Responsibility

     We all have responsibilities in this house. For instance, Tango is responsible for taking out the trash-taking the bag from the kitchen trash up to the main trash can.


     This is where you are saying "hold on there- a 65 gram bird can't carry a 13 gallon trash bag..." and you would be correct. I help with the heavy lifting part of that. He just supervises. It's still his job tho, and no one can take it from him.

     This morning, we had the following conversation:

• Me: Tango, we have a mission. This trash needs to go up. And there is only one bird I trust to help with this

• Tango: Yeah!

• Me: Tango, is that bird you?

• Tango: Yeah.

Happy Holidays 2015

     Merry Christmas to one and all, and a happy holiday season- may 2016 bring great things to us all.

Fan Theory

     I've been watching Once Upon a Time since season 1, through all it's twists and turns and mythology-building. I have been a fan of the way it takes old and new Disney works, gives them a good dusting, and lights them in new and exciting ways. It shines new light on old villains and lets us see them...human. In season 5, we got the Sword in the Stone crossed with Brave.

     So season 6, it's time to go further, and bolder.

     Friends and readers, I submit my candidate for the season 6 opening.

     First, the foreshadowing setup from the end of season 5. As Emma is changing out the battery on her volkswagen, she comes across a picture she hasn't seen before. It's a family, father, mother, 2 daughters, on a beach. The father is playing a ukulele. From the bushes, a silhouette views her. We see an enlarged head, large, sensitive ears. Just before the scene goes black for the season we see... antennae...?

   For season 6, the opening logo is...

   OHANA is coming

 I'm not going to reveal any major plot points except to tease that after the mid-season break is the two night crossover:

remember that you heard it here first, true believer. EXCELSIOR!

Hounded to the Edge

     the TF Wiki says this about Hound

Hound wishes he were human. The dark, barren metalscapes of Cybertron no longer interest him. Now that Hound has been shipwrecked on Earth, he considers this planet his home. He sees humankind as beautiful and wishes he could interact with their ecosphere the same way they do, to feel what they feel and to see what they see.
He treasures his job as an Autobot scout, making good use of his ability to project holograms for added disguise. He uses this opportunity to explore the breathtaking caverns and mountainous expanses that Earth provides. He's a meek, benevolent soul, even compared to his fellow Autobots. He gets along with the more blood-thirsty of their ranks but not the most blood-thirsty of their ranks.
His nicknames are Sarge, Nose, and Sniffer.

     Hound was cool on the original show. He was one of the first autobots to appear in the first episode, trying to be the voice of reason and stop Cliffjumper from an ill conceived attempt to snuff Megatrons Spark. Hound had the ability to project holograms, which saved himself, Gears, Ratchet and Ironhide in Fire in the Sky

     I had, and still have, G1 hound, in complete condition. He is surprisingly innovative.

This post is not about him. it is about the updates that have come since.

Classics and Bayverse

Almost looks like a warthog from Halo. Or possibly a Puma

He may be a wicked warrior robot, or a fat ballerina who takes scalps and slits throats
or just a Goodman

What the...? Cap, did you just photobomb my
Hound Shoot???
 



Anyway... I just got Maketoys Gundog- the Toy colored version. Man he's good- very intricate, has some serious weight to him. Very G1

Very very G1

Behind the Toys-The Tales we Keep

     As I mentioned in my post about the Bloggess-Sometimes we value things for the stories behind them. A cool Collectible is cooler because of the story that goes with it- it gives Context, Meaning, and History- it's the archaeology of our collections, and even our lives. We are more than mere flesh, for we are a living history and a series of unique experiences, subjective to ourselves.

     There is a commercial out for Star Wars Battlefront on Playstation, where the man starts the Commercial holding an ancient and very battered Kenner R2D2 toy, and remembering Lightsaber fights with flashlights...

     I try to express the context of what my toys mean to me. Like Tracks, UltraMagnus, Summanus, Superion, Bumblebee, Jetfire, Swoop, Blitzwing, Skids, Jetwing Optimus, even TV and Movie Cars

     I think in the coming months, I am going to focus even more on that- on the stories that make up who I am and why I think that crazy shit. On De-Mythifying Mr Smith. Because we all have those stories- and if I tell mine, maybe you will remember yours.


     I have a tank- Hailstorm- not a toy I would have bought myself, but it's the one my Dad picked for me the year he bought transformers for the "boys" (who were all grown-ass men). I Have Windcharger -Special because I really really wanted the figure, which was rare, and I found it at Ross for $5. You have things like this too. It may be a lucky shirt, a wallet, a watch. But it has a value of history to you that is priceless.

Gamble Armies

     Just an odd term I conjured in a dream. The me I was in the dream was told not to bring/add to his "gamble armies" referring to gaming miniatures or tokens. I woke from this dream with the memoriy of this phrase and searched it... nothing. Looks like it was original recipe me. The usage was something like "don't bring your little gamble armies over here".

 

 

     Dreams are fascinating, how we interpret the random stuff in our minds into little snippets or in some cases glorious, serial mythologies. I have visited, and revisited on different nights places in dreams that I recognize but know that they do not exist in the waking world.

 

     I once had a series of dreams where I was unearthing things I had buried because we were moving and I didn't want them found by anyone else. I would have the dream, a few nights later, the same one, or a continuation.

 

     There are relaxed, simple dreams, fighting dreams, running dreams, running dreams that turn into fighting dreams, sexy dreams, frustration dreams, freak-me-the-hell-out dreams...

 

 

     Oh, and work dreams... not a fan. I work hard all day, assisting people. I like it, but that doesn't mean I necessarily want to encounter the same problems when I am catching some Z's. I can say that at least one insoluble issue from the day before I woke up with a working solution.

 

     I guess I will bring my damn gamble armies anywhere I darn well please.

 

 

 

Bird-Day #4

     Round these here parts, we consider Tango's hatching day to be November 27th. This would make yesterday Tango's fourth birthday.

     He got to eat dinner with Daddy last night, and many things were revealed- mainly that I have been feeding him completely wrong for the last four years. He looked up at me with huge eyes that said "WOW! You finally managed to feed me the Potatoes Au Gratin that my kind eats in the wild! Thank you! This is even better than the Yam from yesterday!"

     In honor of that- here are some more of my Little Known Fictitious Facts.

•      Gold Capped Conures in the wild weave platforms out of branches that they can stand on and watch around them. What I call Cappy's "Drawbridge" serves this purpose here. 
•      The Wild range of Green Cheeked Conures is plentiful with naturally-occurring potatoes au gratin, multicolored round gourds with rattling metal seeds inside to chase and springs of gatorade to drink from. 
•      The deadly Black Ceramic Heater Asp is a terrible predator that Gold Capped Conures are incredibly watchful of. 
•      Sam will be blamed if I put something resembling this predator in the room, because Cappy loves me, so clearly I had to have been pushed into it. (this is actually a fact-he gave Sam the stink-eye all evening)
•      Under the Special Laws that govern the behavior of Gold Capped Conures, no matter what doors you open for them first thing in the morning they can only exit the cage via the food cup door. (Conure regulation 547a subparagraph 12/j)

This Plastic ball resembles the Wild Jingle-Gourd

the Drawbridge of Sir Cappy

the Black Ceramic Heater Asp is the most venemous variety

    And here is a shot from archery Wednesday- I had fun

Protecting the world from the Foam Zombie Hoard

Black Friday 2015

     This year I went 100% online, no plans to go to stores- I wanted 4 things:

1. Supernatural, Season 10
2. Arrow, Season 3
3. Longmire, Season 3
4. Flash, Season 1

     Thursday morning: I'm online with my tablet, and on bestbuy.com. The first three items are instock, and ordered- Flash is out of stock online. I buy what I can and ship it:

1. Supernatural, Season 10
2. Arrow, Season 3
3. Longmire, Season 3

     Thursday morning (later) in into Friday morning. I go from being philosophical to fretting. I check bestbuy multiple times- it never shows up available online.

     Friday morning, just before 8 AM- The Flash shows available for store pickup. I order it, along with Kingsman, and Days of Future Past

 

     Conclusion-

BEST BUY! You have NOT Failed this City!

In Gratitude

     Ingratitude...in gratitude. A very significant space between words. One that makes a world of difference. A universe of difference, nay, a multiverse. 

 

 

      I'm thankful for my flock, Tango, Cappy, Wallace. I'm thankful for Sam's flock, Sidney, Ichabob, Gingko, Ruby. I'm thankful Sam is still in my life. I'm thankful for the family members I have a lot of interaction with, and the others who pay less attention. I'm thankful for old friends and new. I'm thankful that I am more in communication with my daughter. I'm thankful for good neighbors who help each other out.

 

 

     I'm thankful for the things I enjoy, my collections, my archery, my old shows and new ones, the old books I remember and the new ones I get to experience for the first time.

     I'm thankful I have a job, a mostly reliable if eccentric car, a roof overhead and a floor underfoot. I'm thankful for great inspiration, a wide world of crazy shit on the internets. I'm thankful I have food to eat

 

     I'm thankful for the health I have, the pills that help to keep it where it is, and the pills I don't have to take anymore. And the pills I have never had to take.

 

     I'm thankful for you. You read my post, maybe some others. Maybe you smiled, maybe you nodded. Maybe you thought about what you are thankful for. But you shared a little of your time today with me.

 

     Thanks to all who made me and what I love.

Bird Calls

     It is a little known fact that the call of the Gold Capped Conure can be heard for hundreds of miles when I am on the phone with my Sister on the western slope or my daughter in California.

I admit that the phone helps carry the call that distance.

But Cappy is still really proud of his range. 

Represent, Cappy, Represent. 

New Hashtag for the Blog

     I will be adding a new Hashtag, starting with this post, but added retroactively where called for- that is the Hashtag for Little Known Fictional Facts (that I made up).

     To Commemorate this, I would like to inform you that Deer mice are the cause of all my car's problems.

    you have seen me, from time to time, report on the eccentricities of my 20+ year old Civic. The tail lights, the trick speedometer, all of it can be attributed to Deer mice.

     Deer mice are hard to tell from regular field mice in the fall. The fall is also the time when they are most active, and most able to get into smaller spaces because this is when they shed their antlers. In the spring, you will hear the tiny thumps as deer mice butt heads with each other, vying to impress the doe mice, but in the fall, they settle down and make a lot of noise in my walls at night. Probably yours too.

     Anyway- so if I have my Ficts (fictional facts) correct, they are also known to carry an illness known as Hondavirus, which I believe is what is affecting my car.

     More seriously, we have been dealing with occasional mice in this older house since about January, and have tried no-kill traps, spring traps, repellents, improvised traps, and finally glue traps. I hate glue traps, I hate killing anything. But I hate mice in Tango's cage far more. If anyone has a good, reliable, merciful de-mousing solution I have not tried, please Comment it below, and I will give it a shot.

The Tracks of the Years

    Full Disclosure- he's going to gripe about lost toys again- Tango

     As the bird said- yes I am, but hopefully for nearly the last time. Back in the 1980s, there were two toys I really really searched for. One was Optimus Prime, found finally at an Osco drug of all places. The other was Tracks- searched for, and finally located by my then-Brother-In-Law Doug where he worked, at Service Merchandise.

     Tracks was a bit of a quandary for me- he was not a particularly likable character, being narcissistic and conceited, and very obsessed with his appearance and finish. but he had a showcase episode, and man, did he look cool.

so I had Tracks, and still have his gun and missiles.

and over the years, I have tried to replace him.

     There was Alternators Tracks. The Alternators were innovative for their time, and taught the Takara and Hasbro engineers a lot. but he's... flat. Horribly and unforgivably flat. And no flamey design on the hood. and awkward. For being fully articulated, a lot of him gets in the way of a lot more of him when it comes to movement

     The next tracks to come my way was Reveal-The-Shield Turbo Tracks- Hasbro has needed to make some of the more general names more specific, so they add and "Autobot" here, a "Turbo" there, a "Special Ops" someplace else- you get the drill. I ended up with the US and Japanese (United) versions because... flamey hood

     

We are more alike than unalike

     Is he tracks or isn't he? Blue Corvette, Red face, but he is AOE Hot Shot. no wings, but he has that bitchin' trench coat. the original design had this with a flame-painted hood, so I think Tracks may have been the original intent- he is movie Tracks to me, anyway

     And then, there was a rumor, and then confirmation...

     MASTERPIECE TRACKS

     He was delayed, about a month, but here he is from my friends at The Chosen Prime

     Tall, Graceful, with a shiny finish and requisite flamey hood, he mostly fills that hole in me that the loss of G1 tracks left. I'm going to pause for a point here- you are asking yourself..."why didn't he just Ebay up another G1 tracks?"

     Well- I have asked myself the same question over the years, gone looking and...it's someone elses tracks, not mine. I can't get myself to buy an actual replacement. I have complicated rules. 

     The last point about the Masterpiece tracks is this- he has one advantage over his brothers.

He Can Fly

     Tango can respect that- Tango stayed on my shoulders all the way through the photography session for these cars. 

If It's Monday, I Must Still be Amazed...

....After Seeing The Bloggess  on Wednesday, at Tattered Cover


     My sister went with me, we had Pizza and Salad beforehand and then settled in to see the signing.
Jenny Lawson read two chapters and went to Q&A, and then we waited patiently for Two-Hundred, Twenty-Nine other people to get their books signed.

     I love book signings- I have fond memories of Douglas Adams, Bruce Campbell, and Scott Sigler, all at various times and years at the Tattered Cover.

     In Person, The Bloggess is frank, fun and gives the definite impression that she just loves the fact that you came. She is extremely open about her anxiety, her depression and her health issues and I really appreciated seeing her in person. Reading her work was part of what gave me the courage to face some of my own mental angels and demons. I loved the fact that she was thrilled that my copy of her first book was a "rescue". She pointed out that my leaving the price tag on it was "just part of the book's story" and even told a story of someone bringing in an autographed copy from 1/2 price books, autographed to someone else.

     I Bought my Copy of Furiously Happy at Target a couple of months ago, planning to take that to Tattered Cover with me. And then I found out that you could not be guaranteed a signing unless you bought a book and ticket at TC- so I ventured out, Sunday morning and bought a second copy- after I found out that tickets were selling big. Ergo, my place #230 in line.

     This was my sister's first ever book-signing, and my extra copy of Furiously Happy was autographed to her, for all she does for me and everyone else in my family. I am happy she had a good time. 

She took this selfie of me and the Rory Stand-up

Likewise it was her hand on the shutter in this one

A Night of Civic Unrest

     Not talking about Paris or anything to do with that. Not that I am ignoring that- we will have events like that as long as people are primitive and violent. It's sad, and humans just need to be better.

     This post is about my moody Honda civic. A few days ago, my rear indicators, which had been weird and intermittent, stopped giving me brake lights.

     I took it in to my mechanic, who determined that the aftermarket tail lights I put on to make the car pretty had a failure in the wiring.

     Enter me, waking at 130 a.m. Saturday morning. And shopping for a fix, or new lenses, or something.
 

     So they got it sort of working. I have the middle brake light, and turn signals, and tail lights.
 

      I'm just trying to decide which way is best. New lenses with wiring (about $35) standard lenses with standard wiring (don't ask) or try to replace the converter that failed, which converts a two bulb system to a single bulb for brake and turn.
 

     And to top it off, I have Sam asking me where my limit is on fixing the car. Where do I say enough is enough?
 

     I know it's not here, and not now. I just want some tail lights. Fixing this is a civic responsibility

R'Kea PSA

    Time to talk about a serious subject. Many of you out there are not bird people, and don't know about R'Kea.

What is R'Kea?

  R'Kea is a serious condition that affects one in three Conures. An ordinary, quiet, well behaved bird will suddenly burst out into loud, shrill noise, like so.

 What can I do to help?

     With your awareness and your help to spread the word, we can tell birds like Cappy that, no, it's too early for R'Kea, and they are waking up everyone in the damn house. We can tell them it's OK, and no, they don't need to R'Kea. We don't need R'Kea right now. we can tell them..."Use your words, Cappy"


    Please give birds like Cappy a chance; help us strive for a R'Kea free tomorrow

seriously, this is how Cappy talks to the birds in the other room, and in Nebraska

Daylight Savings

Tango knows daylight savings time is a lie.

I'm laying here, reading, and listening to him fuss.

He started about 15 minutes ago,kicking seed out of his bowl, and I asked him: "What are you doing?"

"Wakeup!"

" not time yet, Tango"
"Muttermuttermutteroutrageousmuttermutter"
" I will feed you guys at 630, Tango. That won't be far from what you expect."
"Grumblegrumblegrumbleoutrageous"

A little-known fictional fact I made up is that green-cheeked conures have a quartz core in their stomach which pulses at one beat per second and keeps exact time. You could literally let a conure set your watch for you if you didn't want it to still have buttons afterward.

KRONOS=ULTRON=DOOMSDAY

Good morning- I took a trip down the rabbit hole last night into Pixar Theories

I watches some interesting videos by SuperCarlinBrothers, all very worth a look, but this one got me thinking about Creations...the ones who destroy their creators

     If you remember The Incredibles, Mr Incredible rejects Buddy as a sidekick. Buddy then chooses to turn himself into Syndrome, to destroy his obsession and all other Supers, even down to the idea of Superior powered people. What connects for me here is the fact that he decides to do it by pulling a Hank Pym-more on that anon. Syndrome/Buddy builds the Omnibot- a nigh unstoppable automaton that gets more unstoppable with every iteration/upgrade. test against a super, improve, retest, until you test it against your ultimate nemesis-Mr Incredible. Here is the self defeating part of Syndomes plan. if you build a bot smart enough to overcome and adapt to anything...what makes you so sure YOU can stop it? Because he can't. It takes away his remote control, and his ability to shut it down, leaving the Incredibles to stop it.

     I promised you Hank Pym. not the movie Pym, but the Comics Pym, with all his brilliance and F-ed up mindset. He was the creator of Ultron, who rose to try to destroy his "father" through a series of upgrades. Pym also created a robot to battle the Avengers and make himself a hero by stopping it. This was after he got in trouble and was facing a court martial, so the robot was sort of his get out of jail free card. When I started this post I had the two events crossed up in my mind, but I got muh dern facts straight, pilgrim. Pym also suffered from a severe inferiority complex, leading to multiple personalities and impulsive behavior. If the Hulk, as Stan Lee suggested was the Hyde to Banners Jekyll, Pym might be our Frankenstein.

     So...Doomsday. Nietzsche said what doesn't kill you strengthens you. With Doomsday, whatever kills you makes you  immune to being killed that way when you come back. A scientist named Bertron set a cloned child loose in the harsh prehistoric Kryptonian environment, where he sank into the swamp. (sorry- monty python moment) The child was killed, but his remains were used to clone a stronger version. That one burned down,fell over, then sank into the swamp.(ditto). Lather, rinse,repeat, over and over, until you have a lifeform that can be killed, but never twice by the same thing. Evolved immunity, evolved invulnerability, and hates everything. He is best known for killing Superman in a knockdown, drag out fistfight.

     And this all made me think of the modern Prometheus, Frankenstein. He built a man intended to be a new Adam out of stolen corpses, and found that when he succeeded in instilling life, he couldn't stand the sight of his creation. He hated what he had wrought, and the monster turned against him as well. I connected Pym to him above, as I believe may have been intended by the Ultron storyline. 

     It's the oft-told tale of man's hubris, daring to steal fire from the gods. Daring to meddle in things science shouldn't touch. It's an old morality story.

     There is a quote bouncing around, I am unsure of the original attribution.

It goes something like this:

"Intelligence is knowing Frankenstein wasn't the monster; Wisdom is knowing he was."

Arcee- Count My Wheels: The E! true Hollywood Story

      It's a little known fact that Arcee was one of the first autobots active on earth, even before the reactivation of the Ark in 1984. She partnered with a Human girl named Penelope, who never knew of her true nature

Arcee: "That was a fun time- just tooling around the world with P. She was trouble-Prone, however, and I couldn't break cover all the time to help her. I also think she Dug that 'Hooded Claw' Fellow more than she let on...he was a weirdo, he definitely had a few loose cogs rolling around his Spark chamber."

     Arcee, is there any truth to the rumor that you were once called "the Mach 5"?

Arcee: "It's a good question, and it wasn't me, but I'm pretty sure it was an autobot. I'm not 100% sure what Drift was doing around that time. I can tell you that when anyone shows him either bad dubbing, or a kid with a monkey he gets depressed for about 6 hours. And very not-talkative, just sits and folds origami cranes, over and over. Oh, and Cosmos was ferrying around some family named...Jettison or something "

Hook, is that you? or is it Scavenger?

      So where did you go from there, Arcee?

Arcee: "There wasn't a lot of work for a futuristic looking car for a while. The seventies and early eighties were dominated by 'Muscle cars' on the big screen. I mainly tried to stay inconspicuous for a while, not easy to do if you are sleek, and pink and white. I almost got to drive around a private detective but they went with the red Ferrari instead. He had a mustache and I think his name was ...Magnet."

     When did you next get work?

Arcee: "Transformers the movie. They introduced me, Hot Rod, Springer, Blurr, and Ultra Magnus. Oh, and they all got toys. Even the damn Sharkticon got a toy. There was a prototype, but when it came down it was: 'I'm sorry Arcee', they said 'Boys won't buy a girl toy'."

     So you were frustrated.

Arcee: "If by 'frustrated' you mean 'livid' or 'furious', yep. I had to act nice for the camera, but it was no picnic. Season 3, and what there was of season 4...what a nightmare"


     You were one of the first "headmasters"

Arcee: "Oh yeah. you try running around with Daniel Witwicky in your head. Literally in my head. That kid had some...lets say 'mature' thoughts. Less PG-13, more NC-17. It was a relief when the headmasters thing took a dive in the US. Even though that meant I was out of work for a while."

     A long while. Until Transformers Animated

Arcee: "You are missing some information. I got another gig in there...well, it was modeling work. I did a cover for an album by a group named Asia in '85, and that got me some stuff with a guy named Sorayama. And Penny left me with a little nest-egg that kept me in energon and maintenance during the lean times.

Arcee goes for the big hair look

and then small hair

     Hmm. Nice. And then Transformers Animated?

Arcee: "For all the lines I got in there, yeah. I hate playing Damsel in distress. Ratchet was a real gentleman to work with though. And right on the heels of Transformers Animated, Michael Bay wanted me for Revenge of the Fallen"

     He wanted three of you.

I count 6 wheels total

Arcee: "Somehow things got confused and I had two Stunt-doubles on screen at the same time as me. And Mike...well, Mike can't tell one female autobot from another. It was hot, uncomfortable work, and I had to reconfigure myself to conceal two wheels and one leg. And somehow I got let go at the same time as Megan Fox did. But the good news was that Ratchet got me an audition for Transformers Prime"

     The new cartoon

Arcee: "I stayed a two-wheeler, and they told me they weren't looking for a pink bike. But they asked if I minded going blue? I told them that change is good. And they let me keep my highlights. I also have had a recurring role in the IDW Comics, although that's more on the lines of a modeling gig again. They draw me in poses."

     How is that going?

Arcee: "I asked them...how many wheels? they said 'none'. I'm a hovercar there, but I get to portray a real bad-ass attitude. I'm very concerned about the whole 'gender-swapped abomination created by Jhiaxus' aspect of the role, but... a gig is a gig."

     So it looks like despite the lean times, you are here to stay?

Arcee: "I sure am. I'm so glad I kept my head straight and didn't go for drinking fermented energon like the insecticons. Those guys show up wasted like 70% of the time on set. I'm happy to be here, happy to be me, four wheels or none at all."

It Was Over Way Too Fast

     Please pause for my fanboy geek-out moment. I will be right with you.

SQQUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

     Thank you. So I got up this morning and watched the season Premiere of the Flash on my tablet. (thank you, CW App) See my quick review above. Spoilers below, so be ye warn-ed, matey.

     Rather than picking up right after season 1's cliffhanger, they pick up six months later. Barry is alone, having pushed his team away for their protection. He is debating whether to go to the celebration in his name, where the Flash would be given the key to the city. He is mourning both Eddie Thawne and Ronnie Raymond, who perished while stopping Eobard Thawne, and feeling that he failed, because while he saved the city, he lost two friends. Joe, Cisco, Iris are hovering around him, but giving him Space.

     Barry decides to attend the ceremony, and who else should attend but a new metahuman, Atom Smasher- A hero most times in DC continuity, but not here- here he has come to destroy the Flash, for a Mysterious reason. With the help of his team, who decide Barry has had enough space, and Joe, who decides to stop taking "no" for an answer, they defeat the "meta of the week"

     And with his dying word, Atom Smasher identifies the Big Bad of the Season..."Zoom..."

Who could it be?
 could it be  

?

 

probably not- probably this guy.

there is more than one reverse flash, you see. and we have seen this one, so far, and he may not be dead everywhere, it turns out.


     But that's not the payout on this episode. "Harrison Wells" leaves S.T.A.R. labs to Barry, and a confession that frees Henry Allen from prison. Henry rides off into the sunset so Barry can be all he needs to become, promising to return if needed

Still not the payout.

this

is the payout


SQUEEE indeed. looking forward to next week.

Everything I Need to Know About Life...

    ..... I Learned from Optimus Prime

First- there are a ton of these lists out there- I can't believe this one wasn't.
Second- some of these life lessons I am still learning. I am still an imperfect being.

• Don't be afraid to make big changes to adapt to new circumstances
• Admit your errors and move on to fixing them
• Always act decisively to confront a danger
• When something is necessary, do it, no matter the cost.
• Lead by example, and from the front line, but trust in your comrades to shine with their own light
• Be ready for anything- fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing
• There is a thin line between being a hero and being a memory
• Wisdom can conquer madness
• Preserve life where you can-where there is life, there is still hope
• Be strong enough to be gentle and kind
• There is no true evil-just sentients who have lost their way
• Always be willing to grant forgiveness and understanding for those who seek a better way
• Be mindful of all lives, even those that seem insignificant-there may be more to them than meets the eye.
• No power ever comes to you that doesn't bear it's own inherent burden
• Freedom is the right of all sentient beings
• Never lose faith in yourself 

For some other takes of a similar nature

6 leadership lessons from optimus prime

Make optimus prime proud-Learn how to transform your life

How I learned to be a hero from Optimus Prime

and this was just too good not to share

Optimus Prime/Iron Man dance off

The Dangers of Hidden Cockatiels

     My roommate and Ex recently adopted two birds- a Green-cheeked conure a few months older than Tango and a young peach-faced lovebird. She adopted the Conure because she fell in love with her. She adopted the lovebird because he is a consummate con-artist. He managed to trick the conure into feeding him like a baby bird, to the point where she worried about him and stressed about him if she could not see him.

Note: He may not be a lovebird. 

is there a similar-looking species called a playah-bird? if so, that is him. 

It is difficult to get non-blurry pictures of him.
it would require him to stop moving
for more than a second

     So I helped her bring these two birds home, unaware of the phantom cockatiels that came with them. We didn't see then come from the store- we have not seen them yet, to this day. We only hear them, when these two get upset.

Note#2: nothing in this world conveys offense, 

or just the sense that the world is not going their way, quite like a cockatiel 

     So somewhere in the house, there are at least three cockatiels, as conveyed by two other birds. They have not been seen to this day, and I think they never shall be.

Note# 3- the conure figured him out about a week after they came home and "weaned" him. 

     Other bird news: I brought home a second Conure, a Gold-Capped one. Cappy, or Captain(but never Capitan) is about 10, not hand tamed(yet) and has been hit or thrown, probably. But he is smart, sweet, and needs the love. His strategy of escape and evade is pretty amazing to watch. He doesn't mind a person being close as long as they are just talking, but he is afraid of anyone trying to pick him up. He and Tango talk but he is about twice Tangos size, so I am really careful about how close they get.

     And finally, Sid, my Roommates Cockatoo, took flight yesterday. She has been encouraging him to take short flights, to build up his flight muscles, and improve general health. Yesterday, she took him outside, and I got the call:

"I need help"

"what's up?"

"Sid's on a roof. A second story roof"

"I'll be right up"

     Seems that he saw kids across the street, and he LOVES kids. So he flew, and when I got there he was walking proudly and slightly freaked out across the edge of the roof. We asked our neighbor for a ladder, and that worked. Sid took one look at the ladder, decided he wanted no part of it, and flew down and across the street. I ran, scooped him up, hugged his wings so he knew he was safe-and so he could not take off again- and ran him back downstairs. He's getting a wing trim in the near future. I love that he can fly, but he is not yet at the point of doing it safely. He tends to stop by running into things.

     But he was majestic in the air, on the way across the street

He was also so proud of himself. And he involved two neighbors and the mail carrier.
His legend grows

The Pet Shop Boys

     No, not the synthpop group, these are green cheeked conures trying to entice someone to take them home. I was lucky enough to catch their act today.

(SL)Aviculture

     I have come to realize that the exotic bird trade is legalized and institutionalized slavery. When a Parrot is sold, it puts a sensitive, sentient creature, with real emotions and intelligence in servitude to the amusement of another being.

     It leaves an intelligent being to be cared for, or discarded when they are of no more use.

     It takes a free creature, one who is meant to prosper and be independent, and makes it the property of another. Subject to the whims and manipulations that that creature designs. 

     Whenever a parrot is sold, a human being becomes it's slave. There oughtta be a law, I tell ya. Or Charlton Heston chewing the scenery about "Damn, Dirty Parrots"

In the meantime, bow down and serve your feathered masters. 

     This public service announcement was written with Tangos permission and forbearance. He lets me get away with a lot, because it amuses him.

     Now, seriously; the original idea for this post came up on August 26th, which is National Dog Day. So I went looking for National Bird day, and I find...this. Which is mostly negative about people keeping birds. Clearly, Humans who are companions to birds need to organize better. Sure, Dogs are one of mankind's favorite inventions, but so are Companion birds. And both can be, and often are, mistreated. Without getting too preachy, we need to be better to every living thing on this planet, birds, beasts and each other. And we need a good bird day.

     Yep, I did say inventions; we have bred dogs into a bunch of different sizes and shapes, just like we have bred colors and behaviors not found in the wild into Parrots. What we call captive bred birds are closer to wild than modern dogs are, but many are hand-raised with an inherent trust and desire for human friends. Tango picked me, folks.

Apparently World Parrot day is May 31

There is also a certain delicious irony in scheduling National Dog Day for a time when traditionally dogs go mad.

Tango and Gatorade

      Tango loves sweet stuff. I have to carefully monitor his intake. Left to his own devices, he might drink to the bottom of the cup. Note how skillfully Tango Mimics the behavior of the Crimson tippler in it's natural habitat. In this case I had finished the cup, and he was licking the bottom. If he can find a partially full cup, though, he will crouch over it, fierce and possessive and resist(bite) any hand that tries to block him

The Narrative

     Terry Pratchett observed more than once that world runs on stories. A lot of who we are as people depends on the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and the stories we have been told by others. In the past, I have told myself I was a musician, a fencer, a pagan priest, and a number of other fictions. I shared those fictions with others, and they became part of my narrative.

      We hunger for stories. Stories give meaning to the world, whether ancient myth or modern one. They fire the imagination that is vital to us as a species, the imagination that has rebuilt the world with our tools. The imagination that looks at a cloud and says "that looks like a dog". The imagination that looks at the stars and asks: "why?"

     We Hunger for stories- We Hunger so much that we crave stories true and false about the people who star in our stories. we can walk through  a supermarket line and see little tantalizing slices or celebrity gossip, teasing us to buy. Facebook is filled to bursting with stories of dogs saved, returning soldiers, heroism and debauchery. And we digest it as we search for more. We are gluttons for stories
   
     There may come a day when we fly this earth and colonize new earths, under new suns. We have already been there in the stories in our minds, and the ones we read or watch. Stories can accomplish great things.

     Stories can accomplish terrible things, as well. I met a man today wearing the shirt of his chosen candidate for office. I complimented him, and he told me (after a fashion) why his candidate wasn't elected president in 2016. Yes, pause and check the date of my post. I'll wait.

     He seemed to be already creating the narrative for a loss next year. His candidate was too plain spoken, too authentic, and that scares people. He's too reasonable in a world where that doesn't matter. My thinking is that if you want your guy to win, convince people why he is the best choice, rather than giving them a reason to think there is no point in backing him.

     So the point of all this. Go out and write your story. Make it a good one. Remember that you are the protagonist of your own tale, and make sure it is a story you would want to read as much as live. And if your narrative isn't to your liking...change it.


“It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Cardians of the Galaxy

     In a post earlier this year, I mentioned that I skipped the toys from Guardians of the Galaxy because they did not fit with my collection.

     Then I saw a Hot Wheels car, and HE WAS GROOT.

     These cars by Mattel are not supposed to be the cars the characters drive, they are cars inspired by, and symbolic of the characters. Or possibly their incarnations in the world of Cars...but probably not.

     Anyway, you know me, and I ended up with all five of these.

Starlord- the photo doesn't shnow this detail but the orb is on his back deck,
under the rear window

Gamora- there is some subtle pin-striping on the sides

Drax- his tattoos have texture, and he has knives in his truck-bed

Rocket- with raccoon ears and fur

And Groot is designed as a car hauler for him