Just under six hours to go to 2024 on the US Pacific coast and we're about to sit down to dinner. Later I will watch 2001: A Space Odyssey again as I've done ritually almost every New Year's Eve since the early 1970s. :nerd:

Your traditions are as exciting as ours. The sequel was OK too.

When I'd seen 2010 in theatrical release back in the 80s I thought it was okay too but rewatching it again several years ago I really didn't like it. Same with A.C. Clarke's three sequel novels – for me, they diminished, or cheapened, the original. With few exceptions, I tend not to like sequels (or series) in any medium though.

How was your TNG marathon? How many episodes did you watch? Which season/s? I'm a diehard TOS trekkie so for me "canon" ends with the Star Trek: The Animated Series (though I do enjoy rewatching the movies ST II & ST VI). While my nephews were growing up in the early 2000s, I'd watched quite a few episodes of TNG (& DS9) with them. They were huge Patrick Stewart fans from his role in the X-Men movies and I suspect that somehow lead them to TNG. Well I remain stuck in the 60s era of the franchise; must be childhood nostalgia from watching all those "reruns". :nerd: \\//_ "LLAP"

On January 1 (yesterday?) I cooked a shin of veal for myself and three others. The previous night we went out at 01:30 to see some fireworks and get some free vodka and mulled wine. By that time I had had several beers, two Irish whiskies, a bottle of Georgian wine, two Baileyses…

Today I cooked again. Slow-cooked pork ribs with buckwheat and onions. More Georgian wine, also Cava and Belgian beer.

We're having a STNG marathon — Vera Mont

I watched that a lot when I was a youngster, and would happily watch it again right now. Yesterday we watched Ivan Vasilievich Changes His Profession, an SF comedy film from 1973 in which Ivan the Terrible is transported by means of a time machine to a 1970s Moscow apartment block, and hilarity ensues.

It's getting down below minus 20 Celsius tonight, so the dog will be sleeping indoors. He’s made for winter, but not for sub-minus-20 temperatures.

The previous night we went out at 01:30 to see some fireworks and get some free vodka and mulled wine. By that time I had had several beers, two Irish whiskies, a bottle of Georgian wine, two Baileyses… — Jamal

Your constitution is formidable!