I attended a preview of Star Trek: The Exhibition that opens Friday October 23 at the Tech Museum. I am a Star Trek fan but not a Trekker. I have seen all of the television series with Next Generation being my favorite. I have seen all of the films except the most recent.

So, let us take a tour …

When you enter the exhibit, you are greeted with a pillared entry. Do not go racing past them, take the time to notice they have text on them, from the “where no one has gone before” dialogue to a list of episodes.

Pass the pillars and you will be in a large area that includes uniforms and artifacts. There is a display featuring all of the Enterprises beginning with the Enterprise aircraft carrier, followed by the space shuttle, and then the starships. The centerpiece in this room is an immense model of the 1701-A Enterprise.

We exit this area to the right and enter the bridge of the original series. This for me was a disappointment. It is a scaled down bridge with no interactive features; unless sitting in the Captain’s chair or at the helm is being interactive. The consoles have plastic non-push lit up buttons. A few of these could be setup to activate display screens, sound effects, and communications chatter. Having the forward view screen animated would liven up the bridge. Note: no photography allowed throughout the exhibit. A photo of you in the Captain’s chair is available for a fee.

We exit the bridge through the turbolift and proceed down a walkway passing displays of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock’s uniforms.

Proceeding along the walkway, we enter a corridor of the 1701-D Enterprise (Next Gen), this portion of the exhibit being my favorite. First up along the corridor is Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s ready room. This closed-off area includes the Captain’s uniform, various props, and a bottle of Chateau Picard wine. Continue down the corridor to a full-scale Transporter. You can stand on the Transporter and wish photography were allowed. Look up at the monitor to see yourself; will you beam down? Next to the Transporter room is a full-scale model of the Guardian of Forever, the time portal from “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Another lost opportunity for a photo of you going through the portal. These two rooms include Captain chairs, a shooting model of the Borg ship, along with more artifacts and uniforms. Before leaving the corridor, take a close look at the displays on the walls of the corridor.

Leaving the corridor, we enter “The History of The Future.” The History of The Future is a timeline, which goes chronologically from right to left. Not only is it a bit strange that the timeline is right to left, you enter the room to the left of the timeline. This room includes shooting models of the Enterprise and other ships. There are more uniforms on display here including those from the recent Star Trek film.

That’s it. End of the exhibit; however, turn the corner and there are two motion simulators,

The two rides have an extra fee each.

There is an eight-seat ride that I found to be rather tame. There were six aboard, I was in the last row and had an obstructed view of the display screen. You are fighting the Borg as Worf (Michael Dorn) narrates. The ride rocks back and forth enough for you to slide back and forth on the bench seat. You may want to skip this one.

The other simulator is a two-seater. This one is fun. You get strapped in as you will be rolling and looping. The display is right in front of you and again you are fighting the Borg. There is a warning that the ride may be too intense for some; you will be upside-down a few times. If you are going to ride both simulators, do this ride second.

I recommend Star Trek: The Exhibition even though the admission is a bit pricy.

Check the Tech Museum’s Star Trek: The Exhibition website for ticket pricing, hours, costume guidelines, and more.

Star Trek Exhibit Photos…

Last night my husband, Ken, and I were remembering that September morning… I dressed for work, took my bowl of Cheerios and sat in front of the TV. I was expecting the usual morning news and traffic report. What I saw was so shocking. I could not believe my eyes and started to yell. Ken ran in holding his razor with his face covered in shaving cream just in time to see the second plane hit.

We considered not going to work, but as taxi drivers we knew that our services would be in demand. At San Jose Airport all flights had been grounded. The nervous travelers had only one thing on their minds; getting back home or to a hotel. We were busy for most of the morning and early afternoon. The airport emptied out, and then it was as if the city had just stopped. We drove home.

What are your memories of that day?

* National Day of Service and Remembrance in San Jose
A ceremony to honor attack victims and the brave firefighters, police officers, and civilians who gave so much. After which off duty San Jose firefighters and police officers along with volunteers will help with vegetable beds and neighborhood cleanup.

September 11th
Sacred Heart Community Service
1381 S. First St, San Jose
Scheduled 8:30 AM

9/11 Becomes Day of Service

I’m a big fan of gadgets. I don’t go anywhere without my smartphone, iPod, and GPS receiver (that last one just in case a new geocache shows up). So when I heard about the San José Public Library’s new collection of gadgets, I got all excited and stuff.

The tricks that SJPL’s technology team has up its collective sleeve include an iGoogle tool which allows you to search for library materials right from your Google base page. There’s also a Google-like search bar that you can add to Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

But my favorite gadget on the widgets and web tools page is the library lookup bookmarklet for Firefox. You just drag the bookmarklet onto your links bar in Firefox. Then, say you’re looking at a book’s page on Amazon and you’re wondering if the library has it. Just click on the bookmarklet and pow! — you get the library’s catalog page showing the availability of the book. This bookmarklet functions on any page with an ISBN on it. Wow, cool, huh? My favorite bookmarklets, which I use every day, have long been the Google Reader subscription bookmarklet and the “share on Facebook” bookmarklet, but this library one rivals them for usefulness.

The library is promising more gadgets to come, so keep an eye on this page for further developments. And enjoy these gadgets!

From classic photos from Frontier Village to vintage yearbook autographs, every day you can find more and more in the San José Public Library California Room’s digital collection.

The California Room has moved into the digital age, as staff there gradually digitize its treasure trove of historic photos and documents. It’s an ongoing project, and eventually you’ll be able to find digitized versions of primary documents, letters, maps and more — right online!

My personal favorite is the Frontier Village collection, with the best photo (in my humble opinion) being this vintage photo of Marshall Clyde. Marshall Clyde’s daughter is my best childhood friend and she and I once perused the California Room’s collection in person, looking for photos of him. Now we can go online and see them from the comfort of our own homes. Ah, I love technology!

And guess what… There’s some fun involved, too! The library is sponsoring a treasure hunt with a digital camera as grand prize (and some great books for the runners-up). Another intriguing page on the digital collections site is the mystery photo page where visitors are asked to help identify the people in various photographs.

This new collection, another positive development in the relationship between the City and San José State University, is quite exciting, and I look forward to seeing what else comes along.

As part of the Envision 2040 general plan update, the city of San Jose is introducing “Wikiplanning“. This new web project allows residents to participate in the general plan update project without having to attend a (possibly inconvenient) public meeting. There is a loosely guided set of “activities” that gather users’ inputs, and inform us about the general plan update. There’s also a message board and a photo gallery where we can comment on photos that show things we might want to bring in or keep out of the city over the next 30 years.

Looking at the website, I think it might best be considered an promising experiment. It’s certainly not a wiki, which is a highly hyperlinked web site that encourages users to add and edit content freely (the city of Davis has a good example of a civic wiki). There is no way for users to add new content, except for uploading photos. Even on the message board users can’t create new discussion topics.

Also, there’s still a few bugs to work out in the site (I think of these bugs as the price of admission to a relatively advanced-technology city). Trying to go back from an individual photo to the main photo page I got a database error message, and the photos are shown in a way that’s inefficient in bandwidth and distorted to look at. Prominent tabs at the top of each page (”About Us”, “Thinking Green”, “Help”) don’t lead to information about San Jose, but to the Wikiplanning software company’s sales site, with no way to get back to the San Jose-specific website.

On the other hand, the site shows promise. A true wiki, with the kind technical learning curve and geeky culture you see on Wikipedia, for example, would not be the best way to get more people (except wiki geeks) involved in civic discussions, and the bugs I found in the site could easily be fixed for the next project. Most importantly, even with a few warts, the web site should be able to bring more residents to the table in the planning process. That includes people with limitted free time to go to meetings and people with disabilities.

To use San Jose Wikiplanning, visit wikiplanning.org and log in with your email address and zip code or just use the password “2040″.

The Merc reported this morning that security express lanes at SJC and other bay area airports closed this week due to insolvency of Clear, the company that operated them.

Hopefully worse is in store for the misconceived and anti-American airport pre-screening program (but realistically, a new company will be running those lines by the end of the year). Never mind that this program is tailor-made for terrorists who want to find out which of their agents are on the US government watch list (but thanks to Bruce Schneier for pointing it out). Never mind that this is a blatantly anti-egalitarian program that leaves those of us waiting in the cattle chute wishing we could give the world-mover being ushered through the Clear line a punch in the nose.

The real problem with the program is that it means our government leaders don’t have to eat their own dog food. They can legislate endless security hassles for the rest of us, but instead of enduring it themselves, they can look down their noses, ask (in a metaphorical Hahvahd accent), “don’t you know who I am?”, and skip right through. Maybe they have to pay the same $100 per year for pre-screening as anybody else, but they’re sure to get it back again as a campaign contribution from Clear by the end of the year.

The other galling aspect of the pre-screening program is the sheer stupidity of it. Didn’t the power elites (and by creating this program, they really demonstrate that “power elite” isn’t just a Marxist buzzword) who thought this up realize how resentful it would make the rest of us? How obviously anti-egalitarian it is? I realize its unrealistic to expect the power elite to wither away, leaving behind a paradise of social and economic equality, but I demand a power elite with some intelligence!

Jeffrey James Lippold

With the convenience of NETFLIX I just don’t get out to the movie theater much. But when my daughter, with her connections, invited me to see the controversial ‘Angels & Demons’ free with her, I said, “OK”. Then remembering that Jeffrey had a part (Carabinieri Captain) in the film, I had to say, “Yes!, When can we go.” I met Jeffrey (Jeffrey James Lippold) at Cinequest 19. He starred in ‘Samurai Avenger: Blind Wolf’, and I became an instant fan…

I’ll get my mind off of Jeffrey and offer this advice for enjoying ‘Angels & Demons’: Get your popcorn and soda before taking your theater seat. Once Harvard symbolist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) takes on the secret of the Illuminati; the killing of Catholic cardinals, you won’t want to miss a scene. My daughter’s visit to Rome caused her to whisper, “I was there!” as the film took us to the architecture along the ‘Path of Illumination’.

Angels & Demons is now in the saved section of my NETFLIX Queue – I will see it again.

Angels & Demons Decoded: A study of Dan Brown’s novel.
Tue, May 26, 8:00p and Wed, May 27, 12:00m
Comcast – Channel – 62

iTunes Angels & Demons game application $4.99

Maybe Yogi Berra was including the Sharks.

Maybe they need different players.

Maybe they need a new coach.

Maybe a new general manager.

Maybe new owners.

Maybe they need new broadcast announcers.

Maybe less East Coast pizza.

Maybe the City of San Jose’s inferiority complex has rubbed off on the team.

Maybe a realization that how they finished the regular season would carry over into the playoffs.

Maybe more finger pointing.

Maybe playing exciting hockey in the regular season.

Maybe there is a force in the Universe …

Yes, April 15th is income Tax Day but this year it is also a day of protest. Citizens across the nation, who are fed up with giving their hard-earned money to the government, are coming together for “tea parties”.
There is no need to attend if you are happy with the tax policies, you enjoy spreading the wealth around with wasteful spending, and feel all patriotic parting with so much of your cash.

San Jose (Santa Clara County) Tax Day Tea Party

April 15, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Plaza de Cesar Chavez – S. Market St & Park Ave

It’s Time to be Patriotic? Time to Jump In?

No, it’s not tea and cucumber sandwiches.

Early this morning, a woman in San Jose sent this tweet to Demi Moore:

Immediately Demi Moore retweeted it on her own profile, adding “Hope you are joking.” There was every indication that she was not. 

The woman’s profile indicated only that she was located in the Silicon Valley, so mere seconds after Demi reposted the tweet, the San Jose Police Department fielded phone calls from near, far, and everywhere in between. SJPD reported that they found the woman and she is safe and under evaluation.

I’m not directly linking to the woman’s Twitter profile to respect her need for privacy in the aftermath of a very public plea for help, but it’s out there if you want to find it. I’m also not going to be posting on whether Demi saved someone’s life, if Demi herself should have called 911, what Twitter’s role is in all of this, blah blah blah.

Instead, if you ever come across a similar situation with an imminent threat of suicide, call 911 immediately. If you know someone locally dealing with suicidal thoughts, read this first, then encourage them to call the Santa Clara County Mental Health, Suicide & Crisis Service:

• San Jose (408) 279-3312
• North County (650) 494-8420
• South County (408) 683-2482

If they’re outside the county, have them call 1-800-SUICIDE.

I’ve also been trying to look up an online anonymous 24/7 instant messaging service that helps those in distress. The only things I’ve been able to find are MyTherapyNet,  this service from the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network and some social networking sites linked to the Suicide Prevention Lifeline. 

If you know of any, please leave links in the comments.

Having dealt with friends with suicidal thoughts in the past, I do not take these stories lightly, and neither should you. I just hope this bit of information can help someone, somewhere.