Day 351: Still a little chilly for my tastes, but the spring sunshine is really nice, and the trees and flowers are definitely enjoying the warming weather.
The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett
27/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A “year four” adventure that serves to both bridge the gap between TOS and TAS (and explain some of the changes to the ship and crew between the shows) and to take a much deeper dive into the First Federation as first introduced in The Corbomite Maneuver. Along the way, we get to learn more about Balok’s threatening puppet, Spock gets some introspective assistance, and Kirk…well, Kirk does his thing with impassioned speeches and eyeing alien women. The exploration of the First Federation is obviously the core theme, and it’s done well, extrapolating well from what little we learn in the TOS episode. One of the better TOS novels.
Year 50 Day 350
Day 350: I always get lots of compliments when I wear this shirt. Everybody loves dinosaurs!
Year 50 Day 349
Day 349: Cloudy and grey today, but it was nice, cool, and comfortable when I remembered to take a break and walk around the neighborhood this morning.
Year 50 Day 348
Day 348: Mostly a day of chores and errands: groceries, laundry, taxes (hey, it was before the deadline). Productive, but not terribly interesting.
Year 50 Day 347
Day 347: Our morning wasn’t quite as relaxing as planned, thanks to some somewhat unexpected early morning maintenance work on our building. However, to avoid the noise, we went out and stopped by a local Mexican bakery to pick up pastries, took a nice walk along the Green River, and got the car washed. Work was still going on when we got home, so we went down into the basement, took a nap, and then watched a movie; by the time that was done, we could come upstairs without there being constant banging on the ceiling. In the end, it’s been a pretty good day.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I love how this one just chucks any pretense at holding on to the more serious horror elements of the first and goes full-bore into off-the-wall ridiculousness. From lampooning major elects of the first to getting Christopher Lee to breaking the fourth wall, they don’t hold back when it comes to going over the top. The creature effects are still a lot of fun as well. Happy to see that this one is still fun to watch.
Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold
26/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Miles gets caught up in political intrigue in the court of the Cetagandans, his former enemies. Just as entertaining as the rest of this series has been so far, and I enjoyed getting back in.
Archnophobia
Arachnophobia (1990): ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
While watching this at home doesn’t have quite the same impact as on the big screen at a midnight show that you had to sneak out of the house to go to and then walk home in the early morning dark…it’s still a fun and wonderfully cringe-inducing bit of comedy thriller. Holds up remarkably well for a 34-year old film. Highly recommended — unless (or perhaps especially if) you’re scared of spiders. ;)
Year 50 Day 346
Day 346: Today was the final day of the DSSC/WAPED conferences, and thus the last day of my explorations of the Green River College campus. It’s been a nice variation for the week with a lot of good conversations, but also a lot of fairly intense braining. I’m definitely ready to zone out for the weekend.