I just finished reading “Redshirts” by John Scalzi.
Redshirts is, of course, a term used by Star Trek fans, because in the original series, anyone, unknown, not in the main cast, in an episode was likely to die horribly or in a meaningless way.
Scalzi makes a nice satire over Redshirts who realize that this is a problem, and decide to do something about it.
A fun and enjoyable read, I will rate it 8/10.
I am compiling a list of films and TV series I have watched, books I have read, and audio books or plays I have listened to.
I will likely make some comments to a fair amount of the entries in the list, some information on how or when I found the titles, whether I watched the film in the cinema or on video/DVD, whether the audio/books are purchased as downloads or on paper/tape/CD etc.
The space age is 60 years old today.
October 4th 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth : Sputnik, sending it characteristic “beep-beep-beep” signal to Earth on 20 and 40 MHz.
The satellite weighed about 83 kilograms and sent the beeps till the battery ran out.
Here is a sample of how the signal sounded :
or this one :Â http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/Documents/sat-sputnik.wav
Recently Netflix carries the Star Trek series where I live, so I decided to make a re-watch of Star Trek Next Generation.
Just finished the first 2 seasons, occasionally while doing some other stuff, like ripping some CDs.
Let’s face it, seasons 1 and 2 are not too strong, so I often found me leaving the episode running while changing CD (and editing the CDDB entry), but a few episodes did catch me.
Unlike some others I do like Q, episodes, sometimes for the sense of fun, sometimes for the challenges to characters.
Q Who? is my favourite until the end of season 2. What can compete with Q, Guinan … and The Borg ? For me that is a winner combination
One other season 2 episode is just excellent : “The Measure of a Man”
In season 1 I would also mention Datalore (yes, the introduction of Lore), and The Neutral Zone (The Romulans are back, and we get the indication of a new, very powerful adversary).
In season 2 I would mention Where Silence has Lease, Contagion (The Iconians make for a fun episode, once more with the Romulans), The Emissary (turning a disadvantage into an advantage – and Peak Performance.
Elementary, dear Data for the fun gets an honourable mention from me.
Yes, this is all my own experience, feel free to disagree.
Starting Season 3 it is clear that here is where some better episodes begin to appear. More on that later, and also a list of stuff I have watched and read since I moved back to Denmark. The list is not exactly short, and I may write some quick reviews of some of those at a later stage.
Before I did my removal I had started reading the Dresden Files books.
I like the writing, the books are page turners, but with an escalating story. I have finished book 9 “White Knight”, and I will continue, slowly over the months/years. I may, at some point, be in the same position as others who had read all the books out, waiting for more.
At least, Jim Butcher writes faster than some authors, so the waiting is not that long đ
It has been good to see the growth of Harry Dresden’s character, from a “simple” detective wizard to a rather powerful one.
In the mean time I will read some other stuff, my list is quite long.
The blog has not been active for a while. The removal, and rebuilding of my life has taken priority. Noth everything is about scifi đ .
However, I have had some scifi activities, such as :
– Fedcon 2015 and 2016
– Small local conventions like Dancon and Fantasticon
– The very first Copenhagen Comicon
– a bit of reading, mostly Dresden Files books
– watching some TV/HBO/Netflix series, such as Sense8 (rewatch)
– Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Game of Thrones, 12 Monkeys, and several others
More detail on some of it later.
The Kepler space telescope has discovered a most unusual star in its search for exoplanets a long time, but erratic dimming of the light, – up to 20% dimming, which is *a lot*, over a longer period.
There are several hypotheses investigated, including a swarm of comets, or …. just maybe …. a structure built by an alien civilization.
Now, I remember the buzz a few decades ago, when the first pulsars were detected, and some thought the precision of the pulses had to be artificial but – as it turned out – it was a natural phenomenon of a fast rotating neutron star.
I would not jump to the alien conclusion before every other hypothesis has been thoroughly investigated. It could, however become very exciting if all the “natural” hypotheses would have to be discounted …
The article can be found here :
Having a little bit more time available here are a few words on the original Netflix series “Sense8”.
Sense8 is created by J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) and the Wachowskis, Andy and Lana (the Ws).
It had its premiere of all 12 episodes (season 1) in the beginning of June this year. I took time off from removal activities and watched all episodes on the premiere day.
This is a hard one to watch, single episodes at a time. It invites you to binge watch, and it  has been stated by JMS that it was intentional.
I am now into the second watch, this time much more slowly, and the re-watch value of this story is very high.
The story focuses on 8 characters, called “sensates” who, due to a tragic event, are suddenly linked telepathically, and they are hunted.
The story is more focused on characters and themes, and starts moving very slowly, introducing all 8 sensates and their immediate relations. We see the story unfold from their perspective, meaning that what they know we know, and no more.
Last Sunday I participated in The Sense8 Podcast discussing Episode 6 “Demons”, which is very packed and has a very widely discussed scene.
I consider making a set of commentaries, episode by episode, spoilerific and possibly non spoilery, if time allows.
The show does have some rather explicit scenes, but also rewards patience and attention, so I will recommend it if that is the type of story you prefer.
The site www.babylonlurker.net/blog is going to disappear some time. In the future the blog will be found  via www.babylonlurker.dk and www.babylonlurker.com .
I have been extremely busy – and will remain so for a few months more, but I wanted to give you all a life sign.
After that I can see a bit of more time to do stuff that I like to do. Scifi/Fantasy reading/watching/listening, Radio/Electronics stuff, Astronomy – and much more …
For now, no real reading, only a tiny bit of TV.
I am looking forward to the premiere of Sense8 on Netflix on 5th June. I hope I can make it at that time …
I will tell you more when the time is right …