I play a lot of airsoft. That alone isn't very useful in day-to-day life, except for cardio.
But I own eleven airsoft guns. Mostly pistols.
Airsoft, combined with my love for the Payday games and John Wick movies, is also the only reason why I own any three-piece suits.
I like to have a special car for every occasion. Twisty backroads, or a track day? Roadster. Long highway cruise, or maybe moving some bulky stuff? I have a hearse, which sits on an '80s Cadillac limo chassis. Aside from commutes, I only drive my daily on the rare occasion I have more than one passenger.
If I ever get a third "fun" car, it'll probably something like a Jeep for off-roading.
That's what spices and seasonings are meant to alleviate.
The giveaways haven't completely stopped, but they don't make up every third/fourth review anymore. I think they only did two this entire year. And they've hardly ever pushed them when they did happen.
But yeah, I didn't enjoy them either. Could've been better executed, at least.
Regular Car Reviews definitely peaked long ago.
They've largely stuck to the same formula for the past decade-plus, hiding masters-level literary theory, and copious amounts of toilet humor, under the guise of automotive journalism. And there's nothing wrong with sticking to the tried-and-true.
I still enjoy their videos, I make sure to watch them every Monday morning like clockwork. But they just don't hit the same anymore. There's not much that's memorable about their commentary these days, unless the vehicle in question is unusual on its own, like the shuttle bus RV conversion they reviewed... four months ago. I had to scroll past a bunch of videos for cars I honestly forgot they'd reviewed, when I checked their channel just now.
I miss the anger. I miss the passion that resulted from it. Brian's acknowledged this, and he's mentioned how he's just generally calmer and happier these days. And there's nothing wrong with that. I admit to souring a bit to all the giveaway cars he'd review/advertise... especially how you'd enter these giveaways by paying FIFTY dollars, pre-shipping, for a crappy camping mug, with a vaguely car-culture-related picture on it. But not an RCR mug. And I respect him for having (largely) stopped doing those giveaways.
But, like, the last video of RCR's that has actually stuck in my mind, was when they absolutely ripped into an Oldsmobile Bravada. And that came out nearly 5 years ago.
I will say the second book, The Dark Forest, is much better, but I'd read it several years ago and I haven't come back to it recently.
Whenever I recommend it to people, I just give them a quick synopsis of the first book and that's seemed to be sufficient for them.
The book's first puzzle is solved by Wade playing the arcade game Joust against a bot. Then when he wins, he's dropped into the movie WarGames, replacing Matthew Broderick's character, and he has to act out every scene to progress.
Seriously, that's it.
Usually I go for something the crowd can get into, that I can also use to show off. Usually something by Queen.
My favorite go-to though, that I sing just for me, is One More Minute by Weird Al Yankovic.
Somebody to Love is my Queen go-to.
Quantum Leap. Oh boy.
This sprint could've been an email.
My housemates have an odd mix of nicknames for their cats. One of them has a shortened name, two of them tend to get extra syllables added to their names, and the last one, Goku, is just Goku.
I usually can't keep all their names straight, so when one of them bugs me, I tend to just point at it and say "...cat".