I’m always fascinated with the desire to delete your old social media posts. I’m always trying to save mine. But The Verge has a nice how-to post on purging your past.
Liz and the kids think I look like Jedi Bob.
Yesterday, Liverpool and Manchester United played in Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. It was fun to see a football stadium packed for soccer. We didn’t go — tickets were more than I paid to see Taylor Swift and sold out in minutes — but I met people from all over who came to SC to see the match.
Gym floor lettering.
Then: 8.2.24
Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.
I celebrated my 49th birthday this week. My kids have an annual tradition where they bake a cake for me, usually with a high degree of difficulty. This year, they attempted to make a Borg Cube from Star Trek.
As I turn 49, I’m looking ahead to 50 next year. I’ve decided that I want to be healthier at 50 than I was at 40. I need to loose weight, eat better and be more active. Basically a lifestyle change. I’m going to add a health category to my weekly Now page updates.
Still wondering if I should post these on Sundays instead of Saturdays.
Feels
- Uncomfortable. The air conditioning went out in my office this week. That’s never something you want in Columbia in the summer.
- One of my friends is leaving for a job at another school. I’m bummed, but it’s a great opportunity for her. Just a lot of changes at the office this summer.
- I continue to be impressed with Kamala Harris’s campaign so far. I forgot what hope felt like.
- Tired. My teacher wife reported to school this week, and the alarm started going off an hour earlier. Ugh. Need more sleep.
Health
- Laying the groundwork for my lifestyle change. Getting apps ready to track, planning diet and exercise changes. Trying not to over do it. I’m giving myself a year to make this change.
- I’m starting on Monday, because there’s still cake and other goodies in the house from my birthday.
Projects
- SbB Danceflr is available on MyFonts now.
- Continuing to work on some other font ideas. I have several designs that I never finished, so I’m working toward wrapping those up and submitting them to MyFonts for sale.
- Heard back from the publication I submitted my journal article to and I need to make a couple of minor changes before it heads to peer review. So that’s promising.
Entertainment
- Lots of Olympics. Surfing. Basketball. Gymnastics. Swimming. Handball. Beach Volleyball. Regular Volleyball. I think I’ve watched at least some coverage every day this week.
- Still reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. Slowly. I’m struggling to get into it, even though I loved the first two books.
- F1 is on summer break. ☹️
I keep thinking, surely, this is the moment where they will come to their senses.
I’m really enjoying watching the Olympics this year, and I think part of the reason is how good the streaming experience is on Peacock.
I think Biden’s proposal to reform the Supreme Court makes a lot of sense. It doesn’t really favor one party over another… term limits and ethics guidelines seem pretty non-partisan.
Peacock promoting Paris-themed Hallmark movies alongside the Paris Olympics is an inspired bit of marketing. (And my wife is very happy…)
I like how my now page has become a type of weekly journal of how I’m feeling and the stuff I’m working on. I’m not disciplined enough to keep a daily journal, but I think I can handle a weekly one…
I picked a good season to start watching F1.
The new Star Trek: Strange New Worlds preview clip is wonderful. I can’t wait for the next season.
Dawn Staley is having the time of her life at the Olympics, going from event to event and meeting athletes. Her Instagram feed right now is a blast.
Then: 7.27.2024
Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.
Just had a relaxing week of vacation with just my wife and me. The kids were at summer camp for the week so we decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary early up near Asheville. We had a great time, but it’s going to be hard going back to reality on Monday.
Feels
- I feel refreshed. I really needed to take some time off from work and reset. With the leadership change at work, I think I needed the break more than I realized.
- I’m worried about the state of our nation, but I’m energized by the change in the presidential race. Biden stepping down, and Harris consolidating support has me encouraged.
- Being open to changes. The camp our kids went to is also the camp that I attended and worked at. They changed pick up this year, ending on Friday instead of Saturday morning. I wasn’t sure about the change, but we attended a new final ceremony and it was great. I probably need to make this a full post, but we all need to accept that sometimes, change is needed.
Projects
- SbB Departure Mono is now live on MyFonts. I’ve got two other fonts that I will submit today or tomorrow.
- I sketched out a couple of new font ideas while we were at the cabin in North Carolina. Was nice to have some time to sketch.
Entertainment
- We were in a cabin without our normal streaming setup. They had a Samsung TV service that had a bunch of ad-supported channels with random reality shows, so we watched some American Ninja Warrior and Ice Road Truckers.
- I started reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. Enjoying it, but having trouble remembering all the things that happened in the second book of the series.
- F1 this weekend.
- Will probably watch some of the Olympics.
Watching the women’s Olympic cycling time trial this morning and the competitors all have aerodynamic handlebars, helmets and wheel covers. It reminded me of Greg LeMond’s time trial in Paris to win the 1989 Tour de France.
Opened Facebook. Criticized some obvious political spin. Got blocked by my cousin. Sigh. I hate election season.
Picked a really good day to unplug for a week.
Just noticed that the Mercedes F1 team is sponsored by Crowdstrike. Funny that a racing team is sponsored by a company that’s now known for the biggest crash of all time.
Then: 7.20.24
Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.
Weird week. I got randomly sick for an evening. I woke up at 2 AM with a fever that only lasted a couple of hours and no other symptoms. So strange. Whenever I get sick now, I worry about COVID and getting others sick, but I’m pretty sure this was just a random virus.
Feels
- I’m excited about upcoming vacation. It’s been too long since I took a significant amount of time off.
- I’m worried about the state of our nation.
- Grateful for some rain. (We needed it.)
Projects
- I published two longer blog posts this week. One about the Star Trek episodes I tend to play in the background, and a second post about the whole Sticker Mule debacle.
- More progress on fonts. I inched closer to releasing my new typefaces. Just some refinements to make sure everything passes the quality assurance checks.
- Submitted an article to a journal to review. Woke up in the middle of the night and decided to be productive. Finished the query letter and hit the submit button. We’ll see what happens.
Entertainment
- Finished Star Wars: The Acolyte. I enjoyed the show and am interested to see if they give it a season two to finish the story.
- I’ve been playing Pokemon Go with my son who just got a new phone.
- F1 this weekend with the Hungarian Grand Prix.
It’s an early beta, but I really like where Iconfactory’s Project Tapestry is going.
That fact that one bad update to a third-party system can completely shut down businesses, hospitals and airlines… scary. You’d think these systems would be more resilient than that.
Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep so I finished submitting a manuscript to a journal for peer review.
Comfort Star Trek
I’m home sick today and was thinking about shows I watch when I’m just killing time. Episodes I love to just put on in the background when I’m working (or sick). Most of the time, I open Paramount+ and play Star Trek. I figured I’d share my favorite “comfort” episodes. Warning: A couple of mild spoilers below for really old episodes.1
Star Trek: The Original Series
- S1 E15 Balance of Terror. A “submarine” battle between Kirk and the Romulan commander.
- S2 E6 The Doomsday Machine. The race to stop a machine before it destroys more planets.
- S2 E15 The Trouble with Tribbles. My parents loved this episode when I was growing up and it’s one of my favorites. Sometimes, I pair it with DS9’s Trials and Tribble-Ations.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
- S2 E10 The Defector. More Romulan manipulation.
- S4 E26 and E27 Redemption, Part 1 and 2. The Romulans try to destabilize the Klingon Empire.
- S6 E4 Relics. A Dyson Sphere, and a somewhat believable way to resurrect an old character.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- S5 E6 Trials and Tribble-Ations. The DS9 crew goes back in time to the middle of The Trouble with Tribbles.
- S6 E6 Sacrifice of Angels. I love the action and pacing of this episode. The end of one of the arcs that dominate DS9.
Star Trek: Voyager
- S4 E14 Message in a Bottle. The Doctor is transmitted back into the Alpha Quadrant, and works with another Emergency Medical Hologram to liberate a Federation ship.
- S7 E25 Endgame Parts 1 and 2. The series finale. The Voyager makes it home… twice.
Star Trek: Discovery
- S1 E7 Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. A great time loop episode, with some great performances.
- S2 E2 New Eden. Captain Pike. Mysterious Earth colony. Prime directive debates. Love it all.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
- S2 E7 Where Pleasant Fountains Lie. All about evil AI, but in the funniest possible way.
- S3 E5 Reflections. Starfleet Recruiting Booth. Rutherford’s implant malfunctions.
- S3 E6 Heal All, Trust Nothing. A visit to DS9, and Tendi goes full Orion to save the day.
- S4 E4 Something Borrowed, Something Green. Tendi goes home for her sister’s wedding, and chaos ensues.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
- S1 E2 Children of the Comet. A comet that’s worshipped as a live bringing god. Such an old school Star Trek story.
- S2 E7 Those Old Scientists. A Lower Decks/Strange New World crossover that works far better than it should.
- S2 E9 Subspace Rhapsody. The musical episode, that also works far better than it should.
Star Trek: Picard
- S3 E10 The Last Generation. A fan-service finale that’s full of fun.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.
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Or Star Wars: Rebels, but that’s a post for another day. ↩︎