JJLexi

There was something to be said about meditation. In some regards, at least for Jyrd, it was better than sleep. Long gone was the energy force of Brythton existence known as The Song. But, JJ adapted. As opposed to the veritable symphony of consciousness, he found ways to focus on the whispers and murmurs of the minds around him. There were no words, only notes. Notes and tones. Each person on board the Reaent gave one off, some "louder" than others. In most of them, there was an underlying theme of apprehension. The same apprehension that JJ himself was feeling. It wasn't necessarily the fact that they were heading to Wolf 359 that necessarily troubled him. It was the way in which the destination was seemingly chosen that gave him pause. Since their departure from the planet which held the Guardian of Forever, JJ could really only think of two methods of thought behind the Captain's decision. The first mode of thought revolved around the Captain randomly choosing Wolf 359 off the top of his head. They needed to escape, Wolf 359 was the first system that popped into the Captain's mind, ergo, he belted it out to JJ in a bout of desperation to escape the pursuing Federation task force. It made sense given the immediate situation. But there was so much that seemed tactically wrong with the choice. First off, Wolf 359 was less than 8 light years from Sol, putting the Reaent within shouting distance of most likely half of Starfleet in every direction. It wasn't exactly the best place to stick their proverbial head in the sand. Which led JJ to the second possible mode of thought. The Captain was, by all indications, a smart man. In the time that had elapsed between their escape and the present time, he would have realized such a situation and ordered the Reaent to another location. Being that he hadn't done that. There obviously was some purpose behind the location. Some purpose that was unbeknownst to JJ, and quite possibly the rest of the crew. JJ hadn't had much contact with any of the away team who encountered the Guardian, so he wasn't sure if any information had been bestowed upon them which led to the Captain's decision. . .Or if there was something the Captain knew that no one else did. Which would be strange. . . JJ took a few moments to ponder McQueen himself. A good Captain, no doubt. He was essentially the only Captain that JJ had really had that much contact with. JJ had come on board prior to the Proxima incident as member of the gamma shift, meaning his contact with Captain Michaels had been utterly minimal until his transfer to Alpha shift. It was his first day on Alpha shift that saw the Reaent return to Romulan space and subsequently be destroyed. . .or so he thought. After the events that followed and their subsequent arrival at Starbase 1123 to regroup, Captain Michaels was immediately removed from command. Enter Patrick McQueen. Polite. Charismatic. He immediately won over the crew by renegotiating their impending assignment from patrol of the Romulan Neutral Zone to a simple dispersal of probes around the Cestus system, not too long before their journey to the past. Since then, McQueen had kept them alive considering the situation they had been thrown into. For the moment, JJ had nothing to really doubt about the man, he hadn't given him any reason to. It was probably best then to let things run their course and trust the Captain's judgment, whatever it was based on. Besides if he turned out to be wrong, they'd probably end up dead before they had any chance to react to it anyways. Not the most comforting thought, but it was probably the truth.

And by South Park. . .I mean Family Guy. ooops.

South Park. . .of course.

Judging by that, you either decided to rent in North Korea, Iran, or Ruby Ridge.

No disrespect intended towards your sim, of course.

Am I the only one that doesn't feel comfortable with this "new timeline"? I'm not a purist by any stretch of the imagination, but at the same time, when I watched the movie, all I could picture was J.J Abrams flashing the double bird to everybody at a Trek convention, or something similar. This may be my anti J.J Abrams coming out, because I have not been a fan of -any- of his work. Its not that I dislike him or have some sort of nasty opinion of him as a person or a writer/director/producer either. I guess I just don't understand his views. Not just on Star Trek, but on his other stuff too that has been wildly popular. I realize that I am in the minority, but his stuff is not my bag I guess.

FYI. . .Cops is filmed on location with the men and women of law enforcement. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty. . .in a court of law.

Too many plot holes. . .such as human kind forgetting the concept of horizontal drilling, which is meant to extract what you need without damaging (or at least inflicting minimal damage to) the surface. Not to mention the floating mountains were made of the stuff. All in all, its typical James Cameron. Take a weak story, make it visually stunning, throw in his own personal indictment of some aspect of society (his personal favorites are U.S culture, anything military, or humanity as a whole) and you've got yourself a hit movie! What makes Avatar is crowning achievement is that he manages to throw all three under the bus. The military is portrayed as blood thirsty war-mongers. Whatever company that Giovanni Ribisi works for is his idea of a greedy multinational corporation bent on doing whatever it takes to gain a profit. And there is an obvious "cowboys v indians" dynamic between the Na'vi and the humans, with the Na'vi being portrayed as the peaceful earth loving natives, against the ruthless (almost Manifest Destiny driven) humans. I still liked it.

Growing up I thought that Duran Duran was a pair of Mexican guys.

Your right. Its also a bay in South Australia.

Unrivaled is the pain one feels when one accidentally rubs one's eye after handling a sliced habanero pepper.

I've never liked too many Christmas songs. . .but if I had to choose any to listen to they would be: Santa Claus and His Old Lady - Cheech and Chong (Not really a song, but cut me a break) Donde Esta Santa Claus - Augie Rios Happy Christmas - John Lennon

If there is one band that brings out what can be considered beautiful in grunge music, that band is Alice in Chains. Their grunge overtones accompanied with their blend of acoustic tones and the haunting harmony between Staley and Cantrell, while still holding true to the sound of the time, exudes both a vulnerability and sorrow that not many other bands have captured before. No where is this more true than in their song "Nutshell" off their Jar of Flies album. Although the song touches on an oft repeated subject, Staley's heroin addiction, its softer acoustic tone releases the aforementioned vulnerability. In just two short verses, it speaks to everything that his addiction has torn away from him, portraying a helplessness that only those of us who have walked that same mile, or those of us who have experienced a loved one in that condition, can truly understand. With that being said, its controversy surrounding its inherent subject matter can either enhance or mask its beauty for the listener, dependent upon ones point of view. It represents a dichotomy of aesthetics on multiple levels. There are those, as mentioned above, who relate to the song via personal experience, then there are those who do not believe that such a subject matter is possible of producing anything that can be considered artistic or beautiful. There are those who open themselves up, not only to the lyrics, but to the music itself as well, allowing themselves to feel the sorrow in their own ways as it pertains to their life, and then there are those who fear that notion, and close their minds to the vulnerability, not allowing the emotion to penetrate their soul, therefore not gleaning any personal meaning. Consequently, this song, although not of the more traditional grunge sound, still encompasses what the genre was all about; a stripped down version of rock, meant to portray the art of rock music without the glamor and excess that had permeated it in the previous decade. Appearance is secondary, whereas emotion is primary. That is my random music note of the day, or month, or year.

I wonder what will happen first: Me bowling a 300 game or me winning 2 consecutive Minesweeper games in expert

My aunt posted pics of Mt. Baldy from her yard in Riverside on her facebook page. It makes me miss home. I always loved looking up at them after it snowed.

Page 1: I Page 2: Really Page 3: Like Page 4: This Page 5: Poem Use 76 font, you may have to go Landscape setting on some of those words. You can thank me later.

Here's some William Blake to switch things up then. Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare sieze the fire? And what shoulder and what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? And what dread feet? What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? -- Who knew the STSF was filled with such well read people? (mostly from memory, had to look it up and fix a few words)

I spent Thursday morning bowling in a Turkeys for Turkeys tournament on at a local bowling alley. The gimmick was that for every turkey that you bowl you get a free turkey (for cooking). Unfortunately this year, due to budgetary constraints, they could not afford turkeys, but cornish game hens. I was fortunate enough to bowl 4 turkeys so I got 4 cornish game hens. Now they were able to buy turkeys for the top ten finishers. I finished 6th. They also gave a turkey for the highest game. My 268 was the highest game, which is also tied for my highest game ever, but that's not the point of the story. The point of the story is that now, here I am walking around with 4 cornish game hens and 2 turkeys. I call my in-laws to see if we're in need of more turkey. We're not. So my next trip is to the homeless shelter. So I show up at the homeless shelter with 2 turkeys in hand. I say, "Hey, I won these today at a bowling tournament, I have no need for them, would you like them?" The lady just looks at me straight in the face and says "Its 1 PM, and you're bringing a turkey now? You should have brought this yesterday or early this morning. We have no need for a turkey." ....The homeless shelter turned down my turkeys. THEY TURNED DOWN MY TURKEYS! Of all places to turn down a gesture of goodwill, I didn't expect it to be there. So I still have a 2 turkeys that I'm trying to get rid of, and I have to show up for Thanksgiving dinner at 4. It is now past 1 and I still need to take a shower. I can't make it to the food bank and back home and to our dinner location in time (the one nearest to me is home). So I'm at a loss. I'm running out of options here. The homeless shelter has turned me down, the food banks are either closed or too far away. So I just give up, I drive home, and I bring my turkeys and cornish game hens home and shove them in the fridge. So the next day, I call the homeless shelter and say that I have two turkeys. The lady responds "You tried to pawn these off on us yesterday! Just listen to me pal! WE. . .DONT. . . .WANT. . .YOUR. . .TURKEYS!" Wh...whaaaat? That's twice. So I call the food bank and the lady there tells me "We already have plenty of turkeys." .....I don't know what to think at this point. So I call a buddy of mine who's family is short on cash because he's been laid off from one of the local auto shops. He had thanksgiving with his parents, but was more than willing to take a turkey off my hands. And he calls a buddy of his that also got laid off, who is also willing to take a turkey off my hands. So I was able to get rid of the turkeys. And kept the cornish game hens for myself because I love them. So that was my Thanksgiving weekend.

Lemmings ftw. Super Mario Cart ftw. Shining Force ftw. Rad Racer and Excitebike ftw. That is the extent of my gaming. :-)

I don't know what you're talking about. . .But once in every show, there's a song like this that starts soft and low and ends with a kiss. Just so you know.

Speaking from places I know and work/have worked with. There's the AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory) up at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. Check either USAjobs (the civil service jobs site) or the General Dynamics website (the main contractor over there). There's the Missile Defense Agency. They were the same job fair I was at last week, they're looking for bodies. When you check USAjobs, there might be some jobs out at Edwards AFB in California. There's always freaky stuff going on out there. You can also see if Lockheed is hiring at Skunk Works, or Boeing is hiring at Phantom Works. There's Los Angeles AFB which a space and missle systems center Kirtland AFB in New Mexico has a space test wing. Peterson AFB in Colorado is Space Command. Pax River, MD is a big Navy test site, lots of freaky stuff there, too. JPL in Pasadena is also a spot. As you can see, my experience lies with the military. ;) This list is not completely exhaustive, of course. Its just what I could think of while I sit here on my break. With all of those places, you can probably find stuff on the USAjobs site. Or you can do a little digging to find some of the research companies (uber-massive, or small businesses) that support those bases. Most larger companies should have some sort of junior engineer/scientist program that could help pay for a masters (Cal Tech and Johns Hopkins are programs that have partnerships like that off the top of my head). Hope this helps.

“Mr. Lexi,” the Captain’s voice rang out from behind him. “Senior Staff meeting in 10 minutes in the conference room.” With that, McQueen left the bridge. JJ obediently tapped the ship wide comm. “Attention, all senior staff please report to the conference in 10 minutes.” As he called it, he stared up at the screen which portrayed the squadron of Birds of Prey headed straight towards the USS Enterprise. By the looks of the faces around him, this somehow, wasn’t supposed to be. From what he garnered from listening to the crew over the past few hours, the Enterprise was supposed to make it safely to Khitomer, where they were to engage the rogue Klingon vessel over the skies of the planet, and expose a conspirator within Starfleet, all in the name of peace with the Klingon Empire. That piece of history was now in obvious jeopardy. Or was it? In the way history was written, those Birds of Prey obviously either do not reach the Enterprise , do not engage it, or are headed somewhere else entirely. Blown up by a ship from the future didn’t seem like a viable option. Yet there they were, staring at the possibility of history shredding itself apart; Peace with the Klingons on the verge of being set years back, hindering decades of progress and exploration for the Federation. And here was the Reaent, left with two options; Break the temporal directive, and be responsible for either “saving” or ruining history as they knew it. Or they could keep to the temporal directive, where they could either let history pass as it was meant to or risk letting history as they knew it slip away. JJ was pretty sure the Captain’s thoughts, it was evident in his eyes. He was ready to intervene, yet he knew the weight that such a decision carried, so he wanted to consult with his senior officers prior to making that decision. JJ himself wasn’t sure where he stood, however. While he believed that every occurrence had some sort of buried purpose, he wasn’t sure weather he believed that the Reaent’s purpose for being shuttled to the past was to ensure the passage of history. Furthermore, it was extremely risky for the Reaent to engage a squadron of Birds of Prey, with the intent of destroying all of them, without them being able to send some sort of long range message. Even with their obvious technological superiority, it was a not an easy task. However, if they were destined to intervene, then that’s what fate hath decided. JJ wondered what an altered timeline would mean to the Sovereignty, a renewal of hostilities between the Empire and the Federation would mean that less attention would afforded to some of the other superpowers, including the Breen. A distracted Federation could mean that the Breen, or even the Cardassians could become bold enough to target the Sovereignty. Bringing decades more of war to his homeland. There was much that hung in the balance with this decision. The future of the galaxy was possibly at stake. JJ was sure glad he wasn’t a member of the senior staff.

I thought about continually clicking and backing out of the topic until it reached 100,000, but that would only re-enforce the notion that I have no life.

The wifey is currently enrolled in Cosmetology school. She has her own mannequin head to practice on. I have named her. She is Bianca Ronaldinho. Born in the streets of the infamous City of God in Rio De Janeiro, she has managed, despite the scars of shrapnel on the left side of her face (the mannequin is scratched), to become a beautiful and well respected Brazilian novella star. Currently starring in "As aventuras do pirata Capitão Carvalho", she is the model of how beauty can be molded out of suffering. A lesson in how to bring out perfection despite ones imperfections. . . She is triumph from tragedy. Yes, I name and give backstories to the heads of mannequins, I have no life.

What do -YOU- want? What, you think I'm in the mood to play? Do I -look- like I want to play with that ball of yarn? Do I -look- like I want my belly rubbed? Wait? What's wrong you ask? You're asking me whats wrong? YOU THREW ME IN THE GALL DERN POOL!!!!! -THAT'S- what's wrong you stupid human! No, No its ok, really, its ok because you know what? I think I just forgot where my litter box is. I think those slippers by your bed look like a perfect place for me to remove a hairball. You think this is funny? Do you? I'll bet you'll find that stench of ammonia coming from under your dining room table funny. ::swears:: I don't know why I put up with you. ::shakes off and turns to walk away:: Tell Colonel Harper if she needs me, I'll be in my office drying off.