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Old Type 40

@old-type-40 / old-type-40.tumblr.com

Whovian, Sherlockian, and just a geek in general.
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tinsnip
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prokopetz

The thing I enjoy about Lower Decks is that, up until now, the wiki curators who are determined to shoehorn every piece of Star Trek lore into a single coherent universe mostly only had to do bullshit worldbuilding gymnastics to make that work when dealing with the Original Series, a couple of the more egregious Star Trek: Voyager episodes, and some of the novels, and in a pinch they could get away with declaring the novels "secondary canon" – but now Lower Decks is throwing them multiple unhinged curveballs in every single episode, and the wiki articles are getting interesting again.

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michaeljpatrick

Especially when it comes to koalas and the Black Mountain.

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prokopetz

Sometimes I'll watch an episode and immediately check the relevant articles on Memory Alpha to see if they've hit their "oh, come on" threshold yet.

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old-type-40

The koala is a great running gag in Lower Decks. But it doesn't necessarily take away from taking the Trek universe seriously if it's part of the canon. In the past in Trek we've seen very advanced god-like beings take on an appearance that would be relatable to lesser beings. BTW, has anybody else noticed in the opening sequence when the Cerritos is flying around to trace out the Starfleet chevron, one of the interstellar dust clouds in the background seems to be koala shaped with a couple of stars for eyes?

#star trek#lower decks#cosmic koala
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I couldn't resist taking an out-of-context screen grab of an info card on the latest cooking video from award winning food writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt in which he answers viewers Thanksgiving questions. After giving an answer, he has an info card that summarizes the info. Someone had asked how to make turkey less boring. Last year, he had given a recipe in the NYT on adding herbs to mayo and then rubbing that on the turkey which adds good flavor and promotes browning of the turkey skin. Kevin Bacon saw this, tried it, and in an appearance on The Tonight Show said it worked great and even wrote Kenji's name down on his hand so he could give him a call out.

Here's Kenji's video:

There is all sorts of great info. Dry brining vs wet brining. An alternative to roasting your turkey upside down. How to make good pie dough. The difference between dry and stale bread (it's dry bread that you need for stuffing). How to make vegetarian gravy. His recommendation of what to make if you're only cooking for two people. Why food doesn't taste quite as good when you were the one who prepared it vs. having it prepared for you. And so much more. At the end he emphasizes not stressing about the food because it should be about the enjoyment of getting together with friends and family.

He was also asked who he would like to write his name on their hand this year. He said as a Kevin Bacon fan that was enough for him and it led to this info card.

#cooking#thanksgiving#j kenji lopez alt#j kenji lopez-alt#i love tremors#Youtube
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trekcore
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lady-sci-fi

Where would you hang out?

Ten Forward on the Enterprise-D

Run by the friendly and mysterious Guinan. Atmosphere is relaxed, usually spacious, and relatively quiet. Activities include chess and other board games and live music recitals. Drinks, food, and everything are free.

Quark's Bar on DS9

Run by the somewhat shady businessman Quark. Atmosphere is loud, usually crowded, and rowdy. Activities include gambling games and betting pools. Drinks, food, and everything you have to pay for.

*Not including the holosuites as a feature of Quark's, since the Enterprise also has that. Which bar/lounge would you choose?

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old-type-40

Given that so many in the Trek fandom here in the Tumblrverse are wannabe alien fuckers ardent xenophiles, I'm surprised that the quiet and somewhat fun free choice is winning so handily. There are times if you're watching carefully, you can see Morn leaving Quark's in the company of a female Starfleet crewmember.

In Ten Forward, you have performances of classical music. In Quark's, one of the Starfleet crewmembers played the trumpet and had people dancing in the aisles according to a reminiscence from Sisko. And for a placid place on DS9 to socialize or just to be around others even if sitting alone, people go to the Replimat.

#star trek#ds9#tng#quark's#ten forward
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"For Leeta to become the mother of a boy who went off to war is so not a dabo girl. And I think it's the most Star Trek message that we are so much more than we seem. I'm the former dabo girl running the show and what is better than that?" - Chase Masterson aka Leeta talking about her character and guest appearance on Lower Decks in which we find her running the Ferengi Alliance (x)

Chase Masterson has often given very good observations of what Trek is all about. She also said, "Lower Decks can have you laughing and crying in the same five minutes. It's so beautifully full."

#star trek#ds9#lower decks#chase masterson#leeta
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tinsnip
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khaleesi

re: tumblr

hello! I work in tech and here are some important things to know about "tumblr is going into maintenance mode." please note I do not work at tumblr, I've just worked at tumblr-adjacent sort of companies for my entire adult life and i've gone through this before.

what does maintenance mode mean?

literally what it sounds like -- Automattic is not going to be hiring new staff, investing in new product features, or doing anything new on tumblr. the staff that remains working on tumblr will be maintaining the status quo. most of the staff will be allocated elsewhere (or possibly laid off, though it looks like from that memo that's not what they're planning to do). it does not mean tumblr is shutting down. you should still buy premium, get merch, etc, because this is definitely step one of the shutdown process, but a maintenance mode designation is basically to see if tumblr will generate a revenue without putting more money into it than strictly necessary.

why did this happen?

obviously I do not know directly. from my observation, it's in part because Yahoo had absolutely no idea what to do with this platform, and then when Automattic bought it they also... struggled... but it is also in part because the user base has been so viciously anti-monetization that most attempts were killed outright.

yes, the user base is part of the problem. the absolute feral anti-premium, anti-ads, anti-tipping, anti-everything tumblr tried to do to make money is part of the problem. it's not the only part of the problem by a long shot, but I would be remiss not to mention it.

what do I do now?

use the platform. just like, keep using tumblr. do not abandon ship. buy premium, get yourself some badges, get yourself some merch, but use the platform. ad revenue is based on impressions and clicks. if a ton of the user base gives up, that revenue disappears.

--

tumblr is extremely special. I've never seen anything like it in my 20-odd years of being Very Online, and I was a minor BNF in WolfStar during LiveJournal days. I don't know that it can be recreated elsewhere. I don't know where fandom will go. I know that something else will exist after tumblr and that nothing gold can stay, but i don't think the specific kind of joy found here can be recreated. i say this not to be a downer, but to be realistic. I guess I should find a Bluesky invite.

I've been here since 2008. I'm not going anywhere as long as this site exists. hope you'll stay here with me.

#tumblr#this is the place where i can geek out over fandome stuff#so i'm not going anywhere unless it shuts down or becomes unusable
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tinsnip
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photomatt
horreurscopes asked:

you've probably have gotten this question a million times, but -- what about fundraising in the style of ao3 or even wikipedia? for all the thousands of fourteen year olds running around who don't understand how much it costs to run a website, there's another thousand of adults whom would love to keep using this site forever. it may not be a more-profits-every-quarter kind of situation, but then again, one is allowed to dream beyond the current silicon valley web 2.0 profit driven hellscape

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photomatt answered:

That was the idea behind the Tumblr Supporter badge, a way for people who appreciate the site can chip in towards keeping it going. It hasn't been as successful as we hoped, only about 2,300 subscribers so far (out of 11.5M monthly active users) but over time maybe it could compound to be what drives the site.

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#tumblr
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tinsnip
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marisatomay

happy four seasons total landscaping day to all who celebrate

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old-type-40

The family that owns this small business initially received all sorts of hate because people incorrectly thought that they must support Guliani's half-assed claims. But they really thought it was as stupid and hilarious as most other people did. And they changed people's minds by making social media posts poking fun at Giuliani's press conference.

It amazes me that so many people still believe the stolen election claim despite this whack-a-doodle press conference and the fact that Sidney Powell told Fox News she got her evidence of the supposed election fraud from a self-proclaimed headless time traveling entity which didn't stop them from putting her on the air to share her claims. This last bit is so ridiculously bizarre that I'm shaking my head as I type it. But you can verify this by Googling it if you didn't see the news stories about it.

#four seasons total landscaping
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I love that Lower Decks episode. It's so tragic when we lose Sito after her journey, and Shannon plays her so perfectly, and I know that Tawny feels the same way. And having Mariner having been affected by something that I felt was tragic and that Tawny felt was tragic that worked in the timeline just felt like something worthy of taking a stab at. It meant the world to me, getting to work with Shannon meant the world to me, and I know that it was important to me, but I didn't know if it was gonna work for all of you out in the world, but Lower Decks, sometimes it just is, “This is my instinct. This is what I wanna do. It feels right. It feels like a beautiful part of the franchise that we can do this. Let's do it even though it's a little scary,” and I'm really happy that we did. - Mike McMahan, explaining why he chose to tie the TNG episodes with Sito to the finale and Mariner's backstory (x)

I for one feel this worked beautifully.

#star trek#lower decks#lower decks spoilers#old friends new planets#sito jaxa#beckett mariner
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I don't know about anybody else, but I feel like this moment when the "camera" zooms in towards the captain's yacht racing towards the shield opening and struggles to keep it in focus is a tribute to the style of space battle scenes in the Battlestar Galactica reboot.

Personally, I never did think that faking of camera operators trying to figure out where to point their cameras and having trouble keeping things in focus did much to add intensity to any scenes. Though it's not as bad as movies of the last 20 years having lots of frenetic action and the camera view shaking all over the place because directors and writers can't figure out how to create edge-of-your-seat tension in an intelligent way.

P.S. Mike McMahan has said he's currently working on season 5 of Lower Decks. But he has also said he is uncertain whether there will be more seasons after that because Paramount could always choose not to renew it. He points out that streaming services still depend upon the number of viewers right after episodes are released to determine whether to renew something. He also says that "letter writing campaigns" to save shows after they've been cancelled is usually too late to express fan devotion. My take from this is people need to beware the impulse to wait to binge shows which is something I've long suspected has contributed to the cancellation of shows.

#star trek#lower decks#lower decks spoilers#old friends new planets
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trekcore
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haveyouseenthisseries-poll
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old-type-40

No, never heard of it. Though it must be similar to a show I watched constantly as a kid through the 70s when TV was dominated by reruns of I Love Lucy and mediocre variety shows. It was a 60s sci fi series that lasted only a few years when it originally aired. Can't remember the name of it though...

#star trek#tos
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Right after season 4 of Lower Decks first started, I tried to post something I noticed in retrospect about the trailer but it never showed up to the rest of the Trek fandom because I was in the middle of a shadow ban that had been mistakenly imposed on me automatically by Tumblr. Here are some screencaps from the season 4 trailer. Take a careful look.

Okay, did you notice something significant?

The trailer shows them all still as ensigns! Mike McMahan must have noticed in the past how the Trek fandom is able to glean details from the trailers. And I'm guessing he told the people responsible for creating the season 4 trailer to edit out the fact that the characters are now lieutenant j.g.'s so as to avoid spoilers. I love that. So many trailers for movies and shows these days give away important details.

#star trek#lower decks#lower decks season 4