What to Know Before Going to Galaxy's Edge

As Disneyland is planning to re-open with certain COVID-19 safety accommodations, this seems like a good time to share my advice for going to Galaxy's Edge.  Fair warning, I am no longer* one of those people who will stand in line forever or call at 6am to try to get into something.

The first thing to know is that this is not designed as an amusement park.  It's designed as a new planet (one that has never been on any Star Wars movie, TV show, or animated series), and you are a visitor to that planet.  I encourage you to watch Neil Patrick Harris's "documentary" Star Wars Galaxy's Edge: Adventure Awaits to get a better understanding of the concept, and preview some of the features and activities.  You can watch this on Hulu or Freeform, if you have an account. 

I did watch that ahead of time, but didn't realize that there are two places that you have to make a reservation to visit.  The first is the Cantina.  The day that I went (a Monday in October, 2019), we walked by the line around 10 or 11am, and there were no more reservations open for the rest of the day.  Or the next day, I believe.  So, if you want to go to the Cantina, make reservations way ahead of time.
You also need reservation to make a lightsaber, but we were able to make reservations that day.  We looked about 1pm, and made reservations for about 3pm.

What else to know?  There are really only a couple of rides, and then a couple of activities that you must pay for, plus lots of places for shopping, including a whole themed open market.  The big ride is the Millennium Falcon.  I rode that like 3 times, and finally forced a kid out so that I could be the pilot.  All of the positions are fun, but I kept riding it so that I could be the pilot at least once.  You also have to rush to get a picture at the table, and it took me several tries to get to that, too. 

Building a personalized heavy-duty lightsaber (that glows and makes the swooshing sound!) costs $200 if you do the one with the reservation, or $65 if you make a plastic one in the gift shop.  You can also make your own droid, which costs $100 (or less if you make a plastic one in the gift shop, but I didn't catch the price on those).

The other cool thing is the food.  It's all themed to the idea of a planet in the Star Wars universe.  Of course you can get Aunt Beru's blue milk (which is fruity, surprisingly), and now Luke's green milk (also fruity, and cold, which means it's not fresh!), but all restaurants have dishes on theme.

I went on my birthday.  You know how in Disneyland, most of the workers wish you a Happy Birthday?  Well, in Galaxy's Edge, they wish you a Happy Origin Day!  It took me most of the day to figure that out!

There are also a few characters, and Kylo Ren stalks around a lot.  I'm not sure what they'll do after the events in Rise of Skywalker...

There's a lot more to learn and do at Black Rock Outpost, but those the important points, in my opinion!

*I did wait in line for over 24 hours for tickets to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.  Maybe the disappointment of that film is the reason why I won't do something like that again? 

Good Omens Miniseries is Good, but Not Gay

As a bisexual women in her 40s, I understand wanting to see queer characters represented in shows, movies, and stories.  I mean, when "I Kissed a Girl" came out, I was so excited even though Katy treats the "girl" as an object, not caring about her name or her heart, and still worried about what her boyfriend would think.  But the queer community was so thirsty for representation, any representation, that we thought it was validating and cute.
I'm not sure that we've gotten that far in music, but I think we've made great strides in movies since we have more than Bound and The Birdcage, which both have problematic elements.  Especially if they're expected to represent all or queerdom.

Anyway, on to the Good Omens miniseries on Netflix, er, Amazon.  MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.
I don't remember if I read the book, but I was seeing a lot on Tumblr about fans of the show being angry that Neil Gaiman didn't make the supernatural pair of angel and demon explicitly gay. But did you see Tennant's swagger in those super-skinny leather pants?  I'm calling gay.
Anyway, I read Gaiman's tweets that they were agender beings, and thus weren't gay, which I think is a crock of shit.  Almost all of the angels and demons, and even god, were clearly gendered. The only character that wasn't referred to by gendered pronouns was Pollution (who is also a problematic character as the only Asian castmember represents pollution?!), so the angels and demons definitely had a gender.  Yes, some of them were pretty androgynous, but still tended toward a gender and used gendered pronouns.
So, I don't buy Gaiman's response.  Maybe that's what was intended in the book, but that's not what was represented on screen.

So moving on to the gay question, were Aziraphale and Crowley in a romantic and sexual relationship?  I see absolutely no textual evidence of that on screen.  Did they ever even touch on screen (other than when they switch places)?  They clearly care for each other, I can even say that they love each other, but a romantic or sexual relationship?  I don't see it.

Maybe I'll lose my Queer Card for this, but sometimes people are just friends.  Really good friends.  Best friends across the centuries.  But friends. 
And that's okay.  In addition to needing more representation of queer characters, we ALSO need more representation of healthy friendships, especially between men.  Western society is becoming more socially disconnected (look up the research on loneliness), so seeing healthy, connected friendships is important. 

It's sad, though, that the queer community is so desperate for role models and to see ourselves, that we cling on to anything, try to headcanon everything, so that we can see ourselves. 

In sum, Aziraphale and Crowley are not in a gay relationship, but they are in a deep, connected friendship, and that is great.  And we also need more queer role models. 

American Gods: S1E1

I read the book, but already noticed bothersome things after watching only one episode of the series that I hadn't noticed from the book.  It's not that the book is different from the series already, I just hadn't noticed things.  I probably didn't notice them because the book was recommended by a good friend, Robert, who loves Neil Gaiman, and loved the book.  Normally, Robert and I hate similar issues, like sexism and racism, so it didn't occur to me to worry about these things. 

I also didn't look up any of the god(desse)s while I was reading the book, but I am looking them up now that I'm watching the first season, and the first episode already has inaccuracies!

SPOILERS

In the first episode, we already have the wife fridged!  See Wikipedia for a more complete explanation of this concept, but it's basically when the wife or girlfriend of the male protagonist is killed or tortured as motivation for the male protagonist's story and growth.  It's lazy writing, and I'm sad to see it here.  So, sexist box is checked.  :(

What about racism?  The main character is an intelligent, middle-class Black man, so that doesn't seem to fulfill any stereotypes.  He does start the story in prison, but that might be more an accurate portrayal of our racially biased criminal justice system.  Although, it is also a stereotype. 

But more concerning is Bilquis, for a variety of reasons.  First, the depiction of Bilquis as some sort of sex goddess, or love goddess, is historically inaccurate.  Again according to Wikipedia, Bilquis's history is disputed, but seems to generally include providing gifts/trade and using riddles or wisdom.  There's nothing about sex.  But, and here's the second issue, there's a lot of sexualized racism about how Black women's sexuality is dangerous.  In the show, she literally consumes people during sex, presumably killing them.  In the second episode, she consumes both men and women, but mostly White people.  Misognoir much?  I like having diverse casts and stories, but if you wanted a killer sex goddess, maybe be historically accurate and find a real god/dess who uses sex as a weapon instead of plucking one African queen from history and telling a lie about her story. 

Yes, the main character is a complex Black man, but the depiction of the two women so far is as sexual and dangerous.  This plays into stereotypes of women in general, but particularly of Black women.  Sadly, because of this sexism and sexualized racism, I'm not looking forward to continuing the series.  Sorry, Robert. 

2018 Fun!

As I was adding important dates to our new Ellie calendar, I saw that we did a lot of fun stuff!  I wanted to get it all down somewhere, so here you go!

In January, we celebrated my Gram's birthday and Ellie turned 3!
In February, we had a nice Valentine's dinner.
I went to Washington in March because I missed my niblings.  I'm sure I also had pie on Pi Day.  :)
It looks like we went to Washington in April, too.
I went back to Washington in June for my nephew's high school graduation, and we started our many appointments for Brie.  Poor puppy had her knee surgery in June!
We celebrated July 4th, and I saw Gwen Stefani in Vegas with a long-time friend in July.  We also went to Seaside , OR, with my family in July.  That was Gary's first time on this annual trip!  July was our first of 3 Angel's games this year.
I went back to Washington right before school started in August.  Gary and I went to a musical in both August and September.  I went to Six Flags with a student group in September, too.  Gary also brought Ellie up to Taft to visit me for a weekend!
In October, I visited my niblings in Seattle to welcome my oldest nephew to college, and I took my student club to the Bakersfield Pride Festival.
In November, we only traveled for Thanksgiving.
I went to Wicked with my long-time friend in December, then we went to Washington again for the holidays and Auntie Day.

Lots of music, and Angel's games, and family! 

Auntie Day 2018

So, apparently I only have motivation enough to find time to post on here if it's Auntie Day, the made-up holiday for me!

Every year, my sister says that Auntie Day shouldn't have an annual theme because Mother's Day doesn't have an annual theme.  The theme is "mothers".  But every year she comes up with a cool new theme!  She does reserve the right to not have a theme, but this year the theme was DOGS!

We went to a hot dog restaurant (Mad Dogs), and played Apples-to-Apples (because the restaurant had it and it's my favorite game; it's not theme-related).  My nephew Adam won, I think.  I got a mac and cheese hot dog!

After that, we went home and watched Good Boy!, a silly dog movie that the kids had watched non-stop when they were kids.  There, we had puppy chow for a snack!

Another fun Auntie Day!  I'm grateful for my sister, and my niblings, for making a great day and for making being an aunt to fulfilling!

Auntie Day 2017

For Auntie Day 2017, we went to see The Last Jedi!  Here are the pictures! 

I got a Wonder Woman backpack- with a lasso!!  It was even on sale!

We all wore Star War t-shirts!

And I got a cup that says NIBLINGS on it!

Auntie Day 2016

I got a little behind on these,  I'm  don't remember what we did in 2016.  I know we went to noodles (I love noodles!).  I'm  wearing a Star Wars t-shirt, so maybe we went to see Rogue One?  Anyway, here are the few pictures that I have!

And they baked me something, but it's been so long that I don't remember what it was... :/

Christian Friends

I wrote the email below to a Christian friend who is facing some personal struggles right now.  I thought that it might clarify for others a little of where I stand.  As I finished in the email, there's WAY more to say, but the email wasn't for debates or explanations, it was just to say, "I'm here for you." 

I was thinking about some of your struggles, and realized that trying to mix me in with your religious life might be one of them.  So, I'm writing to explicitly say that I'm open and supportive of whatever you want to share about your faith and how it's helping you through your treatment.  You might not know much about Unitarian Universalism (http://www.uua.org/beliefs), my faith community, but it's all about people finding their own spiritual path, so a basic foundation is openness and welcoming others and their beliefs.  Although we're mostly humanists, there are Christian UUs (and Jewish, Buddhist, pagan, and atheist UUs; probably Muslim, too, but I've never met a UU Muslim...). 

I can imagine that my uber-progressive activism and opinions might make it seem like I can't or won't see the benefits of Christianity (or conservatism, for that matter), but I know that there are different kinds of congregations and different types of Christians.  And I want you to know that my social or political beliefs aren't relevant in your recovery journey; I want to support your beliefs and how your faith helps you.

But really, my point is that you don't have to silence yourself about your faith, especially how it is helping you or how you are trying to leverage it to help you now.  I'm completely supportive of any belief or community that helps you. 

There's so much more to say, but that's the basics, I think.  I might've been able to say things better, but I hope that the feelings come across.

Doctor Strange

I had been avoiding this movie because of the whitewashing of the Asian characters, and because I just didn't see how magic would work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but as I'm catching up on S4 of Agents of SHIELD, I'm seeing a more super-natural bent (Ghostrider, mostly). 
As I began watching it, I rolled my eyes and said, "Oh, another white asshole that must learn empathy or compassion or sacrifice or something to truly become powerful.  Great.  It's not like I haven't seen this a couple of times already (Tony Stark, Thor, etc.)." 
I did like that there was some racial diversity, although not enough Asians for a movie set mostly in Hong Kong.  It was a little awkward, though, that Chiwetel Ejiofor's character was very, very similar to his character in Serenity. 
It totally didn't pass the Bechdel Test, of course.  At least the love interest had skills! 

Basically, if this wasn't a Marvel movie, I wouldn't have watched it.  I'm totally not a Cumberbatch fan, either.  I mean, I was mostly "meh" until Star Trek: Into Darkness.  Then I HATED him. 

Survivor

They've been coming for African Americans and American Indians since conquering this land and did you speak up - because you weren't Black or Native?
They then came for the Muslims and did you speak up- because you weren't Muslim?
They then came for the sexual minorities and did you speak up- because you weren't gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender?
They then came for women and did you speak up- because you were a man, or a woman with  another privileged status (White, middle or upper class)?
Then they will come for you- and by that time no one will be left to speak up.

Since I didn't buy a house, I'm going to Rome.

About 8 or 9 months ago, there was a house in the neighborhood that I rent from near my job that was going to auction.  I decided, "What the hell?  Why not start the process to bid on it?"  So I did.  I signed up with a mortgage company, got an agent, and started the process.
Well, it didn't go well.  The house never went on auction.  It was in the process with another buyer.  I got to look inside, and it was beautiful and big and had a pool and jacuzzi.  Although the pool was all fool of scum so I couldn't really tell if the pump worked or anything.  Then the bank dropped the other potential buy, but asked for $50k or more than what my agent thought that it was worth.  So I made a low offer, was declined, and let it go. 
Then, about 4 months ago my agent called me out of the blue and said that the house had been appraised for about what we offered for it.  I said "Cool, let's offer what it was appraised for!"  And we did.  And it was accepted!  Great!  Scary!!  Gary inspected it (with no water or power on), and found a couple problems, but said it was mostly good.  We still didn't know if the pool worked.

I had planned to visit a friend in New York city this spring, but put it off because I needed all of my savings for a down payment!

After deciding that my budget could just barely manage the payments, a lot of thought, and a pro-con list, I decided not to buy the house.  I loved it, but it wasn't the right time for Gary and I.  If I had bought the house, I couldn't pay rent where we live now, and he'd basically be homeless.  Not a good situation.

But from then on, I was pretty free with my money.  I kept saying, "Since I didn't buy a house, I can afford this!"  I bought $100 boots and $100 pants just because I liked them.  I bought plane tickets for 5 people and didn't have them pay me back.  I bought expensive cheese, went to the movies, paid for all of our dinners out.  

It was a great few months!  Then, my niece's best friend for 16 years (starting when they were toddlers) said that she was going to nanny in Rome for a month this summer.  This sounds like a great excuse to go to Rome with one of my favorite people!  I checked package costs, and ended up buying a package from Orbitz for 7 days in Rome this July!

The only downside is that I can't say, "Since I didn't buy a house, I can afford this!" because now my extra savings is taking my niece and I to Rome!

If I do end up buying a house in the next couple of years, I hope my nephews are okay with a slightly less epic trip...  May be stay with family in Finland?  Hawaii?  Latin America?  But I have a few years to save for those trips, and a house.

I worked hard for my degree and avoided having children, which is what allows me to have some money now.  But I know that my family's support through most of my education and being White also has helped me get as far as I have.
How far is that?  Rome with the one who made me an aunt!

Deadpool

For all of it's R-rated fanfare, Deadpool was pretty much any action movie from a couple decades ago.  It was a bit more raunchy than Kill Bill (either volume), and just as violent.  What makes it even less watchable is that the one woman character was so stereotypical. 

I don't even remember her name.

But she started out a badass, protecting herself at a rough bar.  But she immediately refers to herself as "merchandise," objectifying herself.  And the love story that we see?  Is them having sex.  She was a badass for, like, a minute, and then just a willing sex toy.  The movie is just all male fantasy all the time. 

And during the sex montage?  Why is International Women's Day celebrated by painful anal intercourse?  What are you saying about women if you celebrate us that way?!  

When we finally get back to her, she's a dancer or waitress or something in a strip club.  WTF was she doing in a mercenary bar, and protecting herself well, if she's merely a waitress?!  It all makes no sense. 

Legal Marriage =/= Wedding

After a discussion with a colleague around an assignment on marriage equality in my Human Sexuality class, I've come to realize that not everyone recognizes the important difference between a wedding and legal marriage.  So I wrote this up for my class:

A wedding is a religious ceremony and celebration.  Marriage, on the other hand, is a legal contract recognized by the government.  

Gay couples have been able to have weddings in certain faith communities for a several decades (shout out to UU's!!). Vermont was the first state to recognize civil unions, and Massachusetts was the first state to recognize marriage between two people of the same sex (this info is based off of my memory of living through the years, so I may be wrong...).  

If it helps you to recognize the difference between weddings and marriage, think about the positions of U.S. slaves.  They could not get legally married because they were not considered legal people in their own right.  However, couples often held a ceremony or ritual with their family and community to demonstrate their love and commitment (Google "jumping the broom" FMI).  Obviously, the slave owners and the government didn't recognize this ceremony in any way.  The slave owner could still sell one of the committed partners and not the other, or sell both to different people.  

I hope that helps.  I didn't realize that people who aren't associated with some of these minorities didn't see the difference between legal marriage and a wedding. 

Every Driver Needs Jumper Cables

Dr. O. to the rescue!

As I was walking back to my office tonight, someone from my class said her friend's car had died and asked if I had jumper cables.  I said yes, but since Prius's have THREE batteries, I don't jump cars from my own.  I got my car keys, and then the student whose car was dead said that she didn't know who to jump her car from.  And she was almost crying, poor dear!  Or was trying to stop crying.  Anyway, there was a guy sitting in a running car near mine, so we asked him.  Guys love to help women!  So I got my cables and he drove to the dead car.  He quickly jumped her car, and off we all went!

The morale of this story is:  every driver needs their own set of jumper cables.  This is not the first time that I've loaned mine out to be used on two other cars.

Dog Beach Day!

This is the second time that we've taken Brie to the dog beach.  The first time, we just walked and got the feel of it.  This time, we wore swimsuits and brought snacks!

Gary, the sea, and my knees! -->

Brie was pretty alert, making sure no dogs or humans attacked her humans!

It was great weather, around 73 with a light breeze.

Brie acted like she was well-trained, too!  She stayed with us, and laid on the beach with us.  She wasn't sure about the waves that kept coming in, but she did like running in the water.  I think she even growled at a big wave that was coming towards her Daddy!

I never would have expected this, but this is exactly what I want my life to be!  #dogbeachdaysalways!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Possible (probable) SPOILERS ahead!

I've seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TFA) twice in theaters now.  I may watch it again, or just wait until I can get it on DVD to continue to watch it.  I loaned my set of the first 6 to a student, and she hasn't given them back, so I might have to buy them all over again!

Anyway, it's safe to say that I love TFA, even though I do see some places where there's a little too much missing information, or improbable coincidences.

There are several reasons why I love it.  It's action-packed and funny.
But more importantly, it's a Star Wars film.  The universe is the Star Wars galaxy, unlike the prequels.  Those were so CGI'd and glossy that none of it felt like Star Wars.  This one does.  The gadgets are similar, the machines are worn, it's just Star Wars.
It's also a pretty similar story to the original (A New Hope); there's a hero(ine) who lost their parents who is stuck on a desert planet and is untrained and mostly unknowledgeable about The Force, who goes on an adventure with the resistance to save the galaxy.  There's a villain who's taking orders from a more evil villain.  There's an unnecessary cantina scene.  There's a feisty woman who saves herself.  There's a crazy scary monster scene.

But I do have some problems, or questions.  Here they are:

1. Why does Finn's conditioning not work?  Does this happen often?  Is he special in some way?
2. How convenient was it for Han to find the Millenium Falcon at just that moment?  
3. Why didn't R2-D2 wake up when BB-8 first came to him with part of the map?  Why did it only happen after the Starkiller was destroyed? 
4. Is Rey just a random girl who is strong with The Force?  Is she an Organa-Solo?  Is she Luke's daughter?!  
5. Why can Rey speak every language?!
6. Did someone take care of Rey when she was first abandoned?  Who?  Was it that old guy with the map (Lor San Tekka is his name; I looked it up)?
7. How convenient was it that Han took Rey to the place where Luke's lightsaber was?

After watching the movie, I have read some things about it.  People have interesting theories about Rey!  I hope that Disney figures out that people (adults, boys, girls) want Rey merchandise!

I can't wait for Episode VIII!!!

Auntie Day 2015

I took some pictures on my own this year, so this Auntie Day post won't be late!

This year's theme was CHEESE!!  It was also Gary's first Auntie Day with us!  It was one of our more mellow celebrations, but that was fine for all of us.

We started off watching an episode of the TV show Chopped because all of the courses had cheese in them!  What's really cool is that one of the contestants is from Portland, Atalua, and we're going to his restaurant in a few days!   They also got me a giant container of cheese puffs to eat while watching it.  They were all mine!!  Okay, I did share; I just can't say no to those kids!

The big event for the evening was going to a local fondue restaurant, Urban Fondue.

We skipped the meat course to focus on melted cheese and melted chocolate.  So yummy!  I was happy that they offered sausage to dip in the cheese so we really had the best of both worlds!  In pairs, we got to pick the type of cheese we wanted, and extra sides, as well as the type of chocolate we wanted.  We tasted everyone's, and I think that Gary and I chose the best cheese (brie and gorgonzola) and chocolate (dark chocolate with no additions)!  Gary hadn't had fondue since it was hip in the '70s, so that was fun!

Another great Auntie Day!  I'm happy that my family invented this day for me, and we keep celebrating it!  We're trying to convince Gary's daughters to start their own Auntie Day, but they might choose the commercially-set date in the summer.  That works better for them.

Auntie Day 2014

Since we just finished Auntie Day 2015, I figured that I should post about Auntie Day 2014.  Even though I only have pictures from my Mom's disposable camera*.

That year's theme was the hobbies of the kids.  We started with Adam, and he drummed for us.  He's so good!

Drew is really interested in sports, so we played a very short game of basketball for his hobby.  Us adults are getting old!  But we're still competitive and aggressive.

Kylie's hobby was photography, so there were a bunch of props out and we did a photoshoot!



















From the photoshoot, I kept the tiara when we went to dinner.  :)  We went to a German place that had a fancy cheesy fondue appetizer. I love to tell the waitstaff why we're celebrating!  This time, they thought that it was my birthday, but I let her know the real reason!

Another great Auntie Day!  I appreciate all that my sister does for me, and how wonderful my niece and nephews are!

Fifty Shades of Gray

Ugh.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I can't finish reading this.  It makes me too angry.

I get why it's so popular, though.  This is the first non-lesbian book that I've ever read in which the woman's sexual pleasure is described in the first-person.   For those who don't read fac-fic or women-centered erotica, this can really be an exciting experience.  Plus, Christian seems really good at pleasuring her.  I think all people want a partner who knows how to make them feel that way.

HOWEVER, I have friends in the BDSM community, and from my impression of what they do, their BDSM activities are mostly focused on sex, not their whole lives.  In fact, I think that people who have more power and responsibility in their public lives tend to like to be submissive, to just let go.  What this book describes is a Slave relationship.  That's very atypical for people in the BDSM community.


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Vincalis: The Agitator

Review from GoodReads:  Vincalis the Agitator by Holly Lisle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The book started with one-dimensional characters, with the women being one-dimensional AND stereotypical.  One woman's main motivation is love, and the other is portrayed as slutty (and punished for it later with severe domestic violence).  A sub-plot of sadistic pedophilia is totally not necessary.
Based on this, I probably won't read the series.  The story itself was mostly interesting, but it was hard to get through the stereotypes.


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