Year 50 Day 164

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Me crouched in front of my desk. In the foreground, on the desktop, is a plastic Halloween teddy bear skeleton, with two tiny plastic human skulls at its feet.

Day 164: Happy Spooky Friday the 13th to all who celebrate! Nothing particular happened today, so here’s a peek at my some of my desk decor in my office at home. The skelebear usually sits atop my Mac Mini with the skulls at its feet, like a little sacrificial altar. The bear, of course, came from silly Halloween shopping one year; the skulls were 3D printed by a Norwescon member and hidden around the hotel during the con a couple years back, and these are the two I found and kept (I spotted more, but left them for others to discover).

Year 50 Day 163

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Me next to a white bookshelf with a number of science-fiction books visible. Next to my head is a small bust of Mad Magazine’s Alfred E Neuman with his ‘what, me worry?’ phrase on the pedestal.

Day 163: I inherited this Alfred E. Neuman bust from dad when he died. While monetary value certainly isn’t the point, I tried looking it up once, and if I did it correctly, it could be worth somewhere in the $150-$400 range. If I ever get the chance to head to Antiques Roadshow, this would probably be one of the things I’d bring along.

(Also, based on the tags WordPress is suggesting, I think I blogged about this at some point in the past. But hey, I haven’t done it this year yet!)

Prodigy Saved, But Netflix Makes Me Grumpy

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First, the good news: Star Trek Prodigy, including its second season, will end up on Netflix. From Executive Producer Aaron J. Waltke on Mastodon:

At last we can share the news… Star Trek: Prodigy has landed!

Our show is beyond thrilled to be joining NETFLIX for the ongoing adventures of the Protostar crew.

[…]

The possibilities are endless now that the world can see all 40 episodes of Prodigy’s first and second seasons in one place…with the potential for more….

If you wish to see more…viewing the show on Netflix as soon as it drops…is unequivocally the way.

I must admit, I have mixed feelings about this.

The good side, obviously, is that Prodigy’s second season will actually be seen. And Aaron implies that there’s even a chance that, with enough viewership, they might get the option to continue on.

I just hate that this is going to end up (heck, it’s already there in Aaron’s post) being a “PLEASE WATCH IT ALL IMMEDIATELY YOU CAN’T WAIT YOU MUST BINGE IT ALL NOW BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY WAY NETFLIX THINKS PEOPLE WATCH ANYTHING AND THE ONLY CHANCE OF EVER GETTING ANY MORE” campaign.

I don’t like binging. I like watching an episode at a time, enjoying the story, letting it play out over time. Especially in shows I really enjoy (like the Star Trek universe), being able to think about an episode, enjoy the fanservice and callbacks, nitpick apart the retconning or mistakes, and generally geek out about it. But with full-season drops and the pressure to watch it all immediately (or, if they do decide to do weekly single-episode drops, to watch the newest episode within 24 hours of its appearance, preferably two or three times)…ugh.

And as someone who has a partner who isn’t as much of a Trek geek as I am, sometimes I don’t get a chance to watch a new episode for a few days — which by today’s standards, apparently means I’m not a real fan, and doesn’t count towards Netflix’s labyrinthine accounting of whether a show actually sticks around and gets more seasons, or suddenly disappears with the next budget cycle.

If it’s something I watch on my own, I watch when and as I can; if it’s something I want to watch with my partner, we watch it on our own schedule, and either way I resign myself to our numbers possibly not counting. Which is unfortunate, but I want to enjoy the things I enjoy, not feel like I have to rush through them faster than I like out of some weird sense of duty or obligation.

I also wonder how physical media factors into this. For instance, I’ve re-watched all of Lower Decks a couple times — but only the first watch was streamed, all re-watches were from the Blu-ray I purchased. Are home media purchases weighted higher because we’re likely to be re-watching things more, even if it’s not tallied in a database somewhere? Or, since there’s no way to tie an individual streaming account to a physical media purchase (well, in a perfect world; these days, who knows?), do they just look at my account as only having watched it once, so I must not be that interested?

Sigh. Streaming sure is convenient, but the backend business model is such trash.

So, yes, I’m happy that Prodigy will continue. I just wish Paramount had actually treated it like a full-fledged member of the Star Trek family and given it the support it should have had from the get-go.

Fingers crossed that this option goes well, though. And all grumbling aside, I really do wish Aaron and everyone else the best with this!

Year 50 Day 161

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Me standing in my office, wearing a shirt with a print of dragons flying and breathing fire. Visible behind me is a Star Trek art print, and on my desk is a silly plastic octopus skeleton Halloween decor.

Day 161: Since I was doing a presentation for a group of students that had already greatly appreciated my shirt with multicolored dinosaurs, this time I went with dragons, and it was also a hit. I’m going to have to keep track of which shirts I wear for presentations this year to keep them all interested.

📚 Guises of the Mind by Rebecca Neason

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56/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A somewhat surprisingly Catholic approach to Star Trek. Not badly done, though as other reviewers have noted, does give it a very monotheistic viewpoint; though it does note that there are other options, those definitely aren’t its focus. Given that, outside of DS9, religion isn’t often focused on in Star Trek, I found it an interesting approach, particularly the choice to focus on Tori rather than Data, the perennial outsider (though his interest is a present side thread).

Me holding Guises of the Mind

Year 50 Day 160

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Me standing at the kitchen sink and doing dishes.

Day 160: I’m not much of a food-oriented person, and so have little in the way of cooking skills (though I can manage a pretty darn good take-out pizza or Kraft Mac-N-Cheese). So I make up for my limited usefulness in dinner prep by being responsible for the cleanup. It’s better than not bothering with the kitchen at all!

Year 50 Day 159

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Me, with a slight smile, lit entirely in purple.

Day 159: Quite happily, I’m feeling much better today. Not quite back up to 100%, but improvements have most definitely been made. So I’m not nearly as blue as it may appear (though it was fun to play with the lights in my home office window).

Year 50 Day 158

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Me sitting in a hospital waiting room, masked, and with an IV line on my right forearm. I have bags under my eyes and look exhausted.

Day 158: All is fine now, but the day started with a late-night/early morning trip to the ER due to localized pain on my left side. The doctor thought perhaps kidney stones, but after bloodwork, peeing in a cup, and a CAT scan (my first…now there’s a milestone for you), I came back medically “unremarkable”. Apparently it was just severe gas. The photo was taken about 4:30 am, after four hours there, and an hour before we finally got to leave with a prescription for some medication. Today is completely blown for anything other than lying around in a sleepy, cranky daze.

Year 50 Day 157

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Me outside in front of the Highline College library building, with a group of about 30 people visible behind me standing around and chatting with each other.

Day 157: Had our morning interrupted by a fire alarm! Turns out it was an unannounced drill, so no real danger or anything, but it was definitely an unexpected minor adventure.