Minireview: The Corbomite Maneuver
One Sentence Synopsis
Kirk shows shocking managerial incompetence while the ship is threatened by hostile alien/grapefruit juice enthusiast Clint Howard.
Scene setup
The Navigator Of The Week reminds Kirk of his younger self so Kirk promotes him too quickly.
Enjoy the fruits of Kirk’s managerial incompetence.
Should you watch it?
Yes. It’s a fun watch as the second episode in production order. You can tell the production team is still getting their legs under them (LOUD SPOCK LOUDS LOUDLY!). However, the elements of Trek are in place and you can see potential oozing off the screen. On top of that science fiction tropes (like aliens testing humans) are being invented on the fly and it’s pretty cool seeing a cliche in the pram, if I may be so British about it .
Vital Statistics
| What Happened? | This adventure | All time | Notes |
| HR Incident | 1 | 3 | Freakout! |
| Shirtless Kirk | 1 | 1.5 | Dr. McCoy needs to examine the Captain to distill Kirk’s manliness. |
| Hookups? | 0 | 1 | |
| Encounters with exes? | 0 | 0 | |
| Redshirt Kills? | 0 | 0 | |
| Non Redshirt Kills? | 0 | 3 | |
| Offscreen Federation Kills? | 0 | 9 | |
| Non Federation Kills? | 0 | 0 |
Minireview: Where No Man Has Gone Before
One Sentence Synopsis
In the Pilot episode responsible for winning Star Trek a season order, The U.S.S. Enterprise flies into The Galactic Barrier, turning Kirk’s friend into an Evil God.
Scene setup
Welcome to our first ever staff meeting. The Management Team sits down to determine a plan of action that will address God Like Friend without exposing the company to a lawsuit. Spock sorts it all out and gives Captain Kirk his options:
Should you watch it?
Yes, it’s a fun story and as the second pilot, you’ll see things (like Spock’s choice of work shirt) that aren’t figured out.
Vital Statistics
| What Happened? | This adventure | All time | Notes |
| HR Incident | 2 | 2 | Kirk’s Friend sexually harasses the ship psychologist on the bridge in front of the management team. |
| Shirtless Kirk | .5 | .5 | Can’t kill your buddy fully clothed. |
| Hookups? | 0 | 0 | |
| Encounters with exes? | 0 | 0 | |
| Redshirt Kills? | 0 | 0 | |
| Non Redshirt Kills? | 3 | 3 | |
| Offscreen Federation Kills? | 9 | 9 | |
| Non Federation Kills? | 0 | 0 |
Favorites: Mabox Linux
I’ve been playing with computers since the days of the Apple ][ running one of two operating systems: Disk Operating System (aka DOS) and Windows.
First, Some Background
Back in the day, you loaded the operating system into the PC on floppy discs.
Of course, the technology of the day didn’t affords luxuries such as multitasking, the ability to store multiple programs in memory or even a graphical user interface for the operating system. A user loaded the Operating system then loaded the disc(s) for whichever program they wished to run at the time.
By the 1990’s the cost of memory, storage and and graphics cards dropped far enough for a new type of operating system: a graphical user interface or GUI (pronounced “gooey”). Thanks to some poor decision making at Xerox and legal corporate espionage by Microsoft and Apple, the computer industry marched lockstep into the world of the desktop paradigm as shown below:
As we all know, Microsoft dominates the PC OS market (76% of the market) with Mac OS (19%) in a distant second per The Encyclopedia of Record. And that roughly tallies with my own usage of the competing operating systems. I’ve had some flirtations with Mac OS but most lived with Windows since the release of Windows 95.
Windows and Mac OS have an effective monopoly on the desktop OS market because software developers want to write applications for operating systems backed by multi-billion dollar corporations. You can’t make big bucks catering to a niche market. And for the most part, Windows and Mac OS work.
Wanting Something Different
But as a computer hobbyist I was missing out: much like gearheads who now have cars that are virtually impossible to work on in a meaningful sense I can’t really tweak Windows or Mac OS to suit my workflow and if an application fails, I’m on my own: the software is proprietary so I have to wait on paid developers to resolve the issue- and who’s to say that they would even be motivated to fix a bug that only impacts a few people?
Enter Linux
Linux is open source and community-led. Anyone with interest and ability can contribute to the codebase. One upside of this approach is a large number of distributions or versions of Linux. Though all operated the same under the hood, each Linux distribution offers its own look and feel.
In fact, Linux can be run entirely from a terminal windows like DOS if one was so inclined…
or Linux can be made to look like Windows
or Mac OS
for newbies who need a familiar computing environment.
No Start Menu. No Dock. No Icons.
The distribution I am using is called Mabox and doesn’t have the typical start menu or dock familiar to other PC users. When the computer starts up, I see this:
Hitting the Windows key or right clicking gets me a menu for applications and settings:
And when I run programs I can easily organize them using various easy to remember key combinations:
Multiple Desktops
Despite having this much workflow organization at my fingertips, I still find times when I need to use multiple desktops. Linux makes that easy too.
I can easily switch between desktops here- see how the taskbar shows the Desktops ‘main’ and ‘comms’ with their programs to the right.
Total Customization
Linux gives the power back to the user: if I want, I can have the typical desktop with shortcuts to my files and programs or live widgets to display system information, news and weather. The OS and almost all applications are free- I open up a program called Package Manager and download any program I want- the Package Manager installs all the files and dependencies that are needed without any input from me. Updates work the same way, too: I decide when to update my PC and Package Manger handles it all with one click.
Computing is both powerful and easy- once you take control back.
Final Thoughts
And that’s the quick tour- I’ve been using Linux for a little over a month. For ease of use, customization and responsiveness I can’t imagine going back to Windows other than in some rare instances when I need to use Adobe or Office products.
The Death of College Football
Murdered before our eyes and most of us never noticed.
New Year’s Day opened with the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl from Atlanta- and College Football and ESPN were in a bind.
Cincinnati rolled through their American Athletic Conference at 8-0 with only one challenge, a 36-33 win on the road against offensive powerhouse Central Florida. They followed their regular season up with a thrilling last second win over Tulsa in the American Athletic Conference Title Game, ending the season at 9-0 with two COVID-related cancellations.
For their efforts, Cincinnati was awarded 8th place in the final College Football Playoff rankings, safely distant from any opportunity to spoil the playoff party.
You see, the College Football Playoff exists only for the bluest of the blue bloods, those conference with the most money and political pull. EVERY playoff spot has been taken by a member of this so-called “Power Five”: the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC and independent Notre Dame a name so powerful that it has its own TV contract despite not having won a national title since 1988.
And they don’t want to share the money with smaller schools.
With a mere four playoff spots, they don’t have to. There’s always a more deserving Power Five School to put in the playoff.
The problem with winner take all games should be clear: without pro sports style competitive balance rules, all the rewards flow to those who already are successful: more money, better coaches and best recruits all flock to the schools with the best chance of winning a national title; no others need apply. In fact, only four teams have combined to take 20 or 28 playoff spots since the system was instituted in 2014.
Cincinnati and other schools from the “Group of Five” smaller conferences (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-America Conference, Mountain West and Sun Belt) have railed against the system for years, criticisms that gained steam when Central Florida won 25 games between 2017 and 2018- including a Peach Bowl win over Auburn. Surely, this was evidence that a well-coached Group of Five school should have a chance at least on occasion…
At the same time, college football’s powers that be had a problem of their own: the consolidation of power at the top of the pyramid. Even the writers at ESPN (the network which televises the Playoff) were pointing out the College Football Playoff had become predictable and stale, a trend made worse in a year where it felt like anything could happen:
We can quibble over résumés and who was most worthy of facing the No. 1 Crimson Tide as a double-digit underdog, but there is no surprise in what the committee did. In fact, the decisions on the top four were so predictable, it made the entire process stale and boring and so filled with an utter lack of meaningful debate that there is no reason for outrage because we all saw the way this was going to unfold.
https://www.espn.com/collegcincinnati%20football%202020e-football/story/_/id/30563882/college-football-playoff-2020-committee-remains-disappointingly-predictable
One of the four teams in the College Football Playoff was Ohio State from the Big Ten, a conference which started their season late as they wanted to pretend to care about COVID until the realization that they’d miss out on millions of dollars hit home. After approving a truncated schedule, the Big Ten doubled down on their assholery by granting Ohio State- a team which played only six games- an exemption to play in their Conference Title Game despite not having played enough games to qualify. Because dollar signs.
So Cincinnati, a team that played as complete a schedule as they could was going to play the hand it was dealt, take care of Georgia in Atlanta and make their claim as another high-grade Group of Five Team that got screwed by the big boys.
Cincinnati coach Fickell’s plan worked well with Cincinnati taking a 14-10 lead into halftime. Defensively, the Bearcats were able to limit Georgia’s offense and after some early struggle, Cincinnati’s offense was able to move the ball. Notably, Bearcat QB Demond Ridder drove the team down the field in the final two minutes of the half using his mobility to buy time for passes and more importantly, gas the Georgia defense.
Then this happened:
It wasn’t enough that all-conference left tackle James Hudson committed a late hit out of bounds… oh no, he also led with the crown of his helmet thereby earning himself an ejection. It’s difficult to imagine that such an act took place in a vacuum, at that moment in the game when the Bearcats were driving and wearing out Georgia’s offense.
The Bearcats eventually scored on the drive taking a 14-10 into halftime which they extended by scoring a rushing TD at the start of the second half to take a 21-10 lead. But the damage was done. and the offense fell apart from there And what do you know? Hudson’s backup Lorenz Metz was an abject disaster, committing three false start penalties (2 on 3rd and 2, effectively killing drives) and contributing to a porous pass protection that gave up four sacks, two of which led to fumbles.
The Bearcat defense held on as best they could, limiting Georgia to no third quarter scores but with no offensive help, they wilted and eventually surrendered the lead and the game.
So now the Power Five could pat little Cincinnati on the head and comfort them- “That’s cute, you tried so hard to play with the big boys. Maybe someday you’ll get there, Little Trooper.”
And fans across the country could safely focus on the College Football Playoff semifinals taking place later in the day, oblivious to how close Cincinnati came to upsetting the entire apple cart.
Favorites: rOtring Mechanical Pencil
I have never been a person who gave much thought to utility items- pens, pencils, paper, and other single use, inexpensive commodity items. The combination of low cost and fungibility made me a little lazy, I suppose: why invest thought into cheap, easily replaceable gear when I can direct that attention elsewhere?
I’ve evolved a bit over the course of the reset, directing more thought to my office space and the tools that I leverage in my craft. And yes, there is a craftiness to my work. Or at least I like to pretend.
When writing, I’m a pencil guy. Not just a pencil guy, but a mechanical pencil guy. A man like me has to be able to erase mistakes and I always have to have a pencil ready when it’s time to write: who has pencil sharpeners hand with all the associated nonsense?
But most of the mechanical pencils I have owned were plasticky and cheap feeling, even when they had supercool features like Proper Shortcode Usage is: [tooltips keyword='wordpress' content = 'hello, wp'] or [tooltips content = 'hello, wp']wordpress[/tooltips]
Not the rOtring Rapid PRO Mechanical Pencil. This bad boy has a metal body which gives it a heft I’ve never gotten from any other writing device. It feels more like a tool than a pencil and that gives me a sense of professionalism as well.
Several models are available to suit your preferred lead size. .05 mm, 0.7mm and 2.0mm but I’ve always preferred super fine lines, grabbing the 0.5mm model.
If you like pencils, give the rOtring Rapid PRO a run.
The “Fall” of America
A blog I frequent argues that like Atlantis, America is set to fall. I agree that we are approaching the end of an age in which the model of civilization exemplified by consumerist industrial America is at an end (see here and here).
“Fall” doesn’t have to be a negative- the underlying dream of America as a country founded not on blood ties but on the idea of a place where people are free to become the best version of themselves will always be with us.
But, we have some serious housecleaning to do because we’ve let our worst instincts run amok- the public arena is dominated by our collective shadow, an id that is out of control like a teenager on a coke binge. THAT’S the America I expect to fall and we are all in for surprises as the end of that America unfolds.
We can still prevent the pain if only we could agree on the problem but any agreement in our fragmented collective consciousness seems farther away than ever. We analyze, deconstruct and converse to win rather than build a common vision of where we are and where we want to go as a people.
So we are going to get some outside help?
The Clown Brigade
The democrats are a hapless bunch of losers who nominated a brain damaged unrepentant racist and possible child molester paired with a gal who prosecuted blacks charged with victimless crimes to pad her record AND slept her way into middle management.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-san-francisco-mayor-addresses-past-relationship-with-sen-kamala-harris
How are these two people going to mobilize a party that is half anti Trump but otherwise decent people and half antifa punks who want to tear down civilization? If it wasn’t for COVID, Trump would have won in a landslide that would make 84 Reagan blush.
Seriously, fuck the Democratic party. It won’t even exist in five years and I’m not going to be shocked if their leaders got the noose for what they’ve done to subvert the government and 2016 election results.
Stable Genius or King of the Dipshits?
So Trump’s an idiot, right?
Have you heard this guy speak? He’s a moron!
And a criminal, too? Possibly a Russian agent of influence?
That’s a given seeing how he’s been under investigation since day one.
I’d think a stupid criminal would be easy to catch- what with the FBI, a hostile Congress and a Special Prosecutor all after him.
Maybe he’s a criminal mastermind?
uhhh….
Or I suppose it could be that the FBI, Robert Mueller and Congress are all comically inept abject failures who Keystone Copped a layup investigation and are beyond incapable of catching an idiot like Trump.
In any case, why would I vote for a Democrat? The fact that this management team is either utterly outclassed when it comes to Criminal Mastermind Stable Genius Trump or is so incompetent that they can’t pin a single charge on The King of the Dipshits tells me I don’t dare entrust them with anything important.
<crickets>
Prima Vox Allofthat
Holy crap, the 123rd Signal Battalion would have the sharpest dressed hockey team in the military.