In talking with friend, and of course responses to my other post on time travel, I am recalling more movies and TV shows that involved some sort of time travel.

I’m going to get the various STAR TREK shows and movies that had some time travel in them out of the way now.

I’m just pulling these off the top of my head, so I’m sure I miss one or two (or more), I’m going after my favorites, not all of them (There were many).

Since I had to stop watching the ENTERPRISE show when it moved to cable only, I can’t comment much on the time traveling adversary that was in that show. The last season I saw, had Captain Archer looking at a view of the future… I didn’t see anything after that and I don’t know what happened.

In Star Trek the original series, there were many time travel shows, some with the Enterprise sling shotting around a star or the Sun to go into the past. Others with other agents that allowed them to visit the past.

Of them all my favorites are “Assignment Earth” with Agent Gary Seven. I assumed that this may have been setting up a spinoff show, but I don’t recall anything coming from that.

And the “City on the Edge of Forever”. Going back and changing history based on saving the life of one person. Was this a show to say how important the acts of one could be, or a morality show to say we should not delve into things we don’t comprehend?

That’s enough of the TV shows, my favorite time travel STAR TREK was the Star Trek IV — The Voyage home. Lots of funny stuff in that one. Russian on a US Aircraft Carrier (the Enterprise) during the height of the cold war. Spock with the whales. Scotty giving the engineer the formula for Transparent Aluminum, or trying to talk to the computer. Just a fun show.

Of course the Next Generation got into the act of time travel. I don’t recall as many of those so I guess they didn’t make much of an impression on me. But the First Next Generation movie used the “NEXUS” to travel around time? Of course Kirk was brought to the future to save the day. Then in the Star Trek Next GEN: First Contact. The new Enterprise fights the Borg and goes back in time to the first Faster than light travel from Earth. I found that show very interesting in spots, but generally don’t like shows with the Borg. Just my preference.

One of my favorite time travel Star Treks has to be on Deep Space Nine “Trials and Tribble-ations. Some of the crew from Deep Space Nine go back in time and interact with the original Star Trek Series, Trouble with Tribbles episode. Worf’s line about the Klingons on the space station is worth watching it one more time…

Since I can’t travel backward in time, only forward at a set speed, I guess that’s enough for now. I was just a blogging fool this evening.

Two dreams stuck with me all day in a very short time. This could be an indication that I’m sleeping better, or just my mind needing to work things out. Not sure if anyone got much out of the last dream but since I started blogging to clear my mind, here it is.

Started out as a very mundane dream, I’m driving my daughters (all four of them for some reason) to some University. The name of the University was never brought up, but we were going there to install the youngest in her first dorm room.

While driving I suddenly knew I was going to California. This was because we drove across the old “Iron” bridge around home. The one that “C” would never drive across. For some reason the story of “C” never driving across that bridge made us all laugh. (Side note — This bridge no longer exists in real life, in fact it was torn down well before “C” moved to the area, he never saw it.)

So in California we start setting up the youngest in her dorm room. All the girls are having great fun trying to decorate the room to make it seem a little like home. I tell the girls that since we are there and have a bit of time to spend together we should do a little site seeing. We come across an arts and crafts fair in the city the college is located. Now for some reason, the three oldest girls are no longer in the dream. I’m with my youngest still getting ready for school and her mother and we are touring the arts/crafts fair. Now to steal a line from Dickens, Her Mother “was dead to begin with… this you must remember”… This of course did not seem at all weird in the dream, it was only when I woke up that I remembered that.

Well the three of us our touring the crafs and my dear wife takes us to her table. She always wanted to do a craft table in such a fair, but we never did get around to it. All of her various needle work/sewing, knitting, crocheting were on the table. There were things I remembered, and new things I never saw before.

We are really enjoying ourselves when my wife says it is time to get “B” ready for college.

Here I wake up suddenly. It is almost time to leave to get my daughter to her ACT test. No alarm has rung, and my daughter is still asleep. I wake her up and we get to the test in plenty of time… And still the dream is with me….

Every once in a while a remake is made of a movie. Most of the time it is because the first movie was very good, and they think the remake will be as good. Such movies that come to my mind are “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1999 and 1968) and “Oceans Eleven” (2001 and 1960). Today I saw a remake of an different sort. One that was made because the first movie wasn’t everything it could be. Today I saw “The Incredible Hulk” (2008).

I’m going to try very hard not to give any big spoilers, I won’t tell you the end or anything about the big battle we all know I HULK movie should have. I just want to talk about what was done right this time. The original HULK movie was one I barely mention that I saw. From somebody who really likes comic book movies (see other posts — shameless plug for my own writing), The first Hulk really does not exist for me other than a bad dream.

So what did the 2008 version of the HULK have? Let’s start with the most important need of any movie. It had a very good story line and plot. The action of the plot drove the characters. The characters seemed to react and not act. All the characters, from the leads to the cameos and the supporting to the CGI actors were believable. Could I tell it was a CGI character, sure, but that did not detract from the movie (Its about a comic book, should that really make a difference?) But the CGI characters were believable. They had expression and enough realism to be considered as other parts of the story. This had a lot to do with the quality of the story in addition to the quality of the actors.

Now on to the characters. I’ve seen most of the main characters in at least one other movie. Some of these movies were very memorable. I didn’t see those characters in this movie. Again this is one of my best compliments to actors and writers. I don’t want to see an Elf princess as a respected scientist, love interest in a movie that has no elves. I don’t want to see an illusionist as a studious scientist either. I didn’t see that. They became their characters, and the story drove them, or they drove the story. This would have been a good movie even if the comic never existed.

My rating —- This will be one I see again in the expensive (stadium seating) theater. That, of course, means the DVD will join my collection.

Slight spoilers… Things I liked because I liked the campy TV show…. And I like comics

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Bruce Banner’s eyes when he changes to the Hulk look very similar to the old TV show.

The lab equipment that is used to create the Hulk also looks a lot like the old TV show.

At the beginning of the movie, Bruce Banner is watching TV, a clip from the old Bill Bixby TV show “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” is on.

Bruce Banner using the line or trying “You won’t like me when I’m angry”

Lou Ferrigno’s cameo and his being the Voice of the Hulk.

Stan Lee’s Cameo.

Tony Stark showing up during the movie.

The super soldier serum from WWII is mentioned.

There were others, but I can’t remember them now.

I have relatives all over this country. Some I know quite well, others not so well. But just about a month ago, my daughter was in the middle of some wildfires blazing in her area of Florida. Now my little sister is in the midst of massive flooding in Iowa. I suggested putting the water in buckets to carry it to the drought areas, but I think the cost of that is a bit much.

This did get me thinking about all the things that happen and get out of control.

Fires, on one hand they are beneficial. For warmth, cooking, light, ambiance, and at one time protection, fire is wonderful. Out of control, it can be a very destructive and fast moving force. After seeing the destruction of a wild fire, it is a wonder how anything can survive them.

As bad as that is the destructive force of the wind (hurricanes and tornadoes) can overwhelm our control at an even quicker pace than fire. There is nothing humanly possible to stop the quick and often deadly force of the wind.

And finally rain and floods. If you’ve ever seen the power generated by flood waters first hand, you would know enough to stay very clear of them. As little as 1 foot of quickly moving water can move a full size car. Just recently on the news 2 story houses were shown washing away in the power of a flooded river. Bridges, road, houses, and the land itself are washed away by the power of water.

We need the air, rain and even fire (I don’t care what you use to heat your house I bet something is burning to provide it) to survive and flourish, but we need to heed the hidden strength these things carry. It can sometimes make you feel very small to see the power released.

I commented on something in another site, that got me thinking about time travel, instantaneous travel, and relativistic travel. Some heavy thinking for this late in the day, but I’m here now.

Time travel has been in our collective stories for centuries. The early stories were all using magic or wishes to go back in time. This was used to correct mistakes, make different choices or somehow get something you missed out on. I don’t have any of the myths and stories available to me at the moment, but I seem to remember a common theme. It generally didn’t work out the way it was planned. That doesn’t always mean bad things happened, just not the planned things.

In 1895 H. G. Wells published a book where a machine was used to travel back in time. The Time Machine was one of the early science fiction works on time travel. Many other authors have written works on time travel, and there have been many movies and even a TV show or two about time travel. As these stories progressed, the time travel paradox was brought up. What would happen if you went back in time and prevented your birth sort of thing. This stuff can get deep quickly, so I’ll leave it for another topic. I was just thinking about the time travel stories..

Then we have instantaneous or faster than light travel. Used in almost every Space science fiction story known this type of travel was invented by the story tellers out of need. They needed to get from one end of the Galaxy to the other without writing about long voyages or worse yet relativity. Transporters on StarTrek were made to save money on the effects of a shuttle craft landing. If you ever noticed the when a shuttle craft was used in the original series, it was always a plot device, and that justified the cost.

But of course, Einstein said that the Universe has a speed limit, the speed of light. That gets rid of the instantaneous/faster than light travel, but again brings back the time travel story. Space ship captain goes away an some high fraction of the speed of light, comes back to earth and finds out many many years have passed on earth and his twin brother is now a very old man…. I remember a story or two like that, but I don’t recall them at the present.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head, so I can relax and get some rest….

I’ve only been blogging for a little while, but I’ve been reading blogs for longer than they’ve been called blogs. While I won’t say I created the internet, I’ve been on it since for a very long time. So now I’m asking the question what makes an interesting Blog? Of course, since this is my blog, I’m going to answer that question too. At least in my opinion. 😉

The first thing that draws my attention to a blog is the person who writes it. I don’t hop from blog site to blog site looking for blogs to read. My personal preference, but to each their own. The second is content. Here I will do searches and sometimes find blogs that fit my search. If they have good content, I will read them. Are they accurate if it is an informational blog? Funny if a humorous blog? Clever, fun, easy to read, catches the eye, interesting. All these play a role in the content of the blog. Finally, blog personality. How does the person writing the blog ‘sound’? Do they seem like a person I could get along with, or get in an argument with (I like a good argument every now and again)? Does the blogger seem real?

That’s it one paragraph on what makes a good blog for me. And I have found them. Check my blog links, they are some good ones. Unfortunately, one of my favorite blogs is no longer in existence. My nephew wrote a blog years ago, but for some reason gave it up. Some of the most interesting reading I’ve ever seen, from a person I only thought I knew. His blog was everything a good blog should be.

I don’t remember my dreams very often, but when I do they are always a little on the strange side. My latest dream (last night) was no exception. The exception was, is that it stayed with me all day. Usually I forget them by the time I drive to work. This one is still strong in my memory.

Started with me being in an apartment, instead of my house. That in and of itself isn’t too strange, but I it was supposed to be an apartment building I lived in before. I’ve only lived in two, and this wasn’t either of them. Anyway I was entering an apartment that wasn’t mine. It was by mistake. I was trying to enter the apartment I had the last time I lived there. The lady living in the apartment wondered what I was doing, and I explained I just had a brain freeze and jumped back 20+ years. She laughed and dropped the bag of stuff she was carrying. As I helped pick up the stuff, she gave me a quick peck on the cheek. Strange, but it seemed important at the time.

Jump some indistinct time period, I find that some other lady in the apartment building is planning to murder me. I didn’t know why or how, but I was able to listen in to the entire conversation without anyone knowing. Going out the the garage to contact the authorities, I’m shoved into a big black van. I’m assuming these are the guys that will do me in. No, they’re a rock band that live in another apartment. They needed me to run their lights and sound for their gig. The first lady met is going to be their lead singer. Now the van drives off and is pursued by a red corvette.

The band and lady turn out to be some sort of government agents. They push me behind some crates, open the back doors of the van and start shooting at the Corvette. The guys in the corvette shoot back. We are going quickly down a highway that looks a lot like I95 in Florida?? Where did that swamp come from?

Van doors close and the FBI guys are again a band. I run lights and sound for the gig and head back home. I meet the lady who was setting up my murder and she wants to go out on the town. Thinking nothing of this I go, followed by the FBI guys again.

Then I wake up, only I’m still in my dream. I go to the apartment of the first lady, really thinking that she would be interested in the dream, only to discover that she lives with the second lady and they are plotting to kill me. I run out the door, only to run into the van full of FBI guys. The wild chase begins again… Then the alarm rings.

Yep, time to get up and go to work.

This day actually started some time yesterday evening. During a thunderstorm in the area and a tornado close to us, 4 outlets in our house went out. I’m thinking something in the storm caused it, because to was only part of a complete circuit. Looked like I would have to replace at least on outlet. I couldn’t tell from a exterior glance as to which outlet shorted out. So I put a trip to the hardware store on my Saturday to-do list. The first thing on the list was getting my daughter to her SAT testing.

Now on to Saturday Morning… Storm damage from the previous night’s storms caused some rough driving. A normal 40 minute drive took closer to 1 hour. We just made it just in time to the SAT testing site. Hmm, day not starting off well…

I had to wait around for at least an hour for the hardware store to open, so I stopped for coffee. Those who have known me for a while, know that my favorite coffee shop closed for good a little over 2 years ago. This was the place my dear wife and I spent many happy times, just getting away from the kids, planning for future things, getting to know one another again after 4 children. Good memories in that little place. I have yet to find any coffee shop that comes close to the atmosphere, quality of the coffee, food ect. and the people who frequent the shop itself. The place I stopped in today had a very nice atmosphere (except for the big screen TV, but I went around the corner from that). The coffee was very good. The food I had ok, but nothing special.. Not many people there, so I couldn’t say anything about that. Too bad it was a 40 minute drive… Too far for a once a week type of thing.

After the coffee, I could get the things I needed to replace at least 1 outlet. I got 4 new outlets just in case. I still had at least 2 hours to wait for the SAT to finish. Stopped at another store and was able to find some water filters for our office at work. I installed an older water filter on the tap at work, but the filters have been hard to find. I try to pick up extra whenever I see them on the shelf. Filtered water makes better coffee ya know… Now only 1 1/2 hours for the test to let out…

Got a call from my daughter in FL, we talked until my Cell battery almost died. Then I got a notice that I had 3 messages… Two were from the day before!!! They weren’t there when I got up in the morning, I checked… Storm must have hit a local tower or something?? Anyway a friend wanted to get together to (in his words) “just get out of the house”. Great!! How does one decide what to do when I was already invited to oldest daughter’s place for fun and games… Hmmm. Well, I was expecting a call from the oldest earlier in the week to finalize the plans. It never happened. I let my youngest test goer decide… Friend won the toss.

So after a good lunch youngest, and I head out for some fun. We played games (all sorts), and just had a lot of fun. We played a miniature bowling game. The balls were slightly larger than a softball, no holes, and the pins were on strings/wires. If you ever see one, try it out. They are very fun. We also played indoor mini-golf (black lit area with dark black ‘greens’, and glowing colored bumpers and obstructions). This was fun to, but it did make it hard to ‘read the greens’. I ended up with a hole in one on the last hole. We also played a number of arcade games for ‘tickets’. It was a fun afternoon/evening… Good idea C…

Now I’m tired and ready for bed…. What a Day…

I’ve been reflecting this evening about the things I think about. While watching Jeopardy, I noticed (again) there are some subjects I’m very good at, others (opera, actors/actresses, TV shows) I’m not as good at. If you do specific actors, If I like them I will know most of there works, if I don’t well none of it sinks in even if they are in one or more of my favorite shows.

Anyway, I was trying to determine what type of information that takes root in this brain of mine. Computer stuff, most of the time. Math– well it used to, some is still there. Science– A lot, mainly the physical sciences (Earth Sciences, Astronomy, Physics, some Chemistry). Things dealing with logic (math/word puzzles). Politics, current and some historical. Some history, geography. Comic book heroes, well some of them anyway. Science Fiction and Fantasy books I’ve read (short list, I don’t read everything). Some movie trivia (mainly Disney, Lord Of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Comic Book Movies, Harrison Ford movies, Mysteries, some comedies). Word play (taking and twisting words/meanings for fun). Some things of religious nature, especially the odd and frequently outside of common knowledge stuff.

Things that don’t take root. Anything about TV sitcoms (exceptions Mash, Barney Miller). TV shows in general (I don’t pay attention to much on TV anymore). Theater/Movies/Plays/Opera (except as noted above, or I’ve been in a specific show). Musical Groups/artists and Song titles. Artists and their work with a very few exceptions (I know the common stuff, who painted the Mona Lisa or the Sistine Chapel). Spelling/grammar (who knows, who cares sort of thing).

Other than that things come and go in my knowledge base quite frequently. If I’ve been playing Trivia games, I tend to keep trivia in my head. If I’m working on an intense project at work, that information needed there is front and center. Discussing Politics frequently, well that information becomes available.

Somethings stay in my head all the time. I can tell you when each daughter was born (it may take a second or two). I can tell you the day and time I proposed to my wife. I never forgot an anniversary. I remember the birthday of my first crush. I know what my last words to my wife were, I know hers to me, and her last words (that weren’t to me).

It seems like sometimes there shouldn’t be much room for anything else in my head. I do tend to keep some information that is no longer needed (Do I really need to remember the favorite color of a girl I dated in 1981?). Some I wish I would have remembered better (sending things in the mail at the right time). If I could only figure out how to store and keep the information I want/need and get rid or archive the information I don’t need/want. If I could figure that out I could write a book and retire…

Yes, a post about dogs, cats, rats, mice, rabbit, chinchillas and all the other furry animals we share our homes and lives with.

I have a house filled with small animals. 1 dog, 1 rabbit and 7 chinchillas. Over the years we’ve had mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, and one hedge hog. I was never really a pet person, all pets in the house were my wife’s or daughters’. Our little dog was a working dog. He was for part of his life a hearing-ear-dog. After my wife died, he quit that job, and just became a grump. But at times he can be a very good little dog. Because of who he is and what his job was, he does hold a special spot in the house (right behind the couch).

The chinchilla is probably the softest animal around. While they are usually very active and inquisitive, some of them will sit still for some cuddling time. Some like to be petted, some don’t. I think they’re as picky as cats.

Rabbits are also very soft animals, and will generally sit still for a while to be petted. They will let you know when they are done with it though. You generally find yourself with a wet lap.

The other little furry pets all have good points and bad, but they can bond and will bond with people. I’m not sure why that is, but it has happened in this house.

Now most of the animals in this house are coming to the end of their natural lives. I’m not sure if this house will ever be without pets, but the years with these pets is slowing going to pass. Dogs and chinchillas will both live 15 years or so. The oldest may be past that, I’m not sure she was old when we got her. The rabbits can live about 10 years, so our little rabbit is almost there. I’m not sure what we will do when the last little furry friend is gone. That can be thought about later.

These little friends have meant a lot to this family, and sometimes even kept us sane.