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So partially to make progress on goal 4, and partially because I absolutely love Pixar I saw WALL•E¹ tonight. What can I say, it was fantastic. While watching the movie a thought came to mind, why we² make movies. Without giving too much away, WALL•E isn’t just a movie about a super incredibly cute robot. The film starts out in the barren landscape of a post-apocalyptic Earth. We find WALL•E working away at his primary mission, clean things up. Now WALL•E’s idea of cleaning things up is pretty similar to a child, or the typical college student, take your crap and make it into piles. Things really are really only a little better then when he started. Instead of junk scattered everywhere, there is junk everywhere in really really neat piles. It’s cute, but quite frankly for a movie partially targeted at children it is really dark.

WALL•E however is science fiction at it’s finest and by the end of the movie thing’s aren’t all better with everything fixed, but they’re better. However this had me thinking about why I love science fiction, something I’ve always known. Science fiction is frequently about hope. This hasn’t always been the case however but thanks to the brilliant mind of Isaac Asimov and his rejection of the Frankenstein complex this is what science fiction has become.³ Star Trek is a perfect example of modern science fiction that takes this and runs with it. Above all other thins Star Trek was a rejection of the typical dystopian science fiction and an example of what can be.

Star Trek was made in the 60’s a time of social and political upheaval. Amongst many other things the airing of the original Star Trek coincided with the height of American involvement in Vietnam, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, some of the most heated moments of the Cold War, and the assassination of American leaders, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. For many Star Trek gave people hope that everything would turn out all right. This was no coincidence as Asimov was a friend and adviser to Gene Roddenberry the creator and produce of Star Trek.

But back to WALL•E. WALL•E represents the same things that Star Trek did, in a time not so dissimilar. People are searching for hope as much now as ever. If you were asked to define Barack Obama’s campaign for president in one word hope would be high on the list of responses.⁴ WALL•E doesn’t go as far as Star Trek and suggest that everything is going to work out perfectly but it does suggest that we can overcome. Hope has been in short supply lately and WALL•E does it’s very best to add some to the mix. Fortunately WALL•E’s very best the work of Pixar and their very worst is better then what some can ever hope for. Amongst other things, hope is why we make movies.

If you are reading this Aria is currently up, this may not always be the case in the next week or so. Yesterday I came home to an unresponsive computer, today the same thing happened. It looks like aria might be having some hardware problems that I’ll need to work out. Until then the website might be a little unstable. If it’s down believe me it hurts me more than it hurts you.

Well it’s been a while since there has been a change here at Tedger.com so I’ve decided it’s time for some.

First of all you may or may not notice the absence of the “Stats” link at the top. The Stats pages never quite worked from the beginning and have been pretty much completely broken for the last couple months. I decided that I would just take them down rather than spend valuable time on something I doubt anyone looks at.
Second of all there is a whole new link “PoTW.” What is this “PoTW” you say? Picture of the Week of course! I’m no artist so I would never dream of making a webcomic. I’m no photographer so I would never dream of a true photoblog. Tedger.com Picture of the Week is my attempt to take my deficiencies in both, combine them, and hope that the result is a whole slightly less hideous then the parts.
Part of the reason I’m doing this is to encourage myself to post here more often. I have a pretty decent website and it’s a shame if I weren’t to use it. Another part of the reason is I’m pretty envious of those artists and photographers out there and I’m just trying to steal some of their glory. Hehe…. glory!
Well so there you have it I am officially announcing the Tedger.com Picture of the Week. It’ll be updated every Wednesday evening (I’m sure a lot of the time it will end up being Thursday morning) but it’ll be there. I’ll be sure to post a link on the blog for you RSS readers.

I just want to say that I had a great birthday. I got a magnificent cake from my roommate Peter (German Chocolate, and he hates coconut). I also was joined by a number of friends in eating it, it was a good day.

Kids these days, think that they can rule the world. I scoff at their arrogance, perhaps if they have been around for a decade or two like myself they might be able to truly understand the word. But they haven’t! Their loss!

I’ve been meaning to add some pretty funny posts to the website recently but just haven’t gotten to it. I’ve been really lazy and just keep forgetting. I’m pretty tired right now so I’m not going to post them this minute however. The last thing I wanted to let happen however is let it go an entire month before a new post so I’m posting this. I figured I’d give all two of you diligent readers some previews before I get to posting tomorrow: “Bees”, “pants”, “Birthday!”, “sex.”

Stay tuned for stories of danger, sex, and intrigue, here at Tedger.com.

ARRRRRRRRR it betalk like a pirate day! So scrub the deck till it shines like a mermaid’s fin or you’ll be walking the plank!

We (yes I’m referring to myself in the royal we) here at Tedger.com are going to officially declare summer over. The meteorologists may say otherwise, the clamoring students may rebel, but I’m afraid it’s true. Most people I know are either moved into school year housing or will be in the next coming days. Starting Monday ISU departments switch back to school year hours. Most ominous is the fact that I’ve started purchasing books and tuition is due in about a week. As much as I hate to do it….
Tedger.com hereby declares summer over. Have a good school year everyone.

Wow, last main page post involved a Star Trek actor here’s another I guess.
James Doohan everyone’s favorite scottish engineer Scotty, passed away today. Apparently he was suffering from both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. He brought a lot of joy to people who watched Star Trek, and there is almost no one that hasn’t heard “Beam me up Scotty.” James Doohan was honored with a Star on the Hollywood walk of fame in August of 2004. Here’s to you Scotty and James.

Today is Patrick Stewart’s Birthday! Happy birthday Patrick! (yes we’re on a first name basis). Here’s to many more years for everyone’s favorite starship captain.