Mel & I caught the first showing of the new Star Trek on Thursday.  I’ve been cautiously optimistic about it.  The trailers look very action oriented and I wasn’t sure how much they’d “mess up” to make a reboot, or if they’d capture the humour or feel of the many Trek series I’ve loved (and not-loved, I’m looking at you Voyager & Enterprise).

We were blown away.  Yes, this is a very action-movie Star Trek, but never without reason.  It totally captures the feeling and humour of “The Original Series” but updates it.  Every single character is back and great.  Some are bang-on copies – Quinto as Spock is uncanny but subtle and Karl Urban as McCoy nails the grumpy “old country doctor” we all love, right down to the accent.  Others breathe new life with their own rendition — Simon Pegg is a more frenetic Scotty, Anton Yelchin is excellent as the very young Chekov while Zoe Saldana is gorgeous, strong and wonderfully useful as Uhura.

I won’t spoil much here, but this is a “reboot”, and with an excellent in-story reason for it.  Things have changed in the Trek universe, but only enough so this new cast can stand on their own and tell their own stories.

This is a must-see for any Star Trek fan.  It’s for you, but also for everyone else.  It works as both an introduction and re-introduction to the universe Gene Roddenberry created so many years ago.  It’s both faithful and new, and that’s a stunning achievement.

It could use less lens flares though, but if that’s how far down I have to dig to find a complaint I know it’s a great movie.

Back when I just coded HTML pages moving a web site was easy.  You just back up the files and upload them to the new host.  But now with everything being run with server-side PHP scripting and data held in mySQL databases it can be a real pain to move.  Not only did I have to back up the databases, but I also had to edit those backups where they had data for old directory structures.

In summary, moving a Wordpress site to a new site can be quite a bit of work.

But it’s done.

I did lose a few things on my site that I wasn’t using any more.  I stopped using my Gallery ages ago and keeping track of the spam comments building up on it was a pain, so I’ve just let it go.  I still have the images from it, so I may find a new place for them some time. The forum I was running had been used only for organizing our weekly road hockey games, but Facebook is going to be a lot better for that (if we want to start doing it again — anyone?)

Everything other than that should be working fine.  If it’s not, let me know!

I’ve read that the designers recognized their errors in Dead Rising and have fixed them for Dead Rising 2. There’s not much note of that in this trailer (because the fixes would be subtle) but it’s chock-full of AWESOME.

Looks like Doctor Who meets Pitch Black to me, but that’s just fine.  Pitch Black is a great little sci-fi movie, if you haven’t seen it.

We haven’t heard an official explanation as to *why*, of course, but I can guess — a fake DMCA takedown request from the religious right or some practitioner of “woo” offended by Randi’s straight talk and overwhelming correctness compared to their vapid and ridiculous beliefs.

Copyright laws are out of control and here’s more proof.  I’m sure he hasn’t even broken any, but with the MPAA and RIAA freaking out because the Internet is taking away their stranglehold on content publication they’re getting political pressure to make companies like Youtube respond to each and every takedown notice immediately and seriously.  

Their actions to protect their bottom line are hurting our free speech.  To hell with them.  LET THEM DIE.  Music and movies will survive.  Differently, but they’ll survive.

It’s evolution, baby.

Mel & I not only attended Vancouver Skepticamp on Saturday, but presented!  Mel started everything off with an icebreaker game using M&Ms that got everyone to introduce themselves.

I wasn’t sure what to expect and was skeptical (of course) of what it could accomplish but the presentations were almost all excellent!

A few that stuck out to me were

1. Wynde’s presentations about materialism and consciousness.  Her talk was a pretty straightforward introction to  the subject but the discussion afterwards was very interesting.  We got into determinism and free-will and a Doctoral physics candidate summed up my thoughts on it much better than I could.
2. Glowing electrocuted pickle!
3. Rick first gave a short talk about the upcoming BC-STV referendum, and to me this is a no-brainer.  It’s obvious that our current voting methods aren’t as good as they can be, and the STV method, while not perfect, seems far better at representing the population in government.  Everyone please go vote Yes to Single Transferrable Voting on May 12th!
4. After that, Rick talked about the obesity epidemnic in North America.  This is the one that blew my mind.  As you all know, I lost a lot of weight a few years ago, and have been trying to keep it off by eating healthy.  It hasn’t been working, and I’ve been craving carbs and it’s been difficult.

   The overall point of Rick’s presentation was that the obesity epidemic started at the exact time everyone started selling “low-fat diets”.  The more food was offered in “low-fat” formats, the more and more people in the population were obese.  He then explained an experiment where the people in it were fed traditional native diets, high in fat and low in carbs, and they lost an average of 15 pounds each!

   He also described that low-fat and high-carb diets can trick your body into thinking you’re starving and make you desire more carbs to feed that!

   This all makes tremendous sense to me, explains a lot of my problems with weight lately, and I’m switching off of all my low-fat food.  Bacon, here I come! 

5. Gary did a presentation on the Shroud of Turin from an artist’s perspective.  It was a brilliant angle to debunk the subject and I encouraged him to get it online, possibly as a youtube video!

There were others, but those were the ones that resonated the most with me.

I did my presentation last and it was about my area of expertise — the Internet and blogging.  I’ve posted my presentation about blogging skeptically online, along with more information on specifically how to set up a blog of your own.  I’ve decided I’m going to expand that information with more posts on the same site.

After Skepticamp most of us went out to All India for some excellent vegetarian Indian food and then I offered to host the afterparty at our place.  We had about a dozen people show up for that, played some Scene-It on the 360 (which Blogosaurus and her hubby won!) and then simply talked and drank until the wee hours.  Thanks to everyone who came, it was really fun and we should do it again some time!

Not sure if the gameplay is all that great, but the world creation, destructible environments and gorgeous and creative monsters (I love the ones made from books and the “graveyard” one) look amazing.

Even after turning it off, removing and reseating the video card (Geforce 9800 GTX) and memory I still get corruption:

There’s a photo of the boot screen showing the corruption (there’s some reflection on it too — ignore the white square in the middle which is a ceiling light).  I’m pretty sure this is caused by the video card, but if someone else recognizes it as another problem let me know.  

This is my main work machine and I can’t really have it down for an extended period of time so I’m packing up the card and bringing it back to NCIX Burnaby which is only a few blocks away.

Posting this from Mel’s computer, for those wondering how I got online.  Mine’s better though, and has all my software and data.  And it’s MINE.

Update:  It’s covered under manufacturer warranty, not NCIX’s since it’s not OEM and is past 30 days.  I’ve contacted Galaxy and they’ve sent me a form to fill out and estimate it could take 7 days to get a replacement.

Update 2: I’ve got another card in there now to use and it works fine, so it’s definitely the card.  I agree with Rog, the memory on the video card fried.  Whatever it is, I should be getting it replaced under warranty.

Jess (Kava) bailed on us at the last minute, Steve (Grabthar) told me well in advance he had to move so we were down two players to only three — Dave, Pat and my lovely wife Mel.  As both players out were the party Paladins and fulfilled both the “healer” and “tank” roles, I let Pat play Kava in addition to Gallindann.

As noted, this contains spoilers for the Keep on the Shadowfell module.  Don’t continue reading after the break if you plan to play it in the future.

The party accompanies their recently-rescued friend Douven back to Winterhaven where they take an extended rest before setting out to clear the kobold lair.

Approaching the lair they notice a large amount of kobolds outside, and Radivis recognizes the stone circle the kobold “Dragonshield” is standing is as an ancient magic circle that provides benefits to those within it.  As they notice the kobolds, however, one of their scouts hears the noisy plate armor of Kava and sounds the alarm.  A battle ensues.

As before, the majority of the kobolds are “minions”, but as easily as they die their sheer numbers cause problems.  Near the ned of the battle one kobold shouts out “Irontooth must be warned!” and runs for a cave entrance behind a waterfall.  He is cut down  before he can reach it, however.  Eventually those outside the lair are slain, and the party has a short rest before exploring further.

The waterfall and darkness behind it makes peering into the cave difficult so the party steps in together and are immediately presented with another large group of kobold minions backed up by some deadlier skirmishers.  This fight, while similar in difficulty to the previous one ends up being quite difficult because the dice refuse to cooperate with them.  A few rounds in and most of the party is badly wounded and many minions are still alive.  As they come back from this near-defeat and most of the kobolds lie slain, they hear a battle horn from deeper inside the cave.  This horn announces the arrival of a large goblin: Irontooth.

To make matters worse, from another direction a kobold “wyrmpriest” appears, guarded by two dragonshield kobolds!  This section of the fight is incredibly nerve-wracking.  Kava concentrates on holding Irontooth off while Radivis summons a flaming sphere to deal with the Wyrmpriest and his guards.  The damage and placement of it causes them all to flee backwards to try to get to a postion both away from it and where they can continue their attack.  Radivis is able to force it to pursue them, eventually killing them all.

In the meantime, Lindal can finally use his sneak attack ability as he flanks Irontooth from behind as he concentrates on Kava.  The entire party concentrates fire on this mighty opponent and time and again they’re confused when they damage him more and I haven’t announced that he’s “bloody” (at half hit points) yet.

When he finally does he flies into a blood rage and starts hitting Kava much, much harder.  The party pulls out all the stops and eventually downs him.  They are all bloodied, lucky to have not been knocked down, and happy to loot the now-empty cave.  In a chest they find a suite of +1 Dwarven Chain Mail, which Gallindann happily dons.

The battered party heads back to Winterhaven after a short rest.  There they learn the history of the Keep on the Shadowfell including the tale of the Keep’s fallen commander, what the Shadowfell is, and why the absolutely must head there to save the village from a rampaging undead horde.  They also check the village shop for magic items.  It surprisingly has three items they may want (I rolled randomly) but are unable to afford anything aside from a couple of healing potions.

The next day, after a well-deserved extended rest they head out to the Keep.  The outside is desolate — not even the forest around it encroaches its grounds.  There is evidence of recent activity however, so they decide to send Lindal down a staircase to stealthily scout the entrance.  He succeeds in being unseen and notices a gobling guard lazily leaning against the wall watching the entrance.  Lindal heads back and quietly informs the rest of the group before heading back down.

Lindal succeeds in sneaking down the stairs and moves straight towards the guard, ignoring one of the major rules of sneaking — never go straight across an open area.  This doesn’t cause him to fail it so much as it causes him to fall into the hidden pit trap!

The goblin guard is surprised and then starts laughing as he prepares his spear for combat.

Being an acrobatic little Halfling, Lindal makes his Acrobatics skill check to prevent damage so well that I decide he doesn’t even fall prone.  This is good news as the bottom of the pit is covered in a swarm of writhing hungry rats!  They seem just as surprised as him and fail to cause any damage during their first attack.  Lindal wins initiative and immediately decides to get out of the pit.  Again he does so well that he I describe his escape from the pit as a Jackie Chan-style parkour exit more than a “climb”, much to the surprise of the goblin guard who now shouts for help.

Some goblin snipers are alterted and attack from their hiding place — they have a neat ability to not become un-hidden if they miss an attack — but they and the guard are quickly dispatched.

And that’s where we left off.  The party has entered the Keep on the Shadowfell to discover it’s not as abandoned as they had hoped.  Or not — abandoned keeps aren’t worth as much experience.

Speaking of which, they all received almost enough experience to get to second level so I decide we should level them up using the D&D Character Builder in preparation for when they actually do.  This means we don’t have to take that time in the middle of a session.

Dave asks if he can modify his character a bit as a few of his abilities aren’t good choices for the play style he now knows he needs.  4th Edition has this option built-in, allowing you to change a few things each time you level, but I handwave and allow him to change whatever he wants because none of us knew exactly how it would all work.  The Character Builder really makes this easy too.

Speaking of which, I need to go get more ink cartridges for my printer…

< Dungeons & Dragons – Report #1