Year 50 Day 318

Me holding the 4K release of The Abyss.

Day 318: It’s Abyss day! The Abyss has long been a favorite film of mine (particularly the special edition cut), but the best quality release it’s had for years was the 2000 DVD release, which was a non-anamorphic presentation. Even at the time that was a disappointment, but as the years passed, and there was no word of an anamorphic release, and then no word of a Blu-ray release, it got more disappointing. As recently as 2020, many people figured that was all we’d ever get. So it’s quite exciting to finally have it released and in my hands!

Amusingly, it’ll likely be next weekend before I actually watch it. My only 4K drive is attached to my computer, and I use it to rip movies, not watch them directly. So before I can watch it, I have to get it onto my media server, and my particular process is, admittedly, somewhat time-consuming (rip both versions of the film in both 4K and HD, plus all the special features in whatever quality they are, extract the subtitles from all of them, OCR and correct the subtitles, compress the .mkv files to .m4p, and move everything onto the media server). I’ve waited 24 years for a better release, I can wait another week.

Year 50 Day 316

Me standing in the sun outside, wearing a black jacket, in front of trees and a small hill.

Day 316: While still not as warm as I’d like, the weather has improved some. And while having to head to IT to get a Chromebook logged into our WiFi network wasn’t the most exciting way to spend half an hour, it did briefly get me out into the sun!

Year 50 Day 315

Me on my work balcony overlooking trees and sports fields, with storm clouds in half the sky and fluffy white clouds in the other half.

Day 315: The weather today kept alternating between cold, windy, and rainy, and cold, windy, and sunny. I popped out on the balcony during one of the transitional moments.

Year 50 Day 314

Me holding a can of Canada Dry Fruit Splash Zero Sugar.

Day 314: Y’know, if my birthday was on May 6, then day 314 of this project would have ended up on 3/14, and it would have been a double π day celebration! But that’s not the case. So instead, you get me with a can of Canada Dry Fruit Splash Zero Sugar, which we just found at the store, and it’s pretty good. Almost the same taste as Cherry 7-Up, but with the ginger base instead of the lemon-lime base.

Year 50 Day 312

Me wearing a black t-shirt with the Norwescon logo in green, standing in Maxi's Lounge at the DoubleTree hotel, holding three old Star Trek LPs.

Day 312: Today was the final planning meeting before Norwescon 46 kicks off in just about two and a half weeks! Lots going on, but this is looking to be another good year.

Plus, more Star Trek goodies being passed my way from friends! (Gotta say, I’m definitely enjoying being the person people think of when they dig up old Trek stuff.) Three old LPs (1976’s Inside Star Trek, and two of the Star Trek Story Records, Record 1 from 1975 and Record 8 from 1976) and a neat little “Star Trek Lives” commemorative medallion from 1974 that I don’t have any further information on…yet.

Read more