matthewjhanson

So... what have I been doing recently. Well, for one thing I’ve been working this other job. I'm a reader for Data Recognition Corps. Basically I read essay questions written by 6th grade students, and give them a score. It's starting to get a little repetitive. Perhaps I will find something else soon.

In more exciting news I have a final title for my Fringe Festival play: Roasted to Perfection. It's a rich blend of love, caffeine, and serial arson. A dark robust comedy, percolating with suspense. And best of all, it opens August 7th. Don't worry. You'll read plenty more about it in the weeks to come.

Your results:
You are Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi 80% Qui-Gon Jinn 80% Yoda 74% R2-D2 69% Mace Windu 69% Lando Calrissian 65% Chewbacca 65% Han Solo 65% Boba Fett 60% Darth Maul 60%

You are civilized, calm, and have a good sense of humor, even when those around you don't. You can hold your own in a fight, but prefer it when things don't get too exciting.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the Star Wars Personality Quiz


I must confess that Obi-Wan was originaly #2, behind Qui-Gon, but I'm to old school to be having any of that. (And I would have prefered a picture of Sir Alec).

Congratulations to all you Beloit people who just graduated. Now you get to enter the real world.

It's even more scary out here than you thought.

I know you have been waiting with baited breath for my latest update, but don't worry. The combined forces of X-Men and the Enterprise crew not only defeated the Draa'kon invaders, but Crusher and a holodeck recreation of Professor X found a cure of the Xhaldia "Transfomations." This lead to my favorite part of the book, when they commented on the similarities between Captain Picard and Professor X.

The only thing is that they gave the transformed the option of returning to normal, but they never said whether Erid chose undo the transformation or not.

Also they answered the question of just how exactly the X-Men got into the Star Trek Universe. Then answer was the other our good old pal: Q.

It got me thinking about how much fantasy is in the supposed "Sci-Fi" genre.

In other news my play "Aesop's Journey" went off without a hitch.

So I had day on my new job yesterday, but who wants to hear about that? I know you all really are dying to know what's going on with the X-Men, and the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

Well things have definatly heated up. I mentioned last time how I was disappointed that the "Main characters" we just sitting around their ship saying, "What's going on?"

Not any more.

An evil alien race called the Draa'kon has appeared in orbit of planet Xhaldia, and is attempting to round up all of the transformed. Shortly after the Enterprise arrived and a major space battle ensued. The Enterprise lost it's shields and weapon system, by Nightcrawler teleported over to the Draa'kon ship (he could get through the shield because his teleportation works differently than Starfleet transporters), and with the help of Data, they were able to sabotage the Draa'kon ship.

With the ship disabled, the Enterprise crew is currently on the surface of Xhaldia trying to clean up the Draa'kon down there.

Remember Erid Sovar? One of the transformed? It turns out his older brother was the first Xhaldian to join Starfleet. And he was stationed on... wait for it... the Starship Enterprise. Now Lt. Sovar is on the surface, and the brother's just had a family reunion. But apparently Erid "Doesn’t need any help from your kind."

Dun dun Dun!

After weeks of delay, I finally received my latest order from Amazon.com: Star Trek/X-Men: Planet X.

That's right. It's a cross over between Star Trek (the Next Generation) and X-Men. How brilliant is that?

I've only gotten through the first ten chapters (out of thirty four), but I couldn't wait to share it with my loyal readers, so I decided to write an ongoing review.

WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!

First of all Star Trek is awesome, and X-Men is also awesome. Thus it is impossible that this book could do anything other than rock.

The next major observation I noticed is that the book’s author, Michael Jan Friedman knows his Star Trek. Maybe a little too much. I appreciate the fact that he captures the spirit of the characters and stays firmly within the Star Trek cannon. But when Picard talks about his flute it sounds like Michael is trying to prove that he watched 525: The Inner Light. The book is filled with tiny episode summaries like this, which I find distracting at best.

While it pains me to say it (out a feeling of disloylaty) the part I am enjoying the most so far is actually the story of the original character: Erid Sovar. Erid is a young man from the planet Xhaldia (The Planet X of the title), who has recently developed strange powers. He and the other "transformed" (a.k.a. mutants) were rounded up by the government of Xhaldia and placed in a secret camp. Most recently the escaped under the leadership of Rahatan (a.k.a. "the Magneto corollary").

So far this story is the most dramatic and engaging. It deals with characters in a turbulent conflict. To date the X-Men and Enterprise crew only have to worry about how the X-Men got there (it's set in the Star Trek Universe incase I forgot to mention) and how to get them home. I have no doubt that the conflict on Xhaldia will soon draw the Enterprise into close orbit, hopefully for more than just a Deus ex Machina ending.

That's all for now. I'll continue my review later, possibly including other trivial details like my new job.ll

Guess where I am right now. I'll give you a hit. It's new, and it's named after a popular brand of peppermint patties. Give up? I’m in New Junior Mints.

Seriously though. I'm at the big apple, (where there are surprisingly few apples). There are lots of people though, and the drivers really like to honk their horns.

I've done a little sight seeing. Like to the Statue of Liberty. I realized we don't build really big things that have no functional purpose anymore. They pretty much all have to be buildings now. Why is that?

I also went to the American Museum of Natural History. There were a bunch of dinosaurs there.*

I've also seen a lot of theatre here, but the highlight has to be the premier production of "A Perfectly Normal Family Dinner." It was much better than Cats.

That's all for now.

* Dinosaur fossils. Real dinosaurs are extinct.**
**Except for Senor T-Bone and Ginger Snap. And pterodactyls.

I'm in that awful state where I'm tired, but not sleepy, so I might as well write what will probably turn out to be a mostly incoherent Live Journal post.

I'm out in Afton at the moment, taking care of my mom’s dogs, which always wreaks havoc on my sleep schedule. We went for a walk on Monday, which was fun. Then acres of snow fell, so I haven’t gone outdoors much. And here I thought I was done with winter.

Early today I played some Dungeons & Dragons. It was a little slow to get started, but eventually it got going and we had a pretty good battle. Alas I am 28 experience points short from getting to the next level. For those of you don’t play D&D, that’s about how many experience points you get from defeating a chipmunk.

I think I'll try lying in bed and hoping to fall asleep again. More later.

I got free custard today. It was awesome.

I have to get up in three hours.

Sweet.