Day 548, Quasi-Quarantine: 'Fins Take Down The Cheatriots To Open 2021 Campaign

 

I'll have more insightful and well-researched commentary later in the week, but just wanted to get this out there.

Limerick Friday #517: Everyone Goes Except The Incompetent -- Day 545

Talent does leave

Friends do grieve

Obstacles stay

Can't pass up the pay

As excuses they weave

The finale of "Schitt's Creek"

Made my eyes leak

As the series closes

Farewell to the Roses

And a show that climbed comedy's peak

The unqualified set in like manges

Thanks to ridiculous salary ranges

The best keep improving

The worst stop moving

This is how nothing changes

Signs of life

Amidst the Mets' strife

But lotsa bad beats

And one-run defeats

Puncturing hope like a knife

"The Walking Dead" is in deep

Jumping sharks like so many sheep

So after a decade of seasons

A plot hole beyond all reasons

The zombies now randomly fucking sleep?!

Last time ...

Day 544, Quasi-Quarantine: "Lathe of Heaven" Reels You Into An Ever-Shifting Dream World

"I haven't any strength, I haven't any character, I'm a born tool. I haven't any destiny. All I have is dreams. And now other people run them."

Not having much experience with Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Lathe of Heaven" was a bit of a revelation based on a perception that her work may be genre-specific and inaccessible. Le Guin's prose boasts a beautiful rhythm, and the opening lines of this book are among the most striking I've read recently.

"Current-borne, wave-flung, tugged hugely by the whole might of ocean, the jellyfish drifts in the tidal abyss."

The author's extreme interest in science results in a startling level of specificity in certain areas, which can lend a density to parts of the tale. George Orr's ability to potentially literally change the world with his dreams does require some comprehensive descriptions of technology, however, so the work is worth it.

"We're in the world, not against it. It doesn't work to try to stand outside things and run them that way. It just doesn't work, it goes against life. There is a way but you have to follow it. The world is, no matter how we think it ought to be. You have to be with it. You have to let it be."

"The Lathe of Heaven" is a quick read with a few subplots that I would have liked to have seen explored more, like the intensity of connection between Rachel and George and the deterioration of George's mental state.

"No good. No way out. Orr was where he had been for months -- alone: knowing he was insane and knowing he was not insane, simultaneously and intensely. It was enough to drive him insane."

Yet there is no denying that the emotion sneaks up on you. Despite being written half a century ago, this science fiction is capable of striking all the right "feels chords," and Le Guin does so here again and again -- like a dream loop that you just can't escape.

"He thought, I am living a nightmare, from which from time to time I wake in sleep."

Day 543, Quasi-Quarantine: To The Very Last, "Schitt's Creek" Reveals And Celebrates The Precious Love

I recently finished the comedic whirlwind that was "Schitt's Creek," swept up in all the feels it coalesced over the course of six memorable seasons. 

For me, the episode where "Schitt's Creek" turned from a situation comedy into something sublime was "Happy Anniversary." The final episode of the second season, this one showed the Roses finally leaning into their new lot in life instead of fighting it at every corner.

Eventually, the Roses all find themselves at Mutt's annual barn party, and the final scene features the entire family dancing together to James Morrison's "Precious Love." Together, the clan realizes that happiness is still possible in the small, free moments, and this realization springboards the show across four more epic seasons.

Over those episodes, we got to see the maturation of David, the vulnerability of Alexis, the adaptability of Johnny, the indomitable spirit of Moira, the growth of Stevie, and the consistent hilarity of Roland. The dynamics of these characters -- and many others -- formed the backbone of this show by unveiling the humanity in even the most flawed individuals.

By the end of the 80th and final episode -- and the exceedingly well done series retrospective compiled by Netflix -- I was an emotional wreck. Little did I realize how unprepared I was to say goodbye to the Roses -- and to Schitt's Creek.

Day 542, Quasi-Quarantine: Cobbling Together The Annoying But Irrepressible Todo 360

A sarcastic and high-tempered techno-service droid, Todo 360 played a critical role in a number of missions supporting bounty hunter Cad Bane. The droid was intensely loyal to Bane, despite the bounty hunter's willingness to blow him up and use him as a distraction on occasion.

In three episodes on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," Todo managed to escape from Anakin Skywalker after being rebuilt, kidnap C-3PO and R2-D2, and aid Bane in stealing a holocron from the Jedi Temple.

In a pair of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" episodes, the droid was shot by Hunter accidentally as Bane kidnapped Omega. When Omega helped repair Todo's severed leg, it gave her a chance to deactivate him and contact the Bad Batch to let them know of her whereabouts. These events precipitated the epic battle between Bane and Fennec Shand that led to Omega's rescue.

To replicate the look and feel of Todo 360, we found an online tutorial, then added some strategic paint for eyes. The result is simple but effective, allowing us to incorporate Bane and Todo into a number of new scenarios involving the Bad Batch and Shand.

Limerick Friday #516: Mets Battle Fans As Season Swirls Drain -- Day 538

A boo with every strikeout

Hurt my feelings, so I'll pout

Stupidity in Flushing

Why don't you start crushing

And leave pettiness in the dugout

How's that for a starter?

A shutout in the Carter

The Pack looked sleek

But starting next week

Things get much harder

53s locked in

Season 'bout to begin

Stop me if this seems old

The 'Fins roster is well-holed

But maybe still built to win

Damn any schism

Let's market nepotism

Hire someone who thinks like thee

To validate all that's me

So I never have to look in a prism

Colts season in trouble

Since they have no vax bubble

Stubbornness remains

Ignorance reigns

Need logic on the double

Last time ...

Day 537, Quasi-Quarantine: Devastating, Poignant "Never Let Me Go" Peels Back The Curtain

"When I watched you dancing that day, I saw something else. I saw a new world coming rapidly. More scientific, efficient, yes. More cures for the old sicknesses. Very good. But a harsh, cruel world. And I saw a little girl, her eyes tightly closed, holding to her breast the old kind world, one that she knew in her heart could not remain, and she was holding it and pleading, never to let her go. That is what I saw. It wasn't really you, what you were doing, I know that. But I saw you and it broke my heart. And I've never forgotten."

A masterpiece of dystopian science fiction, "Never Let Me Go" turns 1990s England into a little-talked-about laboratory for the pursuit of clone technology. Kazuo Ishiguro follows a group of cloned organ donors as they progress through prep school and out into the world, with no chance of escaping their predetermined fates.

Narrated by a donor named Kathy, the book explores morality, mortality, and the tales people will tell themselves to justify their place in the world. The brutal nature of "Never Let Me Go" is somewhat obfuscated by the simple narration, with the lack of overt explanations diminishing the growing horror.

"Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and -- no matter how much we despised ourselves for it -- unable quite to let each other go."

"But the fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task. If we'd understood that back then -- who knows? -- maybe we'd have kept a tighter hold of one another."

The chronology was occasionally confusing in the novel, but the highly anticipated movie adaptation -- which, unfortunately, had none of the heart of the book -- handled the passage of time much more seamlessly. The movie portrayal of Ruth is much more revealing, showing her conniving and deceptively shitty character outside of the blinders of the narrator.

Ishiguro has once more tailored a heartbreaking, beautiful story that asks as many questions as it answers, relying on a terse, matter-of-fact style to challenge a world that may be much closer than we realize.

" ... That there were people out there, like Madame, who don't hate you or wish you any harm, but who nevertheless shudder at the very thought of  you -- of how you were brought into this world and why -- and who dread the idea of your hand brushing against theirs. The first time you glimpse yourself through the eyes of a person like that, it's a cold moment. It's like walking past a mirror you've walked past every day of your life, and suddenly it shows you something else, something troubling and strange."

Day 536, Quasi-Quarantine: Pack Aims To Light It Red With Incredible Uniform Combo

While I'm not positive of the wisdom of putting 60,000 unmasked people with unclear vaccination status in one place during a raging pandemic, NC State will undoubtedly look incredible doing it.

The Wolfpack has unveiled new uniforms that manage to pay tribute to the Memorial Bell Tower, the Brickyard, and the old-school Slobberin' Wolf. Some quibbles can be taken with the pinstripe effect, but beyond that, State has knocked it out of the park here.

Can't wait to see this kit in action tomorrow vs. South Florida. Be safe, Wolfpack Nation.

Day 535, Quasi-Quarantine: Shifting Loyalties Make Howzer A Compelling Character -- And Build

 

One of our favorite secondary characters from the first season of "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" is Howzer, the conflicted clone captain from the "Devil's Deal" and "Rescue on Ryloth" episodes.

Stationed on the planet Ryloth to assist the Twi'leks in maintaining peace, his arc had him initially siding with the Imperial backers before shifting to the Resistance effort. Unaffected by the customary clone inhibitor chip, Howzer was able to show individualism and question authority.

Howzer was eventually arrested by Crosshair's troops, but not before assisting the family of Hera Syndulla, who would go on to fame as the incomparable pilot of the Ghost, call sign Spectre 2.

With teal blue Phase II armor and DC-17 and DC-15A weapons, Howzer stands out with a distinctive look. Photographs perhaps don't best capture our effort to re-create him, but we managed to paint a blank Phase II helmet, as well as a torso and legs.

My building partner was thrilled with the result -- despite needing some tweaks here and there -- and so was I. We're hoping this memorable character makes further appearances in subsequent "Bad Batch" seasons so we can make additional builds involving him.

Day 534, Quasi-Quarantine: When The Deshaun Watson Trade Rumors Still Won't Quit

 

It would be peak Dolphins to trade several first- and second-round picks for a player with a $156 million contract who is currently facing 22 civil lawsuits, 10 criminal complaints, and extensive FBI involvement.

Which probably means it's going to happen. 🤦

Limerick Friday #515: Re-Arranging Presentation Deck Chairs On The Titanic -- Day 531

Blind eyes turned

Lessons never learned

With incompetence riddled

Leadership fiddled

While the company burned

First week of school

Has been mostly cool

But a question before I go

I just need to know

Can you drink in carpool?

College football is nigh

Excitement is high

But full stadium numbers

Just kinda make me wonder

How many fans are gonna die?

Millennials with feels

Brokering deals

Promotions undeserved

Raises for time served

Meritocracy, for reals?

Every loss by a run

Heartbreaks at the gun

Under an injury raid

The Mets continue to fade

Another season that looks done

Last time ...

Day 530, Quasi-Quarantine: Unexpected "A Swim In The Pond In The Rain" Offers Insights From A Love Affair With The Short Story

"Fiction helps us remember that everything remains to be seen. It's a sacrament dedicated to this end. We can't always feel as open to the world as we feel at the end of a beautiful story, but feeling that way even briefly reminds us that such a state exists and creates the aspiration in us to strive to be in that state more often."

In the unexpected "A Swim in the Pond in the Rain," George Saunders expands on his teaching curriculum at Syracuse to offer an exploration of the short story format. With a subtitle of "In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life," he relies on Russian masters to do so.

"In the first pulse of a story, the writer is like a juggler, throwing bowling pins into the air. The rest of the story is the catching of those pins. At any point in the story, certain pins are up there and we can feel them. We'd better feel them. If not, the story has nothing out of which to make its meaning."

"A story is not like real life; it's like a table with just a few things on it. The 'meaning' of the table is made by the choice of things and their relation to one another ... That's really all a story is: a limited set of elements that we read against one another."

"A Swim in the Pond in the Rain" examines structure, pacing, energy, revision, causality, and a myriad other topics. Doing so in the context of Anton Chekhov, Ivan Turgenev, Leo Tolstoy, and Nikolai Gogol gives Saunders the opportunity to apply contemporary philosophies to established classics.

Saunders spends a lot of time articulating the importance of the relationship that is constantly being built between writer and reader.

"We might think of a story this way: the reader is sitting in the sidecar of a motorcycle the writer is driving. In a well-told story, reader and writer are so close together that they're one unit. My job as the writer is to keep the distance between motorcycle and sidecar small, so that when I go right, you go right. When I, at the end of the story, take the motorcycle off the cliff, you have no choice but to follow. (I haven't, so far, given you any reason to distance yourself from me.) If the space between motorcycle and sidecar gets too great, when I corner, you fail to hear about it, and fall out of relationship with me and get bored or irritated and stop reading and go off to watch a movie. Then there's no character development or plot or voice or politics or theme. There's no anything." 

I was familiar with Saunders's work through "Lincoln in the Bardo" (an honorable-mention nominee for the 2019 Scooties). In this one, he never verges into the procedural, but his nuggets (under the category of TICHN: "things I couldn't help noticing") are both instructive and revealing. 

"Yes: it's a harsh form, the short story.

"Harsh as a joke, a song, a note from the gallows."

While certainly no how-to book, this work is full of advice on (as advertised) writing, reading, and, well, life. Saunders's passion for the short story format and these authors in particular shines through, and he includes some fascinating exercises in the appendices.

"You don't need an idea to start a story. You just need a sentence. Where does that sentence come from? Wherever. It doesn't have to be anything special. It will become something special, over time, as you keep reacting to it. Reacting to that sentence, then changing it, hoping to divest it of some of its ordinariness or sloth, is ... writing. That's all writing is or needs to be. We'll find our voice and ethos and distinguish ourselves from all the other writers in the world without needing to make any big overarching decisions, just by the thousands of small ones we make as we revise."

The reading can be a bit intense in sections, but the reward is worth the toil. "A Swim in a Pond in the Rain" is a love letter to short stories in general, an inspiration to writers of all stripes, and a review of some of the most impactful short stories ever written. It would be hard to ask too much more of such a book.

"A well-written bit of prose is like a beautifully hand-painted kite, lying there on the grass. It's nice. We admire it. Causality is the wind that then comes along and lifts it up. The kite is then a beautiful thing made even more beautiful by the fact that it's doing what it was made to do."

Day 529, Quasi-Quarantine: Quick Mid-Week Work Mood Update

 

Day 528, Quasi-Quarantine: Arts & Crafting Our Way To An Epic "Scorch"

 

While my building partner and I have gravitated to purchasing a handful of custom Lego clone helmets, I have the most fun painting blank or existing helmets to match clones that we like.

That's why the creation of RC-1262 -- nicknamed "Scorch" -- was so rewarding. A clone commando who served as part of the elite Delta Squad alongside Boss, Fixer, and Sev (who has been featured here previously), Scorch has a distinctive look that was cool to replicate.

We painted an existing Mandalorian helmet, painted a torso and legs with his trademark yellow color, and pieced together a tactical backpack. First featured in a "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" episode called "Witches of the Mist," he carried DC-17m and DC-15A guns in canon, though those are harder to get hands on.

According to Wookieepedia, Scorch's story got significantly darker after the rise of the Empire, which is why his appearance in "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" ("War-Mantle" episode) gave us mixed feelings. While it was very cool to see him in action, he emerged as a trainer of the first generation of Imperial stormtroopers and was involved in the capture of Hunter after a mission to free Gregor.

Will we see him again in the next season of "The Bad Batch"? Here's to hoping.

Day 527, Quasi-Quarantine: All The Back-To-School Questions, Emotions, & Jitters

 

Seeing old friends, no contact tracing, making new friends, global pandemic, in-person learning, questionable safety protocols, rekindling social skills, no virtual option.

Not nervous. Everything will be fine.

Limerick Friday #514: There Goes the Summer -- Day 524

Traditional August bummer

The last days of summer

School starts again

Stay safe if we can

As our nation just gets dumber

Welcome to Mets baseball

And the annual freefall

Injuries galore

At-bats that make you snore

I miss Shea, y'all

Low-morale condition

Spurring attrition

Rudderless leaders

Yield to bottom-feeders

No strategy, all wishin'

Hoping for wins

On needles and pins

The OL blows

That's how it goes

When you follow the 'Fins

Ignorance reigns

Mouth-breather stains

Logic lost

At what cost

America's dying strains

Last time ...

Day 523, Quasi-Quarantine: Uneven "Can't Even" Still Manages To Be Instructive And Revelatory

"Millennials have been denigrated and mischaracterized, blamed for struggling in situations that set us up to fail. But if we have the endurance and aptitude and wherewithal to work ourselves this deeply into the ground, we also have the strength to fight. We have little savings and less stability. Our anger is barely contained. We're a pile of ashes smoldering, a bad memory of our best selves. Underestimate us at your peril: We have so little left to lose."

In "Can't Even," Anne Helen Petersen works hard to dig out the millennial origin story in a way that overturns lazy and automatic characterizations of the generation. Pinpointing the erosion of employee rights, the rise of student debt, and the onslaught of the gig economy, she describes how the 73 million millennials have found themselves inheriting the worst job market in 80 years.

"Left to its own devices, capitalism is not benevolent. That's hard for many Americans to hear or think about, having been raised to adulate capitalism, but the fact remains: If the goal is always growth at any cost, then employees, like machine parts, are exploitable, as longs the productivity continues to go up and the profit margins continue to rise. But for a brief period of time, after the Great Depression and before the recessions of the 1970s, capitalism was -- at least in America -- somewhat more humane. Still imperfect, still exclusionary, still subject to market whims. But proof that the way we do things today doesn't have to be the way we do things in the future."

"The gig economy isn't replacing the traditional economy. It's propping it up in a way that convinces people it's not broken."

Petersen relies on impactful stats to help shed light on this generation. She is able to construct a vivid line from the disappearance of pension plans and the middle class to the rise of "concerted cultivation" parenting techniques and the soaring cost of child care -- all of which contribute to the prevalence of burnout.

"Millennials live with the reality that we're going to work forever, die before we pay off our student loans, potentially bankrupt our children with our care, or get wiped out in a global apocalypse."

"But the myth of the wholly self-made American, like all myths, relies on some sort of sustained willful ignorance -- often perpetuated by those who've already benefited from them."

Petersen even updated the book with a quick commentary on the coronavirus and it has exacerbated and shined a light on existing problems.

Granted, "Can't Even" is rampant with avoidable grammar issues. It's also littered with assumptions -- however, these may be unavoidable when you're trying to represent an entire generation. But as a non-millennial, I learned things reading this book - that's a win, in my estimation, as well as a call to continue to try to understand the generation that likely will need to salvage the post-reality society.

"The overarching clarity offered by this pandemic is that it's not any single generation that's broken, or fucked, or failed. It's the system itself."

" ... The refrains we return to -- that we're a land of opportunity, that we're a benevolent world superpower -- are false. That's a deeply discombobulating realization, but it's one that people who haven't navigated our world with the privileges of whiteness, middle class-ness, or citizenship have understood for some time. Some people are just now realizing the extent of the brokenness. Others have understood it, and mourned it, their entire lives."

Day 522, Quasi-Quarantine: The Summer Of "The Bad Batch" Hits Hyperspace

 

In a time of seemingly endless upheaval and confusion, one of the few constants this summer has been "The Bad Batch."

The number of shows that both kids enjoy can be counted on one finger, and this is it. One of the cool things about "The Bad Batch" is that you can see yourself in at least one character, whether it's Omega's relentless positivity, Echo's ability to overcome obstacles, Hunter's stoic leadership, Tech's bottomless pit of cleverness, or Wrecker's fearless aggression, there is something for everyone.

Additionally, the long-rumored Bad Batch shuttle ("The Havoc Marauder") was recently released by Lego, ending a months-long wait for my building partner. Our daily walks would inevitably include some mention of his wish that August would arrive, and bring with it the new set.

As we prepare to kiss another summer goodbye and send the kids back into the swirling vortex of school, emotions are running high. Something tells me we'll need to rely on the Bad Batch for more and more lessons as the months go by.

It would be hard to ask for a better model ...

Day 521, Quasi-Quarantine: "Parks and Recreation" Finds Its Center With Ron Swanson

 

So I largely missed out on "Parks and Recreation" when it was on the air, mostly dismissing it as a ripoff of "The Office" and moving on to other shows.

I mean, I wasn't wrong.

However, so many jokes and scenes from the show have entered the cultural lexicon that I figured it was time to check it out. While I'm still finding it somewhat difficult to fully commit, the "Ron and Tammy" episode from season two justified a lot of my attention.

Featuring the incredible Megan Mullaly as Ron Swanson's ex-wife, this episode had me rolling from start to finish. To this point in the series -- roughly halfway through the second season -- Nick Offerman (as Swanson) has been grossly underused.

I'm hoping this is the point where that changes, and "Parks and Recreation" moves to much more Ron Swanson and much less Tom Haverford.

"Every time she laughs, an angel dies. Even telemarketers avoid her."

Day 520, Quasi-Quarantine: The Painstaking Process Of Producing The Premier Pilot Warthog

One of our favorite obscure clone troopers is Warthog, a dynamic pilot in the Republic Navy's Hunter Squadron.

Often serving as the wingman for Jedi General Plo Koon, Warthog also joined the 104th Battalion at times to provide aerial support under Commander Wolffe.

Warthog was an ace pilot, most often flying BTL-B Y-wings, V-19 Torrents, or Z-95 starfighters. His most high-profile missions came in the Assault on Gwori, the First Battle of Felucia, and the Rescue on Kadavo.

Replicating Warthog's distinctive helmet was a definite challenge. Starting with a blank clone pilot helmet, we used a toothpick to mirror the design displayed in "The Clone Wars." 

The result was actually a bit better than we had anticipated -- and it has held up through numerous follow-up missions that feature Warthog piloting any number of Rebel or Resistance vehicles into battle.