Rebranding

I love how fanny packs have been rebranded as "sling bags".

En-compass-ing thoughts

If you could only hear the laugh track I hear!

Anyway, I saw a post on another blog I enjoy and realized that I, too, had backed the referenced Kickstarter. And that made me think of yet another fancy compass I've obtained. So, without further ado, let me speak of compasses. Compassi? What is the plural for compass? Meh, I don't care. Moving on...

The Sailor's Compass by Oceanus Brass

I keep saying I'm going to quit Kickstarter and I never do. Oceanus Brass is one of those Kickstarter creators that make it difficult, if not impossible, for me to ever truly quit. They do nautical-themed things. Doodads. Brass utility knives and sailing gear. They came out with a Kickstarter for their Sailor's Compass and the next thing I knew, I was backing it. Despite the pandemic madness, they sent out the compass pretty quickly. It's a neat little thing. I mean, it's a compass, so it's not like it fires lasers or cuts boxes, but it's a simple, beautiful, functional tool It looks a bit like the sort of ladies' compact my grandmother used to carry about. It's about two inches in diameter and has a glow insert for use in poor or no lighting. I keep it in my "Go Bag", mostly because I think it's too gorgeous to just sit on a shelf and collect dust.

Heirloom Dual Sapphire Titanium Compass

On the topic of gorgeous things, at some point not long after I got the Oceanus Brass compass, I was perusing CountyComm's website, as I am wont to do, and lo, among the new items, was the Heirloom Dual Sapphire Titanium Compass. I couldn't tell you why I succumbed, exactly. It could have been "retail therapy" due to isolation and madness from the COVID Pandemic. It could have been because this compass is just so damn gorgeous. It could have been both. Oh, I bet it was probably both. Anyway, I got one. This compass is about half the size of the Sailor's Compass. It looks mainly like a sort of fob one might have when wearing an old-fashioned waistcoat or vest. It looks a little like a small pocketwatch, to be honest. And I love those, so that might have been part of the appeal. Like the Sailor's Compass, the Heirloom Compass is a functional thing that's also beautiful. The north indicator on the needle glows in the dark, should one need to know north without lights, and it comes (came?) with a little leather sleeve to hold it. I have to admit that every now and again, I'll carry this compass around, even though I don't need one in an urban area. It's just a fun little bauble to carry around.

I suppose I'm good to find north, provided I'm away from strong magnets and the like. And, if anything, I've got some lovely things to talk about.

Stranger Things - the best 80s nostalgia

I just finished watching season 4 of "Stranger Things" and it left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling of weird nostalgia for the 80s (a decade I didn't especially enjoy when I lived through it).

I gather that Season 5 will conclude the series, though spin-offs are apparently still on the table. I hope that one of those spin-offs have Dustin and Steve off doing side adventures, 'cause those two are hilariously-awesome. I'd also take good time to watch the adventures of Max and Eleven doing whatever those two feel like doing. They should bring in Erika Sinclair in for maximum awesome, though.

All told, I have a number of hopes for season five of the show:

• More Max being awesome. I've decided that Sadie Sink's portrayal of Max Mayfield has made her my favorite character.
• More Steve and Dustin. For the most part, I'm inclined to think the male characters of "Stranger Things" get the short end of the stick in terms of meaty roles, but Joe Keery and Gaten Matarazzo have been given a gift from the writers with Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson.
• Give Maya Hawke's Robin Buckley a happy ending. Her character rocks. It's the 80s and not a good time for a girl to come out of the closet, so indulge in fantasy and give her a happy time, eh?
• I'm rooting for Caleb McLaughlin's Lucas Sinclair and Sadie Sink's Max Mayfield, but for the love of Cthulhu, I wish the writers woudl give McLaughlin more to do.
• On the topic of characters who need more to do... good lord. Finn Wolfhard's Mike Wheeler, Noah Schnapp's Will Byers, and Charlie Heaton's Jonathan Byers were nothing more than pointless oxygen consuption and wasted screen time in the last two seasons. I really hope the writers can come up with something for these characters to do that's useful. It was painful to watch Will Byers do his pining over Mike and it did little to move the plot forward. Jonathan Byers did exactly nothing of use in the season other than be a sort of love-interest for Natalia Dyer's Nancy Wheeler (who is SO FAR out of his league it's painful). And, while I feel bad for Finn Wolfhard. The character of Mike Wheeler has been sidelined to the point of being... uh... pointless for the last two seasons. The writers really need to think of something for the character to do other than be "heart".

I feel sad for the Hawkins, Indiana tourist board.

Deconstruction of Heroes - a really annoying trend

I found it was really getting to me when Steven Moffatt took over "Doctor Who".

"Doctor Who" had transitioned from the Russell T. Davies reboot to Moffatt, who had written some of the best, and most haunting, episodes during the Davies tenure.

Under Davies, there was a fair amount of deconstruction of the Doctor's character and personality. A lot of trying to get into the character's head and part the mystery, but for some reason, I didn't find it too much. Then Moffatt stepped in and just kept going bonkers with incomprehensible story arcs that just orbited the Doctor in a bonkers fashion. And he went further in trying to deconstruct the character and break apart all the mystery that made the Doctor so interesting. He even invented an entire incarnation (the "War Doctor") to go nuts on the mythology.

I would up giving up on the show after a while. I've read a bit about what Chris Chibnall has done for the show's mythology and... no regrets from walking away.



Then Rogue One: A Star Wars Story came out.

I have to admit, I didn't think Rogue One was a bad story, exactly. It was just... unnecessary. I honestly didn't need an entire rambling caper telling me how the Rebels got the plans to the Death Star. And having watched the movie, with the really insanely contrived plot twists, it didn't do the story any favors, imho.



Then came the Han Solo movie. I watched a trailer and... nope. I really didn't need an entire movie trying to pidgeonhole in all of Han's backstory so we could see the Kessel Run and how he won the Millennium Falcon. Honestly, that much naked Disney greed to milk more and more out of the fanbase was too much for me.



Around the same time, I think Rian Johnson's The Force Awakens came out and we got treated to PTSD Luke Skywalker, with his addiction to alien blue milk, fresh from the alien teat.

Wow. Yeah.

Watching the heroic Jedi from Return of the Jedi turned into a broken old man with a milk fetish was way over-the-line. I was somewhat annoyed that Abrams had turned Han and Leia into a divorced couple, with Han a scrounger on the run, but given the plot thread of killing off Han, it seemed pointless to get irriated. Turning Luke into an attempted child-murderer and weirdo hermit was just way too much.

I was done with Star Wars at that point.



"The Mandalorian" came along and, I gotta admit, I found myself hooked on the franchise again. Then they did "The Book of Boba Fett" and... really? I mean, making the cool character from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi return was... okay, I guess? Turning him into a weirdly-broken, weak, and kind of pathetic wanna-be sheriff/boss on Tatooine was really unnecessary. If the show hadn't jumped to the Mandalorian for a bit, I'd have written the whole thing off as a waste of time.



And now we've got "Obi-Wan Kenobi".

So, honestly, I never saw a point to telling a story of Obi-Wan's time in exile. There was no way he was doing anything especially-noteworthy during his time as a desert hermit, right?

I'll admit, what they've got going is somewhat-intriguing. A side-quest to rescue young Leia is intriguing. It's unclear if she knows who he is and the attention paid to some details has been fun, but honestly I really don't need to see broken Ben Kenobi, cowering in the shadows. And there's a lot of that, three episodes in.



This trend to take heroic characters from various series and put them through some kind of blender to squeeze some kind of drama from their past tales - stories told after the character's performed their main heroic arc - is demeaning to the character and kinda lazy storytelling. It's a really irritating trend, and I really wish it would stop.

I'm enjoying parts of "Obi-Wan Kenobi". I have to admit, I like the new villain characters. The girl playing young Leia is awesome. Bringing back Owen Lars was well-done. I'm ambivalent about the return of Darth Vader. Seems kind of pandering, but I suppose the entire series is that.

"The Kaiju Preservation Society" by John Scalzi

Imagine if you will, "Jurassic Park" only with snarky Millennials and Godzilla-like creatures put through a Lovecraftian filter and set on an alternate Earth.

Then set it at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

That, my friends, is "The Kaiju Preservation Society", by John Scalzi. And my current favorite book (or in my top five, anyway).

I'm honestly not sure what else to say about the book without spoiling things. It's filled with wonder, hilarity, and has a suitable villain for our times. The protagonists are engaging and fun while the setting is awesome.

I'll be shocked if this isn't picked up by HBO or Netflix or someone and converted into a series. Hopefully it will be converted by someone who knows their shit instead of some hacks who will destroy the fun parts.

Thoughts on "Pacific Rim: The Black"

Season 2 of "Pacific Rim: The Black" aired on Netflix last week. I binged it. Now, as my seasonal allergies kick me in the brain stem, I find myself processing it.

"The Black" is a sequel (I think) to Pacific Rim 2. Set in Australia, the Precursors (the extradimensional aliens behind the invading kaiju) open multiple rifts in Australia, overwhelming that land with kaiju. The Pacific Defence force (it has a fancy name that I forget just now) enacts a protocol to cut off Australia from the rest of the world and leave it to its own devices because of reasons.

Mind you, I don't understand what the reasons are, but when you watch Pacific Rim, you don't worry about the details too much.

"The Black" follows the Travis family. Parents Brina and Ford Travis are Rangers who pilot a Jaeger. Young Taylor Travis is a cadet, learning to become a Ranger and pilot of a Jaeger (and kind of shit at it). Young and headstrong Hayley is the baby of the group. For reasons, Brina and Ford leave their children with some survivors of the frenzied and chaotic evacuation of Australia in some kind of isolated and idyllic haven, then go off for help.



Five years later, it seems Brina and Ford ain't coming back. Taylor has grown into a teenage control freak with a stick up his ass. Hayley is a brat determined to get out of the idyllic haven and try to get off of Australia, despite the continent being overrun with kaiju. Things happen. The kids come across an abandoned Jaeger named Atlas Destroyer with a fancy talking AI to guide them. Atlas Destroyer, being a training Jaeger, is unarmed and needs proper power cells. That leads to hilarity that has the annoying protagonists come across the mysterious Boy, a mute child in an abandoned government lab, and Mei, a gun-toting teenager with attitude who works for the ruthless Shane, an Aussie warlord in a casual suit who wants Atlas Destroyer.

Whew!

Shenanigans ensue. Turns out Shane has Jaeger drift tech and uses it to do a mind-whammy on Taylor. He steals Atlas Destroyer and tries to have the kids killed, but Mei swoops to the rescue. They all jaunt off in Atlas Destroyer as a dysfunctional family with interpersonal strife and... wow does the story go off the rails.

Season two introduces the Sisters, some goth-mask wearing cult women who work with hybridized kaiju. They want Boy because it turns out Boy ain't a normal boy. More shenanigans. Then we have our conclusion that ends our weird anime excursion.

Yeah, I hastily summed up the plot there, but I have to say, season two really didn't make a lot of sense. It offered a lot of mystery, but answered no questions posed in season one, and really just made all the characters annoying as hell. Except Boy. Boy was just Boy.

All-in-all, I appreciated what "Pacific Rim: The Black" was trying to do. It was trying to be Pacific Rim: Road Warrior. It was doing pretty well in season one, getting that mojo down. The character of Mei was clearly the writers' favorite, with her attitude, lethal skills, and dance moves. I'll be honest: she was pretty much my favorite as well, along with Boy. Those two seemed to have the most interesting stories going for them. The Travis family was just a bunch of dead weight, as far as the narrative went. They were agencies of moving the plot along, but I wouldn't call them especially sympathetic characters. In the end, I really wanted to know Mei's story and what the deal was with what Shane did to her. And I wanted to know exactly wtf Boy's story was. Like explicitly. But the writers didn't seem interested in actually answering questions. They concluded their story the way they wanted and... uh... well that was that.

There were some good mecha vs monster fights, mainly in season one. Season two spent way too much time trying to delve into contrived conflicts, which frankly distracted heavily from what season one set down. It was disappointing, but such is the way of things.

Disney+ Star Wars stuff

Late to the party, I've finally seen "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett" in their entirety.

I have to agree with the general sense that "The Mandalorian" is brilliant and the sort of Star Wars that fans deserve, rather than the incoherent, mishmashed, drivel that was the last three films. And yet, I have questions.

First of all, does every desert planet have Jawas? Did they just migrate from Tatooine or did they migrate to Tatooine at some point?

What the hell is up with Tatooine anyway? For a planet that's furthest from the bright center to the universe, it seems like everyone and their cousins heads out there for this or that.

Is it a requirement for someone in Mandalorian armor to learn to speak Tusken? Or are Mando and Boba Fett just special?

Tatooine is a desert planet, right? I mean, I've seen no bodies of water and "moisture farming" is a thing. So... where the hell are people getting the wood for planks and the Tusken stick weapons?

So Boba Fett. Wow. He's a crime lord who doesn't do crime anymore? How does that work, exactly? Though that's the sort of logic I'd expect from a dude who got punk-smacked by Han Solo and wound up in a Sarlacc pit.

So Luke is not the last Jedi and that's kind of an established thing when he's starting up his Jedi school, before he starts going into attempted nephew-murder and drinking blue milk from the source. So... huh. That kind of makes Rian Johnson's movie even more bullshit, doesn't it?