This is an archive of my Now page. What is a Now page?
(This is a now page, and if you have your own site, you could have one too. Find the archives on the Then page.)
As of May 21, 2025:
Working On
We just finished recording two of the four episodes for Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World for June and we’re making plans for the rest of the summer.
We are gearing up for our big pilgrimage to Italy for two weeks in the midst of July. That creates a lot of production issues, so we’ve decided to mostly put the network on hiatus for two weeks. Some shows may go on hiatus a little longer and others will keep going because they don’t rely on me to get published or because I can pre-schedule their releases.
I’ve never done anything like take two weeks off almost completely so it should be interesting to see how it works.
Faith
My oldest daughter Isabella is transitioning from altar serving into being a lector. She has nice strong voice and is a good reader. Some of that is due to her role-playing fun, some due to her being a sometime VoiceOver artist for Mysterious World and some due to the amount of read-aloud she did in homeschooling with her mom. Each time she’s read at Mass, we’ve gotten praise from others in the congregation.
Meanwhile, I’m convincing my other son Anthony to become an altar server. The only other male servers are his brother Ben and another boy.
Scouting
My boys' troop is heading to Washington, DC for a Memorial Day weekend trip, which involves a very early bus departure on Friday morning. We have to be at the bus by 6am. That will be a very interesting morning.
The girls' troop is working hard on reorganization and planning for the summer and beyond. There is a very good vibe in the troop right now. Meanwhile, in my role as Advancement chair (in addition to being treasurer) I’m working to ensure all the Scouts have their accomplishments accurately recorded in both their paper handbooks and in the online Scoutbook system for both ranks and merit badges. If they do the work, they should get the credit. Until now, it’s been a mess.
Playing
Still playing a little bit of Crusader Kings and Civilization, but really haven’t much time for it.
Reading
Still reading Howling Dark in Christopher Rucchio’s Sun Eater series. I’m tempted to take a break and switch to a couple of new books that have come in that in the history and spy thriller genres.
Watching
Melanie and I finished season 4 of Grace. Apparently season 5 is out in the UK, but we will have to wait a bit for it to show up on Britbox.
I finished Andor, which was bittersweet. The show is so good and Alan Tudyk’s K2SO was a great addition. I wish they’d added him earlier. Now I want to watch Rogue One again.
I also watched the series finale of SWAT. I know it’s a network police procedural, but I still enjoyed it. Yes, the amount of shooting they do makes LA look like a war zone, but I enjoyed many of the characters, especially Deacon, probably because he’s one of the only Catholic dads on network TV who actually comes across as a good, honest, faithful guy who lives his faith.
The Recruit
Better Call Saul
The Rookie
Babylon 5
Stargate SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek (All series)
Doctor Who (classic)
Health
No real complaints. The skin on my arms has been peeling from the unexpected sunburn while camping a few weeks ago, which has been freaking out the kids. I have my annual physical this week.
As of May 12, 2025:
Working On
I’m happy to note that Jimmy Akin’s Youtube channel has passed 100,000 subscribers. This is an important milestone. This is Jimmy’s personal channel, of course, but it’s also where Mysterious World is posted. The 100K threshold seems to be important with regard to the algorithm and how often it recommends your videos. We shall see.
Our other shows continue apace with no significant changes from recent reports.
One significant behind-the-scenes happening is that we’ve selected a fundraising consultant to help us. As a non-profit we rely exclusively on donations from supporters. Until now, we’ve done all the work of fundraising ourselves, but I’ve noticed recently that the response to our appeals has cooled a bit. Nothing dramatic or drastic, but I think our messaging has gone stale and some new blood, some new perspective might help us convey the importance of our work to more people.
Faith
My pastor has asked me to join the parish finance council recently as my first act I was asked to join a vicariate meeting with our new archbishop, Richard Henning of Boston. The vicariate is a geographical, regional grouping of parishes and the archbishop, who is only 6 months into the job, has been visiting each vicariate to meet with clergy and staff and with parish pastoral and finance councils.
My first impression is very favorable. The archbishop is a former seminary professor and I can tell. It’s not that he lectures, but that he clearly knows how to lead a group discussion and to listen. He was very intent on getting our feedback on several topics important to him, including communications, and then opened the floor to more general questions. Over about 60 minutes or so I got the sense that he is intelligent, humble, and patient; that he’s hopeful and intent on evangelization; and that the Church’s teachings are important to him and he will not be shy about proclaiming them, but that he will also not be seen as “political,” supporting or criticizing this or that candidate or party.
Scouting
There has been some recent drama and shakeup in my girls' Scout troop (no specifics), but it does mean some new leadership and a new focus. I think in the long run, it will be good for the troop. My elder of the two girls in Scouts (This is BSA/Scouting America, not GSA) is working on her Eagle project and making some excellent progress. I think it’s a great project idea and hope to share some of the details soon.
Semi-related to Scouting, we took some time this past weekend to go through our shed full of camping gear to catalog what we have, what’s broken, and what we can give away. It turns out I’ve amassed quite a collection of tents. Our old 8-person tent that was our first family tent has gotten old enough that the poles are permanently warped and the elastic cord has lost its spring and the fabric has torn in a few places, so it was time to get rid of it. (I tried to give it away online, but no takers.) We have a few other small tents (1 or 2 person) that we will give to the girls' scout troop. But that still leaves us with 8 tents ranging from single person to 10-person, most of them being in the 3 or 4 person size. We also realized that we no longer have enough summer-weight sleeping bags for the whole family, so I’ve had to order a few more.
One consequence of getting out the tents and setting them all up to make sure they were in good shape is that we had a bunch of tents in the yard, which caused a spontaneous desire in three of the kids to sleep outside. These Scouts cannot get enough of the outdoors.
Playing
I’ve been occasionally playing Crusader Kings on my MacBook Air M4, where it runs very well and I have not had any of the multiple-monitor issues that I was having on my Mac Studio. I still haven’t got very far in the game, but I think I will continue to enjoy it.
Reading
I’m continuing to read Howling Dark in Christopher Rucchio’s Sun Eater series. There’s plenty of action, but wow is it long. It’s also kind of bleak. It’s what always made the Star Wars space opera different from others, in that Star Wars was always more hopeful. Sun Eater seems to be a series of setbacks and difficulties for the main character of Hardian Marlowe to overcome. In some ways, it reminds me of either Dune or Michael Moorcock’s Elric series. I’ve only read a little in either series and finally gave up because of the bleakness. I hope that Sun Eater breaks the mold.
Watching
For some reason, I thought episode 9 of Star Wars: Andor was the last episode. The way nine ended, it certainly could have been (apart from some loose ends). I was happy and surprised to learn I was wrong and that there are three more episodes today.
I’ve been catching up on Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis and Babylon 5, but I think I want to dive into Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld . Melanie and I also need to get back to Grace
The Recruit
Better Call Saul
The Rookie
S.W.A.T.
Babylon 5
Stargate SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek (All series)
Doctor Who (classic)
Health
No real complaints. I have my annual physical coming up in a week.
As of May 5, 2025:
Working On
We’re in the midst of the latest season of Doctor Who on The Secrets of Doctor Who, which has been pretty good so far, until the most recent episode. Listen to our latest episode to hear why.
At our latest board meeting for SQPN last week, we discuss our efforts to find a fundraising consultant to help us with our financials. We’re doing okay right now, but I think our message has gotten stale. We’re starting to see more donors ending than we have new ones starting. Donors leave for all kinds of reasons, including personal financial changes, changes in podcasting or donating habits, and so on. So we need to be constantly bringing in new donors to at least maintain, but also to keep up with inflation and to grow the network. The hope is that fresh eyes and minds can help us reach people in new ways.
I also continue to think about how to do a Catholic history podcast. My latest thought is that it should be based on the stories of people throughout the last 2,000 years, both well-known and little-known, but who have had an impact on the Church. I still need to find someone to do it. I would even host it if I could find someone to write the scripts.
Scouting
This past weekend, we had the local council camporee at Camp Squanto. About 15 troops from the area came, I believe, including my daughters' troop and my sons' troop. As of late last week, the weather threatened to be pretty bad: rainy all Saturday and even thunderstorms, but instead we got amazing weather: Sunny, high 60s, low 70s, very breezy. We got some drizzles overnight Saturday while we slept. At home an hour’s drive away, there were severe thunderstorms so we lucked out.
I did a lot of the cooking for the adult leaders in our troop: bacon, eggs, and hash browns for breakfast, maple bourbon steak tips, green beans, and smashed red potatoes for dinner. The girls did great as well. I was impressed they made a plan for the inevitable leftovers of their meals, which usually get tossed out. And for dessert they planned a chocolate fondue, melting chocolate over a double boiler and then dipping various fruit in.
Playing
At Easter, my nephew introduced me to another civilization simulation game he’s been playing called Crusader Kings 3. It takes place between about 800 AD and 1600 and the player controls each member of a dynasty as you grow your kingdom from a small holding to an empire (maybe). The characters age and die and you pick up with your successor in each generation. It’s a complex game of politics and feudalism and warfare and faith. So far I’m enjoying it. With expansion packs the game’s world stretches from Ireland in the west to China in the east to sub-Saharan Africa to the south. Pretty fun so far, although I’ve encountered a bug in the Mac version that cause the mouse control to go unresponsive and it only occurs on Macs with two monitors, as I do. So I may have to play it only on my MacBook.
Reading
I finished Pratchett’s Guard! Guards! series set in Discworld with the completion of Snuff and then completed my re-read of The Two Towers. So now I’ve returned to Christopher Rucchio’s Sun Eater series with Howling Dark. It’s a good space opera, but he’s like Sanderson in that the books are very long. The characters are introspective so there are long passages of thinking and mulling, but it’s compelling enough to keep me going.
Watching
I finished Bosch: Legacy’s final season although there looks like a spinoff series coming. I don’t know if I’m interested as I think Bosch only makes cameos in that one. I also finished Daredevil: Born Again, which was very violent and felt incomplete at the end of the season, and Wheel of Time, season 3, which also felt too short for all the characters it’s trying to deal with. Reacher, season 3 came to satisfying conclusion. And I also finished Night Agent season 2, which was fine. Will I watch season 3? I don’t know.
I have started Star Wars: Andor which is great but not for kids. My complaint there is that the story feels rushed. They’re covering 3 seasons that they had planned in 9 episodes. Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld also just dropped and so I will want to watch that soon. And of course, the aforementioned Doctor Who.
Finally, Melanie and I started watching the 4th season of the British detective series Grace, which has some compelling drama and mystery.
The Recruit
Better Call Saul
The Rookie
S.W.A.T.
Babylon 5
Stargate SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek (All series)
Doctor Who (classic)
Health
My back is killing me from sleeping on a cot and sitting in camp chairs all weekend and I have a bit of a sunburn, but otherwise I’m good.
Miscellaneous
I picked up a Blackstone griddle recently and have been having great fun with cooking new things outdoors on it.
As of March 28, 2025:
Working on
It was a mad rush to the end of the week and even then I have some things that need to get done. End of the month is always a busy time. I did manage to get all the shows up through Tuesday prepared to release. I also had the board meeting for StarQuest, which was quick at about 45 minutes. We’ve become quite efficient with our time.
One of the end of the month tasks is to preview the coming month for most of our shows through social media posts and our newsletter. It’s a bit time-consuming mostly because I have to find appropriate episode art work for shows that haven’t been produced yet.
Scouting
This weekend I will be camping with the girls' Scout troop at Camp Squanto, first of three Squanto visits over the next 5 weeks. It’s a fine place, but I do wish I could get some more variety in my camping. I will be trying out a new backpack from 5.11 Tactical. It’s a bit smaller than my old one, but for two nights I don’t think I need a giant pack.
The weather threatens to be cold and drizzly, which is not fun, but we’ll be in a cabin, probably the last cabin camping until next October or November.
Playing
I’ve decided, I think, that I don’t much like the new Civilization VII yet. I don’t like saying that, but there’s just too much missing from Civ VI. Yes, it looks great, but there’s less strategy and tactics, individual decisions seem less important to the outcome, and the playing area feels cramped. Faith doesn’t seem to play as big of a role, nor the governors nor the World wonders. One of my favorite parts of Civ is city and empire building, but that’s been so substantially changed, I’m not sure it’s even the same game. Maybe it’s better in multiplayer or scenarios, but the only multiplayer I do is with my kids and I never play scenarios.
Reading
I completed the short story collections Dark and Stormy Knights and My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon. I read these mainly for the Jim Butcher Dresden Files short stories. Both collections were pretty good, although I preferred Knights over Honeymoon. Neither had any absolute clunkers, but Honeymoon felt a bit like a romance novel at times. Although there was one fascinating story about a girl’s encounter with a faerie world in the Midwest and I continue to enjoy P.N. Elrod’s noir detective vampire stories. Unfortunately, the Butcher story in this one was one I’d already read.
However, the Butcher story in Knights was new to me and an enjoyable twist. I also found several other stories quite fun o read.
Now, I’m moving on to the last of the Terry Pratchett Guards! Guards! novels set in Discworld. After that, I’m not sure which Discworld sub-series to tackle next.
Watching
Severance, Season 2 is complete and what a wild ride. You can hear me to talk about it in the next episode of Secrets of Movies and TV Shows at sqpn.com/secrets. That will be out on Thursday, April 3
Bosch: Legacy: Bosch is back! This will be the third and final season of the sequel series following on the original Bosch show. I’ve never been quite sure why it’s two different shows since there really wasn’t a break between them.
Wheel of Time, season 3
Daredevil: Born Again
Reacher, Season 3
The Recruit
Better Call Saul
Night Agent, Season 2
The Rookie
S.W.A.T.
Babylon 5
Stargate SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek (All series)
Doctor Who (classic)
Health
Still not sleeping great, but otherwise feeling good.
Miscellaneous
The four kids in karate took another belt test this week and all passed. Sophia, Ben, and Anthony are all blue belt with stripe and Lucy is now orange. She’s a bit behind because she started after the others.
As of March 19, 2025:
Faith
I’m not sure I’m doing any better than last week, honestly. I made it to Mass with the family on Sunday, which I wasn’t sure I would. I was with the Scouts camping and I barely made it home before we had to leave for Mass. I do want to start praying the Rosary daily, which I’d started last Lent and dropped sometime over the summer. My normal daily devotion is the Liturgy of the Hours.
Working on
I had to cancel this week’s recording of The Secrets of Technology because I had a panelist cancellation and none of the backups were available. I could sometimes go with just the other panelist, but I also didn’t have a good topic ready for the week. I can be difficult to come up with my new compelling topics myself every week.
In the meantime, I’m prepping to record the April episodes of Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World this weekend. The should be some popular topics, including the Amityville Horror, Jack the Ripper, The Fouke Monster, and Parapsychology.
Scouting
The camping trip with the boys' Scout troop at Camp Nihan last weekend went well. The weather wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped, but it wasn’t bad at all. The first night was chilly, but the second night was warm. The cabins we were in had lights, but no running water and the heat was provided by pellet stove. The first cabin I was in had a broken stove, but the next one had a working stove so that’s good. The Scouts did a lot of emergency preparedness activities and we also had a solemn flag retirement ceremony Saturday night.
The girls' troop is planning their next camping trip in the meantime. I have just realized that over the course of a month I will have camped three times at Camp Squanto, one of the council camps: Next weekend with the girls, in mid-April with the boys, and then at beginning of May with both troops for the council camporee.
Playing
Games are still pretty much on the back burner. I was tempted by an old Battlestar Galactica tactical combat game from about 8 years ago, but have not gone for it yet. I’m afraid of spending money on another game and not getting my money’s worth out of it.
Reading
I completed _Cold Iron Task (The Unorthodox Chronicles), _ by James J. Butcher, over the weekend. A whole Saturday hanging out in the woods is good for that. It was pretty good. I’m not sure if it’s a generational thing, but I find the woe-is-me lack of self-confidence of the main character, Grimsby, to be wearying after a while. Clearly he’s somewhat competent. But is he yet another diamond in the rough, a secret savior, an unassuming hero in geek’s clothing?
Another thing that bugs me a little is that the setting is in Boston, but it’s clear the author either hasn’t visited or at least isn’t that familiar with it. Like he’s only known it from Google Maps and Wikipedia. For instance, he often refers to local landmarks in ways that I’ve never heard a local refer to them. Yes, that may be the “formal” name on a map, but no one calls it that. As I said, it’s a minor annoyance. It reminds me when the author’s father referred to Chicago’s Wrigley Field as being in the midst of giant parking lots. Yeah, Wrigley is famously in the middle of a neighborhood.
Speaking of the elder Jim Butcher, I have not started reading a collection of short stories in which he is featured, called Dark and Stormy Knights, in which the theme is modern-day knights called upon to defend humanity, doing the dirty work for all the right reasons. The Butcher story was good and so far the others have been enjoyable too. These collections are often pretty uneven in quality, so there may be others I skip.
Watching
Wheel of Time, season 3: This is another one where it’s been so long since watching the first two seasons, I have a hard time remembering who everyone is and what’s going n.
Daredevil: Born Again: Will there be some actual, you know, Daredevil in this season? Not so far.
Severance (watching with Melanie)
Reacher, Season 3
The Recruit
Better Call Saul
Night Agent, Season 2
The Rookie
S.W.A.T.
Babylon 5
Stargate SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek (All series)
Doctor Who (classic)
Health
I have this elbow wound that just won’t heal. It’s been painful and scabbed over for more than a year. Because it’s tender to the touch and I’m a belly sleeper, it’s difficult finding a sleeping position that isn’t painful. Last night was especially so. Yet another reason why I’m not sleeping well.
As of March 12, 2025:
Faith
My Lent is unremarkable. I failed to plan, which as you now is a plan to fail. But it’s also only been one week. I tend not to focus on giving something up, but on do something extra in my prayer life. This year, my intent is to get away from the tendency to think of Lent as a self-improvement time, whether spiritual or otherwise, and to just grow in my relationship with Christ.
Working on
On The Secrets of Doctor Who, we just finished discussing the last televised story of the 2nd Doctor (Patrick Troughton). We’d previously completed the 6th Doctor (Colin Baker) and 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy). Next up to finish will be the 5th Doctor (Peter Davison), then the 3rd (Jon Pertwee), the 1st (William Hartnell), and finally the most prolific of the classic Doctors, the 4th (Tom Baker). Of course, we’ve already done all the modern Doctors and are looking forward to the next season of the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) in April.
Meanwhile, I’ve edited and scheduled the next episode of Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World, which will be on UFO Observables (characteristic traits observed in the behavior of UFOs) and the one technology that could explain them all. I really love UFO episodes.
I’m also working on developing a Catholic history podcast, one that would span the whole breadth of the Church. I want the show to be engaging and fun, entertaining and informative. My ideal version of the show would be that it breaks down complex historical events so they are understandable to general audiences. It should present the events and situations as compelling narratives with clear characters and stakes andiIncorporate dry humor and occasional witty asides to make the dense historical content more engaging without undermining the seriousness of the subject matter. The research should be thorough and well-sourced to give listeners confidence in the accuracy of the information while avoiding academic jargon. And it should convey a passion for the material that comes through in the narration, making listeners feel like they're learning from someone who truly care about the historical events being described.
I would love to find someone who would be willing to take on the project, but I’m becoming more and more afraid that if I want it to happen, I will have to do it myself. This one would be a lot of work and I don’t think I can do it until at least Secrets of Doctor Who wraps up regular production later this year.
Scouting
One pleasant surprise from the girls’ troop’s recent shooting merit badge work was the realization of Lucia’s shooting ability. She did so well that we were contacted by the coach of the local girls shooting team. The guy from the shooting range told him about Lucy’s high scores and they’re interested in having her maybe join them. Cool!
In the meantime, their troop is working on Swimming merit badge and rank requirements. Last night, they had their first session at the pool, which went well. We have another session planned in a couple of weeks.
Sophia’s work on planning her Eagle Scout project is progressing and we have a meeting scheduled with our pastor to discuss it.
This weekend, I will be camping with the boys’ troop at Camp Nihan, which is at the Breakheart Reservation in Saugus, Mass. The weather is supposed to be really good this weekend.
Playing
Haven’t had much time to play any games beyond a couple quick fun games of Balatro.
Reading
I finished Midnight Black, by Mark Greaney, the latest installment in the Gray Man series. I was right about where the plot was going but was great fun nevertheless. It had a very “ripped from the headlines” feel given some current geopolitical events. A very nice installment in the series that ends with a setup for some future novels.
I’ve now started Cold Iron Task (The Unorthodox Chronicles), by James J. Butcher (the son of Jim Butcher of The Dresden Files). It’s magical realism or urban magic or something like that, but features a junior member of the Department of Unorthodox Affairs (the name for magical beings and people), a not-very-good witch with a good heart and a way of coming out on top through sheer grit and persistence and personality. Butcher the Younger shows promise and I’m continuing to be interested in the series. He has his father’s sense of wry, self-deprecating humor.
Watching
Daredevil: Born Again
Severance (watching with Melanie)
Reacher, Season 3
The Recruit
Better Call Saul
Night Agent, Season 2
The Rookie
S.W.A.T.
Babylon 5
Stargate SG1
Stargate: Atlantis
Star Trek (All series)
Doctor Who (classic)
Health
My health is good. The time change this Spring has whacked me more than usual. I’m getting less sleep, falling asleep later but getting up at the usual time. I’m also getting some back pains, which may be due to sitting posture or sleeping posture.