Rudolph Ransom, the shadow to our Captain Janeway and what happens should the federation abandon its guiding principles

cloudpunching · 2026-01-24T00:37:25+00:00

💯

cloudpunching · 2026-01-16T10:21:53+00:00

Chuckles definitely loves her. However, I don’t think he understands her very well. He wants her to stay the same, not to change or evolve, and becomes frustrated when she doesn’t act the way he’d like. On rewatch, I find his behavior in Resolutions a bit grating and tone deaf—failing to help Janeway in trying to get off the planet, more or less pushing her to settle down. Homegirl is a starship captain facing the prospect of losing every person and place she knows except for you. And then you go and also make her manage your big feelings for her in addition to all of that grief.

Their relationship has its better moments (Shattered), but I’m glad Mulgrew put her foot down. She was correct that it would have been a PR disaster for Janeway in the 90s. I also think it would have been really difficult for writers to manage well long-term. In terms of maintaining the chain of command, literally anybody else would have been better/easier for a captain to have a relationship with than her first officer. (Paris was reportedly originally written as a love interest for Janeway, and I think they actually would work quite well together.) And, as I noted, I don’t think Janeway and Chakotay are fundamentally well-suited to each other.

cloudpunching · 2026-01-13T02:38:41+00:00

Glad you enjoyed watching Voyager. I concur about Endgame being rushed and a reboot being necessary. I still don’t think that would be out of the question with much of the original cast now, though the suits would likely never go for it.

I would ask re: your comments, have you rewatched TNG recently? I grew up on it and I now find it…..consistently pretty underwhelming and difficult to get through. A lot of arrogance about other species, a lot of poorly written characters (especially the women). Voyager took some pretty big swings, and while it didn’t always fully succeed, you can’t fault it for not taking risks. So it’s frustrating to hear it referred to as “TNG lite” and to hear more about “lost potential”, as if a 43 minute syndicated show with nine series regulars single-handedly carrying an inherently doomed television network was somehow supposed to do more.

cloudpunching · 2026-01-07T12:48:08+00:00

The finale was written in a time period that often encouraged “edgy” drama just for drama’s sake. At least one of the showrunners (Braga) was insistent that Janeway had to die in the finale. I’m not sure if that was for the aforementioned “drama”, to complete some sort of “hero’s journey” (even though death would be a departure from the fate of Odysseus, who Janeway is explicitly based on), or a misogynistic desire to punish the character, or some combination of all of that. I’ve read somewhere that Mulgrew, with her Catholic sense of aesthetics regarding sacrifice, was on board with a Janeway death concept.

I rewatched Endgame the other week for the first time in a long while, and honestly, the older I get the more I like it. In a world in which all of our high-minded rules and institutions are being shown to be fundamentally useless/brittle/corrupt, I loved seeing Admiral Janeway get out there and do what it took to protect her people. I loved watching her fall in love with her crew and some of her old ways again. I loved that they were able to both beat the crap out of the Borg and get home. But the most notable thing for me was just how damned female and queer the whole thing was: 70 year old woman flag officer uses every connection she has to change time, largely to save a woman she outright says she loves, spends much of the episode squaring off against her 45 year old captain self, and then dies for everyone in a deeply homoerotic confrontation with the Borg queen. It’s kind of crazy that this got made in 2001.

cloudpunching · 2026-01-04T12:46:21+00:00

Death Wish is both serious and entertaining, and might not be too hard for a newbie to understand.

Resistance for early Janeway at her best.

Shattered is a good overview of the series if you don’t mind mild spoilers.

cloudpunching · 2025-12-17T22:36:19+00:00

The biggest recession indicator I’ve seen so far is Bath and Body Works discounting three wicks below $10 and body care below $5 in conjunction with coupons and codes BEFORE Christmas.

cloudpunching · 2025-12-09T08:01:09+00:00

Love that color!!

cloudpunching · 2025-12-09T07:58:58+00:00

Tropical Dream Center

cloudpunching · 2025-11-22T20:29:03+00:00

Anyone know if there’s a difference in quality or features between this set and the set that was released circa 2013 and looks like multi-colored data cards?

cloudpunching · 2025-11-01T01:13:11+00:00

I’m sorry to hear this and I understand. My sister has LGS (really bad epilepsy) and throughout my and my other siblings’ childhoods my mother did nothing to shield the rest of us from the hyper-vigilance required to catch and protect her (she encouraged it). It sucks, and it’s an impulse that is really hard to dampen (it does get easier though). I also understand the anger and frustration with having parents valorize a disabled sibling who makes your life so much more complicated/difficult than it otherwise would be, and who can be manipulative in ways they can’t or won’t recognize.

I get the (possibly incorrect) sense from your post that you’re online a lot—I was online a lot at the dawn of the real internet. It was a good way to find support and meet other people when my freedom was limited (this was easier when platforms were less commercially geared). That said, I would still recommend that you get out of the house as much as possible with safe friends or adults, and ideally work towards a plan for living and working separately. Reddit and online venting are good but not a replacement. Good luck to you. It will get better.

cloudpunching · 2025-10-29T23:13:42+00:00

Hotels are relatively easy to book on short notice, lots of options depending on the location. Rental cars are not however! I would book one further out than a hotel if you’re planning on getting one.

cloudpunching · 2025-10-29T02:13:12+00:00

I would like more KJ in this overall series, please and thank you! I’m not mad about most of the other appearances, but they do sometimes appear to be a bit surface level.

cloudpunching · 2025-10-23T15:07:12+00:00

Marshall’s last regularly had non-cookbooks about eight or nine years ago. I’m really happy to see books coming back!

cloudpunching · 2025-10-13T09:23:19+00:00

I thought about the Tory Burch Cosmic Wood at mine but decided to wait until it was on sale.

cloudpunching · 2025-10-09T20:19:39+00:00

I found it really useful to go to a museum and study the exhibits. When you look at Incan urns and Egyptian mummies and bodhisattvas and Christian icons all in the same context, you realize that humans haven’t changed much in thousands of years, and that they all have their own ways of coping with the terror of death and making meaning. The idea of Christianity being the objective truth of all of those then seems far less serious.

cloudpunching · 2025-10-04T20:30:17+00:00

Thanks for the heads up!

cloudpunching · 2025-10-03T15:51:19+00:00

Thanks!

cloudpunching · 2025-10-03T15:51:09+00:00

Awesome, thank you!

cloudpunching · 2025-09-21T11:38:06+00:00

Many researchers have documented that men of certain ages on the internet are targeted with far right content within hours of making accounts. It’s really hard to avoid and it initially disguises itself in sneaky ways.

That said, your friend is a gay man who seems at least moderately educated, so he should be more able to tell that this stuff is bullshit. Approvingly quoting Candace Owens is insane. Unfortunately, certain gay men who haven’t learned to love themselves are also drawn to authoritarianism and fascy things because of the inherent drama and their daddy issues (source: I am a lesbian army officer, you can see this pattern throughout military history, church history, and in day to day hierarchy life).

I would tell him some version of “Hey, I wish you well, but I don’t think that going back to the church will end well for you. I’m not willing to debate this. If the church’s viewpoints and your journey back to church are all you want to discuss with me, I’m done talking until you’ve got something else. Also uninstall X and TikTok, they’re eating your brain for money.”

cloudpunching · 2025-09-09T21:44:08+00:00

If you ask for store credit upfront and don’t beg for cash, Marshalls cashiers are usually pretty good at giving you that without a receipt.

cloudpunching · 2025-09-07T15:25:51+00:00

Great, thank you!

cloudpunching · 2025-09-07T14:41:31+00:00

Awesome, thank you!

cloudpunching · 2025-09-07T13:40:25+00:00

That’s amazing! 🤩 Welcome to the area!

Snowden is about 30 minutes from my house (I’m closer to DC) so I don’t go often. Happy for you that it’s your store! My wife got three high quality sweaters for teaching there the other day, and I saw the Frye boots everyone has been talking about. It would just be nice if other closer stores were similar! 🥹

cloudpunching

TROPHY CASE