Nature - by definition, are things found in the physical world that aren’t human creations.

Modern homes require electricity, clean running water, modern insulation, glass, smoke detectors, town governments oversight, corporate resources, insurance, etc. All of these things are human creations.

Man-made is similar to hand-made. Both are distinct from machine-made.

Nature is a bit of a spectrum. Something being handmade is closer to natural than something from a factory. Still, neither are natural.

I mean, I won’t have much leftover after paying off my condo. I live in a very expensive city.

Plus, you never know what you need money for down the line. Maybe my heating will need replacement. Maybe I lose my job. Maybe a family member will need professional care, like a home attendant. Or maybe I’ll take another vacation next year. Who knows.

$500K is not a crazy amount of money. It’s certainly enough to dramatically improve my life. But not enough for me to stop working, or buy stupid things - or anything like that

Sometimes.

The smaller independent theaters are a nice old timey experience. Most venues have a better sound system than anything most of us can afford - so that’s a good improvement. There’s something romantic about the whole thing, I don’t know. You see a movie the way the filmmakers intended, and being part of an audience, all gasping or laughing together can be powerful.

Big theater chains like AMC are no worthwhile for me. They’re always riddled with unruly teenagers. Like half the time, they’ll be snickering during serious scenes or whatever.

I mean, give it a try. You might like it. You might hate it. It’ll cost you like ~$18 to find out. Not that much.

The content on Reddit has gotten noticeably worse - but less as a result of Lemmy's existence and more of a reaction to killing 3rd Party Apps.

Unfortunately for me, some of my favorite communities haven't migrated over to Lemmy. So I'm still using Old Reddit Desktop to access them.

Probably pay off the condo. Maybe do some upgrades.

Travel with my wife somewhere for a 2 week long vacation.

Throw the rest in savings.

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.

Even if it were true that we came from aliens… every race can reproduce with one another. If we all came to earth for survival, then race mixing creates better outcomes through genetic variation.

What a strange take.

At some point, he deserves a lifetime achievement award from the academy.

When the quality and cost of labgrown meat matches the real thing - we’ll see the tables turn. Especially if they’re able to produce various *cuts^ and styles.

Columbia House and BMG were record clubs in the 1990s. This was a subscription service that regularly sent music album CDs to your house. They advertised in mailings, TV, radio, etc. It was ubiquitous.

The catalog for available records was quite vast. 

In order to get new customers, these record clubs had a loss leader marketing approach. You would get 5-10 CDs for only a penny for signing up, and you are not charged for the first month. After, there is a hefty cost. The CDs are yours to keep, but you need to cancel the membership before the first payment is due.

Word spread pretty fast that the deal was legit. For many of us kids pre-internet piracy, Columbia House represents the biggest album haul of that era.

Hard to say.

Maybe Louis CK before all that stuff. Twice actually. He was nice, and a bit shy each time.

I met a lot of other comics. Hannibal Burress, Judah Freidlander, Jim Jeffries were all favorites. All seem very genuine.

For musicians, I guess Victor Wooten is the most famous. That was really magical. He was exactly as I hoped, dude is a natural teacher.

Actors… I ran into Adam Scott (Parks and Rec, Severance) when I was quite drunk (and on a date) many years back. We were both in line at a speakeasy ramen restaurant at like 11PM.

I don’t think I met any politicians or other kinds of famous folks.

Whats it say in the employee handbook regarding time off?

It’s not the manager’s job to decide if someone’s personal obligations are necessary or not. It’s their job to assure there is coverage and the work is complete.

If the employee is abusing the shift-change timeoff policy, that is a different story.

If the manager is the owner, it may be a good idea for your wife to freshen her resume.