I was too busy when video games became popular- reading, writing, and babysitting were my life when others were playing Asteroids, Pac Man and Frogger. We did have an original Atari at home, but I got bored very quickly with it. I loved the old pinball machine at the Millside Tavern, though. I'll never forget the loud "CRACK" when you won another game. And a game of pool there was a quarter, as were the 16 oz glass bottles of soda from the vending machine- Nothing beats an Orange Crush in returnable glass!

Go, Gophers! My brother and parents are alums. There are many worse places to be, thats for sure. The U campus area is fun, and I liked hanging out with my sister in the Uptown area. I live in central MN in St.Cloud, near St.Cloud State U. which is where I will be going soon to finish my undergrad degree, then probably go on to law school. I dunno yet for certain. Most people who come to MN eventually understand why so many of us stay, in spite of the long cold winters.

Well, as I said, I seldom use profanity of any sort, but thank you for the cautionary explaination of the term, Aaron. While we don't actually use the term "shag" as a part of the vernacular, we do know it's meaning from the Austin Powers movies, if nothing else.

LOL... too funny! Actually, I'm from Minnesota, and the west coast did quite a bit of damage with the movie "Fargo" when it comes to how we talk, here. Not all Minnesotans sound like the characters in the movie (though admittedly, some of the old timers and some northers I know do), but our word usage is a little different, and I think it's a good thing! Thanks for the Aussie lesson, too. I seldom have need to use profanity (mom always said it was a sign of a weak vocabulary), but perhaps if the urge arises in the future, I'll try using Root, instead.

Where I live, we call them "throwbacks" rather than "callbacks". I guess it's like how we say "rubber binder" when everyone else says "rubber band", and "hotdish" rather than "casserole". I've always thought you coasties were rather strange in your terminology..

Since I live on the edge of nowhere, I never get to go to things such as this event.

Poor dears.. I've had the malaise for over a decade now, with only a few pinpoints of light shining through the darkness... Just enough to spur me on, but not enough to really get anywhere. False starts sputtering into nothingness; half formed thought that used to flow from my fingertips now stagnate somewhere between the brain and keyboard; dull ache just a tiny bit left of the center of my soul. Malaise? Perhpas. Or perhaps a deeper rot has settled upon me. I hope I shake it someday. I'd love to get back to what I have always lived to do.

I decided to go into the film to enjoy what it WAS, not worry at all about what it may not have been, last Friday. I grew up with the original, back in the 60s and 70s, and had the same reservations about TNG at first, but age does something for one's perspective, in that comparative adversarial views tend to dim a bit. Star Trek was FUN. Pure and simple. The main thing they got right that I did have twinges about was staying true to the original characters without becoming charicatures. They hit it, spot on. To me, that is MUCH more important than plot, special effects, or any other component to a prequel. Plot? All these gripes about the timeline/parallel universe issues are null- everyone seems to have forgotten about the black hole that created this alternate, and that such a thing could conceivably happen in any fiction, and has, fairly often. I seem to recall a lovely little book (tongue in cheek, since I can probably quote half of it by now) by Robert Heinlein called "The Number of the Beast". Having read that a few times put me in a much better place to just accept what happened in Star Trek as par for the course. Loved it, will see it again, and will buy it when it comes to DVD.