There is a large, malevolent entity hovering over my shoulder.

It sits there, breathing just past the back of my neck, making me ever aware of its presence. It is proactively passive in its sinister overreach, whispering just out of my earshot about the perils that await me on this road to perdition, this path to FOMO.

I have yet to watch Andor. Or The Mandalorian.

I have yet to watch She Hulk or Ms Marvel or The Last of Us. I have yet to watch Wakanda Forever, or Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. I have not even watched Animal Control.

This pile of media continues to grow, mocking me in its persistence; a reminder that the zeitgeist is escaping me as I plunge further into increasingly taxing studies. As my scientific studies progress, my distance from those edifi of pop culture that have long been the base of my very personality becomes and more daunting.

I wish I had the brain space to dedicate to these things, but I fear relaxing my guard, out of the worry that, by doing so, I might accidentally forget a Derivative formula, or the classes within a particular phylum of animal that I have studied. I have not been able to dissect the latest offerings of the Marvel Universe; I have been preoccupied with dissecting squid. (Image gracefully redacted.)

I want to make a more concerted effort, going forward. Podcast rebooting, media reviewing, theater attending, improv and comedy producing effort. I have a musical to finish, after all. Promises have been made. Puppets have been designed.

I’m going to wade through these things, one volume at a time, within the limited time I have available between homework packets and prelab research. I hope to share my observations, so that my observational skills do not wither under the harsh lights of my microscope.

In the meantime, join me on Twitter this Saturday at 9 pm Pacific, as I join @TOSSatNight for their ongoing rewatch of Star Trek: The Original Series!

This week, we revisit Season 3, Episode 12: The Empath. Join the conversation at #TOSSatNight! (I know, I’m late to the party on this one. I’m looking forward to watching it loop back around.)

Then, on Sunday, at 8 pm Pacific, we launch our all new rewatch of Star Trek: The Next Generation, with a rewatch of Season 1, Episode 1: Encounter at Farpoint. Join us at #TNGSunNight!

Time to get creative again. I mean, when was the last time I even drew a cartoon? Here.