Yesterday, after something of a short binge watch, I finished season one of Foundation on Apple TV+ – and continued until I finished episode 3 of season two. I’ve definitely been watching a lot more than I had planned. I have something of a schedule problem, though, as last week was filled with activities, and I’ve made little progress on vacating the warehouse room I live in – and I need to be done by the end of the month. So I think for now, I’d better set Foundation aside – or at the very least, limit viewing again to partial episodes at bedtime.

At any rate, I think Foundation is a fine space opera – better than the books, actually. The production values are impressive, and the characters are engaging. I don’t mind at all that the series has strayed quite a ways from the books – but the books are fairly average space opera. Warping and embellishing is totally suitable for space opera.

I’ll bet an Apple TV+ series for Doc Smith’s Lensman series would be great fun to watch. I mean, the Lensman books are anything but high art – they are the quintessential pulpy space opera – cheesy but fun. I wouldn’t mind a TV series for Eric Frank Russell’s Men, Martians, and Machines, either.

Nearly all my old SF books are in boxes in the garage – and have been for a couple of decades – and I’m motivated to re-read them once the new library is in place. I’m guessing I’ll have a nostalgic time come 2026.

Also: This week Apple Increased the Monthly Cost for Apple TV+, going from $10/month to $13/month. According to the article, I should get one more renewal at $10 and then see the new price one month after that. So the plan is to do the $10 renewal mid September and finish all three seasons of Foundation before canceling. I don’t want to commit to a year subscription ($99) nor do I want to pay $13/mo. Also, the Apple One bundles are a big fail for me. I guess I’m not Apple’s target audience.

The Sky Over Cooper Mountain Nature Park iPhone 13 mini photo

Until a heat wave hits here on Friday, we’re having a week of very nice weather in the Willamette Valley, with highs in the 70s and low 80s °F. On Sunday, the high temperature was 75°F. I had to run an errand in Tigard on Hwy 99W and decided to take the long way home. I hadn’t been on SW Bull Mountain Rd. in a very long time, so I decided to take it from 99W to SW Roy Rogers Rd. Then I took Roy Rogers Rd / SW 175th to SW Kemmer Rd and Cooper Mountain Nature Park. On a sunny and temperate day, the park is a nice place to look out over the Tualatin River Valley. Very pretty. I don’t come here often enough, even though the park is not far from my house.

I considered visiting Jenkins Estate, which is nearby, but I didn’t have enough time. I made a mental note to make a separate trip to Jenkins Estate before the summer ends.

In the first half of August, we transformed the photo display wall in the family room into a storage wall.

( From Photos to Storage )

The last day of my free three-month trial of Apple TV+ is tomorrow. I have calendar reminders that have nagged me to cancel the subscription. I activated the trial so that I could watch Murderbot – and that was a success; I liked the series very much.

While I was in the free trial I had wanted to sample some of the other shows. But I rarely watch shows outside of anime (which consumes a lot of my spare time), so I didn’t sample anything until this week. The main series I wanted to sample was The Studio. I like smart humor. However, the entire premise and satirical take on the situation made me uncomfortable – and I lasted only 15 minutes into episode 1. I didn’t see myself watching an entire season.

I pivoted and watched the first episode of Foundation. I had read enough online to know that the series doesn’t strictly follow the books – and that’s fine. I read a lot of Asimov when I was a kid, and the Foundation series is in my library – although I don’t remember the last time I read it. One thing about Asimov – he’s not very good about writing characters. His characters are more about moving the story along. A version of Foundation that focused more on characters would be interesting.

Anyway, I really liked the first episode, and I’ve started episode 2. I guess this means that I’ll start paying for an Apple TV+ subscription – at least until I get through 30 hour-long episodes of Foundation. Given how slowly I watch TV, this could be a while. I don’t subscribe to Netflix, HBO, Paramount, Disney, or Hulu, so I guess I can splurge on one “normal” content provider. (Crunchyroll and HIDIVE are definitely not mainstream.)

I can’t even watch a full episode of Foundation in one sitting; it takes me two evenings to get through an hour. There aren’t enough hours in the day, strangely.

I did watch about 18 minutes of Wolfs. I had heard that the movie was so-so, but I’d still like to see Clooney and Pitts banter with each other.

If I keep the Apple TV+ subscription longer term, I’d like to watch the film The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. I’d also check out these shows: Dickinson, Bad Sisters, Severance, Slow Horses, and Sunny. For now – one series at a time.