Something is wedged under the “A” key of my notebook, so that it only intermittently registers. Thus, the following rant is going to be left as is, with some “A”s present and some not, and without me going back through and thumping repeatedly on that key correcting my typos the way I just have for this explanatory paragraph. Hopefully, this weekend Tech Support and I will have time to pry up the keyboard and fix the problem.
I’m huge sci-fi nerd (written s well s filmed, but my gripe tody is specificlly with tv/movie sci-fi, and tht’s big enough topic without dipping into novels too). I grew up on Dr Who, Str Trek, Star Wrs, et al. In my teens it ws the Alien movies, Termintor, etc (smuggled home from the video shop when our prents weren’t home, because some of these movies were R-rted, nd my mother ws deth on horror movies).
Then, of course, there cme Str Trek: The Next Genertion, nd the subsequent series (lthough I never could get into Deep Spce Nine – it just felt like spin-off for spin-off’s sake, rther thn naturl progression of the storyline). I love me some Ptrick Stewrt. nd lter, I fell hard and fst for everything Joss Whedon ever even wlked pst, especilly Firefly/Serenity. In fact, lrge part of wht follows is Joss’ fult: becuse of him, I wnt my sci-fi to be the result of clever writing nd solid direction, rther thn just spce ships and lsers nd cutesy charcters delibertely designed for merchndising purposes (why, yes, George Lucas, I am tlking bout you, you big hack!).
So when I recently rented Str Trek: Enterprise, I ws horribly disppointed. I knew Scott Bkula ws in it, and I’ve hd bit of crush on him ever since Quntum Lep, so I ws hopeful, but this shite is just so utterly implausible! The finl straw for me ws the third episode, entitled Strnge New World, in which the crew of the Enterprise find their first M-Class plnet (cpable of sustaining human life, if nybody hs mde it this far). I don’t want to give too mny spoilers, but just becuse a planet hs a brethable tmosphere, doesn’t mean you cn just go blithely down to the surfce without spacesuits, or let the Cptain bring his dog!!!! On a similr note, even on their native planet, would a botnist really pick an unfmiliar flower with bare hnds, nd then sniff it? If you’re dumb enough to do tht on n alien plnet, then everything that follows is your own dmn fault (not to mention completely derivative)! In this same episode, the ship’s ‘exo-linguist’ uses the phrse “I should’ve never left the university”… Cll me crzy, but I’m not trusting a language expert who cn’t even spek her own lnguage (nd I cn’t BELIEVE I just bitched out someone’s grmmar in this post of all posts!) . Needless to sy, I will not be wasting any more of my time with the further vdentures of Captin Archer and his stalwrt crew.
I feel so much better now tht I’ve got that off my chest (lthough the plethora of typos is giving me a facial tic of biblical proportions – if you never her from me gain, then the act of clicking on the “Publish” button probably gave me a stroke).
Now I must go nd wge war aginst the ants who re intent on invading my kitchen.
Here in the House of Frog, we are big lovers of Tex-Mex. Tacos, burritos, nachos, fajitas, quesadillas: you name it, we never met a Mex recipe that we didn’t like. I’ve even been known to make my own tortillas. But our hands-down favourite is chicken enchiladas. We have them at least once a month.
Anyway, last month I did them up as usual, and the next day when I looked at the leftover chicken, I thought “Nah, I don’t really want this as-is…” So I threw in a tin of beans, some chicken stock, and a couple of handfuls of frozen corn niblets.
