TFV #0 – The Journey Begins

Note: This is one of a small series of emails I sent as part of an email newsletter project in 2015-2016 called Tales from Voyager. Learn more, or browse the full collection.

Welcome to Issue #0 of Tales from Voyager! This newsletter is something I've been working on for a while and that I'm really excited to be sharing.

tl;dr: I'm going to browse reddit and steal the best stuff and throw it in a newsletter every week.

Just kidding. Kind of.

I wanted to send out an "Issue #0" to clarify the format and intent of this project. But first - the story behind the name:

When growing up I always named my technology devices. I like to think that's because I didn't really have any pets to name, but it's really probably just because I'm a nerd.

I didn't really have a theme to those names. Sometimes it was a character or a place in a book I was reading, other times it was a fun reference I liked. Starling, my 1TB Portable HD, is named after the traveling minstrel from Robin Hobb's Fitz books. CEREBRO was my laptop throughout college and is an obvious X-Men reference. My desktop PC is named Astraeus - not after the mythological character but after the space mission in SyFy's Eureka.

Okay so I lied about not having a theme - the theme was apparently MASSIVE NERD.

I bought a Surface Pro 3 in the fall of last year. At the time I was on a space kick so I named it Voyager (this time after a real-life space mission). Voyager I and Voyager II are amazing achievements - Voyager I has traveled further than any other human-made device in our history. That's crazy, right?

Want to know what's even crazier? It still phones home and shares information with us on Earth.

When I set out to name this newsletter I immediately thought about those little crafts sending signals through space. I intend for this newsletter to serve as a sort of way for me to phone home my observations in my own way, fully realizing that the things I share will not be anywhere near as remarkable as the data received from Voyager.

Given that, Tales from Voyager seemed like an appropriate name. It feels right.

Now for the structure! My goal is to send out a newsletter a few times a month if I'm being realistic, and every week if I'm feeling ambitious. I've spent some time thinking about how to structure it to be both a reflection of me, and also something easily digestible by others, and here's the format I've come up with:

1. Monologue / Opening- This could be anything from a piece of creative writing, to a short story, to a collection of quotes, to a series of photos, to a rant about technology. I'm intentionally keeping this vague because I want to give myself some room to be expressive with this section. Opinions welcome!

2. Watch This- A video of some kind that I watched recently and that I found worth sharing.

3. Read This- An article or series of articles you should read, or maybe a book I recommend after recently completing.

4. Listen to This- Some music I've been digging.

5. Look at This- A pretty picture or a funny gif, but most likely the latter because who doesn't like gifs?

TFV is something I've wanted to create for a long time. It's also something that I realize will be immensely personal. My hope is that in sharing things I find interesting, I get others engaged either because they are interested in the same things, interested in my spin on them, or just interested in how/what I'm thinking. To that end I'd love if you commented either by replying to this directly, reaching out on Twitter, or sending me an email.

See you space cowboy,
-Roshan
@blattus