The Happy Thread IV

[Elenka]

I managed to find a ray on sunshine even in the middle of finals. I just checked the Latin Honors requirements for Smith, and I have completed four out of seven, and it's only the end of my first year. Awesome!

Terrifying thought. I joined the Moot in sixth or seventh grade. I am now a freshman in college. Oh god oh god.

[Tessar]

Ooooh, I made it into the summer opera program! I'm so excited!!! I'm going to be in Washington DC for two weeks in July!!! I haven't been out of the country since I went to Louisiana when I was... 10? Maybe younger. I barely remember anything.

I also made some good vocal progress today while I was practicing... my goal for the summer is to add the F# and maybe the G to my comfortable vocal range. Right now I can comfortably hit an E whenever I want, and last semester it was a D. So I guess I'm making good range-building progress.

[Mari]

Would that programme give you a day off in the second week of the camp maybe? *is also going to be in that area at that time*

Very well done on getting in Tess! *takes Tessar for a dance around the moot*

[Tessar]

Sunday the 12th will be the only 'off' day. The classes run from July 5th through the 19th, and will go from 1p.m.-midnight, so the mornings will be free for me... I'd love to meet up if we can!!!


Which reminds me of what I wanted to ask: Does anyone have any suggestions for the things I should try to do while I'm there? My parents said I need to go to the Smithsonian museum. Oh man, I am totally psyched for their Natural History exhibit! And I've heard they have a butterfly house!!!!!! I LOVE butterfly houses!!!

I am so excited! Fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong, and I actually get to go... but I wont believe it till I'm actually on the plane headed to DC . Not after how excited I was to go to NATS last Spring and then found out at the last minute I wouldn't get to go... So fingers crossed.

[Mari]

Drat, I won't be in the States till the last week of July...
But you're going to have a great time! Maybe you should post your picture on a lantern somewhere or something, so I can find it and still have the idea we met

[Grey_Wolf]

[deleted] wrong thread! Sorry

[Tessar]

TODAY HAS BEEN SO AWESOME!!!

OMG!!

First I read the second issue of The Flash, Rebirth, which came out TODAY. IT'S SO AWESOME!!!! The last page is INTENSE!!!!!

Then I found out that two of the nicest people I've ever met, who I love to death, are going to be going to the same opera camp I am! YAAAY!!

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Then I found out that two of the nicest people I've ever met, who I love to death, are going to be going to the same opera camp I am! YAAAY!!

Who? The Flash and the Green Lantern?

[Valandil]

Yay!

I passed my LEED exam today. I am now a LEED Accredited Professional!

[Mari]

Congrats! Though would you mind explaining what it is I'm congratulating you with?

[Valandil]

Sure. LEED stands for 'Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design". It has a point system for certifying that buildings are designed and build according to sustainable practices.

To become a LEED Accredited Profession, you have to pass a test on their point system that rates buildings and other procedures that they have.

It's "all the rage" now. Personally, I think this system is over-rated, along with the ability to place those six letters after your name (LEED AP) - but it's what everyone wants these days. Oddly - it seems to carry more weight than my architectural license, even though the standards for achieving it are far less stringent, and its scope encompasses far less.

Basically though, I've made myself more marketable. Which is a good thing.

Also - I've always tried to educate myself on sustainability practices, but now if I ever get a client who actually wants to spend the money, I can help them get their building LEED certified.

[Mari]

Coolness! ^_^
Maybe you should come here. We have some bad architects, so you can replace them
(designing uneven stairs, steep slopes in front of a school which prides itself to wheelchair accessibility, forgetting to have a stairs to the first floor built somewhere... )

[Tessar]

Well, just so long as you don't turn evil and then start LEEDING PEOPLE ASTRAY!!!! LOLERSKATES!!!!!!!! ^_^ How amusing.

Anywho.


I'm very pleased that my dad and I have been having good talks lately, and he's finally starting to be a little more laid back about life. Not a lot... but a little. We had a conversation tonight that I hope will inspire him to enjoy singing in choir more.

I also learn a lot when he and I talk. It's nice to finally be building a good relationship with him that isn't an on-again-off-again like used to happen between us.

[Ingwe]

I went up to MIT with my wife this past weekend to meet with a couple of advisers and have a tour of the place (which took quite long as you might expect).

Long story short, me and my family are probably going to be moving up there by July! I don't like the idea of moving north at all, because of winter and all that junk, but we'll see how long this lasts and we're going to keep the house we have now, so we can have somewhere else to go when the weather sucks. Thing is, near the coast, the temperatures are mild but when you get one of those nore-easters in the winter, look out, they are indeed deadly and do tons of damage.

I never thought I'd have a chance to both work at and attend courses at MIT and work with a web design group there as well as take various tech and science courses. I always dreamed of going to a place like that. Now, even though it's been years since I graduated college, I'm going to be attending MIT!!! Well, at least that's what I hope.

There are some problems. My wife has been experiencing depression as a result of having the twins, and spent two weeks in a hospital because of it. I can't tell if it's made any difference yet, though. She's rarely ever said a bad word to me but apparently she's been, what would it be called, "bitchy", with some other people. I haven't really seen any evidence of her being "bitchy", just that she has been somewhat on edge. To me, that seems normal. Most people are on edge these days, especially me! Yet at times she seems sad and listens to sad music when usually she would be listening to some lively music. That just triggers red lights and alarms everywhere with me!

I also have reason to believe that she definitely does not want to move up north, and if this is the case, I will have us all stay put here, even if I do miss out on an opportunity. Family and friends are what's important. Opportunities come dead last when compared to that. And to be honest, I love the area that we live in. It's peaceful, the weather isn't that bad, we all fit in here nice, and nobody's a total jerk - nobody at all!

There is yet another possibility - to become an online column writer for web design articles for one of the departments there. This wouldn't require me to be there to do work. It would also be extra income here. And if I am to take courses, I may just stay up at MIT for a few months, although I do admit, I will be homesick, without a real home to come back to for a few months. But I might be able to possibly make this just a temporary move, only for myself. My wife's been wanting to work on the gardening around here, and moving would defeat that purpose. And while I'm away, she'll be able to keep busy with that.

In other news, I saw the new Star Trek movie - two times so far! It was amazing because not only is it the first Trek movie since December of 2002, but unlike Star Trek Nemesis (although I love The Next Generation crew), this new Star Trek was awesome. There were very few plot holes. There's one that I know of - why would Nero require a Vulcan presence to introduce the red matter near Romulus to prevent the supernova from destroying the planet when Nero's very ship is (supposedly) powered by this same red matter? But I can easily overlook this issue.

Overall I give this movie a 99.5% rating. I can't give it 100% because I don't believe in perfection, similar to how Kirk doesn't believe in a no-win scenario.

One strange thing, at least to me, is the relationship between Uhura and Spock. It seems like Uhura was there most of the time just to provide comfort for Spock during his emotional problems (which I can understand after what happened to him - I can't give those details away - hint, it's on Wikipedia, if you're really into spoilers).

It is a very tragic set of events in which this movie takes place. I found myself in tears during both the opening scene and near the middle and end of the movie. But the movie also made you laugh, made you go "wow" and was just awesome.

The acting was indeed good, damn good in fact! I couldn't believe how well Chris Pine did playing as Kirk. When he said, "Bones!" on the bridge, it sounded just like the original James T. Kirk, except obviously younger.

The movie was very loyal to the rest of the series and movies. Although some events in the timeline had changed due to the introduction of mainly two people, it really does remain loyal, despite the whole time travel thing. This Star Trek movie is the GREATEST example of how time travel in a science fiction movie can be used in the best possible way!!!

I honestly think that this single Star Trek movie was better than the Lord of the Rings (OMG BLASPHEMY)...movie series (not so much blasphemy now, since I'm talking only about the movies and not the books). There is one other than that made me lower the rating by a half a percent - the soundtrack wasn't all that memorable, but it wasn't bad at all either. There is one portion of the soundtrack that is just UBER!!! There's low-pitched singing in one of the battle scenes and it just sent chills up my spine, similar to how the Balrog of Moria first sent chills up my spine when I saw it the first 20 times (lol).

It was an inspiring movie too. People like George Kirk and Christopher Pike were very memorable in this movie. They make Picard and Janeway and even Sisko (who was arguably my favorite) look like regular run-of-the-mill Federation freighter captains!!!

And wow, Uhura is just hot! And everyone in general just had good lines and good acting all around! JJ Abrams should be really proud of himself!

I heard there is going to be yet a prequel to this movie for Star Trek 12. The plans are already set in motion, and I can see why.

Without a doubt, if this movie isn't rated as the greatest Star Trek movie ever, I would be like, WTF. I mean, don't get me wrong, Wrath of Khan was just superb, and Undiscovered Country was a good take on the whole Science Fiction mystery thing, but this new movie has it all! You'll laugh, you'll cry (even if it's hard for you to cry, some of you will), you'll be amazed, and yeah, the special effects are great too. But the character development, plot, and even the soundtrack (though the soundtrack could have been better) was enough to match the awesomeness of the special effects.

This movie is not Attack of the Clones material. It's not all special effects and then nothing else to compliment that. I mean, the writers, actors, cast, and crew of the movie must have busted their humps to make a movie THIS good!

90% of the time I go to a movie, I always find a lot of things to nit-pick at. This time I came out of the theatre feeling very disoriented, because I had nothing to complain about. It was solid top notch! Damn, was it good!

There's very little more I can say about this new Star Trek film - it is just a masterpiece and I can't wait to see it over and over and over and over again! I can't wait till the DVD comes out so I can see whatever cut scenes there were!

Since the failures of both Nemesis and Enterprise, my faith in the franchise was very low. I mean, I enjoyed Nemesis and believe it or not I did enjoy (some) of the Enterprise series (mostly Archer's dog who had more personality than most of the other human characters), but I enjoyed those only to a certain extent. Star Trek 11 though, is just top-notch and there wasn't a single thing I didn't like about it. I can definitely say that though some things such as the soundtrack may have been better, and an explanation of what red matter was would be helpful, there's nothing I could have disliked about it!

Congratulations, JJ Abrams, you've just become the next possible Gene Roddenbery. Even though he couldn't really replace Gene, his film was loyal to everything Star Trek is meant to be!

Tessar is right in his post in the Teacup Cafe - you just gotta see this movie, fan or not - either way you'll most likely enjoy it. As Spock might say, "the probability that you will not enjoy this movie is one in two hundred eighty-seven thousand, two hundred and ninety-six!"

[Tessar]

I could be wrong since I've only seen the movie once, but I'm pretty sure Nero's ship is not powered by the red matter. I believe he went into Spock's ship to get the red matter to fire it into the hole the drill had made.

[Ingwe]

Personally, I heard somewhere that Nero's ship had been powered by red matter. I didn't think it was, but if that would have been the case, that would have been pretty messed up, since just making the stuff react to anything appears to create a black hole.

[Earniel]

How about you two find yourself a nice Star Trek thread to discuss and spare the people who haven't seen the movie yet from further spoilers?

[Tessar]

How about you find yourself a nice SETPHASERSTOSTUN!!! *pew pew*

... Oh wait, that's just my hand, and me saying 'pew pew'....

.........

>.>


<.<


....

o_O

Okay. Fine.

[Earniel]

May I remind you that I do own a phaser, one that comes with stun Ã*nd full power settings. Don't tempt me to use it on you.

Okay, so it works on batteries and the light is broken... But still!

[Tessar]

You broke the light!? >.<