Just video-conferenced some dumb friends and polished off a few rounds of Noah’s Mill. Yep—a Zoom conference at 11:30 on a Friday. Because, super cool. Right, guys? Even better—Zoom cuts non-paying customers off every 40 minutes. So a bunch of dudes get kicked from a video chat, and then log back in 27 seconds later. I counted.

Anyway, some shit.

I’ve been listening to the audiobook version of Earthcore on Audible. It’s written by Scott Sigler and read by Ray Porter, who is, I’m convinced, the Beyonder from Secret Wars, but as an audiobook narrator. Really interesting, unexpected work so far. Sigler strikes me as a bit of a perv, but unabashedly so, which is respectable. His writing feels genuine and, more, unapologetic. I dig that. Not sure if the work will keep up, but a couple chapters in and the characters are interesting, the story intriguing. Plus, as expected, Porter’s reading comes as close to holiness as mortals can withstand.

The Orville. I don’t understand. Seth MacFarlane is a talented dude, but I’m struggling with this one. From what I can gather, he intended to make a Star Trek spoof similar to Galaxy Quest. But instead, he made a Star Trek drama peppered with potty humor. Somebody mis-marketed this show because that’s not what I signed up for, gods blast all. The weirdest, most confusing part is that the last episode proved more dramatic than at least 80 percent of Star Trek. It posed some genuinely interesting, thought-provoking questions. It just wasn’t—you know—funny. And when the real Star Trek Discovery is about to debut, I don’t know why I need to see The Orville’s similar take on a utopian sci-fi far future.