The vessel was very large and could not make tight turns

Can we extend them the same courtesies we were extended?

The "first date" in any potential romantic relationship holds a lot of outsized sway over how things unfold or don't unfold with the thing. There could be two people who would be a great match for each other, but one or both of them do something uncharacteristically different from their regular selves, and this throws the other person off, and things never continue from there. Alternately there could be a couple who will ultimately be a horrible match with each other, yet who manage to stumble into enough things which are not the "real" them but which happen to impress the other person.

Given the luck and risks here, there's a lot to be said for being bold and hoping for the best. You want to bet on yourself and keep it real or whatever, and just hope that your special someone appreciates the real you for you. On the other hand, there's also a lot to be said for playing it cool and trying to appear like a statistically acceptable person in the initial stages, and then waiting a little while to fully expose your interest in whatever sort of bizarre jacked up trivia and games you're really into.

I've used this example before, but a good case study in this is how my own wife tricked me into dating her by hiding her fan-ship for the TV show "Friends" from me for years. If she had started gushing about how cute that monkey was instead of talking about software project management at first, it's hard to believe things would have lasted.

I think a really bold power move on a first date would be to meet at a public place like a park or something, but then within just a few minutes be like "do you want to come back to my place to have some soylent?" You're really pushing lots of boundaries with that question. Inviting someone to your place so quickly is pretty courageous on it's own, but then you add in the idea that you'll be serving them Soylent, and it's just downright crazy. It would presumably be really easy to disguise a "when you drink this potion it freezes your body and I keep you in my closet now" potion as Soylent, so you're really asking your potential man- or lady-friend here to extend quite a bit of trust in you very soon.

You've put a very high stakes decision in front of them right off the bat.

I like those videos where they launch a massive ship sideways into the water

In these online times we live in our social media features a lot of "Why isn't anyone talking about,...?" or "why aren't we talking more about..." sort of calls to action. I disagree with the embedded premises here:

- There is an overarching premise that the writer of the tweet or post here has their finger on the pulse of what people are talking about. This is probably not true. They are probably in an echo chamber and not fully informed as to what anyone is or is not talking about.
- Their call to talk more about a thing is more a form of in-group signaling (to show like minded people that they too believe a thing is of concern) and less a genuine call to have more discussion about a thing.
- There is an implicit premise that "talking about" -- and specifically, talking about on social media -- some thing or other is going to meaningfully alter whatever that thing is, when really it's probably just wasting everyone's time.
- There's an assumption in "we", that the writer and any readers are probably on the same side of the thing (which might be true, but if it's true the call to action is made more pointless).
- There's a further assumption beyond being on the same side, that the thing is in fact worth spending any time discussing or doing things about.

It's already winter and I forgot to clean out my gutters

I've been led to believe that in the world of drug trafficking there are cute names for where "products" are "sourced". For example, "Bolivian shale" might refer to cocaine from Bolivia (note that Bolivia apparently has a shale oil industry, so that must be confusing). Similarly "Peruvian Flake" would refer to cocaine from Peru. A quick internet search reveals that there are dozens of nicknames based on the geography of where the drug people are getting their drugs from.

I think a fun game would be to make up nicknames for pretend drugs and try to order them from drug sellers. I bet a good number of them would assume you were asking for a legit product where they just weren't aware of the name yet, and they'd have to be like "Uh, yeah, we definitely have that, let me get back to my guy and I'll hook you up" and then they'd just never be able to face you again out of embarrassment.

Check in to the booth and max out your points

Sometimes when you meet someone with an atypical or seemingly made up (note: all names are technically made up) baby name you realize that you are dealing with an insane person and that they are probably going to raise an insane child. For example, I bet someone met the family behind that "Balloon Boy" hoax (the boy was named Falcon) in the mid 2000s and thought "yes, these people are insane" and then felt incredibly redeemed and like they had solid forethought when they turned out to be right. Other times you encounter a seemingly made up name and find out that it's like a legacy family name from way back when and the parents have repurposed what started as a last name into a new first name or middle name for their baby. This is totally fine and you don't need my permission to keep doing it.

I think it would be fun to give your baby a crazy name and when people ask you about it you could tell them it's actually an old family name, but the joke would be on them because it would actually just be some crazy word you made up and not an old family name. That way you'd have given your kid a crazy name but other parents might not realize you were actually crazy for having done that. Good stuff.

Millions of people are literally just hanging out in their houses all day

Here's a satisfying activity to brighten up your day a bit -- try throwing something from one of your hands to the other hand when it wasn't really necessary to do that. Let's say you're unloading your dishwasher and you've got a big spoon in there. Grab that thing with your right hand, pick it up, start to move it out, then as graciously and purposefully and confidently as you can, toss that thing right on over to your left hand before you put it back in the drawer. Really adds some OOMPH to the act.