ST It Takes a Galaxy: What's your favorite holiday memory?

Mars:

It has as much land area as the Earth does so there’s room once we figure out terraforming

Temperature gradient is the closest to Earth’s. In fact at times near the equator the temperature reaches 70 degree. Caveat is that such high temps are rare

It’s close. Every two years it takes only several months to arrive using current propulsion technology.


Titan

Not a ‘planet’ but the largest moon of Saturn is comparable to Mercury in size. Significantly larger than our moon. It’s my favorite object in the solar system because of the mysteries underneath it’s thick cloud cover. Yes, that’s right. There is a moon out there enshrouded in clouds. If you could take a peek below the clouds you would see vistas both similar and alien to Earth. Jagged canyons cut by exceedingly cold liquid similar to the antifreeze we use for cars. Lakes, rivers, streams, rain, clouds all composed of this ethane like substance. Earth has a temperature/pressure profile that allows for stable water in solid, liquid and gas form. Titan has the same for the methane/ethane substance. What’s great is that we have images from the surface and just above.


Honorable mentions:

Venus - because so little is known. I mean, if you could survive the pressure, toxic atmosphere and heat the air is so thick on Venus that if you wave your arms rapidly you could fly. This body has the most land area in the solar system (not counting Earth’s underwater land). Tough to terraform though. However, its upper atmosphere is very similar to Earth’s surface in terms of breathable air. If we had technology to create a Cloud City (like Bespin’s) then one could walk around without a breathing apparatus. It’s that close to Earth.

Io - moon of Jupiter that gets stretched and pulled by Jupiter and other moons that it’s insides heat up. The result being fiercely hot volcanoes that our orbiters have captured in amazing detail. These volcanoes spit out sulfur and the entire planet is littered with sulfur ‘snow’. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA02545

Miranda - Moon of Uranus. I would love to jump off the Chevron of Miranda and see how long it would take to land in the low gravity. Such a weird place.

 

Real: Saturn, because it is unreal when you see it with a good telescope for the first time. It is by far the most interesting planet to watch if you have an entry level telescope.
Fictional: Naboo seems to be a good place. Alderaan is too unstable for my tastes.

 

Real: Saturn. My favorite planet is actually Earth but besides that, Saturn. It's gorgeous and and its moon in particular I have always found fascinating since I was a kid.

Fictional: either Tatooine or Bespin. Cloud City is right alongside Tatooine as my favorite location in SW. Since there's nothing much more to Bespin than Cloud City, my favorite planet therefore is Tatooine. I just love the scummy, lived-in feel of it.

 

Real: Neptune. Love that deep blue and the mysterious dark spot.

Fictional: Jedha. I swear it exists.

 

Real (or not?): Planet X.
It has been a scientific mystery for quite some time and it’s my profile choice of location.

Fictional: Tatooine
Mostly because it’s the most well developed location and comes with so many interesting concepts at the same time, all of them existing in the same planet (native tribes with colonization issues, jawa scavengers, human settlements, moisture farming as a living, cantinas, bounty-hunters, criminal lords, podracing contests, slavery, droids not being welcomed, Imperial occupation, etc)

 

For me, it's Jupiter. I think one of the few times I have experienced genuine awe was, when a kid, I saw Jupiter through my telescope, and could see the moons of Jupiter - wow. Hard to explain, I am not nearly eloquent enough - not even close - but it gave me the visceral realization (not an intellectual one) that that speck of light was a world, a real world, "out there" in space, far from where humans had ever gone. It was a weird, cool, intense, "awe inspiring moment" (that I am, wow, very badly mangling here - I should have known better! LOL).

 

The Death Star.

 

That's no moon.

My favorite real planet is Mars.

I think my favorite fictional planet is Naboo.

 

Yeah, I put Jupiter and then thought it would be funnier to stick Death star given my avatar.

Coruscant would be my choice of SW planet. We saw quite a bit of it in TCW but I'd love a live action series exploring its underworld.

 

So you were expecting a "punny" reaction?

 

Arrakis. Because we like our spice.

 

Jupiter provided the first concrete evidence that the Sun/universe/everything didn’t revolve around the Earth. Galileo observed Jupiter’s own moons revolving around it. It was what got Galileo in trouble.

wr or

 

I do like Kobol from BSG. Good bit of story telling there.

Hoth will always be my SW favorite, though. Tatooine, Kamino and Scarif run close seconds.

 

Hey, idiots friends. You know how I said I would update this more often? That was a lie. I lied. I'm a liar.

.............Sorry.

Anyway, with the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR breathing down our necks, I thought we could all spread a little bit of holiday cheer. haha look there's a rhyme. So, I wanted to ask you all: what's your favorite holiday memory? Building snowmen? Decorating the tree? Unwrapping that sweet new N64? Firing spitballs at the back of the bald guy's head in the pew in front of you during Christmas Eve mass? Honestly, it doesn't even need to be Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Boxing Day/New Year's/Whatever-related. Is your favorite holiday memory connected to Arbor Day? Weird flex but okay, you do you.

Also this is being moved to the Episode IX forum because we're getting towards the point where it's going to be more active than the ST forum. To those of you who don't like change, *vague apologetic shrug*

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY MEMORY: As a kid, my grandfather would excuse himself at some point on Christmas Eve (his beeper would go off, which for those of you too young to know what a beeper is, I hate you) and come back dressed as Santa Claus with a sack of presents slung across his back. We'd give him a plate of cookies and a glass of milk before he left, which I'm convinced is the real reason he went through with this every year, and after "Santa" would leave, my grandfather would come back and act all disappointed that he'd missed the big man in red. My family was convinced I didn't know it was him. I knew; I was young, not stupid. So my grandfather kept pretending to be Santa for my benefit, and I kept pretending not to know he was Santa for his benefit. We kept this charade going until I was 8 or 9, by which point beepers were horribly out of fashion.

 

I love this story so much.

My favorite holiday memory was funny for me, but maybe crushing for my little brother. My parents were, simply put, immigrants. And their English spelling was terrible. So when I got old enough to recognize that “Santa Kloz” was not how you spelled his name (written on the labels from his alleged gifts) I filled in my little brother on the intel. He cried, and my father smacked me upside the head.

 

Ah, the halcyon joys of youthful innocence and indiscretion. For my part, I plan to one day give my kids annual visits from the Krampus; replace their holiday cheer with holiday fear. They're going to be well-developed little tykes with a healthy respect for not angering pagan demons by throwing tantrums in the supermarket.

 

That's a wonderful story.

My FUNNIEST holiday memory by far starts off similarly. Every year, a friend's dad dressed up as Santa on Christmas Eve and would entertain the children. This particular year he took a bad step in the attic and came down through the ceiling dressed as St. Nick. Scared the kids half to death and we still laugh about it today.

I don't really have one particular childhood holiday memory that stands out as my favorite. I've always loved the season, the tradition, etc. Probably my favorite to date was my son's first Christmas last year (he was all of 6 days old). We are very much looking forward to this year with him.