The opening and closing to the extremely brief fourth season of The Transformers. Apparently, Hasbro could have continued on with the show but they just decided to stop. Kind of a shame, really.
It’s been another shitty week, so let’s make it a kitty week! So here’s some cats, enjoying their new home! Enjoy!
1) Current mood:
2) This is your weekly reminder that Xitter is a Dumpster fire.
3) Thought for the Week:
4) Apparently, the latest 7 Star Raids are Primarina. She’s Fairy Tera and drops Herba Mystica. I’m already looking into solo strats, so I don’t have to deal with the assholes online. It sucks, because I actually do enjoy helping others, but the assholes ruined that.
5) Our schedule at work is still a wreck. I don’t think this will ever change.
6) We’re fundraising for CMN at work. At least we’re not as obnoxious as Walmart about it.
7) Since it’s officially spring, it’s officially road destruction construction season. We’re looking at three years for one of the main thoroughfares in our area and I do not look forward to this long-term bullshit at all.
With that said, we’ll stop for today. But don’t worry! I’ll be back again with more randomized thoughts! Until then, have a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!
It’s time once again for news and views that you can peruse! It’s time for a special Transformers edition of your Weekly Reader! As always, if you have something you’d like to share, drop me a link in the comments!
‘Transformers: The Movie’ Taught ‘80s Kids About Death in a Brilliant Way. It’s Also Never Been Topped (from Fatherly): “In addition to being the voice of the guy in a ton of movie trailers, Peter Cullen was — and still is — known for his work as Optimus Prime, the wise and father figure of the heroic transforming robots, the Autobots. Prime is beloved because ‘80s kids saw a serious and stern dad in Optimus Prime, but also one who could kick ass if necessary. Optimus Prime is like Gandalf plus Darth Vader, but in this scenario, Darth Vader is still a good guy, he just looks really imposing. Did we trust Optimus Prime because he didn’t have an actual mouth, just that wicked looking robot jaw thing? Maybe. The muffled voice of Cullen’s Prime made kids of the ‘80s feel safe, which is why, when the voice became weak, and Prime’s circuits shorted out, we were devastated.”
Recording Sessions For The Transformers Series Were ‘Bedlam’ Behind The Scenes (from SlashFilm): “The “Transformers” show, like most animated shows of the era, was produced on the quick, and modern eyes may see a lot of cut corners making their way onto the screen. And while the ultimate goal of the series was to drum up interest in Hasbro toys, many youngsters still came to love the characters. It may have been the casual line deliveries, and the attention to performance that made “Transformers” take off while other, similar shows did not. One can credit Gilvezan, Welker, Cullen, Latta, Bell, and especially Dille and Burr for their efforts. Without them, it’s possible that adults wouldn’t still be thinking about — and buying — Transformers toys to this day.”
Why Transformers now look like a big bunch of gears and car parts (from ArsTecha): “While many of us associate the Transformers series with the heavy use of CGI, the filmmakers still need to source real cars to use for many of the shots—and Porsche has a whole team dedicated to helping filmmakers place just the right car into film and television projects.”
When the Neighbors Don’t Share Your Vision (and That Vision Involves ‘Transformers’ Statues) (from the New York Times via the Wayback Machine): “Plenty of people love the statues, which resemble invaders from the future, in a neighborhood that does its best to hang on to its cobblestone past. Students at nearby Georgetown University can’t get enough. Neither can tourists: The Transformers statues have their own entry on Google Maps as a place of interest, with 4.9 stars. “The best part of visiting Georgetown,” one reviewer declared.”
Transformers Wasn’t The First ‘Robots In Disguise’ Series — What Happened To The Others? (from SlashFilm): “Yes, no less than four animated TV shows managed to beat “Transformers” to the punch in that fateful fall television season. Some have fallen into obscurity, and some fought toe-to-toe with “Transformers” for dominance, but only one is still a bona fide hit.”
37 Years Later, One Weird Rock Opera Album Made An Animated Sci-Fi Movie Into A Classic (from Fatherly): “The sarcastic and intentionally mocking nature of “Dare to Be Stupid” is probably the only track on the Transformers album that is self-aware, which makes it beautifully subversive among the other tracks, which are all earnest, and sometimes, like the entire career of the band Survivor, sometimes slip into self-parody. In other words, Weird Al’s “Dare to Be Stupid” balances out Stan Bush’s “Dare.” And the fact that there are two songs with the word “dare” in the title feels either like a mistake, or a brilliant kind of artistic reflection.”
Transformers Icon Peter Cullen Reflects on Playing Optimus Prime in New Rise of the Beasts Featurette (from MovieWeb): “”When I voiced Prime for the very first time, I was living with my brother Larry, who was a Marine. I said, “I’m going to an audition. I’m gonna be a truck.’ And he started to laugh and he said, ‘A truck?!’ And I said, ‘This is a leader. This is a hero.’ And his demeanor just changed. He just went, ‘Peter. If you’re going to be a leader, be strong enough to be gentle.’ And I got to the audition and I said, ‘My name is Optimus Prime, from the planet Cybertron.’ I had no doubt that this is what a hero should sound like, and I was convinced I was gonna get that role.””
The Constant Death In Transformers: The Movie Even Caught The Cast Off Guard (from SlashFilm): “This toy-marketing-as-entertainment exercise reached a gallingly cynical apex with 1986’s “The Transformers: The Movie,” where the Autobots and Decepticons from the first two seasons of the TV series are killed off and replaced by new characters. Why? Because those toys were no longer on shelves and Hasbro wanted to sell its 1986 toy line.”
The Battle to Keep Georgetown’s Transformers Statues From Rolling Out Isn’t Over (from The Washingtonian): “Last year, the statues made national headlines after DC’s Public Space Commission ordered their removal. As of today, however, they’re still standing—and the ongoing fight over them has reached another level of litigation, this time in front of DC’s Office of Administrative Hearings.”
This self-transforming Megatron is as badass as it is expensive (from The Verge): “Robosen has even addressed one of my biggest complaints about Optimus: it made Megatron’s leg servos stiff enough that you can optionally leave the bot standing up on a shelf when it’s powered down. And I love how Megatron talks about Energon production and lights up a five-LED charging indicator when you plug in the USB-C cable.”
That’s all for this edition, but I’ll be back again with more articles and pages you’ll want to bookmark! Until then, have a great rest of your week and happy reading!
On this day in 1984, the very first issue of Transformers was released by Marvel comics! It’s officially been forty years of Transformers! May there be forty million more!
There’s a blog that I’ve been following for the past several years–I’m not naming names on this one–that I made a point to visit on a daily basis for the memes and humor. A good portion of the memes were fairly leftist, and the non-political memes were actually pretty humorous or outright sarcastic, which I really enjoyed. There was a general set topic, but the set-up was somewhat scattered; to describe the posts as a mélange of random thoughts would be very accurate. However, this blog helped me get through the worst moments of the Trump years.
However, that changed last week.
On Thursday, the first few news stories dealt with the student protests that have been taking place on college campuses. Now, I was expecting something slightly snarky towards the counter-protests, but I didn’t expect full-blown mockery of the anti-genocide protesters. Not at all.
Apparently, to this blogger, the protesters were wrong. Even worse? She posted a quote that claimed the protests were nothing more than a “pro-Trump psyop”.
You read that correctly. A psyop. The same shit that QAnon and Alex Jones claim exists. My bullshit detector just about shit itself when I read that. I could not let that go, so I left a comment basically calling her out on just how bad that sounded, not long after Prime had done the exact same.
I was hoping for some self reflection. Or a few minutes of research. But that didn’t happen. Instead, she tripled down the next day:
My Take On The Violent Student Protests
I’d bet the ranch that the CIA knows what foreign players are involved in the antisemitic violence across college campuses. The CIA has recruited college kids for decades to be their lookouts.
In the early 1970s, two of my college friends, both Vietnam vets, who did not know each other were approached. They were told the same story, that the KGB had plants throughout US colleges and that they needed help in uncovering them. Both of my friends declined, saying essentially the same thing — that it was hard enough to concentrate on classwork after their service in Nam.
To spark the flame of violence on one campus can quickly spread to others as we have all observed, with or without plants already in place. It only takes one trusted savvy plant, inspiring well meaning students to start trouble.
Violence and/or destruction of property is counterproductive in protests. And it’s illegal. And stupid.
But it draws the attention of Americans, which is the purpose. Guess what happens next? Americans get mad at the protesters, no matter the cause.
Who benefits from this violence? Not the Palestinians. Not Biden. It has divided the Democratic Party from its left wing.
And who has the enormous resources needed for all this? Russia, China, the US.
Choose one.
I did.
Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here, but it’s easier just to burn the entire suitcase. Holy shit.
The only major incident of violence came from pro-Israeli protesters attacking an encampment on the UCLA campus and quite possibly your standard issue police brutality on others. Have there been any incidents of antisemitic violence across college campuses? It seems to be a mixed bag, honestly. Some say yes, others no. However, none of this seems to have anything to do with foreign operatives, or China, or Russia. Don’t even get me started on the CIA: these are the same geniuses who devised the idea of turning a cat into a walking radio. We’re not dealing with particularly clever people here.
But this is what really stuck in my craw:
Violence and/or destruction of property is counterproductive in protests. And it’s illegal. And stupid.
Oh, mercy me! Won’t someone please think of those poor, injured buildings?! Those innocent cars?! What did all that property do to deserve something so awful, so terrible?!
I mean, it’s not like people are actually starving to death in Gaza or that humanitarian aid has been attacked by the IDF. I mean, it’s not like ACTUAL FUCKING GENOCIDE IS HAPPENING HERE. Nope, none of that nasty war crime-y type stuff. Not at all! 🙄
There’s tone deaf and then there’s–gestures vaguely–that.
So that was it. I was done. I couldn’t justify giving that blog another click.
I left two comments before I closed that tab, one straight-up saying, “Fuck them starving kids, amirite?” The second, “Don’t bother blocking me. I won’t be back.” Then I deleted said blog from my browser history.
I don’t ask for much: just a certain amount of decency. There was none in that post. None. Children are starving to death and this woman can only concern herself with property damage. Buildings can be rebuilt. Dead children? No. There’s no bringing them back.
There’s also no coming back from a comment like that.
All bed, no payload, that post. That’s probably the kindest thing I can say about this. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go binge more kitten videos. Because my brain is full of fuck right now.
**ETA** It gets even better, because some of these “protests” actually are a “pro-Trump psyop”, but they’re not the Palestinian protests. Nope, it’s the pro-Israeli protesters! Hell, Trump just turned the footage of the pro-Israeli protesters into a campaign ad! I wonder if he added in the blatant racism as well…?
Alright, cowgirl: stick a few quarters in your back pocket because your ass just got played. It wouldn’t have happened if you had done just a little Google search. But you know what they say about assuming anything, right…?
“Head Over Heels” by Tears for Fears. This was on the radio a lot when I was in elementary school.
It’s been another shitty week, so let’s make it a kitty week! So here’s some kittens who are in good hands! Enjoy!
1) Current mood:
2) This is your weekly reminder that Xitter is still a Dumpster fire. But it’s good for roasting marshmallows to make s’mores.
3) Thought for the Week:
4) On Friday night, I decided to delete the supposed “offensive” tweet I made months ago so I could get back on Xitter. Don’t expect to see me on there often; I’m far more likely to be posting on Mastodon and BlueSky now. I’m basically only keeping my Xitter account active to make sure Muskrat doesn’t shut it down completely and let some Russian troll farm take it. I may have to make it a point to tweet at Elon just how much he fucking sucks, just to piss the little shit stain off. Because fuck that dipshidiot.
5) So apparently, Trump is going to be speaking at the Libertarian National Convention and I don’t know what to think anymore.
6) For the last two days, I’ve been running through the Meganium Raid and gotten zero Herba Mystica. I’m hoping that these are just hiccups and I’ll be back to earning more shortly, but I’m not sure. I didn’t want to drop the Raid until I had around 50 sprigs each, but now I’m wondering if that will actually happen now.
7) In the meantime, I’m playing through The Teal Mask on Scarlet. I feel like I’m getting a more authentic experience with this run-through, as I’m able to have a Golett on my team now and the Pokémon in Kitakami are only at level 12 to 15, instead of 60 on Violet. I haven’t completed the main story yet, so this feels like I’m going on an extra adventure during my Treasure Hunt. Once I finish Kitakami, it’s on to the Pokémon League and Area Zero, then I get to head to Blueberry Academy. I might even be able to send over a few Pokémon to help complete my Violet Dex!
With that said, we’ll stop for today. But don’t worry! I’ll be back again with another serving of chopped suey that is my current life. Until then, have a great weekend and I’ll see you soon!
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Iacon East 