appreciation | M Thomas Apple Author Page

How Star Trek helped NASA make better shuttle names

August 8, 2025
MThomas

Gorog summarised in the memo:

This group comprises millions of individuals who are deeply interested in our space programme

The name “Enterprise” is tied in with the system on which the Nation’s economic structure is built.

Use of the name would provide a substantial human interest appeal to the rollout ceremonies scheduled for this month in California, where the aeronautical industry is of vital importance.

It is really too bad that the shuttle looked nothing at all like the Enterprise (Constitution class).

And an odd coincidence that the original name chosen by NASA was…

…Constitution…

Fifteen years and counting…

February 21, 2025
MThomas

Hi, everyone. I know I haven’t posted in a while now (about three months).

Things happened. I’ll see if I can deal with that in a post this weekend before returning to regularly blogging about astronomy and etc.

Winter is still here! (In the northern hemisphere.) Going on walks and hiking in 3C windy weather only makes hot chocolate taste that much better…

☕️

Not “book” but “books”…

November 23, 2024
MThomas

What book are you reading right now?

I finished re-reading all my Usagi Yojimbo books a couple weeks ago (I’m a big Stan Sakai fan), so I got the thought that I should read his inspiration, Musashi (Sakai’s main character is an anthropomorphic bunny named Miyamoto Usagi).

While I was reading Musashi, I also started a Japanese manga series about classic literature from 600 CE to the 20th century. I’m on the first volume of 今昔物語 (Konjyaku Monogatari, usually translated as “Tales of Times Long Past”).

Last week, I began reading volume one of The Arabian Nights (also called Tales of 1001 Nights). This is a more recent (2008) translation of the entire tales, not just a sampling of the more famous stories (e.g., Aladdin, Sindbad, Ali Baba etc.). It’s likely to take me, uh…1001 nights?

Tales within tales within tales…

Sorry for the long absence…

September 2, 2024
MThomas

Haven’t posted anything in about five or six weeks. Sorry!

I was going to initially post something about the Boeing crew that got stranded on the ISS, but NASA kept delaying their decision to use SpaceX. It was a given that they’d have no choice.

Boeing, quite obviously, cannot be trusted to spend millions of taxpayer’s dollars and make a proper spacecraft.

Anyway, I’ll start posting something more interesting soon.

In the meantime, here’s a Star Trek TOS selfie by Catwoman. I mean Lee Meriwether. (S3:14, That Which Survives)

Yet another Gen Z vague question?

May 8, 2024
MThomas

What was the last live performance you saw?

Last live performance of what?

I saw a baseball game last September. That was live. Does that count?

Oh. Do you mean “live” in the Japanese sense, i.e., a live performance by a musical artist?

As in a live concert?

At a club?

Or just that the musicians were alive and actually wrote their own music and played their own instruments rather than danced around and lip-synced?

Yes. I am a snarky Gen-Xer. Wave the flannel.

(FWIW I think the last live musical performance I’ve seen was in a Japanese club in Osaka around 2000 or 2001, and before that in mid-1999 in a club somewhere in Boston. It’s hard to get out when you have a family and need to actually go to work in the morning.)

More quotes and quotes about quotes

May 1, 2024
MThomas

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

I don’t think I “live my life” by a quote (too busy surviving), but I do think a lot about:

“Keep on keeping on.”

“Keep on trucking.”

“何とかなる (nantoka naru – “it’ll work out”)

“Das lassen sein (let it be)”

But also oddly:

“Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!”

IndieReader Approved!

April 16, 2024
MThomas

In BRINGER OF LIGHT, M. Thomas Apple crafts a satisfyingly complex future where mankind has moved off Earth but must fight and struggle against the harsh realities of physics—and each other—in order to survive.
https://indiereader.com/book_review/bringer-of-light/

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Check out my author interview at Literary Titan!

April 1, 2024
MThomas

Trust and Friendship

New reviews for Bringer of Light!

April 1, 2024
MThomas

Bringer of Light holds appeal for its imaginative setting and thought-provoking themes. Readers who appreciate a blend of speculative technology and introspective musings on the universe will find this book a stimulating read…For fans of science fiction, M. Thomas Apple’s novel offers a glimpse into a future filled with wonder and complexity.
— 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Literary Titan

Bringer of Light is a highly recommended read for fans of gripping sci-fi with a deeper, more resonant meaning at its core.
— 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟K. C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite

Um

March 31, 2024
MThomas

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

Hey, I came first.

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