family | At Home with Tech

June 18, 2023

Why Strange New Worlds is Now my Favorite Star Trek Series

This Star Trek prequel has made what’s old new again. Here’s how it continues to successfully bridge the generations in my home as season 2 begins.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved season 3 of “Star Trek: Picard.” Of course there was pent-up demand to get the band back together for one more adventure. Yes, “Picard” was awesome, even though it felt like the last few episodes were rushed to get it all in. And yes, there were some plot holes, but who cares?!

We got another season of “The Next Generation,” and mostly at its best. That’s a gift, and a proper send off after the last movie (“Nemesis”) offered such an unsatisfying ending two decades ago.

But “Star Trek: Picard” was about good endings. “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” is about great beginnings.

Fun in the 23rd Century
I’ve said before that “Strange New Worlds” on Paramount+ has nailed the successful recipe of “Star Trek” better than any Trek since the original series. And in some ways, “Strange New Worlds” has improved on it.

It’s fun and optimistic. Each character and attached actor is compelling. The scripts are smart. The special effects lavish geeky love on the Enterprise in ways we Trekkies have only dreamed of.

But the show is no lightweight. It’s got some serious themes. Really serious. If you know “Star Trek,” you know the tragic story of Captain Christopher Pike, who precedes Captain Kirk. And the writers have decided to give Pike’s character insight on his future. Whoa. That’s heavy.

We know how it ends. Or do we?

Captain Pike Rocks!
Speaking of Pike, I’ve got to say that Anson Mount gives us arguably the best captain in the Star Trek universe. I know that’s going way out on a limb. But he perfectly captures the essence of the original Starfleet captain: a bold boy scout who still breaks the rules when warranted. He’s also really fun to watch.

His acting helps this series feel entirely confident and comfortable. It needed no time finding its groove.

“Strange New Worlds” is so confident in itself that it sidelined Captain Pike in the first episode of its second season and leaves the whole story to Spock and the rest of the crew, including Nurse Chapel and Dr. M’Benga.

Spock and Nurse Chapel
The first season set the structure of giving major storylines to each of the supporting characters throughout different episodes, and this trend is happily continuing. Instead of overinvesting in new guest characters each week, The writers of “Strange New Worlds” continue to focus on deepening our understanding of the Enterprise crew.

And we already thought we knew many of these characters, right?

Admittedly, the writers are bending Star Trek canon a bit, especially with the growing relationship between Spock and Nurse Chapel. But I think that’s absolutely fine. By now, we’re used to plenty of ‘reimagining’ of core science fiction stories.

Star Trek Doesn’t Need Salty Language
“Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” manages to be both fresh and retro simultaneously. It proves that you don’t have to warp Star Trek down a dark path to try to reinvent it like “Star Trek: Discovery” originally attempted.

It’s also resisted the urge to throw around four-letter words like both “Discovery” and “Picard” have done. Thank you very much.

Not that salty language is so critical an issue for me anymore, as our son is now thirteen. He consumes plenty of profanity when watching the MCU.

But back when “Discovery” premiered, he was only seven. And I was really upset that we couldn’t watch new “Star Trek” together.

Appointment Viewing
Happily, “Strange New Worlds” is Lester family viewing time. And this Trekkie dad couldn’t be more pleased to finally be sharing his life-long passion with his son. My boy loved the show’s first season.

No, “Star Trek” is not quite as cool as “Star Wars” or the MCU. Not for him (and that’s okay).

He insisted on giving me a little sigh and eye roll when I proclaimed after dinner that it was time to watch the second season premiere of “Strange New Worlds.”

He countered that he would prefer to watch the MCU’s “Secret Invasion” series. Fortunately, the premiere of that Nick Fury show on Disney+ was still a week away.

So he agreed to sit down on the couch with me and my wife for a little “Trek.”

Star Trek is Family Time Again
And when Spock (wonderfully reimagined by Ethan Peck) sat in the captain’s chair and struggled to come up with a clever line to order the Enterprise to warp speed, I turned to peek at my son’s face.

He was smiling. And yes, I think I spotted my young teenager laugh. The three of us all laughed together… watching “Star Trek.”

That was the best early Father’s Day gift I think I could ever get.

Our son may never be a Trekkie. And once upon a time, my wife didn’t know the difference between a Tribble and a Klingon.

But we’re all together watching “Star Trek.”

I’ll take it.

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June 4, 2023

How Many Family Members Does It Take to Fix a School Chromebook?

Screws are falling out of my son’s middle-school Chromebook, and this is the result. Help! What’s a dad to do? It’s time to find my inner MacGyver!

My 7th grader casually informed me the other day that he was missing a couple screws on the bottom of his school Chromebook, and the casing was beginning to separate. (Both holes were in the same corner.)

When I took a look, I realized the problem was more than just a little separation. The entire body and screen misaligned when I tried to flip it open, and the guts of the laptop almost spilled out from the hideous opening like a fresh gunshot wound. I couldn’t even close the screen for fear that I would snap off the hinges.

My son had been dealing with this?!

No Amazon to the Rescue
So I immediately looked up “Chromebook replacement screws” online. There had a be a quick fix for this. But in fact, there wasn’t.

I found that screws dropping out of Chromebooks was a well-documented problem, but there was no one-stop solution to buy a replacement screw for 20 cents. Sure, I could buy hundreds of different-sized laptop screws on Amazon and hope that one of them would work. But that looked like a painful needle in a haystack scenario.

Really?

Time to Get Creative
I turned my head and looked at the calendar: Two weeks to go until the end of the school year. Hmmm…Then it hit me.

I just had to keep that computer together for another few days!

Duct tape? No, that’s a silly idea (though I’m sure I wouldn’t be the first to attempt it).

Did I have another old laptop lying around that I could grab a screw from?
Nope… not one that would fit. (I tried.)

Wait! Maybe I could move out one of the other screws on the back of the Chromebook to fill in one of the corner holes. And then I would keep my fingers crossed that the band-aid maneuver would be a sufficient fix to reseal the body.

Does the Chromebook Survive?
So right before breakfast, my son and I cleared off the dining room table and began the surgery. I let him play the role of Dr. Strange. (This would take a delicate touch and a good dose of magic.)

And guess what? It worked!

The body held shut, and the screen opened up and closed like nothing was ever wrong (though the computer was still missing 2 screws).

For good measure, my son then tightened up a few of the other screws that were loose and also about to fall out. (Whoa!)

Yes, the operation was a success. My boy treated it like an easy homework assignment, and I was slightly stunned that we had seemingly just opened up a Lester father-and-son computer repair business.

A Good Lesson
Sure, he had just moved one screw to a different location on the laptop’s back. You might think this to be an obvious fix. And in hindsight, it was.

But in this computer-centric world we all live in with AI on the cusp of changing everything, just the idea that we can still fix a computer at home with a screwdriver feels refreshingly analog.

And it’s an important reminder of who still runs this planet… for now.

May 28, 2023

How to Make a Bar Mitzvah Video

Here’s an outtake from the video I created to celebrate our son’s bar mitzvah. I followed a process that prioritized keeping it simple. Here’s how I did that.

Over the years, I think I’ve recorded hundreds (thousands?) of little family video clips. So if you’re wondering, yes, of course I created a video to celebrate our son’s bar mitzvah.

It was a highlights reel of sorts, containing some of his greatest hits to date… at least the ones that I happened to capture on video.

Fortunately, I’ve been diligent over these past thirteen years to label each of my family video clips and organize them into folders by month and year. (That’s a lot of folders!)

Over time, I’ve also created a variety of little ‘finished’ family videos that reflected different moments in our family’s story (birthday parties, vacation trips). These particular videos were especially useful to identify the clips I needed for the bar mitzvah video.

Not a Documentary
So years of good digital organization set me up nicely to begin my project. (I’ve got all of my video files stored in an external G-RAID drive.)

But really, any way I looked at my task, it was still absolutely overwhelming. (And I wasn’t even considering using any photos.)

So instead of trying to accomplish the impossible and somehow jam in every perfect clip to tell the ‘total’ story, I decided instead to enjoy my trip into the past and simply use what I uncovered in my digital archives over the course of several hours during three separate research sessions.

Capture the Spirit
Sure, there were a few video moments that I had specifically remembered and searched for. (My wife also had a few clip requests.) But for the most part, my process of rediscovery organically led me to the clips I used. If I had repeated my exercise the following month, I could have easily collected an entirely different grouping of clips that were just as delightful.

I realized as I went along that the video would mostly reflect these three factors:

Our son’s growth across the years
His family and friends
Some fun moments

It would never be a complete reflection on his life to date. And that was fine.

Keep a Simple Structure
This understanding freed me to focus on creating a video that was simply enjoyable to watch. And it was ‘relatively’ simple to make.

It ran seven and a half minutes. Each clip was 10 to 15 seconds long. And I organized them chronologically (using Final Cut Pro on my iMac) with a date stamp graphic in the bottom of the frame. I think the dates were useful to show the passage of time. I used a couple of his favorite pieces of music to support sections that were more visually oriented. And I popped in a title at the top and a ‘congratulations’ graphic at the back.

Finally, my wife and I recorded a short video message to our son that I included towards the end of the video.

Make a Few Drafts
That was it. I made three drafts before locking the final cut.

The first draft was a just a long string of clips in the right order. The second draft was a shorter version. (Everything can’t make it in. Always remember that less is more.) The third draft added a few more clips that my wife had remembered. (Don’t forget to collaborate!) And the final cut was where I polished it all up.

There are any number of ways to make a bar mitzvah video. This was the path I took.

A Video for the Past and the Future
We showed my finished video to our son, and I think he enjoyed it. He did smile a few times. To be fair, I can understand how he may not be as excited to see his toddler clips as we were. (My wife and I were delighted with the trip down memory lane.)

But beyond celebrating an important milestone for our son, I also see this video as a piece of family history that reflects our son’s first thirteen years. And I hope it’s something he can return to years into the future and enjoy.

My wife and I certainly will!

Category: family

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