Category: Humor

Making Memes Part VII

Written by TardisCaptain May 5, 2022

Time for another post showing my warped sense of humor. After last month’s post I ended up creating a bunch of Star Trek memes using some odd images that I had found. If you are brave enough, you can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI. All of the entries in this post were created with MS Paint.

Just the look on Tom Paris’ face told me that I had to use it in a meme. I heard the phrase used somewhere on the internet and thought it would be perfect for this image.

An image of Picard drinking tea? Of course I had to use it to make a Star Trek version of the Kermit drinking tea and stating “But that’s none of my business.” After a few clicks, it was ready to go.

I had made this before First Contact Day with the intention of posting it afterwards. Unfortunately, April 6th was so busy for me that I ended up not being able to post it. So here it is, ready for the next year.

When I saw this image I knew that I had to turn it into a reaction meme. It just screamed “what the hell did I just read?”

Humor, My Creations, Star Trek

Making Memes Part VI

Written by TardisCaptain April 2, 2022

What’s that you say? You want more memes? Here is another set of memes for you to enjoy. You can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V.

I used an online meme maker for this one. I don’t recall where I found the image, I just thought it fit the phrase as most RPGs result in a lot of collateral damage.

Watching Kirk move away made me think of this phrase. I created this meme with MS Paint.

I almost didn’t share this one because the white text didn’t stand out very well. This was another reaction to the “Share this image with money and you will get some” series of memes that were plaguing social media.

Dayton Ward is a science fiction author that I’ve met several times at different conventions. When this picture was posted from one of his convention it reminded me of the “I love you, random citizen” meme that came from the Megamind movie. I posted this meme on Mr. Ward’s facebook page several years ago. It was created with MS Paint.

Humor, My Creations, Star Trek

Making Memes Part V

Written by TardisCaptain February 15, 2022

I’ve still been hard at work trying to spread my warped sense of humor. Here is another set of memes for you to enjoy. You can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

Just the look on Kirk’s face inspired me to make this meme. I could see him saying this. I used MS Paint to create this .

Another “I saw this face and had to meme it” project. Again this was done in MS Paint.

And the last of “Inspired by that look” memes. Here Trip Tucker is doing his Thor “Is it though?” impersonation. Plus we need more Enterprise memes.

I’ve spent some time making blanks of popular memes so that I could easily create my own. Here is one that I created using the goosebumps meme blank.

Archer, Character Creation Challenge, Comic Books, Conventions, Cosplay, Doctor Who, Dune, Fan Club, Horror, Horror Hosts, Humor, James Bond, Movies, MST3K, Music, No One Lives Forever, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Spy-Fi, Star Trek, Star Wars, TV Review, Video Game, Website

2021 is in the rear view, now onto 2022

Written by TardisCaptain December 31, 2021February 25, 2024

So another year has come and gone and I am glad. While 2021 was not as bad as the year that shall not be named, it wasn’t the easiest. There are still some challenges in this world that I really hope that our society can come together to get past. I’m still trying to focus on the positives of the past year.

==Role Playing Games==

2021 started out with the first #CharacterCreationChallenge. Amazingly enough I was able to knock out 31 characters in 31 days. I loved reading all of the different responses that the other participants and even made a few new friends along the way. I’m looking forward to the 2022 Character Creation Challenge.

There was also the #RPGaDAY2021 Challenge during the month of August. I really had a struggle with this one, but I was glad that I had participated in it.

I also had a chance to finally play an online Star Trek Adventures game. We have a second session in our “one-shot” planned very soon. The kewl thing is, the game was announced with less than a 24 hour start time. I was able to use my Star Trek Adventures entry in the Character Creation Challenge to quickly drop into the game. Playing on just Zoom is difficult, but doable.

I also had some friends get me into an online Starfinder game that lasted several months (with 1-2 sessions per month). It was interesting, but it really turned me off using Fantasy Grounds as an online platform. It’s an app instead of a browser based system and it is a resource hog like nothing else. Even the players with high end computers were having issues. Unfortunately real life caused the game to end after a few months. The Starfinder system is ok, but a bit crunchy to what I’m use to. The Pathfinder in space mentality didn’t really appeal to me either. I know I was gaming more for the company than I was for the system and universe.

I still want to get into a D&D 5th edition game or a regular Star Trek Adventure game. I’d also prefer to get back together with gaming in person, but with the way the variants are running wild, I’m not certain that will happen any time soon. I’m open to an online game if the schedules can be worked out (the same old problems).

There were several new additions to my role-playing game collection. Between purchases and donations from friends I’ve been able to add to my gaming shelf. I also took advantage of several PDF sales. Instead of listing them all here, I’m planning to save them for my Character Creation Challenge entries. I also added to my dice collection including a special die.

==Video Games==

I’m still playing my old standbys of No One Lives Forever and Tron 2.0. However thanks to a gift card for GameStop (actually ThinkGeek) I was able to pick up a few other video games that I’m looking forward to trying out. I’ve been playing Balder’s Gate and it’s been… interesting. I think I might be playing it wrong.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order has been good so far, but I think my daughter is enjoying it more than I am.

==Movies==

Even though it came out the year before, I had the chance to see Wonder Woman 1984 and I enjoyed it. I wished I could have seen it in the theater. 2021 was also the 25th Anniversary of the Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.

Through streaming I was able to enjoy Black Widow and Godzilla vs Kong (wish I could have seen this in the theater).

Finally getting back into the theater I was able to enjoy watching the latest James Bond movie. We finally saw the sci-fi epic Dune and loved watching the new Ghostbusters film. I still want to watch the latest Matrix movie, Spiderman movie and The King’s Man while they are in the theaters.

I’ve also watched a ton of cheesy sci-fi, fantasy and horror films on streaming services. Some were good, some were not so good.

==Television==

Creature Features held it’s 50th Anniversary. During the summer I had my photo aired on a segment of Svengoolie and my kid’s artwork promoted on Creature Features.

Netflix’s Army of the Dead was a good adventure. Amazon’s The Tomorrow War was interesting to watch. Ice Road was also interesting, but probably not a repeat watch. The Wheel of Time didn’t catch my attention at first, but slowly got a little better. I never read the books so I don’t know how it compares. I really enjoyed Foundation after I was worried how the books were going to translate to the screen. Invasion was an interesting concept, but starts out really slow. I’m glad I stuck with it. I need to finish Y: The Last Man and I’m really disappointed that we will only get one season of Cowboy Bebop.

Thank you What We Do In The Shadows, Archer and South Park for being funny. Crossed Swords was a challenge, but I was able to get into it. I’ve really enjoyed the animated Disenchantment series on Netflix. It was also good to see Animaniacs again.

On the Star Trek front, Star Trek: Prodigy has been interesting. I’ve also been enjoying Star Trek: Discovery as well. I really think that Star Trek: Lower Decks has knocked it out of the park. I am really looking forward to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I wish there was more Short Treks. Wil Wheaton’s after show “The Ready Room” has been very enjoyable and informative.

Disney+ brought us several good entries for 2021. The Muppet’s Haunted Mansion was really, really good. I really wish that they would give us more Muppets Now. WandaVision and Loki were really good from the Marvel entries. Falcon and the Winter Soldier was ok. I haven’t seen the Hawkeye series yet but plan to sit down and watch it. I really liked the What If!?! series. On the Star Wars side, The Mandalorian continued to be great. Visions was ok, but I wish I hadn’t binged it since it probably would have been better in smaller doses. The Bad Batch was also enjoyable. There has only been one episode of The Book of Boba Fett so I’ll be watching to see where this goes.

Because I missed a lot of Doctor Who episodes while I was studying for college, I spent part of the year catching up. Not only was I able to complete this task, I was able to watch the latest season as it aired. I’m looking forward to the New Years Day special.

2022 will finally get us the third season of The Orville and I’m really looking forward to the next season of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

==Books and Comics==

I really enjoyed the Star Trek: Picard novel, Last Best Hope. There are several other books that I’ve been reading on my kindle and in dead tree format. I’ve been trying to read The Dying Earth series by Jack Vance as well but I haven’t completed them.

The War of the Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars comic series was good, but frustrating. I really wish that they had a better system to follow the flow of the story that spans across several publications. I felt like a few times I was re-treading over the same ground.

The Mirror Universe stories and Star Trek Year Five was really good from IDW Publishing. I’m looking forward to reading more of these stories.

Doctor Who, James Bond and The Orville was other comics I had been pulling from my local store.

==Cosplay and Conventions==

I was able to add the Admiral Picard uniform to my collection. I had a chance to wear this at FanX: The Salt Lake Comic Convention. It was the only con I attended in the year. Hopefully 2022 will be better convention wise. I’d love to get an Admiral Vance uniform from Star Trek: Discovery or a Monster Maroon from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However those are long term goals.

==Live Events==

Thanks to 103.1 The Wave, we were able to take the family to Lagoon. With the vaccines helping out, we’ve been able to attend the Trans-Siberian Orchestra performance and the live Mystery Science Theater 3000: Time Bubble Tour. I’ve already got several concerts and events planned for 2022. The Beyond Van Gogh experience was probably the closest I’ll ever get to a holodeck experience. The Egyptian exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Utah was very enjoyable.

I was also interviewed on the radio for the Star Trek Day 2021. That was an interesting experience. But also not the first time I’ve been interviewed on the TV, Radio or even print.

Our Seventh Fleet and USS Ticonderoga meetings and events have been able to get back in person. This was a very good thing as we are a close knit Star Trek family. We’ve been able to grow and succeed because we get together and see each other’s smiling faces.

==Website==

I was able to get some photo albums online and I’ve added to them as I’ve found more photos. I’ve been able to keep to a regular schedule of several blog posts per week (counting the Star Trek Quotes listings). I should do more gaming articles and reviews of things I’ve watched/read/enjoyed. However, I still need to get some of the other sections of my website filled out. I’m a little upset with myself that I haven’t gotten more of the website completed. This will be a goal for 2022.

It’s good to have goals. I think I’m going to spend 2022 trying to achieve more of them.

Humor, My Creations, Star Trek

Making Memes Part IV

Written by TardisCaptain December 25, 2021

Since this is a relaxing day (Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone) I thought I’d drop a quick post with more memes that I’ve created in the past. You can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II and Part III.

After seeing the image of the chicken at the table, I knew that I’d have to make a variation of the Screaming Lady vs Cat meme. I believe that I created this using MS Paint.

When Pokemon Go became really popular, it scared me a little. I was amazed at how big it became in a short time. I remember reading about people renting dogs just to have the excuse of “I was walking my dog” while out playing the game. I know that warnings had to be sent out stating “no you can’t play Pokemon Go in high security areas even if the good Pokemon are out there.” So when I saw this image from Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, The Game, I had to make a meme out of it. Full disclosure: Had there been a Star Trek version of Pokemon Go, I probably would have played the hell out of it.

A few years ago I was going through several college courses to earn my Bachelor’s degree. The release schedule for a new role playing game was always coming out at the wrong time. If I wasn’t careful, I could become easily distracted. Especially if the course subject was really boring.

The family watched The Princess Bride as one of our feel good movies today. It reminded me of the time I altered the quote from the movie to make it sound like something Worf would have said if he was cast in the movie.

I hope this batch of memes brought a smile to your face. I’ll be posting more soon, but probably not until after January which will be consumed by the 2022 Character Creation Challenge.

Humor, MST3K, Reviews

MST3K Live Time Bubble Tour visits Salt Lake

Written by TardisCaptain December 16, 2021December 16, 2021

My wife and I getting ready to enjoy the show.

In March (of the year that shall not be named) my wife, myself, my brother and his wife had the opportunity to visit the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Cheesy Movie Circus Tour at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City, Utah. Joel Hodgson was the host for the show. We were also introduced to future MST3K host, Emily Marsh. It turns out that we were lucky to see one of the last shows on the Cheesy Movie Circus Tour. A week or two later, everything shut down in the story we all know. That show was one of the few highlights in the year that shall not be named.

Fast forward to a year and a half later and the MST3K Time Bubble Tour arrives back at the same theater in Salt Lake City. Armed with a vaccination card (or proof of a negative test) fans could once again laugh at the live riffing of a bad movie we had hardly heard of. It felt good to keep our sanity with the help of our robot friends. And… not everything went off without a hitch. But that is why they call it a live show.

At the previous show, we were far in the back in one of the balcony sections. My mother had purchased the tickets for all of us as a Christmas gift. For 2021, we purchased our seats on the ground floor only eight rows back. Unlike the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert last month, everything was on the main stage. So we wanted to be as close as possible. We were not disappointed.

Oh no… we’ve been captured in a time bubble by the evil Mega Synthia.

Yvonne Freese came out on stage as Mega Synthia and set up the scene. This clone-relative to the various Forresters (the baddies of MST3K) has invented a time bubble that will surround the theater and move us back and forth in time while she subjects Emily and the bots to the latest experiment, a bad move from 1985 called “Making Contact“. Let’s just say that the movie was worthy of being heckled by the bots.

We are introduced to our cast, Tom Servo, Crow T. Robot, Mega Synthia and Emily.

The jokes were wonderful. We were laughing our butts off the entire show. Especially over all of the different 80’s references seen in the movie. You could tell this was made in the days before you had to have permission to show it in your movie. There was a ton of stuff from Star Wars, Sesame Street, major league sports teams, Star Trek and more.

Why is Mega Synthia wearing a 1920’s Flapper outfit? Watch the show to find out.

As with any MST3K show, there were several comedic skits. They were very well done and very funny. I would recommend watching the show to see how these skits, with props, were used in the Time Bubble Tour.

And then… disaster happened.

A light rain which had started when the show begin, turned into a major snowstorm. Friends on twitter had talked about Thundersnow that was happening outside. These were big thick heavy flakes. We don’t know if it contributed directly to what happened in the live show, but I’d believe it. There was only about 20 minutes left in the show when suddenly the lights started flashing and the fire curtain slowly came down in front of the actors. They were waving at us as the curtain reached the stage with this surprised look on their faces. Not knowing if this was part of the show or not, I didn’t pull my phone out to take a photo. Thankfully, Justin Carmony documented the incident on twitter confirming for me (afterwards) that this was not part of the show. The actors had to do some improvisational lines to get us back into the show. The final of the movie was a bit confusing, because I have no idea what happened. Wikipedia doesn’t really have a description of the movie at the end. This also lead to another oddity that afflicted the show.

When all of the graphics come back up, they are backwards. This includes the final skit where we all escape from Mega Synthia’s time bubble. Again more improvisation was required. Luckily, we were able to escape. Only to find out the snow has turned Salt Lake’s roads into a massive slush pile.

Utah drivers are bad enough when the weather is pleasant. Add enough snow to sled down on and you’ve got a slippery situation. So our exciting day is ended by a very long and very slow trip home. Thanks to the iron nerves of my wife behind the wheel, we were able to make it. Remember people, four-wheel drive doesn’t mean four-wheel stop.

If you get a chance to see the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Time Bubble Tour, go. Especially if you’ve ever enjoyed any of the MST3K series. There are tributes to the past actors who have paved the way for this new group and they are carrying the torch proudly.

Humor, My Creations, Star Trek

Making Memes Part III

Written by TardisCaptain November 13, 2021

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any of the memes I’ve created. You can see the past entries from Part I and Part II by following the links posted above. I enjoy sharing my humor. Sometimes I see an image and I think, that could be a meme.

Those of you that know me, know that I am not a fan of the last episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. So when the “Agatha All Along” meme trend started with Agatha admitting to all of the bad things she has done, I had to make one for “These Are the Voyages…”. I’ve posted this on a few Star Trek social media sites.

The other Agatha meme that became popular was the “Agatha winks” meme. Usually it’s the “yea sure I’ll do that” type of response. So when I saw this picture of Keiko O’Brien doing a wink, I thought “here is a Star Trek version of that meme.” So I created this with MS Paint.

This was another spur of the moment creations. I came across this image of Spock reacting to a telekinetic contact with the Kelvans. One of my kids came up with the phrase and I placed it on the image.

This is one of those quote memes. I had recently completed a re-watch of the Daria series on Paramount+. Some of the episodes I enjoyed just because of the sarcastic wit of the main character. When I heard this quote, I had to write it down and turn it into a meme. I’ll probably use it later in various online conversations.

Hopefully the next batch of memes won’t take as long to be posted.

Humor, My Creations

Making Memes Part II

Written by TardisCaptain June 4, 2021

Here is another batch of memes that I have created. Some were created with MS Paint. Others were created with one of the many meme makers available on the internet. Enjoy.

This is another case of finding an image that was weird, and not being able to resist making a meme out of it.

Yea I got in on the screaming lady vs cat meme. I thought it would be funny to replace the cat.

I actually made this for my wife to hang up at work. Part of her job at the time was to prevent people from bringing sodas into the gym. The common reaction was “I won’t spill it.” This way she could just point to the meme and then ask the people to take their Buckets-o-Coke outside.

I created this meme in reaction to all of the “You are…” test results that people were posting all over social media. I really dislike these types of tests because all they really are is data mining operations trying to find out more about you. Some do it for advertising, others are trying to guess your answers to the password recovery questions.

There was a really bad movie made in 1994 based off of the Street Fighter video games. Yes I went to see it, yes I wanted my money back. There was one funny part where Zangief discovers that the other henchmen were being paid to work with M. Bison. Apparently he wasn’t getting compensated for his time and dumbfoundingly stated “You Got Paid?” There were several times I wanted to post this response in message boards and social media when people were claiming that certain people were being paid in one situation or another (but were not). I never found a screen capture or meme with this moment. So I made one myself.

There should be another batch of original memes posted soon.

Humor, Science Fiction

Don’t Forget Your Towel

Written by TardisCaptain May 25, 2021March 29, 2022

Towel Day 2011 — A hoopy frood that knows where his towel is.

“What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”

“Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.”

Today (May 25th) is Towel Day for fans of Douglas Adams’ series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” It was started by fans just after Douglas Adams passed away in 2001. I’ve been a fan of this series for quite some time after I saw the first BBC mini-series on PBS Utah (KUED Channel 7) back in the 90’s. The photo posted above was taken in 2011 and I had several co-workers get the reference, while others I had to educate on a book they should be reading.

I really enjoyed the 2005 movie (I saw it at a special sneak preview arranged by I-Sci-Fi), especially when Douglas Adams would make small changes to the story for each media the story was released in. If you go and read the book (I did a re-read several years ago) and compare it to the BBC mini-series, the audio-drama, the text based computer game, the DC Comic series and the 2005 movie, they all have slight changes. All made by Adams.

Why? I found it funny. It was the odd-ball type of humor that was part Monty Python, part Weird Al and part Phule’s Company all combined like a slice of lemon wrapped around a gold brick. Speaking of which, I wonder if I can get Zaphod Beeblebrox to mix me up a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster to celebrate.

Horror Hosts, Humor, MST3K, Quotes, Reviews, Star Trek

MST3K: The Movie 25th Anniversary

Written by TardisCaptain April 19, 2021March 29, 2022

On April 19, 1996, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie was released into theaters riffing on the sci-fi classic “This Island Earth“. Unfortunately, it was only twenty six theaters on the opening weekend. I remember wanting to watch this movie the moment I heard the news about this special show. I don’t recall when it finally came to Utah, but I was there when it made it’s Beehive State premier at a Salt Lake City art theater. MST3K: The Movie was shown at The Tower Theater on 9th and 9th. It may have been one of the many cult midnight movies that this theater was known for showing. I went with a group of friends who were all excited to see the movie. In typical MST3K fashion, we riffed the movie in the theater. The one I remember the most was at the start when Michael Nelson was in the hamster wheel. While he was jogging, we all started singing the theme from Rocky. Da-da-daadaa Da Da da…. Gonna Fly NOW!!!!! We were constantly quoting lines from this movie at various opportunities. One of the more unique ones is when the crew sings “normal view. Normal View. Normal View! NORMAL VIEW!!!”. We were playing the Star Trek: Customizable Card Game where one of the cards was titled Mortal Q. You can guess what we sang.

mortal q. Mortal Q. Mortal Q! MORTAL Q!!!!

I remember getting excited when the movie was finally released on DVD. I called my bother (another MST3K fanatic) and let him know it was out since I didn’t know the stores had it at the time. After purchasing, watched this movie over and over again. I had only wished that the original MST3K: The Movie DVD had the original film as one of the extras. It wasn’t until Svengoolie had shown This Island Earth on The MeTV Network several years ago that I had a chance to watch the uncut version of the film. Svengoolie even mentioned the MST3K movie as one of the first introductions to this movie that a lot of people had experienced. There was 30 minutes cut from the original film for the MST3K. Because of how many times I’ve watched this movie, I’ve had some RPG homebrew ideas for the Metalutians. When I get the examples done, the Metalutians will be one of the demo aliens that I’ll be creating.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary today, I found the DVD I had watched a million times and put it into the DVD player. I took some notes while watching for this blog. I loved how the opening scene (after the Rocky run) was an escape attempt and explanation of why Mike and the bots are on the SoL. This gave movie viewers who hadn’t seen any MST3K episodes a quick guide into the setup of the show. I’ve always thought that the “bow down” scene was a little disturbing. Yea we want to show that Dr. Forrester is EEEEVVVVIIILLLL (and a bit of a dickweed) but that always seemed to bother me for some reason. The only reason I can think of is that he was never that nasty on the TV episodes. Yea he was evil, but not “kneel before Zod” evil. I wonder how many people watching the movie now will get the “John Sununu goes for a haircut” joke? I liked how they used the film breaking to give Mike and the Bots a chance to do a skit. Just breaking for a skit like they do in episodes may have confused audience members not familiar with the show. I don’t know why I never noticed that the switch activating the manipulator arms is marked “Manos” (as in Hands of Fate). Good job on that one. The names of the “invisible pilots” are Claude Rains (who played the invisible man) and Harvey the Rabbit (another invisible character). Another item that was different in the movie compared to the TV shows is the crew riffed the end credits to the movie. And I also counted, there were eight Star Trek references in the film.

Some of the lines that stood out in the film.

“Service engine soon” I wonder what that’s all about?

Science and Industry! See big men sticking screw drivers into things – turning them – AND ADJUSTING THEM!

Well believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid… and I went ahead anyway.

Now place your hands above the rail [hands suddenly attach to the rail] … they’re magnetized. And if your hands were metal, that would mean something.

Increase the Flash Gordon noise and put more science stuff around!

Are you in Europe? Do you need an adapter?

Offer void in Utah.

It was great to watch this movie again. If you are a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, they are currently running a Kickstarter to make more episodes. You can support them at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mst3k/makemoremst3k