http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/24

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-24

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dorktower/comic/~3/tXbvdxyrRiM/

http://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=8354

http://www.cockeyed.com/personal/craigslist_job/craigslist_job.html

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/23

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-23

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/51054085378

First snack of my third Graze box is summer berry compote. It’s a little thing of berry jam with three shortbread cookies for dipping. Pretty tasty but I wasn’t wowed. I wouldn’t mind getting it again, though.

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/22

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-22

Munchkin Dragons

Here There Be Dragons!

Zombie Dice Brain Case

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50991691025

cjwho:

102-Year-Old Abandoned Ship is a Floating Forest / Image by Andy Brill

The SS Ayrfield is one of many decommissioned ships in the Homebush Bay, just west of Sydney, but what separates it from the other stranded vessels is the incredible foliage that adorns the rusted hull. The beautiful spectacle, also referred to as The Floating Forest, adds a bit of life to the area, which happens to be a sort of ship graveyard.

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50984921115

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50979672815

DONT BE SAD LOOK AT THIS DUCK INSTEAD

http://www.cockeyed.com/travel/maker_2013/maker_faire01.html

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50977530237

biweeklybookchallenge:

Round Three begins today and finished Sunday, June 2nd

The challenge is The Book Of The Film, read a story you’ve already experienced once as a film, tv series, or other media.

Discussion points for those who want them;

1. How do you feel about the film/tv series/etcetera? When did you see it?
2. Are you aware of changes in the adaptation? What are you expecting from the book?
3. Do you watch a lot of adaptations? Do you normally try and read the book first?

There are huge numbers of films and television series produced every year based on or inspired by beloved - or in some cases not so beloved - books. Sometimes they are very strict adaptations, and sometimes they are more fluid, and sometimes they bear almost no resemblance to the original text. It can be quite insightful to experience a story from a different perspective.

See you at the halfway mark, and don’t forget to tag your book blogging #thebbc!

As soon as I saw this theme I knew exactly what I was going to read. It is in fact one of the books I briefly considered reading for the first round as it’s also something I bought aaaaaaages ago and then never read. The book is Ao no Jidai by Komatsu Eriko and it’s a novelisation of a drama, written by the same person who wrote the screenplay for said drama.

1. Well, I don’t feel anything about this drama because I watched it about fifteen years ago and I’m not even sure I ever watched the whole thing! In fact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t watch more than an episode or two, because I really, really don’t remember anything about it, even more than I usually don’t remember much about things I watch or read. ^_^;; (If I can find it to download, I might watch it after reading the book, just to compare.)

2. Considering both the screenplay and book were written by the same person and it’s a novelisation of the drama rather than the drama being based on an already existing book, I don’t think it’s very different, but as I said in answer to the first question, I really can’t judge.

3. Usually I prefer reading stuff to watching, so if I see that something interesting is based on a book or manga, I will often go read that instead of watching.(Oddly enough, I’m actually watching two anime right now that are based on written works, but I chose to watch the anime instead of reading. In the case of Shingeki no Kyojin, I will probably read the manga as well, but just have so much other stuff on my plate, I decided to watch the anime first. With Hataraku Maou-sama, it’s based on a series of light novels and generally the writing in light novels tends to be pretty dire, plus I dislike never-ending series and thus would prefer to just watch the anime.)

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/21

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-21

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/20

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-20

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50853011745

Last snack from my second Graze box is “herby bread basket” which has garlic croutons, mini basil breadsticks, and oregano rice crackers. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it since I wasn’t that thrilled with the last crackery one but it was really good! I definitely want to get this one again.

http://sttngfashion.tumblr.com/post/50848660021

Did you guys see STID yet? How’d that go for you? I don’t think we’ll do a whole fashion post on the costumes in the movie (though I loved those jackets with the clear triangles so you could see the color of the uniform underneath), but I did want to point out one thing I thought was really well-done in terms of costume design: in the scene where Scotty is out of uniform, he’s wearing this outfit that isn’t exactly from the 1970s, but is most certainly inspired by the 1970s. We’re meant to understand that Scotty, while he may be a wonderful engineer, is not really a fashion plate and is wearing something out-of-date. It looks retro-in-a-bad-way to us here in 2013, especially when contrasted with the other people in the scene (who all look cool). Keep an eye out for that if you haven’t seen it yet!

Now on to the real post: readers Karl (who sent us a delightful screenshot of a grumpy Picard brother) and Sara (who tweets about Star Trek A LOT) both mentioned this episode to us in the recent past. The Enterprise is hanging out near Earth, so some family visits are in order. Picard is heading down to France in a faux wrap shirt:

Blouson

We’ve seen JLP rock this silhouette before, in Captain’s Holiday, but this time we’ve got a nice print instead of the knife pleats we saw there. Sadly, this shirt is the color of old oatmeal, but you can’t win ‘em all. The sleeves also look like they could hide a magnum of wine:

Forte comme le taureau

It’s like a mini-kimono had a baby with a sack of potatoes. And yet somehow I like it.

Here he is proving to Troi that he is feeling good after his Borgventure (this episode immediately follows The Best of Both Worlds). 

In addition to Picard’s little getaway, which we’ll get back to momentarily, Worf is dealing with family issues in the form of a surprise visit from his adoptive parents, the Rozhenkos:

In Russia, parents adopt YOU - wait

Worf’s human parents (who found him abandoned after a battle one time) are both played by actors who were involved in musicals that majorly affected my childhood: Georgia Brown was the original Nancy Sykes in Oliver! and Theodore Bikel played the Hungarian prince in the movie version of My Fair Lady. 

Additionally, they are both wearing outfits that I am pretty sure were available at Lands’ End in the early 90s. Helena is rocking a jersey dress at a length I usually call Maximum Frump, and Sergey is wearing a colorblocked open blazer over a classic crewneck tee. Seriously, I am pretty sure this dress was all up in that catalog:

The shoulderpads are removable, but would you want to?

I will say that that purple and blue combo is great and looks great on her. She is adhering, however, to the Deanna Troi school of dress-over-pants, or possible shants (shoe-pants):

A column of purple makes you look taller, right? Not like a grape popsicle? Right?

I’m not mad at her, though, because she makes great faces:

Watch out, we got a badass here

Sergey’s blazer/cardigan is actually kind of cool when you see it close up:

His beard, however, does not stand up to scrutiny

It’s a suede/herringbone situation that, while brown, is pretty rockin’. A grandpa sweater meets a cool professor blazer type deal. Maybe it’s because he’s burly, but I think he’s pulling it off okay. A lesser man might be lost in there.

Also in the Worf storyline: a strange sculpture and/or punching bag:

Punching bag tree! Christmas tree! Weird sex chair!

To be fair to that sculpture, I assume lots of things are a weird sex chair.

Meanwhile, on Earf, Picard is strolling down a country lane:

Country roads, take me home

His pants, it seems, are as voluminous as his shirt.  This episode aired in 1990. Know what else came out in 1990? This. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.

Soon, Picard is accosted by a ragamuffin:

‘allo, Guvnah

If this child looks familiar to you, it may be because you’ve seen the episode Rascals, in which this same little scamp played a young Picard. But this isn’t some kind of time-travel shenanigan: in this episode, young Mr. Birkin is portraying JLP’s nephew Rene. He is additionally portraying a child version of one of The Monkees. DAT HAIR!!

It appears that he’s wearing suspenders, but I actually think it’s a jumpsuit with trompe l’oeil suspenders installed. Ah, the convenience of a jumpsuit with the cool fashion trend of suspenders. Great combo.

Rene brings his “nephew” (what he calls Picard initially and then a running gag) to his mother, Picard’s SIL Marie:

Big hair is BACK and BIGGER THAN EVER

Sometimes I wonder if big hair will ever truly be trendy again. There’s been a lot of sleekening as of late. Curly-haired girls are less likely now to straighten their hair than a few years ago, but straight-haired young women aren’t getting perms (with the exception of my friend MaryAnne, who is so far ahead of any trend that we’ll all catch up with her in like 10 years). So maybe I answered my own question: MaryAnne has predicted our future. See you in 2025 with a perm. 

Anyway, this lady’s hair looks super-90s and her dress kind of does too:

Mother of the Bride realness

The combination of the color, the chiffon, the strange waistline and finally, the hem length:

This season, EVERYTHING is mint, yes, even your shoes

…all these factors combine to make Marie look not like a vineyard wife in the 24th century, but more like that lady your mom is friends with from church, but only because she makes those good coconut bars. She’s kind of a bitch otherwise.

We’ve also got a shoes-matching-tights happening again. Bev and D-Train do it in the infamous Dance Stretching scene and Fake Dr. Leah Brahms does it in Booby Trap. I’m sure it’s happened other times, but those two are my favorites. 

Picard is also using the gym bag Charlie wanted real bad when he wrote about Liaisons. We also see Data using the same bag in a second season episode, so I think it’s a) safe to say these are standard Starfleet issue gym bags and b) time for me to find one and buy it.

Picard wanders out to the grape fields (technical term) to find his brobro Robert:

GRUMPY HAT

Robert makes wine and HATES TECHNOLOGY. However, his Diane Keaton hat is pretty sweet.

You can tell Robert doesn’t trust modern conveniences because he believes you need both a belt AND suspenders to make sure these newfangled “pants” stay up:

I liked it better when we all wore fur loincloths

Even dude’s house is REAL old-timey. Like, it would be old-timey NOW:

PHSAW ON YOUR MODERN CONVENIENCES

I don’t really believe that this guy wouldn’t even have a REPLICATOR. Like, think about e-mail addresses. Not everyone has one (this is a true fact), but it’s common enough that if you met someone who was like “I don’t have e-mail” you would probably be surprised. Or electricity - think about how you might react to someone not having electricity (on purpose, not because their service got cut off or something). Replicator technology is about 100 years old at this point, let’s say (they had food synthesizers on TOS). For Robert to be like “NOPE” is, at this point, sort of silly and old-fashioned. He’s one of those guys who lives in a geodesic dome heated by a wood stove and recycles his pee to drink, basically. No judgment on that - you do you - but I fucking love electricity, man.

In any event, that bread looks goooooooood.

The next day, JLP meets up with an old friend of his in the grape fields:

They’re called “Hammer pants” 

Employing much the same look as yesterday, JLP is sporting an evergreen silky top with some bizarrely-pleated jodhpur/hammer pants. His friend is rocking a cowl neck:

Can we get Jonathan Pryce? No? Okay

The frequent use of a cowl neck on men is one actual gender-neutral clothing piece that I think works on this show. The skant was a bridge too far, but I think that even though the cowl neck is pretty solidly in “lady” territory here in 2013, it usually looks believable on the men of TNG. 

Doesn’t this color look nice on him? 

Oh, Not-Jonathan, it feels good to laugh

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, Worf is acting like a sullen teen and being embarrassed by his parents, so Guinan advises him:

Standard Guinan Outfit #376

It’s a jewel tone. It’s got more fabric than it needs to have. There are inexplicable layers. It’s long-sleeved. And of course:

Matching hat

It’s a Guinan outfit. It’s the equivalent of Taylor Swift wearing a boring-ass neutral gown to an awards show, or Helena Bonham Carter wearing something plaid and bananas.

Back on Earf, Marie is wearing a toddler’s outfit:

Dora the Exploreur

This would be fine in any other color scheme. But I am pretty sure this dress, or jumper and shirt, came with a Barbie DVD. Swap out the lilac for a bright green, maybe? Or the pink for a deep blue? It also needs a belt, but let’s deal with the palette first. Marie is keeping up the shoe/tights trend, though:

The color is called Bubblegum, based on an ancient substance chewed by teens

Picard and his bro get into a tussle in the grape field, and this ends up happening:

MUD RASSLIN, FRANCH STYLE

My understanding of brother relationships is that there is frequently wrestling. I am a woman with mostly sisters, so I don’t know how true that is, but sometimes I think my sisters and I could really have worked some shit out via wrestling. Also maybe it could have been in the mud and we could have sold tickets. Look, I’m just monetizing an opportunity. 

The bros get all muddy:

Yes, we are adult men

And Marie is like “OH YOU BOYS”

Wives: easy to shock

And then it’s time for JLP to go back up in space. Rene says goodbye while wearing a shirt that is somehow a wrap AND a mock turtleneck simultaneously:

I will allow it, but begrudingly

Robert hugs his little brother while wearing a delightful scarf:

Brothers don’t shake hands, brothers gotta hug

And off Captain Picard goes, with a new understanding of his relationship with his brother. Very sweet. (Worf also learned some things on the ship.)

Oh ps the whole time there was this dumb C plot about Dr. Crusher’s dead husband where she had, like, a memory tackle box:

Death box

Wesley got a holo-letter from his dead dad, whose jacket looks all wrong. No collar?!

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/19

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-19

http://sttngfashion.tumblr.com/post/50783703780

I found a Romulan backpack in the wild.

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50751177423

Well, this is the most boring of the Graze snacks so far, that’s for sure. It’s just pistachios. I like pistachios but I could get that anywhere.

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50717951537

saveroomminibar:

Pencil Drawings of Pokemon by Rocky Hammer.

Website || Etsy

http://www.cockeyed.com/travel/disneyland_2013/disneyland_elevator.html

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50711587962

misohead:

dorkly:

The Sims Career Ladder

SO ACCURATE XD

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/18

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-18

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50697139852

I was so busy this last week I didn’t have a chance to eat any of my Graze snacks and now they’ve sent me out a new box already so I’d better get cracking on these. “Eton mess” is a mix of dried cranberries, black currants, almond slices, and mini meringues. It looked really good but I wasn’t that thrilled with it. I’m not that big a fan of meringue and the berries were too tart. Maybe if there had been fewer berries.

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50647841086

queereyes-queerminds:

placidiappunti:

(proyectoyakuza:

by Horitomo)

Oh WOW. 

http://nowisgreater.tumblr.com/post/50642990921

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/17

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-17

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/16

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-16

http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/05/alt-text-science-reality-shows/

http://www.wired.com/underwire/?p=144075

http://www.gocomics.com/cathy/2013/05/15

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2013-05-15

http://www.dorktower.com/2013/05/14/princess-makeover-dork-tower-14-05-13/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=princess-makeover-dork-tower-14-05-13

http://dorktower.kovalic.com/?p=8348