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Blogworthy: Smart Star Wars Soldiers, Witcher Timeline, Pulp Magazine Archive, Stem Cell Robots, Ice Safety for Giant Monsters

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An armored warrior walks out of a sunset.

The Mandalorian Is the Only Smart Soldier in the Star Wars Galaxy – The Angry Staff Officer at Wired.com explains how everyone’s new favorite bounty hunter and his ally, the former Rebel Alliance drop trooper Cara Dune are the first on-screen soldiers in the Star Wars universe to use reasonable, intelligent strategies and tactics. Here’s why writing things … Read more

Blogworthy: A New Star Wars Reckoning, Four-Day Week, Supernova, Risk, Y2K Redux

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A close up of the cannon aperture of the planet-sized Starkiller Base.

10 Intriguing Star Wars Details We Learned From The Rise of Skywalker’s Visual Dictionary – There are a lot of interesting tidbits in here, but the strangest one is the decision by Lucasfilm to drop the Before/After Battle of Yavin (BBY/ABY) timeline reckoning in favor of Before/After the Starkiller Incident (BSI/ASI). While I can kind … Read more

Under the Geek Tree 2019

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Two board games under the geek tree.

Board games and role-playing games vied for dominance under the Geek Tree this year with the arrival of Roll for the Galaxy, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, and Vault of Dragons as well as the RPG books Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Alien: The Role-playing Game. Roll for the Galaxy (Amazon / Website): The Race for the Galaxy is one of my gaming group’s favorite … Read more

#BrokenAnkleSaga: Two Years Later

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A pair of blue running sneakers in front of a number of board and card games.

Two years ago, I broke my right ankle slipping on snow-covered ice. I didn’t just break it though; I had a trimalleolar fracture plus dislocation. In laymen’s terms, I broke my ankle real good. I was in a cast for six weeks and a boot for something like two months. Physical therapy dominated most of 2018. It seems … Read more

Ornament-a-Day 2019: Darth Vader Peekbuster

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The last Ornament-a-Day entry is dedicated to the only geeky ornament left on the family tree: 2012’s Darth Vader Peekbuster. Given that the family tree is where the wrapped family presents go and since this Vader is designed to detect and scold would-be present peekers, it’s entirely appropriate. This battery-powered, Christmas-themed Vader wears his traditional black armor … Read more

Ornament-a-Day: U.S.S. Reliant NCC-1864

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For years, the ornament I wanted most for the Geek Tree was the U.S.S. Reliant (NCC-1864), the U.S.S. Enterprise’s opponent in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. While I had plenty of variant Enterprises from all of Star Trek’s eras and any number of opposing ships like the Klingon Bird of Prey and Romulan Warbird, Hallmark steadfastly avoided releasing Khan’s improvised flagship. That changed in 2010 when the … Read more

Ornament-a-Day: Storyteller Star Destroyer & Y-Wing

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Hallmark released two new Star Wars Storyteller ornaments in 2019: The Imperial Star Destroyer and the Y-Wing. Like the other Storyteller ornaments, they feature LED illuminated regions (the cargo bay on the Star Destroyer, the cockpit on the Y-Wing) that slowly rotate through different colors. Powered and connected by Hallmark’s proprietary Keepsake power cord, the two new ships join … Read more

Ornament-a-Day: U.S.S. Franklin NX-326

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Star Trek Beyond is one of my favorite Trek movies. Unlike the derivative and uninspired Star Trek Into Darkness that preceded it, Beyond is an original story focused on exploration as well as the optimistic future that Trek embraces. Unfortunately, it didn’t do great in the box office, leading to a lull in new cinematic Star Trek offerings but that didn’t stop Hallmark from releasing the … Read more

Blogworthy: Baby Yoda Sleepytime, Unseen Enterprise, Doing Nothing, Electric State, Biohacking, Accidental Neighborhoods, Zeppelin Return, Limelight

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A lounge in space. A bar can be seen to the left; tables with seats look out on space on the right

“Go To Sleep Baby Yoda” Perfectly Captures the Torture of Putting a Toddler to Bed: Yeah … it’s pretty much exactly like that. The Unseen Enterprise-D: Forgotten Trek documents the portions of the Next Generation’s Enterprise that we never saw on the show. It’s filled with fan and concept art for areas like the main shuttle bay, the ship’s many … Read more