The Mark of Gideon

Orange-crowned Warbler

Captain's log.  Stardate 47634.44.  We have entered an area overpopulated by a humanoid species known as the Californi.  Their population continues to increase at an alarming rate while their planet suffers from an extreme drought.  Almost every square inch of their land has at least one humanoid on it. Our mission?  To aide and assist the feathered species of the planet who "share" this space with these fascinating humanoid characters.

ISN'T THERE ANY ROOM LEFT ON THIS PLANET???  THERE'S NO ROOM TO MOVE!

While on this mission, Captain Weber joined me from the USS Hattie.  Under the principles of the Prime Directive, we dressed like the native peoples of this area so that these humanoids would not notice us.  We put on shorts and colorful "beach" shoes.  The Californi wear little to no clothing in a settlement known as San Diego.  We have found the temps to be extremely hot.  Their planet seems to be under some sort of "global warming".

Osprey

Our mission included several popular "bird" areas known as the Rosecrans National Cemetery, a tidal mudflat near a place called Ocean Beach and the Cabrillo National Monument. 

Rosecrans National Cemetery

At Rosecrans National Cemetery, we surveyed the area.  There were very few people at this burial site because most of them were deceased.  It was a curious sensation to not have people around us. In fact, I personally enjoyed this space the most while we were on this "trek".  It was so quiet and peaceful.  

American Crow

We found a lot of avian life flying around the tombstones.

Black Phoebe

It was cooler at this location and located above the city of San Diego.  Rosecrans National Cemetery is known as a great location to find rare and migrating birds who need to stop for a break during their long journey over the ocean waters.

After we had a nice report from this location, we battled the Cabrillo National Monument.  There were many humanoids of every kind here in this small space.  It was difficult to find anything, but the views were amazing.  I can understand why the Californi would live here.  Unfortunately, the wildlife was not present.

Cabrillo National Monument

It was difficult to navigate around the crowded paths, but we somehow managed avoiding the larger groups of humanoids.

We eventually moved to the mudflats where avian life was reportedly high.  And it was! We were in constant danger as these Californi raced up and down the paths while we tried to count the avian species.  There were several moments that had us at RED ALERT! A transport vehicle almost ran me over while observing a Red Knot.  Others ran in large groups with strange leaders shouting at them. Some of the Californi were angry and complained about how crowded every space was.  We agreed!

A Californian trying out the latest trend

During our mission survey, we discovered a rare anomaly.  Above us, Greater White-fronted Geese flew over our heads.  It was an amazing moment.  This was deemed rare by Admiral Nunn who thought we had made a mistake, but I assured him with my tricorder readings that these were indeed the GWFG.  These kinds of moments are the reasons I became a Captain in Starfleet. The exploration, the unknown......

A rare sighting of 26 Greater White-fronted Geese

And while there were many humanoids in the area, we had our highest count of birds at this tidal mudflat.

San Diego River-tidal mudlflats near Robb Field

Our mission was a success.  We now prepare for a mission that will take us deep into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. 

Until next time.  Live long and prosper friends.

The Dream of the Dolphin

The "John Barrowman Sandwich" Oh my!!!

Why do I travel? Why do I explore? Why do I bird?  Every year at this time, we make an epic "trek" to Phoenix and celebrate science fiction.

Nichelle Nichols(Star Trek's Uhura)

Without science fiction or Star Trek growing up, I would not have explored the many many wonderful places around our world.   These actors remind me of my childhood for they are like my extended family. They were the people I ran away with to escape my own reality during my teenage years. Like most teenagers, I was not comfortable in my own body with my own thoughts and feelings.  I grew up in a small town with small ideas. I knew there was a greater world just beyond that next star. As a young adult, I knew that I wouldn't be there forever. Because nothing is forever.  Time, however, did crawl during those years.  But during that time, I locked myself in a room and read books. My Grandfather, my childhood hero, died when I entered my Freshman year of high school.  He loved Star Trek and passed his torch to me.  He was so young.  At that age, I learned quickly that life was not a given. It was to be treasured.  Embraced.  I made it through high school and escaped the small town.  Thanks to Star Trek every week, I didn't feel alone. They taught me that there was a place for me in this world and that there was hope. I had Star Trek to guide me and remind me that things would be awesome down the road.

Walter Koenig(Star Trek's Chekov)

After all these years, they still inspire the mind.  Nichelle Nichols(the original Uhura) may be losing her hearing, but she is still sharp as a tac. Martin Luther King once told her to stay on Star Trek back in the 60's for she was the only African-American woman on TV at the time. I watched as two gay black men nearly broke down and cried. Many may not know this, but it's not easy growing up in a black community as a gay person.  I had several friends who quietly died from AIDS in the 90's never once telling their families about who they really loved or about their sickness for fear that they would be ostracized from their families.  When their families found out, there was an embarrassment and cover story to go with their deaths. I could not understand this.  I'd bring food to people living with HIV and listen to their stories. I watched, along with 2 thousand other people, as these men stood before Nichelle thanking her for giving them hope. It was a very powerful moment. In the future, both men and women could have a voice as equals, and African-Americans could be someone important who had authority.  We have forgotten today that not so many decades ago, things were not equal. I still remember as a child that there were two drinking fountains in my hometown at the park.  One for the white people and the other for the colored. In Star Trek, the future didn't care what color, gender or orientation you were.

Role models who changed my life

It's not easy watching my TV heroes get older. They were like my family reiterating the words my Mother and Father have taught me over the years.  Embrace all cultures and ideas.  Seek out life and new civilizations and boldly go where no one has gone before. It may not be space for me, but the planet Earth certainly has many wonderful surprises.

Garrett Wang(Harry Kim-Star Trek Voyager)

While Star Trek helped nurture my inner explorer to the greater world; Star Wars captured my active imagination as a boy. I still have all of the toys:)

My brother Matt drinks in seedy places.  Here he is at the Creature Cantina from Star Wars

And today I hold the belief that we are not alone in this universe.  We are but a speck of tiny dust in this big big stellar cosmos. On a lighter note, our fire alarm went off on the 17th floor.  That's a bit scary when you have a lot of stairs to descend:)  And yet it was great seeing Wil Wheaton(Big Bang Theory/Next Gen) in the stairwell on the way down.  I had a good laugh.  We both are in our 40's and pretty much voiced the same things.  I won't repeat them here:)

If Darth Vader had a baby girl.......

I read magazines, the internet and watched TV about all the birds and mammals out there.   What if I got out of my chair and explored these places on my own and created my own adventures and discoveries?  What new truths could I find?

Me and my brother getting our nerd on

Before birding, I traveled and explored the Spanish language and culture.  I taught abroad.  I hiked the trails. And I'm certainly not done.....by far.

Cosplay(dressing up)  Batman's villains!

When I began to see birds, I started to understand the quest ahead of me better.  And much like this creature hitting me on my head, I finally opened my eyes to the details.  Life is but a dream?  Well if it is, I don't ever want to wake up.

Goofing around.  Taking a break from birding and travel and just getting caught up  in the moment

Sometimes I get caught up in the daily routines, but I've found that within the daily routines, I can search for that bird or animal hiding in the bush.  The rocks.  Or the tree. For each new bird I see is a new discovery of my own. I am at peace with myself and the world.

Beware of giant wookies!!!

And it all started with a little bit of fantasy and science fiction.  If I can dream; I can also discover new possibilities. Imagination.  Discovery.  Inspiration.  Endless possibilities. The Dream of the Dolphin. I'm still out of the country but will be back soon with some exciting finds.  Stay tuned for more.

Highlight Video from San Diego Comicon

I finally put this vid together. Here are the highlights featuring Coenen O'Brien from the San Diego Comicon.

The Kepler Mission

Continuing on with our scifi and space theme this week, we'll explore interesting neighbors next door to our own solar system....over 1200 to be exact within a region of space known as Kepler.  But before I begin with my notes on this blog, I discovered, by accident, that a childhood icon of mine passed away last year!!!  I don't know if any of you remember the midnight program Star Gazer(previously known as Star Hustler) on PBS that lasted for about 5 minutes with Jack Horkheimer, but it was my favorite thing to watch before PBS signed off for the night.  Plus I love the theme song, Arabesque #1 by Claude Debussy.  When I hear that tune, my mind wanders a million miles away from Earth. Anyhow, he has passed away and I was sad to have read that on the internet.  Jack inspired kids like me to look up into the night sky and try and find Mars......and even if we couldn't, he made it sound fun and exciting.  Today, men and women continue working with the stars.  I'm not jealous, but I wish I could do what they do. Lots of math is involved and that subject has always been a certain fail with me:)  If I were thrown into the future of Star Trek, I would be the communications officer because my skill is in language. So I'm okay with not understanding math:)  Anyhow RIP Mr. Horkheimer, I'll miss you.

Pictures for these science based blogs are obviously not my own but from NASA.  This pic is from Jon Lomberg posted on the NASA website

Back to the Kepler Mission!  Exciting stuff folks. Again this information is from a presentation back in May by Dr. Williams of ASU.  Basically, there's a solar system next to our own beyond Pluto that has A LOT of planets orbiting another sun.  It's promising because there are several planets within the habitable zone of that solar system. All this means is that any planet from around the same distance as Earth from our sun is potentially capable of life.  Now this is just the start of defining where life exists in our galaxy.....but it's a start and there's a spacecraft on the way to explore this possibility!

 Here's the official write from NASA on the Kepler Mission.  "Kepler will be the first space mission to search for Earth-size and smaller planets in the habitable zone of other stars in our neighborhood of the galaxy. Kepler is a special-purpose spacecraft that precisely measures the light variations from thousands of distant stars, looking for planetary transits. When a planet passes in front of its parent star, as seen from our solar system, it blocks a small fraction of the light from that star—this is known as a transit. Searching for transits of distant “Earths” is like looking for the drop in brightness when a moth flies across a searchlight. Measuring repeated transits, all with a regular period, duration and change in brightness, provides a method for discovering and confirming planets and their orbits—planets the size of Earth and smaller in the habitable zone around other stars similar to our Sun. The centuries-old quest for other worlds like our Earth has been rejuvenated by the intense excitement and popular interest surrounding the discovery in the past decade of more than 250 giant planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system. With the exception of the pulsar planets, most of the extrasolar planets detected to date are gas giants. The challenge is to find terrestrial planets, which are 30-600 times less massive than Jupiter. Kepler is specifically designed to search for Earth-size and smaller planets in the habitable zone of solar-like stars out to distances of about three thousand light years.

Expected Results

Kepler will continuously monitor over 100,000 stars similar to our Sun for brightness changes produced by planetary transits. At the beginning of the mission, planets of all sizes orbiting very close to their stars will be found. After three years, we will be able to discover planets with orbits of one year, that is those in the habitable zone of stars like the Sun. If Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are common, then life may be ubiquitous in our galaxy. On the other hand, if no terrestrial planets are found, then “Earths” may be rare."  End of article. Source:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html  Well in my humble opinion, you can't base an entire Universe on one mission.  Life may or may not be unique, but I'm pretty sure it's out there.  Whether this system has them or not shouldn't determine whether "Earths" are rare.  The galaxy is a big place....even more, there are galaxies galore beyond our own with billions of solar systems!  Why do we have to put our energy into killing people when we could be working together for a better tomorrow? Imagine if Pandora really existed...... 54 planets have been discovered within the habitable zone where liquid water can exist.  5 of those planets are Earth size.  Imagine what scientists will discover!  NASA vid below. As my friend Jack Horkheimer said every night before signing off......"Keep looking up!"

Pic courtesy of WPBT2 Miami.  He worked out of Florida.

Video and pics courtesy of NASA.  This video found with the NASA link above.

Legends

My shot of Leonard Nimoy. I love this guy.

Remembering.  Connecting.  Feeling.  These are all things that come together when I watched these two great men present.  Leonard Nimoy spoke of his life while George Takei spoke about the many political things going on in our country.....and focused on diversity and defending those in the LGBT community.  While both these men were presenting, I remembered my own childhood.  Here is my connection with these two wonderful actors.  As a child, I was forced to watch Star Trek reruns with my mother while folding laundry on a cold winter's day. I had two options....shovel snow with my dad or stay inside the warm house and fold laundry with my mom(and do dishes).  Laundry was a major project in our household of 8 people. TV was not negotiable and it was what mom wanted to watch. So it was Star Trek or Somewhere in Time(with the late great Christopher Reeves).  I hated this show so much.  It was boring to me and my siblings, but it was on ALL the time in the 70's.  Even worse, if I went over to my grandparent's house, I'd have to watch it with my grandpa!! At the time, Star Wars was way cooler! Lightsabers, aliens of all shapes and sizes, awesome music.......well Star Wars was my world as I collected all the toys.  Today I still have all of them in boxes in my closet. What I wouldn't do to go back in time to relive those innocent days! My grandfather and mom used to take me to all the Star Wars and Star Trek movies as a kid. It would just be the 3 of us unknown geeks sitting down and watching these movies together..... and sometimes we would go back twice!

George Takei

Again, these characters were like family to me because they were embraced by some important people in my own life.  My grandfather and I would do a lot together....shop for the perfect shortcakes to make the perfect desert for my grandma, go on drives around town, go fishing on the lake.....and so many other things.  But the Star Trek movies were something the three of us did together ALWAYS.  We take so many things for granted in life......especially with the people we love the most.  Little did I know that Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home(the whale one:) would be the last time I ever saw a Star Trek movie with my grandpa again. Today it's still one of the big losses of my life....even though it has been 24 years since he has passed away, I miss him as if it were yesterday.  He was my best friend as a kid growing up.  Today I carry his torch by carrying on with his jokes and watching Star Trek.

Standing next to these men was like standing next to adopted grandparents.  I imagined my grandpa with me as I had my picture taken with these gentlemen. Eventually I began to appreciate Star Trek more than Star Wars because it spoke about diversity and embracing new ideas and cultures. My first book that I ever read was Watership Down.  My second book was a Star Trek book that I had to read for my Freshman year of high school.....and I haven't stopped reading since!  Some of my favorites are Life of Pi, Water for Elephants, Lord of the Rings, and many many more!

Hearing Nimoy talk about his life really connected me with those childhood years growing up with him.....in programs like Search for Tomorrow, Transformers(the animated series), etc. because they were all memories with my family. You may say that I think of Nimoy as a "god" and you'd be right.  He was genuine and witty with a strong life message.....live with honor.  Make decisions that honor who you are as a person and those that surround you.  It was quite beautiful.  The hour flew by and before I knew it....Nimoy was gone.

While I didn't care for the character of Sulu much as a kid, I have grown to really respect this actor today.  What I like best about Takei is that he is making a difference now in his stand against discrimination and hate crimes in the world.  He spoke of his days trapped in the Japanese confinement camps within the US and how that affected him as a kid growing up. Takei has recently come out of the closet and has been vocal since for the rights of the LGBT community.  He also shared a story about how Tennessee is trying to pass a bill to prevent teachers from using the word "gay" in the classroom.  In a strong statement, he said that our citizens have  the "Right to Free Speech" and preventing people from using any word was against the rights of the American people. I agree.  If this bill passes, it will be one of the most stupid things that ignorant and hateful people do to others.  George told the audience that if teachers needed to use the word "gay", they could replace it with "Takei" instead.  Everyone clapped and cheered at the suggestion.  I should also mention that this bill is directed at Elementary and Jr. High School teachers and that Takei said that all words must be used responsibly but also that they shouldn't be denied as it goes against our rights.  Some of you may be thinking, "Well you shouldn't be teaching that in the classroom anyway!"  I agree and so did Takei, but as a teacher with my own class, I thought of why this bill is ridiculous.  We teach kids to accept all walks of life especially me with my background on Spanish culture!  A lot of students like to use words like "gay" or "retarded" with one another and to me that is not acceptable in my own classroom and this is exactly the moment when a teacher needs to step in and correct this inappropriate behavior. For this reason, my respect for Mr. Takei has shot up tenfold!

My other grandpa....Nimoy!

It was a day come true meeting some of my heroes growing up.  I went with the spirit of my grandfather next to me and snapped a shot for my mother.....and for one moment, we all stood together remembering the past.  I forgot about my mortgage, watering the plants, and the various mundane routines of life.....and felt happy and connected to my inner core.  The afterglow lasted several days afterwards......and I'll never forget this weekend of legends and science.

The cool Uncle I wish I had....George Takei. Oh My!

San Diego Comicon 2011

Here are some highlights from the San Diego Comicon 2011........

A Star Trek legend.  Shatner adds charm and laughter to the prensenation on a documentary about all 6 of Star Trek's captains.

Avery Brooks adds insight and thought to his answers.

Scott Bakula surprises the audience during Shatner and Brooks' presentation on "The Captains"

Ben Barnes

Jeff Bridges is having fun at a panel for an upcoming movie.

Brad Cooper answers questions about a new movie

Conen Obrien surprises the audience during  a Green Lantern screening.

Julie Newmar at the San Diego Comicon 2011