The Confederation of Dixie

by on August 6, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Port of Mobile became the economic genie that pulled Alabama out of the Second Great Depression. It was successful in doing so because it maintained its own security, both on land and on the open water. Its early waterborne security was primarily composed of armed tugboats, but their yard facilities refurbished, converted, or built numerous other armed escort and security craft during and after the emergency. Most of their craft were only good for the Gulf of Mexico, but they built true ocean-going escort craft in time. They never built warships, you understand. Only nations need warships. The corporations of Mobile built armed escorts to protect Alabama-flagged shipping and other port facilities throughout the Americas and all over the world in time. Never warships.

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He-Man

by on August 5, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I must say that the new He-Man teaser was amazing. The animation is top notch. Getting a glimpse of the heroes and villains fighting was excellent. Seeing familiar heroes I’ve known my entire conscious life going into battle to protect Eternia again was heartwarming. It encapsulated the idea of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe in less than 2 minutes of video. It made even Orko looked badass, and that is an achievement of truly Olympian proportions that all these people running around in circles right now wish they could achieve. 😉 The teaser has over 7 million views as I write this. A quarter of a million likes. It is a perfect teaser trailer, and it shows just how much a straight remake of He-Man would rock. It would be popular, and would make Mattel boatloads of money as people bought the figures. That’s what Mattel wants. It’s what I want too.

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He-Man

by on August 4, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

There has been a lot of discussion about the new He-Man show lately. Some liked it, considering it a fresh and new take on the old show. Some disliked it, wishing it was more about He-Man, or disliking that the show runner lied to them about the focus of the show. These two groups can largely live and let live. There is a third group that expresses their love for the new show, glorying in the fact that it’s not just a tired old He-Man show. They attack anyone who dislikes it as a crybaby, a manbaby, or a He-Manbaby in bouts of clever language skills. And they often say we have no right to judge the show because only half of it has been released. Firstly, they are attacking the people, not the argument. And secondly, we can judge whatever we want. If Netflix only releases a short season, then that is what we judge. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the audience judgment is rotten.

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Cancer

by on August 3, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

As I’ve noted before, my mom has cancer again. Breast cancer some time ago. That was a major surgery and lots of chemo. A couple bouts of skin cancer that were much more easily removed and recovered from. And the blood cancer she is fighting now. Or rather the top shelf still in-testing drug cocktail is designed to fight. Now there is a couple interesting side effects that mom has noticed. She’s gone to bed around 11 and woken up around 5 for decades. Now she wakes up to the alarm at 7. And she normally takes a nap or two during the day. She’s also losing weight. She’s burning off around 5 pounds a month. See the cancer drugs kill the cancer in her blood, and then her body has to filter the dead stuff out of her blood. That takes a lot of energy, so she sleeps longer and is losing a bit of weight each month. “Life finds a way.” The things you learn from Jurassic Park. 😉

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Cancer

by on August 2, 2021 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

My mom has been fighting cancer again, for the forth time, for a few months. Well, more accurately Mayo Clinic figured out she had it and put her on a new targeted treatment in testing right now that costs thousands of dollars a dose. The company developing it gave it to mom for free. The Clinic has been administering it under her normal healthcare plan. She is out no money. Only the time it takes to go to the clinic. For a couple years now, food she used to like no longer tasted good to her. And one of the side effects of the cancer she has is loss of taste. So we think she had it for a while. Some weeks ago, I started asking her if food was tasting good again. And she noted that she thought it was. Well, this week, she said out of the blue that food really was good again. She volunteered it. Out of the blue. Thank God for the Mayo Clinic.

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