Day 18: Forgot to swap sunglasses for normal glasses before heading into the store, and thus inadvertently fulfilled my personal “creepy old white guy in the grocery store” quota for the indefinite future.
Geekery
Whatever I’m geeking out about at the time.
Year 50 Day 12
Day 12: Showing off a small portion of my Star Trek shelves, including books, a Worf notLego, a Spock teddy bear, and several Micro Machines ships from the TOS and TNG eras.
📚 Interference by Sue Burke
25/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As fascinating as the first. Centuries after the events of the first book, another expedition from Earth arrives at Pax. Their ethnocentric assumptions cause enough difficulties, but when another sentience makes itself known, it all gets worse. More really neat explorations of how cultures change and adapt, how those changes influence communication and understanding, the biology of plant life, and alien intelligences. I’m excited to see that a third book should arrive next year.
📚 Cast No Shadow by James Swallow
24/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Set seven years after the events of Star Trek VI, this does a good job of fleshing out Valeris and exploring the motivations and rationale behind her actions. It also follows up on some of the practical and political fallout for the Klingon empire of the events in the film. Definitely one of the stronger Trek novels I’ve read.
📚 Semiosis by Sue Burke
23/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fascinating story of colonists struggling to survive on a new planet and working to communicate with the intelligences already on this world. Rather than a single central protagonist, the first few chapters are almost individual standalone stories, jumping a few decades at a time, before events accelerate towards the latter half of the book into a somewhat more traditional narrative. Really neat ideas on how very different species might find ways to communicate with each other. Enjoyed this enough that I just ordered its sequel.
Highline College 2023 Student Employee of the Year Celebration
Pre- and post-ceremony background music for the 2023 Student Employee of the Year celebration at Highline College. Much poppier than my usual style, heavily (and welcomely) influenced by suggestions provided to me beforehand by the organizing committee. Thanks to the SEotY committee for inviting me to help with the event!
🎥 Confess, Fletch
Confess, Fletch (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Not having seen the prior Fletch films, I can’t compare Jon Hamm to Chevy Chase, but this was amusing and enjoyable. Hamm’s ongoing incredulous bemusement at the situations he’s in works quite well.
🎥 Bodies Bodies Bodies
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022): ⭐️⭐️⭐️
An entertaining-in-the-moment but oddly paced and ultimately forgettable take on the classic “country manor house murder” mystery. Lee Pace’s involvement was a pleasant surprise, though.
📚 A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Schuster and Steve Mollmann
22/2023 – ⭐️⭐️
Much of the story focuses on McCoy being forced to deal self-doubt driven by his past mistakes. While it’s meant to be an exploration into McCoy’s psyche and history, it ended up just kind of dragging on and getting monotonous.
🎥 Cocaine Bear
Cocaine Bear (2023): ⭐️⭐️⭐️: Exactly what it says it will be, exactly what you think it’s going to be, and exactly what we wanted for a lazy Saturday afternoon. The only thing I didn’t like was how underlit the climactic 10 minutes were (I swear movies used to have scenes at night that you could actually see). But aside from that, it’s an ideal 90 minutes of ridiculous characters getting mauled by a bear high on cocaine.