MY BLOG IS UNBLOCKED!

They blocked my blog because it was "Suspected Spam Blog." Huh? I can post again, so watch this space closely.

NO, I'M NOT A CONVERT

Since I enjoyed the new Star Trek movie so much, I decided to dust off the only Star Trek movie I have at home, Star Trek: First Contact, and watch it for the first time in probably 10 years. I found it entertaining, just as I remember it. But, age has made me much more discriminating. So, for those of you who are Star Trek fans and know this movie, I have just a few observations of things in the movie that bother me. You can email me your responses at milest@milostoyzenmore.com. Problem #1: When Captain Picard is taking Lilly through the ship for the first time, she asks him how big the ship is. He responds that the ship has 24 decks. But a little later, when Picard and Lilly come up through the hatch where Lieutenant Worf and Ensign Hawk are waiting, Picard asks Worf for a report. Worf responds that the Borg have taken decks 26 through 11. Where did the two extra decks come from? Problem #2: When Picard, Worf and the security team are going through the Borg hive on Deck 16, Picard tells them to lower their weapons because the Borg will leave them alone until they are considered a threat. My problem here is that the Borg assimilate without prejudice every other crew member that crosses their paths, why would they need to consider these particular people a threat before they assimilate them? Same thing when Picard and Lilly are going through the same area. Problem #3: The laws of physics are the laws of physics. I realize that The Next Generation takes place in the 24th century but that just means that time and technology has advanced, the laws of physics would still remain constant. So how, just because Picard disables safety protocols in the Holodeck, could holographic bullets all of sudden obtain mass, thereby achieving penetration of the Borg and killing them? "I disabled the safety protocols...without them, even holographic bullets can kill." C'mon. Really? Problem #4: In the very beginning, when Picard first tells the Senior Officers that the Borg have invaded Federation Space, he tells them that reports from Deep Space 5 put the Borg cube an hour away from earth. A few moments later, before Picard tells them that they aren't going to fight, but are going to patrol the Neutral Zone instead, Data says that it will take them 3 hours at maximum warp to reach earth. Later, when they decide to defy Admiral Hayes' orders and enter the fray, Picard tells Ensign Hawk to set a course for earth, maximum warp. Despite Data's statemen that they are 3 hours away, they arive in the fight just moments later.

I know I'm being picky, but really, these things to me a rather glaring. Now, I know Star Wars isn't perfect but it's hard to find these kind of obvious blunders. Again, feel free to email me and let me know your thoughts.

Gay Marriage

It's wrong, it shouldn't be sanctioned, it shouldn't be legal, it shouldn't be condoned and it shouldn't be in my face so much. Why are we offering benefits or extra legal protections for people based on who they sleep with? If I was a landlord and I denied somebody a lease based on the potential renters' sexual orientation - my first question is why do I know what their sexual orientation is? I wouldn't ask, because I wouldn't want to know. The answer? Because they want you to know. So they tell you or make it blatantly obvious. Then if you turn them down for whatever reason, they can scream discrimination. And it would be the same thing for whatever other situations that fall under the gay and lesbian communities' target for special consideration. Things are defined all the time and it doesn't bother us. Somebody defined Mother's Day, and then it became a holiday that is universally accepted and celebrated. Somebody defined the game of bowling, so official bowling matches adhere to the rules as defined by that person or persons. And...Somebody defined marriage. That was God. He defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman seen legally by the laws of man and God as eligible for the benefits and responsibilities of being a family, including procreation. Same-sex couples cannot procreate and by the Guy that defined marriage, they cannot get married. You can't walk up the bowling lane and kick the pins over and get a strike. You don't lock your mother in the basement on Mother's day, because Mother's Day is a day defined to be extra nice to your mother. Things are defined, that's the way of the world. Like marriage. The courts, the ACLU and liberals everywhere want to change that definition. I submit that something as huge and important as marriage should only be changed by the Person that defined it, and that's never going to happen. And God does not fit into the purview of any court I'VE ever heard of. For those of you who are wondering why a Toy Sales website is blogging about gay marriage? Check the title of the blog - it's the World According to Milo and I'm Milo. And I'm right. Milo out.

Milo's Toyzenmore

I've done a terrible job of running my store. I hope to start rectifying that this week. Since I had to move to the smaller store uptown I haven't had the motivation to be there and have spent more and more time back in my accounting and tax world. You can't be successful in a small business that way and I have now posted hours and I intend to be there during those hours, with some minor exceptions when I need to run somewhere. Of course, the road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions, so we'll see. I have a plan for the store and I plan to start spending a lot of time and effort re-building my eBay business and my online business in general. I'm doing a lot with Amazon lately and I plan to do a lot more. To all of my customers I have let down, please come back this next week and beyond to see not only the new, improved Milo's Toyzenmore but the new, improved Milo as well. Milo out.

The New Star Trek Movie

I am terribly stressed. I took my family to see the new Star Trek movie. It's good. It's REALLY good. From a pure movie making standpoint, it's better than any Star Wars movie ever made and then some. It's action-packed, smart, funny, full of great dialogue and the CGI is nearly seamless. It's visually stunning and the plot is easy-to-follow and actually interesting. It's obvious that there are going to be Star Trek purists, of which I am not, that are going to be upset by some of the continuity changes - canon gets pretty well tromped on in the movie, but I believe they will ultimately decide it was worth it. The producer and director, J.J. Abrams, is no Trekkie. As a matter of fact, he knew very little about Star Trek when he took on the project. And I believe this worked to his advantage. The movie doesn't cling to the cult-mystique of the original series like the previous offerings did, and even the one character from the TV serial in the movie is used brilliantly and not flaunted to the fanboys, but used as a plot device that is integral to the resolution of the movie's primary crisis. All-in-all, this is the single best re-boot I have ever seen, and that includes the Dark Knight. Mr. Lucas, please...find J.J. Abrams and let's try it again.