Various and Sundry

Earth -> Moon -> Mars… or Mars Direct?

Although I don’t have a huge number of posts on the site about space exploration, it remains something I always like to follow. I mean, some of this should be obvious given the whole writing science fiction thing. The writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum, as it were. A couple years ago, I read a number of science fiction (and straight science) pieces about Mars, but I suppose I just scratched the dry, red soil…

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Various and Sundry

Disney+ has added a lot of subscribers

I guess this is turning out to be the week that my eye keeps catching articles about streaming services, given Monday’s post. Yesterday, Peter Kafka over in Vox mentions how Disney+ now has over 28 million subscribers. While that’s nothing compared to Netflix’s well-above 160 million subscribers, it is impressive on top of its already impressive debut in November with 10 million subscribers. It also makes Disney’s stated goal to get to 60-90 million subscribers…

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Various and Sundry

Netflix and a “Less is More” Strategy

I know I’m not the only one who’s noticed how much content seems to be slipping away from Netflix as more and more companies take their metaphorical Matchbox cars and go home. And by “home,” I mean “create their own streaming service.” Rani Molla, writing in Vox, goes into how Netflix is trying to do more with less content, including more subscribers and more awards. The article itself covers a number of topics, including how…

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Various and Sundry Writing

Classics per Checkout: the New York Public Library’s List

The New York Public Library (NYPL) released a list of its most checked out books in its 125 year history (it was founded in 1895). Coming from a family that includes librarians, archivists, and avid history readers, this was delightful news. I learned about it as the NPR story covering it was shared widely among my social media channels. One curious note in the NYPL release: an honorable mention for Goodnight Moon, which I suppose…

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Various and Sundry

Once more unto the Trek breach…

I’m going to do one last post looking forward to this Thursday’s launch of Star Trek: Picard. The first link is to an excellent article by David Itzkoff in the New York Times about the future of Star Trek. It covers similar ground as my last Crisis of Infinite Star Treks post, but, you know, it’s a journalistic feature article with first-person interviews vs. my Internet-based observations, so I think many of you will find…

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Various and Sundry

Maybe Don’t Do a New Year’s Resolution

We’re just about a week into 2020, so people are doubtless hitting the gym, watching what they eat, reading more, or other laudable goals. I haven’t set any official resolutions this year, though I am trying to figure out some goals for the year (have a massive and varied to-do list/bucket list/bunch of other lists via Workflowy). Being a project manager, I’m trying to figure out what’s realistic and what’s a stretch. If you’re looking…

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Various and Sundry

Crisis of Infinite Star Treks: All Good Things…

This is the 32nd and final entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. It was… fun. Way back in November 2015, I started musing about the state of Star Trek… and I kept on blogging about Trek so much that in 2016, that I retconned those early posts into what has become Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. There have been long posts…

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Various and Sundry

Get Ready for the Magical Space Wizard Finale!

(Well, at least for this particular 9-part saga). It’s not a far, far away premise that more than a few offices are down a worker or three starting their holiday vacation early to catch a matinee of Episode IX… or sleeping in since they caught a midnight showing. Roughly 42 years ago, the original Star Wars was probably the first film I saw in the theater. My dad talked to a co-worker about why it…

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