For Star Trek fans like me (TNG, of course), the prospect of becoming a starship captain and adventuring through space is an opportunity that cannot be missed. Bioware’s second installment of the award-winning Mass Effect series is an impressive cover-based shooter / adventure role-playing game that deserves every bit of hype it has received. The cinematic cut scenes, dramatic music, and memorable story, is complemented by a cast of fascinating characters including a ruffian krogan named Grunt, a cute but geeky quarian called Tali, a fast-talking solarian scientist named Mordin, and a smoking hot human operative by the name of Miranda, voiced by Yvonne Strahovski of NBC’s Chuck fame. Other great voice-acting of note includes Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man, Seth Green as the pilot Joker, and Carrie-Anne Moss as the sleek Asari crime-boss Aria. Our 45-hour adventure felt too short, but was a good distraction from the retina book chapter I’ve been working on. Despite the piles of papers sitting on my desk, we did manage to sit down and do our taxes this past weekend. Having lost my Turbotax file from last year, I ended up having to recalculate all my taxes from 2009 before importing the data for 2010. Fortunately, we did not have to supplement too much money this year. But having to replace our car bumper a second time in just 2 months (this time a hit and run) and with five weddings to attend this year, we’ll have to keep a closer eye on our expenditures.