I have a private parking spot off street in a city. I don’t like backing up towards the main road; since it has pedestrians and stuff. It’s a little harder to see.

So I back into the spot. It’s way easier than backing out - and pulling out is even easier. 

My work parking garage is already really tight. It’s another situation where backing in is easier than backing out - and driving forward our is even easier. So just some planning.

Just bought a great CPO car a week ago, so… I’ve never cleaned it.

But in general, I use steering wheel covers that I change maybe once a year.

I don’t drive that much, only like once a week. My wife also drives it once a week (we share). In the winter, we often wear gloves. So it doesn’t get too grimey.

The subway here is how I commute to work or enjoy nights out. If it’s super late or I’m lazy, an Uber will pick up the slack.

Politically, we agree on 90%+ on things. Like - it would be really odd if I married a woman who didn’t believe my friends deserved basic human rights. 

But I will say we handle conflict very differently, loss very differently, anxiety very differently, fear very differently. We’re different people.  The important thing is that were able to communicate with one another. We’re supposed to understand each other’s motives, behaviors, needs. And try to anticipate them.

Ideally, we’re strong in areas the other is weak in.

As far as interests, there’s a lot of crossover. But I have specific hobbies (music production mostly), that she has no interest in. She’ll give feedback from time to time. And also, she plays piano. But we don’t play together.

I like goofy nerd shit, she likes The Bachelor. I like some gaming, she thinks it’s lame and reads in her free time. I mean, no great relationship has ever thrived based on a shared love of Star Trek or something.

So most importantly, we match well in two areas. One, we can make each other laugh. Two, we like the same foods and are adventurous eaters.

For what it’s worth, half of every live-in relationship is trying to decide what to eat next.

There’s nothing wrong with having a preference. At the end of the day, when you adopt a pet - you are saving their life and dramatically changing yours. How you come to that choice is deeply personal. It doesn’t matter if it’s superficial or whatever, least of all to the cat. As long as you give them love, warmth, food and shelter.

 I don’t really have a preference on breed, I just care of they’re sociable and friendly. I do have a preference for girl cats. My dearly departed cat was a girl, and my wife’s cat (very much alive) is a dude. Love him, but it’s not the same.

I’m not particularly into anime either, but I thought that “The Devil Is A Part-Timer” and “One Punch Man” were really funny and clever.

Excel for Dummies 2023

“Ape alone… weak. Apes together…. strong”

So no, it’s baked-in the DNA of how we survive. We group to fight threats. Early days, that threat is protection from hostile wildlife like bears.

You scale that to a modern civilization - and you have groups of people fighting for resources, food, money, opportunities, land, etc. Sometimes they’re gangs. Sometimes they’re entire countries. Sometimes they’re groups of allied countries.

And heck, you see it in stupidly small scales too. “Coke v Pepsi”, “N64 v PlayStation”, “Rock Fans v Disco Fans”.

Sunni and Shia believe 98% of the same stuff. But the bit they don’t agree on pushes fringe lunatics to terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, etc.

Same deal with Protestants and Catholics.

The only thing could make us drop “us versus them” mentality is a giant alien force more violent and sick than anything you can imagine.

Then maybe, humanity will be the “us” finally.

Strange New Worlds picks up as a spin-off of Discovery Season 2. If there’s one Nu Trek to watch, it’s this.

Discovery and SNW are prequels to TOS. However, Season 1 of Disco is very weak with the exception of one or two episodes. Season 2 is much better and you can probably start here. Then go into S3 or SNW.

Season 3 is where I believe Discovery really shines. It also changes setting entirely. 4 is good too.

Lower Decks takes places shortly after/around DS9/Voy era. So if you’re familiar with 90’s trek, this show is basically like home cooking. You can watch it anytime.

Picard Season 1 and 2 are bad. But if you think of it as non-canon Fan Fiction written by Patrick Stewart, it’s just kinda fun. Season 3 is the final season and is basically the show everyone actually wanted. It’s an epilogue to TNG. There’s a few references to Season 1 and 2, but you can Google the small gaps. You can watch it anytime.

Also, watch The Orville. It’s a love letter to Star Trek, has Trek writers, producers and actors. It’s starts as a dumb comedy that didn’t really know what it’s doing, but by episode 3 they start to find their footing.
Season 2 and 3 and pretty much perfect and IMO as good as the best of Trek. The show gets more serious and the humor takes a backseat to the human element.

A little late to the game but I really loved this episode.

Only thing that didn’t quite make sense to me was the romantic connection between La’an and Kirk. It felt forced - and I feel like the episode would’ve been just as strong without it. Just them bonding as friends, who are going through this deeply traumatic time travel experience together - would’ve been more than enough.

I can appreciate that La’an would be more vulnerable as a result Kirk not knowing her family name, but she oggled him in the changing room before that was revealed. Seemed out of character.

Otherwise, I’m really curious to see what kind of timeline implication all of this will have - and if the watch will make way back in the series somehow.