   Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So I'm just going to come out and say it: My favorite episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is "Conundrum." It's episode fourteen of season five, and I just deeply love it.
I don't know if it's because I literally just assumed Erich Anderson's Commander McDuff was a random Enterprise officer of the week (which we saw quite often during the show) when I watched it as a kid during the original run, so the twist actually worked on eleven year old me. I don't know if it's because I just like a good "everyone has amnesia" story. I don't even know if it's just because it's a good Ro Laren episode. I don't know if it's just because we learn that Starfleet doesn't give a crap about lasers.
I just like it. It's neat.
And I rewatched it last night, and feel that it holds up -- which is why I found it deeply weird that the folks who wrote the episode actually think it's not that good. My favorite episode of the entire seven season run of the show was a failure according to the folks who wrote it.
And maybe, as a writer and creator, I should remember that.
Like the hardest part of releasing creative works to the public is that often, after a while, I'll start to judge those things far more harshly than when I first made them. Or I'll compare it to the potential I thought an idea had in my head. And if I don't reach that potential, I'll think of it as "bad" -- when it might just be slightly different than that idea. I have one hundred percent published stories that I thought were just sort of okay and later had someone tell me how much it meant to them to read it.
*cough*I Hate November*cough*
So I should make sure I remember Conundrum. That one of my favorite things to rewatch is considered one of those failures by its creators. That the things I make might have value, just not in the way I originally thought they should.
It's just sort of how things work out.
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the friendzone does exist Trae. You said so in your nerd dating panel. Plus I can prove it exists.
Actually, I used to quite specifically say the friendzone ISN’T real in that panel. Clearly you weren’t listening.
Because if you’re hanging out with someone just because you want to sleep with them, you aren’t really their friend. I could go on about this for paragraphs about emotional manipulation and passive aggressive behavior, but all of that is moot in this case.
Because Ruth hates Harry, making his use of the term not really work on any level in the first place.
Thank you, Trae, for your comments there. I find the entire concept of the “friendzone” to be offensive. I exist as a person, not a sexbot. Heck, I’m asexual to start with!
…then you have more in common with Ruth than you know.
I think the FriendZone exists, but is far far less common than popular media thinks. For the reasons already mentioned.
Regardless, the term does -not- apply here… he seemed like a potentially smart guy just a little while ago.
The friendzone doesn’t exist the way most people who say that term mean.
As for Harry, this is the first time we’ve seen him without Jerry keeping him in check.
I want to cosplay as Harry!
…actually, I just want a shirt like that.
Closest I can find : http://www.cafepress.com/mf/68333456/star-trek-terran-empire-logo_tshirt?productId=651149063
(Here’s another one that’s pretty close, although it uses the Enterprise era Terran Empire logo instead of the TOS era Terran empire logo: http://www.cafepress.com/mf/88121453/star-trek-mirror-universe-emblem-black_tshirt
Thanks, Trae!
(After he went through the trouble of finding those links, I don’t have the heart to tell him I meant the other shirt? What’s the term? Overshirt? Flaming Hawaiian shirt? Alohaaaah Eruption! shirt?)
Wasn’t so much “trouble” as “five seconds on google” 😛
Hmmm… the overshirt.
Y’know, I just went to google because I assumed it would be easy to find a similar orangish-red bowling shirt with flames on it… but wow. I haven’t found anything similar so far.
Closest I could find;
http://www.southwestbowl.com/RagingFire.htm