Monthly Archives: March 2019

Books

Spaceman

SpaceMan
(Spaceman Chronicles #1)
by Tom Abrahams (2016)

 

Clayton Shepard is above Earth when the lights go out.
He has no communication and limited power. His one goal: find his way BACK to his family.

First the good part. It is well written, with a workman prose style and a plot that keeps the reader engaged.

However, the author has an annoying habit of injecting small flash-backs and character commentary that interrupts the narrative flow. And what I thought was going to be a Hard Science Fiction story turns out to be more of a post-apocalyptic one.

There are three main plot threads: one with Clayton, one with his wife and another with his son. The third is not really necessary and could be dropped.

In the end it’s an interesting enough story to move on to the second in the series.

 

 

Television

ST:D 2.11

Star Trek Discovery 2.11 Perpetual Infinity

 

This starts with a flashback to when he Burnhams’ laboratory was attacked by Klingons, Michael’s mother donned the time travel suit to go back in time an hour and warn them of the attack. She instead arrived 950 years in the future to find all sentient life destroyed by Control.

Tethering herself to a nearby planet, Dr. Burnham made over 840 attempts to change the future, including moving humans to her planet, Terralysium, to test how she can change history.

Trying to stop Control from gaining the Sphere’s data, Dr. Burnham was responsible for it crossing paths with the Discovery. Now, the Discovery crew plans to upload the data into the suit and send it into the future where Control cannot access it, while keeping Dr. Burnham in the present,

More sprinklings of plot-oniom. Just when it seems Lyeland can be killed, he escapes.

“I like science,” says Spock, stating the obvious.

Events

3 Mile Island

40 Years Ago Today was the partial meltdown of reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

It was the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. It could have been as bad, if not, worse than Chernobyl. The incident was rated a five on the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale: Accident with wider consequences.

 

Books

Demon Star

Demon Star
(Star Force #12)
by B.V. Larson, David VanDyke (2015)

In a triple star system, not all planets are equal. When the DEMON STAR swings closest in her orbit, the Insectoids always invade. They raid the inner worlds with grim regularity, riding hordes of stealthed ships in ever growing waves. Their mission is to destroy all opposition—alien, human or otherwise.

Cody Riggs, lost among an endless chain of interstellar rings, flies his task force of starships into the middle of an eternal struggle for survival between three civilizations. He takes it upon himself to help the more peaceful worlds, but only manages to bring disaster to all humanity.

Books

Exile

Exile
(Star Force #11)
by B.V. Larson, David VanDyke (2014)

Lost and cut off from Earth, the crew of the Starship Valiant seeks a way home.

Immediately following from the previous book, this is much better. There is more going on and the plot moves at a better pace.

Despite Cody Riggs being a bit of an ass-hole leader (he seldom tells his subordinates what he is planning) he survives. At the end we are left with a new galaxy to survive a conquer.

Music

Lisa Fischer

Lisa Fischer

This is a singer I must have heard lots of times, but not by name. I came across her in the film ’20 Feet from Stardom’, a documentary about backup singers.

Lisa has been a back-up singer for Sting, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner and many more. She toured with The Rolling Stones from 1989 to 2015.

Her career peaked with the 1991 release of ‘How Can I Ease the Pain’ from her album ‘So Intense’, which reached number one on the R&B charts and won her a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 1992.

On her own, she is as good, if not better than many in the Soul/R&B music genre.

Television

ST:D 2.10

Star Trek Discovery 2.10 The Red Angel
(Hi Mom!)

 

Tilly discovers a bio-neural scan of the Red Angel in Airiam’s code that matches Burnham.

Leland reveals that Section 31 built the Red Angel time travel suit twenty years ago in a temporal-arms race with the Klingons, and that Burnham’s parents had been part of that program. They plan to use Burnham as bait for the Red Angel.

 

OK Problem #1 – If the bio-scan matches Burnham and it turns out that it isn’t Burnham, does that mean that the scan was faulty ? Or did her mother use DNA from Burnham to deceive ?

#2 if they trapped future Burnham in a force-field with now Burnham, how was the doctor going to get in to administer help ?

It’s techno-babble in the extreme, and it all adds up to an interesting WTF ending.

 

 

Events

Karen McDougal

Karen McDougal
(born 23 March 1971)

Now 48, this model and actress is known for her appearances in Playboy magazine as Playmate of the Month for December 1997 and Playmate of the Year for for 1998. Also the runner-up of “The sexiest Playmate of the 1990s”.

Also…. “ex-friend” of the President of the United States.

 

Television

Park & Rec 5

Parks and Recreation – Season 5
(the one with Xena, Warrior Princess)

Although not having an overarching storyline, this season details the aftermath of Leslie’s role as a Councilwoman in Pawnee.

Ben Wyatt and April Ludgate move to Washington D.C.
Ann Perkins attempts to get pregnant.
Andy’s attempts at becoming a police officer.
And Ron Swanson meets single mother Diane (Lucy Lawless).