CYBER MONDAY Trek gift specials—EXTENDED !

UPDATE:All CYBER-MONDAY BONUS SPECIALS EXTENDED ONE WEEK, THROUGH MIDNIGHT MONDAY, DEC. 7!
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When I started this blog and my website as an "entrepreneur," I had no idea that I'd have anything of my own to actually sell on it—besides some big, awesome, official, licensed product like Stellar Cartography.

But here it is 2015, and look:
Here's holiday gift ideas and CYBER-MONDAY specials just from me and my Trekland … and beyond!

Got a long-time Trekfan on your list who's been around the quadrant once or twice… or a newbie who wants to KNOW IT ALL RIGHT NOW… or even one across the miles who's pretty isolated? Well, may I suggest:

—For a stocking stuffer, the latest edition of TREKLAND: On Speaker, my remastered, theme-based audio chunks from my 500+ extended interviews with Trek’s actual creators —fresh from back in the day?  Volume 4 for 2015 spotlights four creators in Voyager’s premiere on its 20th anniversary, in CD jewel case with tri-fold photos and notes—and autographed if you like ($21.95 includes US/Canada postage; + $3.50 for foreign orders). And Volumes 2 and 3 are also still available, at a multi-discount.

—For a gift that gives a Trek fix all year long: My new PORTAL 47 deep-dive monthly fan experience —and right now with a couple of CYBER MONDAY special bonuses! For the cost of a movie for two each month, there is NOTHING like it in pop culture, much less Trek: A backstage pass live and online to the 24th century via my insider memories, archives and crew friends from the 80s, 90s and Aughts!  Your Trek insight goes to a new level, where no savvy fan has gone before! But hurry—these bonuses end at midnight Monday!


—And if you really want to mark Trek's big "5-0" with a big splash, can't beat  our Geek Nation Tours’ special extended 2016 edition of “LA2Vegas”Trek Film Sites tour with me as guide—ending at Vegas Trek, and this year adding an optional San Francisco leg to start.  


Or for the Trek tour experience in a one-day package: check out the Valley of Fire“Kirk Memorial” Adventure. 

If your gift hunches run to actual studio Trek production artifacts, just know we'll have more than the usual number of unique goodies in The Trekland Trunk as well the next few weeks—just check the Facebook page or Twitter ... or direct at eBay!

—Then again: For all those nieces, nephews, cousins, classmates, fellow science geeks…or anyone who cares about kids, education, and our future in space:  Don't forget that a ticket to fly any name into space as "virtual crew" costs only $20 at  Enterprise In Space, the real-world, non-profit all-new space orbiter aiming to fly and return 100+ winning projects from students around the world, plus new aerospace tech and computer demos—paying homage to the best of inspired, future-leaning sci-fi and sci-fact.  

Your giftee's name is on a microchip, verified on a certificate and viewable on tour afterward as proof of their flying aboard the first true Enterprise in space!  I'm proud to be spokesman and lead outreach for EIS, reminding you that while a dozen space industry partners have pledged $27 million in in-kind donations, this simple $20 grassroots crowdfunding across the globe will let us get expenses covered right now as we build and contact more donors.



There you go—and for any Santa's budget! A batch of totally out-of-the-box gift ideas for that certain fan that take Trek, and the love of its vision for humanity, far off the retail path.

As always, for questions about any of my own or partnered projects, just email me at larry@larrynemecek.com.

UK peeps–catch EIS and me via Skype at FCD next week

Hey, if Leonard Nimoy can do it, why can't I?  

I'm talking about my first-ever convention appearance by Skype video!— at next weekend's First Contact Day con in the U.K. at Space Center Leicester, chiefly to talk about Enterprise in Space. I will always be grateful to have seen Nimoy make history with his first Skye appearance at Away Mission Tampa only just a year ago, a nod to his declining health (see photo below)—but promoter Wil Ross at FCD used the same tactic to overcome startup budgets and "have" me this year after all.

Leoanrd at his first Skype appearance

Not only that, but this is amazing: Wil, co-promoter David Limburg and everyone at FCD fell in love with the idea of Enterprise in Space, and really wanted me there to talk about it for UK fans—but late in the game, budgets were just not there for  live trip...and thus the Skype idea. Brilliant!

The convention, of course, is pinned to the day in 2161 when Zephram Cochrane will make his first experimental warp flight, and break the light barrier. And attract passing Vulcans who initiate humanity's First Contact. Of course.

But the FCD guys are so committed to our non-profit crowdfunded mission—an homage to positive future science fiction and fact that puts 100+ student projects into orbit in 2019—that they have committed volunteers to crew a booth all weekend for EIS and take crew sign-ups and offer info.

What's more, print-on-demand vendor Fantasia Memorabilia is also boosting EIS (and sponsoring National Space Society) by donating as well all the proceeds from site-printed EIS T-shirts, mugs, caps, etc,  that weekend. Wow!

This has to be unprecedented—a convention providing staffing and a vendor donating some sales profits in a commitment to help a non-profit project that otherwise is not even on-site—at least, live.

So come on, Britfolk—get your butts there this weekend (only 20-some tickets still available, try online special) and talk to Amy & company at the EIS booth, all weekend.  And then show your status after you sign up for virtual crew membership  by getting some EIS gear—on sale there, before it is here!—that thanks to Wendy at Fantasia Memorabilia will also benefit EIS, a 501c3 non-profit for any Yanks there. It won't be deductible to the UK fans, of course, but hey— it's always good to mention.

See you from the big screen in Leicester, gang! And thank all the folk there who are making this a truly unique moment for conventions' charitable instincts and logistics. 

If this Skype thing catches on, then hey…. well, still not as personable as rubbing elbows and groaning puns in person, but it has its moments…especially of restart-ups and wayfarawayers.

Come vote! The Enterprise in Space design poll ends Dec. 21

Hey: It's another update for Enterprise in Space—a quick one...

THIS is the week everyone and anyone can vote for their favorite among the 18 designs submitted in the non-profit orbiter's design contest (at right). The winning NSS Enterprise design will have be made spaceworthy—especially for re-entry—but founder Shawn Case and the team intend to push the artistic envelope before the engineering realities have to kick in, as they will—and fit our "sci-fi to sci-fact" theme.

But hurry and go now: Voting closes at midnight UTC, NEXT Sunday, Dec. 21! (That's 7 pm EST/ 4 pm PST). The cut-off was just extended two days.

And say—you don't even have to be one of our "$20 virtual crewmember" donors to vote. The winning design will have to be made spaceworthy, of course, but we want the design to have a distinctive aesthetic we can utilize as much as possible.


Here's a video about voting to get you in the mood!




Look, I'm the promotion spokesperson for EIS, as I've been excited to say before. I've talked about some of the details there, but the most audacious part of this is not so much the "rocket science" required but the bold concept that enough Trek and sci-fi futurists around the world want to honor our future's brightest minds and ideas in the name... of Enterprise. A REAL one. And this design contest is just another way that grassroots nature for EIS is being put on display. It's one of teh reasons the project was appealing to the National Space Society to sponsor.

So: THIS WEEK, please go help us make a choice! The public voting will be followed by a five-judge panel of space and sci-fi notables, and the winner and finalists announced on Jan. 21 (full info here).

Of course, with one week to go til Christmas and names still on your quickie-gift list, please consider this option for stocking stuffers, Secret Santa gifts at work or church, or easy mailers to distant relatives...complete with a holiday theme on their crew certificate.

And as always, please share the vote and the whole shebang—on or off Facebook or Twitter.

Cyber Monday? Two quick gift ideas from Trekland!

Well, in the spirit of the day—a quick suggestion and a reminder this holiday season:

If you need stocking stuffers, or easy gifts for the workplace, schoolplace, churchplace or distant relatives... and don't mind taking a charitable tax deduction... why not get your friends and family likewise inspired into the future—and signed aboard the First Enterprise In Space?

I'm talking about offering "gift seats" as virtual crewmembers about "Enterprise in Space," the NSS Enterprise orbiter non-profit mission with student projects and aerospace demonstrators that will launch in 2019, sponsored by the National Space Society and with an incredible team in charge I'm pleased to be part of.

It's the same simple set-up as always: As with any donor of our only grassroots request (you can give more, of course, as your passion demands it!), each "crewmember" has their name added to a chip that will join the payload and be recovered—proving all those "aboard" were aboard the first really spaceborne Enterprise.

Yes, there's a gift certificate option you can download after your simple $20 donation (or more)—plus your loved one is set up to get all updates and special news over the four-year life of the mission til launch, and then after re-entry and recovery for display and touring, to boot!

Then, too: As a 501c(3) non-profit… if you need to do good works AND reduce your taxes, you can also park your giving with EIS as well by Dec. 31, or April 15. OR... even have us as your sci-fi convention or other event's beneficiary "charity," if you need one that looks futureward.

Of course, for variety, far be it for me not to also toss in a reminder about those REMASTERED archival interview Trekland CDs of mine, recorded during finales of TNG 1994 and DS9 1999—Vol. 2 and 3 (at left) still available in hard-shell and ready for an autograph if you want it, now with a 2-fer price!  I'm also happy to personalize to whatever giftee name you'd like, if you just include the info on the order form.

Calling all artists: FLY your ship for Enterprise in Space

I've already sounded off about our amazing, inspiring Enterprise in Space project—the homage to our sci-fi heritage sending the experiments of future thinkers aloft...the grassroots chance to be a "virtual crewmember"...but here's the first thing, right now:

WE NEED A SHIP DESIGN, and ANYONE CAN SUBMIT THEIR IDEA.


The worldwide competition to create the NSS Enterprise orbiter is detailed here at the EIS site, but you don't have to be an space engineer or a CGI artist or sci-fi illustrator to enter. Anyone can do it—and don't worry about real-world concerns: we'll have folks who will adapt it for orbit and re-entry.

I mean, why just doodle, or publish, or get your design on camera.. .when you could create an eight-foot ship that actually flies in space? With 100+ science experiments aboard?

But you do need to know the entry deadline is Monday, Dec. 8!

You don't even have to join the "virtual crew" with your grassroots tax-deductible $20 in order to enter—but every bit helps, of course.

Once the design is accepted, after getting down to a round of finalists, we'll share the winner and the design with the world—and get on with translating the design to workable fabrication for its launch in late 2018 or 2019 aboard an orbital booster rocket, per the Enterprise in Space plan. We'll even share the works of our finalists.

But you gotta get crackin'!

I'm excited about 'Enterprise in Space'—and so will you!

You've never seen anything like this.

You've seen Kickstarter and other crowd-funded projects… you've seen fan films, games, novels, events… a lot of them I'm involved with. But no—you've never seen anything like this: 

"This" is the Enterprise in Space project you may have been hearing me hint about in recent weeks.

Look, I had no clue I'd be wrapped up in this non-profit mission as the year started. Now I'm thrilled I got involved and can spill the beans and the excitement: There's so much!—but hang with me while I try. The site and project is finally LIVE, and it is based on a few simple premises:

Take our shared and inspired love of space and exploration, whether fact or fiction (right?)... give 100+ student minds worldwide a chance to fly their space projects in orbit—all disciplines and, for once, for free ...let the donors come along as virtual crewmembers... and make science fact out of that science fiction. It's a great way to play the adventure and pay homage to all our sci-fi heroes and creators with a real-world result.

There are SO many groovy moving parts, it's hard to get it all out. For starters, you can take a look at the website's first video to get an idea.

But as founder Shawn Case says, simply: "Isn't it time a real Enterprise flew in space?" That was Shawn's starting premise... and if all goes as planned, that will finally happen in 2019—along with a big outreach to educators and students, helpful corporations and non-profits, and of course grassroots funding... all over the world. And after the 8-foot craft re-enters for recovery, the whole thing goes on a tour of museums and conventons before going on a display at a major space museum (yes, we're talking with THAT one). And, of course, the experiments' data will be maintained, analyzed and made available.

Just to be clear: The NASA space shuttle Enterprise was an unpowered test ship, remember, and flew key but dummy drop-tests; Richard Branson's same-named Virgin craft was sub-orbital. Thus, the name "Enterprise" is an honored one, from namesakes of Star Trek's various iconic and beloved ships to their own namesake as two heroic US Navy aircraft carriers, and even sail ships before that.

Shawn, a Trek fan and space buff from Oregon, did what a lot of us do in our daydreams:  figure out how to marry up the most inspirational, optimistic science fiction with science fact, right? It got me excited, and it got the National Space Society excited too—where both Gene and Majel Roddenberry served as prior board members...excited enough to sponsor what Shawn and his team have planned out for over three years, now officially the "NSS Enterprise orbiter." It's got the likes of Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and Nichelle "Uhura" Nichols, Grace Lee "Yeoman Rand" Whitney and renowned broadcaster Hugh Downs...and many more... just as excited.

And the first part of all is... there's a contest—open to ANYONE—to design the thing! Sure the orbiter has to be spaceworthy, but check out these rules and get your entry in. Call all the designers, doodlers and CG artists you know as well. That's why there's no shiny spacecraft to show off—yet—but the contest ends Nov. 27, so get cracking. Or sharing.

The optimistic brand of science fiction—from Gene's Star Trek to the forward-tilting futurism of Heinlein and Asimov—has always had a mutual love affair with NASA and our real-life space heroes, right? I mean, as I've said often, I was a NASA kid way before I was a Trek fan, growing up on all the early flights—especially the Apollo moon landings. We played Apollo at recess, guys! I turned our treehouse into a LM and we put on whole Apollo missions.

I bet you feel the same way, right? You swell with pride every time we fix a satellite, discover a new deep-space secret, or rev up another rover on Mars. And I bet you've fumed "Stop picking on NASA, budget-cutters!" more than once the last decade or two, right?

Now, yes, we're not talking backyard model rockets here. But Shawn's dream isn't just shared by you and me: It tugs at the heartstrings of inspiration for a lot of fans—many of whom are today's aerospace pros, rocket scientists, project managers, top educators... and that's exactly who got excited enough to join the EIS team. I now know the guy who oversaw Citibank's world-record eCommerce system ... the woman who managed the $6 billion expansion of O'Hare Airport... a longtime engineer for the space shuttle and unmanned probes galore... NASA's only two-time educator of the year—but Buck Field, Alice Hoffman, Fred Becker and Lynne Zielinski are just the tip of the iceberg of the talent within the EIS group, all under the legal sponsorship of the National Space Society. The meet has been meeting twice weekly for months, jointly on Skype calls from California, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, other states and even Chile.

And THAT is why this $40 million project can be done, with Space X boosters and SpaceWorks capsule fabricators as the intended contractors—that kind of talent pool. ... Wait, did your eyes glaze over at that budget? How about, as Shawn says, you think of it as "2 million people worldwide giving $20 each...one time"? We have non-profit and corporate grants, too, and aerospace tech testing materials for re-entry... but our viral target stays the same. No one or two big sponsors in control ... but grassroots for "the cost of a movie ticket," as Shawn says.


See, fans, don't think of your typical Kickstarter, here. One of Shawn's goals that I Iove is that there IS no donor bureaucracy with EIS—no levels, no toteboard, no manic requests on ticking-clock deadlines. 'Cause let's be honest: you know I will support all my projects and hope you do too, but there is a bit of crowdfunder fatigue out there.

So, with EIS, just send in $20 for the entire project, and be a virtual NSS Enterprise crewmember: You get an immediate certificate, plus first updates on every step of the mission AND, most cool: Your name goes on a chip that will fly and come back post-flight, for you to see yourself at an event near you. And, for just that $20, you've got plenty left still to help out your other fave projects asking for your help—or shop for those great Trek Christmas gifts!

Look, do me a favor: Share the design contest info now (it closes Nov. 27). (Later there'll also be a contest to design the mission patch.) Share the website, Facebook and Twitter, Google+ and YouTube with everyone you know—the more far afield the better (I'm lookin' at you, my European and Asian friends, for starters!). Tell all the cool teachers and bright young minds you know about the experiments submission and curricula materials. Volunteer to help out, either live or online...or even be a sponsor if you want to go big. We need everything from local event speakers to video/animators to social media voices.

Most of all, please "sign aboard", cadets, with your $20 donation that helps make it all possible—and claims your place on the digital manifest you can see yourself in a few years.

Then follow along as Enterprise in Space, step by step, makes this inspired dream a reality. There's more to come: a tablet showing your "crew" image waving from the portal window, filmed by a tether-towed camera? A new technology of AI-style vocal smart computing for experiment and craft control, a la Starfleet? The ideas are rolling in as we speak...others are volunteering help from their expertise areas .... and there will soon be a weekly EIS podcast produced by our Trekland: On Speaker producer and friend Chris Jones at trek.fm to really keep everyone up-to-date, along with the e-newsletter you sign up for on the homepage.

I am aboard as the "promotions manager" for EIS, which mostly means I'll be the voice and face of bringing the excitement and details and talented people of EIS to the fan, space and genre community at our live and recorded events...and at conventions and conferences. I won't blog here at Trekland so much as link you over to our posts, podcasts, and press releases as each project milestone is reached. 

But I do hope you sign up and join us on this adventure—a positive, real-world outcome based on all the good vibes from that positive future that Gene and so many others aspired and inspired to.

As for me ...It feels great to be a "space kid" again!

What a jam-packed weekend of good news in Trekland!

Well. THIS has been some weekend. Look what ALL just happened:

—"Fairest of Them All," the third episode of Star Trek Continues, just debuted online Sunday (and before a cast-fronted live con crowd in Sydney, Australia) to thunderous fan approval, from all I've read initially, as of tonight. I'm proud to not only remain in the think-tank for STC but to promote and cover its talented family and the "making of" each show as well. That includes both new and catch-up STC videos out now on "Trekland STV", and those still to come—you ain't seen nothing yet! Not to mention future episodes of STC itself.

So stay tuned and subscribe to Trekland as well as my YouTube Channel to know when they go up even ahead of their posting on the STC Facebook (and have you Liked there yet?)

—The second Kickstarter for the Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum, whose non-profit board I sit on that grew from the "Save the Bridge" New Starship project, raised over 50% of its goal just these last two weeks and finally BUSTED right through to success Sunday with 12 hours to go—and ended up with over $11,000 extra in the pot by the time its midnight deadline arrived. Yes, I was nervous a couple weeks ago, and even knew that a lapse here was not fatal—with so many industry and corporate donors and supporters lining up. 

But this was a solid sign of the basic support for such a new Hollywood tourist landmark and museum, much less its planned educational mission. This drive helps fund some of the major bridging pieces of the puzzle to make this thing really work—the budget is on the KS site. It was also a nice affirmation of the hours of professional yet volunteer planning that's going in, and faith that this is not a gaudy pipe dream. Don't forget our Facebook, too! And get the latest at Comic-Con San Diego too—the Bridge is back for free photo ops, of course, at Booth 3631!

—And THEN, on a bit less lofty but every bit as fun level, we were madly making fans aware that this was the last weekend to register for the 2014 edition of the "LA2Vegas" Trek Film Site Tour that I lead for Geek Nation Tours and Terrace Cassidy. Quick! Jump aboard now if you'd like! 

—Plus, I was honored to talk about De Kelley Saturday for the 15th anniversary of his passing June 11 in another new online media "thing," a recorded Google+ Hangout sponsored by In Memory and Honor of Deforest Kelley Facebook group. 

—And THEN…there's the other nonprofit I'm honored to sit on the board for, Enterprise in Space—and its amazing, public-oriented mission that we will SOON be telling the world about, even as there's details and deadlines to chase down now. IT just became "official" and is jumping into gear—much more later!

—Oh, and also... hope you all had a wonderful Father's Day—both those of the fatherly persuasion, and those who enjoy their love!

(Oh, yeah—and thanks for that whole "stand by me while the overblown misquoting monster made-up story" thing blew over. Whether on Facebook, Twitter or comment threads, the Trekland Army was awesome the way you all knocked down the bizarre report every time other unaware—or lazy—news websites picked up the story to run it, without editing it first.

Whew. I'll just pack for BayouCon, now…!