Commuting. I already drive an 18-wheeler for work. During the week, my “commute” is little more than climbing out of bed, throwing some clothes on, flopping into my driver’s seat and taking off (after performing a pre-trip inspection). Which, on its own, isn’t too bad, I guess. Sort of a blue-collar work-from-home arrangement.

But on Monday mornings and Friday nights, I have to get from my house, to the place where I actually park my truck, because the truck won’t fit in my neighborhood. And it’s against company policy for me to bring the truck home anyway.

That commute is anywhere from 40 minutes to over an hour, depending on traffic. And I have to take extra time to bring along whatever food and clothing I’ll need for the week, or the weekend, which is annoying in its own right.

There have been weekends where I just don’t go to my house, at all, just save that extra couple hours to relax instead. But I end up giving myself cabin fever doing that, so it’s a rare occurrence.

Capping off is a way to say conclusion. Like finishing off, wrapping up, things like that. Jitters are a kind of nervous feeling.

First time was happenstance, when I was 15. I was kinda nervous about starting high school the following week; the anxiety of doing so in a new town wasn’t helping anything. I was running errands with my mom one day, we’d capped off the afternoon by picking my sister up from marching band practice. She’d brought this other girl along, having offered her a ride home. I don’t really remember the specifics about the trip, just ‘ooh, meeting a new person, let’s start the “new place” jitters early’. I think this girl and my sister were chatting something vaguely along the lines of coming over for French horn lessons. I don’t remember the specifics.

Two years later though, I’d gotten into theatre. Day 1 of rehearsals for a play I was cast in, there she was again. The roles we were playing didn’t interact much on stage, so when I wasn’t playing my part, I got to spend a lot of time in the wings. Watching her, being enamored with her performance, gradually realizing I was catching feelings for her.

I made a move, eventually, we went out for a while, it was great while it lasted. But, ultimately, we made better friends than lovers. We’re still friends, or at least friendly, to this day though.

I live in an 18-wheeler for most of the week; I keep a mini-fridge behind my passenger seat. It’s mostly there for drinks, but I save some shelf space for sandwich supplies. Deli meats, cheeses, etc., plus some occasional treats in the freezer. I generally just slap a sandwich together, maybe pop it in the toaster oven for a bit, and then I’m off again.

My microwave gets some occasional action, and every now and then I’ll use my coffee maker to boil some ramen. I’m also thinking about hooking up a crockpot for this winter, have soups or stews going while I’m driving all day. Just depends on what food I bring onto the truck; convenience store and vending machine prices hurt my wallet, so I try to stay away from those.

I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s heard Scotty Doesn’t Know by Lustra, who has also seen Eurotrip.

John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War book series. Apparently it’s been optioned for 15+ years now, but nobody’s actually gotten around to making the damned thing yet.

Eh, gasoline going bad isn’t quite the on-off switch a lot of the show’s critics think it is. I’ve personally revived cars with years-old gas in the tanks before - sure, they run like shit, but they can still be driven, in an emergency anyway. Or post-apocalypse.

Personally, what grinds my gears, is every abandoned car’s battery still having enough juice to start the engine. Nobody ever needs a jump start.

Although, timeline-wise, most of the show takes place over the course of less than two years. It’s not until the middle of season 9, the third-to-last season, that there’s a time skip of more than a few months.

The missile knows where it is, at all times. It knows this, because it knows where it isn’t.

I think that might’ve been a shout-out to Mork and Mindy; Robin Williams’s character says that in the title sequence, after banging his head on the side of his spaceship.

These days, I hear the line “it’s just people driving in circles” from F1 fans dumping on NASCAR, more than anything else.

But like, any sport sounds boring when you just break it down like that. Baseball, basketball, either kind of football, they’re all about a bunch of dudes just moving a ball around.

It’s far beyond the posted speed limit anywhere in America, which is where this cop was riding his bike.

Highest posted speed limit in this country is 85mph, on a small stretch of toll road in Texas. Which converts to a “mere” 137kph. We don’t have un-restricted highways here.

I enjoy the show, it’s a good comfort-watch. Being an avid Mythbusters fan too, though, sometimes it’s hard for me to look past all the stuff that they’ve proven to not be possible. But I chalk it up to artistic license and have a good time anyway.

I love the Belter creole cover used in The Expanse

Bellbottoms - The John Spencer Blues Explosion.

If not that, then pretty much any eurobeat song. I’ve got a special playlist.

I’d say it counts, those two in the Pinto definitely bought it when their car hit the ground from hundreds of feet in the air.

Project Zomboid and The Long Walk. I feel like the crossover would be pretty seamless. The contest could be played, the movie could be re-enacted on a multiplayer server, with a couple of mods that already exist currently.

Whenever my grandmother talks about United Parcel Service, she always says “ups”, one syllable, instead of U-P-S like most people do.

Lately though, whenever she gets a package that arrives damaged, she calls them “Oops”.

Whenever I’d encounter 18-wheelers out on the road, everyone has the usual jokes about Swift. Sure Wish I’d Finished Training, Stevie Wonder’s Institute For Trucking, etc. but there’s jokes for every large trucking company.

TMC: Turtles Moving Cargo

Prime Inc: Please Remember, I’m Missouri Educated

CRST: Crash 'n Roll Stunt Team

U.S. Express becomes Useless Express in my head. The list goes on.

Humans were telling stories to each other orally, way before they’d ever started writing those stories down. If you ask me, audiobooks are just an extension of that history. That doesn’t mean I think audiobooks are a superior format for reading, but it’s not an inferior one either.

As far as audiobooks go, this isn’t really much of a thing anymore, but the only important caveat I’d make is abridged books versus the whole thing. If you want to read a story, read the whole damn story. But that’s just equivalent to skimming through or looking up cliff notes for a hard copy.

Sim racing.

I’m a major gearhead, I’ve always loved cars, driving, in pretty much any form it comes in. Especially racing. I follow, or I’ve at least watched/heard of basically every form of motorsport on the planet. Getting to do it in real life has been a dream of mine, but that requires a lot of time and money I simply don’t have.

For the cost of a beat-up Miata and a set of summer tires, my sim rig PC lets me (virtually) drive any car, on any track, at any time. And not just cars; trucks, planes, pretty much anything. There’s also the added benefits of not having to pay for car repairs or hospital bills whenever I virtually crash.

Sure, it’s still not the same as the real thing, but with all the hardware and peripherals at my disposal, I can get pretty damn close.

NASCAR driver Josh Wise.

Cringy as it is to think about now, I was swept up in all the DogeCar hype back in 2014. Made sure to pre-order a die cast as soon as I could, and the driver signed it for me later, at an unrelated race.

Also, Skweezy Jibbs. He signed my brother’s pants at a movie theater a few weeks ago, and then my brother gifted me the pants.