Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Just for Mac

Lit meme a la Dawno's Star Trek shelf

The faces of the greatest warriors of the past ten centuries stared down at Klag, son of M'Raq. Well why can't I take her with me? Most of the adults he saw, in fact, were accompanied by one or more small children, who were running, laughing, and playing as their parents struggled to keep up -- and most of the parents had a baby or two in their arms as well. She knelt down beside an uncoscious Red Nasat who had lost chunks of his chorion shell. "Take it away."

Almost works, doesn't it?

1. Book 1 -- first sentence of AGood Day to Die (I.K.S. Gorkon book 1- Next Generation) by Keith R. A. DeCandido
3. Book 2 -- last sentence on page 50 The Dominion, Worlds of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, vol 3 by David R. George III
4. Book 3 -- second sentence on page 100 StarTrek: Ex Machina by Christopher L. Bennett (original series)
5. Book 4 -- next to the last sentence on page 150 BreakdownsStar Trek S.C.E book 7 collected stories by various authors, first published in e-book form
6. Book 5 -- final sentence of the book The Red King, Star Trek Titan by Andy Manigels and Michael A. Martin (new series set around William Riker's new command of the USS Titan)
7. Make the five sentences into a paragraph.
8. Feel free to "cheat" to make it a better paragraph.
9. Name your sources
10.Post to your blog.


I feel compelled, for some strange reason, to talk about my Star Trek novelization collection. It started when I was in 6th grade in Taipei,Taiwan at the end of he 60's. There was a shop not to far from home (in a village called Tien Mou - not sure about the spelling) that sold used American paperback books. I found the entire James Blish novelisation series of the original Star Trek episodes there. I bought them all. I had seen Star Trek on TV before we left for Taiwan and I was hooked. I had started reading science fiction in second grade with Robert Silverberg's Lost Race of Mars which I purchased for a quarter from the Scholastic Book Club. That was the start of a life long love of SF. Every library card in every book of the base library's SF section at Edwards AFB had my signature on it.

When I got back from Taiwan, Star Trek was no more. But someone started publishing new Star Trek books about the time I got to High School and I started buying them. From the early really cruddy ones where the Romulans were depicted as looking and acting like early Roman citizens with ray-guns to the ones where the series finally started reading like real SF just set in the Trek Universe. I have them all. The only series I haven't collected is Voyager and Enterprise. I'll probably break down and buy those too.

I also go to the conventions. I don't dress up but I love the talks by the actors and sometimes I pick up some neat collectables. Yes, there are Trek ornaments on the Chirstmas tree (my favorite is the lighted Borg cube that says "We are the Borg, Happy Holidays, Resistance is Futile")

The pictures below are of my bookcase at work - on top of it is some of my Trek collection. I'm particularly proud of the Ken and Barbie. Then there's my picture of me and the SO sitting on the bridge of the Enterprise D at Star Trek the Experience in Vegas.

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Image hosted by Photobucket.com

6 comments:

Mark Pettus said...

Dawno, I thought I was a Star Trek fanatic. All I did was name two of my kids after DS9 characters.

Oh, and convince my wife they were old family names. If my son ever figures out he's named after a member of the Obsidian Order...

ohdawno said...

Garak? Enabran? or worse Iliana? You wouldn't have gotten away with D'jar...

I'm not a fanatic. I *am* a total Trek Nerd. And I think the debate about Trekkies or Trekkers is ridiculous.

Have you seen "Trekkies" and/or "Trekkies2" yet? I used to live in the same town as that young man they featured who's dad had the shuttlecraft car? Yep. That town raises a lot of interesting folk.

Mac said...

*ear-to-ear grin*
Thanks, Dawno! I love the Barbie and Ken--that's gonna make me chuckle for days.

I grew up on Star Trek, before my mom got rid of our TV set (some sort of rubbish about making sure we kids were literate.)

They showed episodes every weekday afternoon at 4:30--so it was on right when we got off the bus from school. I wanted a phaser in the worst way. But a real one. Not one of the cheezy toy ones with the plastic discs.

ohdawno said...

I remember those days. A couple of my friends and I used to gather in another friend's dorm room at about 4:30 to watch re-runs. My friend had a little black and white TV, it was a hoot.

I never got a phaser but I do have working* communicators (they're in the picture)

*as long as you're not more than 50 feet apart and the batteries are good.

ohdawno said...

Hey, breaking news for Trekkies, Trekkers and the rest: Sulu has come out! http://tinyurl.com/exyhh

Jill said...

Let it all hang out, I say. Ken, Barbie, Sulu - now there's a threesome. Eek!

Have a great weekend. Fun literary meme btw - loved yours.