The Inner Light

 

I recently watched the Star Trek The Next Generation episode "The Inner Light" (Season 5 episode 25). This is far from the first time as it is one of my very favorites from the series. This time however it started me thinking and if you know me at all there are only two possible outcomes of my thinking: Very BAD things happen or very PROFOUND things happen. I guess you will need to read on to see which it was this time...

Changing Sentiment

When I was a kid a bookstore was a magical place. A holy place. Full of action and adventure, science, and imagination.

Every trip to one of my local bookstores was something I looked forward to like a vacation.

Is a writer still a writer if he isn't writing?

For the last year or so (if I'm honest, nearly two years now) writing has been far more difficult than it should be. By writing, I mean anything that requires putting words in a cunning order. Be that blog posts, letters, novels, or really anything. I managed to complete NaNoWriMo 2017, but it was torture and well, quite poorly written. For NaNoWriMo 2018 I never got past 14k words. 

I have always considered myself a writer, not because I had published anything or because I was always writing something, but because I loved writing. Whenever the opportunity presented itself I would write happily away into the night. whether it was instructions on some process or system for work, a letter to someone, a short story, a blog post, or anything the words just poured out (not always good, but easily). This is no longer the case.

Quiet Desperation

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. 

What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. 

From the desperate city, you go into the desperate country and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. 

A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. 

There is no play in them, for this comes after work. 

But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things." 

      - Henry David Thoreau

Religion and Politics, two things you should never discuss. Part 1

I enjoy conversation, I savor great conversation but all conversation is worthwhile. Debate is great, there is nothing that gets the blood pumping quite like a lively debate. Debate has the added benefit of solidifying your own thoughts and beliefs and has the potential to change them. How can you truly believe something if you don't understand it?

Mid-Week Miscellany

There are a few things that I wanted to put down on digital paper this week. None of them are long enough for a post on their own but they are on my mind so I wanted to toss them all together and see what happens.

The Emotion of Emotion

The other day I was talking with someone and we turned to the subject of people. Wait...no... people that carry drama and chaos with them everywhere they go. I am sure you know the type of which I write.

Sometimes, even Frasier Crane is right

One of the TV shows I am re-watching my way through right now is Frasier, one of my all time favorite shows.

While most of the time Frasier is a pompous windbag and you have to laugh at him; one episode ("The Friend" [S3.E11]) really struck a chord with me.

The Ritual Is More Important Than The Result…

There is more to coffee than caffeine. More to coffee than hot. More to coffee than Brownian Motion*. Coffee is more about creation than consumption. Most mornings I have just about enough time to pop a coffee pod into the Keurig and press BREW, this is not creation. This is consumption. This is the understanding that I need caffeine NOW and there is nothing for it, no time to savor the creation. However once in a while, there comes a day where creation is king. Weekends were made for Coffee. (This is not coffee, but Coffee, the idea, the dream, the Coffee.) The ritual creation of something so pleasurable that the act of creation is more important than the end result.

A trek into the Treks: Star Trek: The Next Generation

 My previous post in this series, A trek into the Treks: Star Trek: Enterprise was a long time ago. I hadn't realized it had been that long and I thought I should write the next installment before I forget all about ever getting back to it.

 While I grew up watching Star Trek (TOS) and The Animated Series in syndication I really consider The Next Generation (TNG) to be my Star Trek. It was the first Star Trek I actually watched first run and there is something to be said for having to wait a week between episodes. Not already knowing what is going to happen before you watch it because no one (outside the crew) has seen it yet. At the time, it was so modern looking, so smooth and polished (Corinthian leather comes to mind) though let's not look back at it now, it seems even more dated than TOS does now.

The Books That Captivated My Youth…

Most of the books I read nowadays are epic fantasy. There is nothing I like more than to start a series where the books are 700 to 1000 pages long and there will be 10 or so books in the series. (Think Brandon Sanderson or Robert Jordan) It wasn't always like that though, when I was much younger science fiction was all I read.

As I believe I have mentioned before most of my childhood is lost to my memory, this includes a number of the books that I read. Some titles, however, stick in my mind and they left a lasting impression and I can still remember the stories to this day.

The earliest books that I can actually remember reading were written by Isaac Asimov and they were part of the Lucky Starr series. I still have all of these books in paperback in my library. These books would compare most effectively to the Tom Swift (third series) books which I also remember reading though I liked Lucky Starr more. I first read these when I was 8 or 9, but I have re-read them many times since then and they stand up really well. This is not something I can say about Tom Swift (any of the five separate series).

Space, The final frontier...

In my last post, I talked about Star Trek: Enterprise and why I was drawn to that show more than others. I explained it was mostly because of the plots revolving around exploration and discovery. That got me thinking about why Enterprise interested me so much and why the more action-oriented series (DS9 and Voyager, as well as the new movies) do not interest me.

I came to the conclusion that it's because real space is something that fills me with wonder. I mean how can you look up into the sky, even in a light-soaked city like I live in, and not be awed?

A trek into the Treks: Star Trek: Enterprise

Being the geek that I am it could only have been a matter of time before I posted about Star Trek. Since I started my second re-watch of Enterprise yesterday I thought this would be a good time to talk about it.

I want to start by explaining my history with Star Trek and where Enterprise fits into it.

Best Movies of All Time. The List.

Posting Monday about WarGames and how it's my favorite movie of all time got me thinking. What would be my top ten movies of all time? So I compiled a list and I will share it with you here.

WarGames 30th Anniversary

I had written this post yesterday but scheduled the publishing incorrectly, so here it is today instead.

Today is June 3rd, 2013. 30 years ago on June 3rd, 1983 a movie was released that would strike a chord with me that would never stop resonating.

WarGames is my favorite movie of all time. I watch it on average once a week and never get tired of it. Sure some of it is nostalgia since it's a movie about a teenage hacker in 1982 when I was also a teenage hacker. The whole movie just screams the '80s and let's face it everyone has a soft spot for the decade they grew up in.

Weekend Mornings...

Let me start by saying how much I love my family. They are the reason I live, the reason I get up every morning and go to work, and the reason I come back home at night. I can't imagine my life without them. That said though weekend mornings are a time I wouldn't trade for anything.

Games, bringing families together since, well forever...

There seems to be a resurgence in board and card gaming. (Hereafter referred to as tabletop gaming.) I think that's a great thing.