Month: May 2013

I love new Spock

Star Trek** Spoiler alerts!!! I am going to disclose spoilers for Star Trek Into Darkness. **

I have mentioned that I am a Science Fiction fan. So it should come as no surprise that I am a Star Trek fan. I watched the reruns of the original series, with William Shatner as Captain Kirk. I watched all the “based upon” series. I watched the movies, with the original cast and the “new generation.” Really, I even re-watch the ones I didn’t particularly enjoy.

I am a fan. So I identified Khan before my friend did, and I kept trying to see Dr. Carol Marcus (from the Wrath of Khan) in the accurately described “damsel” from this movie because I knew who she was. I knew what she’s going to accomplish, or supposed to accomplish. (By the way, there was no resemblance.)

The actors in Into Darkness were great. They did the best they could with what they had. I especially like the subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the characters, from McCoy and Uhura to Spock and Kirk. They have depth and passion and flaws that crack open in clichéd moments. The flaws often work as wonderful plot devices, they move the story along.

I hated that the “girls” were just girls. Uhura picks the worst time for a fight with her boyfriend. Marcus just keeps getting in the way and is no help whatsoever. That’s quite a come-down from the woman who created the Genesis project. And why exactly was she stripping down to her underwear?

I hated that they seemed to have combined two or three movies and tried to make one from it, unsuccessfully. There was too much going on. Too many plot twists. And I was disappointed that I could anticipate the biggest of them.

I would still recommend the movie. It’s a lot of fun. If you don’t pay too much attention to the plot (or don’t know the original well enough to make continued comparisons) you will enjoy it much more than I did.

And it’s Zachary Quinto as Spock, with a cameo from original Spock. Isn’t that enough?

Build your own sandbox

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katmere/117444001/I’d just finished telling a new acquaintance about a project I’d launched recently. It’s an English-language website with event and news for the Hispanic market in a very multicultural city. I explained how the target was chosen, the content strategy, and the goal of the site. I’m very pleased with the project. And I’m very emotionally invested in it.

This man I’d known for less than 15 minutes proceeded to tell me how dumb the name of the site was, that our plan to exclude political information was ridiculous, and that he believed that having the site in English-only was going to be too limiting. He grilled me on whether this topic or that topic was going to be added; I answered “no” to all his questions. And he scoffed at my explanations on how the decisions were made. In short, he told me that the site was doomed for failure.

It’s so nice to get expert opinions from non-experts.

I was polite. I told him that there were, in fact, many sites that already covered the topics that he was mentioning. I explained that the focus of the site I’d launched was “good news” that was often overlooked by other sites. I explained and I explained and I explained.

And then I lost my patience.

“You know,” I told him with a smile, “there’s plenty of room out room. You should feel free to build your own site.”

This is my sandbox. Build your own.

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