Long long before Saturday meant “Let’s Go Out And Have A Shot Or Two” Day I used to spend the entire Saturday at my favorite auntie’s place. She had cable. She was the coolest. Saturday mornings the Power Rangers were on, so there was no way around it and around 4 or so, it was Star Trek with Shattner and Co. So when I found out they were planning a movie starting next year (2009), I was more than stoked to accidently slip over on this trailer on Star Trek. Are you as excited? The cast is very similar looking to the series’ cast from the point of appearance.

And yes, I used to watch Power Rangers and Star Trek Enterprise (I didn’t care too much about all the newer versions).

Also a final note: I need to tell my English teacher at university, he outed himself as a Trekkie in our very first lesson. We were discussing the different meanings of enterprise and he was giving us hints of what not all enterprise means, and so he clearly was hinting the TV series and - probably too embarrassed to admit you knew “The USS Enterprise”, somebody was saying something like “Oh yeah, Star Wars” and then he immediately went with a really fierce, passionate tone: Know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek there, Mister! In case you are one of them mixing up these entirely opposing legendary movie themes, you might want to check this comparison (and in case you are well aware of how to translate this article into Klingon, then, you also need to read this)…

Know Your Star Wars and Star Trek!

My two favorite difference is that Spock puts his toilet paper on so it rolls over the top, whereas Vader puts it the other way around. Also a main characteristic of Star Trek is that some Trekkies (the fanboys even call themselves like that) are now said to be old enough to move straight from their parents’ basement to the retirement home.

Spending the night outside during the hot summer months is really clever to cool down and let the day wind down. Here, in Austria, I have always had a pretty clear view up to the stars. When we were kids we had a bonfire in our garden and we spend hours watching the stars and here and there we claimed to have seen shooting stars. “Duuuude, what’s that blinking light up there, a UFO?” Just before I knew what a UFO was, I always wondered who was in charge of switching up all these lights? I knew it had something to do with Star Trek and all those space ships, but never really had time to elaborate on it in a scientific fashion. Too bad, right?

The dark sky and the little dots have always had a lot of fascination in store for us when we were young and, to be honest, never lost any of its glamour.

Don’t know much about astronomy, but that’s not the point of contemplating about life and its meaning when watching the sky all night, right? · photo by jahdakinebrah

On 4th of July and the 5th of July there is a really nice alignment of stars, planets and the moon that you should check out. Mars Phoenix whispered into my ear that Mars, Saturn and the Moon align beautifully after twilight. You shouldn’t miss that.

Read the Nasa entry on Planets Align for 4th of July. See the sky maps to help you navigate through the endless see of stars.

Happy Fourth of July to all my American visitors!

 Quests we’ve been sent on by higher power

Lower Austria, the final frontier. Endless. Silent. Waiting. This is the story of the Red Cross KTW X. Its mission: a nine-month-patrol of the “galaxy.” To seek out and contact all alien (sometimes, it seems really alien to urbanized individuals) life or at least the one that is in need for typical Red Cross-ish and “not so medical” (most of the times) help. To explore (rather to help). To travel the vast galaxy, where no man has gone before. A trek to places that have me go “where the heck?!”

Check out the places I have been during my nine-month-patrol.

A Google map embedding that will be constantly updated. I’m still doing some hard hard brain work where I’ve been already, but this should cover most of it.