Saturday, 23 December 2023

2023 in review

I have not given up on this blog, it’s just that I have had no mental space to write for fun. But it’s the end of the year, and what better way to update this blog than with a year in review post. When last we heard from our hero, I was adjusting to my new toy and had just taken my first solo vacation in years.

A quick update on the Glove80. It remains my daily driver, but I haven’t been able to push past 110wpm consistently, and there are still some awkward key combinations that I haven’t figured out how to smoothen yet. There have been some technical issues too: first, with a loose ffc cable, but I was able to get hold of the creator via customer support and he talked me through disconnecting and reconnecting the cable.

The current problem is an updated Bluetooth driver on Windows that the keyboard’s software driver doesn’t play well with, so there are frequent disconnections and I wind up having to use a wired connection. Nothing much I can do about that except wait for one or both parties to update their drivers.

That solo vacation is the highlight of my year. I still look back fondly on that trip to Vancouver – very pleased to have gotten a chance to catch up with my friends, with whom I’m due for a video call in a couple of weeks. And I still remember the amazing spanakopita I had in Kits and the glorious spaghetti I had at Nightingale. Let’s raise a glass to good eating with friends.

The second half of the year was more hectic than the first half, hence my silence. Basically quarter three was spent hosting and entertaining people in Malaysia, while quarter four was spent maniacally traveling almost every two weeks, five trips in total for both work and play plus a one day roadtrip to Janda Baik and Bentong that I’m not even going to count.

Now that international travel is picking back up, Malaysians living overseas who haven’t been back since the pandemic began have started returning, so I got to see a friend from the US whom I last saw in 2017. My mother’s aunts in the UK and Australia also came back for an extended visit, including one who’s 102. This time the next generation and their kids came as well (ostensibly to keep an eye on the old folks), and were so amazed at what a good time they had and what good food they ate. No one, neither them nor us, could explain why they have never bothered to come out before. Come again, I say, spend your foreign currency in our economy. A little later, two friends from Stanford also happened to be in the region at the same time, so we had a mini-reunion.

In September we celebrated my grandmother’s 100th birthday. She’s generally photo-averse (maybe that’s where I get it from) but she correctly figured a 100th birthday is actually kind of a big deal and happily posed for photos.

That marked the beginning of my traveling. First to Ipoh, for the 100th birthday celebration. Then, two weeks later, a family getaway to Shanghai where I discovered the glory that is shengjianbao. I basically made my parents eat dumplings for four days, alternating between shengjianbao and xialongbao.

Two weeks after that I flew to Seoul for a speaking engagement at a conference organised by Seoul National University. The conference dinner was held at the very fancy Korea Furniture Museum that we were told was opened specially for us because they now only open for private functions. It was my birthday weekend so I extended my trip into the weekend and wandered around Seoul on my own, sadly unable to eat any Korean BBQ that required a minimum meat order for two persons.

Two weeks after Seoul a friend and I checked an item off our bucket lists – a trip to the Mulu Caves. It was off-peak season so I thought we were getting flights and accommodation at a steal. However, when we got to the airport it transpired that my friend had not actually clicked the button to BUY our flight tickets from KL to Miri, so we wound up having to pay a fortune to buy last minute tickets for a later flight and then change flights to the one we were supposed to be on so that we could make our connecting flight from Miri to Mulu. Thank goodness there was actually room on the original flight.

Then when we got to the national park, we found that they had quoted us the accommodation price for single occupancy and there were two of us, so we had to pay a bit more there too. Thankfully, everything else worked out, we could afford the extra cost, and the weather held. We got caught in the rain during one of our hikes, but the rain cleared in time for the much touted bat exodus, which in my opinion wasn’t that exciting in the damp season. But take that with a pinch of salt as I’m not a big nature fan.

A couple of weeks later, it was time for another family trip – this time a road trip up to Penang where there was, as usual, much eating. To our credit, this time we discovered new char kuay teow and nasi kandar spots, so we weren’t always returning to the same well. Except we did stick with our favourite curry mee and bang chang kuay in Pulau Tikus. I don’t know why I cannot find a good banana peanut butter bang chang kuay anywhere besides this food truck dude in Penang.

My last international trip of the year came two weeks later: a workshop in New Delhi on AI governance organised by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The air quality in Delhi was atrocious and I had no intention of wandering around on my own. It was also wedding season in early December and many hotels were fully booked so the workshop participants were all in different hotels and the only bits of Delhi I saw were on the drive between my hotel and the hotel where the workshop was held plus a couple of visits to Khan Market, instigated by the shoppers in the group I was hanging out with.

And then I came home and tried to wrap up my last publication of the year (technically number ten of the year, it’s been a very busy year), and got embroiled in a bit of authorship order drama that I’m not going to get into here. Suffice it to say there are power advantages to being the project lead. I tried to make sure I was fair and I stand behind my decision but obviously there are disagreements. I mean, it’s not even like I made myself the first author. In any case the paper should be out next week, and that will be my year done.

Oh! Last month I confirmed my worsening astigmatism and have to have prescription glasses made. That, plus all my white hair, and I now get “auntie”-d on a regular basis by fully grown adults. I have officially reached middle age.

It’s been a poor year for books, just three (don’t start), but I did better with movies, reaching 17, with one more on my watchlist that I hope I’ll watch before the end of the year. Hope you’re all having a good end to the year and best wishes for 2024 – do something special with that extra day that’s coming!

[Christmas Eve update: watched that 18th movie!]

Monday, 05 June 2023

Solo Vacation

It would seem I’m on a quarterly, not monthly, posting schedule this year. If it’s any consolation, I am also behind on work deadlines. But it’s okay, because I took a solo vacation this year and it was amazing! I did some semi-live tweeting of the trip for documentation purposes, intending to compile them here but then work got hold of me, and well, here I am, fully one month after getting back. Better late than never, right?

This is a recreation of the Twitter thread documenting my trip to Vancouver, with some additional notes and links.

[1/n] Hello very special people, welcome to the very special travel documentation thread! My first solo not-for-work trip since Covid began. Let’s get caught up.

[2/n] KUL-TPE-YVR on China Airlines, where I splurged on premium economy and quite enjoyed this meal of chicken and lap cheong rice wrapped in a lotus leaf. Also the pineapple pastry in the wrapper was surprisingly good. [China Airlines’ premium economy cabin was generally not full, so the flights both to and from were quite pleasant. I started out each flight wearing a mask, but wound up taking it off on the long leg on the way home because it was just a touch too stifling.]

Airplane meal showing chicken and rice wrapped in a lotus leaf.

[3/n] TPE gets airport wifi right. Just identify the network and connect. No 3h time limit, no email registration, no sending sms codes to phone numbers.

Ocean-themed wall decor at TPE.

[4/n] Apparently Vancouver was wet and gloomy all last week but today the skies have cleared. I’m not sure how long this good weather will last so I decided to pop down to the beach. [The good weather lasted for all but one and a half days of my eleven day trip, which I thought was great at the time, but I later learned was likely due to the same issues that kept Alberta on fire.]

View of West Vancouver from Kitsilano beach.

[5/n] In my effort to maximize on the good weather I have walked 22k+ steps today. My socks do not approve. The other side is not quite as bad but it’s pretty worn out too. I mean this is day one, people. [My right sock was much more worn out than my left, indicating that I am not walking in a balanced fashion, which is probably why my lower right back muscles are overused, causing my back pain.]

Sock with a hole worn out in the heel.

[6/n] When in Canada, eat Canada, eh? It’s poutine time! McDonald’s also sells poutine. I’m on the fence on trying that because although I assume the curds and gravy will be mediocre at best, there will be double fried fries. [I did wind up trying the poutine at McDonald’s and, to my surprise, it was the curds and gravy that were acceptable while the fries wound up being soggy and tasteless.]

Poutine.

[7/n] But Vancouver is also home to many migrants and in Greektown I found the best spanakopita I’ve ever had. The pastry is flaky, the filling is dense, the cheese is just the right saltiness. I’m gonna be having that again. [Narrator: she had it twice more, thrice if you include the one she got for a friend that she wound up eating the bulk of.]

Spanakopita from Serano.

[8/n] Had an unimpressive burrito for lunch at one of the many parks [Jonathan Rogers Park, to be specific], watching many impressive dogs play catch. Then, unrelated, spent the afternoon digging splinters out of my palm. One or two small pieces to go. [I was on the roof deck of the Airbnb and went to sit down on a wooden deck chair. Sadly it was unfinished and I slipped, sliding down and catching myself on the arms and getting a good ten little pieces of wood embedded in my palms.]

View of green grass and blue skies at Jonathan Rogers Park.

[9/n] Very thankful to be spending the weekend catching up with a good friend from college and his family, who drove up to BC from WA. The last time I saw him he and his wife were expecting their first, who is now 7. No photos for privacy but, believe me, the kids are adorable. [They have been taught to be polite and say, excuse me, if they want to interrupt a conversation. At one point, having duly said excuse me and been told to wait, and having heard the adults’ conversation taper off and had his “excuse me” forgotten, one piped up, slightly exasperatedly, can I talk now?]

[10/n] We went hiking at Lynn Canyon and a juvenile black bear came shuffling along behind us on the trail. Everybody minded their own business and carried on.

Black bear sighted in Lynn Canyon.

[11/n] Overheard on the bus:

GF: Oh I have to update my address.
BF: Me too! Update it to yours?
GF: [slight pause] Yes!

[12/n] Made a quick stop at UBC, home to 60k students and alma mater of Justin Trudeau, William Gibson, and Manny Jacinto. It is a gorgeous campus with many museums and gardens, most of which are closed on Mondays [which was of course the day on which I decided to make a campus visit].

Fountain at UBC with Canadian goose.

[13/n] Here’s how my last few days have begun: Sunrise at 6, so I’m up 6.30-7 with natural light. Post morning routine, take in bay view from roof deck [of Airbnb]. Make coffee, then quiet solo reflection in living room with mountain view, next to soothing water feature. Now, THIS is a vacation.

View of back yard and snowcapped mountains from living room.

[14/n] Today I leave [Kitsilano] and head downtown to join another good friend from college who’s flying in from NJ for the week. She has every [breakfast, lunch, and dinner] planned from today till we leave. Let the feasting begin!

View of mountains and downtown Vancouver.

[15/n] My friend and I were in a store, yakking pretty much nonstop. Random lady approached us, ask[ed] “are you two friends?” Yes, said my friend. Random lady, “you are friend goals.” YES, LADY, INDEED WE ARE. [Here we are at the Digital Orca where I did not see this plaque at all.]

Selfie at the Digital Orca.

[16/n] Nightingale. Go. Everything was amazing; the spaghetti was divine. [The food was so good that we went back for another meal. The roasted shishito peppers we had on the second visit were delicious!]

Nightingale dishes: Brussels sprouts, carrots, spaghetti, tortellini, carrot cake, raspberry almond tart.

[17/n] Ahh the rain is here. I’ve been very fortunate to have about 85% of my time here be blue skies and sunshine but things are back to normal now and it is wet and windy and cold. I like it. [The photo below is of the view from our Airbnb on a clear morning, on a clear night, and on a rainy morning.]

View of downtown on a clear morning, a clear night, and a rainy morning.

[18/n] Forgot to test the wifi at my first Airbnb but the 2nd one peaked at a download speed of 420Mbps. 4G speeds (couldn’t use 5G although there was supposedly coverage, maybe a limitation of the roaming package) in downtown peaked at 50Mbps.

Speed test results showing download speed of 420Mbps, upload of 531Mbps, and ping time of 4ms with no packet loss.

[19/19] Well, all good things must come to an end, as has this trip. Some much needed me-time and much appreciated time with friends and family, despite the sad steamed fish (ask me about it and I’ll know you stuck with me and this thread to the end). Till next time! [The photo below is the last one I took in Vancouver, on my way to the SkyTrain station to head to the airport. It is the latest iteration of the public art display “Underbrellas” at Bill Curtis Square.]

The latest iteration of public art display "Underbrellas" at Bill Curtis Square showing parasols hanging from wires, all lit up in pink.
Saturday, 01 April 2023

Newly-arrived Ergonomic Keyboard

Somehow it’s now April? For the last few weeks I’ve been telling myself I need to get a blog post up, and today I’m using my newly-arrived ergonomic keyboard as a motivating force to practise my typing. I backed a Kickstarter project last year and it has taken over a year for the product to arrive.

The Moergo Glove80 is a split keywell keyboard with a columnar layout, meaning the keys sit in a little bowl and are placed directly on top of each other, not staggered like on a regular keyboard. It uses a thumb cluster for the modifiers, instead of having to stretch the pinky out and hold down. It supports tenting as well so it feels great when I place my hands on the keyboard, posture-wise. But in terms of actual typing, there’s a lot to get used to. A lot of muscle memory needs to be overwritten.

The problem is less the letters, which only require minor adjustments although it turns out I am probably not touch-typing correctly, especially for the letters X, C, and V. Also Z and P are a little awkward. But the main struggle is to have to remember that I need to use my thumbs to hit backspace and space and shift, which are all in new positions.

The paragraph above took me a full twelve minutes to write, with lots of pauses and backspaces, especially on the Vs and the periods. My average typing speed went from around 110 wpm (120 on a good day) down to 30 immediately. Four days later I can get it up to 60-70 on a good session but it’s usually 40-50, which is a nightmare for work and means I can’t transition fully to the Glove80 just yet.

Wow, that was tiring. Time for a break.

Saturday, 31 December 2022

Reflection on 2022

I haven’t done as much reflection on 2022 as I probably should have. It feels like I’ve been very busy but haven’t actually done much, which is starting to sound like a recurring theme. Some numbers from the year:

– 16 public speaking engagements
– 9 books read
– 8 countries covered in 2 international trips
– 6 movies watched
– 1 vote in Malaysia’s 15th General Election

The Holy Land trip led to the realization that I have been to all but one of the new seven Wonders of the World, so I guess Mexico is now on my bucket list.

I’ll close out the year with a conversation with my mother:

me: Just put in my name and [work] email
Mother: I don’t know your [work] email address
me: I’ll write it down for you
Mother: Write down your name as well

Hope everyone’s 2022 is finishing well; best wishes for 2023!

Wednesday, 02 November 2022

Holy Sites

Here comes the spiritual part of the trip. I had been warned that every holy site is basically a tourist trap and there is very little time to pause and reflect on the spiritual implications of things that are believed to have taken place at these sites. So I was disappointed but not surprised at the onslaught of religious fanatics who displayed very little care and compassion for their fellow believers as they rushed to touch and kiss and drape themselves over every rock that Jesus might have stood on. Added together with the social media-mad children trying to take photos and videos from every angle, there was very little about the sites themselves that was meaningful to me.

We did group morning devotions most of the mornings that we were there, but only two (maybe three?) had to do with the sites we were actually visiting that day, so in my opinion preparation was inadequate. I would have been better served by a handout that said, here are the sites we are visiting today, here are the bible verses that mention these sites, and here are a couple of reflection question for you to consider. In fact, this is pretty much exactly what Lim Kar Yong does in his book, Following Jesus, which I read before the trip and heartily recommend.

In any case, here are some photos of holy sites.

This is the grotto in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where Jesus was supposedly born. We waited over an hour (in peak tourist/pilgrim season, it can take 3-4 hours, per our guide) in a packed, enclosed church to descend into this cave, and the number of people who threw themselves at this rock, weeping or posing for a selfie, was…something.

Grotto of the Nativity

We also saw the Upper Room, site of the Last Supper and where Jesus later appeared to His disciples after His resurrection and where Pentecost happened.

The Cenacle in Jerusalem

There are two main sites believed to be where Jesus was crucified and buried. The traditional site is where the Catholics and Orthodox churches believe it happened, in what is now the church of the Holy Sepulchre (a word I had to look up, so why should you be spared? Okay, fine, it means tomb). It is at the end of the Via Dolorosa, the presumed processional route through the streets of Old Jerusalem that Jesus would have walked, beaten and bleeding, carrying His cross. We did not enter the tomb, because, well, see for yourself.

Some Protestants believe that Jesus was crucified and buried near what is now the Garden Tomb. It is a much nicer place to sit and reflect, but it was also found much later in the 19th century (compared to the church of the Holy Sepulchre which was built in the 4th century). We had a Holy Communion service here, and did actually see an empty tomb.

Empty tomb at the Garden Tomb, believed to be the place where Jesus was buried

Here is a rock in the chapel on the Mount of Ascension, where Jesus ascended into heaven after promising His disciples the Holy Spirit. If you look carefully and employ a touch of pareidolia, you might see the imprint of Jesus’s foot in the middle of this rock – the heel on the left, widening to toes pointing right.

Rock in the chapel on the Mount of Ascension

Some other places that we visited that I didn’t include photos of were Abu Serga in Egypt, where Joseph, Mary and Jesus sat out Herod’s insane infanticide spree; the Jordan river area, where Jesus was supposed to have been baptised; the Mount of Temptation, where Jesus was tempted by Satan; the Mount of Transfiguration; where God scared the crap out of Peter, James, and John; Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine (of course we tried some wine – it was okay); the tomb of Lazarus, out of which Jesus called him; the church at Gethsamane, where there is a rock on which it is believed Jesus knelt to ask that this cup be taken away from him; and Church of the Primacy of Peter, where Jesus reinstated Peter.

What I learned was how many of these places so sacred to Jews and Christians are controlled by Muslims. Bethlehem is a Palestinian city. Nazareth’s population is mostly Muslim. Mount Zion, on which the first two Jewish temples were built, is now home to the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, under Jordanian control. Jordan also has control of parts of the Mount of Olives, including the afore-mentioned chapel on the Mount of Ascension. Even the keys to the church of the Holy Sepulchre are held by Muslims, who daily unlock and lock the church doors. The politics of all this are worth discussing further, but not here and certainly not today, as Covid grogginess starts to set in.

You might remember in my previous post I said that I had a must-see list of five items, and in that post I named four of them: Petra, the Dead Sea, the Sea of Galilee, and the pyramids/Sphinx. The last one was the traditional Via Dolorosa, tracing the path towards Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice. But it was so congested and convoluted that most of my attention was focused on not getting lost, rather than reflecting on what Jesus endured. There will be time for that now that I’m home.

But two things did make an impression on me while I was on the trip. First was the view from the Mount of Olives, from which you can see Mount Zion, where Solomon built the first temple. It’s no pyramid or Petra but it’s quite a sight (there’s a photo in the previous post.) I was reminded of Isaiah’s vision where “the train of [the Lord’s] robe filled the temple” and I got a sense of the scale of what he was trying to describe. Isaiah 6:1-8 is my favourite passage in the Bible, so getting any further insight into it is always going to be meaningful.

Second, as previously mentioned, was the boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. It was just our group on the boat, so the boat operators played Negaraku and hoisted the Jalur Gemilang. It says something that they had both those things at the ready despite the Malaysian passport not being valid in Israel, and we were specifically warned against posting photos online. After a brief prayer, there was no further historical or biblical exegesis. I stayed away from the boat operators selling souvenirs, although I did appreciate them playing upbeat worship music to set the mood. The weather was great and the waters were calm, so it was a nice respite from all the hectic rushing around, and a good way to wrap up our time in the Holy Land before we set off for Egypt.

Tuesday, 27 September 2022

Nothing Has Happened

Another two months have passed and nothing has happened to trigger a blog post, not even the retirements of tennis greats Serena Williams and Roger Federer and the death of a queen.

But I thought it worth mentioning that today my entire household got its second Covid-19 booster, yay. This comes after weeks of back and forth debates on whether a fourth shot makes any difference, whether the mRNA in the Pfizer vaccine will eventually kill us, and goodness knows what else.

Nonetheless, we will be traveling internationally in a couple of weeks to places where there is no mask mandate and there is a team in my office where four out of five people came down with Covid in the last week, so I’m going to do everything I can to avoid Covid and minimize the risk of long Covid.

Sunday, 31 July 2022

So Neglected

I cannot allow two months to go by without a single post (although technically I guess I have); this blog is so neglected. But posting anything interesting requires my actually doing or experiencing something interesting to comment on or digging up some mental energy to make the mundane worth reading about. Unfortunately neither my professional nor personal lives give me either of those things, so here I am talking about nothing.

The organization I work for is due to do a mid-year review next month, which is hilarious because we haven’t done a formal start-of-year work plan. None of us know what we are being assessed on this year especially since HR is apparently revamping the key performance indicators and the review forms; all par for the course.

Oh, I guess there has been a change at work I should talk about. I’ve been promoted. It comes with a small increment which, as my colleague (who was a level below me when I started but got promoted twice since I was hired, becoming my boss last year, and pushed for my promotion this year) said, a few years of regular adjustments for inflation and we’d reach this level anyway. It also comes with a new title, but no meaningful new responsibilities, just more administrative work.

I am grateful to my ex-boss for pushing for my promotion; there was no way that despite my strong performance (I was told I was ranked the best performer in the organization last year) I would have been promoted if the decision were left to the rest of management. But I will not forget that management (now my peers) screwed me over last year, and even my ex-boss decided to hire at my new level last year instead of pushing for me then. That communicates a lot to me about how they (don’t) value my effort and contribution.

I remain committed to an exit strategy; however, given all the turmoil in the world and the cost of living crisis, I no longer feel like I can just walk out without a better offer. I’ve been applying for jobs, and seem to be in a no man’s land because academia doesn’t want me (understandably, I haven’t published an academic piece in years) and the corporate world doesn’t want me (I think I’m not using the right buzzwords for automated screenings – I’m working on it – but in any case I don’t have the right networks). So I’m fully cognizant that despite my disgruntlement where I am is about as good as where I’m ever going to be.

Ugh, I don’t want this post to just be whining about work.

I’d do a Severance review as I had planned long ago but unfortunately I have forgotten all the little details I wanted to talk about and I’m not going back to rewatch it just for this blog. It is smart but it is also dark and it would take up way more mental energy than I can spare.

I have finished season two of Girls5eva and it was as delightful as I expected. The songs (especially BPE (NSFW) and Bend Not Break) are better than season one, in my opinion, and the comedic lines come fast and hard. There are some references that I didn’t get, which were revealed in interviews, and the nod to Hercules is one of my favourites. I’ve used the VIN-DI-CA-TION line from Brookyn Nine-Nine a few times in everyday life, and DIS-A-PPOIN-TED is going to be added to the repertoire.

Next up on the watchlist, She-Hulk!

Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Four Key Women

I know I said I was hoping to write a review of Severance and I also said that I was looking forward to the second season of Girls5eva (and I still am!) but what wound up taking up my tv time this month was The Expanse. It has a cult following like Firefly, although its fans managed to get it renewed when it was canceled in a way that Firefly fans didn’t. It doesn’t reach the scale of Battlestar Gallactica (doesn’t need to), and what I really enjoyed about it are four really well-written, well-cast, and well-acted female characters.

A bit of context to start: The Expanse tv series is adapted from a set of books, with some character adaptations to suit the format. It aired for three seasons on tv, then was canceled, but a fan campaign (and the fact that Amazon was looking for original programming) got it picked up at Amazon for another three seasons. The show is well-known for being remarkably scientifically accurate in its depiction of how most things work in space.

The premise of the show is that our solar system has been colonized, with Earth as the colonizer, Mars a colony that has declared independence and is in military conflict with Earth, and space nomads called Belters who live and work on the outer planets of Jupiter and Saturn and the like, mining the planets and asteroids for minerals and resources to trade for air filters, clean water, and food. In the books, their physical characteristics are shaped by the gravity where they live (e.g. Belters who live in space are longer-limbed), but in the tv version, everyone looks human (there was one Belter in the pilot with exaggerated limbs to make the point, but everyone else looks human).

As is typical with sci-fi, there is a lot of political and social commentary going on, and I imagine many happy hours could be spent discussing the intricacies of war, colonialism, discrimination, and power but for this appreciation post I’m going to focus on the character arcs of four key women we get to know over the course of the series.

SPOILERS FOLLOW and the rest of this post won’t mean much if you haven’t watched the series, so be warned.

Chrisjen Avasarala (played with great presence by Shohreh Aghdashloo) is a politician on Earth. When we first meet her, she is extremely nationalistic and puts Earth first at the expense of everything else, but over the course of the series she becomes much more tolerant and develops a greater appreciation for the rest of humanity spread out over the solar system. She still has hard choices to make, but it’s telling to see how a little bit of exposure to diversity and seeing the bigger picture changes her decision-making framework. It humanizes her, which causes her to wrestle with whether it also makes her a weaker leader.

Bobbie Draper (played by Frankie Adams) is a Martian marine, who is just absolutely pure in wanting to live a life of purpose. She’s introduced as a tough soldier who will kill people for the Martian cause without batting an eye. Initially she comes across as just being indoctrinated into following orders, but she soon learns that the people giving orders may not always have moral authority to do so. Her journey is one of learning to question tradition and norms and figure out who the real enemy is, and of not becoming jaded in the process.

Naomi Nagata (played by Dominique Tipper) is a wicked smart Belter engineer trying to come to terms with and atone for her past. She’s presented as having made some mistakes in her youth that had far-reaching and painful consequences. We watch her figure out how to move on from her past without disconnecting it from her identity, and coming to terms with what she can control and fix, and what she has to leave behind.

Camina Drummer (played by Cara Gee) is a Belter who does a little bit of everything. In the tv series, she’s a composite of several different characters from the books and as a result she gets a lot of plot that would otherwise have been spread out over a few characters. The main point is that she is a Belter through and through, principled and utterly unable to compromise on her principles. Yet when she is pushed to the brink, she does some really incredible things.

She’s first introduced in season 2, where she is the head of security on a space station. When a mutiny occurs, she takes a bullet for her boss, then while heading to get medical treatment for the wound, summarily executes the two lead mutineers. It’s badass.

In season 3, she’s the captain of a very large spaceship and, in the aftermath of a disaster, sacrifices herself to save her first officer, so that the ship doesn’t lose both of them. She survives, barely. Despite being paralyzed while she regrows her spine (thanks to magic medicine), she has another opportunity to sacrifice herself, this time for Naomi, which she does, but thankfully Naomi is smart enough to find another solution to the problem so only the minor villains die.

In season 4, Drummer makes a very bad decision that will come back to haunt her but without which there is no plot for seasons 5-6. Then when she’s asked to toe the line, compromise and play nice with the people oppressing her and her people, she refuses and quits her job. I support this.

Season 5 sees her striking out on her own and building her own community and a life for herself, but, because this is a tv show with a limited cast of characters, she gets sucked back into the political drama. Faced with a Sophie’s choice, she picks a side and has to deal with the fallout of her decision.

Finally in season 6, leading her own little rebel fleet, all her choices and losses push her to a moment of desperation in which she makes a big decision to stand with the lesser of two evils against the greater evil. The payoff is everything she deserves.

These are four of the individual stories The Expanse tells, and I appreciate that they are not only stories of growth and maturity, but that the roles are played by four women of colour. That’s a show done right.

Saturday, 30 April 2022