The All of Trek Project

Star Trek pops up a few times on my TV bucket list -- and, uh, once on my films list. But completely apart from the Star Trek franchise's status as a television milestone and a cultural force, Star Trek became near and dear to me first because my dad loved it.

Dad starting watching Trek, like a lot of kids in the sixties and seventies, via reruns. He joined the computer club at school because of it -- and promptly dropped out again. Turns out computers in the 70s just meant lots and lots of punch cards. But he kept watching the reruns on into college. According to Mom, he used to catch it every day at the student center, and every time he'd say, "I don't think I've seen this one!" -- and then five minutes later, "Oh, I've seen this one."

Mysterious scientist alone on a planet full of styrofoam rocks? I don't think I've seen this one!
(Also, Nurse Chapel -- thank goodness for artful shadows, eh?)

Whole30 Wrap-up

I did it! I finished the Whole30! And I didn't cheat even ... well, not above half a dozen times, at least. So how was it?

Dear Guy on the Internet Who Would Totally Date Me If I Started Working Out*

Hahahahahahahahahahaha ....

Oh. Oh, you're serious. You're really proposing that I might want to change my lifestyle to win the approval of you, a person I literally have never met. Well, this is awkward. You see, the thing is --

Whole30 Week 2 1/2: I Have to Keep Doing This How Long?

Tomato soup with sauteed shrimp and fresh basil -- and no baguette

The first few weeks of any new self-discipline are always a perverse sort of fun. You're just so proud of yourself for jogging/cutting caffeine/giving up cigarettes -- the deprivation, the self-denial. You're just such a good person. You're a frickin' hero. You are doing this.

And then the boredom sets in. You are doing this ... and you have to keep doing this forever. Uuuuuuuuuuuugggghhhh. It's like getting to the end of a great two-week vacation and being informed that no, you can't go home, you have to keep on vacationing. Forever. And this hotel is lovely but man, what you wouldn't give for a night in your own bed.

That's how I feel about Whole30 at this point.

Whole30 Week One

You guys, I'm kind of disappointed. I feel ... fine.

Tender Greens tuna salad Niçoise with spring lettuce, olives, capers, tomatoes, fingerling potatoes, quail eggs and seared tuna steak with a sherry vinaigrette

Off Topic: In Which Getting Gas Proves Surprisingly Herculean and I Ponder Divine Intervention a Little

I just had the longest gas station visit ever. Longer than the time I filled up my dad's F-450, which holds approximately one million gallons of diesel gasoline. Longer than the time some Chinese friends were taking me somewhere, possibly dinner, and pulled into a gas station en route, but waited to get out of the car until they had a rapid-fire conversation in which the only English words, repeated several times each, were "gas" and "petrol." (I eventually interrupted with the answer to the question I couldn't technically understand they were asking.) Today I spent at least 45 minutes at the Arco on Washington and La Cienega (you know the one) and came away with just under four gallons of gas, a somewhat cleaner car, and a real appreciation for the evenness of my temper. Truly I am a paragon of patience. But that's not the interesting part.

Micro Challenge: The Whole30 Diet

All diet posts should be required to feature at least a three-quarters shot. Let's know what we're really talking about here, am I right? The grenade launcher, as always, is just a bonus.

Real talk: not everything worth do is really worthy of being on a bucket list. I have never dreamed of going on a particular fad diet before I die, know what I mean? (Making out with a cowboy, on the other hand—there might have been a dream …) So I figure once in a while I’ll do what I’ll call a micro-challenge: not a bucket list item, exactly, but not a day at the beach, either. I’m envisioning a combination of hare-brained schemes I concoct on my own and the occasional recommendation (or, probably, flat-out dares) from friends. Today’s micro-challenge is pretty much the latter.