Sleepless in Easton

On this episode of Radio Active, I talk about returning to model rocketry, one of my all-time favorite hobbies, and then run down some of the great sci-fi shows I’m watching. The bulk of the show is dedicated to my trials and tribulations with getting enough sleep. It’s always been hard for me, but it got so much harder during the pandemic.

Nuketown News

• Back to Model Rocketry
  • I inherited a bunch of rockets from my dad.
  • They’re old classics from the late 1970s and 1980s.
  • Examples include:
    • The Space Shuttle (Skill Level 4, Estes) – Features an orbiter glider that separates from the external fuel tank and SRBs at apogee
    • A Mercury Redstone – A challenging-to-build scale model of the iconic rocket
    • An SR-71 Blackbird – A hefty, double parachute rocket.
    • A Soaring Eagle – a glider that launches as a rocket, then spreads its wings and flies back to Earth
    • The Starship Enterprise – An ungainly rocket that doubles as a display model. Check out my build on Lair of Secrets
  • Working on finding places to launch in PA and NJ, which is harder than you think. Or maybe exactly as hard as you think.
• So much good sci-fi streaming!
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) – All of the hope and optimism that you want from Star Trek
  • Star Trek: The Lower Decks (Paramount+) – My favorite new Trek, at least until Strange New Worlds came out. That same sense of optimism, but told from the perspective of those who aren’t on the command staff.
  • The Orville (Hulu) – The Orville started as a joke Star Trek, or at least, that’s what I thought it was. It’s still crasser than the series that inspired it, but it tackles serious topics.
  • The Peripheral (Amazon) – based on William Gibson’s book in which meddlers in a future timeline muck about with the past. Shades of cyberpunk, with temporal shinanigans.
• Ready Player One Replay
  • The Ready Player One Replay continues, which is my attempt to play all of the video games mentioned in Ernst Cline’s novel (Amazon).
  • I finished Level I, consisting of 18 video games, in March 2022. I then started Level II, which is another 25 video games, that same month.
  • Why different levels? No reason, other than tracking effort. It also gives me breakpoints for reflection.
  • Recent games include Space Invaders, Pitfall, Kaboom! and The Empire Strikes Back.
  • Current playing the surprisingly complex Star Raiders, which is a prototypical starfighter simulator that inspired X-Wing and Wing Commander.
    • It was difficult to find a functiona