The Borg Chase of Species 8472 and the Running Flock of Gallimimus on I-10

During my drive earlier today from Orange County, CA, back to Scottsdale, AZ, from an enjoyable Christmas with friends, I reflected on how traffic was like the armada of Borg chasing Species 8472 in Star Trek: Voyager Episode 168 and the running flock of Gallimimus in the first Jurassic Park movie.

When developing scenes involving imaginary characters and objects, film makers and writers tend to take their inspiration from their experiences, so what probably inspired the writers of the two scenes were similar drives to mine.

In the Star Trek scene, Voyager is flying along their happy way when all of a sudden, a huge subspace wake washes over them. When the crew of Voyager comes to their senses, they find a huge armada of Borg ships passing them at much faster speeds, all of which ignore them with the exception of one cube, which stops and does a quick scan before proceeding to catch up with the other cubes.

In the scene in Jurassic Park, a flock of Gallimimus are running along the meadow, moving along at a much faster clip than Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Hammond’s grandchildren. After Grant and the children move out of the way, one of the Gallimimus gets caught by a Tyrannosaurus Rex hiding just out of sight waiting for her dinner to show up.

With laws now requiring semis to go at 55 mph while other traffic may go faster, such as the speed limit of 70 mph that I was driving during one stretch of I-10, the experience like Voyager isn’t as common, but occasionally a slew of Hummers and jacked-up pickups would speed around me. During one experience, I felt a slight wash of air buffeting me from their wake. Now, a 2004 Toyota Camry isn’t a small car, but when you have enough cars going much faster, any car going slower will feel some effects by such a herd of automobiles.

And, watching out for drivers pushing their vehicles faster than the speed limit, a number of stretches of highway had their share of police officers sitting along the side of the road, some in full view but many hiding behind some cover, much like the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Jurassic Park scene.

And some people think the drive of 400 miles from LA to Phoenix is boring.

I’m Dreaming of a Brown Christmas

It’s a dream of many to wake up to a snowy Christmas morning, at least for those living in the northern hemisphere where it’s the winter season. In fact, it’s a common theme in many modern Christmas songs to have snow associated with Christmas just like evergreen trees, holly, and mistletoe are displayed in many homes. I remember as a child growing up in southeast Kansas that it was something I also looked forward to seeing.

As an adult, I’ve learned that snow, while fun to play in and enjoy the beauty of its crystals gleaming in the sun, can also be a bit of a hazard for drivers and the paint jobs on cars, but I’m not one of those who abhor any presence of snow; in fact, I was just thinking that it’s been around six years since I went snow skiing, and my church’s singles group is going to Mammoth in northern California at the end of February, so I might have to make that a priority.

I’m not sure when, if at any time, the Orange County area in California has ever had a white Christmas, but I was awakened last night by heavy gusts of wind blowing around my hotel in Foothill Ranch. After a period of time praying that no open flames were exposed to the winds (it would be awful to remember Christmas 2007 as the start of another series of California wildfires), I finally fell back to sleep, and when I woke up Christmas morning, I looked out my window upon the Courtyard’s pool and found that rather than white snow on the ground, we got a covering of brown dirt! In the picture above, you can see the pool’s bottom, where not covered by pool furniture, almost completely covered in dirt.

Since it was a bit chilly, and everyone had other things planned for Christmas Day, getting in the pool wasn’t that big a priority for the guests staying at Marriott’s Courtyard in Foothill Ranch, so the staff didn’t plan on cleaning it until the next day. It wasn’t too long ago that the pool had been drained and cleaned to get rid of all the ash that the area wildfires had deposited there.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

As I was going through the pictures on my mobile phone today, I found a picture I took of some teddy bears that I remembered were set out at Starbucks during the time that Akeelah and the Bee was released in 2006. Since the movie was a co-production of Starbucks, one of their marketing methods included placing spelling bee cards around the store, giving customers the chance to learn more about some unique words and to keep the movie in mind.

As I looked closer at the picture, the word on the spelling bee card placed in the midst of the teddy bears sitting at the foot of the counter at Starbucks caught my attention:

I didn’t realize that Starbucks’ teddy bears needed such loving care!

As I thought about, I recalled an episode of Star Trek in which Mr. Spock described his childhood Vulcan teddy bear—also known as a sehlat—a living, giant teddy-bear-like creature with six-inch fangs, indigenous to the rainforests of Vulcan’s southern hemisphere.

Perhaps Starbucks imports their teddy bears from Vulcan, since most coffee beans are grown in the rainforests of Earth’s southern hemisphere, making the sehlats right at home.

As Mr. Spock would say, “Fascinating.”

Expect Delays!!!

In life, we expect everything to be immediate. We expect to find our perfect job after we graduate from college, be married within five years, have all our kids before we turn 30, and find a parking space when we go shopping during Christmas time.

A friend of mine told me she thought that parking at the mall was the real challenge to the Christmas spirit; she followed it up by saying that if you still want to listen to Christmas music after leaving the mall, you’ve had a successful trip.

Well, I say that in order to keep your sanity while driving through parking lots, you should sing Bugs Bunny’s and Elmer Fudd’s interpretation of The Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre…nothing brings a greater smile during a trying time in the same way. Then, when you leave the parking lot, shift immediately to the Hallelujah chorus, making sure to start with the rolling refrain ...and He shall reign for ever and ever! before breaking into the series of punctuated Hallelujah’s that follow.

Yeah, I don’t think it’ll help much either, but at least you’ll keep your sense of humor.

Merry Christmas!

Going Platinum

For those who travel frequently, as I do between Scottsdale, AZ, and Orange County, CA, one of the things we all do is try to maximize our points so we can earn more points. For example, I recently accumulated the 90 segments required by US Airways to get to Platinum status, which means that I get higher dibs on first class upgrades than those with Gold or Silver status. However, the Chairman status travelers (120 segments or more in a year) get first dibs over us Platinums, but that’s okay, as for my miles, I get more bonus points, 75%, for each mile I fly than I did when I was Gold or Silver. And I’ve similarly gotten up there with Marriott and Hertz.

But you’ve really arrived when you get a Christmas card hand-delivered from your local Starbucks! Okay, so I practically live at Starbucks—I feel embarrassed when I fill out those surveys and have to specify that I drink at Starbucks more than 30 times a month, and I’m not talking about those months that have 31 days in them—so it does feel like home.

The decorations also are out, and while it doesn’t come close to the 115 foot Christmas tree at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, CA, having Christmas wreathes encircling the P.F. Chang’s horses’ necks is definitely a unique touch for Scottsdale, AZ. And, those palm trees decorated with Christmas lights—nothing says desert Christmas like those.

Sharks Circling Their Prey

As I mentioned before, the Kierland Commons in Scottsdale, AZ, can be quite a busy place during the Christmas shopping season, and from about 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm, drivers circle the parking lot searching for their prey…an open parking space.

Some will take as long as 15 minutes just to find a space (a five minute drink at Starbucks is worth it). The hunting habits of such drivers can be quite fascinating. At first, a driver will circle the lots in search of an open space, expecting one to be available, but when disappointment sets in, he or she will then go into stalking mode, mirroring the hunting habits of the great cats of the wild.

The first thing a driver does is slow down, looking over the tops of other cars and through the windows of others, checking out the rows downlot in order to avoid an unnecessary trip down a full row. A favorite target for drivers is a shopper heading towards the parking lot with large bags under her arms.

Once the driver has spotted their prey, they move in for the kill—sometimes accelerating to as fast as 40 mph and stopping within 10 feet so as to allow the leaving driver enough room to move her car but not enough room for a rival driver to sneak in during the time when the leaving driver has moved out of the way and before he or she can acquire their fresh kill. Such dexterity and cunning is a skill honed only through constant practice, and the Kierland Commons has many skilled hunters.

If a driver has turned on his or her blinkers, most rival drivers will recognize the marked territory and move on to easier prey, but when drivers become hungry, they’ll take even the tightest compact space, regardless of how few inches separate their car door from the Hummer or SUV beast in the next space. Such placement makes sun roofs with remote controls a very popular addition to some cars; without such an advantage, it can be physically impossible otherwise for a driver to leave his or her car. The only other way for a driver to get out of his or her car in such tight quarters is to be actively employed at a car rental agency in an airport where such parking skills are practiced hourly.

The True Meaning of the First Amendment

While working out at the gym this morning, I heard on the news about two city employees suing the city government of Oklahoma City for preventing them from putting up Christian objects related to Christmas in their offices. I thought, “Cool! A lawsuit related to the First Amendment that actually makes sense!”

Anyone who has actually read the Constitution and the First Amendment and chooses to be honest about what they’ve read would have to admit that our government, basically, cannot establish a religion nor can it deny a person’s right to exercise his or her religious beliefs—well, human sacrifice, rape, and other illegal activities are exceptions to this, and all rational people would agree, especially any Christian celebrating Christmas for what it truly means.

According to Byron Babione as reported on NewsOK.com:

“The attacks on Christmas are simply part of a larger war being waged on anything and everything Christian,” the fund’s senior legal counsel, Byron Babione, said in a statement. “It’s ridiculous that city employees are being told that they cannot display symbols central to their faith during the Christmas season.”

Keep this incident in prayer so that the Constitution of the United States of America and the First Amendment may be upheld.

What About That Guy?

The Connections Singles Ministry at Mariners Church in Irvine, CA, had a wonderful Christmas party last night with over 500 singles from all over the world attending. I used to be the farthest-traveling attender, coming from Arizona, but I met a woman at the dance who came from Japan…oh well.

The band was great, the people were great, the food was great, and I enjoyed dancing with a number of attractive women all night long!

I really don’t like taking posed pictures (it’s the old-time photojournalist in me that wants to capture people acting naturally), but I did take one of my friends Thomas Rose, the Connections singles pastor, along with Pamela Acker, Alan Kindred, and Valerie Graves. As I was preparing the pictures for the Connections web site, I noticed someone else just above Alan’s head, watching the dance floor from a higher vantage point.

Who could it be? Who do you think it is?

Looks like he was really “digging” the party.

I kid you not, the unidentified guest pictured to the left really was in the original picture, oblivious that his pose would be saved for posterity.