Thoughts on the First Season of Star Trek: TNG

Over the past couple of days, I have been watching the first season of Star Trek: the Next Generation, and a couple of thoughts stand out to me. First of all, in comparison to the other seasons of the series, this one is terrible, yet it actually isn't that bad. I think the best way to describe the episodes is uneven. The writers, producers, and actors have yet to really discover who the characters are.

For example, Picard is a jackass this season. He seems much more aloof, and superior feeling. In the episodes I have been watching he has not reached that more fatherly figure he becomes later in the series. It is kind of disappointing.

Then for the episodes, they are very mixed. Within one episode, there are some really great moments and then some bad ones. In "Where No One Has Gone Before," there is a great montage of characters having hallucinations within the strange universe they explore. It is extremely well done, but then the rest of the episode is not as strong. Of course, other episodes are real clunkers like the first appearance of the Ferengi in "Last Outpost" and the one with the African tribe.

As for the character of Wesley Crusher, he had such potential, but it is so annoying that he notices things before the senior staff. How is that believable? However, I want to like Wesley because as a kid I would have loved to have his experience. Who wouldn't want to be a kid on a Starship?

Anyway, I'm only halfway through the first season. Perhaps, I will find some more observations worth writing about. Then again with this seasons... perhaps not.

Indefinite Weekend

As most of you already know, I am currently unemployed. Instead of letting this situation depress me too much, I am trying to make the best of it. During the past week, I have actually made it a mini-vacation. Mostly, I have taken time to myself to just relax. I have spent this time watching Deep Space Nine. I love this series. Upon watching it this time, I have decided to get back into the Star Trek: CCG. Luckily, Zip has agreed to play it with me. Hopefully, I can find some more.

In terms of the job search, I have not been trying much yet. That will come soon, but I wanted some personal time first. As for the initial jobs I applied for, I have not heard anything yet. Not even rejection letters. It is kind of frustrating. I'll start looking for more towards the end of the week.

Tomorrow, I am heading to campus to take care of a couple of things. I have been meaning to do them for a week now, but I keep sleeping in instead. However, I need to get it done. Since I made plans for tomorrow, there is no backing out of it now. I just have to make sure I wake up in time.

So over the weekend, the real weekend that is, I had a date-type engagement. It was probably the best one I have had in a long time. I mean come on. It consisted of Star Trek, beer, pizza, How I Met Your Mother, and a pretty lady. Does life get any better? Currently, I am making plans to see her again. Time for a bit of a road trip...

I simultaneously like and dislike being unemployed. I have managed to get some stuff done around the apartment with my free time, but I wish I was being more productive and spending some time outside of my flat. I better start the job search soon. Hopefully I have decent luck. Just in case, you better wish me some.

Guys Night Out

On Saturday, I woke up a little bit earlier than a normal Saturday because I needed to go to the Post Office. On Thursday, I received a notice from the USPS saying that I had a package I needed to sign to pick up. I was confused because I had no idea what it might have been, and I could not read who the send was according to the card. Well, I went to go get it, and I was confused where the Will Call door was because the main counter was closed. It ends up that it is this door to the left of the counters.

Well, I pushed the button and gave the guy my card, and he gave me my package. It ends up it was from Wendy. It was mailed from China, and it was filled with all sorts of Chinese stuff including a hat! The hat has Chinese letters on the inside of it, but I have no idea what it says. When I see Tiger on Monday, I am going to ask him what it says. Let me just go on record saying how incredibly awesome Wendy is.

For lunch, I hit up Popeye's...again. I have gone there for the past three Saturdays. I am just so excited to finally know where one is at here in Portland. I knew they existed, but I had never seen one.

While I was there, I made a little bit of progress on the Faulkner story, "The Bear". I have a hard time calling it a short story. It is approximately 140 pages. Although I am not sure of the exact word count, I am pretty sure it classifies more as a novella than a short story. I always thought short stories were designed to be read in one sitting, but what do I know. The point is "The Bear" is a long story.

During the afternoon, I played Rock Band for a good while. I played the solo guitar tour on medium and finished it. It was fun, and then I started to play a couple songs on hard. At the moment, I am not good enough to do that. Perhaps in time.

After finishing up Rock Band, I watched some Arrested Development while I waited on J and Chris to show up. We were going to have a Guys Night, but the plans were not decided at first. However, by the time they showed up, we were ready to go. The plan was to go eat at Old Chicago and then go to Edgefield.

I have never been to Old Chicago before. In fact, we were all Old Chicago virgins, but I kind of enjoyed it. It was fun watching J try to hit on our waitress until we realized she was married. I noticed the ring first and tried to point it out, but no one listened. Then Chris noticed, and J was disappointed. It was still fun, and the pizza was decent.

After dinner, we headed over to Edgefield for some of their St. Patrick's Day celebration even though it was a few days before the actual holiday. I have never been there before, but it was really impressive. I would like to go back during the day. Anyway, by the time we got there, everything was winding down. We caught some of the Freak Mountain Ramblers, and they seemed alright. All in all we still had a good time just walking around and talking and what not. True story.


From there, we headed to J's apartment to get his computer, so we could watch some Star Trek: Voyager with Jaz and Lisa. While cruising around, we invented a new word: "yestermorrow". It means today. If you are curious how it got invented, well I was trying to say tomorrow, but I started out saying yesterday, so I quickly switched over to saying tomorrow. We then discussed how yesterday's tomorrow would be today, so thus a new word. True story.

Anyway, before going to Jaz, Lisa, and Chris's apartment, we stopped to buy some pie from the spinning cylinder of pie at Bannings. We got a peanut butter fudge pie because it was described to us being like a peantut butter cup to the tenth power. I have to say it was pretty amazing.

Now I have not seend Star Trek: Voyager in a good while, but we chose on of the episodes I remembered. It was the one where the aliens take over the ship and make the crew act out World War 2 on the holodeck. It was a kind of cool two parter. I mean when else do you get to see Nazis running around getting shot aboard a Federation ship? Of course the best part is when the Klingongs attack the Nazis with their bat'leths. It is only a brief shot in the episode, but it is truly amazing.

When I got home around 2 in the morning, I talked to Debo briefly. He updated me about a situation. This situation played into the beginning of my Sunday which resulted in me being in a weird mood. However, I will write about that later.