Tag: Star Trek: The Next Generation

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“Don’t Lose Sight of Who You Are”

On Thursday, July 9, I got out for another walk. I ended up at Starbucks again, with another unsweetened black iced tea. I think this will be my new drink for awhile. It has zero sugar, an improvement on my signature drink order, which is nice, but also reminds me of my mom. Oh. And I got a chocolate chip cookie, which was delicious.

I stayed up late. I got some work done. And I finally watched Scream 7, which wasn’t horrible, but also wasn’t one of the better entries, IMO. It successfully brings Neve Campbell’s Sydney back into the mix with a creative way to bring back deceased characters with lots of fun callbacks to previous entries, but it also felt a bit empty. Also, one of the issues I tend to have with these movies are the motives of the assorted Ghostface killers, which vary from inventive and creepy, to ridiculous and pointless, with the new entry leaning more into the latter camp. My ranking of the films is as follows, best to worst:

01 Scream (5)
02 Scream VI
03 Scream 2
04 Scream (1)
05 Scream 7
06 Scream 4
07 Scream 3

I mostly like Scream 3 more than 4, but it features a plot hole that annoys me to this day. I also think of Scream 5 & 6 as being basically equal, but again, I like the killers in Scream 5 more than 6 – and 5 feels like the most balanced of the films IMO. I wouldn’t say that any of them are horrible, but the bottom 3 are markedly less enjoyable for me than the top 4.

Additionally, Scream 4 filmed in Ann Arbor, Michigan when I lived there. And Scream 5 moves events to New York, after I moved there. So, it kinda feels like the movies are stalking me. lol

Today I watched another episode of TNG with Aaron: S03E09 “The Vengeance Factor”, which features Lisa Wilcox in a guest role. She played the main protagonist, Alice, in Nightmare on Elm Street 4 & 5; I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in anything else. Of course Wes Craven was the creative force behind original Nightmare on Elm Street, and he also directed Scream 1-4. Wacky.

I also got out for another short walk. I got some more Starbucks. And I’ve eaten well today too. I had my now usual pita with lettuce and hummus and Italian salad dressing, plus the unsweetened black iced tea, and also had 2 cherry smoothies. It feels like I’m kicking ass with the getting outside more and the improved eating habits.

And I had sex. 🙂

I gave up on the dark romantic fiction for now. I wanted a change. A few years ago I was re-reading the Wicked Years, with the goal of reading the follow-up trilogy, which I’d never read before, but as I was re-reading “Out of Oz”, it was announced that the author would be releasing 2 more tie-in books, set during “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”, which sort of took the wind out of my sails. The first of these volumes is mine now, and the latter will be out in september. But I started reading “Elphie: A Wicked Childhood” last night, and so far I’m enjoying it.

Today’s journal entry title song quote is from “I’m Not That Girl” from the Wicked Soundtrack. I prefer the film soundtrack to the stage musical. Oddly, I was barely able to tolerate the stage musical and its soundtrack, but I loved the film and its soundtrack, which was as much a surprise to me as it was to anyone else who knows me. I didn’t love the second film, but I also felt it was a huge improvement on the second act of the stage musical.

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“I’m a Lonely One”

Sunday and Monday I watched more television. I also had my teeth cleaned. The above image is of me in my dentist’s office at 827 11th Avenue in Manhattan. I slept well the night before and dreamed of Lestat, which I caught up on the day before and I’ve come to the conclusion that I love it. I also caught up on X-Men ’97, continued where I left off with X-Men: The Animated Series and watched 2 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Aaron.

Here’s what I watched:

Star Trek: The Next Generation S03E06 Booby Trap
Star Trek: The Next Generation S03E07 The Enemy

X-Men S03E08 Savage Land, Strange Heart – Part 1
X-Men S03E09 Savage Land, Strange Heart – Part 2
X-Men ’97 S02E03 Rise of Apocalypse – Part 1

The Vampire Lestat S01E04 The Devil’s Road
The Vampire Lestat S01E05 New York

TNG S03E06 “Booby Trap”. I had remembered this episode as a bit cringey as Geordie LaForge stumbles in love and forms an odd and nearly romantic relationship with a hologram, but I remembered nothing of the rest of the episode. Aaron said the same thing and we were entertained by the episode. It marks the first appearances of Julie Warner as Christy Henshaw and Susan Gibney as the holographic (and later real world) version of Dr. Leah Brahms; Gibney also later portrays Commander / Captain Erika Benteen in 2 episodes of DS9.

I always remember TNG S03E07 “The Enemy” as an episode that my sister Janice saw before I did, and how she spoke of it. The episode marks the first appearance of Andreas Katsulas as Tomalak, who later returns in the role at least twice, though they’re not really him, per say, if I remember correctly, one being an illusion and another being an alternate future take. Both of these episodes feature Colm Meaney as Miles O’Brien. It’s nice to see the recurring cast start to come together here and Season 3 really does feel like where the series starts to gel. And while that’s the common wisdom among fans, in retrospect, its insane that it took more than 50 episodes for the series to really get reliably good, especially since most of the series of the current era ever reach that number of episodes at all, with only Lower Decks and Discovery making 50 or more; Lower Decks ended with 50 while Discovery ended with 65.

The X-Men episodes, the “Savage Land, Strange Heart” 2-part story is unlikely to be anyone’s favorite, but I thought some of the writing was really clever (“Who died and made you Cyclops?”) and I appreciated the explanation of Sauron’s origin. I just don’t care about the Savage Land in general.

The X-Men ’97 episode continues the winning streak of this series. I’ve never X-Men stories featuring Apocalypse, so I’ve been dreading this new season, but so far I’ve loved all of it. If it were only Apocalypse, I’d probably be bored, but the thing about X-Men ’97 is that it feels like the big payoff for all the stories that came in the previous Animated Series – with fewer episodes, they don’t seem to hold anything back, and it’s all the better for it.

The Vampire Lestat episodes really knocked it out of the park for me. Things that I doubted about the season came into focus, both with the parts that were adapted from various Anne Rice novels, and others that are wholly original to this interpretation of the material. Very impressive. This season, and the series as a whole is probably best in a binge model vs. a weekly layout. I believe the Immortal Universe shows play out like this:

01 Interview with the Vampire Season 1: Part I
02 Interview with the Vampire Season 2: Part II
03 Mayfair Witches Season 1
04 Mayfair Witches Season 2
05 Mayfair Witches Season 3 ?
06 Talamasca: The Secret Order
07 Interview with the Vampire Season 3: The Vampire Lestat

The present day scenes in the first 2 seasons of Interview seem to be set over 11 days in 2022, ending shortly after the publication of the book in 2023. Season 2 of Mayfair Witches references the publication of the book and features a guest spot by a vampire introduced in Season 2 of Interview. Talamasca is set after the publication of the book with guest spots by a few characters; a later episode may feature a Lestat tune. Season 3, The Vampire Lestat seems to be set 2025.

Having said all of that, the only series I can wholeheartedly recommend is Interview / Lestat. Talamasca comes close to being very good at times but never quite arrives IMO, and from what I’ve seen of Mayfair Witches, it is a horrible adaptation of The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series (which are my favorite Anne Rice books, along with “Cry to Heaven”) and the series also features some truly dreadful “acting”. I may go back to it at some point, just so I can say I saw everything.

Today’s journal title song quote is from “All Fall Down”, theme from “The Vampire Lestat”, performed by Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt.

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“Don’t You Think It’s Time for Bed?”

I’ve been meaning to write the last few days but I’ve gotten a bit behind. I did major updates on the photos and viewing orders, and we’ve been busy with other things. I’d probably skip this tonight as well, but we’re going to have visitors this weekend and our schedule is packed. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do everything that Aaron has planned but I’ll try.

Back to our Michigan trip. On Sunday (June 28, 2026), we visited my maternal grandmother (Frances), my youngest maternal aunt (Marge), and my older sister (Janice), with cameos by a couple of cousins, Marge’s oldest son (Michael) and his son (Dajr). I feel like I’m describing all this rather oddly, but I’m really tired – so forgive me.

Grandma told us the sweetest thing before we left. When I met Aaron in late 2011 he was preparing for a February concert, The Broadway We Love, which featured him singing all these Broadway tunes for charity. There was a cd of the concert, which I gave to my grandmother and I knew she listened to it at the time, but she told Aaron that she still listens to it and that when he sings about cellophane, she rocks her shoulders back and forth and it makes her feel good. She doesn’t really follow musical theater, but I knew right away she was talking about the song “Mr. Cellophane” from the 1975 American musical “Chicago”. It makes me smile every time I think about it.

We left around 5:30 to meet our friend Jessie and my oldest Nephew Justin at Pizza House in Ann Arbor. Justin had never been there, which shocked me. We told him all sorts of stories about our adventures there in the past and the conversation in general was really great. Justin and Jesse are some of the most interesting people I know, and everyone was pleased with food, and the evening was lovely.

After dinner we went to Uplift to play some pool, unaware that they were hosting a drag event, so there were far more people that the previous time we went there. Pool was played. Drag was performed. We said goodnight to Jesse and drove Justin back to his car. He seemed interested in going camping with us. I wonder if that will happen?

We headed back to the hotel. I packed most of my things and went to bed. We sorted everything in the morning and we headed to the airport. Later we learned that my medication that had seemed to have never been sent had actually arrived within 24 hours of us but they just never sent me a tracking number – but by the time we found out we were already in New York. So the saga of the meds continues. We got some more out of pocket from a local pharmacy until we can get the one that was sent to Michigan.

I randomly got bumped up to First Class. I was in the first row all by myself. It didn’t actually feel like much of an upgrade but I was reading all the way home, so it was fine. I finished reading “Rock” yesterday? Or maybe the day before? I don’t know. The the first book I’ve finished in ages. I found out there is a sequel or a spin-off or something, which I downloaded but I haven’t started it yet. I had therapy on Tuesday, which went well. I’ve spoken to Katie this week. Aaron’s sister and brother-in-law will be arriving tomorrow for a weekend of fun.

I’m behind on all my TV shows. So many. I’m watching “Daredevil” (Season 3), rewatched Star Trek: Discovery (on Season 3 of that too), I’m 2 episodes behind on “The Vampire Lestat”, with a third arriving this Sunday. I’m 3 episodes behind on “X-Men ’97”. I’m 7 episodes behind on “Spider-Noir”. I’m sure there’s more. It’s starting to bother me though. I just never seem to have time, despite staying mostly indoors this week due to the heatwave.

I’ve continued to eat healthy since I got home. In Michigan I had McDonald’s a couple of times, and had some chips. But I also had smoothies and egg whites while I was there, which was nice. I feel like there’s more but I’m so tired, I just want to go to bed.

Aaron and I continued our Re-Trek with TNG S03E05 “The Bonding”, which continues the streak of good or great Season 3 episodes. I had some minor quibbles. Deanna Troi’s heterosexist comment of a future wife for Jeremy Astor felt outdated and annoying. How spoiled I have become by modern Trek! There were a few other bits, the most glaring being that Jeremy Astor is set up to be a recurring character of a sort but he never even mentioned again, or at least not that I can remember. It feels like a rare misstep with Worf’s storylines. This also felt like the first of the Deanna / Worf storylines, which continue throughout the series. I look forward to seeing more soon, but I doubt we’ll be able to see any until after this weekend, unfortunately.

Today’s song quote title comes from “Sexy Nerd” by Jonny McGovern; a song from his 2012 album “The Gayest of All Time”, which started playing on my phone as I was finishing this post. It’s on a playlist I made on Amazon Music titled “LGBTQ”.


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“I’m Gonna Keep On Dancing”

I read a bit before bed last night, fell asleep around 10pm I think. I slept until around 3 but I I couldn’t get back to sleep. I had been dreaming about “V”, the series. lol Or recording it off of television? Something that’s gone.

Back to our recent Michigan Trip. On Friday (June 26, 2026) I had egg whites and later a smoothie. We got ready and went to the wedding, which we needed to be early for since Aaron was part of the wedding party. The service was wonderful. Everyone was delightful. They fucked up my food order (so I didn’t have anything) and the bar rules were weird (no NEAT drinks – only ice, and when I downed my shot because I didn’t want the ice they threatend to cut me off). Lots of dancing. Lots of talking and spending time with cool people. We left after 11, nearly midnight. Aaron took me to McDonalds which I ate in the car on the way back to the hotel. I took a shower and got ready for bed.

I had a bit of trouble sleeping that night. But on Saturday (June 27, 2026) I slept in with Aaron cuddles. I had a smoothie. Later we went to Kensington Metro Park to visit with Tristan (Aaron’s sister), Jasper (Aaron’s nephew), Mark (Aaron’s father), Michelle (Mark’s sister), Karen & Nevin, & Mary Ellen (Aaron’s mom). It was nice and relaxed.

When we got back to the hotel I took a shower to get the sunblock and sweat off. I started to unwind.

After I was relaxed and dressed, Aaron and I committed to continuing our Re-Trek and watched TNG S03E04 “Who Watches the Watchers?” – which we both enjoyed. Andrew told me at the wedding that he’s begun Strange New Worlds and is already finished with Season 1. He wants to move on the 80’s / 90’s era Treks – we think he should start that journey with Enterprise.

Later, I was entranced and entertained by an anime AI gay werewolf thingy, called (I kid you not) “Bussy and the Beast”. lol

To Be Continued (Again)…

I’m still singing Pink Pony Club, so this morning’s journal entry title comes from that same song. The sun is up but I should probably go back to bed. We’re getting a grocery order later and I have a therapy session.

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