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Some years ago, I went to a Starbucks with a female friend and I was wearing the movie Dredd baseball cap. The guy who served me remarked on the cap. Turns out he is a member of a cosplay group and in the process of making his own Judge uniform. Instead of taking our names he wrote 'Dredd' on my disposable cup and 'Anderson' on my friend's .

I'm sorry if I've missed something, but isn't [spoiler]Boba Fett dead[/spoiler]? 

[spoiler]Boba being alive[/spoiler] has been part of Star Wars lore for decades. If you don't see a body in Star Wars, death is never certain.

[spoiler]Going only by the evidence of what's presented in the OT, of all the characters to return Boba's is the most plausible: he wasn't struck a fatal blow; he has armour and a jet-pack, and Jabba's sail barge blew-up rather spectacularly over the mouth of the Sarlacc – all that fiery debris probably damaged it severely, or killed it.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]It's certainly more plausible than surviving bisection, like a certain other character, although I am glad that they did more with the character in Clone Wars and Rebels. [/spoiler]

Chapter 14: Well, it took all of 40 years, but finally [spoiler]live-action Boba Fett did something[/spoiler]. And it was well worth the wait. Still the OG.

Another outstanding episode, with some pretty serious shocks and a lot of plot, and I can honestly say that as the end approached I was desperately hoping the next ship to show up would be Luke's X-Wing, just so someone, anyone, could save the day. Fun to be so involved again.

Perhaps the biggest nerds-only revelation this week was [spoiler]that after 18 years of uncertainty Jango Fett is confirmed as a Mandalorian. Again[/spoiler]. I can't decide if Karen Traviss should be more or less pissed off about that.

[spoiler]After Boba shows Din that holographic readout proving his armour was given to Jango by the mandalorians it suddenly occurred to me that father and son wear the same armour. Jango's armour has always been a similar style to Boba's, but the different colours led me to think it was a different set. And even in the original trilogy Boba's was always a bit more worn looking.

Then it occurred to me he probably just slapped on some green paint at some point, and it saw a lot of wear over the years. Dur! (Unless Jango was gifted two sets, but that's probably unlikely.[/spoiler]

Anyway, another very good episode. I wish Din Djarin got to do a bit more in these episodes, as this is the third episode in a row where he seemed to vanish for a fair chunk of time while the guest star characters did most of the botty kicking. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see them do their thing, just a bit more balance showing them operating as a team would be nice. A small peev, as we've seen Din do plenty in the past.

[spoiler]How cool and fearsome were those Dark Troopers? Robots or cyborgs? I'm thinking the latter.[/spoiler]

Enjoying this series also.

Concerning the technology: while I can see it's  more advanced than the other shows as befitting the even further future setting, I do find myself wondering, is it 800 years more advanced? The personal transporters, gooey interface tech and segregated warp nacelles - these are all thing that I'd think would have been invented within a century or two of the last Star Trek prime line set films,etc. (To be fair, they did mention some ships had advanced biotechnology too, but we haven't seen much of that yet, and I think there were alien cultures with that in past Star Trek series time periods.)

There's that shifting matter thing too, where rooms configure and a floor grows in front of you as you enter a room, all very nifty, (and slightly unnerving, I'd imagine, considering what could happen if the system got hacked, or got a virus). Even that doesn't seem too far away in technology when you consider replicators, transporters and physical interacting holograms. Some might say the holodecks were even beyond that in a way, since you could pretty much create anything almost instantly and physically interact with it, although I think it requires advanced force fields and projectors, etc.

Then I remember the Burn, which means there could be some major technological setbacks and catching up to do, so I guess that makes their current technological state a bit more plausible.

This doesn't spoil my enjoyment of the show, but it does feel more like 2 centuries ahead at most rather than 8 or 9.

I remember having nightmares as a kid, where I was sometimes afraid to go to sleep. As an adult my dreams mostly seem to be so vague and nonsensical. Or if they're not, I hardly ever remember them, so they might as well be. I have a vague sense their mostly like random thoughts or mind-films. I'd actually like a nice more realistic dream.

I have had reoccurring instances of hearing my dad's voice calling my name. A couple of weeks back it shouted loudly in my ear and startled me awake. We do live together, but he didn't call me. (The ear in which I heard his voice was pressed against the pillow.)

Another rather curious instance was earlier this year. (Or was it last year? With coronavirus and furlough etc, the months are blurring a bit). We had heavy winds outside. I usually have my window open a bit, even when it's cold as one of our bright-spark predecessors cemented up the ventilation brick, presumably to keep out the cold so the moaning of the wind was particularly noisy. As it rose, I heard my dad's  voice speak to me. This time he didn't call or shout. He just spoke matter of fact "Do you know you're very ill?"

I just knew it wasn't my dad as a) it's not the sort of thing he'd do and b) he was fast asleep in his room down the hall.

Then the wind rose again, but this time I heard a different voice. The sound of a child giggling. Brrrrr.

I then awoke. The wind was still moaning outside, so that was for real, and I realised I'd heard it in my dreams. I think my sleep hadn't been that deep, which explains the more realistic hallucinogenic quality of the dream, I guess. The mention of illness in my dream is probably from a mild worry I've had for a while. Nothing serious, I think, just minor (but ongoing) belly issues and feeling a bit run down sometimes and the onset of middle-age.  I'm guessing the thoughts of this infected my dream. I'm overdue a doctor's appointment which I keep putting off, so maybe I should consider that a wake-up call.

The child giggling... well creepy children are a horror staple, aren't they?

Okay I guess that was an interesting realistic dream of a kind, but they're rare and far between.

That's amazing. (The dinosaurs, that is, not the footballers' wives.) Also never knew that the Triceratops' surname was 'Horridus'.

Me neither. Makes me thing of the Grizzly bear's moniker (Ursus Horribillis). I don't understand Latin in general, but I think I understand that.  (Not entirely fair on the bear. We humans will leave tasty morsels in our rubbish dumps and wander into their territory.)

We had issues with mice in our house too a couple of years ago.I'd hear them scurrying around late at night in my bedroom.

I got some humane traps, and they worked! I tend to be awake very late and I'd hear the moment the trap closed. First time I made the mistake of opening the trap to check (as rightfully mentioned above, they really are very light) and it jumped out rather startling me.

From then on I'd make sure I left the trap close sans take the trap down the bottom of our garden and open it there. Sometimes there was nothing, but quite a few times a little fella would scuttle out. I think I must have caught over 8 in total. Sometimes 2-3 nights running. Or maybe it was the same mouse returning. Down the bottom of the garden isn't really far enough (I think you're supposed to take them at least a mile away) but as this would always happen in the early hours of the morning, and I didn't want to go for an nighttime ramble, or leave them in the trap for hours, I compromised with the garden.

Eventually they stopped due to a combination of my trapping and my dad taking measures to enclose the inside of the cupboards (I forget exactly what he did) preventing them accessing food, etc.

This year we had rats in our garage though. I never saw them, but they would help themselves to the fish food we had stored there any even chewed through the lid of a plastic container to get to it! This was after I had relocated the food on top of our freezer, and the blighters would still find their way up there.

I'd smell their urine and hear them scuttle away when I'd open the garage door at night. I bought some rat traps, but this time the traps did not work at all. I'm not sure why. I'm sure I put them in the correct areas. I think rats are just that much more intelligent than mice.

In the end we relocated the food and the rats just stopped their raids. Also cleared up a nest they'd made from the ends of a mop. I haven't heard any scuttling or the smells (well, occasionally cat pee which smells different). I'm sure their still around outside, which is fine. (Unless the foxes have gobbled them up or scared them off. They've been around a lot lately.) I actually like that the rats are about- but I'm glad they're staying outside.

That's not the only thing that's been in our garage. One day I'll tell you about the snake*, if you like, but this post is getting a bit long.

*A wild snake, not a pet. A grass snake in this case.**

** I watched QI the other day, and I learned something interesting about snakes from that Stephen Fry. Did you know that ALL snakes are venomous? This includes snakes that kill by constriction like pythons and boas. And yes our grass snakes have venom also, although if they bite you, you'll suffer nothing worse than a mildly burning rash. Apparently the venom of the 'non venomous' snakes just has a very low toxicity. I get the impression it's so low that it isn't any good as a weapon for them (there was mention of it aiding with digestion of prey already killed) but its there.

This is apparently a relatively recent finding. (Relative as I saw the episode on Dave, which means the episode is probably 2-5 years old.) Oh and Komodo dragons have venom too. In their case, it's nasty, and will likely kill you very slowly, if untreated. Their bite was known to be toxic, but for years it was thought to be toxins due to bacteria from gum disease, etc, resulting from rotting meat between their teeth. Just a few years ago it was discovered they actually employ a kind of venom.

So much for me ending the post without wittering on about snakes. Heh.

I love Taskmaster.

Recently binged The Haunting of Bly Manor.

Its gentler than The Haunting of Hill House, and there are far less jump scares. Actually I found it less scary altogether. This isn't a bad thing though. Its very much a character story and it's genuinely creepy in places. Some bits were predictable, but that's not a bad thing. Overall, loved it. English people smile say 'maths' not 'math' thought. Obviously American script writer.

I've enjoyed this series a lot so far. Apparently that egg eating gag in previous episode rather upset a lot of people. I don't mea, but apparently on twitter there's been a bit of an uproar. I had a lady have a bit of a go at me too when I defended it somewhat*, but I just backed away from that one.

Yes, loved recent episode. Just brilliant.

Also glad that they explained [spoiler]inconsistencies in way mandalorians are portrayed in this show and the clone wars/Rebels shows in a way that makes sense. Namely the removing/not removing helmet thing and why our Mandalorian and his closer kin know so little about the Jedi when the mandalorians actively fought with/against Jedi in the cartoons.[/spoiler]

* I wasn't trying to say the child was right eating the eggs, just that it was more comparable to my enjoying chicken eggs for breakfast than abortion (like folk on that thread were suggesting) since the eggs were unfertilised, aside from the fact chickens are not sentient. (Granted eating eggs of a sentient intelligent species is a biggee, but I was also thinking of the innocence of the child, just thinking "Food! Yum!")

Queue her response: "So you're as creepy as baby Yoda are you? Oh, and by the way chickens are sentient...". Think maybe I aggravated a vegan there.** She might be right about the sentient thing, maybe I used the wrong word. I did consider trolling her with a Gollum expression: "Yesss we sneakses around the farmyard hen bousessss and plucks the eggses from the hens bottomsss. We lovess eggsesss! GOLLUM! GOLLUM!" Like, you say creepy, you got creepy baby. I decided best not to respond at all though.

That altercation (if you can call it that since I didn't even reply to her) was pretty tame compared to people on twitter yelling "BABY YODA  COMMITED GENOCIDE!" It's an off-colour joke. Some people take things way too seriously.

** Not dissing on vegans there. I don't think I could be one, but I respect their decision and it probably does help the environment. Just figure her response suggests she is one.

[Jo-Jo Rabbit]

Jo-Jo Rabbit really good. Thought the actor playing Jo-Jo was fantastic and some great side characters. I know there was some criticism whether we should have films about Hitler youth and is it a subject to take lightly but funny moments aside it has it's thought provoking moments.
I'd recommend it.

Agreed. I was that at the cinema. Yeah, while they did play the Hitler Youth stuff for laughs they never depicted it as a good thing, in fact the lad [spoiler]overcoming his negative indoctrination[/spoiler] was kind of the point, so I had no problem with it.

[about?]

I suspect the root of Rhianna Pratchett's issues with the adaptation is that they've made a very big deal of saying they were "adding" diversity to Pterry's work, which is at the very least a bit of an insult to his memory, never mind a gross misunderstanding of a series of social commentaries masquerading as fantasy novels.  What did they think Monstrous Regiment was about?
Also, the producers cast a six foot actor in the role of a dwarf, so you must forgive me if I don't find their commitment to "diversity" particularly convincing.

Are you referring to Carrot? In Pratchett's novels he is a human who was adopted by dwarves.He's a tall lad, so the casting would match the described character in this instance.. (If you were joking ignore this.)

Not that I'm disagreeing with rest of your comment concerning diversity.

The Boys is really good this week.

Fascist.

Actually, yeah, it is good, isn't it?

Coincidentally (considering recent posts above) you get to see [spoiler]three ladies get it done! [/spoiler] 😆

I also prefer working from home. I save more than 2 hours due travelling a day by not going to office.

Initially a lot of people were very skeptical about working from home but is looks like these naysayers has been proven incorrect. Our team has been more productive than ever before.

My manager told me a little while ago that the department has actually worked out more productive since working from home.

Personally, I never got to do much in the end. I had one day working at home with a company laptop (that had just been provided) then I was put on Furlough the next day which I've been on ever since. Not that I particularly mind. Pay has dipped a bit, (80% what I originally received) but as I'm home and don't have much in way of expenses, and I'm not working anyway, that's fine.

The rest of the team (aside from another temp guy who's contract recently ended) are now back working from home. (At the start of the epidemic our whole department aside from managers was put on Furlough. Orders dropped that much*.) So now I'm the only person on Furlough. There was talk that I might have been called back last week, but that hasn't occurred, so they're obviously able to absorb my work between them.

I doubt I'll be called back now, but as my contract finishes on 25th of this month, that's not such a bad thing.

*We sell coffee and related stuff mainly to businesses and cafes.

I live in a field.

Problem solved.

Nice! Send Mr. Gummidge my regards.😆

Received mine recently.

I've yet to treat it,

Treat=read

Edit has timed out. Don't worry I won't be smearing chemicals over the artwork.