Con Report: Fandomonium I

   Fandomonium! was today. Although not spelled with an exclamation mark, I feel like it should be. (I'll take it up with Toben and Alaire...)

   BYU-I, Fandomonium[!], sort of a mini Comic-Con, except for free, and from 1:00-4:00, and although there's been Fan Faire and Anime Con here in the past, this is the first of the Fandomonium[!]s, (or Fandomonia[!] I suppose,) being a spiritual successor/combination of both.

   I took almost 400 photos of the event, and wanted to share with you, the best of the best. Top 1-ish%, here. There are loads of others I like, and even more that I like in spite of being blurry as heck, but I don't want to post a recognizable non-public face without permission (i.e., people from panels and booths are okay to post photographs of.) Which is most of them. Also I don't want to post up the blurry ones. 

   So cream of the crop it is then. Though you miss out on some of the cosplays.

   The event in question was 3 hours of nirvana. There were panels (3 different ones!), and video games (3 different consoles!) and also, a performance by the excellent Apollo A Cappella (like their Facebook page!)

   They performed the famous John Williams tribute medley. Jimmy, who is in it and sings tenor, plays the part of Luke: "I waaaas gonna go to Tosche/ statiiiiion for power converters..."

   There were also artist's booths (the videographer in the above photograph was such an artist.) Though you can't sell anything, this still being a school event, you can still give stuff away! I've got a tiny little Discord now hanging from my camera strap, from booth of said videographer.

   Cosplay was encouraged. I've never really cosplayed before, but I had to do something. Using duct tape and markers, and a blue t-shirt, and a white button up and all that-- not to mention the hair gel-- I Clark Kent'd myself. And, hey, am now officially an also-ran. (There was a, contest, for best costume there... yeah. Winners announced, also by Jimmy, but chosen by the attendees through secret ballot.)

   Spider-Man here came in third place in the cosplay contest ("hey everyone,") and won a random keychain deal of one of the characters from Attack on Titan. Pretend I know which one!

   Masks technically aren't allowed, this still being a school event, but I think Spider-Man gets a by. Because, Spider-Man.

Zootopia: One Week In (Observations Over One Viewing Per Day)

   It's been a week since Zootopia came out. It's still number one at the box office. And I have, on average, now seen it one time per day, each day it's been out, Friday to Friday. (Is this the seventh day it's been out, or the eighth? If we count the first day as being the first day, then... Yes, this is the eighth. But if we say of the first day, that it hasn't yet been out a day, then that makes that day zero, so this is day seven... so, I guess, here you can stick the Thursday late-night premiere on, making it an even day eight and balancing out the one-viewing-per-day average.)

   Friday to Friday, then, I've seen Zootopia eight times, so far. Eight! Is that obsessive? I don't know-- I'd only really intended to see it once this evening, but there was this power surge during the climax of the 5:05 3D showing, the picture cutting out as Nick and Judy ducked behind the pillar to dress Judy's leg injury, the audio continuing to play for a while until it too cut out right almost immediately after "it's called a hustle, sweetheart. Boom." I'm counting that a full viewing, because, yeah that's basically a full viewing, that was the climax right there.

   The screening did cut out, though, with the power surge, and so they allowed us refunds, or tickets swapped for another showing. I chose a partial refund to catch the next 2D showing, 7:50 screen 6. Partial refund still counts as a ticket swap, though, so my 3D ticket got torn up and tossed in the trash. I did manage to find another ticket for the same screening (for the scrapbook y'understand,) in the theater before anyone else arrived for the 7:50 (which turned out to be packed.) This ticket was for ridiculously cheap, having been purchased on some kind of pass; my original ticket for that screening was, even with my student discount, the single most expensive movie ticket I've even purchased.

   But, like I said, I got that refunded. That viewing now having technically been for free, the champ is Avatar, once again.

   The power surge had messed up all of the screens, the screen for theater 6 taking them longest to reboot, and they only managed to get it up a little after the showing was slotted to begin, so we didn't even have to sit through the apotheosis of Scrat or anything, skipped straight over the trailers and just started the movie for us.

   It's great sitting in with different audiences for the film. Sometimes "let it go" gets a big laugh, other times it doesn't. Sometimes people get the (actually surprisingly elaborate) Breaking Bad reference, other times they don't. What I've noticed to always get a response, throughout eight separate screenings, are these:

• When the male sheep child remarks "that looks bad" regarding 9-year-old Judy's facial wound at the claws of young Gideon Grey, at least one person always cracks, "that looks baa-aa-ad." If the audience is substantial enough, of course. Wednesday 11:55 2D viewing, I was the only one in the theater, so, well even when I say "always gets a response" by necessity that means when the audience is substantial enough.
• So, anyway, when the train pulls up to the Bunnyburrow station and the critters of various sizes meander off, there are always whispers of, "so cute!"
• Judy getting Gary to start that howl. Full stop, one of the biggest laughs every single time, for some reason.
• One thing I've noticed is, Gideon Grey's line about "talking in tongues" always also gets a huge laugh?

   Having seen the sloth trailer so many times, (although yeah kind of expanded and altered here and there in the movie,) it was great at first, but went away; but both times this evening, I thought it was a riot, for some reason, somehow. I had to let myself get caught up in the surprise again, difficult even with that emotional amnesia-whatever-it-is I've apparently got, but yeah it was possible. Sloths! At the DMV! Daaang, isn't that classic! How true that is!

   Eight viewings in, and I'm still learning things. Like how the visuals are so redundant to the audio, which the image cutting out during the climax of the 5:05 viewing only served to confirm. "Claw marks," "Claw marks, big ones," "a tiny otter did that?" Mostly just the scenes that had to deal with claw marks, actually, yeah. Like we can't tell what they are ourselves? "It's NIGHT!?," one that always struck me as egregious but which makes sense now in this context.

   Eight viewings in, one per day, just like my original conception of watching the apparently far less rewatchable Lion King once a day for a year and blogging about it. I'm doing that, right now, with Zootopia. So far. That was the dream with Lion King, and though of course I'm not going to keep this average-viewing-per-day trend up, watching one Zootopia per day, it's possible, just like the old dream. Which means... I don't know what that means. What does that mean?

   "What does that mean?" Benjamin Clawhauser. One of the lines that never stops being funny (actually, most of his stuff is like that-- "I gotta go sit down.") The excessive bleeding gag always cracks me up too, eight viewings in, and still terribly rewatchable, but other than that, like with the sloths, the humor, it...

   It's weird. Fantastic Mr Fox has tremendous rewatchability, with none of the humor ever growing stale. The funny things in that movie are just, always funny, somehow. Zootopia, a lot of the jokes are, well perhaps I'd watched the sloth trailer too extensively which explains that bit, but other than that: Judy's got 275 brothers and sisters; Mr Big's being a shrew, the smallest of the mammals; "I may be just a dumb bunny, but we are good at multiplying." All of these, boom, funny. The first time. Once you already know the joke, it's kind of... well, it's never that funny after that. It's reveal-based humor. Pretty quotable, but bound to get stale.

   I can allow myself to forget the emotions of previous viewings, great. But I'm still not sure if that means the movie would be able to stand up to such repeated viewings...

   I do have high hopes for the inevitable (?) sequel, however, and think that it could be even better than the first one. We already are acclimatized to this world, and are freer to explore it than the sometimes superficial explorations we could afford within the 108 minutes of the first movie. Foundations could be deeper. Humor could be deeper. And... holy crap, so there's this Zootopia movie Disney's coming out with, about this bunny cop who has to team up with this scam artist fox...?

   Huh. All this time into it, and that still happens to me.

Gallos Humor

   Faith in humanity: restored! Though I'm not sure where my faith in humanity went in the first place-- it may have something to do with the fact that I discovered how terrible I am at drawing sans reference, at the same time that a really weird cold front came down, so I just felt really out of it for a bit there? And that somehow wrecked my faith in the potential of the human race for excellence? But this (likewise somehow) restored it!

   So I took the shuttle impetuously on up to Walmart, like I do sometimes instead of walking impetuously up there. The bus track is on a 45-minute loop, making stops at strategic locations, and chilling for a bit in front of the store before it's scheduled to leave again. I never buy anything (unless there are kickin' new Zootopia books I can't find anywhere else of course) and so either I can loiter for 45 minutes for the shuttle to come around again, or just leave on the same shuttle after having done no shopping. This time I loitered.

   The new Walmart here, I keep forgetting, has only one shelf for books- on the reverse side is the single shelf for CDs, and an aisle or two of DVDs. Seasonal displays up, like life-size Star Wars: the Force Awakens cardboard cutouts (because Star Wars is a season now) but also a lot of low-budget Easter movies for kids. And you know what Easter movies for kids means...

   That's right. It's egg pun time. Specifically, for some reason, "egg pun + the word 'adventure'" time. Every. single. time. I'm... I'm not sure how that's possible. But there's only one egg pun in the entire list of egg puns that isn't followed by the word "adventure," in the whole list of movies whose titles or BOBs had an egg pun somewhere, and those being multitudinous (BOB = back of the box.) Each egg pun had to do with an adventure! Each one!

   There's probably a biological component? Something in the eggs' DNA? Eggs being nothing but DNA, this makes sense, I guess. The Baby Looney Tunes' Eggs[picture of an egg instead of a hyphen]traordinary Adventure (Premiere Movie) actually doesn't have any punnage at all on the BOB, which is remarkably rare. We'll be looking at a few repeat offenders down below. 

   So, first (or second?) yeah let's say, second, off, or first not counting the pun-less Baby Looney Tunes thing, first off: 

   Barney Egg-cellent Adventure. Egg? Check. Adventure? Check. Alright, moving on to the BOB:

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   Okay, so, aside from the Barney-isms, which we won't be counting, there's, basket pun, check, second egg pun using a different word this time, check, and invocations of the whole family, check. And the word, "adventures." Check, I guess. Rating: are... are we rating these? Using what scale? 

   Fine, I give it, a full seven, on the Kinsey scale. It's Barney, come on, you always suspected... 

   Poor joke? Poor joke? I'm sorry. I give it, I don't know, four eggs, short of a dozen?

   Next up: Eggy!

   Which name isn't actually a pun. It's just, Eggy. That's, the character's name. The tagline of the film is, "the hunt is on to crack the case," so there's your pun for you right there. This one's from Italy, and, well I'm not sure what its name was originally, actually, but there's talk in the production credits on the BOB of, "Pet Pals," so that might be it? And, sorry, the glare was just really bad in there, I couldn't get a decent shot of this one's title, apparently.

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   Alright, so, first of all: egg-citing, check, adventure, check, points for style for the grammatically incorrect but punny "lays" instead of "lies." That was just, I flipped my lid when I realized that they knew what they were doing.

   Second off: "eggs in one basket" pun, check. Unironic use of the phrase "furry friends," additional awesomeness points. The word "adventure" again, but this time without a pun when using the word "exciting?" All twelve, all twelve eggs, good sir.

   Okay, what the heck is next?

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   D-Dora's, Easter Adventure, alright... This was from a two-pack Dora DVD set, so I've got nothing but the BOB for this one. So, alright, anyway: egg-citing Easter Adventure, pretty chill, pretty chill, and... eh what's this, the Hip-Hop Bunny? Friiiig that's the coolest thing I've heard all day, and with only one pun (egg-based, and followed by the word "adventure!') I'm giving you also, a full dozen eggs. And why the heck not, make that a baker's dozen, I'm feeling generous. Alright, alright, what's next?

    Little Rooster's EGG-CELLENT Adventure, yeah, alright, see, whaddai tell you. I've actually heard of this one, it's like the highest grossing animated film of all time in Mexico, or something. And, though it's a kids' movie, it's a Mexican kids' movie, which means that the original Spanish language version is PG-13 in the states. Which is just, awesome (we got any El Arca fen in the house?)... That's right, the title under the English title, so lovingly and appropriately rendered in all-cap Comic Sans: Un Gallo con Mucho Huevos, a Rooster with a Lotta Bal-- um, Eggs. A lot of eggs. That, that receiving a PG-13 for suggestive content and sexual references? Who'd'a thunk it.

   But those words don't mean all that they do in English! So, we get egg puns. Egg-cellent, check, adventure, check, testicular double-entendre only in Spanish original title, check, moving onto the BOB now:

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   Okay, this, this is the one where the egg pun wasn't followed up almost immediately or at all with the word "adventure." But I'm going to give this one to them, because, "cracking up" pun, check, and then instead of the word "adventure" being anywhere here (it's in the title already anyway) the exact same pun from before is repeated. And that pun involving an invocation of the whole family? Tubular. Totally, totally tubular.

   Ranking: low hanging fruit. You can work out the egg count for yourself... And I'm going to stop myself right there...

   This next one's from China:

   Okay, so, Hatched. Sean Astin, Jeff Foxworthy, and exactly zero other voice actors apparently, throughout the whole film. Usually I crop my photos to just the title of the movie on the DVD cover, but I had to include the whole cover here because, glare strikes again, which I only realized when I got home and began looking through all the photos I'd taken. There's a sooouper alluring anthropomorphic lady chicken-thing right there where the lighting glare exactly is, if you can believe it, and it's just such a perfect censorship that I had to use this one. Dove approved all ages, yeah, I can imagine the things that that avian lady did to get the dove to go along with that...

   (I'm sorry. It's just-- the egg puns, in Spanish. They've corrupted me...)

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   Okay, so, BOB time. First of all, just glancing over the plot and everything, let's see, animal neighbors, an outer space alien named Magic, rescue mission, baby chicks in planes... yep, yep, it's a fairly standard Chinese children's movie plot, alright (I'm not kidding; you seen any Chinese kids' films?) And, scanning through it for puns now, we... oh. my. my oh my.

   Egg rating: you broke them. All the eggs, they're broken now.

   So, yehhh. Like I said, faith in humanity, restored!

   Also, there was We're Back! a Dinosaur's Story on DVD for a steal of $5. If there's one movie I've been meaning to rewatch lately, uuuummmm not counting Zootopia, it's We're Back!. Only my card was in my right breast pocket, in my double-breasted shirt, and I couldn't find it, and the shuttle was to be leaving in 30 seconds, so I was all, man I don't need this, I could just double check at the library I guess to see if it's there this time. And within 30 seconds of the bus pulling away, I found my card. So. Oh well. I got an Amazon Digital Music promotional credit my order of the Zootopia soundtrack, which arrived today, so I guess I can spend that dollar on Roll Back the Rock (to the End of Dawn), which is the only real reason I want to see We're Back! again...

A Contract with God

   The eighth chapter of Moroni in the Book of Mormon is an insertion of a letter that, the titular Mormon, wrote to his, titular son Moroni, railing against the baptism of infants. New World (i.e. Mesoamerican/Nephite) Christianity seems to have been going through a lot of the same questions as Christianity in the Old World at the time, interestingly, and I wonder how we'd have this doctrine if it weren't for Mormon's complaints against the practice. He lays it out pretty simply, and logically, but there's no logic he used specific to Mormonism whereby he draws his conclusions, just being commanded by God to speak so boldly (Moroni 8:21.)

   Last I checked, on TV Tropes's page for the Book of Mormon, book, in regard to Moroni 8 says, "Some Anvils Need to be Dropped," and, it's hard to disagree with that tropic assessment. (Dropping an anvil on one's head = metaphor for hammering the moral of the story into one's face. Usually just corny or obnoxious, but, well, some anvils...) If they went the wrong way in the Old World, and started twitching in that direction in the New, then we very well in the Latter Days may have needed some clearing up on that, actually, if it weren't for this epistle...

   James 2:26, Faith without works is dead, which is one that Mormons love to pull out to justify why we love works so goshdarn much, but works can also be dead-- that's the language that Mormon uses in verse 23-- it's "...mockery before God, denying the mercies of Christ, and the power of his Holy Spirit, and putting trust in dead works." Baptism is a covenant, a contract with God, and it requires... the ability to make contracts. Cognizance. Even if not 100% of everything that's going to be required, at least a realization that something's going to be required for salvation and blessings to flow. We renew our contract through weekly communal sacrament (communal means related to the communion, right? pretty sure?) and in so doing, we're supposed to remember the covenant made.

   (It's, Putting It All Together #3 time in my Book of Mormon class, and I'm kind of glad, because not only can I talk about this topic I didn't realize that I've got so much to say about, also I don't have to think of anything else to write about today. Zootopia. I'd be writing about, Zootopia.)

   I didn't even mean to talk so much specifically about Moroni 8, just, I noticed this while studying, but the timeline and process of Old World and New World Christianity, how they were both experiencing some of the exact same schism, um, ing. But baptism has always been kind of fascinating to me, like how as a covenant this thing, going under the water and coming back out, it's absolutely necessary in order to make it through the Gate. That's the gate of Paradise, of course, but to expand that idea, the whole process, the whole path, baptism is the gate: 2 Nephi 31:17-18:

"Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost.  

"And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive." 

   Whoa. Baptism, is, the gate, and it isn't baptism itself that cleanses from sin, but the Holy Ghost. Baptism is the gate, but, Acts 19:1-5, it needs to be under the proper authority. Robert D Hales, in the October 2000 General Conference, delivered an address about baptism being a covenant that separates us from the world, while giving us added responsibility toward the world. "Jesus taught, 'My kingdom is not of this world' (John 18:36). These words led me to ponder more concerning His kingdom. I concluded that when we are baptized by immersion by one with the proper priesthood authority and choose to follow our Savior, we then are in His kingdom and of His kingdom... At baptism we make a covenant with our Heavenly Father that we are willing to come into His kingdom and keep His commandments from that time forward, even though we still live in the world." (Find full address here; it has a lot more specifically about responsibilities and recognizing the importance of the covenant.)

   This is what I find so fascinating about the topic, how the knowledge of the proper promises and mode of baptism fundamentally changes our Church organization and lifestyle, building it around this-- baptism needs proper authority, right, and so it's not enough just to believe and be baptised you have to be baptised right, by the right authority, and so there's a fundamental need of the Church to spread out as wide as possible and bring conversion, not because we think our church is more fun or because we need converts for their money or anything, even if you're already a Christian you need the right baptism, and it spirals out from there, and it's the reason why we do family history work, and just so much is connected to this one idea, of "one Lord one faith one baptism" as in Ephesians 4:5. Like I said, kind of fascinating?

   (A cool thing about this particular Putting It All Together assignment is that we can choose to do it on any of the lessons we've discussed in class hereto, instead of having to do it on a lesson learned between this and the last PIATs. And so I chose this topic.)

   Most of Lesson 9, The Doctrine of Christ: Baptism and the Sacrament, revolved around that second thing, the sacrament, the renewal of the covenant. Which covenant is the taking upon oneself the name of Christ, so the sacrament is a sort of, re-Christianization. That... could be, a topic for another day?

The World Is Very Strange, and Wonderful, and I Weigh the Same as Seven Apples

   Apparently, if you Google too many suspicious phrases in a row, then Google thinks that you might be a robot, and asks you to read a CAPTCHA for it. I guess it makes sense, but it's kind of condescending, if you're the type to, Google a lot of suspicious phrases in a row...

   GOOGLE: "I weigh as much as a carrot?" You serious you want to Google that, bro? Here, spell the word, "spoldene." You know, just to be sure.
   ME: Okay.

The astute reader may note that the CAPTCHA above is not in fact "spoldene," which means that this thing happened to me more than once. Wee.

   I'm as tall as a carrot, that's it. No wonder I didn't get any (pertinent) hits. Of course I got hits unrelated to what I was searching for... There sure are a lot of really really specific websites out there... The World Carrot Museum; they're also on Twitter. That's actually kind of good to know...

   Ahem.

   Meanwhile, seriously who the heck weighs as much as seven apples? It just boggles the imagination... (Couldn't get any hits for that, either, though I swear I've heard that out there somewhere... well, it'll get a hit now, at least.)

Memento, My Brain and Zootopia: I am Making None of This Up

   You know Leonard Shelby, Guy Pearce's character in Christopher Nolan's Memento? I think that, it must be that, I've got what he's got-- not with, actual physical memories, but with emotions. Emotional memories. Which is kind of great walking down the street, and suddenly realizing, hey! I'm walking down the street, where am I, how did these buildings get here, golly what an interesting place. It makes it tough to get bored. Is a positive. I guess.

   Anterograde, amnesia, that's the term. I was thinking, anteretrograde amnesia, which, in case you didn't notice, makes absolutely no sense. Anterograde. Loss of memory from after a specific trauma or event... so, no, it's not that, just the idea of, being caught up in a foot chase and realizing, oh, hey, I'm in a foot chase! I must chasing this guy... no, wait, he's chasing me... How, even though I'd be able to remember the start of the chase and the context that surrounds it, that's still totally something that I would do.

   Looking into amnesia now, maaaan even if this emotional whatever were a thing, there'd be no way of proving it. I'm not even sure what effect a diagnosis would have... it's not like it's a, disfunction or anything... It's about the romantic notion of the thing, more than any specific science. The pop culture, of the thing. The foot chase, how it could happen to me.

   So even now, when I look at, Zootopia, I go through this sort of miniature process, Zootopia what's one of those, oh that, yeah that's coming out, no wait it's already out, no wait it's already out and I've seen it. The first steps of realization all within maybe .5 seconds, with a good one or two seconds for that last one to sink in. Sink in, but never, feel, real.

   Occasionally there's a, wait a minute, Zootopia, something's funny about that, oh I know what it must be, didn't you mean Zootropolis?

   Yep. Looking at that word, right now, "zootopia," it just feels kind of foreign. Like some, alien, thing, which I've got no idea what it is. But, turns out it's this thing Disney's doing, about this fox con artist and this bunny rookie cop, and they're all like, "hey there's this mystery we've got to team up to solve," and, then, and then, well now, wait a minute, animals can't talk! What the &#@!, Disney!? You trying to pull a fast one on m--... oh. Never mind. Proceed.

   I, guess it's better than my heart giving out from the sheer excitement that, this is a thing that I'm not making up at all. I am very excited for it, and I sincerely look forward to seeing-- no, wait... I already have... isn't that interesting...

   Yes. Whatever it is that I've got, I've definitely got it.

   Also, while we're on the topic I seriously think that I have bouts of selective mutism. And random mild anxiety attacks. But the attacks are, whatevs, and, even with something more crippling like the mutism, I really question what a formal diagnosis is going to be able to do...

Zootopia Fridge Logic: Spoilers, Man

   We put our hopes and dreams into your hands, Walt, and you didn't let us down. We looked forward to it, and it's here, and though usually when that happens we are suddenly rendered purposeless, not so here: we still have something to look forward to, in, seeing it again I guess. Which I do do. (No Art 125 class Wednesday night, so I can totally catch the, man just whichever, viewing in there before CBW at 7:00, even if my Monday and Tuesday nights are crammed of mondo homework.)

   It sucks how good this movie is. How fresh is it as a tomato, 99, 100%? Going in to see Force Awakens, I didn't let myself get swept away until about 2/3rds of the way through it. Going into see Zootopia... I don't even remember having concerns, whether the film would be of quality, it assuaged any potential fears so quickly. I would've loved to go in and admire all the animation, and the rendering, and the background detail, but even throughout however-many-viewings I got swept up by the plot too easily, all of those elements focusing to serve the story.

   It, just, suuucks, how good this movie is. "Oh, it must be so horrible for you, bro," and, quick before it gets old!, is it horrible for me? Well... No, no it is not.

   It... that's actually pretty funny, if you've seen it, yet.

OH JUST GO SEE THE MOVIE ALREADY (SPOILERS START HERE.)
   Alright, so. I promised you some spoilers. And some, potentially film-enjoyment-destroying fridge logic. Don't worry, I work it all out by the end; let's dive into it.

   As I was, none-too-vaguely explaining yesterday, the wolves were with the mayor, covering up the savage predators in an attempt to avoid the precise problem that pops up later on when the lid is blown off the cover-up. Wolves wouldn't be a part of a conspiracy stacked against predators; it was the rams who were going around night-howler-ing people, working under... the other, mayor.

   "Howls" are still a thing, which is totally morally acceptable, though sociologically stereotypical. How much of "being true to yourself" is too much, an excellent theme, though not really explored all that much here... though it is in a sense throughlined directly into the main theme as part of Nick's tragic, preprogrammed backstory-- if people are only going to see what they want, why act any different, easily leads to, if you're acting the way people expect you to, they've got a reason to expect that behavior of you. Being a predator certainly ties into that, but I'm not sure if, predatory behavior qualifies as, "being true to yourself," if you've never eaten a fellow sophont before?

   So, the wolves make sense. The scene at Cliffside Asylum is, copacetic logically. The circumstances surrounding the scene, though, the stuff they don't show... the writers, of the eight people credited as having a hand here, at least one of them had to have noticed this, so it's not like these questions don't have answers. Have your plot offscreen, if something's illogical, it's not like folks'll notice, right?

   These are the hinky bits:

• Why don't Judy and Nick get backup in heading into Cliffside Asylum in the first place? Would Bogo really let them do that? Or do they just not tell anyone yet?
• They had videographic evidence of what happened to Manchas; was getting the Assistant Mayor to show it to them somehow inadmissible?
•  Let's say yes... but you don't need a search warrant if you have permission to search something. 
• I could do a whole bit about search warrants and their applications in the film and in real life, but, I don't know the legal system of the city of Zootopia or whatever-the-heck greater governing body; it's probably all 100% sanitary.
• How do Nick and Judy get up to the asylum in the first place? Whatever it was, if they parked they'd need to do so somewhere where their vehicle wouldn't be found. As it is, in the film, they just sort of offscreen teleport, one scene they're looking at the video of the place and the next they're there. What was their ride up there? They leave the place with Bogo I'm pretty sure (Judy reading Lionheart his rights on-scene meaning, she's going to start questioning him on the ride back?) so...
•  Did they walk all the way? 
• Take some obscure gondola that doesn't show up on the traffic cameras? 
• Did they take the meter maid cart? Probably, but that's just, a really inefficient mode of transportation.
• Did they get a ride up in Finnick's van? 
• (Sidenote: Finnick is never namedropped in the movie; maybe his name is a pun off of Nick's.)
• Why are the mayor and Dr Badger (the, doctor who's a badger,) why were they still there when the police arrive, after Judy calls in all the missing mammals?
• The ZPD didn't really arrive to the asylum that quickly, did they?
• The mayor and Dr Badger the badger doctor skedaddled right after discovering they weren't alone; did they maybe, hunker down somewhere? Was their skedaddle to a hunker?

   Or, going through all the possibilities I realize, alright, this would tie up everything, and is very probably it: they do tell Bogo they're heading up to Cliffside Asylum, with or without sharing their reasons why, without some more high-profile ZPD member(s) going up in their stead because they're working their own cases, and Nick and Judy are the only ones who know of any "night howlers" or any conspiracy at all, so nobody knows how big the case is, but the department still know where they're headed. So the whole thing's copacetic.

   It explains how the ZPD arrive on scene so quickly, because they know exactly where to go, and apparently the precinct office is a pretty short drive to the Rainforest District (as we saw with the arrival time after the scene with Mr Manchas.) The ride that Nick and Judy took up, I don't know, I guess I'm just going to have to pay more attention to the departure scene, but, yeah dude it just might have been the joke-mobile. Or maybe they got a real cop car; that'd be cool-- I don't think we see the joke-mobile past... shoot, I think we see it last outside of the Tundratown Limo-Service place.

   Let's see... they're there, and then the deal with Mr Big, and then... they just sort of, walk up to Manchas's door, more offscreen teleportation, I guess. They take the gondola away from there, so... yeah, dude, the joke-mobile's still totally back outside the limo place.

   So, alright. From now on!: "Fridge Logic" means logic that somehow deals with forgetting that you parked all the way back in Tundratown.

Zootopia Fridge Logic: the (Mostly) Spoiler-Free Stuff

   The more viewings of Zootopia I go through, the more I realize strange little, fridge logic is what it's called, weird things, plot holes and inconsistencies and connections, you generally only realize later, getting something to drink from the fridge once the movie's been over for a while... only, watching it multiple times in a row, filling a solid chunk of hours with wall-to-wall Zootopia, it's weird I don't know but you realize all of that watching the movie itself, instead of later when the movie's over. It doesn't throw you out of it, rather gives you time to ponder it over while the scene is still going, potentially giving you the answers to what's puzzling you.

   The rams and the wolves, two completely different factions, for example, which was something that had bothered me before; why would the wolves be going along with the speciest-against-wolves conspiracy?, but, that's not the plan they're going along with, different conspiracy entirely, it was the rams who were in the-- well it's only been out a day, I probably shouldn't spoil things. Sorry.

   But, anyway, from the same scene, the scene at the place, with the plot going on-- maaan this is tough, you know what I'm just gunna slap up spoiler alert as part of the post title today... but, actually, maybe tomorrow; it's kind of unfair to have a big friggin' spoiler as the first review. Well, it's, actually, pretty fair, to have spoilers in your review, even your first one, but, discussing minor plot holes, in your first review, that, that's just messed. I did just write about the, lack of a plot hole which I thought was a plot hole at first but turned out wasn't, up there, which was also maybe possibly a tiny spoiler?, so, yeah, internal logic consistent: spoilers are okay, but pointing out all the crap that doesn't make sense, that's a jerk move.

   A bit of fridge logic that doesn't spoil anything, though, and about stuff that does make sense instead of doesn't: what do they eat, the predators, if you're not allowed to eat other folks? It's a problem that's been dealt with before, of course, really crappily in the Redwall books and really horrifically in a (deleted!) scene in the Oz books, but... here there doesn't appear to be a problem. Bugs, of course, and fish, but there's also nothing wrong with just snacking on flora, even for predators. Nick eats blueberries. Nick loves blueberries. Beagles, also, as Fantastic Mr Fox explains, beagles love blueberries.

   Which brings me to, something else...

   I realized this between my second and third viewings yesterday, studying the second poster released, the one with all the characters in the background... That mammal there, the one next to the bus stop sign wearing the white shirt, it's an ungulate of some sort (all the animals of Zootopia being to-scale) but it kind of looks like a whippet. Something seemed off about that, though... and then it hit me.

   In the world of Zootopia, humans never happened, so also something that never happened was domesticated animals. Wolves exist, but not dogs. Big cats exist, but not house cats. That statue of a quadrupedal predator at the Natural History Museum looks a heck of a lot like a greyhound; "Fancy Cat" magazine is seen being read by Lionheart during the end credit scene with the Shakira concert, and there's what certainly appears to be a not-even-a-parody Cats poster in the background at one point where Nick and Judy are meeting for the, second time... but that's it. "Cat" just means cat, and the statue could easily be that of a wolf, so... No characters, not even in the background, are any animals that don't come in a feral state. Lotta pigs, I guess, and bunnies, and horses, but we have all those anyway... any animals that specifically exist because of domestication, simply are not.

   So, no beagles.

   Isn't that wild?

   EDIT: Upon another rewatch, Rats it is, then (which, raises several questions of its own...) But attention is also brought to: Meowana, from the bootleg DVDs? And that sure the heck appears to be the exact same cat (actor?) as from "Fancy Cat" magazine...

Go On... Guess What Today's Post is About

   Wednesday night all over again. I've seen every showing of Zootopia so far of theater number 4, toggling between 2D and 3D showings, and it's 9:55 right now, and the final showing of the nig-- hold on, yep, the final showing of the night in theater 4, 3D showing that starts at 10:20. Wednesday night, it was an easy task to head over to Paramount 5 to catch the showing of Hail, Caesar!, but tonight, well I was already driven home...

   I'd planned on catching those three showings, like I said, a 3D one and a 2D one and a 3D one, but... it was so good; I had to go for a second 2D showing, making up for the failed attempt at getting a girl into Antigone by inviting her to catch the 7:35 with me. She'd already gone, went to that 7:00 showing last night I'd failed to attend, and though she wanted to see it again she didn't want to have to pay... luckily the seats were disappearing at an alarming rate, and I bought two tickets when I bought my one when she expressed interest in going...

   I switch my phone off in the theater and when I'm sleeping, but another magical power I apparently have (aside from receiving free food, and stumbling across locations I exactly need to find) is to switch my phone on right when I'm about to receive a text-- and I almost never receive texts. I turn on my phone this morning, receive a new text five seconds later; stepping out of my second 3D viewing (having decided to catch a second 2D viewing as well) turning on my phone and soon receiving a text following up on that conversation (which itself was a sort of follow-up to some follow-up on Antigone,) putting me in a position to invite her to the 2D showing, buying the tickets in the middle of that conversation, when she expresses interest, getting two (seeing how quickly the seats are being bought up this time) and immediately afterward she realizes that she doesn't want to have to pay for a ticket...

   And so she came, driving where I had walked and arriving in time, and driving me home at the end.

   And so, with all those super powers going on, well I suppose they all aligned for me not to be catching the final 3D showing of the night... unless they were a test of faith, in my superpower of vampire speed, if I wanted it enough to rush all the way back, catch the final 3D showing, tying me in a single day between Zootopia and The Force Awakens viewings, and having all of theater 4's showings of the day, all of them so far (with last night's airing having been in theater 3) under my belt.

But it's 10:20 right now. And I'll miss it. And I'm okay with that, I guess, because I have to be. It's, psychological. Cognitive dissonance. Look it up.

   Wednesday night all over again, with the opposite decision made this time...

   Oh my gosh. So. Zootopia: greatest movie of all time, or greatest movie ever? All time, I'll say, because as everyone knows Josie and the Pussycats is the greatest movie ever.

   That's, super funny, if you've ever seen Josie and the Pussycats...

   Hmm, I'd thought that my super powers plopping me home sans third 3D viewing were so I could blog about Zootopia instead of watching Zootopia... but maybe they're so that I could, sleep, instead of watching Zootopia. Sounds reasonable...

   ...it's only Friday; why does it feel so much like Saturday...

New World Records!

   For my sole class this morning (Art History II, since Intro to Visual Arts is off this week,) we had to go over only four paintings, so we got out in like 40, 45 minutes? And test scores back, that question I know I got wrong on the test, that was apparently the only question I got wrong, and I didn't get a 98% I got a 99%. Yeah.

   So let me tell you what else. I woke up at 7:56 this morning, according to the clock in our bedroom. I headed out the door at 7:59, according to the clock in the kitchen. There is some discrepancy between the two clocks, the kitchen one being ahead of the other one, but what is undisputable is how I've got class at 8:00.

   I made it.

ZOOTOPIA WATCH which goes without saying
   Well, this is it. The, last one of these. It's Thursday/Friday, Zootopia is out, and, there's nothing left to count down to, except my own, actual, dang, viewing(s), which just seems like a superfluous formality by this point. I'm still down tomorrow, of course, for two threedee viewings and one twodee in between.

   Elsewhere, Zootopia is already setting records, or at least on its way to-- just like, largest opening of an animated film released in March, that kind of thing, but I read something about how big an opening it received in Europe, and, it just looks like this thing's going to be, huge. Highest-grossing animated film of all time, Frozen, so far, but the reason I'm bringing all this up is based off of one of my initial ideas, watching The Lion King every day for a year and blogging about it, one of the reasons this blog is daily. Lion King being at the time the all-time highest-grossing animated film till Frozen came out, and, it's still the highest-grossing G-rated film I guess...

   But take all that, (my planned three viewings in a row, the blogging, the grossage,) combine it all with the idea brought up in yesterday's post of binge cinema, and how movies may or may not be getting more rewatchable... friiiig I don't know, you're thinking what I'm thinking; it's not like it hasn't crossed my mind to change the focus, in the unlikely event I do go through with the blog-a-viewing-a-day thing at some point (though if there were ever an ideal time to have done that, it would have been last year, which was mostly open and school-free. And not overlapping with my mission in any way, either; that's why I didn't instigate it my first year of blogging either, since I knew the pretty good chance (which came true) of being called to serve by the end of it.)

   So. Like I said, that's... unlikely?

   In the way of actual "watch," then... Turns out that Fat Cats had a showing at 7:00 this evening. Which I only learned about at 6:58, so, well whatever. Though I apparently possess vampire superspeed, it's already way too late for that, and I've already got, the, yeah.

Hail, Caesar!: A Lot Going On (Plus Penultimate Zootopia Watch)

   I couldn't stay at home, knowing that Hail, Caesar! was going on and that I have no homework tonight and thus not much better to do... so I went to go see it again. Second time through: I was right, definitely, those are all themes instead of symbols. (Though, if it were symbolic, fake whale = submarine?) It's so great, too, viewing a movie with a completely different audience, seeing which parts get bigger or smaller reactions. The scene where THE SOLE TWIST OF THE FILM occurs always gets a huge gasp; it's so great.

   Different audience, different comment overheard at the conclusion of the film: there was a lot going on, pointed out the girl who commented this time. Henry Mannix is the name that pops into my mind as soon as I begin searching for the name of the main character, so I've got no reason to doubt-- Eddie, Eddie Mannix, thank you IMDB... Eddie Mannix is one busy dude, handling his schedule like a boss, managing his affairs with diplomacy and aplomb which I admire and even kind of envy...

   I impress the heck outta myself if I handle a situation half so well as Eddie Mannix; he's doubtless been training since a youth. The film itself is not nearly as frenzied, of course, taking its time to showcase random little scenes out of the movies that are produced by Capitol Pictures, all of which tangentially deal with actors tangentially or directly connected to the plot.

   I can see what the girl's talking about, though, because those things are connected to the plot, and, well, there's a lot going on. Second time watching this, it's easier to parse...

   That was my second time. In a row. The last two movies I saw, both Hail, Caesar!. I've lost track of how many times I went to go see Star Wars; my Friday booking basically looks like me hanging around Fat Cats alternating between seeing Zootopia in 2-D and 3-. Is this usual for me? I've never really gone out to the movie theater all that much historically-- I made a list of potential reasons how that could've changed, but it was kind of boring and no reasons that you probably can't hazard at (lifestyle changes, all that... except, the larger chunk of my Force Awakens views were back still at home, so could that really be it?)

   I've been watching films I've already seen, and paying per view. This is a recent development, clearly. I haven't even been one to watch movies more than once, while I can still mostly remember them. Well, except for Guardians of the Galaxy, of course. And The Lego Movie. And Big Hero 6. And... and all of these movies are from 2014 or later.

   Could that be it? It's not me, it's the movies? Is Hollywood hitting back? Netflix has binge television, and in the face of that model, has Hollywood seriously had enough time to develop... binge cinema? They discuss television's impact on the picture show business, in the film; clearly, though, the big screen is alive and well... but I don't know.

ZOOTOPIA WATCH
   http://visitzootopia.com/

Hail, Caesar!: Slow Clap Great

   Today was so great... Animation Workshop is like Comic Book Workshop, but not mainstream! Yet. I completed the logo project we'd been working on! Though my logo could really use some improvements, still; I'm proud of it as a design but as a logo it could stand to be simplified. I scuffed my logo printout before I could mount it, so I had to go all the way back to AlphaGraphics to buy a new one! But we could use that scuffed disposable printout to doodle all the improvements that could be made to the design.

   Also, I won the sudoku contest in the Scroll this week, that's a bit of an announcement. $5 gift card for pizza at the Pizza Pie. Which is supposed to be good? Though $5 isn't really that much; the gift card might be refillable though?

Loooogo

   I did... well I did alright on the test this morning, I suppose. In the 96-98% range, I think. Would've gotten 100% had I known to study the difference between Flemish and Dutch art, which artists were which; it seems really obvious in retrospect... Halls I know I got wrong. As for the others, I'm more confident of success, but I'm still putting in that margin of error...

   I went to go see Hail, Caesar! this evening. Turns out missing it on Monday wasn't that bad of a thing, because Paramount 5 gives you extra discounts on your ticket if you go in for a Tuesday showing. For some reason.

   Once it was finished, when Michael Gambon finished narrating and the credits started silently and Joel and Ethan Coen were revealed to be God metafictionally, or something, there was, in the theater where I saw it, not only clapping but scattered slow clapping throughout the audience.

   It's just as the guy in front of me said, which was so awesome that I had to write it down so I've got the exact words, "that was great. Like slow clap great. It made no sense, but it was great." Or as one of the two other guys who stuck around through the end of the credits said, it's one of those ones you're going to have to sit on. (Older gents. Han and Leia generation, in Star Wars terms, as one observed to me, as I was looking at the The Force Awakens poster before the film began.)

   I've come to the conclusion that there's not much symbolism, but there are a heck of a lot of themes. At least I hope that's the case. Otherwise, well, I've got quite the web arranged in my head of how everything is symbolic for everything else... Capitol Pictures is the name of the production company; Das Kapital is the name of a book about communism, so... Yep, yep, it's thematic, not symbolic.

I Did an Assignment in Data Quality Once Where I Had to Standardize This List of Nonstandard Dates, Many of Which Were February 29ths, and I Learned a Whole Bunch of Facts About Leap Years From Research for That... None of Which I Discuss in This Post

   Big test tomorrow morning, so I really don't want to, um, spend too long posting here. Sean's birthday today; he's an employee at Data Quality whose birthday we never really got to celebrate for real while I was there...

   Okay, fun fact about why February is so short that I learned today, from Howard Tayler (whose birthday, it also is today) on his Twitter account: you've ever noticed that both July AND August have 31 days, though they're right next to each other? But it's alright because that's where your two fists stick together, just double-knuckle it, so you don't really notice how odd that is, that those two months break up the pattern? They're also the months named after the Caesars, so hmm I wonder if of course it has to do with that, apparently Augustus didn't want short shrift on his month, so he just stole the extra day(s) from some other month.

   They're the two months that throw off the number count, too, randomly being stuck in there, "oh, September's name doesn't make sense anymore, but it doesn't matter because it's AWESOME." Friiig, they just toasted the entire Gregorian calendar over, just like, whatever. Roll straight over the months, because the solar calendar's months don't correspond to moons anyway, so, whatevs. Caesars don't care; Caesars do what Caesars want. (Holy crap, it was four years ago today that I blogged about watching that very video for the first time...)

   And another fun fact about Caesars: I'd totally be watching Hail, Caesar! right now, if it weren't for the, you know, assignment stuff that I need to do. It's driving me buggy going so long without Coen Brothers knowing that they're playing in a cinema so near, but, I'm just going to have to wait 24 hours until the next showing, I guess...

The Random and the Inevitable (Further Misadventures in Plasma Bleeding)

   I mentioned yesterday a list of topics associated with the process of selling my plasma all dealing directly with the theme of fate versus chance, or outcomes random versus outcomes inevitable. Which I've been thinking about in conjunction with being plasmapheresed, a bit; there's a promo going on this month, donate 6 times in February, and you open up the card they gave you at the beginning of the month, and you win whatever the card says you win. And so, random versus inevitable: your prize is seemingly random, but it had been that random outcome the whole time, and so your prize is actually fixed.

   That was one of the reasons why I even needed to give my plasma on Saturday, when it probably would have been much easier just to skip it with so many things going on and not many places to fit this other thing in: well, for one, you receive a bonus $20 payment for your second donation in a calendar week, but for two, my sixth time this month had been on Wednesday, but I hadn't opened my card then. I needed to go back, yesterday, to get that prize. And figure out what it would be in the first place.

   Fate versus chance. Maybe it wouldn't be that strong a theme, enough to post about so soon, but the topic gets especially relevant and also almost poignant, depending on how you look at it, but very appropriate, because of how the plasmapheresis ended yesterday, and how the events leading up to it play into that theme. Random and inevitable, it's not always easy to know which is which-- in yesterday's post I broke down all the topics as follows, and I will do my best below to delineate whether they played in at all to the ending of the story, and that ending's aftermath, and how much we could get away with in spite of said aftermath. The topics and subtopics, from yesterday:

• choosing the morning versus the afternoon
• my left arm being stuck versus my right arm
• it looking for a minute there like the arm about to be stuck was the one I didn't want but the mistake being realized
• whether that mattered
• having been entitled to a bonus gift for donation number six this February which I didn't cash in on till now with this being my seventh time
• what that gift was
• how that gift was. 

   I'll tell you the story chronologically.

   The morning or the afternoon: I knew that if I chose the afternoon to fit in the two-hours-average process of waiting, getting called up, being screened and finally being admitted onto the floor, it would possibly be at the expense of, the first time we've seen Lauren in almost a month, and I'd probably sit there regretting not having gotten it done in the morning where my only obligation was sleep. So I went in the morning, early, before the Disciple Leader Conference. If you get in early enough, you beat the crowd of people all waiting to be screened, so the whole process takes considerably shorter than two hours anyway as well, so there was plenty of time before 9:00 DLC started.*

   Wake up 5:20, 5:30 in the morning, eat breakfast drink fluids, get in there around 6:30, and instead of it taking you until 8:30 it should be only until 8:00 or even just 7:45. Get in there just fifteen minutes later, there's a whole crowd of people, and not only does that take you that much longer but also you don't get out with much wriggle room in your schedule before you need to get to the conference. So. The earlier the better, but also you want to make sure that your breakfast is good enough to get you enough protein in your blood they'll allow you to donate. (That's what happened on Saturday February 6th-- P2B in the morning at 9:00, so I went in early but without a good enough breakfast, so I couldn't do it that day.**) I had enough breakfast, I had enough blood protein, but whether it accounts for the thing that happened, well, let me get to the thing first, but, I don't think so.

   My left arm being stuck, versus my right arm: my left arm is the one that always gives me trouble-- my very first plasmapherese was in that arm, and things went wrong, and they had to switch arms to my right arm. They give you a protein bar and a Poweraid your first time, and they gave me another of each, and my right arm worked fine, and my left arm was bruised for weeks. The next time I used my left arm went fine (Jan 27), so I use that arm again as well on the one after that, on the 30th... and the blood clotted in the needle, and so my blood couldn't return. Which was alright, just, don't lose any more whole blood in the next eight weeks, or else you won't be able to donate plasma at all for another eight weeks after that.

   2 out of 3 times, my left arm gives me trouble. Ryan reports never having trouble with his blood clotting inside the needle like that or anything, so there must be just something really weird with the vein on my left arm. Let's not use that one anymore. At least, not experiment with it until the tail end of March, when I can afford to clot again.

   So it's kind of concerning when my guy sits me to the left of the machine he's going to use, as if he's going to stick my left arm. I don't speak up though. Just, pray? I'm a milquetoast. But he notices he's on the left side, and just sits me one space to the right. Followed by my coat which I'd stuck in the cubby underneath the first seat, which gets noticed by the next guy to sit his guy down there, trying to put that guy's coat into the cubby, seeing my jacket, finding my wallet, and reading my name from some card of mine. That also gets brought to the space to the right.

   And this is what the thing is... Something goes wrong with this time too. Before a single cycle can even be completed, the needle clots again, even in my right arm, and I won't be able to sell my blood plasma again until April 23.

   And this spurs me to think of the theme, which I'd been thinking on because of the February bonus prize, of the random and the inevitable. Which was this? Would things have turned out better had I opted to go in the afternoon instead of the morning? I don't think so, but maybe certain diets (like a nice Hamburger-Helper-and-yogurt breakfast) increase your clotting factor, or something, and my lunch of vegetarian sandwich from Disciple Leader Conference would've allowed me to pass my blood without it clotting. But I don't think so. It's random, and it happens, and left arm, right arm, whether I went in the morning or afternoon, didn't matter; my blood would or would not have clotted inside the needle either way.

   With a donation of whole blood, they still pay you in full, or at least they did me both times that happened. Just be sure to pay him before putting him on that two-month deferral, otherwise the payment won't go through and also he won't be entitled to that February bonus gift.

   Right. The bonus gift. It's even possible to win gift cards or a Mac Book. Though that's probably rare. Mathematically there's a 100% chance of someone winning that, or at least being entitled to win that if that person does donate the minimum 6 times in February, but the odds of it being any one person are minimal. But, you know. I know it won't be me, but it still might be. That is, as long as they haven't deferred me yet, and I still can win...

   The bonus gift: random versus inevitable: I'm still good to open my card, they allow me to do so, and my prize is... a spin of the wheel of prizes! The card I'd had all month, that's what the prize had always been (inevitable, though random at first,) but now the randomness continues into the present as I spin the wheel. Which wheel includes prizes such as: swag, an extra $5 on your donation, a VIP card (which allows you to skip to the front of the line so that you don't have to wait around in the lobby for an hour before they call you up to confirm your identity and test your vitals, effectively cutting your visit time in half,) or also an option that allows you to pick a prize off of the wheel, of your choice.

   In the realm of random, I spin the wheel, and win, swag. I could've landed on, pick one, but I landed directly on swag, so choice is not yet introduced into the battle of the realms of randomness and inevitability. Rather, it is introduced five seconds later, when I must choose between a blue hoodie or a grey one. I say I can't choose, he mishears this as blues, but they don't have blue in my size-- I must choose again, a size larger or a size smaller, but I choose a grey instead.

   I walk out, even earlier than the early that I would have been, because not even a single cycle was completed. And am free to explore the early morning.

   That's how the story ends.

• There's something kind of amazing about having your worst fears being realized, the end of the world occurring, and then realizing that even that's not the end of the world. 

   It's like failure. Well, it is failure. When I say, failure, though, I mean like in my experience with Try Everything, or not being accepted to Provo. When you fail, you realize it's not that bad, and then you can continue.

   So, the end of the world comes as a relief. What you'd been dreading comes true, and you no longer have to dread it. My Wednesdays are a lot freer, and I don't have to worry about my (fairly intensive for an Art 125 project) Art 125 project until then, because I'll have time to do it then. Which is good, because of all the things I need to do for the day before.

   Sister La Orange, a speaker at the DLC, talked about being unable to have children seemingly, when she'd always wanted to be, not just a mother, but the coolest mother ever. She eventually was able to bear children, but for 7 years no children came, and she was bitter. Even when he friends were complaining about the duties of child rearing, and expressing jealousy that she didn't have any kids and had time to do whatever she wanted, she was bitter that they had what she couldn't. The 8th year, though, she realized the Lord's patience with her. She'd been denied what she truly desired, and learned a lesson how she behaved when she didn't get it.

   I thought about that, the blessings and curses of having children, watching Antigone: clearly the line of Oedipus would be better off if it, you know, weren't. The random and inevitable. In a purely deterministic causal worldview, they're one and the same. It had always been going to happen, kind of deal. The story of Oedipus is one entirely about fate, and this theme of the will of the gods continues into Antigone. Choice does enter into it, though, even here; if it were not so, there'd be no story.

   Like how my story ends with a choice. Cut off from choosing an extra $5, I can still at least choose the grey hoodie over the blue.

   And I can at least choose, not to be too hard on myself.

The Burial of Polyneikes

   I'm really not sure what to lead with, or even what this post's primary theme should be... earlier today I thought it would be about fate, and chance; right now I'm leaning a lot toward, responsibility, is the best word I can muster for it; both tie vaguely into this big long thing about the notion of causality and the paradox of omnipotence and omniscience, which I've developed a few good thoughts about lately. Conceivably I could tie them all together, but, though I'm surprisingly not tired for having been awake 17 hours straight, I'd still like to go to bed soon.

   I survived Saturday. Wasn't even that bad. There's something kind of amazing about having your worst fears being realized, the end of the world occurring, and then realizing that even that's not the end of the world. We did spend, until almost 5:30, at the CBW lab, discussing our comic, so the plasma donation this morning instead of this afternoon was worth it. Choosing the morning versus the afternoon, my left arm being stuck versus my right arm, it looking for a minute there like the arm about to be stuck was the one I didn't want but the mistake being realized, whether that mattered, having been entitled to a bonus gift for donation number six this February which I didn't cash in on till now with this being my seventh time, what that gift was, how that gift was, that's all part of the discussion of the random against the inevitable which I might tell you all about, maybe even some time soon. It was significant at the time, and plenty of material for one post, but the day lasted longer that 8:30 this morning...

   Like Antigone. I told you about this. Antigone. It's a play that deals with themes of the will of man vs the will of gods, and temperance, and who decides what is just. Polyneikes may have been a traitor, but is it for a man to decide to allow him to go unburied and thus damned, even if that man is Kreon, the new King of Thebes?

   Near the end of the play, Antigone is cast into a cave, which Kreon figures is a good moral medium between punishing her since she went against the king's wishes, and not punishing her because she went with the gods' wishes-- it's still some sort of civic punishment, which satisfies the king, but the gods could rescue her at any time if she really was in the right. The gods don't save her from her fate, and though Antigone still believes that she did the right thing in burying her brother, she apparently suspects that she screwed it up somehow, wavers in faith and hangs herself (spoilers! though if you're really hung up about spoilers from literally thousands of years ago, dang son you're a fastidious one.)

   Decrees of state versus decrees of gods are a whole lot easier to judge between, if you know that you worship the right kind of god.

    DLC. Disciple Leader Conference. The girl I sat next to during the closing session felt impressed, after we'd started to go our ways after the meeting, to return back to me,  to tell me-- not to be too hard on myself, for one thing. Just a random impression. She didn't know why she was prompted to tell me the things she did, and neither do I think that I'm too hard on myself, but we all have the right to receive revelation for those within our influence.

   Antigone this evening was the final performance, so it was packed. I'd gotten a ticket for myself, a roommate suggested some activity with him on Saturday, I said my Saturday was busy, but that I was going to go see Antigone if he wanted to fit something in, and he suggested to make it a group date with him and his gal pal.

   I don't think he showed up. I haven't seen him, not just all evening, but all day.

   I did invite a date along, for myself, though, like he'd suggested-- invited her, and picked her up, and brought her, but she'd apparently never bought a ticket for herself, and so wound up, not in the standby line to get in, but the standby line to the standby line. Last I saw of her, either. I wonder how she spent her evening.

   So, here's the powerful conundrum-- I did choose to go in without her, instead of like maybe giving her my ticket instead and miss out on it myself. Was that right? No matter who survives, one is stuck with survivor's guilt. Or do we both stay in the standby standby line, both miss the event, even though one of us could get in?

   I chose to abandon her. Harsh way to put it; there was still a chance that she'd have been able to get in, really. (Mathematically, not really, but I suppose that's another aspect of inevitability.) It was absolutely worth going to; the conflicts were sharper and yet more poetic than I remembered just from reading the Sophocles script in High School, and my eyes were opened. But was that worth the sacrifice? Whose will is the most just, gods' or kings'? Is this what I wasn't supposed to be too hard on myself on? Even if our pantheon is right this time, even if we do have the right for revelation for those in our sphere of influence, how do we know that our seer is as reliable as Tiresias was in the play, and that we should act as she says?

   18 hours, now, of no sleep. And the roommate just walked in.

Flesh-and-Blood Von Trapps! Killer Deals! Easy Fun!

   I should go to bed-- I have decided to plasmapherese in the morning tomorrow, which means I need to wake up early, which means... yep. But I figure, as long as I'm making breakfast for myself tomorrow, I still have time to go over the day cursorily.

   The theatre event of tonight was a performance by the von Trapps, who indeed are a family, that sings, though the grandkids of the Von Trapp Family Singers. Sound of Music = a true story; these kids are the great-grandchildren of the Captain and Maria. ("I'm Kurt and I'm incorrigible," in case you were wondering which von Trapp child is their grandfather...)

The one in the top center, yeah.

   The event ended at 9:00, and I could've gone straight home and gone to bed, getting an adequate 8 hours of sleep for waking up at 5:00... but they were signin' things after the show, all four of them writin' their signatures, and it was hardly the first time I stood in a looong line today.

   Indeed, today also marked the "other Black Friday," the Lost and Found sale. Only instead of allowing trampling, they had a line, which stretched down the hall and down the stairs a full flight to start on the floor below. (Wasn't there this thing, where, like, Black Friday is actually the day you're least likely to get trampled shopping, but those are the only instances that make the news so people arrive at the opposite conclusion from reality, or something?) Anyway, I got some stuff from that. A shirt, a 16 gig flashdrive, three notebooks with people's notes already in, rife for the reading...

   That's it for killer deals. Aside from lunch, and those von Trapp CDs I purchased, neither of which were actually that great of a deal but I figure the actual killer deals make up for it. Anyway, my post title also mentions "easy fun" in there...

   That's right, I got myself a library card today! At the municipal library; I've already got my I-Card for the school library.

   First saw the municipal library, yesterday, out of the window of the Walmart shuttle (heading to Walmart while studying for my Art 202 test, because I can? Still no trace of The Stinky Cheese Caper, and, hey, random interlude of ZOOTOPIA WATCH, one week, baby!) I was like, hey, MADISON LIBRARY DISTRICT, maybe I'll check it out, next week! But then, also because I can, I decided to track it down an hour or so later instead. Headed the completely wrong direction, thinking it to be one block over from the road to Walmart, well who should be walking the other way down the street but Jimmy (who couldn't make it to CBW Wednesday because of a choir thing.) And so I ceased my course of action and walked with him to Broulim's instead, because, though it was low down on my list of places to check out, it was still there on the list. And, leaving Broulim's a way that I've never left it before but randomly decided to explore, it turns out that the library is actually a block down from the street Broulim's is on, instead of the Walmart thing. It was in the completely opposite direction I'd been headed, so, thanks, Jimmy!

   After learning yesterday how to get "carded" there, and returning today with some proof of address and some photo ID (my I-Card, because, irony is delicious) I got a card and checked some stuff out! A lot of stuffs, actually. Mostly graphic novels, though, so, a lot of pictures kind of speeds up the reading process...

   Well, I should be wrapping up; my Hamburger Helper is done (I (almost) never buy meat, but randomly our freezer right now is overbursting with the stuff, free for the apartment to use, after some big deal and avenue for collecting free food (I'm not the only one in this apartment with that superpower.))

   Have some von Trapp! Specifically August von Trapp; this is his "Friend," one of the pieces performed this evening (and as a solo as here, as well.)

Plans for the Weekend?

   Thursday evenings (aside from the fact of weekly apartment inspections) are usually pret' chill, but tonight... well...  It should all be easy, the art history quiz on Tuesday morning and the graphic design logo final design due Tuesday afternoon-- I've already got most of the Baroque down, study-wise, and the final logo project is just to polish the design up and print and mount, so I shouldn't be sweating about that. Usually I've got Art 101 after Art 202, but next week the Art 101 professor's on a European art tour in Europe, so after the 202 quiz I've got a whole wide open space to finalize my logo printout, or even just do whatever... so that's even better.

   So I shouldn't feel stressed. And I don't... much. It's not Tuesday I'm stressed for. It's tomorrow. And, the day after that. The day after that, mostly. Thursday evenings are chill because they're the start of a glorious open weekend, but, looking at it, my weekend's not that open.

   I'd like to get in a temple session this month, so I figure tomorrow morning, right? After that, I can study some more and work on my project for the entire rest of the day, aside from the sale going on from 3:00-5:00 of unclaimed Lost and Found items, and theatre at 7:30, for which I need to find time to print out the tickets. Saturday I've got event tickets for a thing 7:30 that evening as well, as well as for this Disciple Leadership Conference starting at 9:00 in the morning. That gets out at 1:30, which is half an hour after the Comic Book Workshop's lab starts, but that's okay because our artist Lauren can actually make it this week but only around 3:00, so I don't need to make it to lab on time. Looking at that, that schedule may not seem very packed, but it's plenty packed figuring out where to fit in plasma donation this week-- do I wake up early in the morning, eat well and put in the time before the Leadership Conference, or do I eat my lunch from that at the lab and try to fit the time in between that and Antigone? I don't know when we'll finish corroborating at the lab, what we'll need to discuss and how long it's going to take us... if it's not long, I won't need to have had woken up so early, but if we do get into it deeply, then I'll wish I had... but will there even be time before the conference? Yes, there will be, but, >phew.< I guess I've got a whole day till then to decide.

   Alright. Thanks for letting me talk through that. Go get yourself an ice cream now or something.

My Life as a Twentysomething AMHFBM

   My description, the "about me" over to the right there at the top (according to the current layout at least?) describes this "autistic Mormon hipster furry brony manchild," taken of course from this post in the Ghost Sequence. Kind of audience-alienating, that. Certainly tells you what you're getting yourself into. But just as applicable as ever.

   Well, the manchild part grows less true, I'd hope; it was (apparently) extinguished for good Thanksgiving of 2013, (the sting of which experience there is dulling so maybe I should tell you about it sometime? Though I don't think I'll ever not flinch when the topic of Christmas lights at Temple Square is brought up, at least not within the foreseeable future (which, what the heck is a foreseeable future anyway, seems kind of a contradiction in terms to me.))

   I still say "apparently," extinguished for good, because, great job jerk, one of the few posts that you actually got posted up last year describes you losing your cool a tiny bit, so we're reminded that you're still capable of frustration even after a powerful enough negative experience to ensure some mellowing. That post was posted a year ago today, actually, plus a couple of days (or minus, if you're counting about the date of "today" instead about the date of "a year ago.") Either way, frustration or no, loss of cool or no, it's been years since I've actually, you know, physically assaulted anyone. Yay?

   As for the others from the about me, how applicable they are especially to this blog: when I talk about autism I get into it, the neurology and everything; "hipster" could mean anything, but for me it just means I listen to a lot of really obscure U2 and love eating fancy, so I don't tend to delve into it that much; I've noticed that I sure the heck seem to define the brony and furry terms I drop when we get to those, generally tending to go out of my way to explain the furspeech and MLP references when only half as often bothering to explain any insider Mormon culture when I reference that. This trend probably reveals a lot about the expected audience for these things... For the record: I've actually been to Mormon conventions...

   So speaking of not bothering to explain what the heck Mormons are talking about, and finally coming to the head that I'd posted on this subject for in the first place-- I'm not sure what my grade's even going to be, but I did make a vague promise in The Phantom Progress Check to get that paper I did for my Pearl of Great Price class up, so it links from that post now if you want to see it. Which... I'd been about to say how you probably don't, but I don't know, maybe you do, and apologizing for myself and going on about how you don't have to read anything here if you don't want to is exactly the kind of thing that the Ghost Sequence had too much of. So.