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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 11, 2023

Why I joined SmugMug to Share and Archive my Photos

SmugMug is not just for professional photographers. Here’s why I decided to sign up for an account.

Keeping track of all my family photos feels like a Herculean effort these days. It’s not getting any easier. Sure, I’ve got photo organizational systems in place: Lightroom, digital backups and cloud storage.

But I often feel like I’m simply maintaining the existence of tens of thousands of photos. (Have you checked lately how many you’ve collected over the years?)

I’m hardly keeping up with my full curation process. Yes, I share photos with family and friends via texts and Dropbox links. I include some of my favorite travel and nature pics on my blog. I even get around occasionally to creating a photo book. One might say from afar that I’m getting the important pieces done.

But I remain unsettled.

Scrolling vs. Flipping
The photos I usually share are individual photos that you can simply flip through one at a time. That’s okay, but I’d really prefer if they could live collectively as a group in an online photo gallery. Then, you’d be able to view them as a collection that you can scroll through. The viewing experience is already optimized. (It’s a big difference.) And if you’d like to look more closely at one photo, you can do that too.

But I didn’t want to take the time to start designing and publishing complex online photo galleries. I needed a drag and drop solution…

After doing a bit of research I decided that SmugMug could help me.

Unlimited Storage
SmugMug is marketed to professional photographers who want to sell their photos online. But SmugMug also can be a powerful tool for handling your family photos. Not only can it generate unlisted online photo galleries to share with your family and friends, you can also create galleries with passwords. The bottom line is you have total control with who can see your photos.

SmugMug’s interface is easy to use, and the online galleries look great.

And get this… SmugMug offers unlimited storage. That’s right… unlimited. So I signed up and got to work.

But I wasn’t done climbing out of my own photo rabbit hole. Not yet.

Less is More
Sure, SmugMug can house all of my photos for permanent archiving, but really why would anyone want access to many tens of thousands of photos that tell my family’s story? No one will have the time. I certainly wouldn’t want to burden my son with that one day.

I’ve been going through, organizing and digitizing hundreds of my father’s photos that contain my family’s history back to the late nineteen century. Believe me… that’s been a lot of work.

My own family photo collection is enormous by comparison. I’m actually nearing 100,000 pics. (You should check how many you’re carrying around.)

Your family’s story can be told in a fraction of that. (And mine can too.)

Preparing for the Next Generation
So these unlisted SmugMug galleries I’ve begun generating will become the backbone of a slimmed-down, curated and optimized Lester family photo history.

It’s permanent, safe and ready to hand over to the future.

What do I mean by that?

Long-Term Strategy
Nothing lasts forever. Back-up hard drives can fail. A curated cloud photo collection seems more resilient to the ravages of time. Sure, no company lasts forever, but you’ve got to put your stake in the ground somewhere.

I’ve purchased my ticket to the future on the SmugMug train.

And yes, the ticket does come with a cost. I signed up for the annual ‘Power’ plan, which is $110/year.

As you multiply that out across (hopefully) many years to come, the price tag will be substantial.

But there’s no solution to store an unlimited number of full-res photos for free. That said, I technically do have that perk with Amazon Photos. But that platform doesn’t really offer a photo gallery solution when sharing links. (And I do sometimes wonder how long Amazon Prime benefits will include its photo division.)

A dedicated photo company feels like a better long-term bet.

Time to Share with the World?
Finally, there’s the other major SmugMug benefit that every photo gallery doesn’t have to be private. SmugMug is designed to create your own public website that features your photos. Being able to show off my public-facing photography is quite appealing.

You may have noticed that beyond my job as the family photographer, I’ve enjoyed sharing my travel and nature photography on my blog.
How nice it is that I can also curate these images to share on my SmugMug site.

It’s All Part of the Plan
No, I’m not selling my photos. Not today. No, I’m not a professional photographer. Well, not today.

Does my photography hobby support my professional brand leading video production teams?
It sure does.

Can SmugMug house videos?
It certainly can (up to 3GB files/20 minute length/1080p resolution).

Will my SmugMug site align with my other personal branding efforts?
Absolutely.

Barrett’s SmugMug Site
You can see I’m tad enthusiastic about joining SmugMug.

  • Long-term archiving? Check.
  • Private link sharing? Check.
  • Public website for some of my own work. Check.
  • Setting up for a future handoff to the next generation? Check.

Am I feeling smug? Maybe just a little.

But the truth is any photo curation solution takes a TON of work. And I’ve just begun my SmugMug journey.

If you’re interested in taking a look, you can find it here:
barrettlester.smugmug.com

Hope you like 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.

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