[Channel Open]
[Incoming Transmission from Psi Phi, Office of Communications]

Minutes

(10/08/2003)

Call To Order: 10:10 [10-10-321?] pm

Attendance:

• Ryan Woodrow (Captain)
• Kevin Zepp (First Officer)
• David Henderson (Chief of Operations)
• Elizabeth Koprucki (Grand Nagus)
• Laura Zadrozny (Constable)
• Kristen Zidon (Communications Officer)
• Jeff Hibbard (Faculty Advisor)
• Kristi Aulenbach
• Andrew Conrad, aka Señor Bob
• Julie Faas
• Joel Fried
• Joan Johnson
• Andrew Kalafut
• Jon Lascelles
• Scott Liekis
• Andromeda McGregor
• Aaron Nevitt
• Mikiko Okamoto
• Meaghan Porter
• Jeff Shedlock
• Don Steiner
• Will Vesely
• Guest: Aaron F.
• Stuffed animal: Monkey (ferret)

There were 23 attendees and one stuffed animal.

Minutes:

Summarized and approved.

• Joel wished to explain his failed "No Report" as a symptom of "Joels' Syndrome", which ensures that nothing a Joel does can go right. Anti-Joel was the discoverer of this syndrome.

Committee Reports:

• No report.

• No report.

• Jon printed off more lists of s.f. movies on television; these are also with the Communications Officer.
• Jon also read a summary of the "Cheesy Movie of the Week", which this week was Hell Comes to Frogtown.
  • The most fertile man left after WWIII is given a pardon (as he is a petty criminal) for agreeing to impregnate women.
  • He is also given a sort of electronic cup (yes, *that* kind of cup) that zaps him for various offenses.
  • Frog-like beings are also involved somehow.
  • Key quote from Commander Toty: "You have aroused the three snakes!"
  • A horrible pun about genital warts is committed.
  • "To sum up, it's about nuts and frogs."
  • Sr. Bob gives the review "five thumbs up!" (out of five).

• We don't have a couch yet, so go bug people about it. Specifically, Joel's roommates Greg and Nate, who are supposed to go get the couch. Also, bugging Joel probably wouldn't hurt.
• We determine that it is Joel's fault. It's *always* Joel's fault, even when he isn't involved. Makes things easier. (Just kidding, Joel.)
• The office fridge's temperature was turned down to "Arctic", and as a result of this, the pop cans in there exploded, cracked, and/or had scary-looking bulges. Joel and Sr. Bob discovered this and cleaned it up. Kudos to them!
• The issue of soda vs. pop is brought up; the Captain kills the debate.

• Joel cites numerous problems in the MCS constitution to show that ours has very little need of reform in comparison.
• Anyone who signed up for the Constitution Reform Committee and/or is interested, see Joel.

• Psi Phi shirts from before (size XL) are in Elizabeth and Kristen's room; see Elizabeth if you're interested in one.
• We'll have a list of possibilities for phrases next week and we'll vote on them.

• MCS played Diplomacy. Joel, as France, is currently winning. Britain is worried about France breaking the alliance with them, probably because he's going to. France and Italy have an alliance, since they both suck separately, they might as well be allied.
• Joel rambles a bit more about the game, but the Communications Officer didn't catch it all. It is determined that putting "Joel rambles. No report" in the minutes each week would be fairly accurate.
• No report.

Officers' Reports:

• The Comm. Officer shares a bit of news she found on mugglenet.com about the late Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies.
• In 1965, Harris received a Rolls-Royce as part of his payment for the film The Heroes of Telemark. He parked the Royce in a car park and then apparently forgot it existed. His wife now faces a $617,000 parking fine, and is planning to auction the car at Christie's to help pay for this.
• The minutes are out.

• The Constable saw Reservoir Dogs and commented, "It was so cool to see splats of red blood on white leather on the big screen."
• Everything is under control.

• The minutes for the previous three meetings have been posted on the Psi Phi website.
• Since the September 24th minutes didn't get mailed out to everyone, David remailed them.

• The Nagus paid $10 for our jack-o-lantern.
• Ryan gives the Nagus the $5 that had been taken out of the treasury to pay for the service fee to get early bird convention tickets.
• The treasury now has $390.85.
• The Nagus has twelve hideously pink canvases, and painted one with a disturbing combination of pinks and purples. She doesn't know what to do with it now, though, and asked for any suggestions.
• She saw the art department chair wearing a Star Trek tie.
• She and Laura obtained much loot from the mall. It is fearsome.
• No one has checked the possibility of a checking account yet.

• The First Officer played a computer game that pitted Kirk against Picard. Each had a variety of moves, such as "flying jump kick" and "exposing chest" (Kirk) or "Borg eye" (Picard), although, sadly, there was no "Picard maneuver".

• "Letters" is sung.
  • The sheet documenting our request to use this room all semester was finally returned. It was given to the Comm. Officer.
  • We also got a flier for custom t-shirts, from a company that has the site fubberschmor.com. The site's name sparks rants about bad spelling.

Old Business:

• The ST convention for Oct. 17 was cancelled. David conjectures that this is probably because Peter Mayhew, one of the proposed guests, is currently in England, and Ethan Phillips's availability for this convention was unknown.
• Ryan has refunds for those who gave him money to get tickets. See him if you need your money refunded.
• No one's done anything about the checking account.
• Laura can check that out tomorrow.

New Business:

• A request for a changed email address for the mailing list is noted by David; the reason for the request is that "AOL is a dingus to sign on to."
• Ryan suggests that we watch the "nuts and frogs" movie back-to-back with Femalien. Pretty much everyone else in the club suggests that we not do that.
• Since we don't have the convention on October 17 anymore, we decide to go ahead and take part in Rope of Hope. As Julie used to be in Epsilon Sigma Alpha, she's in charge of getting information for this, particularly contact information.
• Jon, Joan, Ryan, and Sr. Bob volunteer.
• There is some debate as to the composition of co-ed teams. Last year, co-ed teams had to have three males and two females or three females and two males. Elizabeth volunteers to be on the team if necessary. Sr. Bob volunteers to cross-dress for the team if necessary.

Other Organizations' Announcements:

• None!

Scifi News:

• California now has [Ahnold voice] Governator-Elect Ahnold Schwarzenegger [/Ahnold voice], well known for his parts in the Terminator movies, among others.
• Julie Parrish, who played Piper in TOS: "The Menagerie" two parter, died on October 1. She was 62.
• Next week's Enterprise, entitled "Exile", is one of TV Guide's "21 Good Reasons to Stay Home This Week".
• The movie Out of Time, starring Denzel Washington, also features John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox on Enterprise).
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek Generations will both be out on special edition DVD in 2004; ST6 in January, STG to be announced. Also, Voyager comes out every other month starting February 2004 (with the sixth season in November so as to get all seven seasons out in one year). These can be ordered through--you guessed it--www.psiphi.org/dvd.
• UPN is developing a TV show based on the Teen Wolf movies, emphasizing the horror and dark humor elements (and cutting the more broad humor) like BtVS.
• Manny Coto, who was an executive producer on Odyssey 5 on Showtime, wrote "Similitude", an upcoming episode of Enterprise that should air at the end of November.
• A new three-part mini-series is in development for the Sci Fi channel: Nine Lives, from Steven Spielberg. It won't air until 2005.
• LucasFilm registered "RevengeOfTheSith.com" on October 2. This may be the title of Episode III; it could also be a red herring.
• Imax wants to get Spider-Man 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Imax format.
• Emma Thompson ("Junior") is joining HpatPoA as Professor Trelawney.
• The Sandman: Endless Nights debuted at #20 on the NYT Hardcover Bestseller list, marking the first time any American comic book publisher (DC Comics) has had a title on the list.
• There's a new Buffy spin-off comic book mini-series: Tales of the Vampires, all written by the writing staff of the show, including Joss Whedon (who wrote the first two of five issues). The first issue will come out Dec. 10.
• New Doctor Who is coming to the BBC, 14 years after the series was cancelled.
• The extended editions of LotR:FotR and LotR:TTT will be shown in "select" theaters from Dec. 5 to Dec. 11 (FotR) and Dec. 12 to Dec. 15 (TTT). Unfortunately, no theater in Peoria was selected, but one in Springfield was.
• We consider putting together an away team to go see this.
• Ryan noted that it was somewhat odd that none of these "select" theaters were in Peoria, as the superb film Duct Tape Forever starring the characters from the hilarious Canadian show The Red Green Show was shown in Peoria and in few other places. [Granted, that's not *exactly* how he put it, but that's essentially what he said.] This was due to sufficient PBS fund-raising in the Peoria area, however, and is a different situation entirely.
• The Quidditch World Cup video game is coming out October 28.
• Jon noted that some gym teachers have been using variations on Quidditch in physical education classes. Joan notes that gym class sucks.
• A new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie was finally greenlighted at Disney. Filming will begin next year in England, including city scenes in London.
• When asked who adapted the screenplay, David determined that it was that guy who adapted the screenplay for that other movie. He promised [more like "loosely committed" --dh] more specific information at the next meeting.
• 24 and Tru Calling will premiere on Fox on October 28 and 30, respectively. The 24 premiere will be presented without commercial interruption. It's sponsored by the new Ford F150, and Ryan speculates that at least one of these vehicles will feature in the premiere.
• Kevin Sorbo and Lucy Lawless are separately suing Universal Studios for "cooking the books", artificially inflating internal costs so that, on paper, their shows (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess) never made a profit, breaching their respective contracts giving them 8% and 5% of the profits.
• David has some cool loot to show us!
  • A ST: New Frontier book: Gods Above, by Peter David. This book contains the resolution to the cliffhanger in Being Human.
  • Stargazer: Oblivion is the fourth book in the Stargazer series, written by Michael Jan Friedman.
  • The second and third books in The Lost Era Star Trek series (Serpents Among the Ruins, by David R. George III, and The Art of the Impossible, by Keith R.A. DeCandido) are now out. Serpents Among the Ruins features Captain John Harriman, and The Art of the Impossible spans 18 years (2328-2346).
  • The book Pantheon combines two Next Generation books, Reunion and The Valiant. They are re-edited into one book (not simply a two part anthology). The book The Q Continuum combines three Next Generation books about Q, also re-edited into one book. Both books have new interviews with the authors.
  • J.M. Dillard has novelized the Enterprise episodes "The Expanse" and "The Xindi" into the book The Expanse.
  • David has a preview version of For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs, by Robert A. Heinlein. The book itself is coming out in 2004. A disclaimer emphasizes that the book is a preview version and may have errors, and gives a warning that boils down to "Do not use this preview version of the book for bad reasons." The book has an introduction by Spider Robinson.
• The Star Trek "signature edition" combining two Imzadi books will be coming out in December.
• Laura informs us of two available calendars: an Alias one and a Harry Potter planner covered in red velvet (club reaction: "Ooooh!")
• Sr. Bob's shirt says SWEK; this is the name of a band that mixes anime music with hard rock. Some people react in horror at the thought, others are intrigued. Sr. Bob says that the band has a website at www.swek.com.
• Kristen recalls reading something to do with Farscape coming back, but no one else has heard of this. She says she will bring more information to the next meeting.
• The GKC rerun film series will be showing The Matrix on Oct. 17-18 for $3.
• The Matrix Reloaded will be coming out on DVD on Oct. 14. You can order it by going through www.psiphi.org/dvd.
• The Matrix Revolutions will be out in theatres Nov. 5. There are currently ads running on TV for the movie.
• "Don't choke the ferret!"
• Don makes a correction on the types of guns used by some of the characters in Hell Comes to Frogtown. Apparently, they're actually M-60s instead of whatever Jon said they were.
• Filming has begun for Alien vs. Predator.
• www.fark.com commented on the possibility of a President Clark, as our captain did earlier.
• Thanks to Ryan, Sr. Bob has now watched several episodes of Babylon 5. This is the first s.f. series he's watched; he originally joined Psi Phi for the women. Sr. Bob noted the increase in raunchy humor in the series. For instance, one episode mentioned levels 1-5 as a different way of rating relationship encounters (similar to getting to first base, second base, and so on). Kristen asked if this was why it was called Babylon 5.
• Sr. Bob got bapped.
• DS9 season five came out yesterday.
• ST5: The Final Frontier will be coming out on DVD next week.
• Ryan says to give it a chance--it had a lot of potential, but some really bad luck in being made.
• Half-Life 2 has been delayed again, this time until April.
• Joan commented at one point that her floormates on the fourth floor of Williams have seen the "Bothering Snape" animation and now go about saying either "Bother bother bother bother bother bother!" or "It's naked time!"
• This brings up a mention of the Badger Badger Badger Snake Mushroom song.

Adjournment: 10:09pm