Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
It took me a little time to get these processed, as I’m working on moving away from Adobe Lightroom and learning On1 Photo Raw instead, but click on through to the full album for the photos I took during my birthday trip out to Woodland Park Zoo. It was fun to get back there!
Day 13: Giving presentations from home means a convenient green screen is really handy. Turns out that hanging a couple green photo backdrops from a ceiling-mounted flexible curtain track makes for a really simple way to have a green screen that can be pulled out when needed and pushed away when not being used.
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.
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.
Day 11: When the Seattle area hits 86° F in mid-May, it’s a great day to sit, read, and move as little as possible. Tomorrow’s supposed to be even hotter.
Day 10: One definite benefit to working in academia is a more permissive dress code than many corporate jobs allow. And as the temperature approaches 80° F, I’m quite happy to take advantage of that.
Day 9: Something about this shirt really bugs my wife.
Day 8: The last of my birthday shirts for this year. A cheery spring shirt for a gorgeous spring day!
Day 7: Another new birthday shirt! And it’s nice to finally have the kind of weather that really lets me appreciate the balcony outside my office at work.
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.
