Guns and Frocks Now

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

It’s the end of the first week of Term I 2026, and a whole new year lies ahead. So let’s see what I’m up to now.

Life

The school holidays were great — they’re always great. I lost some weight, did more exercise and got a few big things done. I didn’t do all the schoolwork I planned to do, but it’s hard to get too upset about that. I’m doing it now instead.

School

My timetable this term is pretty good. The main thing I’m looking forward to is teaching Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata to Year 11 for the first time. This group of students have read more Latin than any other group I’ve taught over the the last 34 years, and I can’t wait to find out how well they handle the transition from (quite complex, very well-written) synthetic Latin to real Latin literature. I also have a massive Year 9 Classical Greek class of 18 students. A career record!

Podcasting

500 Year Diary Season 3 finished on 28 December 2025, and I’ve been taking a break from Doctor Who podcasting since then. Sort of. We will start recording Season 4, Unearthly Children, some time this month.

Untitled Star Trek Project hit a milestone just a couple of weeks ago: we have now covered 20% of the entire Star Trek franchise. In our most recent episode, we checked in on the pilot of Star Trek’s newest series, Starfleet Academy.

Just over two weeks ago, I launched yet another podcast: The Entirety of Flight Through Entirety. This one is an aggregation of all of the episodes of our four Doctor Who podcasts, Flight Through Entirety, 500 Year Diary, The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, and Jodie into Terror. Our promise: “every single Doctor Who story discussed, analysed and lovingly mocked for your enjoyment”.

Websites

The website for The Entirety of Flight Through Entirety is different from all the others. During the build, it downloads the feeds from each of the other four podcasts, mashes them together, makes one or two minor changes, and then generates a single master podcast feed. It’s also a single-page site, which makes a nice change, with a different kind of home page from all the other sites. Check it out: I’m quite proud of how it looks.

In early January, I also released Version 2.0 of my Eleventy Podcaster plugin, including a much more detailed set of documentation. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. Perhaps my next project could be to create a podcast starter for Eleventy — the first step towards that might be to solicit some feedback from the community.

What I’m enjoying

I’m loving Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, even though it’s not at all what I expected. I’m also finally watching my way through Star Trek: Prodigy, Season 2, which I bought on Blu-ray before it disappeared from streaming altogether.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Thu, 04 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Term IV ended yesterday, and now I don’t go back to school till late January. There will be time to relax, but there’s still a lot of schoolwork to do between now and then.

Life

The holidays will give me the chance to do more exercise, which will be nice, but I still need to lose more weight. My losses since May have reduced my blood pressure, but it’s still too high, and I need to keep going. I’m definitely more than halfway there, I think.

School

Term IV was brutal, and I’m glad its over. Fingers crossed for next year. I will start doing schoolwork on again on Monday, but from home, wearing shorts. Until then, I’ll be concentrating on my other, non-paying job.

Podcasting

We’ve finished recording a six-episode season of 500 Year Diary, called The Colour of Monsters, about Terrance Dicks, a Doctor Who of writer and script editor whose contribution to the show — and to juvenile literacy — was immense. The season was fun to record, and I think the two episodes we’ve released have been excellent. This Sunday’s episode will cover Horror of Fang Rock.

Untitled Star Trek Project continues unabated. Our next episode will cover a pivotal two-part story, The Best of Both Worlds, which is now 35 years old. It still works though.

Websites

And now I’ll have more time to work on Version 2.0 release of my Eleventy Podcaster plugin. I’ve got just one more feature to add, and I’ve already worked out how to implement it. After that, it’s time to complete the documentation and do the release. Still on track to finish it by the end of the year.

What I’m enjoying

I’ve really been too busy to watch anything I’m not podcasting about. So now I have a list of shows to watch, and some games to play, including Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, which I’ve only just started, and Subnautica, which was recommended to me by a student.

My reading of Moby-Dick stalled this term, but I think about it a lot, and I have gone back and re-read some individual chapters. I still don’t know how it ends, amazingly. Looking forward to getting back to it.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I got back from my six-week trip on Wednesday, I recovered from my jet lag this morning, and I’m going back to school on Monday. But after a three-and-a-half month break and with only seven-and-a-half weeks before my next holiday, I can’t possibly complain about that.

Life

I’m pretty relaxed right now, but even during this short Term IV there will be a lot to do. Back to the gym next week, back to hitting my daily activity goals, and continuing to lose weight (with a combination of portion control and the miracle of modern pharmaceutical technology).

Podcasting

While I was in the UK, I got the chance to record three episodes of Untitled Star Trek Project with Joe — that’s Episodes 166, 167 and 168. Now that I’m back, we’ll continue to record remotely (which is still fun but not quite as fun). Startling Barbara Bain recording will start up soon.

Once term gets properly underway, we’ll start recording a short season of 500 Year Diary called The Colour of Monsters, where we look at the decades-long contribution to Doctor Who of writer and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Websites

I’m working towards a Version 2.0 release of my Eleventy Podcaster plugin — it’s currently at 2.0.0-alpha.4. I’ve tidied the whole thing up and made it easier to use and to write documentation for; I’ve also added a couple of new features. Unless I can think of anything else to add, it’s pretty nearly finished. Once I finish writing the Version 2 documentation, I should be ready for a proper release by the end of the year.

What I’m enjoying

I watched two TV shows while I was on my trip.

Poker Face is Rian Johnson’s take on Columbo, starring Natasha Lyonne (from Russian Doll) as Charlie Cale, who is on the run from the mob, while solving murders in a variety of locations and subcultures. It’s solid and entertaining genre TV — funny, clever and beautifully directed. Lyonne is ridiculously charismatic.

BoJack Horseman is a hilariously silly and horribly bleak cartoon about a horse who starred in a crummy sitcom back in the 1990s, and who is now reviving his Hollywood career, while struggling with addiction and depression. This is a rewatch for me: I first started watching in 2019, I think, between its fifth and final seasons.

And I’m about halfway through my first ever reading of Moby-Dick. It’s pretty amazing — much stranger and funnier than I expected. The relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg at the beginning of the novel is surprisingly hot.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Wed, 20 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been off school since 28 June — first school holidays and then long service leave. Next Monday, I’m leaving for a six-week overseas holiday — roughly four weeks in Greece and two weeks in the UK.

Life and School

I spent some time during the three-week school holiday tying up loose ends and trying to make sure not to leave a mess for the colleagues who will be taking up the slack in my absence. After that, I checked out more or less completely, only occasionally glancing at my Outlook inbox and finding that everything seemed to be running very well without me. Which is basically what I expected.

Since then, I’ve been doing some more exercise, as well as lying on the couch playing Donkey Kong: Bananza. I’m also doing a little bit of podcasting, tinkering with podcast websites and working towards a version 2.0 release of my Eleventy Podcaster plugin.

Podcasting

There’s no Doctor Who podcasting right now, but there’s still the monthly releases of Startling Barbara Bain and the more-or-less weekly releases of Untitled Star Trek Project. Both of these will have a bit of a break while I’m away, but I’m looking forward to recording a couple of episodes of USTP in person with Joe when I stay with him and Mark in September.

When I get back, we’re planning to record and release a short season of 500 Year Diary called The Colour of Monsters, where we look at the decades-long contribution to Doctor Who of writer and script editor Terrance Dicks.

Websites

Over the last term or so, I’ve accumulated a list of little things I need to do to improve my podcast websites, as well as this site, my personal site. And I’ve been happily working through this list. I think everything is more or less ready for me to publish occasional blog posts while I’m away.

I’ve also added some new features to my Eleventy Podcaster plugin and improved some others — generally tidying things up, making everything more consistent, and trying to ensure that it’s easier to explain how to use the plugin to create a podcast website. I’ll release Version 2.0 at the end of the year; in the meantime, I need to spend time streamlining and updating its documentation.

What I’m enjoying

I finally watched all of Andor Series 2 once I got all my holiday work done. It’s brilliant: the best TV series I’ve seen for a long time. I find myself agreeing with Justin Searls’s recently recommended plan for watching Star Wars media: The Gilroy Order.

I’ve also spent some time downloading media to my iPad, audiobooks to my phone, and normal books to my new Kindle, so that I have everything I need to keep myself occupied while I’m away.

Just a few days to go now. I’m pretty excited.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Term II ended yesterday, and I’m taking long service leave in Term III. Which means that I won’t be back at school until the middle of October. I’m at the start of a three-and-a-half-month break, so what am I up to now?

Life

I’m going away at the end of August. I’ll be spending four weeks in Greece, first visiting Athens and then travelling around the Cyclades. After that, I’ll go to the UK for two weeks. I’ll be spending some time with my friend and Untitled Star Trek Project co-host Joe Ford. And I’ll try and catch up with everyone else as well.

In the meantime, I’m planning to spend the next two months being more physically active, doing some creative web stuff, and catching up on media. But first I’m going to spend a couple of days tying up some loose ends at work.

School

I got quite a lot done at the end of Term II, and so I can start my break more or less guilt-free. But during school holidays there are always things that still need to be done. This time, instead of procrastinating about those things until the end of the holidays, I’m already at work on some of them. So this weekend, I’ll do a big review of all my task lists, and by Tuesday I aim to have completed the small number of important tasks that need to be done.

Podcasting

Series 2 of 500 Year Diary is nearly finished. The second last episode will go out tomorrow and the final episode will go out the following week.

At the start of June, The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire finished an eight-week run covering Season 2 of the Ncuti Gatwa era. With no new Doctor Who plans announced, it’s impossible to say whether it’s finished or not. Still, it has been fun to do, and I think it turned out very well.

Startling Barbara Bain is now more than halfway through the first series of Space: 1999. I’m hoping we might get one or two more episodes in before I go away.

And of course Untitled Star Trek Project continues its (more or less) regular weekly release cycle. It’s so much fun and so easy to do: I get to hang out with Joe and watch Star Trek. (Which is among the things we plan to do together when we catch up in person in September.)

Websites

During a busy Term II, I came up with lots of ideas for improvements to the podcast websites, but with no time to do them, I just added them to a big list. Now I have as much time as I want to work on them.

I recently posted an introductory post on the Eleventy Discord and mentioned the Podcaster plugin. It hasn’t been a viral sensation or anything remotely approaching that, but there has been a slight uptick in interest. So I would like to revamp its website: which would mean redesigning it, adding a full tutorial, and perhaps even creating a starter project to help aspiring podcasters create their website.

And perhaps at the end of the year, Podcaster version 2.0 might even be a thing.

What I’m enjoying

I bought a Nintendo Switch 2 on release day. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have been updated for the new console, which means I’ve spent the last three weeks experiencing Hyrule at a higher frame rate and more detailed textures than ever before.

And with two months off, I should be able to catch up on the media I’ve been neglecting. I’m still up to Episode 4 of the second series of Andor, and I haven’t finished Star Trek: Prodigy Series 2 yet. After that, who knows? I’m open to recommendations.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I turned fifty-six a couple of weeks ago, and at some point in the distantly visible future, I’ll be retiring from work. Between now and then, though, there’s a few things I need to do.

Life

I’m on long service leave during Term III. I finish work on 27 June (in seven weeks’ time), and nearly two months later I’m going away, flying out on 25 August and getting back on 8 October. I’m spending four weeks in Greece, mostly travelling around the Cyclades; after that, I’ll spend two weeks in the UK visiting friends. Calvin has booked the flights, and I’ve already started to make some vague plans, but as usual I’ll be planning the holiday as I go.

School

In the meantime, there’s Half-Yearly Examinations this term, then reports, then a few weeks later some assessment tasks for Forms V and VI. Term II is a busy term.

But I’m really enjoying teaching Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata to Year 10 Latin. They’re nearing the end of Book I now, and they nearly know all the grammar and vocabulary they need to know to undertake the HSC course. They have a vocabulary and a feel for the language I’ve never seen in a Year 10 Latin class before. The next step will be to get them reading the authentic Latin texts that are the goal of our Latin course. I’m excited to find out what that’s like and to see what those students can accomplish.

Podcasting

Well, to be honest, podcasting is crazy right now. Recording and releasing three episodes a week. At least.

There’s a new series of Doctor Who on, which means recording, editing and releasing a new episode of The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire every Monday.

Untitled Star Trek Project continues unabated, which means watching one episode of Star Trek every week (or sometimes two), writing some notes, rewatching the episode with Joe and recording our conversation, spending a couple of hours editing our podcast episode, and then unleashing it on an unsuspecting public.

And we’re recording and releasing an 11-episode season of 500 Year Diary, a podcast that gives us the chance to go back and revisit Doctor Who stories that we’ve talked about before, but with new people and a new focus. This season, we’re going through the history of Doctor Who to talk about the second time recurring monsters or villains appear on the show. How do you turn a brilliant one-off creation into something that can turn up to menace the Doctor and his friends on a regular basis?

It’s a lot of work. But I get to hang out with my friends and produce something that brings just a little bit of fun and happiness into the world. It’s brilliant.

Websites

My Eleventy podcast plugin has hit version 1.4.1. I kind of feel like I’ve run out of new ideas for it. It’s currently used to create all eight of the podcast websites I maintain, but although it’s been downloaded hundreds of times, I’m not aware of any sites apart from mine that use it. I’ll work on it a bit more later this year, and I have vague ideas about version 2, which I will release in January 2025.

What I’m enjoying

I watched the first three episodes of Andor season 2 a couple of days after they dropped. They were amazing. But I’ve fallen behind over the last few weeks because of all the podcasting.

And I’m loving Doctor Who Season 2 right now. Not at all what I expected, but brilliant in so many different ways. Four more episodes to go.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been back at work for a bit over a month now, alarmingly, and there’s one more month until the Easter break. There’s quite a lot to do between now and then.

Life

I’ve turned the sleep thing round, I think, but I’m still not averaging seven hours a night, which I was in 2023. I don’t feel sleep-deprived, but I know I’ll have more energy if I continue to improve.

Nothing much else to report. I’ve booked a hotel in Athens for three nights at the end of August, so my August/September trip to Greece and the UK is definitely happening.

School

This is the fourth year that the Grammar Classics Department has been teaching with Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, and so that means that the course has now reached Year 10 for the first time. By the end of the year, Year 10 will be reading authentic Latin. I look forward to seeing how the students handle the transition. I’m confident they will do well.

Podcasting

Maximum Power is just a few weeks away from finishing. It’s been fun working with the people from the UK, and it’s been fun to be a regular on a podcast where I’m not responsible for all the editing.

Next weekend, we’ll start recording Season 2 of 500 Year Diary. Hoping to release two seasons of 500 Year Diary this year while Flight Through Entirety takes a break. Season 2 is called The Second Coming, and focuses on the second time a particular villain or alien turns up on the show. We’ll start releasing the episodes in mid-April.

The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire will start up again in the middle of April, which is when the next season of Doctor Who arrives. The trailer looks promising.

And, as always, I have the pleasure of watching Star Trek with Joe every week and turning it into what I think is a pretty fun podcast.

Websites

The eleventy-plugin-podcaster plugin reached version 1.0.0 on 8 January, and it’s already up to 1.3.0. It hasn’t set the world on fire, but I didn’t really expect it to. It was fun to write and fun to learn how to set up something like this for release. And it works well for me. So well, in fact, that all eight podcast websites are now running on it — even the ones that finished some time ago. Converting the podcasts to use the plugin provided the pleasure of deleting lots of duplicate code and the chance to discover some new ways to improve the plugin.

I’m thinking of creating what Eleventy calls a starter project: a simple podcast website which demonstrates how the plugin works in practice and which can be used as a starting point by a podcaster who wants to create their own website. That would be a holiday project though.

What I’m enjoying

Series 2 of Severance has been great, opening up the world in unexpected ways. Andor Series 2 will start again in April. It’s going to be a big month.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

It’s the start of a new year, and it’s been summer holidays for just under a month, so I’m definitely feelin’ fine. Let’s see where things stand.

Life

The big news is that my Term III long service leave has been finalised. Starting at the end of August, I will have spend four weeks in Athens and the Greek islands, followed by two weeks in the UK catching up with everyone. That term off in the middle of the year is going to make 2025 much more chill. I can’t wait.

School

The focus this year will be on Year 10 Latin, who will be making the difficult transition from textbook Latin to authentic Latin, which is Year 10 does every year. However, this year they’ll be doing it with the help of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that works out. I’m confident that this year’s Year 10 have read more Latin and have a better sense of the language than any previous year I’ve taught. Should be good.

There are also two new people joining the Classics Department, which isn’t a thing that happens all that often, and so that should make for an interesting year as well.

Podcasting

Flight Through Entirety has finished its Series 10 coverage, which means it’s having a few years’ rest to allow Doctor Who to get a bit more history under its belt. Our last episode for the time being, Well, That’s All the Time We Have for Now, was a ninety-minute retrospective which saw all seven of the hosts together on the couch for the first time.

In a month or so, we’ll make a start on Season 2 of our new Doctor Who podcast 500 Year Diary, which is called The Second Coming, and which focuses on the stories where an iconic monster or enemy appears on the show for the second time.

Maximum Power’s Series D coverage continues on its weekly release schedule. I edited the first two episodes, so I don’t have to worry about it any more for a few weeks. It’s going well, I think. Worth a listen if you remember Blakes 7.

And of course, there’s Untitled Star Trek Project. It’s been over three years since Joe and I released that first episode, and last week released Episode 138. It’s fun to prepare for, really fun to record, and fun to edit. And it’s fun to listen to too, I think. So we’re back for another year, and in September we’ll have the chance to record some episodes together in person, of course.

Websites

And I’ve nearly released my Eleventy plugin eleventy-plugin-podcaster (or Podcaster for short). It’s still in pre-release, but it’s already running four of the podcasting websites — 500 Year Diary, The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, Startling Barbara Bain and Maximum Power.

There’s still work to do. Writing more tests, re-reading and checking everything and writing detailed documentation. In fact, I’m creating a documentation website for it right now. More news next time.

What I’m enjoying

For me, the biggest pop culture thing in the last couple of months has been the film of Wicked, which was funny and beautiful and heartbreaking, with two superb central performances from Cynthia Erivo and Arianna Grande. I can’t wait to see it again, and I’m looking forward to the release of Part II, Wicked: For Good this November.

I’m not watching as much TV as I had hoped to these holidays, but there’s still time, I guess. Lower Decks finished a couple of weeks ago, and Cousin Michelle’s Section 31 film will be out in a few weeks. And I’m re-reading Decline and Fall.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Limping towards the end of the year, but less than two weeks of term before the summer holiday begins.

Life

2023 was the Year of Sleep for me: I averaged 7 hours and 18 minutes per night and I felt unstoppable. This year it’s been 40 minutes less than that; this week it’s been 90 minutes less. Work is mostly to blame, I think. Once the holiday starts, I have to try and get it back on track.

School

Five teaching days to go, then three days of camp, then Speech Day. There are some exciting new things happening at School next year, but first I’m concentrating on surviving this term.

Podcasting

I’m still enjoying Untitled Star Trek Project, which gives me a weekly opportunity to watch and think about a Star Trek episode, and, more importantly, a weekly opportunity to spend time with Joe.

Flight Through Entirety is nearing the end of our Series 10 coverage, with the release tomorrow of our episode on World Enough and Time. And tomorrow we’re also recording our episode on Twice upon a Time. After that, we will have four more episodes of Flight Through Entirety to release and one more episode to record before we go on hiatus for a few years, switching our attention to our new-ish Doctor Who podcast 500 Year Diary, whose second season we will be recording at the start of 2025.

Maximum Power is nearing the end of its recording run as well. Our Series 4 coverage will start on 21 December with Rescue, which I will be editing.

Websites

I think I’m probably just a couple of days’ work away from completing the first version of the eleventy-plugin-podcaster plugin, which is designed to help people who want to use Eleventy to make a podcasting website. I’ve set myself a Christmas deadline for it, so that The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire is using it when our next episode is released a couple of days after Christmas Day.

What I’m enjoying

I had fun playing Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which I finished a week or two ago. And I enjoyed watching Series 4 of Only Murders in the Building. But I haven’t had much time for anything else. I have a big list of TV Shows to watch these holidays; quite a lot of them are Star Trek.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Just over halfway through Term III now: I’ll be on school holidays this time next month. Quite a lot going on.

Life

Some big decisions coming up, and one just recently made. You’ll have to wait to hear about the big decisions; the one I just made is to take Term III off for long service leave next year.

School

We’re in the middle of Year 11 examinations right now; after that, we’ll be saying goodbye to Year 12. It’s a busy time of year, but not as busy as it used to be.

Podcasting

Untitled Star Trek Project continues on its more-or-less weekly release schedule and is as much fun as ever. We’ve covered about 1 in 7 episodes of Star Trek now.

Flight Through Entirety starts its Series 10 coverage on 15 September. By then, we will already have seven episodes in the can. It’s been so much fun spending Sunday morning chatting to my friends about Doctor Who. Which is, of course, why we do it.

Maximum Power starts recording in just a couple of weeks, which will give me a chance to talk to more friends, including friends in England, about another ridiculous British TV show.

Websites

Finally making some progress on the eleventy-plugin-podcaster plugin, which is designed to help people who want to use Eleventy to make a podcasting website. I have seven Eleventy podcasting websites already, and so the code is all there and it all works. So the task now is making sure that it’s usable by people other than me, which means writing documentation, getting the naming right and writing tests to make sure that it does what the documentation says it does. I’m doing a little bit of work on it every week right now; I’ll spend some more time on it during the holidays. I want to make sure all my websites run on it before the end of the year.

What I’m enjoying

Only Murders in the Building is back for a fourth season. It’s so fun and happy and brilliant. That’s going to be a special treat every Tuesday for the next couple of months.

Kaos, starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, looks pretty compelling. Might have to wait for the holidays though. We’ll see.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

It’s the last weekday of the school holidays, and so I’m back to school on Monday for the start of Term III. But what else is happening?

Life

I spent the first two weeks of the school holidays in mainland Greece and Crete with a colleague from the Classics Department and twelve boys from Years 10 and 11 — the third Sydney Grammar School Classics Tour. The first week, we visited all the same archaeological sites and museums (and hotels) from the first tour in 2017 (!), but the second week was all new to me, and included sites like the Minoan Palace at Knossos and a second palace at Phaistos, as well as the Minoan town of Gournia and the former hellenistic Greek capital of Gortyn. There was also plenty of swimming and free time in the afternoons and evenings. Looking forward to the fourth tour in 2026.

School

Term III isn’t quite as busy as Term II and there’s a lot of time just to get teaching done. But we do say goodbye to Year 12, and it’s the last term before Year 11 starts its HSC courses, so there’s plenty going on to keep us all occupied.

Podcasting

This weekend, Flight Through Entirety is recording its episode on the 2016 Christmas Special The Return of Doctor Mysterio, and over the weeks after that we’ll be recording (and releasing) our coverage of Doctor Who’s 2017 season, the last year of the Peter Capaldi Era. That’s sixteen episodes in total before FTE goes on a break, and 500 Year Diary takes over the limelight in 2025 (and beyond).

Untitled Star Trek Project and Startling Barbara Bain continue unabated. And any day now I’m expecting the call for the start of recording for the final season of Maximum Power.

Websites

Eleventy is nearing its 3.0.0 release and so I’m updating all the podcasting websites and adding new features. Still more to do: Zach is adding new features to the release just about every day. Exciting times.

I’m also working on a plugin called eleventy-plugin-podcasting, which will depend on the Eleventy 3.0.0 release, and which will include all the functionality needed to create a podcast feed for an Eleventy website. Currently working on documentation and the test suite. I want to do this properly.

What I’m enjoying

The overseas trip left me very little time for media consumption, but I can recommend two things. Douglas is Cancelled is a miniseries by Doctor Who’s Steven Moffat, with a clever and insightful script and a brilliant performance by Karen Gillan. And the second season of Star Trek: Prodigy has just dropped on Netflix — we’ll be recording our take on the first two episodes next week and releasing it the week after that.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Fri, 17 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Just finished my third week of Term II, and the half-yearly examinations are on their way. Lots of work to do this weekend, but I’m in the mood for getting things done.

Life

Usual thing: eat, sleep, rave, repeat. Work continues unabated. There’s six weeks of school left before the holidays, and the first two weeks of the holidays will be the Classics Tour of mainland Greece and Crete. More of which later. I expect it to be as much fun as the last two, but I’ve got a lot on right now, so I haven’t really had time to look forward to it.

School

Term II is famously busy, with exams and reports and things, but, let’s face it, that’s what I signed up for. Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata continues to be an exciting new thing, but I need to schedule more thinking and planning time to ensure that we teach it as effectively as possible.

Podcasting

The first season of 500 Year Diary finishes this Sunday with a discussion of the first episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. I’m really happy with how it’s gone. Plans are underway for a second season early in 2025.

Untitled Star Trek Project has now covered 1 in 8 episodes of Star Trek, with a new episode released every week. When the next episode of Startling Barbara Bain comes out in a few weeks, we will have completed 1 in 8 of those episodes too, but with much less effort.

And the new season of Doctor Who is, as is now customary, accompanied by new episodes of our Doctor Who flashcast The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, which will be coming out every Monday for the next five weeks.

Websites

I’m still tweaking and playing with all of my podcast websites. My new thing is trying to extract all the podcast functionality into a plugin, so that I don’t have to rewrite everything eight times. The process has started already — I’m hoping it will culminate in a public release and some documentation before the end of the year.

What I’m enjoying

New Star Trek: Discovery and new Doctor Who, of course.

My pick of the week this week is The Swinging Christies, a podcast about the writing of Agatha Christie in the 1960s. It’s funny and informative, and the hosts have a breezy expertise that keeps me listening even though I’m not familiar with the source material. Highly recommended.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sat, 02 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Somehow I’m more than a month into Term I of my thirty-first year at Sydney Grammar School. I’m mostly having fun, but this is the point of the term where I need to make sure I don’t start to fall further behind…

Life

Still living in Stanmore with Calvin and the dogs. Getting about 7½ hours of sleep a night, going to the gym twice a week. Eating, sleeping, working, podcasting. The usual.

School

It’s our third year teaching Latin with Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata at Grammar, and our first year in decades without the Oxford Latin Course. I’m enjoying teaching the new course to Form I and Form III, particularly Form III, which is terra incognita: teaching material that I’ve never taught this way before. Fun and a bit exciting.

Apart from that, there’s Canvas, the school’s learning management system. I get to train people in its use and to find new ways of using it to provide students with helpful resources and feedback on their work.

Podcasting

Flight Through Entirety is taking a break right now, and so James and I are working on a new podcast called 500 Year Diary. James is scheduling and Cameron is composing, and we hope to start recording next week.

As for the other podcasts, Untitled Star Trek Project releases its 100th episode on 8 March, Startling Barbara Bain continues on a roughly monthly cadence, and The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire will start again in May alongside Season 1 of the Ncuti Gatwa era of Doctor Who.

Websites

Last weekend, I went live with the new website for our Blakes 7 podcast Maximum Power. I’m pretty happy with it, particularly the way it showcases the many, many hilarious Blakes 7 gifs created by Pete Lambert.

Currently just thinking vaguely about the new website for 500 Year Diary, which will be going up in just a few weeks. I’ve done a few podcast sites now. I’m sure it will all be fine.

What I’m enjoying

I’m only watching stuff I’m podcasting about right now, but I’m looking forward to the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery, which starts next month. Take a look at the trailer: I think it’s going to be really fun.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT

It’s the first day of 2024, and here’s what I’m up to right now.

Life

I’ve been back from my holiday in Malaysia for just over a week. Now there’s about three or four weeks before school begins again. (I don’t want to look up exact dates right now.)

School

That means that I will have plenty of time to relax over the next few weeks. But there’s still a lot of work to do for school, particularly for the Classics Department. So I’ll be spending a few hours a day on that as well.

Podcasting

I haven’t mentioned this before, but I’m currently guesting regularly on a podcast called The Horror of Who, where we talk about the way that the horror genre is exemplified by Doctor Who. Brendan and I covered the Hartnell Era, and Peter and I will be recording some episodes on the Troughton Era this month.

Flight Through Entirety is taking a break until the middle of 2024, to reflect the fact that Doctor Who took 2016 off to sort out the transition from Moffat to Chibnall. But during that break, we will be releasing the first season of a new podcast, 500 Year Diary, which will mostly cover things we haven’t discussed on FTE over the years, as well as bringing in new people to talk about the things we have covered.

Joe and I are recording the next episode of Untitled Star Trek Project tomorrow and releasing it on Friday — it’s a Season 3 episode of Star Trek: Picard called No Win Scenario. We’ve covered just under 11% of the existing Star Trek episodes so far.

As for the rest of the podcasts I’m involved in, Startling Barbara Bain has released three episodes in the last three months, Maximum Power is nearing the end of its coverage of Series C, and The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire (2GAB for short) has watched all four of the recent Doctor Who specials and will resume when Doctor Who does (probably in May).

Websites

My shared hosting account with A2 Hosting expires in March, and I’m not going to renew it. Which means that I need to convert the Maximum Power podcast website from WordPress to Eleventy. That’s easy: I’ve already got a version of it running very well, so once Maximum Power finishes Series C and James is working on the Series D redesign, I’ll have a proper new website project on my hands. Should be fun.

I still want to create a series of articles about podcasting with Eleventy, and possibly even create a starter project for people to use. Still giving it some thought though.

Apps

I’ve gone all in on Obsidian for storing my notes. I’m not a full-on maniac about it yet, but I’m finding it helpful to have a well-organised place where I can store and retrieve my notes. If I start writing plugins for it, I’ll let you know.

Thinking of adding a /using page to this site, documenting what apps I use for different tasks. (If you’re reading this, take a look at the sidebar menu and see if it’s already there.)

What I’m enjoying

I read the fifth volume of Heartstopper last week, fully expecting it to be the last one, but it wasn’t, and there will be a new book out this year.

Nothing else springs to mind right now. I should do something about that.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Just two-and-a-half days of school left and then Speech Day. This time next week I’ll be flying to Penang.

Life

Calvin has already left for Bangkok, so I’m chilling at home by myself. I’ll join him in Penang next Saturday night, where we’re staying at the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, which is where he used to stay as a kid. It’s on the waterfront and it looks dashed colonial to me. Apparently Pol Pot stayed there once. They don’t seem to have named a room after him.

After that, Ipoh (which I’ve never visited before; Cousin Michelle comes from there) and Kuala Lumpur. Then back home in time for Christmas.

School

School finishes completely on Thursday. There will be things for me to do during the holidays, but I’m not going to think about them in earnest until I get back.

Podcasting

Doctor Who made a triumphant return on 25 November, and with a new era of Doctor Who comes a new flashcast, The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. We released our first episode, based on The Star Beast, on 27 November: we’ll be releasing Wild Blue Yonder on Monday 4 December, and The Giggle on Monday 11 December. (From Penang. I’m taking my second-best podcasting microphone with me.)

We’ve released a second monthly episode of Startling Barbara Bain already. Planning for this to be monthly. We’ve definitely had fun doing both of them already.

Tomorrow, Flight Through Entirety is releasing its discussion of the last episode of Series 9, Hell Bent. Which means we will release the retrospective next Sunday (edited before I leave and released from Penang). Before that, we’ll record our Christmas episode on Wednesday, after Brendan gets back from overseas and before I leave.

This Friday’s Untitled Star Trek Project episode is our Holiday Special, and to celebrate we’ll be watching our second ever Star Trek movie, 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

And Maximum Power continues its march through Series C, of course, finishing early in the New Year.

Websites

The websites for the two new podcasts are both up now, Startling Barbara Bain and The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. The second website is particularly nice, thanks to James’s brilliant logo design.

Already planning my upcoming contribution to the world of using Eleventy to create podcast websites. Stay tuned.

What I’m enjoying

For the first time in a long time, I’m properly excited about Doctor Who again. Last week’s The Star Beast was just wonderful. And I’m waking up to a whole new episode tomorrow morning. There are three new episodes being released this month; that hasn’t happened since November 2021. If you want to hear more about that, of course, remember to like and subscribe.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I’m closer to the end of the term than the beginning. Just less than four weeks to go till the end of the year.

Life

I’ve been continuing to get more exercise. The new watch is working as planned. Apart from that though, the main focus is podcasting. More of which below.

School

Exams are finished, reports are starting and plans are being laid for 2024. Still, I won’t be sorry when it’s over for another year. (My thirtieth at Grammar. My God.)

Podcasting

A couple of weeks ago, we launched a new Space: 1999 podcast called Startling Barbara Bain. Episode 1 was as fun to record as I expected, and the finished result was as good as I hoped. Even the website looks pretty good.

Flight Through Entirety is nearing the end of Series 9 of Doctor Who, releasing Episode 9 this Sunday. Also recording two episodes on that day. Just two more to record after that.

Untitled Star Trek Project tackles the worst episode of any television programme in human history next week, with Star Trek: Voyager’s Threshold. No redeeming features of any kind. Should be fun.

And Maximum Power is finally back with its coverage of the third series of Blakes 7. I’m appearing on it occasionally; I edited last week’s episode and I’ll be editing this week’s as well. (It’s just possible that I’ve overcommitted myself a bit.)

And finally, since no one much looks at my Now Page, I can safely announce here that we will be doing a new Doctor Who flashcast called The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire, which will be launching as soon as possible after the broadcast of the first episode of the new Russell T Davies era on 25 November. The website is just about ready to go. Should be exciting.

Websites

Well, I’ve obviously launched the Startling Barbara Bain website, and the website for The Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire just awaits the release of our first episode.

Netlify is working really well, and I discover helpful new features every week. And it’s still free. Amazing.

And once the holidays are underway, I still intend to publish some stuff about using Eleventy to create a podcasting website. It’s something that I now know quite a bit about.

Apps

My move from Craft and Apple Notes to Obsidian was incredibly easy, but a bit dull. Nothing to report. Obsidian is both better and worse than I expected, and much less polished than anything I’ve used before. Not a particularly exciting move: I’ll let you know if I find anything thrilling that I really need to tell eveyone about.

What I’m enjoying

Series 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks finished last week, and it’s still as much fun as ever. Apart from that, all this podcasting is seriously cutting into my TV time.

If it settles down next month and I find something interesting and improving to read or watch, you’ll be the first to hear about it, I promise.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 00:00:00 GMT

First day of the last week of the school holidays. A lot is going on right now.

Life

I’ve been maintaining a good level of physical activity. I might have overdone it last month, so I’ve cut out some of the more strenuous cardio just to give my knees a chance to recover. (Jesus.) I got a new Apple Watch Series 9 last week, which will motivate me to continue to monitor my progress and reach my goals, I think.

School

I’ll be spending the week doing a bit of preparation for the last term of the year. I’ll have a new Year 12 Latin Extension class, which will be nice. The departure of this year’s Year 12 leaves me with one less class — which should make it possible for me to attend to some of the important stuff I’ve been putting off this year.

Podcasting

Flight Through Entirety is back on, releasing an episode each week of our coverage of Series 9, the 2015 series of Doctor Who. We’ve still got five more episodes to record this year.

Untitled Star Trek Project continues as always. We have now covered 10% of the 900 or so episodes that constitute the Star Trek franchise. Still having a lot of fun with this.

Websites

Up till now, the podcast websites have been hosted on a VPS, basically a virtual server that I have had to set up and manage. Now they are hosted by Netlify: this means that when I made a change to any of the sites, Netlify rebuilds that site and serves on the internet. And, at the moment, it’s free.

Setting this up has been fun, and I’m happy with the result. It’s going to come in handy with the three new podcast websites I’ll be launching over the next few months.

Apps

I’ve been using Craft as a notes app for years now, and since reading Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain I’ve been trying to organise my notes using the PARA method. But Craft seems to be moving away from knowledge management and towards document collaboration, and so I’m wondering if I should look into using something else. I’m not going to make a wholesale change until the end of the school year, but I’m thinking of falling down the rabbit hole of Obsidian. More of this later, I expect.

What I’m enjoying

There’s one episode left of Season 3 of Only Murders in the Building. It’s such a clever, funny and humane show. The core cast is Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, who play fans of a true crime podcast who bond over investigating a murder committed in the beautiful old New York apartment block they live in. Season 3 has had Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep in its guest cast, and it has been as funny and fresh as the previous two seasons. If this is the end of the show, it’s had a great run, and it will be going out on a high.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Somehow the end of term is in sight. Year 11 exams are underway, and Year 12 are approaching their last day of school in just a couple of weeks.

Life

Finally, I’ve got off my arse and I’m starting to get more active. My goal: to close all three rings in my Apple Watch’s Activity app every day. And that’s what I’m doing. I’ve even managed to do it on the weekend by going on long podcast-listening walks and doing the occasional Fitness+ bike workout.

It’s a start.

School

My Year 12 classes in Latin Extension and Studies of Religion are nearing their end. I’m teaching the Studies of Religion boys about Buddhist pilgrimage right now, which is bringing back a lot of happy memories of my trip earlier this year.

Podcasting

We’ve recorded five episodes of the Series 9 season of Flight Through Entirety, and we’ll be releasing our first episode, on The Magician’s Apprentice on 17 September. Time to start the publicity campaign.

Untitled Star Trek Project continues unabated. Joe and I just finished recording an episode from 1968 called Assignment: Earth, which will be out this Friday. We have very nearly covered 10% of the 894 Star Trek episodes that have been broadcast to date.

Websites

Still working on my top-secret website project, which has (of course) proved to be trickier than I expected. Now that I’ve nearly finished my second run through Tears of the Kingdom, and now that my holidays are coming up, I’m going to start spending more time on it.

What I’m enjoying

I’m watching the second series of Heartstopper, which is just adorable. The kids are all terribly sweet, and nothing very disastrous happens to any of them, and so I’m absolutely on board. Many, many extra points for having Olivia Colman as Nick’s mother Sarah.

And Star Trek: Lower Decks Series 4 starts next week.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been back at school for three weeks now, and my Form VI classes can already see the end in sight. Apart from that, it’s business as usual.

Life

This is the fourth version of my Now page, and here I am again, confessing to not doing enough physical activity as I should. Sure, there’s Zelda and podcast editing to do, and a full-time job to go to, but there must be a way to find time to go for a walk more regularly at least. Mustn’t there?

School

School continues with a few new classes, but the highlight right now is still teaching Form II using Lingua Latina per Se Illustrata.

Form VI is off doing their trial HSC examinations next week, and after that I’ll be deploying my Buddhist pilgrimage experiences earlier in the year as I take over the Studies of Religion class to teach the topic of, er, Buddhist Pilgrimage.

Podcasting

Flight Through Entirety has finished its coverage of Series 8. We start recording our coverage of Series 9 today.

Untitled Star Trek Project still gives me a reason to watch Star Trek regularly and to hang out and talk to Joe. Taking a week’s break this week, but we’ll be back next week with an episode of Enterprise Series 3, which is an area of the franchise we’ve not really looked at before.

I am doing a secret thing for a popular Doctor Who podcast today, which is fun. And remember, I’m always available to guest on your Doctor Who podcast, so call me.

Websites

I’m still working on my top-secret web project. Most of the bones of the site are done, so now it’s time to work on the design, which is the thing I find the most challenging. I think I know enough about CSS Grid now to make a proper start.

What I’m enjoying

I finished Tears of the Kingdom last month, and now I’m on a second run through trying to seek out things I didn’t get done the first time. I’m also using the soundtrack to keep me focused while I’m doing marking.
I was delighted by the early release of the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which was Those Old Scientists, a crossover between Strange New Worlds and the comedy cartoon series Star Trek: Lower Decks. These are just about my favourite Star Trek series, and the crossover was one of the best Star Trek episodes in decades.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT

School holidays again already. I’m nearing the end of a relaxing trip to Melbourne, and I’m looking forward to having some time to chill and some time to organise myself for work, which starts back up in just over 2½ weeks.

Life

Still not doing as much physical activity as I should. Still seeing Matt for weight training twice a week, but I’m not always reaching my Apple Watch move goals. There’s a very obvious reason for this, but I’ll talk about it at the end of this post

School

Well, it’s holidays, like I said. Next term, I’ll focus on getting some course programmes updated for the new syllabus and the new Latin courses based on Lingua Latina per Se Illustrata.

I’ll also be taking back my Form VI Studies of Religion class, and I’ll be teaching the Buddhist Pilgrimage unit. Looking forward to this after personally experiencing so many major Buddhist pilgrimage sites during my leave in Term I.

Podcasting

Flight Through Entirety is nearing the end of its coverage of Series 8, with only two more episodes to release, not counting the 2014 Christmas Special. We’ll start recording Series 9 a few weeks after that.

Untitled Star Trek Project is still back on a weekly release schedule. Still fun to prepare for, record and edit, and the perfect excuse for regular hang time with Joe.

I’ve got two new Doctor Who podcasts in the pipeline: one starting in November and the other starting in the first half of 2024. I’ve bought the domains, but that’s all so far.

Websites

I’m working on a top-secret project right now, which gives me an opportunity to learn even more about Eleventy, and to try and implement a home page design based on CSS Grid. I’m hoping the holidays will give me a chance to make more progress on this.

What I’m enjoying

I’ve been spending a lot of time playing Tears of the Kingdom. A lot of time. I played hundreds of hours of Breath of the Wild, starting during our long lockdown in 2021. Tears of the Kingdom has made Hyrule fresh and strange again, as well as adding so much new space and so many new things to do. So much fun.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back for Series 2. Series 1 was one of the franchise’s most accomplished and enjoyable seasons. Two episodes in, and I’m already loving the hell out of this season. Series 2, Episode 2, Ad Astra per Aspera has a claim to being one of the best episodes of all time — stunningly beautiful, astoundingly well acted, and angrily political, focusing on the eliminationist attacks on transgender people currently taking place all across the United States right now.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Fri, 19 May 2023 00:00:00 GMT

It’s been just over a month since I wrote this site’s first Now page, and I’m well and truly back at work now. I’m still thinking about my trip a lot, but it’s definitely receding from view.

Life

I managed to lose about 4 kg during my leave, mostly due to a bout of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Cholera™ when I was in India. But I didn’t keep either of the rash resolutions about exercise I made last time. Let’s see if I can keep the resolution about hitting all three Activity Goals on my watch every day. The challenge here is the weekend, particularly Sunday, when I spend hours at my desk editing an episode of Flight Through Entirety.

School

School is back, and right now we’re in the middle of examinations for Years 7–10. People keep asking me if I’m happy to be back, and I kind of am, but I’m not really firing on all cylinders quite yet.

Podcasting

Flight Through Entirety will be releasing the sixth episode of its Series 8 coverage this week, which means we’re about halfway there. Still three more episodes left to record.

Untitled Star Trek Project releases episode 65 today, which is the fourth episode since I got back from leave. It’s nice to be back.

And I’m recording Maximum Power once a week or so, and I’m enjoying revisiting Series C, with its dizzying highs and its dismal lows.

Websites

I haven’t been doing much work on my websites since school started again. I continue to collect books and articles and ideas so that I’m ready the moment I have enough time on my hands to do more work on these. But today, I’ll be tweaking my implementaion of this Now page.

What I’m enjoying

I bought a Nintendo Switch during the second lockdown in 2021, basically in order to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), and since then I’ve racked up over 300 hours of play. It’s such a fun and immersive game: its massive open world was just what I needed while we were all locked in our houses for months. I think it might have been the first console game I ever finished.

Its sequel Tears of the Kingdom came out last Friday, and I’m currently spending every spare moment on it. It’s more accomplished and entertaining than its predecessor, and possibly more mysterious, terrifying, silly and intriguing as well. I will write more about it later, I think.

Now

Nathan Bottomley — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I’m writing this in Bangkok, just a couple of days before I return home from two and a half months’ abroad during my long service leave. I’m feeling well rested and well travelled, and I’m looking forward to coming home and seeing the dogs again.

Life

We had two Covid lockdowns in Sydney, one in 2020 and another in 2021. Each time I put on about ten kilograms, and I’m yet to shake any of that lockdown weight. I know how to get rid of it, I think, but for the time being, I’m concentrating on two resolutions:

I will hit all three Activity Goals on my Apple Watch every day.
I will walk 5000 steps every morning before breakfast.

School

I missed Term I because of long service leave, so for me it’s the start of a new year, my thirtieth year at Sydney Grammar School. There’s going to be a lot to do, but there’s three main things I’ll be focusing on:

I’ll be teaching a completely new Year 8 Latin course based on Lingua Latina per Se Illustrata alongside some of my colleagues in the Classics Department.
I won’t be teaching Year 12 Studies of Religion this term, but I will be creating new resources on the topic of Buddhist Pilgrimage, based on what I learned during my travel to the Buddhist Pilgrimage sites in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
I will be assisting my colleagues with the move to Canvas, which was completed at the start of this year. And I will be making the move myself, which will give me the chance to rethink and revise my online teaching resources.

Podcasting

Last Sunday, I released Flight Through Entirety’s first episode on Doctor Who’s 2014 season, which was the first season with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. I’ll be releasing new episodes every Sunday for the next 12 weeks, and I’ll be recording six of those episodes over the next four weeks or so.

Untitled Star Trek Project will be back very soon, and I’m looking forward to hanging out with Joe Ford, watching Star Trek and having a laugh. We recorded an episode together in person in early February, but we haven’t done anything since then, and I’ve really been missing it. It’s gonna be fun.

Maximum Power is recording its episodes on Blake’s 7 Series C from May onwards, and I’ll be appearing on a few of those. I’m particularly excited about recording with some of people I met in person for the first time in February.

Websites

All my websites are now made with Eleventy, which has rekindled my love for creating for the web again. In fact, I moved this site from WordPress to Eleventy in January, and I’m keen to use it as a playground for learning and experimentation. And in the medium term, I’ve got a few ideas about how I can contribute to the Eleventy community. There’s at least one or two articles I want to write, but I’ve also got some more ambitious plans, based on my experiences using Eleventy to create podcasting websites.

What I’m enjoying

I’m enjoying the current era of Star Trek, including all the new series currently in production. Star Trek: Picard’s third season has blown way past my expectations, and I can’t wait to see how it ends tomorrow. And later this year there’s Series 4 of Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds. It’s a new Star Trek golden age.