From the original “pulp” era: Sax Rohmer. Love that 1920s pulp fiction. He’s horribly racist, but it’s enjoyable if you just swap the “heroes” and “villians” in your head as you read. (Fu Manchu is the most evil man in the world because… he wants to free China from British colonial rule? Right. Go Fu Manchu!)
Also, Doc Savage. I like Doc in the same way I like the 60s Batman TV show: I don’t particularly like the “heroes”, I just enjoy the environment. (In one Doc Savage story I read recently, Doc’s plane is described as being so INCREDIBLY high-tech and bleeding edge, that the WHEELS RETRACT WHEN IN FLIGHT. Amazing. WHAT ELSE WILL THE FUTURE BRING!?!?)
I grew up on Lovecraft, but have discovered that what I like most in his work was done better, previously, by Lord Dunsany. (Particularly the Dream Quest stuff.)
I own a few magazines from the end of that era. These are issues #2 & #3 of Fantastic Magazine, 1952:
I really enjoyed Voyager and still watch episodes regularly. For me it was the idea of being so far from the “known universe” and what that would be like.
I’ve been on a marathon since April. In order I’ve watched Discovery season 2-4, SNW, TNG, DS9 and am at season 6 of Voyager. I’ve also broken up Voyager with the first 6 movies.
I did manage a couple of ToS episodes but I honestly find ToS hard to watch.
Voyager is feeling like a slog so it’s not background viewing while I work from home and I’ve switched to The Orville for my evening viewing recently with a plan to watch Babylon 5 after.
I too felt Picard season three was heavily overhyped, especially by many of the Star Trek specialty sites.
In general though, I welcome nonspoilery general early reviews, especially from less specialized professional reviewers.
In this case, I am noticing that the more mainstream reviews are the most positive and the specialized genre or franchise reviews are working for a more measured tone than with Picard.
Is it because the genre reviewers have felt the disappointment with of some of fandom with Picard, or is it because they are at heart TNG era fans? Makes one wonder.
In my own case, I can forgive much of the overly positive reviews of Picard because I really found the early episodes the strongest, with the writers doubling down on everything that most concerned me in the back half of the season. It was episode 6 where the wheels of plot and character began to come off and nostalgia was given the work of heavy lifting TNG fans through to the end.
With SNW being episodic, six episodes would seem to be enough to know if the shows continuing strongly or hitting a sophomore slump. No one yet has called slump. So it seems that those who liked season one should expect to be satisfied with season two.
I have had a subscription to YNAB (you need a budget) for years now. It’s simple and straight to the point for exactly what we need. It pulls everything from my bank accounts smoothly. My partner understands it and is able to easily use it, which is extremely important.
I tried Mint and have suggested it in the past as a free alternative to folks who need help budgeting, but it tends to be too complicated for most that I’ve suggested it to. And that’s even after setting it up for them and showing them basic usage.
I used the GNUCash for a while. As a manual option, it was good for when I was importing everything to Quicken.
I no longer use quicken or manually import anything.
There’s not a lot of products that I’ll recommend, but I can say that YNAB is worth every cent.
Finished the sequel to Becky Chamber’s A Psalm For The Wild-Built. Can’t recommend this series more highly for a glimpse into a calming and peaceful alternative future.
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