Transplanting a Seattleite

Today, the WSJ had an article about AfoL who have devoted chunks of their house to their hobby (often people who started — not restarted, started — during the pandemic). It’s fun, and mostly supportive, hitting the various notes of how the spouse reacts, and leading with an adult woman fan, and how HVAC guys respond to basement lego rooms (What? And then Cool!).

I’ve been asked more than once if I was going to include a lego room in the new house (always no), and a big chunk of recent months has been dismantling and giving away large sets that were scattered around the house. I dismantled and gave away all along, but this was a compressed and somewhat rushed process. No regrets, and I’ve realized I’ve gotten much better at the dismantling process as a result, which is cool in its own way. Looking in the photos of lego rooms and seeing so many kits I’ve owned and given away, I can definitely see that my long history of getting rid of books so I could buy more books turned out to be quite valuable in terms of managing the impact of bricks on my life.

I really like the idea of joy that passes through my life and then goes to someone else. I don’t need to store or curate or memorialize joy. It’s fine that it happens and then goes on to touch someone else.

I walked with M.

R. took the meat compost, boxes and styrofoam over to the transfer station. Garage looks really orderly now.

A. wandered up to the 3rd floor and appears to like the new room quite a bit. In theory, we get carpet next Friday. Woot!

I took apart Lego Pyramid and gave it away. I moved a couple of the steampunk mickey clubhouse gang (specifically, minnie and daisy) sculptures over to my dresser, which reduced how much was on a bookcase in my office. Looks so much better. Yay! Also, I dusted, because there was a lot of dust on those.

I took apart the Lego 71741 Ninjago which is _huge_. So now the top of that cabinet looked kind of bare and I rearranged a bunch of lego flowers in vases. It’s nice now, and a bunch of tables and the top of the sideboard and so forth have more space on them. Baby steps!

A. and I listened to a lot of Maintenance Phase. That was interesting. I wound up delaying my lunch a lot (like, till 3) and then she wanted me to find her new earbuds and I lost my shit because I was hungry and that was an open ended task. I did find them for her. On her dresser. I then ordered 3 new pairs. I’ve decided that if you don’t lose airpods, and you can tolerate the way they fit, you really should only use those, because they last longer than everything else. You wind up buying so many of the cheap ones, that it is actually cheaper to buy apple. I think. Per hour usage may be a bigger factor here than I realize. Anyway, I bought her a new pair like the ones she has had many copies of already, and two different ones, to see if she likes any of those as well / better. They are due to arrive tomorrow morning.

I planned a concert outing, including dinner, but not parking. Gotta figure out parking.

I also moved the 3-in-1 pet shop coffee shop to the small bookcase, so I have space to put the Tudor Corner Modular, so I started the Tudor Corner modular. I should be reading Thursday Murder Club. Oh well!

I finished reading _Jesus and John Wayne_. It was awesome, and I am continuing to poke around researching various people and organizations that I became aware of as a result of reading it. Of course, most of the people writing about evangelicals / fundamentalists / complementarians / dominion / christian nationalists etc. are themselves quite conservative and thus the sort of people I knee-jerk avoid reading. If I want to learn this stuff, I’m stuck reading people who are part of this universe. I’ve had to make some adjustments to how I assess source quality — I’m certain that more adjustments will be required on an ongoing basis.

I asked A. permission to take apart her 41172 Lego (elf dragon build) to do an alt build. The alt build can be found here: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-43903/Lenarex/41172-elven-ship-water-dragon/ She said she wanted to do the alt build, so we wound up doing it together. It was fun, and it turned out really nice. She said that having an alt build to do when you get tired of having the original build around is like a whole new layer of happiness and fun. I agree!

We watched the Jungle Cruise yesterday. At an hour and fifteen minutes, there is a real eye-popping bit. I described it over on FB:

So, I watched Jungle Cruise. I like Disney, I like the boat ride (yes, I am wildly aware of the many problems, and feel free to hate me, the ride and Disney for those problems, completely justified. I’m wrong, you’re right.), I’d heard good things and I have Disney Plus and don’t mind paying for Premium Access. Also, I want Premium Access / simul-release to theaters and at home to continue forever, so I’m doing my part to encourage that. Anyway.

There is a Bit, that is absolutely astonishing. There are three main characters: Frank (Johnson, the River Boat Captain), Lily (Blount, the scientist searching for the tree with the medicinal properties), McGregor (Whitehall). Frank and Lily are the romantic leads; McGregor is Lily’s gay brother. Lily and McGregor think that Frank is dead, and then discover he is NOT dead, however, there is a sword poking all the way through him including his heart. The Bit is the dialogue and activity surrounding the removal of the sword from Frank. There is a native woman who has in the past removed weapons from Frank; shortly before the Bit, she reminds him that she told him last time she was never doing this again. McGregor shakes his head when Frank looks to him for help, so Frank gets Lily to do the honors. Here is the Bit:

Bit starts at about 1 hour 15 minutes if you want to watch it for yourself.

Lily: Look at it, just hanging out like that.
Frank: Well, it’s how it’s made.
Lily: It’s got a very strange shape, its have you seen it, out the back, it’s like booot [gestures] like that
Frank: It’s not, it’s kinda actually just straight
Lily: Ugh [heavy sigh] One hand, two hand, what do you want
Frank: Let’s try one
Lily: [puts hand on hilt]
Frank: You’re gonna need two hands
Lily: [pulls abruptly]
Frank: no no no no stop
Lily: What?!?
Frank: Gosh, that hurts.
Lily: No it doesn’t
Frank: How do you know?
MacGregor: Frank! Would you like to bite down on my stick [gestures to walking stick he is holding; he has earlier injured his leg]?
Frank: Nope, I’m good
Lily: No, for the pain
Frank: I understand what he means, but no, thank you.
MacGregor: There if you need it.
Lily: I’m feeling very uptight right now and it’s not helping me because I’m very nervous.
Frank: That’s okay, it’s okay to be nervous, it’s your first time. It is your first time, right?
Lily: yes You KNOW it’s my first time. frank
Frank: I know I know. I can tell. I’ve done this hundreds of times.
Lily: [shakes head once, clears throat] [whispers] I don’t know how to take that Frank.
Frank: This is special.
Lily: Is it?
Frank: It is.
Lily: [Yanks on sword, which moves slightly.]
Frank: Whoa you can’t do it like that it’s way too hard
MacGregor: would you like me to do a wiggle
Lily: Yes
Frank: No
MacGregor: I could pop round the back and give it a once over (circular hand gesture)
Frank: Nope, we’re good
MacGregor: OK
[woman who used to remove weapons for/from Frank] You know what always helps, if you put your foot on it
Frank: I’m a little nervous
Lily plans her foot firmly on Franks chest next to the sword: Don’t be nervous. Frank, I’m going to count to three.
Frank: You’re going to count?
Macgregor covers the eyes of the woman who used to do this.
Frank: I’m counting or
Lily: No, I’m counting. One [pulls sword out rapidly, falls over]
Frank: ahhhhh
macgregor faints

The movie rating is PG-13, and indicates that is for adventure violence. Also, from the WaPo What to Watch with Your Kids (https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/what-to-watch-with-your-kids-jungle-cruise-snake-eyes-gi-joe-origins-and-more/2021/07/28/) to help families decide whether they can/should bring their children or not, this would appear to be the relevant part:

“One conversation about removing a knife from someone’s body could be perceived as suggestive (though the double meaning will likely go over kids’ heads)”

Ok, sure that _could_ be viewed as suggestive or it _could be viewed_ as a shout out to all those fan fic writers who were already dying to ship the Captain, Lily and her gay brother.

If you have a kid who got all that the first time they watched the movie, I can pretty much guarantee you’ve got a kid reading fan fic.

Also, if you are not sure what “ship” might mean, oh, honey, there is a whole World of Awesome out there just waiting for you to discover it. If you know what shipping means, but would like a new vein of dad humor to mine, check this out:

https://www.universalcargo.com/international-shipping-definitions-vs-urban-dictionary-definitions/