Does anybody srsly not take it for granted that when Bonespurs says anything it just means he thought of saying it right then?

One change of clothes for a 2-week trip… now that’s a man’s man!

Twitter/X should be called Twix and a tweet should be a twext.

I’m embarrassingly proud of this.

But horse-apotamus makes no sense (unless “apotamus” means “big fat”) - I’m not the most cunning of linguists.

I agree. But in general ranking TV series or episodes or characters or arguing that one of them was the best or worst never seems worthwhile to me.

I know right? Who cares about basketball?

“I’m a workaholic, and anybody who isn’t needs a good horse-whippin’ to knock some sense into 'em!”

“Somebody disagreed with me! Conservatives are a persecuted class just like Christians and black people and those other races!”

Easy technobabble fix - the visor suppresses the optical neurons, or it simply acts as a blindfold so the real eyes see only darkness. LaForge’s pain was because the tech wasn’t fully developed. I forget if he still had the pain with the prosthetic eyes. Hackability is another problem we probably won’t have in the real future because of quantum encryption or whatever, but it’s still a good plot device present-day people can relate to - no matter how unrealistically it’s portrayed - click-click-click… “okay, I’m in!” LOL.

There’s always the way to rationize that a medical problem can’t be fixed because of individual traits - for example, in the Wrath of Khan, Kirk needs reading glasses because he’s allergic to the drug they normally use to treat vision problems.

I never saw LaForge as a “disabled person” at all. In my view he had superpowers. What puzzled me was why other characters didn’t wear similar visors. I mean why would blindness be a prerequisite for getting the ability to see in infrared, ultraviolet, etc? Seems like everybody would want that. Especially if it could be ocular implants like he eventually had.

This always makes me think of the Firefly scene where the gunman is trying to hold Kaylee hostage. Malcolm walks up the boarding ramp, makes a headshot in mid-stride, and he and Jayne toss the guy’s body out as the ship lifts off. No problem.

subtle Buckaroo

True - remember Windows phones? Me neither.

If you debloat Win10 and 11 your system will run better. Debloaters are aggressive to differing degrees (I recommend Chris Titus), but a lot of things are turned on by default that shouldn’t be - like the Xbox service when you don’t have an Xbox - using resources for no reason.

True, even user-friendly Linux distros have their pain points. The real difference between Linux and corporate OS products is that you don’t periodically need a new version because of a product churn schedule.

I’m open to converse about it with anyone who offers an actual conversation.

Slaves have owners, prison convicts don’t.

Slaves are kidnapped from their homes, having done nothing wrong, shipped somewhere and sold like cattle in markets to whoever wants to buy them. Convicts aren’t.

Prison sentences have limits - an individual convict could happen have a life sentence, but that’s not a characteristic of prison. Most convicts have a future parole date when their sentence will end. Slaves don’t - their fate is up to the whim of their owner. If there is a fixed end date then they aren’t slaves, they’re indentured servants.

Indentured servitude would be a more appropriate term for prison labor - so why not use that? Because it doesn’t sound as serious? “Slavery” has more impact? Sure, it sounds like a stronger point is being made, but “sounds better” isn’t a good reason. People who insist on attaching the slavery label to prison labor are the ones who should be justifying themselves.

It’s classic abuser behavior - “Don’t listen to anyone but me! No one else loves you!”

You’re not wrong, and congrats for waking up. So many people are now sitting up in the pod and pulling off the wires.