Article Content

General

The blog is dead. Long live the blog.


A Borg cube hovers ominously over the code for Jammer’s website. What does this mean? IDFK. It’s “art.” Or maybe it’s a metaphor for this blog being assimilated into Jammer’s Reviews. Death is irrelevant.

I don’t know what the future holds for Jammer’s Blog, but I know that it won’t be what it has been for the past seven years since Star Trek Phase III: The Streaming Generation was ushered in back in 2017. What has that been? Mainly, a cross-posting dumping ground used to reference the main site (Jammer’s Reviews), so I had a single place to automate my RSS feeds for both the review site and the blog — and as a way to make it seem like the blog was still, somehow, relevant.

But it’s smoke and mirrors, and, frankly, a waste of my time and yours. It’s time to stop.

As you probably have seen, I have released a new version of Jammer’s Reviews with several site revisions. Read all about it here. The key takeaway is that I’m simply going to automate a new RSS feed through my comments feed, leveraging a specific query that pulls together all my review notifications and other announcements. That new announcements feed can be found on the RSS page. If you happen to be one of the 12 people who subscribe to the RSS feed here, please go re-subscribe over there, as this will be the last cross-posted notification between the two sites.

Looking back through the blog archive, since The Orville and Discovery premiered in September 2017, there have been 213 posts in the blog. Almost none of them have been standalone articles. There was the 25th anniversary article in 2020, and maybe a couple other things. Even the handful of posts (and they surely number less than five) that weren’t review notifications should’ve been posted in Jammer’s Reviews anyway. All the commenters who are in my regular audience are over there. The two commenting systems aren’t integrated, and that’s a problem.

The truth is, this blog has outlived its usefulness. So it’s time to hang it up and just get these things back to the main site. Future one-off articles and blog-type posts likely will be made there rather than here. It’s very possible I will move anything I feel has value back over there, too. I will maintain this blog as an archive of a few goofy things I wrote in the years from 2007 to 2017. But I don’t know that I see a need for this space anymore.

So, the blog is probably dead. Long live the archive.

Sobering and trivial reflections on a 25th anniversary

Every five years in March, I seem to write this same article reflecting on the history of Jammer’s Reviews and/or the unstoppable passage of time. This marks the fifth of those five-year articles. That I’ve done this website for 25 years and am still doing it is something worth noting. I will continue to take note every five years (as long as I and my website are still here), because they provide markers for myself even if no one else cares. I looked back at some of those previous anniversary articles and grinned while taking the trip down memory lane.

But it feels different this time, because as I check in today, the COVID-19 crisis continues to escalate in the United States and across the world. Had I written this even three weeks ago as I’d originally planned, I might not have mentioned the coronavirus at all. Yes, it was definitely already happening and was a serious concern, but it was still a slow march seemingly far away, something to keep an eye on but not all-consuming. Things have escalated quickly. (Read more…)

Reflections upon 20 years and the elasticity of time

clockI’ve always tried not to take time for granted. Even in my mid-20s I was keenly aware of how old I was, how much older I was getting and how quickly, and was always questioning whether I was older than the guy in the beer commercial, who represented some sort of ideal youthful adult age within the ultimate demographic. I knew even then that it was a silly notion to care about, but I also knew that one day I would wake up and not be young anymore. That somehow didn’t stop me from wasting a lot of time. Maybe I do take time for granted.

My years as a 20-something single guy disappeared long ago (the “20-something” longer ago than the “single guy”), but in retrospect that period in my life lasted for a long time, and it’s strange to think how long I was locked into that routine. I spent the better part of a decade living in the same cheap apartment and going to the same job. (Even if the job title changed a few times, it was still essentially the same deal.) Without a doubt not coincidentally, these were days that marked the most active period of my online reviewing activities. (Read more…)

Checking in for 2014, Part 2

I’ll tell you what, ladies and gentlemen: I didn’t think October, which is almost over, could possibly have gotten here as fast as it did. My last post was in January, days after my little girl took her first steps. Now she’s running around at full speed, getting into everything, speaking in phrase fragments, making pretend animal noises on demand, eating with a fork, and all kinds of fun stuff. Yesterday we took her to the zoo with her cousins. So times flies, etc., etc. (Read more…)

Checking in for 2014

Hello, everyone. Jammer here. Still alive. Just to let everyone know, this site is not abandoned. Not at all. I continue to read all comments every day posted on the website, via the comment browser, which might be one of the best features I ever put on the site. (Read more…)

Why write reviews when I could be applying for a new mortgage?

Will I ever review Star Trek Into Darkness? Yes. It’s just been a hectic and busy past few months. My adorable baby daughter is almost eight months old now and we spend a lot of time playing with her. Also, we just bought a new house, moved, and we’re in the process of selling our old house. (If I had time, I would blog about how much I hate the hassle and time/money drain of real estate.) So life is good, but also very busy. (Read more…)

Eventually I will write again

Hey, there. How’s it going?

I’ve been silent for quite a while on this site that used to be mine. Right now, it seems like it belongs more to the people who comment on the site, because I’ve been MIA so long that I’ve become more like the host emeritus. Hopefully that won’t last forever. (Read more…)

Jammer’s hiatus explained with a special announcement

One might be wondering why — with only six TNG reviews to go before finishing up my long-protracted and often-delayed TNG reviewing project, and thus completing my reviews of the entire Trek canon — I would suddenly stop after my last post back in early December. My latest hiatus can be explained simply, but I’ll also break down some details for those who find interest in stuff like that. (Read more…)

Jammer’s Reviews gets an upgrade

Jammer's DeskMy desk, which lately has felt like my home away from home — if not for the fact that it’s inside my home.

Based on how long it’s been since I’ve posted any new TNG reviews, one might assume that I am neglecting Jammer’s Reviews, my longest-running website project.

Far from it. I’ve been working hard on a behind-the-scenes upgrade to the website, which is necessary from time to time. The last major upgrade was in 2007. This upgrade marks the sixth generation of the site. I’ve created at least one new feature which should be of use to the active commenters who frequent the site.

Learn much more about this upgrade here.

Making a cameo in my own production

Lest everyone assumes that I’ve forgotten that this website exists, let me assure you that I have not, so I’ll give you a quick update on things.

First, the TNG reviews. Sigh. I’m afraid what I’d hoped would be the Summer of Jammer’s Awesome Comeback has quickly slipped away to become the Summer of Lost Opportunities. After roaring through season five of TNG, season six remains on the back burner, and I regret to inform that I watched the first four episodes of season six back in late May, wrote the first review, and then got pulled away. Fast-forward nearly three months, and my grand plan to get TNG done before fall has become a fantasy. I’ll get back to it, but inertia has dragged me down yet again, I’m sorry to report. (Read more…)