Rob's Recommendation: Poltergeist

I'm not a big fan of horror movies, especially slasher flicks. For one thing, I don't like blood and gore, and I also don't like the jump scares. 

One of the few exceptions is Steven Spielberg's wonderful 1982 movie, Poltergeist. If you haven't seen it (and, surprisingly enough, there are people out there who haven't), do yourself a favor and watch it. It's more spooky than scary, but it's a lot of fun. Plus, it has a great score by Jerry Goldsmith. It's actually kind of a family movie, in a weird sort of way. I remember even my mom enjoyed it, even though she wasn't a fan of horror movies, either.

I watched it again a few years ago and it wasn't nearly as scary as I remembered. It think maybe the special effects haven't aged as well, or maybe we're just used to scarier stuff now. It probably makes a difference if you watch it on a big screen in the dark verses on your phone or something.

Anyway, that's my throwback pick for Halloween this year.

My grade: A

Political Ad Blocking Service Needs to be a Thing

It's only a little over a week until the midterm elections and I don't know about you, but I'm really sick of seeing all the political ads on TV. Especially the morning news, which seems to be where the majority of them are. (To be fair, there's probably a lot in the evening, but I don't watch evening news and the TV shows we watch, we fast forward through the ads.)

You know how they have services like VidAngel where you can set it to bleep out bad language and violence from movies and TV shows? What if someone invented that for political commercials? I'd pay for a service like that!

Seriously, do the political ads really change anyone's mind about anything, or do they just reinforce the beliefs you already have? Or maybe they keep people from wanting to vote at all because they're just so sick and tired of all the negative campaigning. 

I definitely think you should vote, but you should only do it by being informed. But don't rely on political advertising to inform you. Do your own research. Pray about it. And then cast an informed vote.

In the meantime, just record all the shows you want to watch on your DVR and then you can fast forward through all the political junk. We do that regularly with morning news programs. Turns out you can get caught up on an hour's worth of news in about 20 minutes. 

Celebrating our 28th Anniversary

Celebrating 28 years of marriage today with my best friend and the love of my life, Rosalie. 

I marvel at how wonderfully blessed I am that God led me to a person who is so perfect for me. We share a similar view of the world and, most importantly, the same sense of humor. (I think that's one of the keys to a great marriage.) Plus, she is a woman of God whom I admire and respect. 

The last 28 years have been filled with laughter. It's easier to face the challenges in life with a partner like this at your side. I can't imagine doing live with anyone else!

Run for the Prize

Our cross country team ran at our sectional meet yesterday up in Hibbing to close out the season for most of our students. One student, Eva Johnson, qualified for the State Meet next Saturday in Northfield with a great run. We had hoped to have more students qualify; in fact, we had hoped that our entire boys team would qualify. All of our runners worked hard all year and gave it their very best, but it was not to be this year.

However, the outstanding performance of the day came from one of our varsity boys, Eli Fromm. The passion he poured into his run was the most surprising, memorable, and exciting part of the day. 

Eli is a solid runner who works hard and is a vital part of our team, both for his performance on the course and his character and leadership throughout the season. It helps also that Eli is just an incredibly nice guy and very funny. 

Eli has regularly placed third or fourth on our team throughout the season, but yesterday he astounded everyone when, sometime in the second half of the race, he poured out everything he had and put on an incredible burst of speed. I'm not sure where it came from, but he reached down deep within and began to pour it on, passing both team members Charlie and Ethan, our two front-runners who consistently battled between first and second place on our team. 

As I watched him race the final few dozen meters to the finish line, I could see on his face a combination of both effort and pain in equal measure. He crossed the finish line in a lot of pain and utterly exhausted. When you talk about someone giving 110%, this is what you are referring to. I was reminded of 1 Corinthians 9:24: "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." That was Eli yesterday.

Eli was less than five seconds away from qualifying for State as an individual. Nevertheless, he made us all incredibly proud. His heart and passion were evident in his performance, and he left a stellar example for the rest of the team to follow.

Really, it's a great example for all of us. What are you passionate enough about to go all out and give it your all? 

Blessing is Instrumental

One of the reasons I decided to blog about stuff is to share the things that bring me joy. Or, to put it the way my favorite Star Trek podcast hosts do, "We're all about celebrating the love." (The Inglorious Treksperts podcast). I like to share things that I enjoy so that maybe I can help someone else find things that they enjoy, as well.

So what are the things that bring you joy? What makes you happy? Have you shared any of these things with someone else?

One of my favorite old hymns is "Count Your Blessings", but I think the reason we should do that is so that we can share them with others. Blessings are always instrumental. They're never meant just to be something for the recipient. In other words, God is blessing you so that you can bless someone else - you are blessed to be a blessing.

What blessing can you share?

The Ad Man Cometh

I've always been fascinated by marketing and the advertising industry. I don't begrudge advertising as it provides several useful benefits. For one, it can make you aware of new products. And it helps pay for things that we can receive free or very inexpensively. Newspapers, for example, for decades have survived on advertising. Classified ads were vital and the advent of the internet and services like Craigslist hurt newspaper revenue immensely.

Television programming, as well, was made available at no cost, other than your time that you were obligated to sit through a commercial. This model, of course, is being upended by streaming services which require payment to minimize or eliminate advertising.

Again, I have no problem with any of this. This is a part of the free market economy that provides goods and services.

But there are times when I think that producers of a product misuse advertising. For example, I have a particular Android app that I have been enjoying for years that has recently begun including ads. I have no problem with that, as they want to monetize their product to continue to develop it. But the way it has been implemented is in a very intrusive way, and your encouraged each time to pay for the product to get rid of the advertising. 

In this case, I think they are being extremely unfair to the advertiser. After all, who wants their advertising to be considered an intrusive nuisance that is holding the user hostage but which can be eliminated if you pay the ransom demand? I wouldn't want to be one of their advertisers.

Why not rather help the advertisers by presenting them as a service ("here's something you might not be aware of that will help you!")? Of course that would require some curating of the advertisers and intentionality on the part of the app developers. Much easier to simply put some code in there and nag your users until they pay up.

Celebration of Friendship

I've always been fascinated by friendship, especially why certain people become friends. What is it that draws people together into that relationship?

Obviously, proximity has something to do with it. When you are in school together or work together all the time, you have a better chance of developing those bonds of friendship. Conversely, I have a lot of friends who I don't live near now, so our friendship is kind of on pause. That happens with some of my great friends from college and even former students who have graduated and moved away. If we ever moved back closer to each other we would no doubt resume our friendship, but for now the friendship is kind of stuck at a certain level and unlikely to get deeper.

Another factor is shared interests. There are a lot of people whose company I enjoy, but we don't really share any hobbies or pastimes. For example, I don't hunt or fish, and for a lot of people that is their main avocation. On the other hand, I know people who enjoy some of the things I do (science fiction, books, tv, movies, etc.) but our personalities don't really mesh. Maybe it's their sense of humor (or lack thereof), or some other character quirk. So there is that kind of unquantifiable personality factor to consider.

It gets complexified when you are married, as well. It's hard to find other couples that you both enjoy. Often you will really connect with one but not the other.

It's the rare when you find another person that you really connect with and enjoy being around. The person you can talk with for a long time, but you never seem to run out of things to talk about. You enjoy doing some of the same things together and you challenge each other to be better people. You spend time with them, and when you leave you can't wait to get together again.

When you do find a person like that, it's a gift to be celebrated and cherished.

Success is Messy

Success is messy. Most people don't tend to think about this, but the more successful an entity is, the bigger it grows, and you add complexity and a bit of chaos.

This is true for most organizations, groups, churches, and even families. If you're a parent, you'll know - life was a lot easier when it was just the two of you. And when you add an additional kid, the work and chaos doesn't double, it goes up exponentially. 

One of the sayings we have in youth ministry is, "Ministry is messy." Often literally. That's why youth leaders should always be extra nice to the church custodian, because the more "successful" your group is, the messier it is, no matter how much you try to keep things clean.

That's something to remember if you are in leadership and are developing organizational guidelines. You can either structure for growth or for control, but not for both. Most organizations tend to structure for control because it's cleaner. Thus are birthed multitudinous levels of bylaws and rules which end up stifling growth. 

I think that's why a lot of organizations stay small. It's easier to manage. It's less messy.

[Thanks to Patrick Lencioni and the Table Group Podcast last week for inspiring this post.]

It's All About Pace

Our varsity cross country team is getting ready to go to Sections this week up in Hibbing. We had a practice on Friday where we were running on some rural roads in our area and I decided to run with the team.

Usually when I run with the kids at cross country practice it's at the beginning of the season and I'm often running with the junior high students - most of whom I can keep up with (at the beginning of the season, at least). This time it was all of our varsity runners at the workout, so I started out at a pretty rapid pace (for me) because I didn't want to totally embarrass myself. I knew I would never be able to keep up with them the whole six miles, but I figured I would at least try to hang near them at the beginning. 

The rest of the group stopped to stretch after the first mile warmup, but I kept going to give myself a bit of a head start. I turned down a rural dirt road nearby that was lined with trees, all at their peak fall colors. It occurred to me that I was pushing myself for no good reason, other than to finish the task. Instead, I decided to slow down a bit and enjoy the amazing scenery. 

Suddenly, my run, which had been kind of draining, began to become a joy. I wasn't worried about pace, I was just enjoying creation, and it transformed my run.

That's often like the way we try to tackle life - we just keep pushing and striving, trying to accomplish whatever task we are working to complete. There's nothing wrong with that. It's good to have a solid work ethic. But seldom do we slow down - or even pause - and enjoy the journey. 

But when we do... it transforms our lives from a tedious chore into a joyful journey. 

The Great Creamer Saga Continues

I saw this at our local Walmart the other day and I was so excited because I love the flavor of Kahlua, but obviously you don't want to add it to your morning coffee! (Well, you might want to, especially first thing in the morning, but you really shouldn't.) I was so hopeful that this would be my replacement creamer until Coffee-Mate finally gets their act together and is able to resume production on their all-time best flavor, Creme Brulee. 

Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the flavor. It certainly doesn't taste like Kahlua. Instead, this has an almost chocolaty flavor to it, which I'm not a big fan of in my creamers. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, and I'll certainly finish the bottle and may even end up buying it again, but it's definitely not Kahlua, and it won't be replacing Creme Brulee. 

And so the search continues. Please, Coffee-Mate, bring back Creme Brulee!!

My grade: B+

Fun with Glass

It's cool picture Friday and this week I wanted to share a picture of a stained-glass creation I made (with the help of Rosalie and a friend from our church). Jerry (pictured below) has been making some wonderful stained-glass creations for a long time and he spent the afternoon with us this week teaching us how to make them.

Here's Rosalie's angel creation: 

While I loved making a Star Trek insignia, it stained-glass takes a lot of detailed, precision work, which is not something I have a lot of patience for. I'd probably do it again, but I doubt it would be a good hobby for me to do all the time. Rosalie, however, had a blast, but she's plenty busy with her current creations!

The Potential of a Stick

I spent the day with Rosalie and some of my friends from our youth group up in Superior hunting for driftwood for Rosalie's crafting business, Spahr Mercantile. We scoured the beach looking for interesting pieces of driftwood that she can use to make some of her rope creations. 

If you don't know what you're looking for, they tend to just look like a regular stick. But once you get the hang of it you begin to see the possibilities for what they can become.

I think that's the way it is for God when he looks at us. He looks at us the way we look at our kids. He doesn't just see an ordinary person; he sees the possibilities and the potential.

That's the way we are supposed to view each other, as well. 

Goals or Targets?

Are we using the word "goal" correctly? It seems like goal has become something that you must achieve or else you fail - there's no other option. 

Maybe a better word to use is "target," as in, "I am targeting getting 10,000 steps in each day. But if I don't get there today, I can try again tomorrow." You won't always hit the bulls-eye, but you can keep shooting for it.

This negates the power of a streak, but it keeps your objective from becoming legalistic. 

(Or maybe I'm just rationalizing the fact that I accidentally missed posting yesterday.)

Not Quite Standing the Test of Time

You've probably had the experience where you remember a movie (or a TV show) you watched a long time ago and you have fond memories of that movie, but then when you watch it again, you find it doesn't really hold up. Yeah, that was my experience with The Lost Boys. 

I think that movie came around at a certain time (the 80s) and captured the zeitgeist of a generation (or at least those of us of a certain age at the time) and so we think back to that time the the fond memories we have of seeing it then. With The Lost Boys there was the added appeal of a great soundtrack. I still have that soundtrack on a cassette tape and enjoy putting it in once in a while while driving, especially at dusk.

But when the movie reran on TV not long ago, I watched it again. It's got great memories and some good scenes, but as much as at the time we liked the "Coreys" (Haim and Feldman), and as awesome as Kieffer Sutherland turned out to be (24's Jack Bauer!), the movie itself doesn't really hold up - at least when compared to how much I enjoyed it at the time. It's still a fun diversion, and an interesting peek back into the styles of the 80s, but it wasn't as awesome as I remembered.

Your mileage may vary, of course. If you saw it back when it was in theaters, you may still enjoy it. If you are a younger person, you probably won't understand the appeal. They are working on a remake of the movie, and it will be interesting to see what they do with it. Otherwise I'll file it away as a good memory and a fun movie at the time, but I probably won't we rewatching it again. 

My Parents Were Models

One of the (many) things I am thankful to my parents for is the way they were role models for me with regards to church attendance. I wasn't always super thankful when I was a young person, but we were at church regularly on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights, plus youth special events once we got older. 

In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of times that we were we missed church growing up. I remember one time - it was September 13, 1978. I had just turned 12 and I begged my parents to allow me to stay home on Sunday night to watch the premiere of Battlestar Galactica. They said "yes" this one time, but this was a rare, rare exception. I think only other times I missed was due to illness or being out of town on vacation. 

Church attendance was not optional for us growing up, and I learned to view the church as a kind of extended family. I played at church, served there, made friends there, learned there, and grew there. My involvement at church was an integral part of my life from an early age. 

I think a lot of parents don't realize how important that kind of consistency is to a child or young person. There's an old saying that faith is often "more caught than taught." In other word, parents model for their kids the priority of a relationship with God by their regular involvement in corporate worship and church life.

Obviously it not a guarantee, but a great way to help encourage kids to have a vibrant faith and deep connection to a local church when they grow up is to model it for them through your consistent attendance at worship and involvement with your church family.

Handle Hard Better

A friend shared this motivational video with the Cross Country coaches this morning and I wanted to share it with you. I may end up playing this for our team, but truthfully, everyone can benefit from this, whether you play a sport or not. It's really about life.

It's worth your three minutes to watch.

Enjoy.

Fun Picture Friday: Snow

Well, this is what we woke up to this morning. It seems a little early for snow, but that's just because we've had such a temperate - and even warm - Fall this year here in central Minnesota. 

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a "fun" picture for fun picture Friday, but it is what it is. It'll be more fun once it gets colder and we're able to play broomball. But hopefully that won't be for a few more months. In the meantime, if God would turn the thermostat back up about 20 degrees, that would be okay with us!

My Other Favorite Author

If you're looking for something good to read, allow me to suggest my son Jonah's ongoing web novel that is available at RoyalRoad.com. It's called Magical Girl Gunslinger and it's an action-adventure saga. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, so I'll post the description from the site:

“Would you like to make a contract?”

When eldritch horrors known as the Anathema began tearing through reality to invade Earth, aliens calling themselves the Zenith stepped in to protect humanity. Individuals were chosen and gifted with the ability to use magic and advanced technologies to combat the existential threat. Over twenty-one years later, the so-called “Magical Guardians” are still hard at work keeping the peace. With their flashy outfits, superhuman abilities, and reality-defying spells, they are the part-time heroes and full-time idols of modern society.

But none of that really matters to Mai, whose biggest problems are dealing with her family, classmates, and the ever growing dread of her imminent future. As far as Mai is concerned, mundane problems are more than enough to worry about, and the idea of magic and monsters might as well be nothing more than daydreams. At least, they were until she finds herself in the middle of an Anathema invasion… 

A Dark Magical Girl LitRPG with sci-fi elements. Note: Slow burn and slow, gradual introduction of LitRPG mechanics that become a focal point once introduced.

Please be aware this story contains intense violence, gore, traumatic situations, and other potentially unsettling content.

Chapters tend to be longer but with inconsistent updates.

I may be biased, but I think you will agree that he is an amazing writer. His characters are fully formed and the descriptions are detailed without being pedantic. He has over 2,300 followers as of this writing and is bound to accumulate more. 

I mentioned yesterday that my favorite fiction author is Jim Butcher. I should qualify that and say that my favorite fiction author that I'm not related to is Jim Butcher. Otherwise, Jonah Spahr takes the cake! Check it out if you get a chance. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/48402/magical-girl-gunslinger

The Joy of Discovery

Do you remember the first time you discovered something wonderful?

I remember sitting in the theater in 1977, watching as the Rebel Blockade Runner was pursued by the Imperial Star Destroyer. The whole theater shook and the ship just went on and on and on. I had a moment where I knew that movies were never going to be the same again.

Something similar happened when I first Terminator 2, and a few years later with the Matrix. This was long before the internet and there wasn't a lot of pre-publicity about either (at least that I was aware), so I went into the theater without any expectations and was blown away by these movies.

I'm sure there are other examples beyond the movies. But I was thinking of this as a good friend of mine, upon my recommendation, is about to embark on his first Dresden Files novel, Storm Front. I am excited for him as he discovers this wonderful world that author Jim Butcher has created for the first time. 

Jim Butcher has become far and away my favorite fiction author. I love all of his work: His Codex Alera series was fantastic, and I am enjoyed his first Cinder Spires novel. (He even wrote a Spider-Man novel a number of years ago.) He creates wonderful characters and great plots. Plus, he is extremely funny. 

I'm typically not a huge fan of fantasy, generally preferring science fiction as my genre of choice. But Butcher's works are the exception. If you haven't yet sampled any of his work, you are in for a treat. All of his works build in sequence, and while you could probably jump into any novel, you'll enjoy them best in the order of release. They all have my highest recommendation. A+

Pizza Deal Today

I'm all about the deals. I grew up in a household where we were always looking for the best price and the best deal on stuff. Part of that is because my dad was a teacher and my mom substitute taught, so we weren't rolling in the money. But part of it is because there was something about the search for the best deal. (People sometimes ask me if I hunt. I reply, "Yes. Bargain hunt!") 

We would go to garage sales and flea markets to find items for my dad's Coca-Cola collection, or my Star Trek collection, or used books, or... really anything that we could find a good deal on. 

All of that preamble is to let you know that if you are a T-Mobile customer and you aren't taking advantage of their T-Mobile Tuesday app, you are missing out on some great deals. Today, for instance, there is a great deal on Pizzas thorough Entertaiment (the people who used to publish those fundraising coupon books. I don't even know if that's still a thing or if they're all digital now). 

A lot of times T-Mobile Tuesday deals will be for restaurants that are not local to those of us in rural areas. For example, lots of deals in the past through Dunkin Donuts, or Annie's Pretzels. But today's deal actually has a local option with 50% off a pizza order (up to $12) at Pizza Pub in Pine City, which has some of the best pizza around. The deal is good for the next week, but you have to reserve it on Tuesday (today). 

So if you have T-Mobile and live around Pine City, it's a no-brainer. There are lots of other pizza places that honor this deal, as well, if you aren't around Pine City. 

I know what I'm doing for supper after our cross country meet today!

Just Start With Five

One of my challenges to my youth group this year was to set aside (at least) five minutes a day to read the Bible and have a personal time alone with God. Obviously, I hope the students fall in love with Scripture and have a vibrant prayer life and so on, which will require more time than that. But five minutes is a good place to start.

It's understandable that students often struggle with this, given all of the other demands on their time with school and homework, family obligations and so on. If it's not a habit that they have developed while in elementary school, it can take some time to acquire. But many adults struggle with this, as well - even adults who have been Christ-followers for many years.

What's inconceivable to me (yes, that word means what I think it means) is how some people will commit their lives to following Jesus, and trust God with their eternal soul, but they don't spend time actually reading His Word to see for themselves what God has to say!

I'm not saying that you have to be a seminary-trained theologian. That would be somewhat like expecting a person to understand aerodynamics and aviation engineering before flying on an airplane. But you should at least be familiar with his love letter to you.

Some will complain that it's confusing. Sure, parts are, but not all of the Bible. Mark Twain is sometimes credited with a variant of this saying, "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts I do!" There is plenty of Scripture that is clear. I'm betting that just learning about those parts, and how to live by the stuff we do understand, will keep us plenty busy without ever having to worry about the more confusing parts.

So what's keeping you from spending some time alone with God today?

Rob's Reviews: Breaking Bad & Better Call Saul

There's not a lot of TV shows that are able to really nail the landing when it comes to a series finale. (I'm looking at you, Lost!) I'm happy to say that Better Call Saul really is the exception here. They had a fabulous run and really wrapped up everything so well, which is difficult for a regular series, but they also had to dovetail their storytelling with Breaking Bad, seeing as how Better Call Saul is a prequel. 

I loved Breaking Bad, but in a lot of ways I love Better Call Saul even more. It has such well-developed characters and it provides a lot of tension knowing where they will end up. Or do we know? So many questions, and if you haven't seen the show, it's almost impossible to explain. I'd say watch Breaking Bad first. If you enjoyed that, you'll love Better Call Saul.

I will say that both deal with adult theme and have a lot of violence and some bad language, so I wouldn't recommend them to young people. But for adults or older teens, these are some of the best-written shows I've ever watched.

My grade to both: A+

Rob's Review: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

I've waited a while to write about She-Hulk because I wanted to give it a fair shot. Having seen the first seven episodes now I thought I'd share my take on the TV show.

I've always enjoyed the character in the comics when handled by a writer who understood the humor, breaking the fourth wall, and so on. I loved John Byrne's run on the title. I really liked the lead acress, Tatiana Maslany, who did an unbelievably great job in Orphan Black, but I had a hard time imagining her as Jennifer Walters. Also, I had heard some other negative things about the show, so I was a little hesitant going in.

Turns out the show is a lot of fun!

I think a lot of people got down on the show due to some sketchy CGI in the first promos. Other people have criticized it for political reasons (mostly I think because Marvel is a Disney property and they don't like Disney). I haven't found anything at all objectionable about it. It seems to capture the lightness and fun of the comics in what is essentially a sit-com (each episode is about 1/2 an hour). 

I'd say if you're looking for something light, fun, and enjoyable, and you like the Marvel universe, you'll probably like the show. 

My Grade: A

Fun Picture Friday: George

It Fun Picture Friday! This was my favorite picture this past week from the elementary fun run before our cross country meet in Hinckley. That's George in the middle who is a sixth grade student that loves running (and is pretty good at it, too!) I love the expression on his face and his overall passion for running is evident. I'm looking forward to having him on the Dragon Cross Country team next year!

Here's a bonus picture of all of the elementary Dragon runners. I hope to see them all on our junior and senior high team one day!

Cool Stuff: Sequence

On one of the podcasts I listen to (At the Table with Patrick Lencioni), they used to go around and have the hosts share free "ads" for something they liked, like a local coffee shop or a product of some sort. I always looked forward to seeing what they were going to highlight and perhaps try it myself. 

That's been kind of a background motive for many of my blog posts - to share the love for a product or recipe, TV show or move, or whatever is fun that someone may want to try. So in the spirit of that, I'm going to start a new recurring feature on the blog. I may talk a lot about it, or I might just tell you what it is and suggest you give it a try. I'm probably going to call it "Cool Stuff" unless someone comes up with something better. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments. 

For my first installment, I am going to highlight my favorite board game: "Sequence". I love it because it's easy to learn, but the more you play the better you get at incorporating some strategy. I've played this for hours with youth group students, friends, and family. If you're ever interested in getting together to play Sequence - or hosting a Sequence night! - just let me know.

Best French Toast

Our local diner, Nicoll's Cafe in Pine City, has some amazing homemade oatmeal raisin bread made on site by their owner, Butch. I've been purchasing loaves of this bread to make toast for breakfast, but Dawn (our wonderful regular waitress at Nicoll's) suggested trying using it to make french toast.

Oh. My. Goodness.

This is sooo good. We added homemade maple syrup from some good friends to top it off.

You can also get this french toast at Nicoll's, so if you're in the area I'd highly recommend it. Or pick up a loaf of their oatmeal raisin bread and try it yourself. You won't be disappointed.

Star Trek - Where to Start

I have a good friend who has never seen Star Trek but is interested in watching. The problem is, he doesn't know where to start. 

It is intimidating because Star Trek has been around for 56 years now with 11 series, 13 films, and new content premiering weekly, is rapidly approaching 700 hours of content. To sit down and watch everything would take almost 30 days of non-stop viewing. Assuming you just watch four hours a day, it would still take you half a year to watch everything! (Not that it wouldn't be amazing. I might have found my first activity after retiring!)

For example, here is a list of just all the different TV series in order of release:

• Star Trek (The Original Series)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: Voyager
• Enterprise
• Star Trek: Discovery 
• Star Trek: Picard
  
• Star Trek: Lower Decks 
• Star Trek: Prodigy
  
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The truth is, not all Star Trek is created equal in terms of quality. That's just the truth of network television and that fact that it has been around so long with so many different contributors.

So, where to begin? What would you consider essential viewing?

Of course, having grown up on classic Trek, I still consider it to be the gold standard. I tried to come up with a list of essential episodes to introduce a newcomer to Trek. Here's what I finally settled on. This is in the order that I would recommend, although I did list the season and episode numbers in case someone wants to watch them in release order.

• The Corbomite Maneuver s01e10
  
• Balance of Terror s01e15
  
• Space Seed s01e22
  
• Devil in the Dark s01e25
• Errand of Mercy s01e26
  
• City on the Edge of Forever s01e29
  
• The Menagerie (2 parts) s01e11, 12
  
• Amok Time s02e01
  
• Mirror, Mirror s02e04
  
• The Trouble With Tribbles s02e15
  

It's still a significant investment of time, but 10 episodes is a lot more manageable than even all 79 of the original series episodes. If you watch these 10 and still aren't hooked on Trek, it's probably not for you. The next ones I would recommend are as follows:

• Where No Man Has Gone Before s01 e03 (the second pilot)
  
• A Piece of the Action s02e17
  
• The Enemy Within s01e05
  
• The Doomsday Machine s02e06
  
• A Taste of Armageddon s01e23 
• Journey to Babel s02e10 
• The Enterprise Incident s03e02 
• All Our Yesterdays s03e23 
• Assignment: Earth s02e26 
• The Naked Time s01e04 
• Arena s01e19 

Finally are some that I would consider non-essential, but still a lot of fun:

• Shore Leave s01e15 
• The Squire of Gothos s01e17 
• I, Mudd s02e08 
• By Any Other Name s02e22 
• Bread and Circuses s02e25 
• The Omega Glory s02e23

Rosalie and I did a rewatch of the entire series a couple of years ago, but if anyone's interested, I never get tired of watching Trek, especially these classic ones!

If you're a new Star Trek fan and try this list, let me know what you think. If you're already a fan, what would you add or change? 

What If Nobody Else Knows?

Why make your bed every day when nobody else is going to see it?

Or why write a blog that nobody reads? What about a story? A novel?

Is it possible that there is an intrinsic value in doing something, even if it's possible that nobody else will ever know about it? 

At least you'll know.

You don't have to do everything, but you can choose to do something. 

It may be that the choosing itself provides the benefit.

How Do You Respond?

How do you respond when something negative happens?

"There are two kinds of people - those who, when something happens in their world, they look outwardly and say, "What can I fix out here to make this better?"

And then there's other types of people who look inwardly and say, "What could I have done different in this situation?"

The latter is the better one."

- Chuck Klausmeyer on The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe, episode 265

I'll Just Stay Home

I used to be a pretty spontaneous person. I would think of something or someone would propose and activity and I'd jump at the chance to do it.

Maybe it's a factor of age, but lately I increasingly find myself becoming a person who must plan ahead for activities that involve other people. If I wait for the last minute, I generally decide, "Nah, that takes too much energy to call/text everyone and try to get people together. I'll just stay home."

I'm still often ready to do something if someone else suggests it, but I'm less likely to be the person initiating the spontaneity. Which is a problem if you have friends who are the same way.

So if you want to do something...