Various and Sundry

Beltalowda at the Bottom of the World

TL;DR? An Antarctic outpost has been shown to be developing its own English accent at what is, to my mind, a fast pace. You can read all about it in this BBC article by Richard Gray from last week. Yes, for those of you who got the reference in the title, this is sadly not some continuation of The Expanse. And for those of you who have not seen The Expanse and like hard sci-fi…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry

Let’s Talk About Death! (But, y’know, indirectly)

It’s Friday, so it’s time for something light and cheerful. How about death? It is Friday the 13th, you know. No really, this is about as fun an exploration about the language we use regarding shuffling off the mortal coil that I recall seeing this side of a Charles Addams cartoon. And the doctor below happily explains all sorts of geeky trivia regarding words. Seriously, if I understood how much fun I might have before…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry Writing

Who Doesn’t Like Conlangs?

This past week at work, talk drifted to Tolkien and constructed languages, or conlangs, because that’s how we roll. Now, I’m not about to present any paper to the Language Creation Society. It takes a lot of time to create a full, working language. For Rogue Tyger, I have actual world languages stand in for the various human and alien languages, otherwise I’d be up to half a dozen conlangs by now. Nevertheless, I find…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry Writing

A Modest, Logical Proposal: “Vulcan Up.”

I’m working on a longer piece regarding Star Trek in advance of its 51st anniversary on the air and the upcoming premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. And while I was writing, I came up with a phrase that I think is too good not to share. In fact, I would be so bold as to suggest it should be spread to hither and yon among all your geek colleagues. That phase is “Vulcan up” as…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry

Crisis of Infinite Star Treks: Klingons are so Derivative

This is the 18th entry in an ongoing series about Star Trek fandom and its future called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. Since “18” seems a good “age of ascension,” Worf would probably approve of this being more about Klingon. For those wondering from my post last week, I did go down the rabbit hole of fan news, commentary, and the stew of social media regarding the Axanar lawsuit… and the full report of that…

Continue reading

Various and Sundry

Crisis of Infinite Star Treks: Being a P’tach about the Klingon Language

Would you believe this is the 15th entry in an ongoing series on Star Trek’s future and fandom? Don Adams would. Eriq Gardner wrote a good article in the Hollywood Reporter yesterday about a recent amicus brief filed in relation to the CBS/Paramount lawsuit against the Axanar fan film. As I’ve mentioned earlier in this blog series, I absolutely believe that CBS/Paramount has real and legally binding ownership of Star Trek intellectual property (IP). For non-fans, this…

Continue reading