Zupka Watches Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode 4

So the last bunch were... uneven to say the least.

11001001

-MMMM... Binary

-'including the holodeck, with which we've had problems' YA THINK?!

-the bynars are...moderately annoying

-oh riker. thanks for 5 minutes of designing your fantasy girl

Too Short A Season
-Those admiralty uniforms are HIDEOUS
-Jameson; good scotch, old admiral
-that's a sweet wheelchair
-mystery healing!
-as he gets younger, he's getting crazier

When the Bough Breaks
-MEH

Home Soil
-Troi senses something!

-Fascinated with data... That can't be good. 

-No Genesis device? Lol

-Data got taken over?

-Beam the life form on? Ya, THATS a good idea.

-Ugly Bags of Mostly Water... lol.

-Photoelectric, that's kinda cool

-The Federation is 0/2 with terraforming

Coming of Age
-Entrance exams for Wes! WOOO!
-Picard has a buddy.
-THOSE DAMN ADMIRAL UNIFORMS
-Oh no! An investigation.
-Aww, Worf and Wes are having a moment...
-Oh, this just got interesting. A Conspiracy in Starfleet. Hmmm...

Zupka Watches Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode 3

So, last chunk we were about 3/5 with good episodes. Let's see how we fare now!

Hide and Q
-Yessss... Q hath returned.
-I do love me some Q and Worf banter
-Though nothing truly beats Picard and Q banter

Haven

-Troi's going to the chapel; apparently weather she wants to or not!

-First appearance of Luxwana

-HOLD ON. T-Bag from Prison Break is Wyatt? Well, shit.

-Plague ship, huh. That can't be good.

-Especially when it has the women from Wyatt's drawings! This can't be good.

-Nope, not good. T-Bag has run off to the plague ship.

-And THEY knew about him? Weird...

The Big Goodbye

-Oh, one of those super difficult language things...

-Question: how does the holodeck KNOW that Picard wants to play Dixon HIll

-He saw AUTOMOBILES!!!  WOW!

-Lol, Picard haz lipstick

-And so begins the spate of malfunctioning holodeck episodes

-Crusher's eye roll at Data's accent was PERFECT

Datalore

-We meet evil Lore

-Seriously, he's evil

-Cause I know, Ive seen the future

-Also, I'm drinking

-It should have been Lore in Nemesis!!!!!!

-WHY ARE THEY SHOWING LORE HOW TO CONTROL THE SHIP!!!!!

-OMG, he's painfully evil...

-SERIOUSLY. He. Is. Evil.

-How can Data be drugged?!?!?!?!?!?!

-Ahh, the origin of Shut up Wesly...

Angel One
-So, this episode happened.....
-Disclaimer: didnt take notes; this is all youre getting.

Zupka Watches Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode 2

Well, that was a rough beginning to the series. It can only go up from here, right? Of course it can. Positive thinking!

The Last Outpost

Alright! Here we go! This one is actually better than the last two. The Ferengi's at one point were meant to be the big bads of TNG. I can see how it would have worked. However, I do have trouble seperating what they were meant to be with what they became. But, good episode.

-finger traps

-ferengi

Where no one has gone before

Pretty good. We get inroduced to the Travellor. Boy, he was cool. Wonder if he'll come back.

-an abundance of well being. GROAN

-acting ensign crusher!

Lonely Among Us

-jr. officers learn? isnt that basically what they are trained to do?

-also, when does laforge become cheif? lets get some consistancy!

-start of data's holmes fascination

Justice

-too good to be true? way to telegraph that one Picard

-WTAF is up with those outfits? Way to call RIker out on his leering Troi...

-Awkward Troi is awkward; well then there's Worf

-sidebar: I think that building was in Stargate SG-1

-hold up...Geordi's VISOR is more better than the Enterprise's sensors?

-I'm not concerned with love, I am warrior. Yes Worf. Yes, you are.

-Don't break the rules we're not gonna tell you about!

-You tell hime (Data) Beverly!

The Battle

-no more headaches? that would be nice

-i thought troi couldn't sense ferengi?

-yay! no more common cold!

-so in 9 years they went from ST6 tech to TNG. I'll buy it.

-PS: ARe you reading this? I'm kinda drunk right now

-Picard's mind is getting played with.

-ah, the ole planted evidence trick

-why do the Ferengi's have white backgrounds? Answer: Budget

Zupka Watches Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 1

Now, for our first entry of this intrepid journey! So, where do we start? The beginning of course!

Encounter at Farpoint
And here we begin. We get your standard first episode format. Introduce the main characters. Establish the locations, etc. Oh, and we get Q. He's kinda awesome. I sure hope he comes back! New uniforms (meh), new ship (yay!). Danger! Excitement! This show is great. Boy oh boy I hope the second episode keeps up the momentum!

The Naked Now
Oh. Um. Momentum lost. This was PAINFUL to watch. Didn't TOS do this one? Didn't they do it better? Next episode is better, right?

Code of Honor
Yeesh. Kinda better. Kinda. Maybe. Maybe not. I'm starting to lose faith. I KNOW it gets better. But dayum. This? I hope the cast thanked the Prophets that this episode didn't immediately end the series.

Zupka Watches Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode Zero

So, for a while now there's been this podcast called Mission Log: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast. They started out reviewing each episode of The Original Series and associated movies. They've now moved on to Star Trek: The Next Generation. As I've never seen Season 1 of TNG in its entirety, I thought this would be a good chance to secure the Blu-Ray copies (by Khaless's forehead ridges they're amazing) and watch along. As such, each episode (or I may combine several episodes in one depending on my mood) will be reviewed here, and I will post the associated links to the Mission Log episode. These won't be long posts; merely a collection of my thoughts/reactions to episodes.

Engage!

Training Log - Week of 26 JAN 14

27 JAN 14:

ABD - Review for stripe test.  Everything felt good.  Hit 13 pushups, which I think is a record.  Doesn't count really as the official stripe test is Thursday.

BJJ - Got complimented by a purple belt on my defense.  Also, by my instructor.  Granted, they both worked me over, but hey, at least I seem to be doing something right.

29 JAN 14:

BJJ- 7th degree black belt Marcio Stambowski came to my school.  Ended up teaching a seminar on sweeps.  Scissor sweeps.  Got a second stripe on my white belt.

Training Log - Week of 19 JAN 14

20 JAN 14:

ABD - Reviewed for stripe test next week.  Knife defenses and first part of our muay thai combo.

BJJ - Worked a standing stack pass to bread cutter choke.  Gotta keep pressure on with the pass.

The Night of the Doctor

So just the other day, I was lamenting how Paul McGann had only one shot as the Doctor.

And then the 50th came along.

Now, I had been hearing that Paul McGann wanted to be involved.  Heck all the Doctor's wanted to be involved from what I understand.  But it was looking like none would be involved other than Tennant.

And then a little webisode blew up the internet.  Paul McGann was indeed back as the Eighth Doctor.

And what a return.  In just eight or so minutes (I see what they did there), McGann got to come back and show his regeneration into the War Doctor.  Which was pretty cool.

This little webisode did have once of my favorite quotes from Doctor Who:

Cass: Where are we going?

The Doctor: Back of the ship.

Cass: Why?

The Doctor: Because the front crashes first. Think it through.  <-- font="" here.="" line="" right="" this="">

I would like to see more of the Time War with the Eighth Doctor.  Why was there so much hate for the Time Lords?  What has the Doctor been up to?  Maybe someday we will get more.

I liked this.  It was a pleasant surprise, and added to the saga of the 50th.

How to post video from iPhone to You Tube to Blogger

So it was asked of me recently how to get a video from an iPhone to a blog here on Blogger.  I figure this was the best way to share how I figured it out.

1. Sign up for a YouTube account if you don't have one.

2. Using your iPhone, upload video to YouTube.

3. When asked for privacy settings, make sure it is public or unlisted.  This may work with private, but unlisted mentions being able to let others who have the link so that may be the best.  And it will still be private in that only people with a link to it can see it... or if you post it to a blog!
4. Click the add video button here on blogger.  Its that black one next to the picture.
5. Choose 'My You Tube videos'
6. As long as your video has been uploaded to YouTube successfully, it should be there in the list.
7. Select your video, then hit the blue 'add selected' button at the bottom
8. Voila! Your video should be now in your blog... like the one of my laptop below.

Training Log - Week of 12 JAN 14

13 JAN 14:

Krav Maga/Muay Thai: Month one week one sees us learning defenses against underhand knife strikes, the second part of our combo.  Oh and the usually litany of cardio.  Great class tonight.

BJJ: Worked on setting up the S-mount.  From there we can go for an arm bar or key lock.  Rolled for the last half of class.  Got taken apart by a brown belt, but I was tapped about once a minute.  This is an improvement when I would get tapped 5 times a minute.

15 JAN 14:

General: tried out some kettle bell workouts.  Seems pretty fun.  Also been working on push ups, sit ups and squats.

16 JAN 14:

Krav Maga/Muay Thai: More review from Monday's class.

BJJ: Did S mount again.  I really like it.  Need to work on escapes and defenses.

Doctor Who: The Movie (1996)

To the Summary!

The Eight Doctor comes to be in 1990s San Francisco where he must battle The Master for control of the TARDIS.

To the Cast!

Paul McGann - The Doctor

Sylvester McCoy - The Doctor

Daphne Ashbrook - Grace Holloway

Yee Jee Tso - Chang Lee

Eric Roberts - The Master

To the Deeper Thoughts!

As part of my continuing quest to absorb as much Doctor Who as possible, I decided to take a quick adventure with the Eighth incarnation.

And may I start by lamenting how sad it is we never got to see more of this incarnation.  Now, I'm no expert on the Doctor by a long shot, but I think Paul McGann was slighted a bit in only getting one shot at the Doctor.

(I know he's done audio stuff, but I'm focusing mostly on the television stuff)

In short, I really liked this entry into the Doctor Who universe.  I've heard hard core fans have issue with it, but being that I came into this fairly new to Who, I really didn't have any issues with it.

If you're looking for a quick classic Who adventure, then look no further.  Its very 90s, but lets not hold that against it.

Back in the saddle again!

Hello all!  I'm back!

I have a new list, which can be found above or here's the link:

A Bunch of things to do in 10 years

Bit of a longer form list, but the goals are slightly bigger as a result.  Some goals will change/update as time progresses.

But the important thing is I'm back and ready to take 2014 head on!