Author: Sleepypete

So – Monday rolls around and that’s often a time to indulge in a couple of bits of scifi.

Well. Not actually Monday for one because I tend to watch The Orville on a weekend after recording it on Thursdays.

It’s been a week since I posted ? What have I been up to ? Let’s see.

Motorsport Managing. My team grows …. stronger.
Little bit of reading, although I suspect that the Freedom’s Landing book may have curbed the enthusiasm a bit. Hopefully Cibola Burn (Expanse book 4) will reawaken it.
Lovely night out on Thursday. I can kinda judge my emotional state by how positive I am when I’m moving around. A stomp means I’m not happy. A bounce means I’m feeling good. I’ll still have the latent hyperactivity, that’s with me most of the time but the ease with which I move around is tied to my mental state. If I’m feeling good, I can ignore soreness better.
Maze Runner 3 on Friday. Actually a very good final film to this trilogy. The Maze Runner films have done well at presenting beginning, middle and end for each film that made sense and that’s continued in number 3. I enjoyed it (despite the presence of old child students who haven’t learned to behave in public). You would be utterly lost though if you haven’t seen the first two.
Winter Olympics has started … been watching a bit of that, although stuff from that part of the world happens at a bad time zone for me.
And then I lost track of yesterday in a Stellaris trance.

But this post was supposed to be about the scifi.

We’ve been doing well lately again for proper space scifi. There was a drought for a few years until programmes like Dark Matter, Killjoys and now The Expanse, The Orville and Star Trek Discovery came back on screen.

It’s good to escape the day world every so often and my escape of choice is science fiction. I’m a bit sad that Dark Matter seems to be no more, it grabbed me with an interesting start and seemed to be hitting its stride. Killjoys is different, I thought that was losing its way somewhat. They escalate the story in Killjoys and I don’t think the setting handles that escalation particularly well.

I’m transfixed by The Expanse and I’m looking forward to that one coming back. Hopefully they will brighten up that third book which, if they go by previous form, will start in the second half of the third series. It’s a compelling vision of the near future and …. the setting makes a lot of sense.

Ok, maybe not the alien part of the setting but they needed a catalyst to get everything else going.

Nah – I wanted to talk about The Orville and Star Trek Discovery more today.

The Orville has been described as Star Trek Next Generation’s eighth series. It isn’t. It’s something different. It’s space scifi done for fun …. but it will still (in Gene Roddenberry’s words from an audiobook I have) creep up behind you and hit you with a heavy idea or two. (I think I got that right). So in The Orville, we’ve had ideas like oppression, like forced infant mutilation (the sex change) and I suspect we’ll see more as the series continues.

(Yes, my brain is a little broken still from the Stellaris session and it’s run out of energy to think with – used it all at work)

The Orville starts with the fun but keeps that reined in so it doesn’t become stupid … And then it hits you over the head with a few heavy ideas that you weren’t expecting. While treating you as an adult.

Star Trek Discovery has been different. Very different to what we’d expect from a Star Trek. I wouldn’t call it Star Trek, I’d call it War Trek. A darker series than any we’ve had before. Darker even than Enterprise, which was being dragged down by the grim scifi trend at the time of its release. (The trend of Stargate Universe and the Battlestar Galactica remake).

Not every Trekkie will like Discovery. Some will decry it as heresy. I liked it. But then I’m never one to go with herd instinct, I’ll experience something and make my own mind up about it.

I can’t say too much about Discovery without dropping major spoilers but it was great to see the unexpected events coming in throughout an exceptionally strong second half to the first series.

Check ’em out !

Definitely The Expanse for drama. The Orville for fun. And Discovery for …. shocks ? Surprises ?

I need to eat a dictionary for more words. I feel like I do not have enough words at the moment. But I’ll go for something from Thursday instead :

Tasty.

Thank you CQ ! Means a huge amount.

I'm so sorry to hear this, Pete. But a lovely write up about someone who was a fine father and role model. Xx
Thinking of you, sorry I am late to the news.

I’ve been at the Mall tonight and I’ve acquired something …

Tonight was going to be spent watching the first Falcon Heavy rocket launch which will hopefully still happen soon. Instead of letting loose a single rocket, this one is effectively 3 Falcon 9 first stages strapped together with a second stage on top. They plan to land all three first stages and then have the payload, Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadset, head on over to Mars.

I hope it succeeds ! Anyway that was originally scheduled to go at 6.30pm UK time but the launch has been pushed back due to high winds. I just heard the webcast start up in another window.

I spotted something similarly spectacular earlier too …

What might that be ?

It’s the Ultimate Collector Series version of the Star Wars Millennium Falcon (Lego shop link, don’t look at the price). At 7,541 pieces, it is the biggest Lego set to date. Bigger than the Death Star even. It’s rarer than Plutonium. And John Lewis had one on the shelf today. The bottom shelf mind, probably cos no one is going to want to lift that to the top shelf and it would make a big dent in anyone taking a casual look at it.

They were offering complementary wheels to go with this so you could easily take it out of the Lego shops.

I’ve seen this one being put together as well. I’ve been keeping an eye on the Brickbuilder Youtube channel and while they’ve been on a bit of a break or building very small kits lately, this is their speed build of the big Falcon. I may watch that again at some point. All 52 minutes of (ahem) speed build.

Actually, I may have my answer for Next Lego Set from peeking at the Lego Shop. Check out this ship in a bottle. Very curious.

Ooooo – the Spacex webcast for Falcon Heavy just kicked off (if in time, here it is : http://www.spacex.com/webcast ). Not long to launch !

I better get to watching.

Oh ! What did I buy at the Mall ? I did not, sadly, buy an enormous Lego Millennium Falcon. A shame as it would complete my set of 3 so far. (Actually there’s another small one available now that I don’t have)

I nearly got locked out of my house yesterday … I’ve already replaced the top lock and the lower lock is getting stiffer. It didn’t want to turn for a while yesterday, so I’ve taken the hint and today’s acquisition was a very boring :

House front door lock.

Yep. Adulting again.

I try not to make a habit of it but it’s cold out there at the moment and I don’t want to be locked out ! The locks of this place have done well. I’ve lived here for 16 years now and the locks are older than that. Hopefully the lock won’t break before I get a chance to do locksmith things …

PS Post launch addendum …

Those are the two side boosters, they reported that the core landed too and that Tesla is on its way to Mars with a “DON’T PANIC” on the dash. Awesome stuff.

I finished off book 6 last night ! And then promptly bought and started another one.

The finished off book was Freedom’s Landing by Anne McCaffrey who is much better known for the excellent Dragonriders of Pern series.

What did I think ? It could be a sign of continuing inward downward feelings but … meh. You expect a book to have a beginning, middle and end. Even the books in the Dragonriders series that ran straight into another book had a beginning, middle and end. So too for the excellent Talents books. A book needs a beginning, middle and end.

This one had a beginning … a second beginning … more expansion on the beginning and … eventually a bit of middle. I didn’t detect a proper ending. This one is the first in a series of 4 and I’m not convinced that I’ll acquire the other 3. But …. what’s it about ?

Our central character is abducted along with an alien Catteni and dropped, along with about 500 others onto a mysterious planet. It looks benign. Tame even. As the story unfolds, we learn it is a farm planet for unidentified aliens. I’m sure those would come out more in the next books. (I have cheated and read the synopsises on … that place online wot doesn’t pay its taxes). This apparently benign planet has its dangers, which our main characters steadily find out about.

It’s more about the limited interplay between the characters plus a light examination of the prejudices between people who are different and prejudices that are introduced by people who are just … arseholes.

It’s not nearly in the same league as those Dragonriders of Pern books that I grew up with … but those were exceptional books from a hugely talented author. Perhaps the plan behind the book was what went wrong with this one. I don’t think I’ll be getting any more books in the Freedom’s Landing series but it has made me want to re-read some of those books from long ago again. Like Restoree, like the Crystal Singer series (that had the word “unprintable” all the way through in a hamfisted effort of censorship of rude words !), like the excellent and always interesting Talents series. And the Planet Pirates series with Sassinak that drew my attention to Elizabeth Moon, who will get at least one entry in this series of 52 books.

The next book is the 4th in The Expanse series. An interesting start already. I must dive into more !

Discovery ?

This had a somewhat rocky start and is rather different to most Star Trek series. It’s harder, grittier, befitting a series set in desperate war time against the most formidable enemy the Federation has come up against.

Discovery is following a definite series arc but it’s doing that through episodes that lead you in gently at the beginning, that develop their story in the middle and give you a very definite “OMG WTH !” feeling at the ending as they pull out yet another surprise on you that you think you should have seen coming as the middle of the episode develops but is unveiled with a certain style and panache.

Not so much with the pre Xmas first half of the arc but this second half of the series has been exceptional throughout. I continue to watch with much curiosity. I want to see how they (spoilers redacted) … finish it off.

Well worth signing up to the Netflixes for. I think I’ll be binge rewatching it when the series is fully finished. It’s not Trek. It’s War-Trek. And they’re doing a hell of a job with it.

Haha, just like what the people bringing the Expanse novels to the screen are managing to do !

I was going to write about how I stay sane …

But then Stellaris happened … And that’s one of those games that’s really good at grabbing the attention. Anyway, one of those ways of keeping myself sane is to build things …

What’s the latest construction to arrive ? I did a teaser picture the other day …

That has just enough information to tell you what it is (if you take the 42074 code over to the lego websites).

As always, click for bigger. These are pictures transferred straight from the phone again, so there’s lots more pixels to look at. Just don’t mind the dust on my couch !

Every ship build starts with a central point. A keel. It’s typically the bottom centre of the boat, although modern ship building techniques are usually more about module builds, where they put together the ship in big blocks and then weld the blocks together. There are a number of fascinating videos about building modern warships and ocean liners, I’d thoroughly recommend them if you’re interested in the engineering behind the ships.

The aft section comes in to encase the rudder.

Ocean racing yachts tend to be dual control machines, where the rudder is controlled from either side of the boat. That’s to make sure the weight distribution is right. The wind tries to push the boat over, the sailors all try and be on the other side to balance the forces from the wind.

I think my helper is wanting me to photo him like those French Dragon Ladies he’s heard about. I must be more careful with that internet search history.

The central hull starts coming together. We’ll come back to the mechanism in the centre.

And 4D the dragon helps us take a better look at the almost complete bow. The odd looking Lego thing hanging off the front actually recesses back in to the hull when the yacht is complete.

The hull of the yacht is all complete now, with the bow area enclosed. That’s where the sails go on a real racing yacht, with the sailors sleeping around the sails.

Hmm. 4D looks like he has designs on that yacht in the same way as a sea monster Kraken would. He must be seeing things in that internet history again.

And the completed yacht with her sails !!!

I quite enjoyed this build. Lego can be very cathartic to play with as it starts from totally unconnected bricks and gradually unveils its mystery of what’s coming together. For a technic kit, this one was quite simple with just a few moving parts but it’s still one of the better kits. Most Lego Technic tends to be cars and trucks which for me are : Seen one, seen all of them. The yacht is something a little different.

Let’s have a look from another angle :

4D helping out again.

The boom of the mainsail moves (the mechanism from earlier) and the yacht has a working rudder. It’s lovely to see and touch the moving parts and how they intricately interplay with each other.

A simpler kit but that’s ok. I had as much enjoyment out of seeing this one come together as some of the bigger kits. What’s next ? Could be another car … Maybe.

Until the next kit !

Haha, could be this one, rebuilt as the catamaran double hull yacht.

It probably won’t surprise people that I’m being affected by the sad feelings at the moment.

I’ve ended up having a generally positive disposition. I’ll look for the humour wherever I can and I’ll dedicate time into and distract myself into making things that I hope make people laugh.

Because seeing people happy makes me happy, especially when they’re happy due to something I’ve come up with.

But yeah, behind that public happy laughing smiling face there is the melancholy feeling. I know that it will pass but I also know that the catalyst for helping to make it pass is likely to be other people.

I feel I’m lucky to have a little nucleus of people that I can open up to, who I can make laugh, who give me excuses to unleash that latent creativity, people I can trust. And I try and return that by cheering other people up.

That’s one thing about depression, when it hits it is very difficult for the person suffering from it to find how to climb out of that pit. It manifests in me by reduced energy levels, which make me cold. I also tense up which sparks off all those old injuries. And the pain that results from the injuries waking up again further tugs on my mental state.

I am in general ok. I’m not one of the unfortunate people who’s depression comes from brain chemistry that, for want of a better description, is out to get them and which needs rebalancing via drugs that cause other problems through side effects. My depression tends to come from events, or me not wanting to do stuff that I really actually do need to do. I’d much prefer to play the games or watch the videos than, say, clean the house and make it suitable for visitors. Yet there are people who I’d like to have the house in a state suitable for visiting.

(I actually just spotted a message come in from one of those lovely friend people and happily replying to that has made me forget my thread here !)

Games are one method of covering? for the depression. I can hide in a good book or a good game as it transfers my sphere of concentration away from what’s making me sad.

I do like to make jokes for people, although my humour is very reactive humour. I can never remember the old set piece type jokes but I’ll pick up on what people have been saying or doing, recognise something funny in it and use the photo editing tools to create something to hopefully make them laugh or try and bring out a chuckle through words.

I hope you all have people to make you laugh, or to help you turn the unhappy feels around into that little smile that signifies things are going right in your world again.

My melancholy will start to lift soon. There are things on my mind which will be on there for at least the next week or so. Plus I’ll be thinking of my mum and hoping she’s ok. (And the sister!) We’ve lost too much of our family over the last few years, hopefully we don’t lose any more soon !

That said, I’m not planning on disappearing off the face of the earth and my outsides are actually finally normalising. My sister’s a fireball and my mum’s a legend. We’re a tough mob, although we’ve lost too many of us too early.

I’ll definitely miss my nan, my dad and the old Ben-Pup (pets are family too). But I’ll lean back on those good memories.

I hope that if you have lost people too, you can lean on those old memories as well. They may not be with us physically but we hold them with us in our memories.

Remember.

And I just got a chuckling response from the HeyChrissa streamer lady from one of my random comments which brightened my evening.

That’ll be my closing words for today – stay away from the general public for sure if you have to, they can be very mean. But those special people, stay engaged with them. If you think they’re special, then that means you trust them to help you out when you need it.

Reach out if you need to.

I'm so sorry Pete. Sometimes life just sucks 🙁 Am thinking of you today.

Thanks Thumper. It would be good to be able to live fit and healthy forever though 🙂

Aw, man. I am so sorry…I hate this part of being an adult, I really do.