Friday Funnies: Nice to be Kneaded

     Another Conversation with Sam from this week. She is making a type of flatbread called Naan

Me: so the naan. can it be used to make sourdough?

Sam: can you make sourdough naan? is that what you are asking?

Me: I guess that idea is kind of a naan starter

Sam: was this whole conversation just so you could use that?

Me: about 50/50

Later, getting into the car after a Walmart trip

Me: So I am going to need for you to let me know anytime you are planning on making naan

Sam: Why?

Me: I just think we need some sort of naan-disclosure agreement

Sam: Oh my god...ok, that was pretty good. 

Kuhli Loach Dance

I took this video of a couple of my favorite fish in my tank. I have a small (10 gallon) tank that after experimenting with a bunch of different types of fish, we ended up with Neons, Kuhli Loaches, and Otocinclus. They all seem to get along and not try to kill each other, which suits me great.

     The story of the fishtank is that Sam had a want for Moss-balls. She bought an Apothecary jar to house the moss balls, and then ended up adding a Betta fish

    That lasted for about a year, and then the apothecary jar cracked on the bottom, and ruined Sam's dresser. She sort of lost her taste for an aquarium in her room after that. She told me that if I wanted the Betta I would need a tank, and we ended up with this 10 gallon because that was what would fit, and was on sale.

     Bettas, you may know, can't be put with anything they will fight, such as other bettas, or fish they might think are bettas. I put in Kuhli Loaches-black ones, because that is what petsmart had. Last christmas season I found a couple of tiny striped ones, which grew into the muscular behemoths you see here.

     The betta eventually passed, giving way to rasboras and cherry barbs, and eternal war. those got offered back to a fish store for credit, and neon tetras took their place.

     Searching for my own video o n youtube, I was a little surprised to find a lot of other Kuhli Loach videos. Apparently I am not alone in enjoying these fish...

Toysday: Jurassic Steel

     At this point, I have 66% of the new Power of the Primes Dinobots. I like them a lot- they have a very G1 vibe in both transformation and in aesthetic. They are not perfect-Accessories are sacrificed to serve the combiner mode, but they are about 80% of the way there. I hope to see some third party company make Grimlock his sword and blaster.

     Before we hit the main crew, we need to talk about Slash. Fansproject put out twin female velociraptor Dinos with the lost exo realm line, but Slash is official Hasbro Canon- No Slash-fiction(HA!) here. We have a female Dinobot Scout who is a velociraptor. She is also ridiculously fun to transform, and looks great in both modes. Her balance and articulation is a little less than ideal in dino mode, but I think she's a great figure.

     I have talked before about the fact that Slag is now Slug, since the word slag is offensive in multiple languages. I would have liked this Slug bigger, and with his sword, but as I said, when the combiner gimmick drives, the plastic must follow

     This swoop I absolutely love. The transformation, the look, all very G1. If there is a KO voyager size in the future... even better. His beak/face does not latch to his face-face in any way except by friction, but that is about the only negative I can think of.

     The Big Guy- Grimlock. He suffers a little for the combiner ports, but not badly. He suffers more for the lack of a big cleaving sword and blaster. All in all, though, very nicely done; good color, good posability. good in robot and dino mode. Powerful and bulky looking.

         All of the dinobots have great, well matched colors, including translucent painted gold on the inside, to give it a kind of indescribable sheen. it mimics the metallic gold parts with the clear coverings on the original G1 toys...so maybe it is describable.


      Here is what we have of Combiner mode so far. I could stick Jazz and Dreadwind on there but I just won't. My particular flavor of OCD says nix to that.

So far... no info adding Slash to the combiner but I know it has to work.

there will be more regarding Prime masters later, but for now, here is how they interact with the hand/armor pieces and the foot pieces.

Grimlock comes with two feet pieces and the dinobot enigma of combination

Monday Media Musings: Failure, Sacrifice, and Redemption

     Before I get into the The Last Jedi, first, Be Ye Warned: Spoilers Be Ahead!

     Second, before I get serious, I will open with two terrible jokes:

1.      What is the internal temperature of a TaunTaun? Luke Warm
2.      How Many Sandpeople does it take to change a light bulb? No one knows- they change it in single file, to hide their numbers. 

     Neither of those are original to me, but I like them. Sort of the Darth-Vader Dark-Side of Dad jokes. The Snark Side of the Force. 

     So the movie. I liked it. It was long, Some have described it as moving at an AT-AT like pace, but it did what it needed to do, to continue the themes established so long ago, in 1977. 

• That a spark of hope is sometimes all the light has, or needs. 
• That you can never unmake a mistake, but you can do better when you next face a choice. 
• That the future you are fighting for is bigger than any one person, and if you need to sacrifice yourself to save it, walk in with style. 

     We know that Luke Skywalker have been gone for years in The Force Awakens. He's Studying the original Jedi temple, we have heard, looking for a way to defeat the first order. He's waiting for us to bring him back and bring hope and the Jedi with him. 

     Luke Skywalker made a terrible mistake. His mistake had huge consequences. He has found the original Jedi temple, but he he has blocked himself from the force, and is waiting to die. He is waiting to take the last vestige of the Jedi order with him. He has concluded that the Jedi failed. 

     Pause here to address this betrayal of Luke's character. 

     Luke is broken. He is broken by the mistake he made with Ben Solo, unleashing Kylo Ren. He is broken by years spent in isolation from both the Force and from those he loves. What he has now from his time away, is a better understanding of the force, and perhaps how the Jedi erred in their relationship with it. 

     When Rey comes to Ahch-to, She revives something in Luke, that has not been there for a long time. Not hope, but curiosity. That Nobody, from Nowhere, is so strong with the force is a mystery that intrigues him. That is not enough to dislodge him from his island exile, but like a pebble down a mountainside, it starts a few things rolling. 

Rey: You didn't fail Kylo. Kylo failed you. I won't.

     When she leaves to attempt to redeem Kylo Ren, Luke prepares to destroy the knowledge of the Jedi, and most likely himself as well.

     Which is when Yoda takes him back to school. One with the force, he has "become more powerful than you can possible imagine" and he destroys the home of the Jedi teachings with a storm of lightning. And he drops this bit of wisdom on Luke- Failure is a great teacher. 

     Luke "returns" to save the resistance, giving his own life in the process.In  A New Hope, Obi Wan gave his life to secure Luke and Leia's escape. In Return of the Jedi, Luke surrenders to Vader in order to redeem him. In Rogue One, the entire strike team gave their lives to deliver the information that would make the Empire's ultimate weapon vulnerable. The Force Awakens showed us that the light side was bigger than Han, and The Last Jedi shows that it is bigger even than the New Hope himself, as he becomes one with the force while gazing into the setting suns. Episode 9 will somehow write out the late Carrie Fisher, and the Original heroes will be only a memory of hope to the galaxy they fell to liberate.

Kylo Ren: Did you come back to say you forgive me? To save my soul?

Luke Skywalker: No.

[they draw their lightsabers and fight]

Luke Skywalker: I failed you, Ben. I'm sorry.

Kylo Ren: I'm sure you are! The Resistance is dead, the war is over, and when I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi!

Luke Skywalker: Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi.