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Star Trek

Nerd Block: September

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

This month’s theme was Hyperspace. There were only five items in the box as opposed to the six or seven in previous months which was a little bit disappointing.

I love the little springy USS Enterprise, even if it feels somewhat cheap. The plushie BB-8 looks fantastic. I like it’s feel and design, but I don’t know yet if I’ll keep it. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, I’ve seen the older movies once, a long time ago. I will be seeing the new movie once it’s out, so I’m keeping the plushie at least until then. Depending on what I think of the movie, and BB-8’s part in it, I’ll keep it or put it in the gift bin.

The Jurassic Galaxy art print is fantastic! It mashes Guardians of the Galaxy with Jurassic World with cameo appearances of Terminator and Star Wars. Beyond this print and the Doctor Who one from a previous box I’ve acquired some more art print or small poster stuff that I want to display. I haven’t quite figured out how I want to do that, though. but I am really excited about it.

The shirt this month is a Battlestar Galactica one combining the two versions of Cylons in a mash-up resembling a Daft Punk album cover. The last item was a Funko mystery box with a random Supernatural mini. I got Castiel, which I absolutely love! I am a bit puzzled though how Supernatural fits the theme.

Overall, I’m impressed with the individual items, but it did feel less as a whole with only five items of which only four fit the theme.

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Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Art, Funko, Geeky Stuff, Nerd Block, Photos, Review, Scifi, Star Trek, Subscription Boxes, Supernatural, TV

Lived Long and Prospered

Friday, February 27, 2015 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I am sad, tonight. Leonard Nimoy, my precious Mr. Spock, has died today.

Posted in: General Tagged: Movies, RIP, Sadness, Star Trek, TV, Videos

Prezzies

Saturday, December 27, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

20141222_112029After Christmas dinner it was time for prezzies. First we exchanged gifts with my parents, and after they left, Nienke and I continued the unwrapping party with our gifts for each other.

We’d already given each other one of the prezzies the day before, but now it was time for the rest. We usually set a budget, and always go over, but I think we never went quite as far over as we did this year 😀

Mom and Dad gave me the CD with the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy. A definite hit as the songs keep getting stuck in my head 🙂 I got Mom a bath set with lotion and fluffy things, and for Dad dried meat sausages, he always likes a good sausage.

Nienke gave me awesome things! Starfleet Academy and Medical Academy buttons, a necklace of the Elven brooch given to the Hobbits, a colouring book and a cute story book, a letter E, and the best thing ever: a USS Voyager model kit. I’ll have to order paint first, but I can’t wait to build it.

I got Nienke a Comic Con Exclusive Buffy Pop Vinyl, the eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver, a 1:64 model of the Impala from Supernatural along with a replica of Dean’s necklace that Sammy gave him, blue fuzzy gloves, a guitar stand and the unicorn plush from Despicable Me. The cats each got a toy, as well.

Then tonight Kim came by to watch the Olivier B. Bommel movie Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel and then we saw Flushed Away before also exchanging gifts.

I’d gotten both Nienke and Kim a chocolate bar, and gave Kim a set of mugs with owls on it, as well as a bracelet with a Mockingjay pin. I’d also gotten some toys and candies for her cats. She got me chocolate, fudge and a Pop Vinyl of Invisible Bilbo!

Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack

Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, true to its name

 

Starfleet Academy departmental buttons

Starfleet Academy departmental buttons, Starfleet Medical Academy button and a Star Trek general button

 

Lord of the Rings Elven brooch necklace

Fantastic Lord of the Rings Elven brooch necklace

 

Undead Pets book

A cute little book about Undead Pets

 

Feel Good colouring book

Very pretty Feel Good colouring book

 

USS Voyager model kit

Best gift ever 😀 USS Voyager model kit!

 

Invisible Bilbo!

Invisible Bilbo!

 

Chocolate hippos! And fudge *swoon*

Chocolate hippos! And fudge *swoon*

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Books, Christmas, Crafting, Dad, Fandom, Fantasy, Food, Friends, Funko, Holidays, Kim, Mom, Movies, Music, Nienke, Parents, Photos, Scifi, Star Trek

Space

Wednesday, November 12, 2014 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

20141112_161602Met up with Gert today to play games and have general fun. He has recently acquired Star Trek Catan, and as trekkie, I, of course, must play this 😀

To stay on theme, we watched Space Station 76 tonight. It’s a weird film, black comedy, taking place on a Space Station where it revolves around the relationships between the crewmates. At first glance everything is very idyllic Which gets reinforced by the very, very 70s visual style of the movie (which makes it tie-in to classic Trek quite nicely).Space_Station_76_poster

As the movie begins a new first officer comes aboard because the old one left. She and the Captain don’t quite get along. We later learn that the old first officer was the lover of the Captain and left as a break-up. There’s an engineer (played by Matt Bomer, I like him) with his wife and their kid, and while the engineer is crazy about the kid, the wife is just plain crazy and sleeping with someone else. And so on.

I liked the movie, but didn’t love it.

 

Posted in: General, Photos Tagged: Board Games, Friends, Gert, Movies, Photos, Review, Star Trek

Blog About Me [12/52] Ten Books I Love

Monday, September 16, 2013 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

I have read so many books in my life, it’s hard to narrow them down to just ten that I love. In the end, the books (or series) listed here are ones that have influenced me, or those that just make me feel good, or just have this undefinable thing. Also, they’re in no particular order.

Toekomsttrilogie, Thea BeckmanThe Future Trilogy by Thea Beckman: Kinderen van Moeder Aarde, Het Helse Paradijs & Het Gulden Vlies van Thule.

I read these while in elementary school. I read a lot of more fantastic books and historical ones, so when I first picked up Kinderen van Moeder Aarde (Children of Mother Earth), it seemed like the perfect book. I had experience with Thea Beckman’s historical books which I really liked, and this had fantasy and scifi stuff in it. So I took it home from the libary, and I think I finished it in one day. I became near obsessed with it. Went back to the library at my first opportunity and got the other two parts Het Helse Paradijs (The Hellish Paradise) and Het Gulden Vlies van Thule (The Golden Fleece of Thule). I copied the map, wrote down things from the books to create a reference for myself to this world Thea had created and I spent so much time in my head creating more stories and exploring the world. I would periodically borrow them from the library again, to reread them. These books really jump started my interest in world building and cartography.

I haven’t read them in a good number of years now, not since I stopped having a library membership. Weirdly enough, I only added the books to my permanent collection about a year and a half  ago.  They’re currently on my to be (re-)read pile. I estimate I’ll get around to them sometime next year 😀

 

Discworld ShelfThe Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

I was first introduced to the Discworld series in my first year of High School. I started out, if I remember correctly, with a Dutch translation of Witches Abroad, which I really liked. Over the next few years I read more Dutch Discworld, and even bought a few. However, it wasn’t until I’d started reading in English and picked up my first original Discworld, that I truly fell in love with the series. I started reading them all in English, including those I’d already read in Dutch. And I started collecting the books. Terry manages to do something that, I find, is a tricky thing to do. He writes “funny books” that are so multi layered with references to so many things and manages to tell very serious stories through this. His main characters are some of the best I’ve seen. And the ever evolving nature of the world of Discworld is a joy to experience.

 

Belgariad/Malloreon, David EddingsThe Belgariad/Malloreon series by David Eddings.

This series really cemented my love of more traditional fantasy. I read them in Dutch first, starting in the first year of High School, like with Discworld, including the companion novels about Belgarath and Polgara. I bought English versions of the companion novels some years ago and really enjoyed rereading them. I managed to snag a complete collection of both the Belgariad and the Malloreon in a second hand book shop a year or two ago and jumped on it right away.

Fortunately, upon rereading, I still loved them as I did before. The base story is a quintessential one in Fantasy: peasant boy finds out he is descendant from an old line of kings and needs to reclaim his heritage and defeat the big evil. The way in which it was dressed up, though, really did it for me. There’s prophecy and wizards and fascinating other party members and tertiary characters, and a cool magic system, old gods, powerful women and so on. In the second series, the Malloreon, the story repeats itself. And the books get some crap for that. Except that’s a major part of the overall theme. The base concept behind the whole series is that history basically keeps repeating itself until we can finally make the universe right again. The second series therefore has many parallels with the first, and I think that makes it a better series.

 The Giver, Lois LowryThe Giver by Lois Lowry.

Another book I first read in elementary school. My first experience with more dystopian elements and more scifi than fantasy. It made such an impression on me that I kept looking for the book for years, on and off. I remembered parts of the plot and then I’d think, “I wanna re-read it.” But I could never remember the title or the author. So it was years before I used The Google to try and find it. And then I found it, and I was ecstatic 😀

The bits I kept remembering over the years were things I wouldn’t right away associate with a children’s book, which technically it is. A very rigid control of society. Everyone does things exactly like this, and no deviations are accepted. Those that deviate, or can no longer contribute to society are killed off. Of course that is done in a perfectly sterile manner, with a ceremony and all, but the effect is the same. And I was appalled by that, and it opened for me the doors to dystopian fiction, especially featuring children or teens. That’s probably why The Hunger Games resonated with me as they did.

 

Articles of the Federation, Keith R.A. DeCandidoArticles of the Federation, by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

I read a lot of tie in fiction, books written about, and taking place in, universes from other properties. Mainly movies and TV shows. One of the bigger properties I read in, is Star Trek. The expanded universe of Star Trek spans so much space and time, and goes so much deeper than can be shown in just the shows and movies. Articles of the Federation is on my most loved Star Trek books because it tells the story of background characters, the ordinary people of the Federation. It details a year in the office of Federation president Baco and how she deals with all the crap going on. Diplomatic ouvertures, threats of war, the press, all in a context of the Star Trek future. I’ve heard it described as a cross between the West Wing and Star Trek.

 

Little Women, Lousia May AlcottLittle Women by Louisa May Alcott

I’ve read this book so many times. I always wanted to be Jo, when I was a kid, because she was tough, and a writer and got to do her own thing in a time where that wasn’t generally allowed. I also watched the various movies repeatedly, and the cartoon series that was made of it and this all became this awesome amalgamation in my head. Historical time period, costumes, and awesome actors/cartoons to represent the characters.

 

 

Dinotopia, James GurneyDinotopia by James Gurney

Oh! The illustrations! I looooove worldbuilding so very much, and the illustrations bring alive the world of Dinotopia so much. It’s a historical fantasy thing, where people in the past get stranded on this deserted island. Only it’s not so deserted as first thought. There live people there, in harmony with intelligent dinosaurs. And they have this whole pretty advanced society with even a dinosaur assisted military of sorts. I still have to get my hands on some of the additional books, and a proper copy of this in English.

 

Rowan, Henk KroesveldRowan, een verhaal uit de middeleeuwen, by Henk Kroesveld

One of the better historical youth books I’ve read. It tells the story of thirteen year old Rowan who needs to leave his home town for a while after an altercation with the bailiff. When he comes back again, he finds his home locked up, the plague is active in his town. He has to leave again, and find his own way in the world and he does this, among other things, by becoming a healer and learning about herbs and such.

 

Tigana, Guy Gavriel KayTigana by Guy Gavriel Kay

A glorious fantasy novel about memory, and music and how history is written by the victors. After a devastating war, the losing side gets erased from the history books. The magic-wielding tyrant makes it impossible for the name of the losing province to ever be said, and even remembering it. In this way, the people slowly forget their own history. Only a small group of rebels manages to precariously hold on to their past and sets out to reverse the spell.

 

Vrijheid als Prijs, Catherine ChristianVrijheid als prijs by Catherine Christian

Another historical novel. The first I read about Roman times. It tells the story of rich young lady Clyta, her sort of foster brother Flavius and the slave they get for their combined 10th and 12th birthday, Hillarion. It chronicles the lives of these three as Clyta and Flavius get married and Flavius goes into the military. It’s been a while since I read it, so I’m not sure anymore how, but Flavius dies, and Hillarion ends up being sold, and Clyta falls onto poor time. Hillarion eventually becomes a gladiator, also gets married, and finally manages to buy his freedom and settles on a small farm. In the mean time Clyta has gotten herself sold into slavery causing Hillarion to work and buy her free as well. Late in life, finally, he and Clyta reunite and life out their lives on his small farm.

 

Posted in: Blog About Me, General, Photos Tagged: Blog Prompts, Books, Dystopia, Fantasy, History, List, Literature, Me, Scifi, Star Trek

Galactic Cooking

Friday, June 16, 2006 by Tse Moana Leave a Comment

Being the Trekkie that I am, I recently purchased the Star Trek Cookbook. I thought it would be a nice idea to give you all here a taste, so to speak, of what this book has to offer. To accomplish this, I invited a friend over for dinner and picked out a recipe.

The recipe is Alfarian Hair Pasta. Before I go on to the Earth variety of this dish, I’ll give you some background on the original. The Alfarian Hair Pasta is made from the hair-follicles of an Alfarian. This high-protein and fibre hair is harvested during shedding season on the planet Tarkannan. Since the Alfarian is not present on Earth, some adjustments have been made to the recipe and the ingredient list (for four servings) is as follows:

1 16-ounce package of angel hair pasta
1 6-ounce can of anchovy paste removed
1 6-ounce can of tomato paste
6 large tomatoes, chopped not present
2 medium onions, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped became red pepper
½ clove of garlic, sliced thin
½ clove of garlic, crushed
¼ cup of parsley, freshly chopped not present
1 teaspoon fresh basil not present
1 tablespoon oregano
2 teaspoons sugar
1 bay leaf removed
2 tablespoons olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese to taste not used
half a courgette (aka Zucchini)

I slightly modified this due to not having tomatoes, parsley or basil. It being Pentecost, I could not go to the store and get it as they were all closed. I also did not have a green pepper so substituted a red one. A final modification was the removal of anchovy from the ingredient list (I hate anchovy) as well as the bay leaf (no idea what that was). I added courgette and some more tomato paste to make up for the lost real tomatoes and anchovy paste.

The cooking procedure itself also underwent some modifications as the recipe, when followed to the letter, takes more than 1½ hours to finish, and we just did not have that much time.

So, on to the actual cooking itself. The process as I describe here is what I did, and is not a direct copy from the book. It also assumes that all the necessary chopping, slicing and crushing has been done.

Put the olive oil into a large pan and add the sliced garlic. Quickly cook the garlic and then add the onions and pepper. Then add the tomato paste, stir and let simmer for a bit. Keep stirring or else it will stick to the bottom (as happened to me, I did get it all off but it’s a pain in the ass when doing the dishes). This can be stopped by adding a generous amount of cooking cream (I use light) to make the paste a bit more fluid. Add the herbs, sugar and courgette and stir again so it mixes nicely.

The dish is a vegetarian one, but this is a nice time to add some meat to the mix (chicken or something). You can either use precooked meat that you dice and add to it so it can heat up again, or prepare some meat in a separate pan while you make the sauce and add that.

When you’re almost done with the sauce, cook the angel-hair pasta following the directions on the packaging. In general, the noodles need to be put in a pan of water and placed on the fire until the water boils or is near boiling. When that moment comes, stir the noodles to make them loose and leave them in the water for a few more minutes. Then remove them from the water and drain to get rid of all excess water.

For a fancy way of serving this, put the noodles in a bowl and place some sauce on top. Put the rest of the sauce in a separate bowl and serve. Regular, plain-ol’-Jane style involves the noodles being divided between, and placed directly on, the plates. The sauce then follows the same procedure and you just hand out the ready plates.

I really liked what I made and so did my friend so I’m hoping this will inspire (some) of you to wander into the kitchen and try it out for yourselves. Have a fun time cooking and enjoy the result.

Posted in: General Tagged: Cooking, Food, Friends, Recipe, Star Trek

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If I had a formula for bypassing trouble, I would not pass it round. Trouble creates a capacity to handle it. I don’t embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy. But I do say meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

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