u/Katharine_Heartburn

As a bonafide car idiot, the first and often only things I notice about a car are the color and the general shape.

One thing that has made me sad as I look at possibly buying a new car is that color options have mostly dwindled to black, white, and silver, usually red (though sometimes at a pricier trim), and occasionally the saddest, dullest shade of blue imaginable, for those who are looking for something a little different but still hate colors in principle.

I've come to terms with this. I've considered wraps but concluded it's probably not worth it.

But one thing that still gets me is that, especially with the handful of practical specs I'm searching for, it's basically a guarantee that the interior will be either black or dark grey.

I live in a hot place where, for a few months out of the year, when you get in your car it actually feels like you can't breathe and you have to leave the door open while you start the car so you don't pass out before you get the windows rolled down. Not only that, but aesthetically, I just prefer a light color. It feels happier and roomier, and when I drop something on the floor I can find it using my eyeballs rather patting around blindly with one hand.

Car guys, reasonably, would I be able to have the interior color of a car changed from black to beige/tan for less than one billion dollars? Not just the seats, but the carpet, dashboard, console, etc.?

Hello internet, I just finished Half Man and I'm bursting with opinions and the desire to talk about it with someone, but no one I know has watched it yet. Mind if I vomit up my thoughts here?

• I think this show would have benefitted from more episodes to stretch out across. I keep seeing critic reviews expressing that the episodes are overlong, but I disagree; there are a few things I would have liked to see expanded or added:

1. more time with Niall and Ruben, both as boys and as grown men, when things were "good." The biggest missing element of their relationship was the highs that complement the lows in a toxic relationship. Each episode was the set up to, or the fallout from, some kind of bomb being dropped. I know that Ruben protected him at school - I would have liked to experience more of that part of the dynamic to better understand their weird "star crossed brothers" bond.

2. relatedly, I'd have liked to better understand what Ruben got out of the whole obsession. I get Niall's fascination with Ruben - but why was Ruben so reciprocally attached to Niall?

• Richard Gadd is an incredible actor. I almost can't believe he's the same guy as Baby Reindeer. (As an actor, not as the creator - that I can see!) Jamie Bell was perfect and arguably carried the entire work as he was in nearly every scene after the teenage hood episodes. But Gadd's ice blue eyes, red around edges and full of unknowable anger, is the image that sticks with me.

• Another through-line with Baby Reindeer: both shows, while having totally different characters and settings, explore a toxic relationship between two people with a similar pattern:

1. a "protagonist" through whose eyes we mainly see, who generally passes for normal but seems to lack an internal identity and routinely makes really fucked up choices

2. a character who is less of a person and more of a force, whose internality is either non-existent or just unknowable

• I've seen it said before and I'll add my voice: this show does "humans are morally grey" better than I can think of. Many shows and movies sanitize the bad so the character can be 3 dimensional but pretty neatly fall into the "good" bucket, or they'll soften a villain for a moment or two so you get some origin story. But rarely do you see good and bad coexist in characters so truthfully, and I don't just mean Niall and Ruben. Is Niall's mother a steady voice of reason, or does she consistently fail to protect him from his dangerous stepbrother? The answer is "yes."

• Would have liked to see how Joanna turned out.

• Ending: good. Love that little grunt.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

Country

US

Budget

$500

Are you open to refurbs/used options?

Yes to new refurbs / open box / display

No to used in general

Screen size

Open, probably at least 14"

Weight limit

Any, but light is nice obviously

Purpose

Work and personal use

Form factor

Standard/clamshell

Intended usage

Word processing, Excel, PowerPoint, potentially many browser tabs open at once, web-based Adobe, moderate document storage.

Would be good to also be able to run basic/simple audio and video editing software in future, ex. Audacity

Desired battery life

8 hours? Not a huge priority

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life

1. Performance

2. Weight

3. Battery life

4. Size

Info/Requirements

Interested in PCs/Windows, no Chromebook. Just need a reliable budget laptop for work that won't slow down if I have tons of tabs open or if my job introduces some clunky new software.

Bonus points if it comes in a color other than silver or black.

Thank you!