Welp, there's that.

Your results:
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)

An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 65% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Geordi LaForge 50% Deanna Troi 50% Spock 42% James T. Kirk (Captain) 35% Chekov 30% Uhura 30% Data 30% Will Riker 30% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25% Worf 20% Mr. Sulu 15% Mr. Scott 10% Beverly Crusher 10%

Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed, and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable. That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first episode you appeared in.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz...

Games worth playing: Starcraft

Note: I plan on writing a series of posts about Starcraft over the days and weeks. I started replaying the game recently and fell in love with it again. The posts will cover aspects of the game, the lore, and how amazeballs it is.

God, what can I say about this game other than just gushing about how awesome it is? In 1998, Blizzard Entertainment didn't just strike gold when they released this RTS (real-time strategy game), nor did they hit the mother-lode. They struck something better. I have no idea if it has retained its popularity since the release of Starcraft II, but I do know that this came transcended almost every other game in terms of popularity and longevity. A game so popular that in South Korea, competitive play was akin to a national sport. You know how people in the U.S. will watch football every Sunday during the season, or how soccer fans are glued to the World Cup? It was like that in South Korea with this computer game. Pro-gamers - and I swear, I am not making this up - would play against each other in stadiums. Thousands, even tens of thousands of people would go to those stadiums and watch two people play a computer game against each other. Units from the game graced the fronts of bags of chips and cans of soda. Hell, the South Korean Air Force even formed and sponsored a team of Starcraft players who were serving out their compulsory military service.

Okay, I think I've established that South Korea is a bit...odd. But it was a global thing with this game being not just hugely popular, but professionally played globally. I think almost every country had at least one pro.

Now that I'm done gushing about the game's popularity, let's move on to what I really wanted to post about. One of the things I love about Starcraft is how revolutionary it was. You see, RTSes of the time had no unit diversity. What I mean is that every race/faction in a game had the exact same units in form and/or function. In the Age of Empires series, which was hugely popular, every faction had bowmen, and cavalry, and chariots, etc, etc, etc. Starcraft, on the other hand, ditched that and gave each faction their own unique units.

Not dead, just busy

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I found myself recruited by chaps representing the Rylan Star League to do battle with the Ko-Dan Empire. At least, that's what they claim; I don't remember the Gunstar looking like a windowless white van with "Free Candy" scribbled on the side. But whatever.

But in all seriousness, I took a break because I was feeling burned out from reading science fiction and fantasy. That's all I read and well, it was bound to frizzle my brain. But, I'm getting back into the saddle. Currently reading some Charles Dickens until I'm reading for some scifi. Been playing Starcraft, so that's helped a lot with getting me back into the mood.

And that's how you destroy a ship!

From Red Faction: Guerrilla.


I'm guessing the Hydra didn't have any kind of point-defense. By the looks of it, no early-warning system either, because they didn't even spot the missile until it was too late.

Man, Han Solo is old

For whatever reason, I got curious about how old Han Solo is in the Star Wars Expanded Universe - the novels, comics, etc. - and so went on Wookieepedia to look it up. According to that, Han was born in 29 BBY (Before Battle of Yavin, which is used as Year Zero in Star Wars). The most recent novel he's been in is set in 44 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin). Now, I'm no good at the maths, but that would make him 73 years old.

Credit: Kate Beaton.

Then, I decided to check to see how old Luke and Leia were. According to Wookieepedia, they were born in 19 BBY, ten years after Han, making them 63 years old. You know who's really old, though? Chewbacca. If Chewbacca were still alive, he'd be 244.

Doom Stars, because Death Stars are for wimps

What's a Doom Star? This:

The big green ones.

Doom Stars are warships from the popular - and to be honest, epic as hell - computer game, Master of Orion II. Specifically, it's a planetoid-sized ship that, when armed with a stellar converter (or several, if you're sadistic), become the most powerful ships in the entire game. Really, though, the Doom Star is a Death Star knockoff, right down to the planet destroying uber weapon, the stellar converter. Hit the jump for a demonstration of the technological terror you can construct:

Another book finished

Fuzzy Nation is done! I'm going to start work on the non-reviews for it and The Clone Republic tonight. I absolutely recommend Fuzzy Nation, however. It is a must read.

Farewell, Neil Armstrong

As you might be hearing right now, Neil Armstrong has died. He was 82. He was also a hero. I don't mean an American hero, but a hero of mankind. When he set foot on the surface of the Moon, it wasn't as an American, it was as a human and for the benefit of his species. His family summed up the best way to remember and pay tribute to Armstrong:

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

I'm not going to lie, as soon as I found out that he died, I had tears in my eyes. Losing a hero is hard. I'm going to be very disappointed if there isn't a statue erected in his honor. Maybe rename Johnson Space Center to Armstrong Space Center?

Farewell, Mr. Armstrong.

Picture via Wikipedia.

SyFy's doing a Blake's 7 remake

And maybe this time, Blake will stick around for more than two seasons. There's also a Space: 1999 remake in the works by some other network, called Space: 2099. Seems like remaking old scifi shows is still in vogue. BSG, Star Trek, and V have all had remakes, though the latter was less than successful.

So, what old scifi show do you want to see remade?

h/t The Wertzone.

"It's called marriage, honey" New Doctor Who trailer!

River Song! Daleks! River Song! Weeping Angels! River Song! A little over a week to go, I can't wait.

Did I mention River Song?

h/t Nerdvana.