I Did a Test

Oh cool, I got Guinan:

You can do the test here: http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/star-trek-the-next-generation-recurring-character-quiz

So Far for the Sunglasses

This is what happened when I tried to add a caption. Thought it was funny, maybe it's not.

No, it really is funny. It suits him too. Ooh, suits...Njaah, never mind.

Men in Suits....and Sunglasses

To start off this blogweek a picture of men in suits and sunglasses. And then, to promptly leave it again, no posts for the coming five days.

I'm saying that, but it doesn't really mean anything. Just go look at the picture. And if there's no new post tomorrow, have another look at the picture....or not....

Anyway....



Courtesy of @berman_rick

 Is Jonathan Frakes still growing?

Many other thoughts as well. Won't bore you with them.

ETA: I left the picture open on Twitter and Blogger. Every time I can't help but grin. I really like this picture. Like real gentlemen. Qqqqquiverrrrrr......... Oooookaaaaaayyyyy.....Ahum. *logs off for cold shower*

ST&H

Source

Job Vacancy

With a certain android in mind, this vacancy is very interesting and a bit funny:

Dear Anja,


I'm helping my colleague Anonymous Recruiter look for a Data Consultant.

Desired skills:
- Data Governance
- Data Modelling
- Datamining
- Master Data Management
- Logical and dimensional modelling
- Meta Data
- Sharepoint
- Database Management
- Data Architecture
- Datawarehouse Architecture/ Business Intelligence
- Teradata
- Helicopter view

Start date: asap
Length of the project: minimum 3 months, with extension opportunities
Location: South Holland

Where I Work, Star Trekkie-ish

By the amount you here the words Data (data) and Q (queue) in my department, it gives a very Star Trekkie-...ish feel. It's almost like living in a Star Trek episode, especially the episode "Deja Q".

That gives me a very Deja Vu-ish feeling.

Snape versus Data

Here it is:

Data and data

The title of this post is not completely applicable, it just sounded nice.

First "Data". We're about three or four months into this fandom and I start to understand my own position in it. I'm almost just a bystander. I'm looking in from a distance. I'm sure Brent's fans are nice and sane women, but when I read how they talk about him...welll, it's a bit too much for me. I'm past that station. Also, I found out that I absolutely love "Data", not "Brent". Data is all sweet and innocent, everything that Brent is not. Not a bad thing, just an observation.

I'm sure I dished this one out before, but this is pretty much it: A fan about Brent at a convention:
Paraphrased: "When you see him sitting there behind his table, you know you've got Lore, not Data."

Onto the "data". It's not exactly the "data", it's more the system integration. And when you're talking about system integration, at some point you get to talk about the "data". I considered writing "Data" in every document, instead of "data", because it amused me. When putting this in action, I found out I actually never write "data", but rather the Dutch equivalent "gegevens". So I abondoned that resolution.

Quite a few rather big projects have started in my team or are about to start. I'm involved in a few of them. Actually, when it comes to writing the required designs for these projects, I'm probably going to be involved in most of these projects. Anyway, there's definately one big project that has been loaded onto my plate. I actually took the effort of setting up a whole project to do it. Something I haven't done since my internships for college.

I'm sure I wrote before, since my colleague is slowly moving towards a different function, I'm taking all the projects he used to do. My manager's and his faith in me is still a little nerve racking. However, I'm going to approach this something like I did my internships, then I should be all right.

Such a shame my energy reserves are the lowest at this point of the year. I need to take a break, not only to refuel, but also because I have too many hours left to spend on sparetime. If I don't take them this year, I'll lose them completely. I'm also planning to take a prolongued Christmas break. All of that I still have to ask permission for.


Still not up to post count for the day of the month, but I think I bored you enough for today.

One bone I'd like to throw out to you; another Star Trek Next Gen / Doctor Who crossover. Data and the TARDIS. How would their relationship develop since they are both machines in essence, but with a clear mind of their own?

Forehead Check

Freakin' accurate observation:

Source: Bravura Brent Spiner

Don't Throw Away Anything

In the light of the refound missing episodes of Doctor Who, and also to honor my mum, who never threw away anything, I give you this post. But mainly because it made me laugh. Read this first.

http://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/9285887.Sir_Patrick_Stewart_on_Shakespeare_and_Star_Trek/

When I told my mum I was moving out, now about 7 years ago, she immediately claimed my bedroom and dragged all my childhood stuf from the attic for me to take to my new home. It landed me in the situation sir Patrick finds him in, in this here article.

What to do with all this.....My advice would be, sell it on an auction or ebay. Possibly signed.

What I did with it? Most of it I threw away, some of it I kept and my dolls and play animals I donated to the day care on my doorstep. One little girl immediately took care of one of my dolls, of which I was very happy.

Some strange conversations sprouted from that particular meeting. Maybe a post for another day.

Karen Talking About Meeting Brent

Posting this, because it caused a major geek reaction in me:

http://youtu.be/4F3SkWFwxeE

...If...ST....TNG...Remake

First things first; I'm not for a TNG remake. However, if Tom Hiddleston would be cast as Data....Wow! You know my feelings about Data and I really like Tom Hiddleston.

This has been spread so many times, I don't know its original source. Right here
it says something about the source: http://www.themarysue.com/star-trek-tng-recast/#1

Crossing Over in Real Life

Here's another crossing over, but from a real world point of view, as wikipedia would call it:

Reminiscent of:

I know I posted this before, but have another look.

Cross Over

Just a mish mash of cross over things I found today:

The Doctor is not impressed with Voldemort. Voldemort seems utterly confuzzled with the Doctor.

The Doctor meets Data!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This one is really well done. The ladies look loverly!

Catering Company

Random Thoughts and Musings

It's been pretty busy today. Busy enough I couldn't write a proper blog post. I did write some stuff. What I'm going to post is a collection of thoughts ranging in subject from Star Trek and Brent to Alexander and work. This is bound to be boring.

To be completely honest.


Over the last couple of weeks, I have been thinking and testing how I really feel about my latest interest. I have come to a conclusion.

It’s Data I love, it’s Brent’s work I admire and Brent who fascinates me and I haven’t let go of Alexander yet.
This said, I prefer to watch Brent playing Data, though a Franz or Dennis is acceptable too, and I really need to revisit ‘Wij Alexander’ and ‘De Troon’.


Last week I was watching Star Trek the Next Generation which from now on will shorten to STTNG. Surprise, surprise. To be precize, I watched one episode from the seventh season and then some of the extra’s. One, which I really liked, was the Captain’s tribute, in which Patrick Stewart talked about his time on the show and about his cast mates. About Brent he said it took him longer to get to know Brent. That sparked a little theory in me. I must admit, it wasn’t really sparked, but rekindled. The idea had already sparked after my two lenghty reactions on Bravura I blogged about yesterday. The idea was also rekindled, because some people confirmed it.

Brent is a very privat person, which is fair. It does mean he doesn’t really talk about his private life and there is not much known about his life outside his work; people don’t even seem to be sure he and Lori are married.
To protect his private life he tends to give bullshit answers to questions and the man we get to see is a very public persona and has, presumably, not that much to do with the real Brent Spiner. Ironic choice of words since his website is therealbrentspiner.com.
He’s playing the persona so often and so thoroughly, it did make me hope he could unwind propperly when home. To me it seemed to be a very exhausting way of living your life.

Sure, everybody probably uses the public persona when outside, but I think most of us stay very close to ourselves. Not that I expect Brent to be completely different, but I do expect him to be more peaceful at home. He seems well balanced, mentally. He doesn’t look like he necessarily needs all the fanfare and hussle. He doesn’t need all the noise. Maybe he really is as silly and sarcastic. I don’t know. The feeling remains, his public persona is a very tight and fan proof screen (as opposed to waterproof). It makes trying to get to know ‘the Real’ Brent Spiner more of a interesting challenge and it makes the real person more of a mystery. Exactly what the Doctor ordered.


Sometimes I really feel they put too much faith in me. Other times I can’t believe the praise, because I felt the job was really simple. In any case, I don’t take praise well.

In my job the colleague I work most with now let’s me do stuff I feel he does much better. I suppose, since I’m the only other person knowing the process and ins and outs, I’m the most suitable person to take over. Still, his faith in my abilities I often find misplaced, or at least exagerated. Sure, I’m not stupid, I can understand simple to medium complex processes. However, I am not as smart as some people might think, neither am I functioning as well as I think I should, or they think I am. Sure, I get my things done, but I feel I could be much more efficient and effective.


For a few years I’m more wondering why I’m attracted to certain people than actually enjoying the new interest. Mainly because I was caught off guard a few times. It started with Jake. Throughout my whole Jake period all I could think was: “What-the-hell!?!?!?” Same with Brent now: “What-the-hell!?!?!?”

I can’t see my interest in Brent going for very long. I’m expecting it to last as long as my interest in Jake. I am still loyal though, I will try to keep up with what they’re doing, but I won’t follow frantically.

A Few Pictures

I've been meaning to post these yesterday, but didn't. Here they are anyway.

Once tweeted by LeVar Burton

After all these years, he still looks fantastic.

I find this a very untypical, yet very striking photo.

A very young Brent.

Brilliant!!!

All taken from: http://brentspiner.ning.com/photo

DataLore Mania - Confessions of a Fan

I spent doing this:

Another really long reaction. Bear with me, or just go do something useful, like watching Brent.


In one of the comments it was said that if Lore didn’t have such intense resentment, he may have gone on to great things. However, it’s not resentment alone that ruined Lore, it was also an attitude problem. Just like Counselor Troy once said to Data, emotions itself aren’t negative, it’s what we choose to do with it. I agree with that, for a part. Even from resentment, great things could come. However, Lore choose to go the opposite way. If he was anything like me, he’d gone on his way proving everyone, and especially, Dr. Soong wrong by becoming a great, I don’t know, leader, scientist, comedian….

I do agree with the notion that multi-sensory input modalities linked to decision and human emotions is a tenuous balance at best. If only Dr. Soong had given Lore the attention he needed, things might have turned out quite differently. We might have had Lore on the Enterprise instead of Data. Ooh, I just had a dazzling idea, what if Dr. Soong had improved Lore first and then built Data; you could have had the fantastic twin. Ooh, the possibilities!!!

I love Lore. Not for his bad-boy ways, but for the good I recognized in him. I saw possibilities and I believe with the right attention, Lore could have become more than his programming. I love Lore for his frustration, his anger, his pain, his sincere love, his complexity, for who he is in basis. He deserves a fair chance, just like any other android, just like Data. That fair chance was taken from him, and it frustrates me (in a fictional way) just as much as it frustrates Lore.

Brent and humor…That’s another one I can go off on a tangent on. I understand his sarcastic humor; hell, I do it myself all the time, I’m even veering towards cynical. However, I also know not everyone understands and people tend to be offended at the weirdest things. Then again, I might just be downright rude. Same goes for Brent. I think Brent can be hilarious. I think Brent can come off rude. I don’t think he means to be rude. In some cases, had I been standing behind him, I would have told him off. Not because I thought he was rude, but because I feel someone perceived it as rude. Sometimes, you just have to hold back. And sometimes, it’s not as funny as you think.

Maybe a reason I like Brent, and I’m laughing to myself now, I do tend to fall for the guys who are not only sarcastic, but also whine a lot, or for the grumpy ones. With grumpy I mean the act they’re playing out, while deep down, they’re sweethearts and joyous.

I love watching actors work. I tend to search for the weak spots in performances, which usually comes down to seeing the actor rather than the character. Yes, most actors bring themselves into the role. I don’t think they do it on purpose. I think, no matter what you do, you always bring yourselves into your actions, beit building androids (I’ll come back to this one), or beit acting. There have been moments in Brent’s performances where I thought: “Oh, there’s Brent!”. Most of the times, I saw Data, or whatever character he was playing. Though I think I can now recognize his style. I see it the least in Data, which made me think Data was a real full job to play, while in all other characters, bits and pieces of Brent were present. That doesn’t mean I think Brent’s a bad actor. Not at all. I think he’s brilliant.

People not understanding Brent’s jokes don’t necessarily lack intelligence, they just don’t get his jokes. My boyfriend, a really smart guy, doesn’t get jokes. Whenever I’m joking he’s taking it serious. You have no idea how often I have to tell him I was just joking. His brain is just not equipped for distincting jokes, but it is brilliantly equiped to solve software problems. I probably would have brought him in to tinker on Lore and laugh at him concerning humor. He and Data would make an interesting, beit scary, combination. Geordie should be careful not losing his best friend.
I don’t know how someone can’t recognize a joke, but it happens without taking away from their intelligence. Humor in any case, is an interesting concept. You can’t blame Data for not getting humor. It’s one of the most complex things associated with people.

Brent doesn’t play just bad guys, or good guys for that matter. Brent always plays much more than the characterization we can see on the surface. Brent always adss a complexity to the characters. None of Brent’s characterazations are flat or simple. I’m going to say something ironic now: Brent always makes characters real people. That includes Data. That’s why I love his work.

If I had to choose, I wouldn’t want to. I love both for different reasons. I would have tinkered on Lore to make him more balanced and goodness. I would have nurtured Data and explained human ways to him. I would also tinker on Lal. I would have been exhillerated at finding out there is fully functional android with all the emotions, aging process and all that humans are used to in the form of Juliana, Data’s “mother”. I would have become as obsessed as Dr. Soong was, like I am now with my contest scheme for the club I volunteer doing time registration for. Putting it together, that’s the art. Don’t lose your vision, always go for even better. I’m not claiming to be as brilliant as Dr. Soong, I am certainly not, but I can try, right?

Would Lore be more popular than Data if STTNG was broadcast now? Of course I can’t be sure, but I don’t think so. I think why characters are popular has to do with writing, performance and also what personal style and technique an actor brings to it. Yes, time probably might have its influence as well, but when I look around at popular characters now, the good ones are still very popular as well, just not in TVD at the moment.

Now, don’t you think we get to know Dr. Soong through his androids? Even Soong acknowledges they’re probably more alike than they think.

*Stares at her sandwich.* After about two hours still haven’t eaten my lunch. It was about 12.30 pm when I bought the sandwich. It is now 2.49 pm.

here: http://brentspiner.ning.com/forum/topics/data-lore?id=4788475%3ATopic%3A2040&page=2#comments

If only I had something useful to do...

Why Brent!? WHY!?

This is my reaction to a thread post here: http://brentspiner.ning.com/forum/topics/arik-lore-younger-vs-older

I’m sorry this turned out as long as it did. If you manage to get through this whole reaction, I applaud you.

Lore's and Data's insides look like candy

Lore: Watching, especially, the episode ‘Brothers’, I always end up wanting to mother Lore. Or tinker on him, trying to make him more stable and balanced. Nurture him. There’s good in him, the sincere love he feels for both his father, Dr. Soong, and his brother, Data. The building blocks are there for goodness. Also, I do understand Lore’s frustration and anger. He didn’t get the love he deserved, and Dr. Soong’s argument that the logical step was to build Data first before working on Lore again, is not acceptable to me. However, I might be wrong and it was the most logical step. I would love to have a look at Dr. Soong’s designs, though I’ve got the distinct suspicion he didn’t write anything down, like any true developer.
I’m fascinated by Brent in all ages. There’s so much life in that man and so much joy. That comes out, every time, even in the more shy, depressed, repressed and nervous characters he has played. Not necessarily as the joy Brent, the actor, was feeling, but in the subtle performances he gave. From his performances you can tell Brent always threw himself at his work and went for it, and I like to believe, he still goes into new work with the same zeal. I agree, Brent should have won a multitude of awards for his work.

I agree with the ‘confidence’ argument. I’m not sure that confidence was absent when he was younger, or was misplaced and rather arrogance or cockiness. I think Brent always had the goods to back his confidence up. As for the ‘Daddy-like’ attraction; I’m not sure that’s true for me. I have a habit of being attracted to people who are quite a bit older than I am. I am 32, while most of my friends are around their 50’s and older. Even in my work I’m “nearly” the youngest by far. Only my manager is younger than I am. So, Brent fits well in the catalogue of people in my life.

As for Data’s reaction to other people’s emotional reaction, and this is based on my knowledge of computers which Data basically is: Data observed, saved (memorized if you will) and pulled out ‘experiences’ whenever applicable and acted as he memorized was right for that once experienced situation. That’s why he sometimes got it wrong, because people always do and say everything with underlying meanings and intentions in situations that might influence our reactions.

For some reason, this always makes me lust for Brent

That said: I think, most of the times, Brent has simply played Data as an android without emotions. I do agree Brent is too unasuming about that particular performance. What he did with Data is a thousand times more mysterious, complex and quite honestly brilliant, than he regards it. I mean, who else can play a character emotionless, but in the process evoke the missing emotions from viewers and actors alike? Name me one actor! And if you dare, explain to me how the hell that works?
This opinion was brought to you by Wiwik and made possible by Mr. Jonathan Frakes.

Let’s study some situations. I can understand why emotion was provoked when Data called Dr. Soong ‘Father’ and Dr. Juliana Taner ‘Mother’. It has everything to do with our own lives, our own parents and our knowledge of the importance of the relationships between parents and children. We understand how Dr. Soong and Dr. Taner felt at that precise moment.

This moment’s always at the front of my head: Data eating desert with his young worshipper in Ten forward. It’s from the episode ‘Hero worship’. The young boy doesn’t realize Data cannot taste his desert and that he only recognizes the ingredients, but doesn’t like nor dislike it. He tells the boy he would gladly accept all the negative emotions he might have, only to be able to taste/enjoy his desert. That evoked a very deep emotion in me (maybe because I absolutely adore deserts).
What I sense there is almost regret. On the other hand, Data does not have the ability to feel regret, so why should I feel sorry for him? However, I do in this instance.

Do I find Brent attractive? Yes and no. I could sum up a list of things I don’t like about him, but I won’t. I will tell you what attracts me about him: “His ability to sway me”. For about ten comments he makes which I don’t like, there’s always one comment he gets me in stitches with. For about ten things he does or doesn’t do which I don’t like, there’s always an understanding on my side of the why. I also always have to admit, if it had been me instead of him, I’m not sure I would have done as well. I’m not talking acting here, I know for a fact I couldn’t have acted it the way he did. His work is the one single thing I never have a doubt about, because for the ten performances I adore, there is only one moment that causes me itches in a bad way. I can live with most of them, or I just ignore them. No-one is perfect, I know that, and I’m not expecting Brent to be.

He fascinates me.

Left Overs - Mainly Brent and Star Trek

I’ve been collecting bits and pieces of interviews, forums, etc that amuse me. Some of it has already found its way to this blog, some have not. Since I’m cleaning up the document I use for writing blog posts, I’m goint to dump those bobs right here, right now.


Greatest question: Which is harder for you, playing Data in high altitude or underwater?

"And here’s another piece I love: Another scene was in Generations where Patrick and I were on a platform. Now Patrick has no fear of heights. He loves heights, and he knows my fear of heights. So, he started bouncing on the platform. It was like being on a diving board. He was killing me and he knew it."

I was laughing my head off at that one.

Source: From some interview

"His comedy isn't confined to the makeup trailer. One weekend last March, Spiner and a few of his co-stars beamed themselves into an Orange County (Calif.) arts center production of Tom Stoppard's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, in which Spiner, as a Russian mental patient, got a favorable notice from the Los Angeles Times's Timothy Mangan, who called him "the perfect lunatic."

Source: From some interview

Yeah, I can see how that works.

"Man: …so why does a post by a woman talking about Star Trek turn me on so much?

Woman: Could be because we’re practically mythical beasts: Intelligent career women who like gaming, comics, sci-fi, and costuming.

Rarer than unicorns."

Source: Forum conversation about Brent Hazzling Patrick Stewart
That made me laugh. I want a t-shirt of that.