Of Soda and Feline Mortality

     I was out at Cost Plus imports picking up a 4-pack of this Divine Elixir and I came across this:

     And my first thought was a very articulate "huh" followed by "wonder how it tastes/why would it be different than other soda"

     And I realized: It was working. It was bringing up all kinds of questions in my mind, some rational and sane, others from farther afield...



     And so I marched up to the first person stocking shelves I found and asked him about it.

     Me:  "so I see there is a soda over there called 'Curiosity Cola'"
     Him: "yes"
     Me: "Would you be able to give that to cats?"
     Him: "Um. no, I don't think so."
     Me: "Because it would Kill them? Because it contains curiosity?"
     Him:(tentatively smiling)  " Ummmm. I guess so"
     Me: "I suspected as much. Thank you for verifying it"




     End result, he got a story to take home about the weird customer question, I got a blog post.



    Sadly, though the company that brews this Cocktail of proverbial feline imperilment has many interesting concoctions, none of them appear to contain the elusive satisfaction needed to make our fictional cat's trip to the other side anything other than unidirectional.

Chances are I will try on my next trip there, and perhaps others of their products (beverage-curious) but I will be sure to keep it away from any members of the family felidae

     Thanks for letting me wax literary yet again

Commemorative Coins

     I'm going to let Optimus take over for this post.

GREETINGS, HUMANS

AT THE START, I THOUGHT THESE MERE TRINKETS-

NOT CRUCIAL TO OUR WAR, AND THE BATTLE FOR 

CYBERTRON.

I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG.

THESE COINS, MERE DECORATION TO SOME, 

ARE A VITAL PART OR MR.SMITHS COLLECTION

OF MASTERPIECES. 

THE LAST THREE FIGURES IN THE LINE HE

PURCHASED CAME EQUIPPED WITH THE COINS

THEY ARE WHAT HUMANS CALL "COOL"

WE ARE DIRECTING EFFORT TO COLLECTING THE 

OTHER COINS, THE ONES LEFT BEHIND DURING

OUR EVACUATION. 

MY COIN WAS THE FIRST RECOVERED...

Courtesy of Ebay

MP10. Optimus Prime

MP18B

BlueStreak

MP25

Tracks

MP27

Ironhide

MPBRD1 TANGO

WE ARE CURRENTLY SEEKING THE WHEREABOUTS 

OF THE COINS FOR SIDESWIPE, 

BUMBLEBEE, PROWL, AND SMOKESCREEN

EXPECT AN UPDATE WHEN HOT ROD ARRIVES TO 

REINFORCE THE EARTH GARRISON

Civic Responsibility

     All about keeping my Aging Honda on the road. Well, maybe not all. But Part two of the Honda Civic Trilogy.


     I got new lenses with wiring off of Ebay. they look nice- I didn't necessarily want to replace what I had but I'm happy with what I got.

     Then one day I am driving along, I note that my mirror(driver side) is out of adjustment. I adjust, something pops, and the lever that adjusts the mirror is now moving freely and not adjusting anything except my attitude...downward. to the darker end of the spectrum. so I can stick my hand out and push the mirror into place and it will stay, for a time of it's own choosing. Think of a random number between when I stop watching it and not long enough. so I run back to Ebay beginning of December, and buy an aftermarket driver's side mirror, and install it on the next reasonably warm day. So now, two mirrors, working tail lights, and emissions to do.

     This past Saturday, I head down to air care Colorado and am 3rd in line at 7:30 AM for their 8AM opening.


     I'm going to pause here and say to the person who started the rumor that you could take a bag of clean exhaust from a Prius and slip them an extra $5 to test that instead...


     Well, you are a liar, and a bad person, and it is NOT TRUE




     But...flying colors for my Honda, yet again. He's clean enough for Denver.

     Oh, and to the person who made up the story that there was a rumor that you can have them test a bag of Prius exhaust... well, you probably think you are pretty funny.


    It was me, and I do. No one ever made up that rumor. It's just a rumor of a rumor, or maybe a metarumor. And I do think I am funny.

The Most Glorious Toy Ever

     Before I found this in the store, I saw a really disappointing review:

     In this case, by disappointing I mean that it made me feel sad to watch the reviewer- he came into it as if there were any number of things he would rather be doing. I have since found this beast, and realized what was wrong. The only way to truly appreciate Skylynx is As Skylynx


On the subject of the magnificence which is Skylynx, TFWiki had these few, barely adequate words to share:

Sky Lynx is the most magnificent Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Twice the bot, twice the ego.

Sky Lynx is the unbelievably talented, unsurpassably skilled, and altogether magnificent robot behind most of the greatest, most adventurous, and most daring moments in all of Autobot history. At least, if you ask Sky Lynx, that is. Not that he isn't a skilled, fast, and powerful warrior, well deserving of his rank as Lieutenant Commander—he most certainly is all those things—he's just a rather bit too eager to tell you about it. At length. However, his superiors recognize his undeniable skill and tolerate his ego. Springer has nicknamed him "Commander Modesty."
Sky Lynx's unusual form grants him several abilities. As a shuttle, he can easily travel between star systems and carry passengers as well. When transformed, he can split himself into two autonomous components: a walking lynx and a flying bird-creature. His two components can also combine into a larger and more powerful lynx-bird-creature. In some universes, he can combine to form Sky Reign.


    In his Combiner Wars incarnation, he is made available to the lucky ones who can find him, and they thank their lucky stars indeed. In Toy form, he does not disappoint, for how could he??? how indeed! Disappoint is the one thing Skylynx cannot do, with his many outstanding capabilities!

     His articulation is literally all you could ever need from a toy. The paint Apps, while understated are understated tastefully in a way that only the most superb could comprehend! His accessories, two combination swords and blasters are versatile, and can be mounted either on wings, hips or tail, depending on which is most appropriate!

    Here are my pictures, which can scarely do justice to the subject. My inadequacy is an insult, but this most benevolent and forgiving of 'Bots understands: no one can match his perfection, and he can't even take a bad picture with my poor skills.

the one complaint I could share is some of the joints are loose- the tail fins and
rear feet- I had to do some fixing on the feet to make them hold position

Even Tango recognizes him as an equal

Diversionary Toys

     Part of the fun of the original G1 Bots was that some of them were not just soldiers, or medics, or scientists. Some of them had some odd, random special abilities. Windcharger, for instance, could control magnetic fields. Ironhide could emit various liquids from his fingertips or nozzles on his wrists


     I have talked before about Smokescreen. TF Prime turned him into a brash young hero A La Hot Rod, who made his entrance detonating a large quantity of spilled energon and wiping out a group of decepticon attackers with his tactics. G1 Smokescreen was a lot less dynamic, but what he had was smoke: nasty looking, oily, magnetic smoke that would cling to enemy transformers while he blasted them with circuit scrambling lasers. Smokescreen wasn't exactly a role model, being a liar, a cheat and an inveterate gambler, sort of an all around Mr. Bad Example, but like all the Autobots, he was there for the liberation of Cybertron.

Not passing emissions in this state, or any other.

     Hound is the opposite. A good natured soul, who sees Earth as beautiful, along with all it's inhabitants- he would love to forego war and be human- or at least interact with the earth the way that we do. Hound was created with the ability to create Holograms, which aids in disguise, and once allowed him to fake the destruction of himself and a group of other autobot prisoners

if you seek peace, prepare for war

     Third in our trio of distracting tacticians is Mirage. Mirage is a holdover from before the war, when Cybertronians were heavily caste and class based- Mirage was a big shot. and he would prefer that Autobots and Decepticons just bury the hatchet and get along, and behave like civilized beings. Since that is not happening, however, Mirage is sworn to the Autobot cause. Thanks to his abilities to either render himself invisible or to appears to be somewhere other than where he is, he is a master of stealth and misdirection

note the holographic "driver". his alt mode may not be exactly subtle, or even street legal
but he makes up for it in other ways

Just kidding- I don't think he's in the shot right now...?

Tango really wanted to be on daddy's shoulders, but he consented to be in shot this time

A Band Apart

     Standard Disclaimers: first, not this A Band Apart which is very cool, just not what I am talking about
 Second: no Conures were harmed during the production of this Blog post, although one was inconvenienced...

Cappy, with Band no longer adorning his right leg

     You ever see on a show, or in real life, Firemen using saws, axes hammers and the jaws of life to get someone out of where they are trapped? it looked a lot like that.

SEVERAL DAYS AGO...

     Cappy starts messing with his band, moving it up, down, all around. he puts it down to the foot, up above the "elbow" joint, clearly not able to leave it where it is. It's still loose, not hampering him, but it's not play. He is bugged about it. his leg is showing some signs of irritation. I make the decision that when next the opportunity can be made, he is going to the bird store and it is getting removed. 

TODAY

     I put Cappy in his travel cage, cover it with an old shirt so he doesn't get drafts, and drive down to the store. We arrive at opening, so the owner has a few minutes of business before we can address Cappy's Band. Cappy and I wait patiently. 

     Cappy's Band was put on him when he was young, as is traditional with bred birds, and contains no useful info aside from that he came from Texas. I'm not going to miss it, and Cappy sure isn't going to. I open the door of his travel cage, but he's slightly freaked and not willing to exit it without encouragement.

     The owner's assistant gets him in a towel, and the owner goes for tools.

     What follows is three different cutters, culminating in a pair of Diagonal Cutters. This band appears to be made of rather than the Aluminum I suspected, some sort of Mithril/ Adamantium /Vibranium alloy (not Uru- now you're just being ridiculous) Now the band is split, but still won't open far enough to slide over his foot. You might pause at this point to wonder, how it got on there in the first place...here is some more info on that. Suffice to say, it was put on a smaller foot than he now posesses. So now comes the Pliers. Two Pair, the owners long needlenose and my Leatherman tool (never far from my side). All this to a soundtrack of panicked parrot in E-minor.

Forged in the Multi-tool Factories of Gondolin, or Possibly Asgard

     The result was an unbanded parrot, some ruffled feathers and huge dark eyes telling me "It was the worst trauma EVER". I buy him shreddable toys and some ointment that is bird safe

     We skipped wings and claws for another day. No one expected this removal to be quite so involved. Apparently breeder bands are bigger in texas...

I just need to drop this bitch in Mount Doom and it's evil will be destroyed...
the Band, not the Leatherman

Tough as Old Iron

     Last year we began to hear about three companies releasing Masterpiece Scale Ironhide figures. One was Takara, the Official Masterpiece release, and the others were TFC and a new company called Voodoo Robots. As Yoda would say, Begun, the Ironhide War has...

the TFWiki says this about Ironhide:

Ironhide is one of the oldest and toughest Autobots, and has been on Optimus Prime's team for a long time. "They don't make them like they used to" is an apt description of Ironhide—he's yesterday's model, but he's built to last.
Gruff and ornery, he prefers actions to words, and dislikes talk for talk's sake. (He wouldn't enjoy being paired up with Bluestreak.) But though he may be rough around the edges, he's still optimistic and upbeat. The upside to being through more than your share of trouble means trouble ain't so big a scare anymore.
Ironhide's most distinctive ability is the water gun, a weapon which can generate and shoot a liquid of virtually any type. Liquid nitrogen is historically a favorite, but there have been acids, mortar, and more.

     TFCs offering looked good-Big, Bulky, and altogether what I was looking for. Voodoo had a good look, and what looked like a really innovative transform.

     And then we heard about Voodoo's early release, convention exclusive Ironhide. more specifically, we heard about the breakage issue- the knees would break in normal usage (transforming). I have heard from those talking aobut the normal release of Voodoos version of Ratchet that it is not much tougher, either- the plastic is very thin...

So then there were two...I still like the look of TFC, but the head and face seem...off to me. Plus, it goes in and out of stock like crazy. So it came down to the Takara release, and I could not be happier. a GIF Takara released of his transformation sequence clinched it. Now lets have Dr Wu or someone make me a sweet set of additional weapons! 

On the left...tough- on the right? Semi-Tough

Ironhide and Prowl-note the "face" in Ironhides windshield
it echoes the G1 toy

Ironhide with Accessory tray. It echoes the G1 figure's "sled"
(below)

Prime and Ironhide- Best buds, voiced by the same actor

     Ironhide is big, stocky, and has a little bit of a gut, like me. I'm not quite that red tho.

Hound and Ironhide

Ironhide and Mirage

Mirage- Ocular Max version- a story for next time

Hound and Mirage

Hound and Mirage(invisible mode)

Hound and Mirage- how many more pics did he photobomb...?