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I know we've all been crying to ourselves in bed at night over the end of such a wonderful show - me included - so here's a fun little distraction for now.

1. What is your prediction for the plot of the series finale?
2. How much gold-pressed latinum do you bet on it?

I bet 5 strips that it will be a parody/pastiche of the time shenanigans of TNG:"All Good Things" and VOY:"Endgame" where we get to see the futures of each character.

Your turn. Betting closes once the first episodes of the season comes out (in other words, I think you have until 11:59 PM PST on October 23rd to bet, though I could be wrong). I will declare the winner of our imaginary latinum when I've watched the finale.

P.S If it's not too much trouble, since there's still more than a month to season premiere, would you be able to pin this, @ValueSubtracted? It's totally fine if not, but would be convenient due to the long-term nature of this post.

I have several songs where I think they could have done better on the album version.

This includes a lot of Mink Car:

• Bangs - Snapping Turtles had the more John-y lyrics in my opinion.
• Man, It's So Loud in Here - The first demo just had more soul, in my opinion. I get they were going for Pet Shop Boys pastiche/parody, but I really liked the general 80s vibes of the original demo.
• My Man - There's a demo that has some better compositional choices in my opinion.
• Another First Kiss - I prefer the one from Severe Tire Damage by leaps and bounds.

Another addition is I like the Severe Tire Damage version of They Got Lost more than the Long Tall Weekend version.

Yesterday, I began watching the 1960s British sci-fi series The Prisoner (first five episodes) and have been quite enjoying it. Much of my enjoyment has been from the fact that it kind of feels like “What if The Cage was a whole series?”

In other words, like “The Cage”, it’s a prison environment in which a person can’t be certain of reality any more. It does diverge in all the torture on number 6, whereas the Talossian’s illusions are less flawed and sadistic a prison in some ways (you know, besides the purpose of breeding a bunch of human slaves). However, I feel like both “The Cage” and The Prisoner overall embody the same “everything might be fake” sense of reality. I almost feel like “The Prisoner” is somewhat a window into what Star Trek might have been if CBS hadn’t thought people would be too dumb to understand “The Cage”.

Besides the similar vibes with “The Cage”, another thing winning me over is the surreal set design, which has already won a place in my heart. I just wish I could make a replica of one of the signs in the village and have it not be so obscure no one would ever recognize it.

The main thing my 21st century brain finds fault with is the strong gender roles used in The Prisoner (there is always some woman that Number 2 sends to try and manipulate Number 6), although like TOS, I’ll give it a pass since it was in the same boat as most television at the time. However, I did like the twist in “Free for All” where Number 58 is revealed to be the real new Number 2.

I like both "Maine" and "Louisiana". "Maine" has John's classic unreliable, evil narrator, while "Louisiana" just feels like a fun take on a hostage situation.

"The Songs of the 50 States" is also dear in my heart as it gets gradually crazier.

Here’s a bigger bugbear (than the Vulcan question): how does it all work in Ferengi society?

I’ll split order my post by my pre-Rom and post-Rom thoughts.

Pre-Rom:

• Gay (not Lesbian) Ferengi are probably a normal thing.
• Based on DS9 “Profits and Lace” and Nilva’s reaction to the transitioned Quark, it might be possible that male to female transition, while considered very weird, would be considered fine if you make a sufficiently good female by Ferengi standards, if you know what I mean.
• Conversely, female to male transition probably wouldn’t be accepted, based on the reaction to Pel, although Pel didn’t necessarily actually change her gender identity or get her lobes surgically enlarged. It may be possible that some trans Ferengi existed and simply hid that they weren’t cis, although it’d be more difficult considering the mobility limitations on females. There were probably surgeons on the planet who were like “If you’ve got the Latinum, I’ll totally do it.”
• Overall, I think the sentiment would be, “If you’ve got the lobes and you’ve got the Latinum, I don’t care what you do.”
• For instance, if a non-binary Ferengi made lots of profit, they might not be totally respected, but at least not bothered as much.

Post-Rom:

• Lesbian Ferengi are probably legal but still frowned upon.
• Transitioning either way is probably easier, considering the shift in gender roles as seen by 2381 in Lower Decks.
• Generally, with the Federation membership bid, probably a lot more open but still rife with social issues.

Questions:

• Do Ferengi experience dysphoria when their ears are the wrong size? (Very possibly yes, considering the dysphoria humans can experience from other secondary sex characteristics.)

Do you have TMBG songs that you like but don’t necessarily want on your everything playlist?

I’d say “Love is Eternity” off Venue Songs is one for me. I enjoy it but simultaneously find it a bit sappy. It also brings up difficult emotions since my grandmother died this May.

Original Post: https://startrek.website/post/13283869

Update: Nope, I'm still having the problem. It seems to be an ACPI problem. I found a potential solution, which I will test soon. The issue seems to only occur when using the charger and Bricklink Studio. These seems to be a common issue on Lenovo.

Another update: I fixed it, but I can't remember what I did. I'm having a great experience again. I'll see if I can find the fix for other owners of this laptop.

Update: I remember what I did, and have detailed it and where I found the fix here: https://startrek.website/post/14342770 . You should probably update the firmware for the sake of a clean journalctl, though.

After using this laptop a few weeks, I have one important note. I was having a problem for a while where, usually after waking from sleep, in some rooms my Wi-Fi card would disconnect and I'd have to reboot to get my network connection back. Based on journalctl, it seemed to be some sort of weird firmware error.

I found the fix was to install updated firmware, specifically the version of firmware-realtek from testing, upon which the problem has stopped ocurring. As firmware packages tend to not have a lot of dependencies, I do want to see if I can get a bookwork-backports package uploaded so it's easier to install.

I've often pondered about how Vulcans view gender and sexuality.

I think pre-Surak/logic, they may have demonstrated homophobia and transphobia, but modern Vulcan Society would probably be chill with it under the reasoning that discrimination would reduce a person's efficacy as a functional member of Vulcan Society. For instance, given a choice between allowing a person to contribute verses driving them to the brink of suicide, Vulcans would probably tend to lean towards the first option.

There could very well still be stigma (Vulcans are far from a perfect society; some may have views that it is illogical to have a romantic relationship without a child), but it's dampened by the logic from the previous paragraph.

There's also the Pon Farr to keep in mind. Not only would it be hard to fight a person in the Ponn Farr, but also you'd literally be killing them by trying to prevent expression of their orientation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brave_Little_Toaster_Goes_to_Mars

I recently came across this meme. After researching, the original meme appears to be https://www.geeksandgamers.com/topic/star-trek-doctor-mccoy-memes/ in late 2020.

That leaves me with one question: Where is this frame of DeForest Kelley from? Looking through both my memories and a double-check in MemoryAlpha, I'm certain it's not from TOS. Is there someone here more familiar with DeForest Kelley's filmography or, alternatively, someone who actually has the time to start looking through DeForest Kelley films?

Are there any songs that didn't get a music video that you guys think deserved one?

Personally, I think of "We Want a Rock" from Flood, "Thunderbird" from The Spine, and "Brontosaurus" from BOOK.

Do any of you guys listen to the band Cheekface? I like them a decent amount (not as much as TMBG, though).

I've always found lyrically, they have some of the same vibes as They Might Be Giants (if a bit more consistently dark), the vocals somewhat remind me of the Johns (in that it wouldn't necessarily have mainstream appeal, yet makes the song better), but the music itself is a bit different. (Funny enough, they did a cover of Ana Ng, though I'd say it is only okay.)