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Weeknotes - W36/2026 (No.2)

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Hey, look at this: Weeknotes No.2 exactly one week after weeknotes No.1. 🥳

Goings on 🚶‍♀️‍➡️

  • I'm still offering to send a Star Trek postcard with a Star Trek stamp and a matching first day of issue cancellation to anyone who follows some easy instructions. You do not need to follow me in the fedi, just do as I ask in the post. (If you do not have a fedi handle, that's ok. Just say so in the e-mail and tell me where else to find you.) Deadline TODAY (7 September), or a bit later than that if you still want in.
  • Related to the point above, the new German Star Trek stamps are available for purchase online, and if you're lucky also in a (German) post office near you. I have ordered and received... uhm... a few... sheets. I mean, they are offical Star Trek postage stamps!! How cool is that!?
  • I love food, but do not love preparing it. Imagine what I eat when I'm off work for weeks, hence don't go out regularly to shop well. Yeah. But I need to be better with eating. I started with eating at my dinner table again instead of in the bed (my compfy place), and having herbal (and other) infusions in the afternoon instead of more coffee. Baby steps, people. Wish me luck!
  • Since being back at appreciating physical media, I like shopping second hand, mostly at medimops. This week I received a big order: 3 soundtracks, and 9 DVDs. Most of those are films that I haven't seen yet, and some that I have but not in a looong time.
  • I changed the site's main font colour from black to a grey (#3e3e3e). That black was really harsh, wasn't it? I did that after reading Anthony Hobday's "Visual design rules you can safely follow every time" that I found through Robb Knight's weeknotes.
  • Went to my parents' place on Sunday for some late summer bbq. They bbq a lot, nothing fancy, and invite me over a lot, too. I almost always accept, because as I said above, cooking is not my big love. However, I always help my mother with the preparations of course, so I actually do end up making food anyway. LOL But it's always more fun and easier together. This time I brought a bunch of peaches I bought off the side of the street the other day. Someone had put some containers with hand picked small yummy smelling peaches out and you could put the money in a jam jar. Village life. We made peach crumble for dessert. I still have some peaches leftover for snacking in the coming week.
  • On Tuesday, 8 September is Star Trek Day. This year we're celebrating 60 (!) years of this amazing, wacky, deep, wonderful show. For everyone who is observing this sacred holiday: Have a good one! And to everyone: Peace and long life! 🖖
  • But Star Trek is not the only space sci-fi show celebrating it's 60th birthday this year. Indeed only a week and a bit later, on 17 September, the little German/ French co-production Raumpatrouille has its big day. I am planning to do an informal re-watch over that weekend. With only 7 episodes ever produced this is totally doable. More on that next week.

Media 📚🎞️🎧

  • Finished reading "Spuren ins Jetzt", the biography about the long forgotten 19th century German feminist, Hedwig Dohm. It's a thin book and thus a very quick read. What a woman! Not only was she a radical feminist, she was also a radical pacifist. She hated war and wrote against the enthusiasm about what we today call World War I. I really need to read her work: She wrote essays, novels, plays, and more. She died in 1919, and a few days before she wrote her last text. A quote, as current as it could ever be:
    "Zuweilen aber - dachte die Sterbende weiter - kommt eine wüste Besessenheit über die Menschen, die Völker. Von einigen zufälligen Machthabern lassen sie sich ihre Schicksale aufzwingen. Auf ihren Befehl marschieren sie dümmlich jauchzend, wenn die Machthaber Krieg wollen, in ihre offenen Gräber [...]"
    "At times however - the dying woman continued to think - a nasty obsession comes over the people, the nations. They let random rulers force their destinies upon them. When ordered, they march, cheering foolishly, into their own graves when those rulers want war [...]"
    Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 (Books)
  • Finished listening to the next books in the Perry Rhodan Kartanin miniseries: Book 2 "Stayn" (⭐⭐⭐/5), book 3 "Das Reich der Ruhe" (⭐⭐⭐/5) (Books)
  • Started reading a book about another historical woman: Clodia of Rome, infamous sister to equally infamous Publius Clodius Pulcher. I only "know" them from the excellent SQPR novel series by the late John Maddox Roberts, and there they are of course fictionalised, so you should take what you read there with a grain of salt. But when I saw that this book existed I had to read it. Clodia was a very interesting and outstanding woman who deserves way better than what she has been getting during the last 2,000 years. I've been reading one chapter every morning and it's so good.
  • It was Bandcamp Friday again. And this time I bought a few albums. One of them was the great 80s kids 2 by Shannon Curtis. Together with its predecessor 80s kids it's pure 80s synth pop fun. Next Bandcamp Friday is in October.
  • Watched "Muppets Treasure Island". It's one of the films I bought second hand (see above) and that I hadn't ever seen before. I haven't been exposed to a lot of Muppets growing up. I can see this one becoming a comfort film for me. The DVD menu is a sweet little thing with Gonzo and Rizzo pulling in the selected screen, at least for the bonus material. It takes a bit long, but it is cute and I love it. I also loved the Star Trek and Casablanca references. (Of course.) Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
  • Watched "The Maltese Falcon", the quintessential film noir. Another one of those I bought second hand. I had seen it once before, many years ago on TV (thus dubbed). Bogart is simply great, as is Mary Astor, and Peter Lorre of course. I enjoy him a lot whenever I see him. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
  • Watched this week's Star Trek: Strange New Worlds episode "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass". This week's genre: American soap opera. Nothing I'm overly familar with, I never watched any of them. But I know at least some of the tropes, so this was a surprisingly fun watch. Is that keeping the upward momentum? I'm not sure. In any case, I think its best to take this show one episode at a time and not try to put too much weight to any of it. Does that satisfy me? I haven't quite made up my mind yet.
    Some mild spoilers

    Ethan Peck with long hair and flowy shirt is 👌 - I wished the return of Sybok (the real one anyway) would have been earnest and with Captain Angel (I need a book about them!) - I am not a huge SNW Pike fan (I liked him better in Discovery) but in this episode I thought both Pike and Anson Mount were great - I love that there is councelling/ therapy happening - I love that Pike is allowed to break down and cry - As silly as the premise is, there is earnesty in it, which surprised me, but probably shouldn't have - But most importantly: Where the heck was Scotty?

  • For my great Columbo watch-through I watched season 3, episode 2: "Any Old Port in a Storm". I enjoyed it, as I enjoy them all. But I found Donald Pleasence especially delicious. However, the hundredth pining but rejected woman to lie for the murderer in the hopes to be finally seen and married, is extremely boring, no matter how well portrayed she is, like here by Julia Harris.

The Web 💻

  • James wrote about "Reading as participation in the indie web". I agree: Reading is essential. It's the beginning, but also so much more. I definitely read much more than I write, either on my blog, or as comments/ replies to other bloggers' texts.
  • FediLearns Classifieds is a site where you can offer a skill, or find someone who offers a skill you seek. You can offer them for free, or in exchange for something, even money. It's like a bulletin board. Found through this fedi post. (Links)
  • Cameron wrote a great post about why "There is No Such Thing as a Math Person". Having struggled with maths myself (for reasons that probably don't have a lot do with maths itself), while at the same time having always found it very interesting and fascinating, I cannot recommend this post enough.
  • MusicCloud lets you share a song or album independant of streaming platform. Similar to SongLink, with which I've been having problems for a while. (Links)
  • #showYourStripes is a page by the University of Reading where you can see how the climate warmed over the centuries, one stripe at a time. You have seen these diagrams. Here you can have it show the stripes for your country, or even region/ city. Seen on shens.world (scroll down).

- Elena.

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