I love Star Trek. I loved how it explored humanity in a different perspective. I loved how it presented different aspects of humans through aliens in the series. Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Deep Space 9 are shows I think portrayed it the best. When Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard came out, I was excited to finally have new Star Trek shows to watch! When I watched the first episode of Discovery, I knew it was going to be a good show. I wanted to save the best for last, so I decided to start Picard first instead. I’m not even halfway done with the series and I want to die.
First of all, Star Trek: Picard can hardly be called a Star Trek show. It is so heavily focused on trivial drama that you forget the show is supposed to be from Star Trek. If it were not for elements unique to Star Trek, I would have thought this was a random sci-fi show. It’s so unlike previous Star Trek series, Paramount Pictures should have simply called this show “Picard” instead.
Secondly, our main “hero,” Jean-Luc Picard, is pathetic. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard used to present himself as a thoughtful and intelligent man. In Picard, however, he’s now someone who’s out of touch, tone deaf, incompetent, dumb, and infuriating. Jean-Luc Picard no longer someone worth calling a hero.
Picard is not the same character he once was in TNG. Instead, he is a hollow shell of what he used to be, disillusioned by the false grandeur the show seems to give him. Picard is no longer the respectable captain he used to be. Picard is now the epitome of what we fear of becoming when we’ve become old — useless.
Almost halfway into April already! To celebrate the coming of Spring (and a Vtuber I know who is themed around it), I made some hanami dangos today.
Dangos are sweetened rice balls that can come in a variety of light flavors. 花見, hanami, which literally translates to “flower viewing”, is a tradition people follow in Japan where they go out to view the cherry blossoms in full bloom. Hanami Dangos are special as they are specifically made in three colors: green, white, and pink. The green color is supposed to represent the grass, the white color is supposed to represent the traces of snow still lingering from winter, and the color pink is supposed to represent the cherry blossoms that are now blooming.
This was my first time making dangos and I thought it’d be fun to share that experience so I streamed the process at Twitch. Here’s how they look!
The pictures make them look great, but they definitely did not taste as good as they looked. Nonetheless, I had a good time making them and having a group of people watching me do so. I might make it a regular thing on Sundays!
In the mean time, I need to finish watching Star Trek: Picard and hate life.