Travel Tips

Star Trek: Movies, Movies, Movies all week

Earlier this month I decided to go to the movies out of the blue during the week, which I do not normally do. As I like to see more than one movie at a time, especially if I am actually paying myself. Which I usually don't, so since I had free tickets and Star Trek was actually playing a day earlier than initially advertised in the papers. So I saw it on the Thursday before it's official release date. Now I am not a Trekie (or Treker) by any means, but I do like Star Trek in general as well as most (good/well written) Science Fiction. So I wasn't as upset as most people when it came to the new creative team changing or tweaking so many things about the original and their giving the original series a reboot as it were. Which in this case involved time travel...A plot device that Star Trek films have to stop relying so heavily upon in the future, as this make the 5th Star Trek film to do so. If you count the numerous television incarnations, time travel accounts for almost 10% of the total amount of episode plot lines. But it actually worked surprisingly well in this film since they essentially reset the Star Trek history or continuity as we know it. Meaning they are free to do pretty much anything they want with the subsequent films, picking and choosing elements from previously established history as they wish. And what's even better is they effectively or potentially eliminated all of the nonsense surrounding the bad Star Trek films, and could even completely redo them if they wished as well as correct any of their respective flaws. Such as the horrible Shatner directed Star Trek 5 and the other odd numbered films that just plan sucked!


The pictures that you see to go along with this Blog were taken months before the films actually finished shooting. My former university, CSUN or cal State University Northridge, doubled for Star Fleet Academy. Which is why I was able to get some many shots of cadets going about their business as it were. If I knew for sure that some of the major players were going to be on campus, I would have taken more pictures of stood around longer. But if you live in the LA area like I do, then you have seen countless movies and TV shows being filmed, and it can all get to be rather tedious. Plus I was getting guff from security who claimed I couldn't take any pictures, but that was actually bullshit. CSUN is a State school, which means it's funded in part by tax payers dollars. As such it is technically public property, and you cannot tell people what they can or cannot take pictures of on public property. Even if you are filming a movie, which is something not everyone knows.


back to the film itself. Some of the casting itself was brilliant, and I especially liked how Zachery ( something) portrayed Spoke. I actually felt sorry for his character, and Vulcans are one of the fictional species where they have a very rich and interesting back story or full characterization.

Griffith Observatory: First time in a long time!

Yesterday I went with some friends to the Griffith Observatoryin Los Angeles. You know the one with the really big telescope and the laserium shows that everyone gets stoned for and watches, especially when they use Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin as the soundtrack. Anyway I have been to the Observatory a few times in the past, but I haven't actually managed to do any hiking. Which was our goal yesterday. Actually our goal was to walk to the Hollywood sign and take some pictures, something I have been meaning to do for over 10 years now, but that proved to be undo able. From the Observatory it is a several mile hike uphill and not in a direct sort of way. So we simply didn't plan or manage our time appropriately for such an endeavor. Though we did make plans to attempt the hike in the near future. Hopefully we will all have time before I leave for Europe later on in the summer. Plus the Observatory/Griffith Park and the surrounding mountains were breathtaking, so we all got some really good pictures and I finally got to use the Wide Screen feature on my camera.

Travel Whore: The 1st Blog Ever!

Okay everyone this is my first attempt at a Blog aside from the half assed ones on my MySpace pages, but I gave that up a long time ago ( Facebook rules!). So please do forgive me as I tend to write everything in a very stream of consciousness sort of way or format, as that is just how my mind seems to work. Which incidentally I do not think lends itself very well to the printed page...or in this case the printed screen. It is also not every one's cup of tea for writing styles. Unfortunately I am also a horrible speller and tend to forget to include words from time to time that are actually quite important to the story or actual narrative of unfolding events. So I do hope you will understand if this Blog is slightly less than perfect as it were from time to time. It is many a bit of fun and to showcase some of the places I will visit this summer while in Europe. Specifically Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and if there is time, Morocco, Ibiza, France and Italy, as well as all the places I have already been to throughout the US and Europe during my many travels. My Blog will also feature some of my other interests such as films ( I use to be a film critic and go to the movies at least once a week here in LA), Food ( going out and cooking), collectibles ( I collect a lot of shit) and various other tidbits and whatnot. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please feel free to message me here, below, or via travelwhore@rocketmail.com, and travelwhore09@gmail.com .

Which reminds me, I actually tried to get a few different email addresses with just TravelWhore, but it is not as easy as you would think. Hence the dash or hyphen in my Blogspot web address. Anyway I will start to regularly update this Blog during my annual summer trip to Europe which starts next month! So be on the lookout for that and tons of pictures of me and my friends adventures. Until then please take care of yourself and Enjoy! My next Blog should be sometime this weekend after I have seen Angels and Demons and some other films at the local Movie Theatre.

Roskilde, the Rain & Mud and Drunk in Europe

Well my friends, I just woke up after my very first black out in Europe...Though I am sure there will be many, many more to come. Roskilde was not as fun as I imagined it would be and the weather was mainly the cause. It rained every single day and there was just mud and urine drenched filth everywhere! I really never felt so physically uncomfortable in my entire life! My feet are still absolutely disgusting as being moist for a week straight does hideous things to your skin! Hopefully next year will be a lot better. I will post more as more happens. Right now I am trying to upload 2,000 pics and it's taking forever.

Road Island and Europe!

In less than one month I will be back in Europe after spending a fun filled week in Rhode Island! Which should be very interesting as I have never been there and have always wanted to go. I am going for a convention, some job interviews and for fun. Rhode island is very close to Boston and I hopefully will be able to see a childhood friend there, that I haven't seen in over 20 years. I have also always wanted to go to Boston for some odd reason, as if I lived there in a previous life or something, Though I am not really a big believer in reincarnation, though I do believe in the universes ability to recycle stuff. So maybe that is just a different kind of reincarnation. But that is a topic for another blog at another time.

SWEDEN!

Well folks I am in beautiful Sweden at the moment. It is my first time ever in Scandinavia and I love it! It has not been the best weather since my arrival last week, but it is still very nice and purty here. The people are also not as tall or as blonde as I had imagined they would be, and sadly I have not found myself a giantess to bear my unholy brood of monster children (How better to take over the world). But I did attend a crayfish party in the forest on Saturday that involved lots of alcohol and late night nudity. Which as you know is always a plus with me. I plan to return next year when I have more time and more money to properly enjoy myself, as sadly that is not the case this year. Plus it is also towards the end of my European trip and I am getting a bit burned out on Europe in general. It happens every time I come here as I think 2 months is just getting to be a little too long for me at my age. More on my European vacation later on when I have some more time to write. Peace!

Europe and all that it Implies

Okay, I have been in Europe for awhile now and what have I accomplished thus far? Well for starters, I have been drunk several days in a row and I seemed to have burst a blood vessel in right eyes. I either did this while vomiting or taking a rather strenuous dump. Though my money is on the vomiting since I have done that more than I have gone to the bathroom. Now I look like I am the victim of domestic violence. I have also said and done several rather inappropriate things while intoxicated. Nothing I haven't done before, but I am trying to behave myself this time round. Though some of the pictures I have taken with my new digital camera do nothing to belie this fact. Actually I managed to upload a bunch of my photos to my Kodak Galleries, so I will have to send all my friends the link. But they are all jumbled right now and I have not had the patience to go through each of them and arrange them in the proper order or by days. I will do this at a later date as the computer lab here is filled with visiting American college students and they annoy me for some reason. I also don't seem to have an attention span long enough to do anything useful on the computer. I tend to just check my emails and take off, which kind of makes sense. I mean why would I fly all the way to Europe just to spend hours at a time on the computer. And with that my friends, I am outta here!

Birthday in the Bay Area

Those of you who know me, know that I haven't lived in the Bay Area where I'm originally from since I moved to the Los Angeles area in 1992 to attend CSUN. Once in college I use to come home for every summer and winter break as well as for Thanksgiving, Christmas and my Birthday. Though After a few months at college and living on my own, I stopped coming home altogether except for the later three events/holidays. It just became more and more of a hassle to be home and see my family, mainly because my Mother would drive me crazy by talking to me like I still lived at home ( I really didn't like or get along with my Step Father either). Typical Mom shit I guess, but a little goes a long way and I divorced myself from all that nonsense a long time ago. Regardless it is almost May 6th and I am once again home for my Birthday. Unfortunately it is rather a different experience year since I moved back to the States after living in Europe for so long (3 years) and after the passing of my Father. Plus this year my extended family ( i.e. my Step family whom we usually celebrate with ) have season tickets to the San Jose Sharks and the day we were supposed to have our collective Birthday celebration ( my Step Brother and me are several years apart but only 3 days in terms of the actual date so we celebrate them together) was for the same day as a major game...I guess they made it into the playoffs or something. So now it is just a mellow weekend with my brother and cousin Cahna whom I haven't seen in awhile. I am also hoping to reconnect with some old friends I have not seen in a really long time. Either way it is not a typical Birthday celebration for me, but the older one gets, the less significance Birthdays have. At least for me.