Sure but he would handle rejection well and laugh it off. Riker, afaicr, respected signals and consent. He flirted with people who seemed open to it and was perfectly professional to those who weren’t. What makes flirting feel unsafe is the threat of men taking it badly if rejected.

Eh, he can have a temper, I know it doesn’t necessarily come up day to day but when he’s pissed he doesn’t always contain his anger. He’s safer than a lot of people but no he doesn’t make my top three. My runner up for top three male non-humans was actually Garak.

He’s charismatic and playfully flirty but receptive to signals and a good communicator. He wouldn’t do anything untoward without consent.

Ehhh debatable if Data is a “man”, and LaForge… well, he wouldn’t be on my list. My picks from TNG to share a turbolift would would be Picard, O’Brien and Riker. Picard would be either ruminating on some deep crisis or current drama and be quiet and majestic. O’Brien would be preoccupied and anxious about some project and trying to build up the courage to talk to the senior officers about it. Riker would be relaxed, polite and crack a joke that would make you chuckle.

If counting non-human male characters across ST, then Data, Odo and Spock.

Depo was great for me but it causes loss of bone density in the long term 😔 have you considered the implant?

Love the Expanse but it’d be a hard sell to the teacher considering how much violence and sex is in there. It’s not excessive for a book for adults but for YA? Torture, abuse, some of the intimacy scenes are more descriptive… again, love the series but I wouldn’t give it to a bunch of 14 year olds as required reading.

Haha yeah. So I think Murderbot and The Martian/Project Hail Mary would be solid choices, because they’re cinematic and entertaining. They have humor and a lot of action. Murderbot hides the vegetables well and brings up a capitalist dystopia, personhood, gender identity and the meaning of freedom in subtle and clever ways. I’d be surprised if a teenager who read All Systems Red didn’t ask for the sequel pretty soon after 😋

I kind of want to suggest Children of Time and the other Adrian Tchaikovsky books in that series. He’s very good at writing non-human intelligences and it stays relatively hard sci fi throughout the series. I just am not sure how much they would appeal to teens, I certainly would have liked them but I was very bookish. I really like the exploration of emergent cultures and technologies and the books all have a hopeful and optimistic turn to them.

Also seconding Andy Weir books, and Murderbot by Martha Wells.

I think, while it’s relatively clean as far as sex or violence goes, there’s some problematic elements that speak to the author’s “old fashionedness”. For one, the author seems to think that being possessive of a romantic partner to the point of violence is a heroic trait. On multiple occasions otherwise sympathetic characters clench their teeth or their fists at or even attack other male characters that show interest in their female partners. There’s also a conspicuous lack of queer characters. He does have a Bob finally identify as a “Bobby”, but it takes hundreds of generations and they’re used to illustrate just how much the iterations are drifting from the original, not to mention that they never actually show up in the books (yet). Every Bob is heterosexual. I don’t recall any gay or queer characters ever being mentioned in any of the books.

There’s also a suspicious undercurrent of genetic determinism. On multiple occasions characters are encountered with a very heavy implication that they are just born better and smarter and superior to their peers, and I find that kind of thought smells off to me. It reminds me too much of eugenics and people who believe in a master race or that certain classes are born to rule others.

They are fun reads and certainly enjoyable. As far as having teens read them, I would be concerned that they would absorb everything without being critical enough of the content. I think there are better, more inclusive choices that are more modern in their attitudes and cast of characters.

My dad likes to tell a story about a time he was riding on a subway car next to a shaggy looking guy with a laptop. My dad looked over and asked “oh, is that Linux?” and the guy replied “it’s GNU /Linux, actually” in a really snarky way. My dad snorted and said “who are you, Richard Stallman?” and he said “yes”.

We have solar panels, battery backup and a plug in hybrid car. It gets us just about anywhere locally we need to go without needing gas. We just got a 3d printer and I’m already thinking of dozens of things around the house I can fabricate now. We have a VR I can use to work out downstairs (beat saber!). Not to mention this cool miniature computer with internet access I can use anywhere I go.

Hoping to add a garden in the next year or so to grow herbs, fruits and veggies.

We did “Photography Model” for ours lol

I’ve been getting into having a pdf of the various manuals for things around the house on my phone. I recently consulted the manuals for my fridge, a new dehumidifier and the lawn mower and it was pretty awesome not having to find and dig out a paper booklet each time. My phone is on me all the time plus I can get rid of the paper copies.

Yes, the first one is goofy but it did the whole “what would an actually average person do with superhero powers” shtick before it was cool, and managed to make it funny and pretty sweet too.

Maybe I should give buckwheat a try, or shredded latex. I’m probably due for a change but lately I haven’t been able to afford any sleep disruption.

Most of mine came from a vendor called Pure Beech that was exclusive to Bed, Bath and Beyond. They are the 100% modal sateen that seems to have been a consumer favorite that doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. I have another set from Bedsure in their 100% bamboo that has a similar feel though.

I use down feather pillows, they are easily customizable but they can go “flat” and hard in the middle of the night. Putting your head down on a freshly fluffed one is utterly sublime, though.

I have fallen in love with bamboo rayon pillowcases, (aka modal, aka tencel, aka lyocell). They can be extremely soft and smooth like silk but are much hardier, so you can wash them like normal laundry.

I’ll give you that it’s been longer than I realized since the base game came out, however, Beyond Earth came out 10 years ago (2014) and Alpha Centauri was 25 years ago.

They need me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think one of the biggest issues with BE attempting to follow in AC’s footsteps is that the factions were not distinct, and it felt extremely generic. BE’s factions were all similar, played similarly, and all had the same options for development and could all take the same evolutions. In AC, not only were the faction leaders ideologies revealed in quotes in the tech tree and secret projects, it was inescapable in the game mechanics. The reason I feel Stellaris is a closer sibling is that it managed to mimic something of how it felt to be an idealogical leader attempting to make sure your values and your goals for the future were the ones that were supreme. BE was “civ in space”.