Sunday night, like many Star Trek fans sat down to watch the premiere of Star Trek: Discovery.
This is the first new Star Trek series since Enterprise was cancelled back in 2005. 12 years us Trekkies sat with no new Trek on TV. We got some action movies in Star Trek, Into Darkness &amp; Beyond, but nothing like The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine or Voyager.
I knew once Enterprise was cancelled that the chances of a new series coming out anytime in the near future was just about slim to none. When I heard that they were rebooting Star Trek I was hopeful that a successful movie might allow for a new series. No such luck. It wasn’t that big of a deal for me anyway as I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the new movies. They’re not bad movies, but none of them really speak to me the same way the TV series did or how any of the previous movies spoke to me. The thing that really drew, and still does draw me to Star Trek is the hopeful vision of the future. The new movies focus more on the action aspect of things. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the action; it’s just not what really draws me to it.
Fast forward to this past weekend with the premiere of Discovery. I watched the first episode and left with a feeling of...well, indifference. I didn’t hate it by any means. The special effects were fantastic. The story wasn’t bad, but I’m not sure how much of it I really got in just one episode. As it stands, I wasn’t truly drawn in. Star Trek TV series often have this problem though. The first seasons of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager were definitely each series’ weakest seasons. I also don’t think you can really judge any television series based on a single episode, especially the pilot.
This leads me to my dilemma. Star Trek: Discovery is only available on CBS All-Access. CBS All-Access costs $6 or $10 a month depending on if you’re willing to tolerate ads. Unlike the other shows on CBS, Discovery will not be broadcast past the first episode.
On one hand, I want to support Star Trek and the development of future seasons and series. The special effects for Discovery were impressive. They definitely felt better than previous series which can probably be attributed to both newer technology as well as a bigger budget. I want to support this and the development of more Trek on TV and a subscription should hopefully allow for it.
But on the other hand, I absolutely hate what CBS is pulling and don’t want to support it. I can’t think of any franchise that has the same pull that Star Trek does on both television and the movies. CBS knows this and is taking full advantage. How many other new shows do you think CBS (or any network) could put behind a paywall and expect the numbers of subscribers to be there? This irritates me to no end and I definitely feel taken advantage of. I figure Discovery will probably face increased piracy because of this. I won’t go that far, but I also haven’t ruled out waiting until next summer when all 15 episodes are out, getting the one week free trial, binging all the episodes and then cancelling my subscription. I also feel like CBS is basically torpedoing the series by making us Star Trek fans consider going down this route.
I also can’t help but wonder if this is the future of TV and streaming. All the different stations offering their own streaming service. We’ve already seen the beginning of it with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon getting exclusives. We’ve seen a first hint with Disney planning their own streaming service in the next couple of years. Imagine having to pay $5-10 each for every channel you want to stream. I’m sure this is part of their plans to try to make those planning to cut the cord think twice about it. But imagine if ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, and others each made you buy into their own services in addition to cable and broadcast like CBS is doing. (Now they can get double the payments!) The costs are going to add up fast. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon at least add more value due to their diverse and large selection of TV series and movies. CBS doesn’t even provide full access to their back catalogue.
I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do about Discovery and CBS All-Access. I might very well just suck it up and buy the subscription to watch the series, or I might just wait until the end and binge watch it. Either way, I’m not sure I like where the future of streaming is heading.

Star Trek Discovery and the Future of Streaming

Recently, much has changed in regards to my presence on social media.
Back in February I decided that I had had enough of Facebook and left the service. I didn’t deactivate or delete my account, I simply signed out and deleted the apps from my phone &amp; tablet. Suffice it to say, I have yet to look back.
I had several reasons for making this decision.
<h3>Privacy</h3>

Facebook is of course known for the fact that they do everything they can to grab every bit of information about you. They find out who your friends are, what you like to eat, what you like to drink, your political views, and so much more. The scary thing, and this is by no means limited to Facebook, Google does it too, is that you don’t even have to be explicit about it. Facebook can figure out so much that all the little hints that you drop along the way in what you like and share can give it away. There was a story several years ago where <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#3078e64b6668" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Target found out someone was pregnant before her father even found out</a>. Think about that, and then imagine something far more detailed, and far more invasive. I’m still on Instagram though, which is owned by Facebook. The privacy thing still bothers me there, but privacy alone isn’t the only reason I left.
<h3>Echo Chamber</h3>

Facebook’s algorithm gets a lot of press on how it really tailors what we all see and read about to our tastes. Facebook generally wants to keep us on the site, so showing us too many articles that we disagree with can end up hurting that goal. The problem that arises from that, is that when it comes to politics and ideas, we might only see those thoughts and ideas that correspond with our own rather than challenge us. I’m certainly sometimes guilty of too quickly writing off conflicting ideas as simply being “wrong” without looking at the meat of the argument. To not even be given the other viewpoints though ends up weakening the dialogue.
The other side of this is that we as humans tend to stick with people we agree with. It’s natural to do this. The downside here though is that all too often, it shows in the feeds. Even without Facebook’s algorithm, we still only see our side of the argument.
Given that my Facebook profile has content that I really don’t want strangers to have easy access to (I keep most things private on Facebook), becoming friends with people outside my social circle isn’t an option to get alternate views, and if I wanted to follow right-leaning publications, there are better places to do it than on Facebook. Before I left Facebook, I culled my likes and follow list to essentially just friends, not really pages and groups. Basically what I’m trying to say there is that I don’t really feel like using Facebook as a news aggregator, more as a way to keep up with my friends and family.
One last thing on this point, Christie Aschwanden, a writer for FiveThirtyEight had a great point on how <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/leaving-social-media-taught-me-how-broken-the-news-cycle-is/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media sort of points you in the direction of what to read</a>. Reading the news more like the morning paper rather than whatever your friends recommend has so far seemed to help me see more sides to things that I had been previously. Nothing’s perfect mind you as even publications like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal can try to funnel you into various stories, more often than not, you’ll see a lot more than you would through social media.
<h3>Time Sink</h3>

Let’s face it, social media is a huge time sink. Many people, myself included, spend so much time following their feeds on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. I noticed I was spending far too much time on Facebook. It wasn’t the only thing on my phone or laptop I was wasting time on, but it was definitely the biggest.
<h3>Beyond Facebook</h3>

After I left Facebook, I also ended up spending less time on Reddit as well. The one site I ended up moving a little bit more to was Twitter. At the time I justified it by following some right-leaning accounts and news sources, but it ended up being somewhat of a time sink as well. All the politics drained me as well, so in mid-June, I ended up leaving Twitter as well. The only two social media platforms I really visited with any regularity were Instagram and Hacker News. I love photography and technology so both of those fit in for what I was looking for without much of the other stuff that ends up tagging along with Facebook and Twitter.
<h3>Going Forward</h3>

I still have no interest in returning to Facebook. Given that it’s still a connection to friends and family, I don’t see myself deactivating or deleting my account, but I’m not going to be logging on. As for Reddit, I still occasionally peruse the site, but the apps are gone from my iPad and phone, and I don’t spend that much time there. Recently, I decided to really cull who I follow on Twitter. Outside of a VERY small handful of people, I stopped following all news &amp; politics accounts regardless of what political leaning they had. Basically I’m trying to keep my Twitter feed to science, tech, development, sports, and beer feeds. While I’ve only been back for a handful of days at this point, I have to say it feels more enjoyable than being inundated with the latest happenings of Washington. I still like to keep up with what’s going on, but I think I’ll use podcasts and my subscription to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to help me out there.

Adjusting My Social Media Presence

The last couple months have been really hectic for me and unfortunately I didn’t get much done on my recipe side project.
I ended up getting a fair amount in using Ruby on Rails 5.1, but never was really able to really get a rhythm going and am still not sure that I want to write it in Rails.
This past weekend I decided I really wanted to get back into it. It might not have been the best weekend as I had a graduation party Saturday night and a Phillies game Sunday with the family, but on Friday after work I decided I was going to sit down and look into React.
Looking at React made me realize that outside of work, I might have fallen behind some with where things currently are in the world of software and web development. For the last several years, all I’ve really done are some basic websites and stuff for my jobs in the .NET world. I haven’t really dug into a side project or kept up which can definitely be harmful for software developers.
Looking at my calendar, the month of August thankfully doesn’t look too busy. I’m hoping that I can spend some evenings digging into several new (to me) languages and technologies. My plan to start is to look at ES6, React &amp; Node.js. I figure others might pop up during my exploration so I’ll just have to see where I wind up.
Back to this past weekend…
On Friday, I ended up starting out with the <a href="https://facebook.github.io/react/tutorial/tutorial.html" title="Tic-Tac-Toe Game in React" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Tic-Tac-Toe tutorial</a> on React’s official site. I’m still getting used to the syntax and some of the new functionality of ES6, but I think I’m beginning to understand the basics of how it works. I still have a ways to go before I’m ready to really start developing, but sometimes the first step is the hardest. I think this is basically is my problem. I’m overwhelmed by how far it seems I’ve fallen behind, and am struggling to take that first step up the ladder to climb out of this little hole.
I’m confident that if I put my mind to things, I can do it, I just have to avoid the distractions that pop up and really focus. I still want to do my recipe site, but I might end up writing it in something other than Rails depending on how this all goes.

Wow, I've Fallen Behind

I&#39;ve been having an itch lately to get working on a new side project.
A little over a year ago I built a recipe site for Lauren and I to use to try to consolidate all our recipes. Our recipes are mixed around between Evernote, Google Drive, and random browser bookmarks. It isn’t the most efficient system and when once of us ends up cooking, it’s not always easy to remember where the recipe is stored. I built a little tool using Ruby on Rails and deployed it. It worked, but it was kind of clunky, not all that pretty, and rather quickly I forgot about it.
The initial version was primarily meant to be a down and dirty version of it. Get it to work and then optimize it and make it better later. I even built it with the idea that people could download it and install it on their own servers if they like. While there are other services out there, it’d be nice to know that you control the data &amp; recipes so that you don’t have to worry about the services shutting down and all your saved recipes go out the window. If you hadn’t guessed, the improvements never ended up happening. The code worked, but that was about the extent of it. It also didn’t help that Lauren and I ended up buying a house and had project after project lined up, which took up much of our time. So now I’m looking into reviving the project. I ended up shutting down the server it was running on, and I’m pretty much just going to throw out the old code and start fresh.
I built a quick outline of it in Ruby on Rails 5.1, but I also haven’t fully committed to using Ruby on Rails. It has been a long time since I really had a side project to work on. My last big side project was OpenVoter, the Digg-clone CMS. I built that using PHP, which on a side note, was actually how I learned PHP. Since then, I haven’t really done much development outside of work where I develop in the .NET stack with some Javascript as well. Part of me feels overwhelmed looking at what platforms and libraries are out there between React, Node.js, Angular.js, and countless others. I’ve been battling my urge to go all gung-ho into this and to also do research into the different options to see what would be best. I also haven’t decided whether I want the whole project to be a CMS to download and install like before, or whether I want to do the platform route. My inclination is to continue the route of making it downloadable and installable on private servers like before, but the social aspect of allowing a central server is appealing.
Either way, over the next couple of months, I’m hoping to get some work done on it and hopefully nailing down how I’m going to build it, what languages and frameworks I’m going to use, and maybe even a working prototype. Stay tuned.

Starting a New Project

2016 was super busy for me and I really am hoping that 2017 is not quite as busy.
I have set some goals for myself this year and am hoping to at least be able to make some progress on them.
<h3>Continue to Get in Shape</h3>
2016 was a year full of mixed results in my fitness goals. It was the first year since at least 2012 that I didn’t run a single race. No 5k, no half-marathon, no nothing. I was supposed to run a 15k and a 10 miler, but the weather was awful and rainy (I HATE the rain) both days so I just decided to forego the races. In terms of my weight and body fat percentage, I really didn’t make any progress with either, which was my own fault. I never really was able to get my meal plans working. I was able to increase my main lifts though so it wasn’t a horrible year.
I’m going to make a concerted effort to do better with my diet and of course continue to hit the gym and go for runs and bike rides. If I can really push myself to stick with my diet, I think I’ll do better this year. In terms of races, I’m probably going to aim for a couple 5k races and a half-marathon or two. I’d like to beat my 2:15 half marathon record. Maybe I’ll try to do the Philly Half-Marathon this year.
<h3>Read More Books</h3>
Last year I ended up subscribing to The Economist magazine. The magazine was a fantastic weekly source of news and what’s going on in the world, but its also time consuming to read. It kept my book reading time down and I’m hoping to get back into books. I’m currently on book 4 of The Expanse series by James SA Corey and I have to say it’s a fantastic series, and a good show (the few episodes I’ve seen). I still subscribe to National Geographic, and I haven’t completely ruled out resubscribing to The Economist, but for now, I think I want to stick with books. I recently put together around 30 books I want to read, with many more behind it. I would like to hit 25 books this year so we shall see.
<h3>Enjoy the Great Outdoors</h3>
Growing up, I was in Boy Scouts and made Eagle Scout as well. But having moved away from my scout troop for college and having settled a little too far to really stay involved in the troop, I haven’t spent much time hiking, camping, and enjoying the great outdoors. I’ve only gone on two hikes in the last 5-6 years. Once to the Pinnacle in Hamburg, PA, and the other to Ricketts Glen State Park near Wilkes Barre, PA. My trip up to Vermont in both July and October made me miss the outdoors so I’m hoping to be able to make it out this year to do more camping trips. I have a lot of the basic gear from my Scouting days so I might see if Lauren or someone else would want to go enjoy the great outdoors. I might look for a local Boy Scout Troop to volunteer with too.
<h3>Get Back Into My Side Projects</h3>
After college, I started developing OpenVoter as a side project, and while it might not have exactly taken off (not that I was hugely surprised), I really enjoyed being able to spend some of my time working on it. Since then, I haven’t done much outside of my blog and a few little things here and there. I have some ideas for some new projects, so I’d like to spend some time delving into the details and see which, if any I want to pursue. I might also delve more into Node.js and see if it makes sense to use that for anything.
<h3>Write More</h3>
I didn’t write that much at all last year which was kind of disappointing. That said, I’m hoping to to change that this year. If I can do one, maybe two posts a month, I think that will be good. I have some other things I might want to write as well so we’ll see how it goes this year.
<h3>Become a Little More Involved with Politics</h3>
I don’t really completely know how to word this one. Anyone who knows me or follows me on Twitter, knows that I definitely slant liberal and do not like the fact that Donald Trump won the presidency. I feel his election is problematic for a whole host of reasons that would be a post in and of itself. My goal this year is to get involved, at least at a local level and as Ghandi put it, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” I’ve made several calls to my representatives and senators to make my voice heard. I’ve never done that before. I sent the occasional email for some issues, but I’ve never been so angry and motivated to make sure my representatives know how I feel (respectfully of course). I’m not sure what that involvement will include at the moment, but I know someone in the local Democratic Party, so my plan is to talk to him and see what I can do.
<h3>Disconnect a Little</h3>
All too often, I pick up my phone and mindlessly browse Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or something else. My goal this year is to disconnect some. I deleted Facebook &amp; Reddit from my phone and will hopefully stick with that. I’ve toyed with the idea of deactivating my Facebook account, but for the time being, I think I’ll just stick to browsing it once in a while on my laptop, desktop or tablet. Essentially just get it off of the device in my pocket.
Suffice it to say, I’m going to try to be a little ambitious this year. I don’t know if I’ll be 100% successful in everything, but I figure if I can hit bits and pieces of each one, I’ll be happy.

Goals for 2017

2016 was a super busy year for me, and in some cases, probably a little too busy.
The year started off alright, enjoying the &quot;new house&quot; feeling, still thinking that hey, I&#39;m a homeowner now! (It&#39;s amazing that even a year after closing, it&#39;s still kind of hard to believe I own a home).
In January, we had our only significant snowfall of the year and season. And I have to say, it was a pretty sight, especially when I didn&#39;t have to clear the driveway. But I guess that&#39;s why I bought a snow blower.
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/snow.jpg" alt="Snow" width={2400} height={1600} centered shadowed />

In February, my wife and I discovered that our dining room had wood paneling behind the wallpaper which threw a wrench in our plans of taking down the wallpaper and painting plans. Our whole house was wallpapered, which isn&#39;t really our style, but taking down wallpaper, while a major pain in the ass, isn&#39;t exactly difficult. Painting would definitely give it a freshening up that isn&#39;t terribly expensive. All the other rooms look 100x better now than they did the day we closed on the house.
The dining room was an addition to the house I want to say in the 1970s sometime, and we knew the walls weren&#39;t plaster like the rest of the house (a simple knock on the wall told us that much). But we had (falsely) assumed that it was drywall underneath the wallpaper. Oh boy. Thinking about it, knowing we would have to do something, we decided we were going to tear down the wood paneling, and while we were at it, vault the ceiling. The dining room ceiling was no higher than 7 foot, so it felt cramped. If we were going to tear out the walls, we might as well raise the ceiling too.
In mid-March, the demolition began.
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/diningroomdemo.jpg" alt="Dining Room Demolition" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

To our surprise, the studs on the ceiling were these gorgeous reclaimed wood beams. (Ignore the nasty wiring, we ended up replacing all of it.)
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/diningroombeams.jpg" alt="Dining Room Beams" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

Needless to say, that completely changed our ideas for the final look of the room. The only thing we can figure is the previous owner built the addition with whatever materials he either had on him or could get cheapest. The next 9 months, pretty much right up to Christmas, was spent renovating the dining room. We had to re-stud the walls, run all new wire, insulate, drywall and spackle, paint, install trim, and more. It took MUCH longer than we anticipated, and there&#39;s still some finishing touches left to do, but the end result looks amazing.
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/diningroomfinal.jpg" alt="Dining Room Final" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

Over the summer, I also had the bright idea to play on 3 different hockey teams. I love playing hockey, but 3 teams was slightly excessive. As much as I love it, playing 3-4 times a week took its toll. This also didn&#39;t help with the home renovations either. I&#39;m back down to 2 teams, and it seems like the happy medium. Often times more than once per week, but not really more than twice.
In September, Lauren and I spent the week in Cape May, NJ. It was a nice, relaxing vacation. Not much to say about it other than it was relaxing and a beautiful week to be there. One nice part was that we discovered <a href="http://capemaybrewery.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cape May Brewing Company</a>. We spent an afternoon at their tasting room and ended up coming home with 2 growlers full of delicious beer.
Just under 2 weeks after getting back, Lauren and I went to Vermont for our anniversary. We had gone up to the Mount Snow area for my brother&#39;s wedding in July and while it was cloudy and rainy, it was definitely beautiful. We decided that it would be a great destination in the fall with the leaves changing. We ended up staying in a little AirBnB apartment in Wilmington, Vermont; a small little town with a lot of charm. It was absolutely gorgeous. We spent a few days just wandering around taking pictures (that I&#39;m still going through). We met up with some of our friends from Maine in Concord, New Hampshire one day. We also checked out several craft breweries. We visited:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://madisonbrewingco.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 Madison Brewing Company in Bennington, Vermont
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.elmcitybrewing.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 Elm City Brewing in Keene, New Hampshire
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.whetstonestation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 Whetstone Station in Brattleboro, Vermont
</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.gildedotter.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
 Gilded Otter in New Paltz, New York
</a></li>
</ul>
The only downside to where we were, was that many places seemed to close by 8 or 9 pm. But take that away, it was a great trip and I would totally go back again.
<PostImage src="/images/posts/2016-in-review/vermont.jpg" alt="Wilmington Vermont" width={2400} height={1800} centered shadowed />

In terms of my fitness goals, it was a mixed bag. I didn&#39;t really get anywhere on my weight or body fat percentage, but I was able to notable increase my strength. At the end of the year I had hit 200 lbs. on bench press, 305 lbs. on deadlifts, &amp; 245 lbs. on squats. In terms of running, I had started to get back into running after running the marathon in 2015, but it was also the first year in a while I didn&#39;t run a single race, 5k, half marathon or otherwise. I was supposed to run a 15k and Broad Street, but both days, the weather was crummy and while I wanted to run them, but rain makes me miserable and I guess I just didn&#39;t want it enough. I&#39;m hoping to run at least one half-marathon this year.
It was a good year. Too much to really hit everything in a single blog post, but I&#39;m looking forward to 2017.

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Posts in 2017

Star Trek Discovery and the Future of Streaming

Adjusting My Social Media Presence

Wow, I've Fallen Behind

Starting a New Project

Goals for 2017

2016 In Review