Semisimian

Especially from a tech critic.

Agreed on the independence part. We are much more interdependent than we let on (in the US especially, but other places as well).

If everyone 30+ got together and collectively decided what thriving meant, then worked to reach those goals, then I think we would all be thriving.

The majority isn’t hoping for a vacation home or to send their kids to Ivy League schools or to buy a bigger boat. The majority of middle class folk I talk to regard thriving as being comfortable enough to send the kids to some postsecondary school and take a few weeks vacation out of the country. They want to have enough to retire at 65 and live a modest life, be able to spoil their grandkids a little… nothing crazy.

The ability for all of us to thrive is already here. It is only the slight matter of systemic overhaul that prevents us.

This episode answers a very important question for me: how the heck can some alien being sneak onto a Starfleet ship? The answer: abject incompetence.

NX-01 aside, we see that by the time of the Enterprise, there are cameras everywhere! And, they are set to start recording on all channels during a Red alert. I always wondered with episodes all the way back to TOS The Man Trap, how could someone not have some sort of sensor or visual record of what happened on the ship? Vash can seemingly go anywhere she wants to pilfer relics. The Kazon can waltz around Voyager without security being hip to their game.

I feel like the video is there, just no one is watching.

This is an astute answer. Bravo.

Avalon on the island of Catalina. It’s the one and only town on the island and there isn’t really anywhere else to go. People use golf carts to get around. There are no gas stations on the island, so if you do have a car, you have to import your own fuel or use the marina.

Miniscule car infrastructure + laws limiting the number of cars on the island = no car culture. Bam.

From the article: “There’s something about the freedom of mobility and there’s something very American about it, and so, I also think that there’s a lot of people around the world that think about American cars, and they think about American road trips, and we want to invite the rest of the world. They’re going to come for FIFA’s club games, or they’re going to come for the World Cup, or they’re going to come for the Olympics, come and see sporting events, but then you can also take a week or 10 days with my family to travel around this great country. Stop at our great restaurants. Stay in our wonderful motels or hotels. Gas up your car with great American energy.”

THIS is actual car-brain thinking. I see a lot of memes in fuck cars attacking individuals and the choices they are forced to make, but this article illustrates issues that we have to fight. It’s got all the delusion you expect from a government source written by car companies: tying car ownership to freedom, oddly thinking that non-americans think about our car culture as a positive experience, and that wonderfully tone-deaf tagline.

Your city likely has some form of a transportation committee. Join it. Go to the meetings. The switch to Zoom has made it even easier to do so. My experience with our local zoning committee has reinforced that you have to fight like hell, even with your own neighbors, to do simple things like decrease parking requirements. Car-brain is real and it’s propped up by decades of propaganda and policy.

And then saying “inflation is down,” as if that has any real day-to-day impact on our travel plans.

I have a dedicated windows 10 PC for gaming only. Microsoft is actively trying to brick my machine. I have to read the fine print to make sure I’m not agreeing to the 11 “update.” I feel held hostage - it sucks.

I’m thinking of going to steamOS - I’m a casual gamer that just needs it to work when I have the spare minute to fire up a game. I don’t have time to do much troubleshooting, but I will make time so I don’t get locked into a console. Shrugging emoji.

If peeing your pants is cool, then I’m Miles Davis.

And I just don’t give Adam.

I’m 6’4" and have driven tons of cars and owned a few. Stepping into a proper pickup was the first time I thought “oh, a vehicle designed for me.” I’m also a carpenter, so it is essential to my work. Memes like this are low hanging fruit.

Yes, we do have a size problem in the USA. Is everyone that drives one of these trucks a selfish, tiny-dicked, backwards-thinking asshole? No, and honestly, the majority of the people that I know are like me and need a work vehicle like this. More than half of them are in a union. We can point out the absurdity of the size wars when it comes to American vehicle design, but stop picking on pickup trucks.

Is this the same accent the indie musicians sing in, where they do weird things with their vowels to sound like they ate a lemon recently?

I’ve noticed a staccato cadence to some speech that people might say is indicative of autism, but not an accent.

That’s the secret, and it’s how they keep it hush hush: they don’t take dollars, only shoes. Shoes for the wealthy is like Tide pods for the incarcerated: underground currency. It’s more difficult to hide a shoe in your prison-pocket, but I think the wealthy have people for that.

We just got a set for my son for his birthday. He likes the routine. We have a drip coffee procedure for us parents and I think he likes having his own thing. That said, he was disappointed in the set. The whisk doesn’t work as well as the electric one we have for frothing milk. The cups aren’t exactly his cup of tea, all puns intended. Etc.

I think it was important that he got the set so he could learn what he likes and doesn’t like about the process. Lord knows we’ve gone through a dozen coffee gimmicks over the years trying to find the best brew. That is our experience. Good luck and have fun; it really is about the simple pleasures.

Ho ho ho, future Santa checking in. Mrs Claus is a hair stylist, so we have some insight into what I’m going to need when the days grow short and the beard (hopefully) grows long.

The biggest thing is: full beards take time. And not just time to grow the length, but time (years) for your face to mature and get those hair follicles in the Christmas spirit. There’s really not much you can do if the fullness isn’t coming in yet but wait. I’m in this phase now. It’s hormones. What are we going to do? Not drugs, not Rogaine: not going to help. Take care of what you got.

But you mentioned you DO have a beard, so maybe you have the stellar volume you need to be St Nick, just not the length. Short answer, skin care IS beard care. Get a good skin care regimen that works for your face and your beard will fall in line. You’ve signed up for an everyday commitment to becoming a touchable beard, and they WILL ALL touch it. Toddlers to Grannies, especially, Grannies.

You have the beard! Now you need the color. This depends on your hair color and how your hair accepts color, so you really should go to a professional. If you want to be a paid, real-beard Santa, a good color job will be the LEAST of your expenses and it will pay off on day one.

Being a good Santa is being a good person. It really is just that. But there is a physical barrier that is conforming to the Coca-Cola ideal of Santa, which is the tutorial I just provided for the BEARD ONLY!

I wish you well and I hope you enjoy bringing hope, magic and love into the hearts of children.

I just watched this a few hours ago. Nothing else to add, just neat.

That’s the part of The Hulk we are all just told to ignore.

Do you know where you are commenting? And surely you mean “another Star Trek work place comedy,” because we already have DS9.

It’s a comedy, so I hope so too! I imagine the planet, being a vacation/pleasure planet, will have a lot of kinks that are taboo to the Federation and that’s where you will find the narrative tension as they apply for membership. The planet will have a constitution at odds with the Fed, full of kinks. They might welcome species that have kinks not outlined in said constitution. They might welcome federation citizens that are exploring their non-Fed kinks on this planet.

We’ve seen plenty of criticism of the Federation’s nanny-state. Lately, that criticism has come from the writers of the shows who seem to have lost the narrative that the Federation is our ideal. Sure, it has issues, but none of us should be ashamed of reaching for utopia. I hope the new show is a continuation of the SNW and Prodigy reboot of a less cynical Trek.