Khari Update

Wow, I cannot believe how long it's been since I wrote anything. I've actually put quite a bit of effort into making my AdSense work - it won't, and I can't seem to get any help with it. One of these days I'm going to have to sit down and just deal with it, but I don't have that kind of time. Maybe when Khari's a little older and spends an extended time with my parents or something.

Speaking of Khari...

Khari loves to see her Grandma!

And Grandma is so focused on the baby she doesn't always even notice the camera!

She decided the swing was a good idea... and on the same, day, the pacifier.

She had her first trip to Wunderland for Derek's eighth birthday party and played games with Daddy and Uncle Jason and Lexi...

And she learned to play at home... sort of.

 She started smiling more often...

Tax returns came!

First trip to Nexus!

Became a great conversationalist...

Got manhandled by a two-year old...

Learned to grab small objects...

Went to her first art show!

Rode in the park swing...

Developed her own facial expressions....

Sat in the high chair at IKEA...

And played her first game of Warhammer.

I go back to work next week and I'm not happy about it. Lucky for us, Daddy will be home with her on the days I work - no daycare for this girl! She loves her Daddy and he loves her, so I'm sure she'll have a great time once they get in a routine. That doesn't include me, *sob*.

One other thing that's changing is that we're starting to get more into her education. Most people who know us know we love books and Andy has always wanted to homeschool his children. Andy also suffers from an appalling lack of organization, so we found a free infant curriculum online as a way to not only make sure she's getting tons of attention (she loves being read to, sung to, played with, etc) but also to be sure that we can hold ourselves accountable as she gets older to make sure she's getting what she needs. And if we can't, we'll just pull the plug on the whole "homeschool" idea.

She's sleeping right now, but we start this week with the Brightly Beaming Curriculum, plus our own special additions, most of which we've been doing already for a while. She may not be learning much from this, I don't know, but I know I've picked up a few things myself and it's actually been pretty fun, so we should keep going forward, I guess.

Currently, Khari is doing the first lesson from Brightly Beaming, which takes about 2 weeks. We are also working on Elimination Communication with her. We haven't had tons of success, but we really aren't trying very hard either. We will probably get more diligent when we have a few more catches. We are trying to read to her about a different country and state every week - this one's more for our benefit at the moment, although it's nice to know that if we can keep it up as she grows, she'll know quite a bit more than we did at her age about the world she lives in. We are also working through the World History for Us All Curriculum, available free online, which at the very least has started some interesting conversations between us with Khari as a witness. I'm sure she'll contribute eventually.

Andy is dedicated to teaching her about different religions in the world, which so far has been reading Wikipedia to her. He has been focused on the patriarchs. This week it's Noah.

We read to her from chapter books before bed, right now we're on the fourth Harry Potter book, and I also show her some comics, so we're working through the X-Men... and that's about it.

It Must be Hard to be a Newborn

My daughter is soooo bored. She wants to see what's going on around her. But she can't. But she wants to.

She wants to roll over, but she doesn't have enough muscle. Most of the time.

She wants to stay awake, but her developing brain insists she sleep. So she fights it and cries and is generally bad tempered until she passes out in the afternoon.

Poor kid.

My daughter is perfect.

Even when she won't sleep.

Unless I feed her.

For twenty minutes. And then sleeps for ten. And then wakes up. And cries. Because she's tired. But she can't sleep. She seems to have inherited my insomnia. I wish I'd given her my dimple. She doesn't have that. Nope, she has the insomnia. Poor kid.

Our Day

It is inevitable that I will overbook myself. Even if I have no plans whatsoever, it is inevitable that I will overbook myself. For example:

My husband is dedicated to the idea of homeschooling his children. I am dedicated to the idea of doing whatever is best to help them learn, even if that is homeschooling (I think I would have hated being homeschooled, but I'm not sure, so I don't want to say for sure that it's the best thing for my daughter until we have a chance to see what she's like as a student).

We reached an agreement long before she was a twinkle in anyone's eye, though. We will supplement her education at home, even if she goes to school. She will go to preschool. She will go to kindergarten. And then, we will see.

Seems easy enough. Gives us a chance to see her in action before making a decision. Gives her the experience to weigh in on the decision, since it is, after all, her education. The problem is, we really don't know anything about how to homeschool someone together, and it is a group effort. So we decided to start discussing some of the things we hope to teach her later now, so we're used to talking about it. It's harder than it sounds, trying to explain things like generations to the baby, and how does one even begin, anyway? For history, for example, we got on a website with a complete world history curriculum for high schoolers and broke it down into lessons. One lesson a week, for now, at least gives us something to discuss in front of her. But how about religion? Husband is positive that Daughter would be better off knowing about her religious options, and I have to say I agree in theory - this is something that I never felt comfortable talking about in my own family, probably because they never brought it up. I want her to know who the major players are and what questions to ask and the vocabulary to put her questions into words. I really, really want that for her.

And I want her to understand poetry. And Science, and math, and literature, and all the things I struggled with because I couldn't see them the same way the teachers wanted me to see them.

Anyway, I'm way overbooked now. Maybe I'm crazy for having a one-sided conversation about history with a not-quite 3 week old, but she seems happy to be talked to, and it gives me something to talk to her about.

I'm baaaaack!

Sorry 'bout that.

I've been busy.

Isn't she precious?

Needless to say, my focus has shifted a bit... but we're still very nerdy here. It's fun.

Make No Mistake: It WILL Happen

There will be a series but not for years.

It will be less than a seven-year run.

On purpose.

This will not happen tomorrow.

No one will work on it for years.

It may not be JJ.

But it will come.

I say so.

Yes, we did. Sorry, Chris.

Chris Pine gave a new interview. It's mostly supposed to be about the Jack Ryan movie but he also talks about Star Trek, and our negative reactions to him in Star Trek. And yeah, we could have been nicer, I guess, but did you see Princess Diaries 2? Really?

And no, that isn't his fault. Just look at Shatner's early work. The bottom line is that Kirk had to be an unknown because using an unknown bought them a whole week of "Chris Pine? Who's Chris Pine?" And then the storm hit, after we watched Just My Luck and realized he'd actually done a Lohan film.

The truth is that we would have been upset with anyone. Using Chris bought them some time before the backash.

But no, he didn't deserve that.

Looking back, I wish time had frozen... here.

Timescape
TNG Season 6 Episode 25
#251
46944.2
6/14/93
Written by Brannon Braga
Directed by Adam Nimoy

Okay, so this was before the psychotic break is the only thing I can come up with. It's a little farfetched, but not nearly to the point of later Voyager. And besides that, it's fun. Should have quit while you're ahead, Brannon.

Easily one of the funniest scenes in TNG - not a series known for it's humor.

Perspective on a Human Life

DS9: Facets
This episode is one of the few of DS9's that seems to suffer from the Voyager problem of, well, ADHD. They move through at least three potential episode plots by the time they finish the episode. Sigh.

Field Trip

The Jem Hadar
DS9 #446 Season 2 Episode 26
Aired 6/12/94
Stardate Unknown

Sisko gets home and finds Jake preparing his science project. He is growing Bajoran Katterpods to see which will grow faster. Awesome. Even in the 24th century, we still have the classic BS science project. Ben very diplomatically calls it "low tech".  He tells Jake to pick his favorite project. Jake picks piloting a runabout. Not science. Visit the gamma quadrant? Okay. What would you do when you got there? A planetary survey.

Okay. Jake is super excited.

Ben is excted to go on a trip with Jake. He tells Kira and Dax all about it. Jake comes in and asks if Nog can go with them because otherwise he will do bad on his project and if he does bad he will drop out of school. Ben sighs and agrees.

Nog tells Quark he can't work his next shift right as Odo tells quark he can't use the screens on the promenade to sell merchandise. Quark sees an opportunity...

Credits.

They board the runabout. Quark shows up too, and says he is coming to supervise Nog. They leave. Ben is not happy.

They beam down to the planet and it is all woodsy woods. Quark is allergic to woodsy woods and therefore annoying.

A camp is set up and Jake and Nog start working. Quark is undeterred after Ben says the answer is still no about the monitors.

Jake and Nog keep working.

Ben makes jambalaya for dinner and Nog likes it. Quark dos not. He is cnvinced that Ben is anti Ferengi. Ben and Jake have a slight bonding moment. Quark catches fire. Ben yells at him. Nog hisses and runs off, and Jake chases him, which turns out lucky because that's when Quark calls Ben a bigot and a woman comes running into camp. She flashes some energy at Ben, which knocks him over, and asks how many "Jem'hadar" there are. Ben's all, huh? We're not you're enemy.  She tells them to run. But 6 or so lizard dudes (jem'hadar) appear out of thin air and they have scary guns.

Commercial

Jake and Nog return to an empty camp. Nog wants to beam up but Jake doesn't. They track Ben and Quark with a tricorder.

Quark is pissed. Ben and Quark are imprisoned in a force field with the woman and worried about the boys. The woman tells them the Jem'hadar are the soldiers of something called the Dominion, a name we've heard a couple of times before. Her name is Eris. They plan an escape.

Jake and Nog find Jem'Hadar in the woods.

Commercal

The Jem'Hadar get annoyed with Quark's yelling and they learn that the "Founders" don't want them released.

The Dominion doesn't want any more "Alpha Quadrant" incursions. The Jem'Hadar says he wanted a Klingon to come though so he could meet one. He doesn't like Cardasians. Interesting. And scary how much he knows about the Alpha Quadrant.

Jake and Nog make it to the runabout but they can't beam Ben or Quark up. They can't disegage autopilot to return to the wormhole. A vessel leaves the planet. And so they decide to shut off autopilot.

In OPS, a ship coms through the wormhole and a Jem'Hadar caling itself "Third Talak'talan" comes to tell them they can't use the wormhole anymore. He hands them a list of destroyed vessels that is written on a Bajoran pad... from the Bajoran colony on the Gamma side of the wormhole. All dead.

Comercial

Ben wants to remove Eris's collar and so Quark gets to work on that.

Jake manages to disable the autopilot after almost blowing up the ship. Only problem: now they can't fly the ship.

Back in OPS, they plan a rescue with the captain of the Odyssey, Captain Keough, Dax's arch-rival. The Odyssey, BTW, is a galaxy-class ship. Keough wants to leave the crew of DS9 behind, but they manage to argue their way in. Even Odo wants to go because he wants to be there for Quark. They make it through the wormhole and worry about cloaked ships.

Jake is trying to fly. Badly. He makes it a little way when the other runabouts get there and Miles beams over to help him, so that's a relief.

Quark continues picking Eris's lock on her telepathic surpressor device. He comments on how sophistocated it is, because it's so tiny. He does get it off, and she uses her telekinetic powers to escape. Quark saves Ben during the escape, which is a neat turnaround.

The Jem'Hadar attack, and Miles flies in to beam Ben and co. up to a nice reunion. The Jem'Hadar can cut right through the Odyssey's shields, and when they are retreating they actually do a kamikaze run that hits the engineering hull just behind the saucer section. And then the Enterprise blows up. I mean the Odyssey.

So they make it back to DS9 and as they leave the runabout, Quark stops Ben. He has something to tell him.

There was no telepathic supressor in the collar. Eris is a spy. But she denies being a Founder. She beams out, presumably to a cloaked ship. Ben vows to be ready for the Dominion when they come.

And they will.

Descent into Madness, pt. 1

Teaser
Data has decided a poker game between himself, Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein would be interesting. Once again, I'd like to point out that Data has emotions - he just doesn't have human emotions. In this case, he finds this entertaining in the andriod sense.

That's the real Stephen Hawking, by the way.

When great minds collide.

And just so you know, Stephen Hawking kicks butt at poker. So don't mess with him.

Puh-puh-puh poker face.

Red alert.

No, seriously.

Credits.


So this scary-looking ship has just attacked Ohniaka III, a planet we've never heard of before and never will again, again. To be fair, it is a scary-looking ship.

What.... is that?

It also doesn't respond to hails. Riker takes an away team and beams down to the station on Ohniaka III, because that's what he does best. But everyone's dead. Looks like a science facility, maybe? They start searching for survivors, which doesn't look promising.

And then Data opens a door, and there is a Borg behind it.

These days, when you say the word "Borg" in a post-TNG context, that only means pain and agony and some nausea. But this was June of 1993 and the Borg were still scary then, you have to remember this.

What's interesting, though, is that the Borg are not ignoring them like normal. They actually attack. They killed the station crew, they didn't just assimilate them. They go on the offensive and they actually seem kind of angry.

Based on the picture of the ship, I did not see

that coming.

So, presumably, that scary-looking thing in orbit was their ship, which was not a cube.

Weird.

And something seems to have riled it, because, well,

Awwww... shabanga.

So Will, Data, and Worf are in this fight with the Borg on the planet. And the Borg do not fight like normal Borg. They don't adapt, for starters. They're also faster and more agressive.

But here's the really interesting part.

Riker kills one, and another one goes, "You have killed Torsus. I will make you suffer." Torsus? I?

Uh oh.

Data kills one of the Borg and the other Borg recognize him, and beam away.

"You won't like me when I'm angry."

The Borg ship just up and vanishes.

Hey, look, it's the upsidey-down pyramid ship!

It's just like a wrinkle in time.

"What happened," says Riker?
"I got angry," says Data.

Data reacts got his cell phone bill with trans-galactic

roaming charges.

Understandably, this is upsetting news to everyone, especially when you drag Hugh into it, because in that case, it would sorta kinda be their fault that the Borg have gone completely psycho.

Picard searches for the off-ramp to avoid the plot 

potholes coming up ahead.

Meanwhile, Data and Geordi have a cute heart-to-heart in which they try to decide if Data got angry or if he just had a power surge.

Gerodi tries to explain anger without using other emotions.

Sadly, this is not a humorous caption. Rather, this

is what actually happens in the episode.

Admiral Nechayev, who remember as that cranky lady who had the bright idea to put Jellico in command, comes on board and rips Picard a new one. She is NOT HAPPY with the Hugh situation, and who can blame her, although, to be fair we don't actually know that Hugh is the cause. Yet.

Some-bo-dy's in trooouble.

Data has decided that he is a "bad person" because he can only feel "negative emotions". Deanna uses her 90s psychobabble powers to persuade him that this is not the case, because no emotions are really bad, it's how you act on them.

I do so miss the 90s.

Data puzzles over which emotions are good and 

which are bad. Sadly, this is a serious caption as well.

There is a colony under attack. Or not. Someone forgot to read the instructions on their sensors. Also serious.

In space, no one can hear you cry wolf.

Picard retreats to his ready room to watch the security video of Hugh and beat himself up inside, because that's the responsible, mature thing to do.

Picard worries that he may have chosen poorly.

Data, meanwhile, is trying to piss himself off. You notice a definite lack of success:

Not angry.

Angry.

See?

They finally do find the Borg, and they are conveniently the closest ship again. It's so obvious that it's written into the script that we're supposed to notice this.

The Borg are using some kind of energy matrix to get around, which we will later learn is a transwarp conduit.

This is unfortunate, because all through Voyager 

we'll wish we'd never heard the words "Borg" 

in conjunction with "Transwarp Conduit".

Shiiiiny.

They follow the Borg into a conduit and on the other side the Borg beam a couple of soldiers onto the bridge, presumably as a distraction while they run away.

A big fight ensuses.

The Borg almost seem like they're trying to get caught or something.

And one of the Borg is left alive at the end. They take him to the brig, where he wakes and reveals that he is a giant jerk. First he lists ways to kill them all, and then Picard makes a really stupid move and leaves the prisoner alone with Data.

So we know Data isn't doing so great with Borg lately. Maybe don't leave him alone with one? Or at least watch from the camera down the hall?

Alas, no.

My friend Tim: Don't let her out! Don't let her out!

Data learns the meaning of the term "crisis of conscience."

So Data liberates the Borg prisoner and they leave the ship together.

Uh-oh.

They have no choice but to follow them and do so, through another conduit and to....

Oh, boy, it's the last act of the last season finale!

Go, Enterprise go!

Google Galaxy, version 5300.

A planet. Riker and Worf will beam down to have a look, since sensors, predictably, don't work that well here. Why do they even bother having sensors?

For once, decisions are made in the command center,

not the observation lounge.

So they get to the planet, and that's when Riker makes his fantastically dumb move:

Yes, Riker, stick your head into a confined space

with an emotionally unstable machine that just 

choked someone to death. Good job.

Luckily for Riker, Data isn't in there. I don't even have a word for the magnitude of how dumb that is.

So Picard, meanwhile, has decided to beam everyone down to this planet to search for Data.

I get there's no sensors.

I get that you need to find Data.

But for crying out loud, maybe take a picture of the planet with really good resolution, scan it into the computer, and see if it can see any buildings first!

And the whole crew, practically? Really?

Picard, having just been taken to task for a questionable

command decision, decides to make another 

questionable command decision.

So he decides to beam down too, and search for Data himself.

Ship needs a captain.

According to Starfleet reguations, the person in command

of a starship is always referred to as "Captain" regardless

of rank. Ergo, we will be referring to Beverly as "Captain Crusher".

If she fails as a Captain, she can always move on to a career

with the WWE.

Neither Riker nor Worf objects to this.

You know how Riker doesn't let the Captain beam

into dangerous situations?

Yeah.

Nor does anyone, when they find a structure that they probably could have seen looking out the window, call for backup before storming the castle.

Go, go Power Rangers!

Uh-oh.

Sorry, guys, wrong turn. I thought this was the headquarters

of the Illuminati? Anyone seen Tom Hanks?

No?

So, that's how that ends I guess. This can't possibly 

get any worse, right?

Maybe for him.

At least we found Data!

Oh.

I'd say that sums everything up rather nicely.