Category: Uncategorized

You may have noticed, gentle reader (I use the singular because there are so few of you) that this website has been up and down more often than the Dow during a republican administration. I’ve spoken with the hosting provider, who have been quite clear that they don’t know what’s going on and have I tried clearing my browser cache.

So bear with it. I’m considering my options, whether that’s finding another provider, or setting up a VPS in the cloud or just blowing away the current wordpress installation and starting from scratch. But life is very frazzling right now; I wish this catastrophe had happened under the Biden administration.

Here’s a serving tray and coaster set I made as a Christmas present for some friends of the family. The sand was sourced from the beach outside their house.

I still struggle with the clear pours, but I’m improving.

Happy New Year. Or “New Year” at least. I guess “Happy” will take some work.

This is a scheduled post, because I got a bottle of champagne and a bottle of draino, so I’ll be ready to toast either way. Anyway, I haven’t been writing much as you can tell, but it’s because I’ve been putting a lot of time into my art. I finally built up the nerve to start working with resin. Results are mixed.

 

 

Good luck and god speed.

Last week, my daughter performed in a production of The Wizard of Oz. She was a member of the Lollipop Guild. Also the lead apple tree. Also a denizen of the Emerald City. Also a Winkie. I get the impression that as an actress, she is “good, for a little kid”

Anyway, for some reason, she asked me to AI-enhance a photo I took during the performance, and what came out was kinda wild, like some sort of surrealist interpretation of The Lion King, so I thought I’d share it with you.

And yeah, I am so happy that they’re leaving Calypso in the canon. Yes, we don’t know what could possibly justify them retrofitting Discovery back to its 23rd century configuration, but it was hilarious to watch them scrubbing the “-A” off the hull.

(Just off the top of my head, Craft appears to come from a time when the Federation has degenerated into an imperialistic state. Perhaps Kovitch anticipates that a symbol not of the 32nd century but of “The Long Ago” would be required)

Also, now that we know that Discovery’s state is a cover, it’s possible that Zora’s claim to have been abandoned for a thousand years is also not entirely honest – that she was ordered to claim to have been left there in the 23rd century. Better still, “Calypso” ended on the sad notion that Zora would probably remain alone forever, but now we know that she isn’t lost: they put her there deliberately, and made plans to retrieve her. Might not pay off, but it seems a lot more plausible now to imagine that she’s recovered not long after those events, given that we now know that it was Craft she was waiting for all along.

Anyway, here’s me being angry about the new Taco Bell architecture.

So I finally start writing again after the strikes, and boom, my web host goes down for like a day and a half last Wednesday, and then again for about six hours this past Tuesday. Plus, I’m currently working a modified schedule, so I only have so much time available.

And what with the holiday, I feel like maybe it would be okay for me to be a bit lackadaisical before addressing the triumphant appearance of everyone’s favorite I Can’t Believe It’s Not Twilight vampire.

See you next week.

I’m not sure if writing a weekly essay about Star Trek counts as crossing a picket line or promoting a work by striking union members, but I think maybe it would be best if I waited until either they sort this out or I am more confident in the answer before posting more of my long-form analysis.

So I’ll just say: Spock/Kirk good, Spock/Christine eh.

My email’s been down for the past two days, which means I can’t get to the draft of the article I wrote about “Charades”. I’ll post when I can.

Spoilers: Crinkly cellophane interdimensional space good; Spock eating bacon bad.

I asked Dall-E 2 and Nightcafe to show me a promotional poster for Peter Falk as Columbo on the USS Enterprise.

Neither of them seemed to quite know who Peter Falk is, but were kind of consistent about him being some form of James Garner?

Happy Veteran’s Day. Thank you for your service.