So I’ve been a little deeply immersed into Star Trek lately. There’s Star Trek Online, and then I’m watchin Deep Space Nine, some 15 years after I originally wanted to. 

Anyway, so the Prime Directive is a concept from Star Trek which espouses non-interference. Federation Starfleet trips exploring space might come across societies and civilizations which haven’t achieved space travel, and the Prime Directive is all about not interfering with their natural development. 

This is a common case of ethical conundrum in the shows. Sometimes places are threatened by various problems and the temptation to help is ever present. 

Anyway, so this makes me think of all these alien invasion movies. Alien invasion movies are always about us fighting off alien invaders, but Star Trek sometimes involves Starfleet fighting off would-be marauders. 

I wonder if anyone would ever have the guts to make a movie like that. “Aliens are invading! The only thing we can do is send a signal for help so that there might be other aliens to fight off these aliens!” 

And yet, it happens in Star Trek sometimes. At least, the attempt. 

i-am-swimming-in-antibiotics:

Pandy’s list of favorite Video Games

12. Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Perhaps you were expecting some surprise, for me to reveal a secret that had eluded you, something that would change your perspective of events, shatter you to your core. There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you.

So a friend on Facebook talked about solidarity with the protesters in Istanbul, and about considering flying over there to be with his brothers and sisters (not literal brothers and sisters, mind you). 

Um, sorry, but what? 

Okay, let’s talk about this, and not just about how they don’t seem to understand that it means flying a distance to get beat up by riot police. 

Why didn’t we hear this sort of thing about Egypt, or Tunisia, or Libya, or Syria? Why weren’t people in cushy Western countries talking about that? As far as I remember they were, at best, spraypainting walls or blogging about their support. I know people who volunteered for UN work in refugee camps, too. 

But I suspect that the idea that in the Arab countries a disproportionate government response would mean real bullets is a factor, while in Turkey it’s at most rubber bullets. You don’t see a lot of volunteers to go and fight with the Free Syrian Army. 

I find it also really strange that the various countries of the Arab Spring had very real dictatorships which the various movements were set on removing, but Turkey and Brazil are developing democracies. Why would you want to go join protesters getting beaten up in Istanbul, but not join rebels getting shot in Syria? 

Oh wait. 

ffs that sounds braindead

Yeah, people don’t really think about what they post on Facebook. 

She deleted it, so I can’t show you for evidence, which is generally a good thing. 

But still, I mean… what… why would you even do that… 

So, uh, has anyone ever posted a status update on Facebook about their sex life? I imagine it happens somewhere, though thankfully I’ve never seen it. 

Well, except for today, when someone posted that she had just become a woman… 

Which is such a strange choice of words regardless that I don’t even know where to begin… 

lord-kitschener:

livefrompyongyang:

i found it

the worst dating profile of all time

the fuck did i jsut

What… what did I just read? 

You know what’s ironic? 

Okay, so my parents were talking about the business. Their customers are drying up again, and no one can figure out why. My dad has plans for what to change and do to try and get more people, my mom is more worried about the costs and is thinking of what to cut in order to save. 

My dad has the tendency to go on and on about his points, and then he’ll come back to his original point to talk about it some more. Kind of like when you come up with a clever idea and you just have to tell someone about it, but he does it a lot. 

I was trying to chip in with my two cents, but he kept on talking, had the tendency to interrupt. So my mother raises her voice and says that they should listen to me and what I have to say, which I appreciated. 

And then she went and talked about her points and her worries and kept repeating them and not letting me talk. 

I have determined that neither of my parents are actually good listeners. To be entirely honest sometimes I notice myself with similar behaviour where I so want to get my point across that I’m not listening to others, and I try to put a stop to it. But at least I notice. 

They’re also not addressing their main problems or what practical solutions they should be looking at. They get caught up in the fluff of things. My dad keeps coming up with things to change, not thinking that these changes are a lot of effort and cost to little likely gain. And my mom keeps taking things personally, not wanting to serve Vietnamese food for Vietnamese guests because they’re so much pickier and critical, getting really offended that the regular lunch customers are apparently demanding and talk about the problems of the restaurant. 

To be honest, I don’t know exactly what would fix the ills of the business, but my parents don’t know either and yet get caught up in discussions which go nowhere because they’re so preoccupied with their own side. No one seems actually interested in finding out. 

trollception:

The point I agree with you there is how it is ‘cool’ to be a violent anarchist. The truth is it isn’t. Especially when the people who protest fail to see the big picture or what is it that they’re even protesting (however please note that I don’t refer this specifically to Turkey; this is more like a general opinion). 

I remember police came to my school to socialize why drugs are bad when I was just 14. Some kids started saying things like “Ugh why are the police here??” “Looking at them makes me gag.” 14 year old kids, come to think of that what did they know. 

Yeah, exactly. 

There are peaceful protests for legitimate reasons. But very often there are also hotheads within the protests who just have this idea of police absorbed through cultural osmosis. 14 year old kids who think cops are the bad guy. 

And I think people to whom violent anarchy is fashionable is rooted in this idea that police aren’t people but armed enforcers of the Man. 

So I saw this. 

I approve of documenting police brutality, and I think that a violent police response to protests is a bad idea because it almost always escalates beyond their control. 

But I also think it’s very, very stupid and highly delusional to make this about fighting the police. 

Then you’re nothing more than young macho kids who think it’s cool to fight cops just because they’re cops. 

So i started watching Star Trek: DS9, and I’m curious. 

You can really see the difference between models and CGI. I think it’s really great that for all the spaceships they used models, and then added CGI effects for the wormhole and phasers and various stuff happening to the ships and the station. The only really glaring evidence of bad early-90s CGI is Odo’s shapeshifting. 

So, again, Babylon 5 was also running around the same time, and you can clearly see the difference between the first season and later seasons. There’s an immediate upgrade in how the show looks right in season 2, presumably because they got a budget upgrade right there and then. 

I’m just wondering how quickly DS9 got its upgrade. The show ran for, like, 7 years, so I’m sure that it got an upgrade eventually. Every first season gets a lower budget because the show has to prove itself before more money is allocated to it. 

coiaf:

Season 3 Episode 9: The Rains of Castamere

favourite asoiaf characters; Asha Greyjoy

“She’s commanded men.  She’s killed men.  And she knows who she is.”

Should’ve recorded my dad’s reaction to the Red Wedding

I’m always feeling that way with Spanish, although my fluency has never been at college-education level (and has diminished). I guess it really depends on how your performance in class is.

I’m really hoping that moving helps me. Because right now after 1.5+ hours on a tram, train and 2 buses, the last thing I want to do is dive right into a text in German with a dictionary. I’d like to have the option to hang around campus late, without having to worry about the bus 2 hours from now still running. I’d like to get home and still feel fresh enough to continue being productive. And I’d like other students around me who are doing the same thing so that I’m inclined to conform to their behaviour. 

My performance in my English-speaking classes is pretty much excellent, but I honestly can’t say the same for my German-speaking ones. I’ve met other non-native speakers who work really hard at it and get there eventually and I honestly really worry that I’m just not putting enough into it. 

So it goes.