Summary:

Last week (sorry about the delay!) I spent four days at the Star Trek Las Vegas 2009 convention.

That’s four days of Star Trek, Star Trek stars and Star Trek fans. Four days of wandering the same halls, looking over some of the loot, and generally being surrounded by folks geekier than I am.

Four days of awesome.

This year was actually a bit mellower than previous conventions – they had fewer folks on stage on any given day, but made up for that by giving them a bit more time to do their thing. This time was greatly appreciated, as it gave the cast time to open up and really get into things. As always, I would have preferred just a bit more time for some of them (Frakes and Dorn, in particular), but I’m not going to be too picky. Any time is better than no time.

Full breakdown follows.

Pictures Taken: 331
Pictures Actually In Focus: 134

Mobile Me Gallery

Thursday:

• Rapping/Singing Ferengi
  Max “Rom” Grodenchick”
  Came out, told some interesting DS9 stories, some stories about the makeup and about being Rom, then did some songs and a bit of dance.
• Rapping/Singing/Dancing/Joking Klingons
  (Martok and Gowron)
  Pretty much what it says – two of the DS9 era actors, in full Klingon garb (only time I’ve seen a Trek actor actually in costume) and mostly in character, singing, dancing, fighting and generally being entertaining Klingons.
• Johnathan Frakes/Micheal Dorn
  (Cmdr. Riker, Lt. Cmdr. Worf)
  Not sure what else I need to say – Frakes was crazy as hell, and Dorn was barely saner. The two of them were just wild and entertaining, talking about everything from smashing eggs on “Ol’ Baldies” head, to flying planes and being old and fat.

Friday:

• DS9 Cast Panel
  A large group; Rosenberg enjoyed the hell out of it. I walked out, because it was kind of boring… Just like DS9.
• Robert Picardo / Ethan Philips “House Call”
  (The Doctor and Neelix, Star Trek Voyager)
  A two man play, written and performed by them. Very humorous – and filled with them bickering both in and out of character. I wish I could have recorded it – it was just awesome.

Saturday:

• George Takei
  (Mr. Sulu, TOS)
  It’s Sulu! What more do you need to know? Talked a bit about the new movie, and how he got into acting, his father, and then a bit about the gay marriage situation in California. Good times, great speaker.
• Christopher Llyod
  Doc Brown himself. Came out a bit dazed, and bit nervous but by the hours end he was rocking the joint. Told many great stories from his days of acting covering the entirety of his career. A great man, Mr. Lloyd.
• Voyager Cast Panel
  (Robert Picardo, Ethan Philips, Roxann Doawson, Tim Russ)
  As always, a highlight of the convention. Not sure why, but the Voyager crew are always my favorites to watch – always funny, always making each other – and us – laugh. They truly are a family, and it shows.
• Star Trek Online Developer Chat
  ZOMG! I cannot wait for this game to come out! I also got into the beta because my wonderful and amazing girlfriend was willing to sit in line for over an hour and half for me.
  The devs do have a handle on both the Trek universe and what it is that makes a game fun – I cannot stress just how awesome the game looks in motion, and how much I want to play it.

Sunday:

• Zachary Quinto (Harassed by Garrett “Harry Kim” Wang)
  (New Spock in the new Star Trek movie)
  Zach is hot. There’s no other way to put it – the man has such a strong stage presence that no less than THREE ladies (and possibly one man) nearly lost their shit when trying to ask him a question – and one girl was completely speechless in his presence.
  This, of course, did not stop Garrett from asking the nerdiest question of the entire convention, and also acting like the huge fanboy he must really be.
• William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy
  There are no words to describe this. Shatner was still bitter, if only for comedic effect, and Nimoy pretty much called him on it. It was a great way to end a good convention.

Loot Report:

STLV09 Loot

• Star Trek fleece pullover
• Red Shirt cologne (Because Tomorrow May Never Come)
• Intergalactic Bartender drink recipe book
• Gallifreyan Institute of Technology Tee
• United Federation of Planets Tee (thanks Nadia!)
• Mini- Prometheus, All Good Things Enterprise-D, Original Series Enterprise
• Star Trek Voyager two pack toy (Species 8472 and Harry Kim)
• Star Trek Voyager Voyager tree ornament
• 3D Trek new movie Enterprise 3D picture

As always, I expect it to be loads of fun. I’m also really excited to be able to spend some of it with Nadia – I just really enjoy taking her to nerdy and geeky things.

This year, Christopher Llyod – Doc Brown from BTTF – will be there. Yeah, he was a Klingon in the third film, but I pretty much think of him as Doc Brown, and he’s been one of my favorite actors for years. It’ll be pretty damn awesome to see him in person.

Also looking forward to buying more crap this year. I’ve actually set aside some spending money, so I’ll be sure to get some cool loot. Expect pictures and video galore as it happens – uploading to YouTube and MobileMe, and updates via Twitter.

Loads of fun, I tells ya.

We hit up the science museum, which was fun, and the zoo, which was awesome. We also walked around Tempe, which is a fucking rathole, and Scottsdale, which as neat – if really bad for food – and did a bit of shopping (I bought a camera).

We rode a “train”, and a camel; we saw a film about Black Holes narrated by Q; we ate astronaut ice-cream, Greek food, Mexican food, and teeny-tiny portions of fish; there was walking, and sun burns; loads of driving, and a dam.

All told, it was a fun couple of days. Still, I was very happy to get back to Las Vegas – Arizona is just not my kind of place.

Full disclosure:
I created a list of words to ignore in order to generate this list; the ignored words were:

am, comments, don, dunny, dunny0, entry, moar, modified, pm, posted, tags, views

These words are those that, because of the template, are artificially included in every post.

So, what can we learn from this exercise?
Well – I enjoy the word “awesome”, and “fucking”; I use the word “bring” an awful lot, although I couldn’t begin to explain why; “work” get’s mentioned far more than it should.

While we’re on the topic of words, I’m going to attempt to post at least one (1) blog entry every day this month. We’ll see how that goes.

It gives me a lot of science – and science related – blogs. That’s fine, I like science and geeky stuff. Sure, I don’t even come close to understanding some of the more high end stuff (the numbers and terms make my brain go all wonky), but it’s still a nice read once in a while.

There’s the odd assortment of random webcomics – although the majority of them are somewhat crap. I’m sorry, but it’s true: 97% of webcomics are crap, including my own aborted monster. of the remaining 3%, a full nine-tenths is Penny-Arcade, leaving a very small market for actual good, non-PA comics. I’ve found a couple, and have enjoyed them.

The remaining stuff Google throws at me? Personal blogs of small Mormon families in Las Vegas.

No, really – I’ve had four of them tossed my way recently. They are all pretty much the same, too: Pictures of small children, pictures of family events, and general family stuff that is not at all interesting to anyone who isn’t them. Many posts talking about the kids, or the husband, or how boring it is being a housewife, or what it’s like to be a Mormon in Vegas, or that potato salad recipe your mother in law loves… That kind of thing.

I’ve got no idea what part of my normal reading habits would lead Google Reader to the conclusion that I would enjoy such a glimpse into the nuclear family, but I don’t. Oh, sure, I flip through a few posts to make sure that this is, indeed, what it is- but then I click the “No Thanks” button and move on down the list.

Has Google decided that I should live my life vicariously through these seemingly happy families? Has it decided that I’m a voyeur of of some sort, who craves a peek at others inner lives? Or maybe it’s just some weird fluke?

All I know for sure is that those kids are kind of ugly, your husband is a bit of a fatty, and your self-dyed hair looks trashy. You should be ashamed of yourself and your friends, and you should stay off my damn reader!

Source.

From that short blurb, they have the go ahead, and sounds like they have the funding. It also sounds like there will be “upgrades”, which – I hope – means they’ll finally update the flyby portion of the Klingon Encounter.

I really hope this goes through. I’ve missed being able to head down to Quarks and get a WarpCore and Talaxian Turkey wrap… If this goes through, it’ll be a pleasant surprise.

Ready? Here we go!

Friday
Friday was my day off, so I slept in. A lot.
When I finally got my lazy self out of bed, I cleaned up a bit, then read more of House of Leaves. I’m just starting to get to the really good bits, by the way, and this is turning out to be a damn fine book.

Anyway, Nadia came over about five (traffic was kind of heavy), but that was okay since we weren’t going to hang around the apartment much anyway: It was voting time!

We climbed into my car, and ended up at the Galleria Mall. Walked around a little bit (checked out the new Hot Pocket, not sure I like it now…) and generally wandered about a bit.

Eventually, we made it down to the end of the mall where the voting was taking place – I went, did my thing, and when I came back… Had lost Nadia! A quick phone call, and I found her again – She’d slipped off to the music store for a bit.

We wandered back towards where I parked, stopping only to get some candy (Yay! ) and look at some Anime. Pricey stuff, that – but some of it is worth it (Ergo Proxy)…

Went to Macaroni Grill for supper, had fun drawing on the table. I drew a little cartoon of Nadia, and she liked it enough that I had to cut it off the table before we left. Good thing they just toss the paper out – although, I did try and hide the hole under a plate, just in case.

Because it was still early, and Friday, I decided it might be fun to check out a lounge or club or something. So, we trekked on over to The Strip to see what we could find, fun wise. I had – previously – stashed a dress shirt in the car for just such an occasion, so meeting the dress code was not going to be an issue.

First stop: Minus 5, a new place in Mandalay Bay. Basically, it’s a giant freezer where everything inside is made of ice, and you hang out in big coats and neat hats drinking vodka cocktails and trying to keep warm. It’s here that I would place a picture if I wasn’t having so much trouble with it…

Afterward, we went to Tabu – where Nadia got in for free because she’s so damn adorable. Good music, kinda pricey drinks, loads of fun.

Then we went home – My feet were killing me, and Nadia was kinda tired too.

Saturday
Had breakfast at the Original Pancake House again, and again I had the bacon pancakes. Nadia had a mushroom omlette, which she didn’t like. It was unevenly seasoned – some parts super salty, others very bland…

We then headed over to Opportunity Village in order to see what they had, and try to find some vintage clothes for a party I’ll discuss in a little bit. They had all manner of neat stuff, but nothing that really fit what we were looking for. Still, Nadia got a little jumper and a coat, and I found a tie for my Halloween costume.

Next up was The Attic, a much more expensive place to shop. Loads of over priced cool stuff – and, there, I found a shirt and some shades for aforementioned party. Goody bags in hand, we went back to my place – where Nadia took a nap, and I played some .

When she woke up, she went home.

Later that night, there as a 70′s Party at her house… Again, pictures go here later. It was pretty fun, met some neat people – and some strange, freaky people (She-male stripper with a slave? Not a costume, and only in Vegas…) and then I went home.

Sunday
Sunday was guy day – Rosenberg came over, we played SR2 and LBP, ate chili dogs and just hung out.

Another fun weekend!

Kirk, Spock, McCoy and The Rest

That’s right, 42 years ago today Star Trek first showed up on the airwaves, paving the way for Americans of all ages to enjoy hammy acting, cheap sets and more smarm than ever thought possible.

So, if you’re in the Las Vegas area, why not join me tonight at Qua-
Oh, right.

And now I’m sad.

Happy Birthday Federation, now try not to suck too hard in the new movie.

Never thought I’d see a Vulcan cry. To her credit, she tried so damn hard to hold tight and not break character. She almost made it too…

Except for some rowdy asshats in the audience – probably closet Trekkies trying to assert their threatened manhood – it was a surprisingly tasteful close to what was, basically, a kitschy, tacky Vegas attraction from a by-gone era.

The STE, from Quarks to the rides, shops and all, was almost a second home to me, a gathering point for many various friends. It managed to play a role in some of my favorite moments here in Vegas, and it was a genuinely fun thing to do in Vegas that wasn’t trying to be something it wasn’t. I’ll miss it, but I’m very glad I was there for the last day of that monument.

One of the crew members remarked that this shouldn’t be met with too much sadness, for

“with everything Trek, anytime something ends it’s almost always replaced with something bigger and better.”

I do hope he’s right.