2023 in Review

Overall, 2023 was a successful year for me. You may notice that I haven't posted a lot here -- only 4 posts including this one this year. And this was by design. My biggest goal was to reach more people, and I chose other avenues to successfully reach a larger audience. And believe me -- when I retire from my day job some time in the next 9 years, you'll hear a lot more from me here.

This year, my biggest success has been with my music business, Melkim Publishing. This may end up being our largest revenue year -- we'll have to see when I do the annual number crunching. (Oh, and if you read this in time, the Christmas Sale ends at the end of 12/31/2023.) I launched Melkim Audio, which will produce albums of music featuring many of the sheet music we sell, and also some other items -- we'll see how big this gets. Together with preparing the launch of orchestrations (which will come out next year), this album prep took most of my production time.

Our first album, Christmas Celebration, features the composers, Daniel Carter and me, playing our own arrangements. If you haven't yet heard it yet, you can check it out here. (And yes -- it's still officially Christmas season.) You can check out the project that took up nearly half of my productive time this year. Looking at the stats, these past two months, this music on Spotify alone has reached more than 5 or 6 times the number of people my blogs reached over the same time period, and I haven't yet seen stats on other outlets yet. A moderate win.

Also, this year, I've had my first orchestral debut. The Ensign Symphony & Chorus performed my "Come, Come, Ye Saints" in October in Seattle's own Benaroya Hall.

I also started a new semi-"live" series: Mel At the Piano, featuring 7 episodes, but then I stopped because the editing was just taking up too much of my time. So -- I've downloaded OBS so that I can do truly-live videos, cutting out all the expensive editing time. I'll start this series back up some time in 2024.

In the Econo-Mel, I posted only once -- explaining two reasons I haven't waxed politically. One is because I'm short on time, and Two is because today's political environment has gotten to be VERY toxic -- such that many are losing their jobs just because they said the "wrong" things online.

I've continued the same pace with The Music of Mel, now featuring more posts tied to Melkim Publishing. If anything, I'm planning to contribute more to this blog over the next couple of years, as it's in line with my most immediate goals.

I've also kept the pace constant with The Mormon Mel, which I think is being driven mainly by my short story series: The Adventures of Elder Elder and Elder Benjamin. This year I wrote 4 new episodes. Plus, a few months ago, I mapped out the entire series, and have started producing each story more in chronological order now. Looking ahead, I'm planning on producing one story each month, so we should get 12 more in 2024. When it's all done, I'll put them all together in a book -- in all there will be 34 episodes.

Always Be Better got 5 more videos. I'm proud of each one, but this output is low compared to before. But then again, I warned everyone beforehand I was going to slow down for a while.

My favorite posts this past year:

Visiting Wieners and Losers: I just had a lot of fun putting this one together -- a lot of work and fun. I tour a local 80's arcade museum, and I happen to run into Wayne and Garth.

Fifteen More Minutes of Fame: I continue my story of how I went into music ... how I struggled, and how I'm finally starting to get ahead.

Lost in Taegu: This is one of my favorite stories from the Adventures of Elder Elder and Elder Benjamin series. Our favorite elders get lost in Taegu and must rely on divine direction to find their way home.

"Crucify Him": We are quick to condemn those who called for the crucifixion of Jesus, but what would we have done if we were part of that same crowd back then? Would we stand with our current convictions, or would we bow to the crowd? Recent trends cause me to wonder how we'd fare.

Travelers: Analyzing the Series Finale: Finally! A time-travel series that does time travel right -- well -- mostly. Here I analyze the cool series finale.

What will 2024 bring? We'll see shortly. I'm going to keep pushing forward, and keep busy, enjoying life.

Travelers: Analyzing the Series Finale

This blog post is for those who have already watched the entire series of Travelers on Netflix. If you've seen some, but not all episodes, be warned that this post has MAJOR spoilers. And if you haven't seen any episodes -- well -- none of this post is going to make sense.

But before you not-ready peeps leave, let me tell you that Travelers may possibly be one of the best and consistent time-travel shows ever written in terms of getting time travel right. It is one the very few shows and movies I would give a grade of "A" for such a good job. You can read my non-spoiler review here. And then get watching -- it's only three short seasons. 34 episodes total. And as you may gather already, the discussion that follows is very compelling. There's some reason why the last episode is rated 9.4 at IMDB.

This is your last chance to stop reading -- the last paragraph before I start pouring out the spoilers. In general, the series finale is one of those that at first seems to be "is that all?" and then the brain starts working on it, only to find that the finale is one of the best endings the show could have had. Conveniently, it's also one they could have sprung at any time. (Though, not sure if that's a weakness -- if you could have as many seasons as you want, do the episodes in between start becoming filler?)

Okay -- here goes. The first spoiler. It appears that Travelers relies heavily in the many-worlds-related time travel theory -- the same as what Avengers: Endgame tried to do, but not quite so well. You should first read my analysis of this theory here, complete with pictures. Travelers uses this theory minus the tethers I mention. Because tethers are just dumb and too convenient -- the BIGGEST drawback in Avengers: Endgame.

The rules of this theory:

#1) To anyone's POV traveling naturally forward in time, they see only one timeline. Like this:

#2) When you travel backward in time, you must travel backward along the branch you're on, which will then create a new branch. Going forward, you will live in this new branch. Like this:

#3) At first, that new branch will look a LOT like the original branch. It differs ONLY how YOU affect events. So, events will increasingly deviate.

#4) After time traveling, it is IMPOSSIBLE to return to the your original branch. It is gone. (No tethers allowed in this show.) It is also IMPOSSIBLE to influence, change, or otherwise affect anything in a different branch.

#4a) (Probably the saddest rule.) If you go back in time for the purposes of making changes, it helps ABSOLUTELY NO ONE in the original timeline. The original timeline will continue on. In terms of the show, the people in the original timeline are doomed no matter what you do in the new timeline you've created.

#5) When you go back in time, it creates another copy of EVERYTHING and EVERYONE. The original version of EVERYTHING stays on the original timeline, and the NEW copies stay on the new timeline. From everyone's POV, they all share the same histories (everything before the first black dot) and going forward, they will still experience only ONE timeline. For example, original Fred will end up at the second black circle in the picture above. And new Fred will end up at the red circle. Both Fred's will believe they live in their only existing timeline, and are completely oblivious of the existence of any other Fred.

#6) Very important to this show: If you go back in time while your original self exists, it will create another copy of YOU. The original copy, which we'll call U1, lives in the original timeline until it hits the second black dot, after which he goes back in time and lives on in the new branch (the red dot). The other copy of you, U2, branches off of U1 at the first black dot and will exist only in the new branch.

And get this: in the original (top) branch, there is only one copy of you: U1. And on the new branch, there are always two copies of you: U1 (your future self gone back in time) and U2 (your oblivious past self). Not only that -- U1 can meet U2 and do anything he wants. U1 can even kill U2 WITHOUT a PARADOX. The universe won't implode or any of that silly nonsense in the later seasons of Continuum and the 12 Monkeys TV show. It's perfectly okay, because U2 is a COPY, and not the original. He is an artifact you created when you went back in time. In order to create a paradox, you would have to be able to kill an earlier version of U1, which would require reentering the original branch, which is impossible (rule #4).

#6a) More pertinent to the show: What if you go back in time BEFORE your original self exists? One of two things happen. Possibility A = when you are born in the new branch, it's going to be a copy because things are different. Possibility B (much more likely) = you are never born in the new branch, because your changes were too severe, and your parents don't meet, or some other event causes someone else to be born. And this is PERFECTLY OKAY. Because you only need to exist in the original timeline. There is absolutely NO paradox.

#7) If one tries to go back in time again to make changes, it still fails in that timeline, as it will do nothing but create yet another branch. Your changes will only affect the new third branch.

#8) If you follow the rules above, it becomes nearly IMPOSSIBLE to have a paradox.

Okay -- you'll remember from watching the show that these facts become clear slowly as the plot progresses. At first, our protagonists believe there is just one timeline. They are told that if they succeed, they won't exist, and they'll just disappear (kind of like Back to the Future). But then travelers who come later start reporting different histories -- a new faction has arisen, and was always there. (I'll explain how that happens shortly, but you have enough clues from above to figure this out.) We don't get final confirmation of the time mechanics until Season 2 in the episode "17 Minutes" when we see several attempts of the Director trying to save the lives of 3468 and his team.

(And if you haven't watched the show, this really is your final warning, because here we go with the details...)

Here we go. Travelers adds one more kink into the mix. I'm not sure if it's necessary, but the idea is that once you send someone back OR if you send a messenger (both of which cause changes), then you can no longer send someone back or a messenger BEFORE the last action. Again, we see this like crazy in "17 Minutes." The first traveler arrives when the couple first jumps out of the plane. The second traveler gets there a few seconds later. And with each failure, the couple is getting dangerously closer to the ground -- a very cool source of tension.

Also, Travelers never shows anyone traveling (skipping) ahead in time. All skipping is backward, and all communication back to the Director must travel hundreds of years. Yeah -- mind-blowing stuffs.

So, let's see what these rules look like in our timeline pictures. We'll start with the original timeline where ABSOLUTELY NO TIME travel occurs for hundreds of years. Helios 685 hits the Earth, disaster ensues. The Director is created. They figure out how to transfer consciousnesses. They discover how to send those consciousness back in time. And then comes the first time travel attempt: 001 is sent back to September 11, 2001 -- one of the top floors in the WTC building -- a time in which they knew everyone was going to die. 001 then sends a message from a specific computer to a specific server, and then dies. But as we remember, he escapes and hides himself.

To understand the whole big picture (which believe me -- is about to go skewampus), we must pause here and look at the two timelines at this point. Right now the picture is what we've already seen:

Well, kind-of the same picture. It's hundreds of years in the future when 001 is sent back. So, his red dot would be much closer to the first black dot if drawn to scale. The first black dot is the morning of September 11, 2001 -- the exact moment 001's consciousness enters his new host.

Let's take a moment and look at the original timeline. What happens after 001 goes back in time? What do the future remaining people see? First, they see 001's consciousness leave, and his body becomes lifeless. And then ... well ... nothing. (Yeah, this is the sad thing we need to understand.) They are never going to receive the message that 001 sends in the past. That's because 001's message only exists in the new branch. It has no way to get to the original time line. Please take a moment to understand this, as it's key to understanding the awesomeness of the series finale. Once you see it, things will become clear. 

(Addendum: if we use the full-fledged Many Worlds theory, it's feasible that another random version of 001 appears in this "original" timeline to deliver his message, but that wouldn't be the same 001. But adding in this kink just complicates the heck out of everything -- probability distributions and all kinds of craziness. So, for simplicity, we'll just forget that for now.)

Okay -- now let's look at the new timeline. Assuming 001 doesn't change too many things (just hide and do nothing), then the Director is still going to be created, and he WILL receive the message as planned. Perhaps 001 is sent back again, but he doesn't need to be, because he only needs to come from the original timeline. It should be clear that all of the show's timelines branch from this ONE new branch, and none of them branch from the original timeline. (Otherwise they would see a past in which 001 was not sent back in time.)

And get this ... in that new branch we see, there are absolutely NO MORE travelers. This is also very important in understanding the finale. This is because every SINGLE bit of information that goes back in time creates a new branch. This is logically equivalent to saying: every new branch has ONLY ONE change caused by time travel. So, in this new timeline, 001 is very happy. He stays hidden. He sees no other travelers. He thinks he's safe and dies happy. (Pure conjecture, but very feasible based on what we know about his character.) Please pause again to think about this fact: only ONE time-travel change per BRANCH.

Okay -- fast forward to the future of this new branch, and the Director is happy. He receives the message from 001 and decides to send 002. It's probably worth considering: that message had always been there on that specific server since 9/11/2001, waiting for someone to go looking for it. As soon as the Director came up with the idea, he could check immediately to see if the message was sent -- EVEN BEFORE SENDING 001 back. The Director may decide not to send 001 again, because it already happened. It's also possible that the "original" 001 doesn't even exist in the new timeline due to random ripples. In which case, the Director would have confirmation he was dealing with "Many Worlds" time travel. Either way, as an advanced AI, he would immediately use this information in its calculations. Maybe he sends 001 back. Maybe he doesn't. 

Either way, 002 gets sent back. Let's pick a date: 12/25/2001. This will create a third branch, like this:

When 002 (who we never see) gets sent back, this is going to create another copy of 001. On that middle second branch, 001 never sees a traveler. But in the bottom third branch 001 could feasibly run into 002. Or maybe not. By now you should be able to see that there are going to be thousands of versions of 001 -- many of whom will be benign. But as soon as some versions of 001 see a whole bunch of other travelers coming, they're getting to be very paranoid and take matters into their own hands.

Before continuing on, we need to go back to that original timeline. That's where the Director doesn't get a message from 001. So, what does the Director do? Is he going to just quit and give up? I suppose that's an option. He'd most likely send another test subject. Some other 002, which would create another branch like here in blue:

This blue branch is interesting in that it doesn't have 001 in it at all. Can you imagine the show without 001? Well -- that would be the blue branch, and ALL OTHER branches that stem from the blue branch. Even though there can only be ONE time-travel change per branch, we can still have MULTIPLE time-travel attempts in any branch. It just means that we're quickly going to end up with spaghetti:

And yes -- in the original original timeline, the Director is going to get absolutely no messages or results from the past changes, because they're always going to happen in other branches. So, the Director in that timeline will likely eventually give up.

If you're still struggling with these concepts, just remember when Carly planned to kill Walt. It successfully got his mind overwritten, but then Philip saw the alternative timeline where both Carly and Walt died. You see ... the timeline where Carly and Walt died had to happen in order for the Director to see the need to overwrite Walt's consciousness.

And you know we aren't done yet. Get ready for major head-blow-age. I'm still recovering from what comes next.

3468 is sent back in time. We saw this happen in the first episode. They stopped Grant from falling into the elevator shaft, and 3468 took over Grant's consciousness.

Let's look at 3468's timeline before he's sent back. In that timeline, Grant had already died in the elevator shaft hundreds of years ago. So, when 3468 goes back in time, it creates a whole new branch. We could call this the 3468 Branch. If we were to keep watching this branch, it would be a very boring show, because following the rules above, we can only have one time-travel change per new branch. The version of 3468 in this branch sees no more new travelers coming. He'll likely die when Helios 685 hits the Earth. As far as this version will know, the Traveler Program will fail.

But in the show, we don't stay on the 3468 Branch for very long. As soon as the next messenger or Traveler 3469 is sent, it's a whole new branch. But then again, notice that we never really hear from 3469 in the show. (Also, evidently the travelers aren't always sent in numerical order.) Remember that blue branch we saw above where there was no 001? Well, it's very possible that in the timeline we follow in the show, it's a similar situation where 3469 was sent to another timeline. One version of 3468 might be able to meet 3649, but in the timeline we watch, the two travelers never meet. It seems clear that the "show writers" picked and chose a specific branch pathway for us to watch. Skipping some time-travel events, and allowing others to affect 3468.

But yet, we as watchers of the show don't see any of this picking and choosing. Rather, it seems to flow naturally -- like some one-true-timeline type of thing. It would look something like this in our spaghetti graph:

In this graph, 3468 gets sent back to the past, to create the original 3468 Branch. But then, other subsequent time-travel events create thousands of copies of 3468, and the show seems to take us to one random branch -- the one with a red dot.

And the big question is: What is so special about that branch? It looks no different than all the others.

The answer is way-wicked cool. Because it just so happens to be the one branch where the Director wins. We may have to let this set in. It's kind of like how lightning only occurs after random feelers reach out from the sky and the ground until one optimally efficient connection is made to choose the fastest random path for the lightning to travel.

Let's dig in deeper.

(First off, a quick disclaimer. Above, I have grossly simplified the rules so we can have a hope to grasp the whole spaghetti concept. But in doing so, I've introduced a conundrum: 3468 was sent in a team of 5 people, but as per the rules I laid out, they would each end up in 5 different timelines. If we allow for the full-fledged Many Worlds theory, there would thousands or millions of versions of 3468 and his team being sent to different random possible realities, and it would be very feasible that many versions of the team all appear together in the same reality (albeit each coming from slightly different future realities), much like how in Scalzi's "Old Man's War," each spaceship warp placed the ship in a different alternate universe much like the one they had left. Yeah -- my mind is not accepting all this right now. However, this all in no way nullifies the coolness of the series finale. In short, it's quite possible for a team to arrive at slightly different times AND still avoid all causality paradoxes.)

It's feasible that the Director tried different tactics to gain success, and we saw the only one that worked -- where he invokes Protocol Omega. The Director seemingly says, "Screw David and all of you. This Project is over." Yeah -- that was a fun heart-wrenching episode.

The problem was: 001 was just too much of a virus. The more activity the Director invoked, the more it increased 001's paranoia, which would then create the Faction in many branches. So much a virus, it was becoming impossible to find a branch not corrupted by 001.

Protocol Omega angers 3468, and inspires him to no longer live by the rules. Think outside the box. And yet, the Director seemed to know this was coming, as he provided a way for 3468 to do what he wanted to do: travel back in time before 001 arrived.

So, 3468 sent himself to where he knew Grant MacClaren would be a couple of decades ago -- right before meeting his wife. Then he was later able to send a message from the Twin Towers: Do not send 001.

And the Director got the message, starting the Traveler Program 2.0. And how cool was this ending? It took me an hour or so to think about it and realize what had really happened. Check out the spaghetti graph with this twist ending:

Remember that before 3468 made this last time jump, there was only one timeline until 2001, when 001 would arrive (the red dot). All the black lines coming out of the red dot represent all the millions and possibly billions of branches 001 corrupted.

The green dot seemingly random to the right represents the one branch where 3468 gets the idea to go back in time AND the Director seems wise enough to provide the tools for it to happen. Then 3468 goes back, ruining MacClaren's life much earlier (breaking the only-take-a-life-if-they're-about-to-die rules), and look at the new branch he creates in green.

It entirely CIRCUMVENTS ALL of 001's corruption.

As part of the Traveler Program 2.0, there are going to be again millions of branches branching off of that green branch, but with 001 out of the mix, it's more likely to succeed.

And get this: 001 still gets his win. He destroys thousands and millions of timelines. Millions of versions of him will think he's won.

Then it makes me wonder if the Director knew all along how to win. Perhaps he already knew the "Many Worlds" nature of time travel. During the whole show, we got to see the Director fail a hundred times. But to when, it takes only one success, and then something strange happens.

The branches in black above will ultimately die out because of their in-sustainability, even though those versions of the Director in that set will keep trying.

However, the branch in green will branch out into more successful outcomes. And with Many Worlds, the successful branches will continue growing in number: billions and trillions. So much so that by density, they'll greatly outnumber the 001 black branches, bringing the probability of 001 branches to practically zero.

So, in that respect the Director wins big time -- gets the last laugh. It ends up being a resounding success -- a type of natural selection that must eventually arise from such a random setup.

So, yeah. I'm quite impressed with this show's ending.

So what do you think? Do you agree with this interpretation of the ending? What are your thoughts?

Travelers: An Impressive Show

If you're looking for a time travel show done correctly (mostly), you should check out Travelers, showing on Netflix. Produced by Brad Wright, one of the Stargate writers and producers, this show does what Avengers: Endgame tried to do, but succeeds.

Though there are a couple of tiny mistakes, Travelers sticks with its own time travel mechanics throughout all three seasons, and it all actually works -- even accounting for causality issues. Which is amazing, considering other shows that come close usually end up giving up in later seasons. For example, Continuum had an awesome first season, but then it threw away its time mechanics to make way for really stupid stuffs.

I wish I could say more about the time travel mechanics in Travelers, but finding out on your own is lots of fun, so I'll stop here. Though in a couple of weeks, I'll give a spoiler-filled analysis of the series closer -- a very satisfying end.

A quick summary of the plot: In the near future, something really bad is going to happen, and it's going to basically destroy humanity except for a small group of survivors. They eventually discover how to travel back in time, so they send "travelers" back to try and stop the disaster. These travelers must work in secret, and as you may expect, other people are going to make this difficult, setting up some very interesting situations and some really good moments. And very strong character development.

Plus, you get to rewatch some of your favorite SG-1 and SG: Universe actors.

And it's on the short side: just 34 episodes.

Only one drawback: it does have F-bombs, often of the inorganic type. But, if you happen to use VidAngel, they got you covered.

Also, one quick little announcement here: since I'm evidently so crazy busy these days. I've decided to slow down on my movie and TV reviews considerably, and have decided that I'm now only going to report on shows that I really, really like. I'm no longer going to waste time blasting shows I don't like.

So, ... catch Travelers. It's really up there on my list of favorite newer shows.

Goodbye, 2022

2022 is over, and I can't quite say it was a great year. I think I struggled more than succeeded. Or more correctly, my successes were more internal rather than in productivity. A lot of energy went into my "Always Be Better" videos, and then into a major project meant to help my music publishing company down the road.

Also, I'll be honest that discouragement was also a major factor. It's hard to produce work when less than 50 people see it. Also, the first six months were brutal in my day job. It wasn't till the end of the year -- the last three months -- that I started to pull out and see a way for future success.

Let's see how I did in blog writing...

I didn't post anything at all in The Econo-Mel. It just wasn't a priority. I'm learning that worrying about politics isn't very productive. And the anger from anyone who disagrees with what I write (both liberal and conservative), is very discouraging. However, I do see a few posts coming this year. I do hope for a better future where people who disagree learn how to work with others, and enjoy production rather than hate.

The Music of Mel got some more attention as promised -- mostly posts about music I like, or cool videos I found.

I kept up with The Mormon Mel -- trying to average one post a month. I got in some good thoughts from the Old Testament, plus another installation of the "Adventures of Elder Elder and Elder Benjamin."

My personal improvement video series and blog, Always Be Better, got 12 new videos. I was on track to finish out the 20, but then in October, this got pushed by the wayside when I started that other big project (which I'll talk about a year from now if it pans out well). One thing I learned: it definitely takes longer to make better videos.

The Word of Mel has had it's worst year ever -- only 9 posts. The second-worst year was 2019 with 18 posts.

Even new products coming out of Melkim Publishing was the lowest in 2022.

So, I've had my mid-life crisis, but now I have a plan. Right now, this plan is more about music than blog writing, but I'll see what I can do. I do need to keep up practicing my writing. My plan does have me returning back to writing fiction at full force in about another year or so. But in order for the great outcomes I'm looking for, I must set better priorities and accomplish things in the right order. I also need to stop worrying about certain concerns that sucked up much of my time in 2022. It's all going to work out, but for a while it might appear to you all as a continual lack of production.

I got this, and I think you all will be excited as things play out.

For now, enjoy my picks of favorite posts from 2022:

The Adventures of Elder Elder and Elder Benjamin: The Cake and Gidgiddoni: The adventures continue as these missionaries bake a cake and wreak havoc on their district leaders.

A Tour of Melkim Publishing: I provide a tour of my setup at Melkim Publishing, and show how to put together a music book. This one is best enjoyed by watching the video at the top.

The Law of Moses vs. the Higher Law: I do what any other mathematician would do ... try to show why a Higher Law is better than some lower Law of Moses with ... yes, you guessed it ... with graphs and statistics: lines and areas, and so on.

How Can I Take Control of My Life?: I worked hard on this one -- lots of fun. I interview Barth, my drummer ... friend ... who shares his story about how he became successful. This is another one where you'll get the most from the video.

Would You Be Found Guilty of Being a Christian?: Here, I take on a popular question with a twist -- while most usually think they want to be "guilty," the way outsiders view us might make you think twice.

Proactive Attitudes: And lastly -- my most popular video of 2022 (so far). Not one my personal faves, but people seem to like this one based on the 7 Habits. You should have seen the neighbors when I had this picture taken!

I wish you a great New Year, and hopefully 2023 will be great for us all. Keep pushing forward, and we will succeed.

Man in the High Castle

After watching the TV show, I decided to read the original book: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. And I must admit: I liked the TV show better. Though, the book does catch my attention.

Just like in the show, these characters live in an alternate world where Germany and Japan won World War II. The Nazis take everything in the states east of the Rocky Mountains, and the Japanese take the west. And the middle is a neutral zone where anything can happen.

I suppose I wanted the book to play out like the TV show. There are a few scenes that are basically identical (though in different places), but other than that the similarities cease. Even some of the characters are different and sometimes not as likable.

The book is more of a philosophical approach. It features a book within the book, called -- as you may guess -- "The Man in the High Castle." And many pages are devoted to different people reading from that book. What is strange is that this alternate-alternate world sounds a lot like ours, where Germany and Japan lost, but events in the 50s are different. In this way the book suffers a little from monologue syndrome (similar to the writings of Ayn Rand), featuring super-boring political what-if scenarios.

But there were some enjoyable parts. One moment in particular centers around a piece of poorly-created jewelry, where many agree that it has little artistic value, but is full of wu, which is some kind of raw emotion or aura from the person who made it -- someone suffering from the antagonistic world. So, we end up with something that has both no value and great value.

While all these thoughts were cool and all, I found the book difficult to want to pick up and read. I had to force myself. I was irritated with the book's cover (pictured above), which features three characters from the TV show, but one never appears in the book itself. Talk about deceptive marketing! And even a month after having finished reading it -- I still don't know what I was supposed to get out of it.

Some of the writing is inconsistent. Some sections are written with articles ("the", "an", etc.) dropped, as if Japanese are trying to speak English. And other times the articles are there. So, I wasn't sure what to think. Perhaps it needed another round of editing?

Though, on the other hand, I can't seem to quite stop thinking about the book. It kind of leaves everything wide open. You want to know what happens next, and you can almost guess. And there is no sequel. So, perhaps there's some magic in this book after all?

I'm glad I read it, though it took me forever. Perhaps I'll figure it out one day. If you're looking for something dense, philosophical, and thought provoking -- perhaps you should give this book a try. But I'll be honest. After reading it, I had to relax and pick up a page-turner.

The Batman: Is It Any Good?

I remember when news came out of yet another Batman reboot. (Or perhaps it's supposed to be part of the latest universe, but with a different actor for Batman? Can't tell.) And when I heard it was going to be Robert Pattison, my first reaction was -- ugh. Like many other fans, I asked, "Is Batman going to sparkle?"

But then when I heard it was actually good, I decided to give it a try. So, it was another trip to the local IMAX.

And yes -- it was on the most part good. It was like they took all the weaknesses of Pattison and turned them into strengths, and it actually worked. Instead of the playboy Bruce Wayne who's happy-go-lucky Bruce in the day and brooding Batman at night, we get the brooding Bruce and brooding Batman, which makes for a darker movie.

The main villain -- very scary in a different way, because it feels -- real. In the opening scene, he is looking through binoculars at a family getting ready for Halloween. And he's breathing hard. Cut to perhaps an hour later, the dad is alone in his study walking around and we see someone in the shadows all in black. At first I thought it might be Batman, but it's clearly an ad-hoc costume, and we see someone's eyes looking around creepily. And then he attacks -- so nope, not Batman.

Another development involves a very scary concept that has happened before and is likely to happen again in real life to some degree. Some good chills at that moment.

As the show continues, Batman encounters the Penguin, the Riddler, and other villains. And what is totally awesome -- they are not shown as campy caricatures, but rather as real down-to-earth gangsters. Even Batman is shown not to be invincible -- well, kinda.

I think there may be more violence in this movie compared to other incarnations. I hear that they started with a Rated R movie and took out scenes until it got down to PG-13. The one "PG-13" F-bomb was believable and somewhat organic. What remains seems to make for a fun action-filled movie.

Though, there are a couple of scenes that are slow and could have easily been edited for time.

My main complaint is -- well -- the music. It starts out pretty fun. There's an "Ave Maria" unaltered at the beginning -- a nice choice for the scene. And then throughout the movie there were a couple of variations -- sometimes major, and sometimes minor. And then -- it kept coming -- and again -- and again. It started becoming, "Okay, we get the idea."

The main Batman theme is cool at first, but then becomes very repetitive. We can do thirds in the bass! Yay! And then I started to notice that most of the chords were root-position chords and so many parallel fifths. I was disappointed to learn it was the work of Michael Giacchino, one of my faves.

In short, the music is probably perfect for the desired mood, but whatever you do -- don't analyze the music.

Danny Elfman's music remains my favorite Batman soundtrack.

But yeah -- I know most of you aren't going to analyze the music (though I do have a lot of musical friends). Go catch The Batman. Have fun. Enjoy a "realistic" Batman movie.

Double Feature: Free Guy and The Eternals

Today, I thought I'd do a double-feature: two small reviews. Often I'll watch a movie without reporting in, but I wanted to say a few things about these movies.

Man in the High Castle: TV

I can't figure out if I'm a fan of Philip K. Dick stories or whether I'm fan of movies based on his stories. I've only read a couple of his books, but seen several related movies and TV shows.

So, Man in the High Castle was required watching for me.

In Juliana Crain's world, the Nazis and the Japs win World War II. It's now in the early 1960s, and Juliana comes across mysterious silent films depicting the US winning the war. Viewers will recognize that it's actual footage from "our" universe. These films are collected by the Man in the High Castle -- whoever that is.

In this alternative war, the Nazis control everything to the east of the Rockies, and the Japs have everything to the west. The narrow band of land surrounding the Rockies is the Neutral Zone, which by treaty is not governed by Nazis nor Japs.

Hitler, himself, is still in charge in Berlin, but rumors are that he's nearing the end of his life, and most uprising contenders seem to desire war with Japan and its states. So, the upper leadership in Berlin is jockeying for position, the Nazi leadership in the Nazi States are also trying to stab each other in the back, and the Japanese leadership is trying to find a way to avoid war with the Nazis.

And whatever happens, the conquered Americans lose.

Well -- except for the resistance, who Juliana meets along the way.

Plus -- how are these videos appearing from some other universe?

Overall I thought it was executed rather well. The first two seasons were crazy good. The last two seasons were decent, still with good scenes, but less direction, and the season finale episode was terrible -- though everything mostly seems to come to a satisfactory end.

I always love the rebellions-rising-under-authoritarian-societies stories. Sometimes I wonder if we'll ever have to live out these scenarios (and sometimes it seems we get very close). So, this series really caught my attention.

It all seems to lead to a wonderful Season 2 finale, which feels like the end of a book.

And then Season 3 adds in some features that don't quite make sense -- trying to explore more of the sci-fi aspect. However, most of the original direction seemed to remain intact. 

Season 4 introduces an entirely new rebel group that we never saw in the first 3 seasons (kind of like what executives did to LOST in season 3). It was fun, but a jolt -- I wish these people had been with us the whole time, and not added as an after-thought.

The penultimate episode was excellent -- and I could almost suggest stopping there. Because the season finale doesn't seem to follow the direction of the rest of the show. It's like someone decided they wanted a specific ending so they could set up a certain person's last words -- which can certainly make one think -- but it wasn't actions I would have expected coming from the characters based on what had been established previously.

And the very last five minutes make no sense at all. Ugh. But it's easy to pretend it didn't happen. It didn't happen -- right? I still enjoyed the series as a whole. Many of the character arcs are wonderful (especially if you ignore the last episode).

One last complaint -- the writers definitely went out of their way to get the Nazi-killing-America shock value thing going. If you watch the trailer above, you can get a sense of it. Of course the Nazis wouldn't have everyone repeat a pledge saying "... and liberty for none." That's only intended to upset the watchers -- kind of clever, but not really.

Another example -- somewhere in there, a prominent Nazi watches a video of the Liberty Bell being melted down and changed into a large metal swastika. He says, "Excellent, excellent" with a big smile. And I'm thinking -- really? Getting excited over yet another swastika?

And yes -- there are swastikas everywhere. Having a party? Better have an ice sculpture of a swastika. And the only music you can play is German. A girl makes a cupcake? It's going to have swastika icing on top. I don't think in real life they would be quite so obsessed with the symbol. It was reminiscent of how the newer Doctor Who episodes like to depict Americans as people who always carry guns. Pew pew!

I also think it unfortunate to further ruin a religious symbol you can see on top of Buddhist temples. (It was interesting to see those symbols in South Korea knowing it wasn't Nazism, but I digress.)

As for accuracy in following the book -- I've only just now started reading the book -- of which I'll report in another month or so. But I can already see some differences. In the book, the Man in the High Castle produces books, not film (at least so far). There also seem to be plenty of characters added in the TV show, and a lot more added detail.

Either way -- I highly recommend this series. It does have a lot of unnecessary cussing (not in the book), but VidAngel can come to the rescue in that regard. It's only 40 episodes -- 10 in each season. Check it out!

The Expanse -- TV Review

Today I introduce to you one of the best TV series I've caught over the past decade -- a sci-fi epic that takes on the universe.

The Expanse is the TV series version of the popular book series (which is up to nine books -- and perhaps finished now?). The TV show spans the first six books in six seasons.

It begins with the stories of James Holden and Detective Miller. 

James is just your everyday XO on the Canterbury. His job is to extract ice from Saturn in order to deliver water to the colony in Ceres (yeah -- it's inside of the asteroid). But everything goes south when a group of fast and mysterious ships attack.

Meanwhile, in Ceres, Detective Miller picks up a job -- find a missing girl -- a seemingly easy task, but he runs into surprising amount of friction.

On top of this, we have a colony on Mars that wants to be independent. We have overpopulation on Earth where only the wealthy can live comfortably. The "Belters" are tired of being pushed around by "Inners" and so they have their own terrorist groups.

And yes -- it's all connected.

And the science is as real as I've seen in any shows. Just in the first episode, the producers go to great lengths to show a Coriolis effect on coffee as it's poured inside the spinning Ceres.

The original trailers attracted me to the show back in 2015. It looked a lot like the newer rendition of Battlestar Galactica, so I had to give it a try.

The first episode was very confusing, as I complained back then. This is because they introduce all of the main places across the solar system, so it's easy to get lost. Just remember: Earth, Mars, Ceres, Saturn, and a few places in between.

I was also disappointed because the trailer (above) led me to believe that Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad) was going to be a regular character, but after the first episode it was clear that it was all a big lie -- kind of like Emilio Estevez in Mission: Impossible.

The first few episodes also felt like a space noir flick, like Outlander, but it was starting to get on the slow side for me and I was about to give up. It's definitely on the gritty side -- people living terrible lives, swearing, and so on. But it has Mormons -- so I stayed an extra episode or two just to see how they treated our peeps (kind-of okay, but still got some things wrong). And just as I was to quit, something big happened, introducing a cool horror element. It hooked me in for the rest of the six seasons.

You may have caught my review of the first book, and so far, I'm liking the TV version more than the book. Maybe because it feels more like a script than a literary novel. I'll continue reading through the series and see if the writing gets better. On the most part, the TV version kept most of its energy going to the end, though it seemed to decline slightly.

The first three seasons were released on SyFy and the last episode of the third season was by far my favorite of the whole bunch. I was disappointed when SyFy announced the cancellation -- especially when it had gotten to its strongest point. To make matters worse, SyFy did not have any new shows coming to replace it to catch my attention. (Should I mention that right now there isn't a single show that I'm watching on SyFy? They've certainly allowed themselves to go downhill.)

Jeff Bezos, himself, worked to obtain The Expanse for Amazon Prime. But I have to admit that the later episodes, while good, weren't as strong as during the SyFy era. There was a gigantic increase in F bombs, perhaps slightly more grit, slightly less consistent pacing, and a little more overacting by some of the characters. Yet, it was still the best show on TV.

BTW, for those concerned about the language, this show is available on VidAngel. I used it myself, as these characters aren't really the most organic cussers.

The show comes to a mostly satisfying conclusion at the end of Season 6, but I'll be honest -- I didn't know it was the series closer while I was watching it, and when it was over, I was still wanting more. I mean -- all these threads were being tied off, but many were left open, and yet the good guys were flying off into the sunset ... and I was like -- really? There were only 6 episodes in that last season and the last one felt rushed. I think it could have been stretched out effectively.

Some complain that the show was "cancelled" again, but this time it was planned, as Book 7 starts a couple of decades later with different people. There are rumblings of another series in the future to finish off the last three books, but evidently that story is very far reaching -- sounds expensive to produce. I hope someone can pull it off -- I'd watch it. Who knows? I may finish reading the whole series by then, though.

Anyway, overall it was a good experience. Good plot. Good characters. Believable special effects. Good music. Good science -- real science. A possible future, and none of that Star Trek, Star Wars made-up stuff. And lots of action.

I highly recommend it. All 6 seasons are on Amazon Prime -- give it a try.

The Wheel of Time: First Season

This past fall and winter has been one of my favorite TV seasons, featuring two of my favorite epics turned into long-running shows. First came Foundation on Apple TV+, and then came this -- Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time with Amazon Prime.

The first season is short -- only eight episodes, but it covers the whole first book: The Eye of the World.

In the small town of Two Rivers live five promising individuals: Egwene, Nynaeve, Rand, Perrin, and Mat. Everything is upended when Moiraine, an Aes Sedai with incredible power, visits the town looking for the prophesied Dragon Reborn, who may one day save the world. She knows that it's one of these individuals, but she doesn't know which one. That very night, dark forces invade the town and cause all of our protagonists to flee. Moiraine must guide them safely back to the White Tower, where the Dragon Reborn can be identified and helped to live to his or her potential.

Yeah -- it sounds a lot like The Fellowship of the Ring. Perhaps at first this show feels like it, but it quickly deviates. It is definitely more violent at times, and the protagonists aren't really cute little innocent hobbitses.

There is also a LOT more politics going on, which makes the book series (and the TV show) a lot more interesting in this respect. For example, Moiraine isn't just a nice Gandalf figure, but rather a lady with her own agenda. She not only wants to protect the Dragon Reborn -- she also wants to control him. The same goes for practically everyone in the show.

Is it fun? Sure -- yeah. The first episode is on the slow side as we're introduced to the characters, but then it quickly picks up. At times, it's hard to want to stop watching at the end of the episode.

Is it like the book? It's actually pretty close. In the case of Foundation, I noted how approximately 90% of the show is not in the first book, but the main principles are in there. I also complained that there was one glaring error that to me may be a sign that the writers may not have read Asimov's books, but they still put together a compelling first season.

In contrast, The Wheel of Time doesn't deviate much from the original content. Of course, it's drastically condensed, but practically every scene in the show appears in some shape or form in the first book -- none of this 90% new material phenomenon.

One example from the first episode: the TV show decides to have the trollocs ransack the entire town, but in the book it's more of a surgical strike with the intent of only identifying and retrieving the Dragon Reborn. It turns out that having the town ransacked helps to move the story along without losing too much of the original.

One eye-roll thing for me was the fact that Moiraine was seriously considering the possibility that a woman might be the Dragon Reborn, but by the end of the season, it should be clear from the mythology that not only does it have to be a man, but Moiraine would not even doubt that fact. But I let it go, because it does provide some added tension in the story. Some people call this "woke," but I don't care.

It also seems to bug others that the writers made one of the characters gay. I have to admit that I was taken by surprise. But in researching, I learned that the prequel book does indeed identify that character as being gay. And even the writing in the first book strongly suggests it as well.

I, personally, was most upset that Min (someone who shows up later) didn't get much screen time. She shows up considerably later than she does in the book, and not for long. I think the writers could have stretched things out to ten episodes to get in a few more scenes I would have liked to have seen.

One improvement: they seemed to have removed the one character that is arguably the weakest character in the whole book series. No complaints from me.

Several perfectionists are upset by these condensing choices, but I have to be honest -- if the writers stuck to the book exactly, it would have gone on for 23 episodes and no one would watch it because it would be so boring. Those who haven't read the books are unlikely to get annoyed by this.

As for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it, noted the differences, and moved on. They kept most of the important stuff intact, and it felt like the books. And don't forget ... they do have Brandon Sanderson and other Robert Jordan "experts" on their team. I'm excited for season 2 next year. And I hope they realize they can stretch it out to more episodes and get in a few more favorite scenes and still keep it interesting.

So -- give it a try. It's fun.