a certain base knowledge of Star Trek in all its incarnations combined with some sort of personalized entrance ritual, preferably including the use of pain sticks (see if you were a trekkie you would know what those were). Some examples of acceptable initiation rituals include:

• Proudly dressing up in your homemade Star Trek Uniform for Halloween, office parties, or just because you felt like it that day.
• Proudly dressing up in your authentic auction bought Star Trek Uniform for the same events.
• Using Star Trek as resource for school essay papers, or theatrical improvisational pieces.
• Having your first kiss in the Star Trek aisle of your local book store.
  

Not that you can't aspire to be a trekkie in fact one day soon with a little hard work you may well be a trekkie and you can have full fledged Trekkie experiences like:

• Driving for 3 hours to go to a comic con and then deciding you're too embarrassed to shake hands with Wil Wheaton.
• Getting married on the bridge of the Enterprise (oh noes! you waited to long they closed that Las Vegas attraction)
• Trying to rob a quik-e-mart with a bat'leth and getting shot.
  
• Dying in front of your new 42 inch flat screen tv while watching Star Trek on a loop (and not being found for three days)
  

I'm neither confirming nor disavowing any of the above experiences as my own but I will say that they all happened to someone, somewhere, sometime and with out a doubt they were trekkies.

Take That Cherry Blossoms!

Haha East-coasters! Spring has hit Portland at last! I made it down town this past weekend and caught the cherry blossoms in action this year. Last year I kept missing events for my ignorance of timing. It was about June when I wondered when the cherry blossoms that line the Japanese American Memorial downtown would bloom and nearly October when I wondered when the salmon run would occur. Ha! But this year I'm on top of it. I've caught the cherry blossoms and I'm keeping my fingers crossed on the salmon.

Mid-Afternoon Heart Attack

Me: Thank you for calling (....) , this is Gaby how can I help you?
Caller: Hi this is Steve from the Oregon STD Lab, is this Gaby?
Me: Yes, (oh god, oh god, I gave blood the other week, do they call you if they find something? Did they find something? It must be important they tracked down my work number. Why are they calling me? This can't be good. Fuck, fuck, Matt is so dead! ARGGG!) this is. How can I help you?
Caller: Your coworker Jim told us you handle our standing media order for TSA plates and I was wondering if you could help me find a price for an item.
Me: Oh yea, sure can! :::head hits desk:::

High brow humor

If you've ever lived in an apartment then you know that getting past tenants' mail is a frequent occurrence. Generally one scribbles "return to sender" and the letter is off on its merry way back into the ether of the US Postal system. Yesterday as I was riffling through the mail I got this lovely gem:



I immediately started laughing so Matt came over to investigate. He didn't see what was so funny. I responded "Matt that girl's name isn't pronounced Gina it's pronounced Jenna". So internets what do you think, real person or did someone just get a free "gift subscription" to Men's Health from their nether regions?

Hidden Internment

An interesting thing about living on the west coast is that I'm meeting alot more Japanese people and coincidentally enough I even work with another Japanese-Peruvian. A worker of mine who is Japanese-American recognized my last name as Japanese and was excited when he found out I was of Japanese-Peruvian heritage. Apparently his mother works with a group that worked to obtain reparations for interred Japanese-Peruvians and is working to keep memorials of this atrocity alive.

I wrote a little bit about this subject last year when I stopped by Chicago and visited with my Dad's cousin and his wife but unfortunately I don't know to much about the subject. What I do know are small stories that my dad told me of how he spent parts of his childhood hiding out by the beach in Peru to avoid being caught and extradited to America. I didn't really understand the extent of American involvement in rounding up Japanese in Latin American countries. My coworker was kind enough to give me a copy of this video and I wanted to share it with you. Please take a moment and watch it, pass it along, write a history paper for your class, just keep the memory alive.

UPDATE:
I corrected all my horrible spelling I should totally check that before I post. But more importantly I got a note from the creators of this film and they would like you to know that if you would like to buy a nice clean copy of this video please visit Progressive Films or if you need instant gratification you can buy a digital download at Amazon.

Vampire Kitties! Eeeeeeee!

I've been following the Buffy The Vampire Slayer -Season 8 comic book since it started coming out a couple of years ago. Closely supervised by the creator of the show, Joss Whedon, the comic book has been a delight and, super plus, considered canon. The comic series has been great. It expands on the characters of the show and takes us to places that wouldn't have been possible on a cable tv show budget. This next arc takes us to Japan that apparently seems to be seiged by vampire kitties!

Samorost

I found this cute little flash based game called Samorost. The perfect way to while away a Sunday afternoon (or Monday morning while avoiding work). It's the story of a little guy in a white bunny suit who has to save his little bit of world from an oncoming planetoid. The game has no directions; you just have to click around to figure out what the puzzles are and then click around some more to solve them. The artwork is gorgeous so at the very least you have something pretty to look at while you sit there stumped, clicking on goats.



I thought that the "no directions" thing would drive Matt insane but he impressively coped rather well. I on the other hand feel that more games should have no directions ('cause it can't be called cheating if there are no rules!). It took me about half an hour to complete so enjoy! (If you missed the link above you can also click here)