Snarking: The Next Generation

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So we've started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. Tonight, we saw interstellar meth heads  (also seen in Wrath of Khan) and we got to see an awesome new instrument which I have dubbed the "Dildophone."
Like a xylophone, only with peens.

Tom said I should learn to play the Dildophone and I said "hang on, let me find my mallets" and then Tom snarfed his dinner.

On a related note, I may have told my class that the Egyptian creator god masturbated the universe into being because he was bored and that Isis invented the dildo. And something about the personification of PMS.

If I had remembered how much I was going to have to talk about penises and incest, I probably wouldn't have decided on religion and magic this term...  Seriously, Egyptian religion is like those dreadful VC Andrews novels no one admits they read back in the day.

This week I've been battling a wicked cold or something. I cannot brain good. Fortunately class didn't meet today so I didn't subject them to even more random blathering. Well, actually I did, but it was electronic.

Not Watching Star Trek for Once

Instead of doing class prep or otherwise being productive I've been watching terrible television. As in I was watching Toddlers and Tiaras. (I am very ashamed. Also, horrified.)

Then Netflix broke for a while.
Pretty sure that was a sign from the Universe that I should pollute my brain in other ways.

So, when Netflix starting working again, I decided to watch The Omen, because I love that movie for some reason. Probably Gregory Peck. And it is far, far less scary than Toddlers and Tiaras.

The last time I watched The Omen, I had never seen the Irish TV series Father Ted. I have since, however, become a rabid fan of it.

These things wouldn't be connected except that now, whenever I see the crazed old priest trying to warn Gregory Peck that his child is the spawn of Satan, I see Father Jack. Someone with the skills needs to replace all the priest scenes in the film with Father Jack yelling "Feck! Arse! Girls! DRINK!"

Holy crap, your kid is evil!

FECK!

Significant Research

Jane Austen, Watercolour and pencil portrait by her sister Cassandra, 1810 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There's an invisible mummy in the background. Therefore, research!

I've been working very, very hard on course development. By watching Father Ted. Totally religious. Yes. Totally. Waaaaay connected to Egyptian religion and magic (in that there is religion and they are both set mostly on the same planet). It is absolutely, delightfully insane and hilarious, especially if you were raised Catholic. And it's on Netflix.

I've also found a beautiful Irish folk song that reminds me of my Nana and puts me in mind of how her parents and family must have felt when they emigrated. It's called A Stor Mo Chroi ("treasure of my heart")
This verse especially:

A Stór Mo Chroí, in the stranger's land
There is plenty of wealth and wailing.
Whilst gems adorn the great and the grand
There are faces with hunger pailing.
Though the road is toilsome, and hard to tread
And the lights of their cities will blind you.
Won't you turn a stór to Erin's shore
And the ones that you're leaving behind you.

I particularly like Amelia Hogan's rendition if you can find it.

And, um, re-reading Pride and Prejudice and a modern "sequel" (no, not the one with zombies). I was entirely uninterested in Jane Austen until a few years ago and now I'm all "oooooohhhhhh, get outta my way, I'm making Regency costumes..." It's at least around the same time the Rosetta Stone was found...
I've only managed Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility so far. Weirdly, I found it much easier to read and follow P&P on my Kindle than it had been in print. I'm guessing my print books had tiny characters in a weird font, maybe. Anyway, yet more reason to love my Kindle. Now if I can only learn to read and knit at the same time or convince myself to try audiobooks...

And in the process of writing this post, I have discovered a P&P sequel with an Egyptological twist - Pride and Pyramids (linkage below).

Related articles

• Pride and Pyramids Blog Tour with Authors Amanda Grange & Jacqueline Webb & Giveaway

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The Trouble with The Trouble with Tribbles

Image via Wikipedia

Folding laundry, packing, etc, and watching Star Trek. The Trouble with Tribbles at the moment.

You know the famous scene of Kirk in the pile of tribbles falling out of the overhead storage compartment?

How creepy is it to realize Kirk is essentially standing in a pile of recently deceased animals? Ewwwww!!!
Reasonably certain they deleted the "ewww! flail!!!" scene.

Spoiler Alert: (for those too lame to watch Star Trek)
At the end we find out Scotty has disposed of the overload of tribbles on the Enterprise by beaming them somewhere.

Kirk is all "holy shit, you didn't beam them into space, you monstrous Haggis-eater!" (I may be fuzzy on the exact dialogue. Oh, wow, that was a horrible pun.)

Scotty is all "dude, chill, what the hell, I'm not that demented! I sent them to the Klingon ship. Geez, are you PMSing or what this episode?"

And then everyone is all LULZ, Klingons and tribbles hate each other - EPIC TROLL IS EPIC!

Except how are the Klingons going to deal with the tribbles unless it's by killing them in some way? Or will this become some interstellar game of Pass the Tribbles?

It's Not the Flight Suit, Dude

Image via WikipediaPacking and watching Star Trek.  Tomorrow is Yesterday is on at the moment.  That's the one when they get flung back to the 1960s and beam an Air Force pilot aboard after the mess up his jet.

Anyway, Kirk shows the guy around and eventually says "that flight suit must be uncomfortable, why don't we get you a change of clothes..."

Pretty sure that was a come-on.

Awkward!

Yet Again, I'm Glad I No Longer Have Cable

So far as I can tell, this is not a joke. Well, it is a joke, but wasn't intended as such. Ima go rock back and forth in a corner and cry now.
Bonus points for the truly ridiculous descriptions available in the episode guide plus the suggestion that viewers might also enjoy shows about ancient aliens.

Hilariously, I think I was one of many people who received email invitations to apply/audition for a place on the show. I'm fairly certain I read the message, giggled, and deleted it, but I'll have to dig through old archives to be sure, just in case there's some added hilarity.

Another silver lining to my lack of cable access is probably the fact that it will keep me from live-blogging the shows via Twitter and getting sued. :P

Ho Hum

Another day of tiredness and day two of rather dramatic muscle spasms in my trunk.  I'm starting to get sore, which is especially annoying.
So, I'm still taking it easy.  Did a bit of crocheting while we watched another episode from the first season of Lost (yes, I know, we're several years behind the times), but my hands started to hurt again, so I've left off.
I've been re-reading The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott for the first time since 2007 and enjoying it immensely. I haven't even been excessively bothered by some not-so-pleasant memories I was worried would be stirred up in association (fingers-crossed that remains the case).  I'm about to start on book two now, we'll see if I get bored and have to switch gears for a while.

I Pity the Fool! Mr. T - needle felted

I Pity the Fool! Mr. T - needle felted
Originally uploaded by feltalive

One of the most awesome pop culture inspired art/craft pieces I've seen lately.
This reminds me that I have all the A-Team seasons waiting in my Roku queue...