Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

So, a year ago, at the TMP showing (as I've said a MILLION times since), I had a few minutes with Doug Drexler, Michael Okuda and Dave Blass. Filming had just finished on Picard Season 3 and they all really pushed that Season 3 of Picard was going to be "something special."

It absolutely was.

Without spoiling anything, I want to say that Season 3 is not just what I wanted out of the Picard series to begin with, but the new era of Trek in General. Discovery and Season 1 and 2 of Picard all felt only vaguely connected to the Star Trek Universe. The trappings were theyre, but they felt like square pegs in round holes. Discovery eventually found its footing launching itself into the future.

Strange New Worlds and even Lower Decks, however, do what Picard Season 3 finally did: Allowed themselves to be their own thing, but still deep in the tapestry of Star Trek.

This was absolutely something special. And I hope the future of Trek is this future. Where we aren't trapped in what came before, and we're not ignoring what came before, but that we use the universe to inform the new stories that are coming.

Great job, y'all. Great job.

So, I just watched the last episode of Picard. Biggest takeaway: Chateau Picard has just been bottled Changeleing since Jean-Luc took over. No wonder they're pissed off at him.

Alright, I've relegated pretty much everything but the PS5, Wii U and Switch to "Museum" status. I moved all my DSi games off the New Nintendo 3DS XL, and put them on the Nintendo DSi XL, and copied all my Wii games off the Wii U back to the Wii. So they're on the original hardware they were designed for.

My original Nintendo 3DS still has all the DSi and 3DS games on it, since it's also my video card modded machine, and I can use that for streaming.

And now they're all just display pieces for now....

I just made some amazing fried chicken in a completely different way than I normally do.

Basically, threw some chicken thighs into a bowl, and added ten of the Colonel's eleven herbs and spices (I was out of celery salt), an egg and Tapatio sauce for some heat. Mixed it all up so it got all over the chicken.

Then I added flour by the quarter cupful, mixed it up, and did it again until the chicken was white with flour. Deep fried it up and OH MY THAT'S GOOD. Lot less wasted flour, too.

Woke up this morning with the idea for chicken flavored butter, and if that's not a thing that exists, I need to get to the patent office ASAP.

Think I'm gonna remake the struan bread. I'd rather get the basics of breakmaking down right, before jumping into something that's a bit more complicated than your average loaf (not that struan is simple....)

Oh, I'm so looking forward to this. "Strange New Worlds" was such a great riff on TOS in this new era of Trek, while managing to keep to the spirit of the 60s show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjWBj9CGgGI

Just left a voice mail to create a doctor's appointment. I finished off with my usual "Again, that phone number is xxx-xxxx. Hope to hear from you soon!" and hung up....

Then under my breath: "I'VE MADE MY PEACE GESTURE! THE FORMS OF KANLY HAVE BEEN OBEYED!"

Unpopular Trek Opinion:

So, the Section 31 movie is coming out. I love love LOVE Michelle Yeoh, both as Mirror Universe Georgiou and Prime Universe Georgiou...but I've never ever liked the idea of Section 31.

While the idea of a "We do the dirty things that keep the happy things safe" makes sense, it's always felt like such a "Not Federation" idea all the way back to their debut in DS9. Also, for the secret organization they were protrayed as in DS9 and Enterprise, they've sure broadcasted their existence loudly in the new era series.

I'm kind of glad this is going to be a movie, because I genuinely debated wether I'd watch a Section 31 TV Series. I'm more likely to watch a one-off movie.

So, a few days ago, on my "carb cheat day" I was craving some spaghetti, and I had some, but no sauce. To-go pasta is just too expensive, and if I wasn't going to pay for spaghetti, I was kinda wondering if I could skip buying the sauce.

I have some tomato puree and tomato sauce and tomato paste. I cook pretty good now, why not make a spaghetti sauce from scratch.

HOLY COW THAT WAS SO SO SO EASY. On top of that, I find spaghetti sauce usually far too sweet and salt it up, I could salt it as I made it, and it was perfect.

No measurements cause I was just kinda making it to taste, but all I did was take the tomato puree, but it on medium high heat, add some oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and salt and pepper. I let it reduce for a bit while I was making the spaghetti.

At the end, I took the spaghetti, put it directly in the sauce and let it sit a few minutes, before dumping into a plate. Perfect, and burned off some leftover ingredients that I rarely use to begin with.

It's snowing again....

Some of the last things I ordered before the layoff are starting to trickle in. Ironically, as a reward for deciding to stick with Tableau and continue my lease.

THAT WENT WELL.

Movie Hot Rod finally came in. I normally don't buy doubles of toys, but the current "Transformers Retro" line is reissuing some of the toys I didn't have in 84-86, and some I did, but in the animation colors.

What's funny is, I didn't like putting all the stickers on the toys back in the 80s, because I wanted them to look more like the animation models as it is, so I began picking up the reissues.

When I get back to cooking all fancy again, I plan to make Lasagna da Fornel. Sweet dessert lasagna:

https://www.italymagazine.com/recipe/fruit-and-nut-christmas-eve-lasagna-lasagne-da-fornel

"He slimed me. I feel so funky."