This is not a deep posting on science education. It is just a Friday commentary about some of my weird things.

I drive a manual transmission car. Here in the States. Not only that, but when I finally decided to look for a new car last year, as my trusty (manual) Toyota Matrix passed the 200k mile mark, I knew the main condition for the new car was to have a stick. As a result, my car shopping became very simple. I test drove TWO cars (a Subaru and a Jeep) and loved and chose the Subaru right away. Which makes me part of a dying species in the US. Quirky and eccentric. In fact, almost like part of a cult. Why? Not sure I can explain. Automatics just bore me. Driving a stick makes a commute interesting.

In 2011, as I was getting into more video and photography stuff, I went from PC to Mac. I clearly remember my trepidation when I started that MacBook Pro (the same I still have) up, and the joy when everything worked right away. I never looked back after that. The machine has worked all these years as a charm, of course with all kinds of upgrades, and refuses to fail. So I have no excuse yet for a new one. I also got into iPads, and love my current one with the Apple pencil. But. But. I refuse to get an iPhone. In fact, I am stubbornly committed to pure Android phones. Had the Nexus 5, then the Nexus 7, which sadly died on me. I am on the Pixel 3 now. Now, does it makes sense to have an Android phone when everything else is Apple? Probably not. I do know the reason here. “You cannot own me, and I do not want to commit to one system.”

At the end, probably it has to do with surviving in an ever-changing world. To be prepared. To be able to handle different systems and navigate diverse ecosystems. Few days back I was showing a powerpoint trick to my 20-year old research student, and he said “You are much more techie that I’d give you credit for.” Bless his heart, I actually felt quite proud. Of course old dogs know lots of tricks, right? But I think being non-conventional and yes, contrarian, can give one some advantages in life. More tricks to learn along the way. Happy weekend, y’all!