The Martian (5 pts): How to Stay Positive While Stranded on Mars

     For a guy stranded on Mars with no hope of escape for 4 years, Mark Watney has quite a sense of humor about it.

    You'd think that a guy separated from his entire crew and stuck on a planet that is NOT Earth would be freaking out. To which I say, yeah he most certainly is. But this man is SMART. Like, really really smart. So smart that he manages to convert the HAB into a self-sufficient potato farm, converts ROCKET FUEL into FREAKING WATER, and devises a system to communicate with NASA with ASCII written on sample cards. And he does all this while staying optimistic through his humor.

    I am not normally a "laugh out loud" person unless I'm watching TV or a movie, but Mark Watney made me chuckle on several occasions. His complaints about Commander Lewis' music and TV tastes are so funny to me because of how dangerous his situation is. He could die at literally any second with one mishap, and yet he finds the time to complain about stupid stuff such as awful cheesy 70s TV and disco. Just goes to show that first world problems transcend planetary location.

    What really got me were Watney's communications with both NASA and the Hermes crew. He finally established contact with Earth (aka OTHER HUMANS) through a patch to the rover, and what does he say? Basically, it boils down to "hi mom", "what the f*ck is wrong with you, why didn't you tell my crew I'm alive", and "hehe boobs". Truly, a man of culture and finesse. As for his communications with Hermes, it was "I slept with your mom", and "Mars is boring". His cheerful and snarky disposition definitely helped him survive with only potatoes and his intelligence.

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