this is a post all about my recent love of star trek
and all the entire community i’ve encountered that has come along with it.
heavy nerdery ahead.

Hi guys, this is my life. I’ve spent nearly 50 dollars watching the new Star Trek movie in the theatres, I’ve met up with strangers off the internet for dinner and Trek conversations, I’ve revived my love of action figures and have fallen down, face first, back into my childhood adoration of science fiction.

Why?

Because. I mean, look:

There is no way around the fact. Recent cinematic expereiences have made my previous punishment of having to sit through Star Trek the Next Generation null and voice. Then again, watching Star Trek the Next Generation as a kid didn’t come with this:

ONTD_STARTREK. As I’ve stated before, I’m easily impressed by community based actions and interactions, but, as a rule, I’ve never much entered into fandom. In fact, fandom has always kind of frightened me. I’ve always stayed at the edge of everything, watching people either enjoy themselves of blow up. It seemed kinda not my thing.

Until now.

I’ve been quite lucky enough to jump into a community that not only has an extreme love of the new Star Trek film, but, also a deep respect for the Original stuff, which, I can get behind. Especially when I feel now I should watch it, cringing in my room but also enjoying every moment of it. And it’s a community of no-hate and all love. From the ridic macros to even walking posts, it seems worth it all. Fandom? No way, it’s a festival of awesome. It perpetuates my small interest, letting it explode and be shared with people. There wouldn’t be an interest in anything for me if I didn’t have people to share it with. So it’s become something with a heartbeat. With it’s little fingers in everything I do. So when people wonder why I get so excited about both Star Trek and all the bits that now come with it (to me), I always feel I should pull out a little scrapbook and show them.

So, this is it. My little scrapbook.

this shirt was made for me by the intensely awesome Dana Danger. It was birthed in thought one random night over a party post and next thing I know, it appeared in my mailbox. I want to live in it. I never want to take it off. It’s special! It’s both Star Trek awesome and friendship awesome. How good is that?

ONTD_ST GQMF MEETUPS? Yes please! Living down where I live, I never really get a chance to be social, but, a chance to be social WITH someone I share both an interest and a community with? Yes please! Star Trek and it’s related nerdiness has let me bridge the gap with more people I know ‘just online’ to people I can spend time with and not worry about how terrible my arms look in a tank top. that’s a little wonder in and of itself. Katrina, you rock my pyramid.

And of course, the GQMFs themselves, which I think is pretty self-explanatory, but, this may illustrate that some more:

So, does that explain it enough? Or am I just going crazy here?

For those of you who haven’t yet realized: I love community ventures. I’m a huge fan of community based projects, social interlinking and the ability to make your own working network based on whatever thing with people from all over the place. This is one of the things I love best about the internet. I have always been a person who is either constrained by location or inability and maybe that’s why I love these things so much, but, I think because of this I’ve been able to be a part of a few really cool things.

This summer? I’ll be partaking in Infinite Summer. It is basically a large scale reading club, with a bunch of people taking on the task of reading Infinite Jest, a novel by David Foster Wallace (who passed away nearly a year ago) and discussing it via forums and Twitter accounts. I’ll admit, I never heard much about DFW until he passed away, but what I had heard was fantastic. Several places cited Infinite Jest as something almost magical and it seemed to have some of its legs in things that I was interested in. So, when I found out about this project, I decided to join.

I’ve been reading it for about a week now and I’m about 30 pages behind of the daily reading point, but, that’s what rainy Sundays are for. I’ve already started picking out favourite characters and favourite passages, and I’ve decided to share my thoughts on this reading project over the course of the summer. So every Sunday from here until the official end of summer, expect an entry about the week’s readings. If you don’t want to be spoiled on Infinite Jest, or you have no care or concern for it, you’re free to boycott this blog on Sunday. But, Sundays only.

“The parishes around N.O. had been having a spate or outbreak of certain Latin-origin breed of sinister tropical flying roaches, that were small and timid but could fucking fly…”

p.45 (2006 10th aniversary edition)

Orin has slowly won over my affection as my first favourite character in this novel. If only because the way his narration flows is really like hearing him speak or think. He goes on and on about roaches and waking up in horribly anxious moods and I can’t help but wanting to hear him go on and on about it some more. Of everything I’ve read so far this week, he’s the one that has struck a chord with me. I’m interested in hearing more about him.

And for the record, some people really disliked the Wardine bit? I actually loved it.

So, is there anyone else out there who has read Infinite Jest? Or anyone who is a part of Infinite Summer. If you are, perk up, I’d love to hear from you. It’s not a community based reading project if I’m doing it alone.

This week? What talent do you wish you had.

I struggled with thinking on this one. There’s always been a lot that I wish I could do. I wish I could draw well and I wish I could sew properly and I even wish I could sing, but, leaning back in my bed earlier today with my blankets all wrapped up around me and my eyes staring off into dead space, I recalled the one thing I am always saying and always wondering why it never works. I realized, it was something that took more than dedication and hard work, it was something that your brain had to have the knack for, the talent for.

I wish I could learn and speak many languages.

I have tried my entire life to learn Italian. I’ve taken numerous courses in high school and college. I joined all the requisite clubs, bought all the right books, spent time in the mornings pouring over verb conjucations and the difference between past and past perfect, present and future and through all of that I’ve ended up with only the ability to ask for a cup of coffee, sing happy birthday and tell someone my name.

I can’t even ask where the restroom is in Italian.

On top of all that, I’ve spent the other part of my life trying to replicate Spanish in a proper sounding tone without coming off as a total idiot. I mix up all my conjucations, I make up words, I eventually just point to things, deteriorate into Spanglish or give up and just add accents to English words.

Other than all that, I cry wishing I could understand all the curse words in foreign films, the lyrics to bad 90’s german industrial songs and the screechy whine of anime characters.

Problem is, I just can’t parse anything other than English most of the time. Call it a mental block, call it half-hearted learning, call it anything but to me, I just don’t have the talent for it. It doesn’t make sense. Like numbers, it’s all a jumble of letters that look silly next to one another but sound really nice when someone else utters them.

But, without talent, in my Sci-Fi Future, I can’t be a Xenolinguistic.

Damn.

Sometimes I come across some of the things I’ve written far in the past and I’m almost shocked that I was able to produce it. I can’t remember at all where my head was, how it got there, or how I was able to come up with it.

After enough time, I can become inspired by my own work.

Last night I came across an old piece of writing I did for a specific project that is no longer in use. Instead of making me feel nostalgic for the old friends and old things we used to do together, I was hit by the words I wrote, the passion and interest in the subject I must have had to be able to come up with it.

It may be from 2007, but, after seeing it, I felt ready to write again.
Do you ever find your old things and feel inspired by them?

Fever Dreams