1491 Duplocity.

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That’s right, I made a Lego joke. I REGRET NOTHING. I actually took a second to decide if enough of the world would know what Lego and Duplo are. Then I laughed in my own stupid, fat, face. OF COURSE THEY DO, IT”S FUCKING LEGO!

Weird thought, I just realized that my aunt and uncle are the sad, futureless, teens that Bruce Springsteen always sang about. One set of them anyway…

So yeah, this ended a couple of different ways before I thought of the Lego thing. I went with it because I like Legos, and sometimes I make these just for me… All the time really. Let’s be honest, I made this for a really narrow group of people. That probably explains why the small group of patreon supporters are so extremely loyal.

An old friend’s mom just died, so I’m going back to my old town to see him. He’s been living up north for a long time. Probably haven’t seen him for 15 years at least, maybe more. As long as I pay attention to my fluids, and get enough rest I should be fine. I’ll only be able to stay for a short time, but who knows when we’ll cross paths again, you know? Death is one of those few things in our world that gives busy people a tiny bit of leeway.

Many years before it was common, he met his wife on Everquest, I think it was. After a while he pulled up stakes and moved up north. Of course his father in law was a big man in Japanese banking, so he also went to Hawaii at one point. I can’t remember if he ever made it to Japan. Hawaii is kind of like Japan light, so if you can only go to one Hawaii isn’t so bad. You get the added bonus of visiting a state that’s pretty mad about getting conquered and hosed by America. Kind of like a floating Texas.

Honestly I don’t know what the whole thing is with Hawaii. I’ve just heard and read some stuff from… Native Hawaiians? Is that a thing? I don’t know what the terminology is. People descended from the people who were there before America put it on its xmas list? Anyway, I know there’s some stuff we still need to talk through going on out that way.

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Hm.
To get away from all of the stresses from work- I’ll go to my D + D club, that is made up of all the people I work with. Yeah, I can’t see this going wrong at all! : )

I actually run a D&D group with one person from work. A couple days ago we had our weekly session and afterwords he commented to me that most groups he’s been in have a problem with the players wanting to do something and the GM saying no, where our group seems to have the opposite problem (I put them somewhere, ask them what they want to do, and get a five minute uncomfortable silence… It’s… well, after five years of the group it’s become a little bit surreal).

Furthermore, we’ve noted that I tend to be a bit short with idiots at work (customers and employees), and on my one day off every other week I voluntarily sponsor a group of idiots. As yet we haven’t decided if it’s practice for me to be more sociable, or some sort of sick slef inflicted injury thing.

My pardons to all who might have different views, but:

FTIW: I’ve gone to Hawaii a number of times. Most of the people that I met there were heavily into working in the tourist industry, + the restaurant industry. So, I wasn’t reading much angst from the people I met there…about Hawaii being grabbed by the U.S.. But all of the glitzy Hawaiian souvenir shops, + ads of things-for-tourists-to-do, was enough to spin you silly.

Of course, I might have heard different views about Hawaii, if I had gone to live there for a while, + not had just gone there to visit Hawaii. *shrugs*

So I feel I should mention that I have a professor who is insanely obsessed with lego. He has a few thousand in his basement and goes to conventions and is on the board of conventions. Legos are a thing.

About Hawaii. I’ve been to the main island, which I consider the best on account of it’s a bit less touristy, particularly the Hilo side which has a lot of fantastic forests to hike though. (Kona side does have a lot of tourist areas). I’d also recommend Volcano National Park, which is fantastic. Though unfortunately people are no longer permitted to hike close to the lava at night. Ah, and the Hilo farmer’s market is really cool too. I got a necklace there which has flowers found only in Hawaii encased in enamel. Loads of cool things there. Native Hawaiians are are thing, originally Polynesians who voyaged to Hawaii over sea. I think that Hawaii has only really been populated by people for something like 1500 years though? There is a lot of great mythology from the native traditions though–definitely mythology of Pele, the volcano goddess are great.

Well since Lego owns Duplo, I think the point is moot. I think Ed means more or the age level of duplo rather than the blocks itself. But that’s just my opinion.

That’s how I read it too.

Aren’t Duplo bigger blocks, intended for younger kids who haven’t developed the finer motor skills needed for Lego?

When I was in Japan, everybody I knew wanted to visit “The States”, so they’d go to Hawaii. For them it was “USA Lite”.

Different people perceive different things differently. And that’s a good thing.

Great thing is that Duplo and Lego are totes compatible. The blocks will lock with each other.

I’m actually part Native Hawaiian. Grew up there before moving up to the mainland in search of colder weather. (yeah, I’m weird) Gonna be moving back soon though. If you just go for a visit, you don’t really see the whole ‘Native Hawaiian’ thing unless you happen upon a protest or parade. I’m not really into the whole “bring the Kingdom back” movement. I think most of those people are a bit delusional in thinking that if they can just get their land back everything will magically be fixed.

I do think that America is still hosing the state though, The Johnson act makes transporting anything there horribly expensive, which is why the cost of living is pretty high. Big agribusiness is leaving for cheaper pastures in the Philippines and south America, so tourism, the service sector, and the military bases are pretty much the only big industries there now.

If you have any questions about the state, I’d be happy to answer them.

I remember way back when the Island of Lanai was a major pineapple plantation for Dole (actually Castle & Cook – Dole was one of their subsidiaries). I actually worked on the plantations there before it was sold off and most of the bulk production was moved to the Philippines with some substantial fraction grown in Central and South America. The island is now 98% owned by Larry Ellison (the guy from Oracle). I guess he had that stereotypical dream of rich folks to own his own tropical island… :-)

Interesting trivia…
Although the pineapple is frequently associated with Hawaii, it wasn’t introduced there until the early 1900s. The plant is indigenous to South America and is said to originate from the area between southern Brazil and Paraguay.

Isn’t the actual pronunciation of “Hawaii” more like “ha-VI-ee”? I’d heard that, but as someone who lives about as far away from Hawaii as is possible to still be in the states, I didn’t want to assume.

I always half wondered why Hawaii didn’t have a huge, publicized separatist movement, like Catalonia, Quebec, or Scotland. I wonder what would happen if Obama ceded them from the union, and reinstated the monarchy, and became the foreign affairs minister or something. Of course, no telling what that would do to the rest of the states. But it would be interesting from an outsider’s perspective.

We all have our escapes. By the way didn’t Jackie hint durning the nerf fight that Mike had a love of fantasy.

Lego, sure, but not necessarily Duplo. Ironically, I think it’s actually possible that the off-brand is better known in this case, a lot of people refer to any larger Lego-type brick as a Mega Block.

So, is Ed implying that Big Mike might be… duplicitous?

Lessee… You create a club to meet new people (namely, women) and populate it solely with people you already know. Yeah, Mike, that’ll bring ’em running.

There are two kinds of relatives in the world: the kind you want and the kind you get.

“Isn’t it strange? Death divides people, but it also brings them together.”

–Hannibal Lecter

Weird fact. Hawaii is the only US state to incorporate the British Flag. This is because Capt James Cook was the man who literally put it on the map, so to speak. His maps were so accurately and meticulously drawn that it was only until the advent of sonar that they could be improved upon.

The other issues that the Polynesias of Hawaii take with us mainlanders are systemic racism, their dwindling numbers, and just how annoying the tourists can be.

Check out the deleted ‘tourist’ scene from the first Lilo and Stitch movie. Hell, the uncut movie show cases both perfectly fine.

Ah, yes. The Lilo and Stitch movie. This movie holds a special place in my heart for has elusive it had been to me for over a decade.

When I went to the Marines, I had been largely secluded from entertainment news. Partially by circumstance, partially by choice. The funny thing is, Lilo and Stitch evaded my radar so completely, I didn’t even hear about the movie for the first time through Disney’s marketing campaign.

I was visiting the sleep lab my mother worked at with her, and I saw these weird little figurines on the counter where the receptionist was working. I thought the girl figurine was kind of cute, though. (I would not have been very far from her age at that point in my life, maybe five years older than her, tops.) I asked about the figurines, and was told that they were from a Disney animated film.

Okay, cool! Disney animated film. Sounds legit. Yes. Very good. For the next ten years, I don’t see the movie in stores anywhere. I scarcely hear anything about it at all. None of my friends really talk about it. The movie only occasionally pops up in my mind as a passing thought.

I started to get the feeling that this movie did not actually exist. You know, sort of like the state of Maine. (I reasoned that Maine must have been where Narnia was hidden.)

Five years ago, I saw some mention of Lilo and Stitch on the blog post under one of the other webcomics I still read. (It was actually that artist’s tumblr post, which she keeps separate from her comic page now. A bit of trivia, this webcomic artist actually knew my wife when they were in middle school. http://www.candicomics.com.) (Oh, consequently, this was about the same time I finally met someone actually from Maine. She wasn’t a Narnian. At least not as far as I could tell.)

Back to my point. It would still be years before I would actually capitalize on a chance to see Lilo and Stitch. In 2013 or 2014, I finally got Netflix for a few months. I managed to find Lilo and Stitch on there. I finally got to see this movie more than a decade after it was released!

The same thing nearly happened with The Emperor’s New Groove. I actually had a close friend who told me about it within a few years of it coming out. I did get to see it about a decade after it came out.

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