Obi-Wan and the Curious Case of the Mormon Swingers

So I’ve been sick for a while which is why I’ve kind of disappeared. That and you know…I was so angry about what happened in Texas that I couldn’t even write about post without fear of just screaming into the void for an hour straight. But anyway, that’s a topic for another day. Today we’re talking about Obi-Wan, Star Wars as a whole, Mormon swingers…and anything else that comes up.

Obi-Wan

Let’s start with the easy one, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yesterday Jonathan and I sat down to watch the first two episodes of the new Obi-Wan show and…well…we weren’t impressed. Now I will start this off by saying that I’m not a Star Wars fan. I never have been and I never will be if they keep making stuff like this. Jonathan on the other hand is a fan and so I’m happy to watch them with him. In the prequels, Obi-Wan was the only character I really liked. Was that because I was a teenager when they came out and Ewan McGregor is dreamy? 90% Yes, 10% he was the only character who was well played and well written. Padmé should have hooked up with Obi-Wan but that’s a discussion for another time. This is where the spoilers start by the way. If it matters to you turn back now.

Fast forward to today, we’ve got PTSD Grandpa who lives out in the desert for 10 years and is still sleeping on the floor, working in the fish mines to scrape enough meat for his space camel to eat a single bite each day, while he spends the money he makes buying toys for a little boy he watches play from afar. And that’s just the starting point.

Little boy’s sister, a literal Princess gets kidnapped and instead of sending out the entire royal guard or whatever her parents ask PTSD Hermit Grandpa to save her. He’s her only hope. It makes no sense whatsoever. The bullshit excuses trotted out by the parents are weak and only serve to try to push the plot past the weak point and hope that no one notices. We noticed.

Add to this that Obi-Wan says he can’t leave because he needs to look after the boy…either…

1. Obi-Wan is sexist and only cares about the boy because he wants to train the boy and only boys can be Jedi.
or
2. Obi-Wan Kenobi, once great General is now such a broken man that he uses a 10-year-old boy who he doesn’t even have contact with as a shield.

Neither is great. Especially for the leading man. But we already know that Star Wars has a major sexism problem and it always has so…really nothing new there.

And those are my major complaints about the show, its entire premise. I’m going to keep watching it if only because Disney+ renewed literally on the day the show came out. But I can’t promise that I’m going to feel any better about it. Will it be a hate-watch? Nah. It’s a disappointing watch. Flea was a nice surprise though and Ewan McGregor has aged beautifully so there’s that at least.

Oh and it just needs to be said…goddamn the Star Wars universe is miserable.

Mormon Swingers

So I was on Reddit this morning and one of my favorite subreddits is Out of the Loop. It helps keep me in the loop on random things taking place that I otherwise might never have heard of. In this particular case we have a group of young Mormon married couples from Tiktok who are into “soft swinging” which from what I can tell means you can do everything but sex but like…what? There also seems to be an OnlyFans account in there and the whole thing is just so WTF. Anyway, I’ve included a screenshot of a recap of everything that has gone down and if you like soap opera level drama…boy are you in luck.

Certified Cheese Professional

Do you like cheese? Have you worked with cheese in some capacity for 2 years or more? You could become a certified cheese professional. This is a thing I just learned about and honestly…I want to be a certified cheese professional. My relevant experience? I like cheese. What will I do with this qualification? Put it in my email signature so when I email people they go full-on WTF.

How to Murder Your Husband Because He Taped Your Burrito

I realized that after I made the title it might sound like I’m accusing Jonathan of something horrible, but I know he would never. It’s just the perfect logical fit for mashing the two main talking points of today’s post.

Burrito Tape Sadness

Some mad, and clearly very white (I assume), person has created edible tape that is designed specifically to tape your burritos closed. Anyone who has spent any amount of time around Mexican food or Tex-Mex knows how to fold a burrito so it stays closed. When the world needs solutions for reducing hunger, food scarcity, and the rising cost of food…we have food tape.

Are there perhaps some applications for this food tape that aren’t being made clear? So many of the “As seen on TV” items are actually intended for helping disabled or elderly live normal lives unassisted and they don’t make this obvious because people have this bias against things that are seen as aids for those who need them. So, maybe there is something I’m missing here. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. But, as it is presented now…it’s burrito tape. Wrapping a burrito isn’t difficult, though I suppose that people with arthritis and other hand-related issues might have trouble with it. So maybe…maaaybe I was too quick to judge. But still…I dunno…
https://www.newsweek.com/ready-tape-go-students-create-tastee-tape-edible-tortilla-adhesive-1707794

Burned Steak

Most of my interactions on Facebook these days comes in the form of sharing memes and shitposts. Hopefully it brightens someone’s day if only for a moment. This one certainly made us laugh.

You Have to Laugh or Else You’ll Cry

How to Murder Your Husband Writer…on Trial…For Murdering Her Husband

This story is honestly one of those that is too good to be true…and yet…

The author of How to Murder Your Husband is on trial for murdering her husband. If you want to know more about the story I’ll link to it down below, but this is honestly a story I would expect to see on a crime procedural, not in real life. The worst part of it is that from the selected text in the article she doesn’t sound terribly upset about her husband being dead.
https://www.rte.ie/news/us/2022/0519/1299868-us-murder-trial

George Bush Condemns the Invasion of Iraq

Slip of the tongue or saying what he really thinks? George Bush was giving a speech in which he was supposed to be condemning the invasion of Ukraine but a slip of the tongue led to him condemning the invasion of Iraq, his invasion of Iraq.

“The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”

Big oof.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/19/george-bush-iraq-ukraine-war-speech/

Uranus

Never not going to laugh at this. I will never be that mature….and I don’t want to be.

Flip Flops and Shootings

Jonathan and I got up at 4:30 this morning thanks to a combination of our cats being horrible roommates and the awful humidity we’ve been suffering through the last few days. It was so early in fact that we had a bit of a nap around 7 am and I didn’t even suffer from my usual post-nap crankiness. Unfortunately, the early start to the day really shaped how the rest of the day went…which is to say nothing happened.

Ok, it wasn’t a day completely devoid of things happening. I had some tater tots for the first time in…I dunno, somewhere between 12 and 20 years. They didn’t taste quite like I remember them tasting, but I wonder if that’s because of the different potatoes we would use here or possibly a different oil? I really hope Tesco keeps them in stock. I wonder how the Irish would cope with a tater tot casserole…

Facebook Shares

Today I only shared two things on Facebook, one of them was funny and the other was political. I’ll put the political one in first just to get it out of the way and leave you dear reader with something a little more lighthearted to end on.

There were a bunch of mass shootings the last couple of days in America. Some of them racially motivated, others not. I’m not going to go into detail about any of them. This isn’t the place for that nor is it the time for me to put out a well thought out rant on the problems of America, I woke up at 4 after all. So I’ll simply say that something NEEDS to change.

One of my absolute favorite things about living in Ireland is that flip flops aren’t everywhere like they are in America. The sound of them goes straight into my brain and I honestly go a little bit mad if I have to hear them all the time. A spider wearing them? I’d lose my mind.

What Have I Been Doing?

Just thought I would post a quick update on what I’ve been up to since my last post in 2016.

2016

Malta is wild

I started out 2016 as the Editor-in-Chief of MMOGames.com and finished the year jobless. The details of getting fired are…messy to say the least. I won’t air my dirty laundry here, but let’s just say that it was bullshit and leave it at that.

2016 was also the year that I last went to Gamescom. We had planned to go a couple of years ago but Covid pretty much killed those plans. We’re still hopeful we can give Gamescom one last goodbye but that will have to wait until 2023 or maybe even 2024.

In 2016 we also went on our last vacation, again, thanks to Covid. We went to Malta and it was glorious. I could easily see myself living in Malta, during the Winter at least. I’ll post more about Malta in the future.

2016 was both the best and worst year of my adult life.

The view from our hotel in Cologne

2017

Our Sweet Ginger Boy

2017 was the year we moved, the year we got our youngest cat, and the year I started feeling better. All in all, I would call it a pretty good year.

It started off with finding out that we were being asked to move. We loved the area we were in so it was quite a blow, especially since Jonathan had been living there for a decade. What followed were several stressful months of trying to find somewhere in the Dublin area that would accept a cat. We weren’t just going to get rid of Annabelle. The rental market wasn’t quite as dire as it is now, but still, we felt compelled to accept the first place that said yes. Which is how we ended up where we are now.

The move was quite honestly the best thing for my health. We’ve got our own little microclimate in this area that gives us so much more warmth and sun than I ever got before and far less rain. All of this is wonderful for the arthritis I didn’t know I had at the time.

Thanks to the move we also got Jaffa, the adorable pain in the ass that he is.

2018

Aunt Liz at Kilruddery

2018 was a pretty low-key year. It was the year that gave us the Beast from the East, a huge snowstorm that blanketed the country with several feet of snow. Honestly, every year since then I’ve hoped and wished for a Beast 2, even if my joints hated it. No luck yet.

This is also the year that my Aunt and one of my brothers came to visit. Looking back I’m really grateful that they decided to visit in 2018 seeing as the world was about to completely change.

In 2018 Jonathan and I also took a day trip to London to see Star Wars Live in the Royal Albert Hall. That was the last time I left Ireland.

Annabelle quite famously doesn’t like men and yet…

2019

The First Garden Begins

There isn’t really a whole lot to say about 2019. It was the last time I actually went into Dublin. We went to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It’s also when I got my coffee tree. Life hasn’t really been normal since then.

2019 was also the year I started my new favorite hobby, gardening.

2020

Our one and only Covid loaf

Covid.

2020 was the start of several years of staying home. I’m considered a high risk of complications from Covid so my number one job since then has been to make sure I don’t get Covid. So far, so good.

A surprise visitor

2021

Sunflowers!

See 2020.

Oh, and I started a Youtube channel, Growing Adventurous.

2022

The allotment

For the most part, 2022 has been more of the same. The one big change is that I got an allotment.

Annabelle is getting quite old as well, she’s 18 now and her age is catching up with her. We know we’ll be saying goodbye to her before the year is over, but we’re doing the best we can for her now.

So that’s a quick update on my life, how is yours going?

Backstreets Back

Alright…

It’s the 8th anniversary of the creation of this blog and I think it’s time that it made a comeback.

I had actually been considering starting a personal blog again for quite some time. So when the Facebook memory came up of when I started the blog it was the little kick in the ass that I needed. So I decided that if I could log into this account this would be where I would start blogging again. As it turns out Google never forgot, thanks Google!

So here we are, back to the old days of personal blogs. My main motivation for starting the blog is quite simply Facebook. So many of the things I post on Facebook don’t seem to reach my friends, this has been true for years. But that wasn’t enough for me to start blogging again. What really got to me was repeatedly going to Facebook memories and finding the things I had shared years ago was gone. My presence online is slowly being deleted and I’m not okay with that.

All of that brings us back here to my personal blog. The plan is that every time I share a meme, or a news story, or just have something to say I’ll be putting it here as well. I think I’ll be doing a daily meme/news compilation and then scatter in some other thoughts as they come to me but that might change. I also want to add things from my Facebook memories but I’m not entirely sure how I will go about that just yet.

Anyway, in my next post (which you can read here: https://irrelativecollection.wordpress.com/2022/05/15/what-have-i-been-doing/ ) I’m going to be doing a brief update on my life. How the last 8 years have been and how I’m doing now. I hope you’re well!

Energy for Dreams

Sweet, glorious vacation! I’ve not properly been on one for almost 6 years but we’re just weeks away from finally going on a trip we’ve wanted to go on for…well, most likely around 6 years now. We’re going to Malta!

The Oscars Suck So I Made My Own

I hate the Oscars. Hate them for being so amazingly out of touch with reality. They’re filled with…I don’t want to call them artsy and mean it as an insult, but I’m not really sure what else to call them.

I’m talking about the movies that you can tell from the trailer is Oscar material. Dramatic, tense, tugging at the heartstrings. These are all hints. Especially if the main character’s spouse died.

These aren’t the movies people love. Okay, I’m sure someone out there loved these movies. But they aren’t the ones people were talking about. And before I get into my list of nominations I want to make it clear that I’m not saying these movies aren’t deserving of awards. I’m saying that the Oscars as they are presented, the highest prestige in Hollywood…they need to be about what’s popular.

The artsy dramas can have their own awards just like Sci-fi.

So with that…I give you my very own Oscar nominations.

Blaugust Day 4: My First Day in an MMO

My first day in an MMO was eventful to say the least. In fact this entire story will take place in just the first hour, okay, maybe two if you take character customization into account.

The year was 1999, MMOs were still brand new things. After seeing my then boyfriend playing Everquest I realized that my dream of playing games with other people was about to come true. So I took the 80 miles round trip it took to get to a Best Buy and I got my copy of Everquest. Getting it installed was a breeze but I very quickly hit my first snag. What server do I play on? Making it even more difficult were these strange letters next to the server names. PvE and PvP. What did they mean? I had no idea. For some reason it never crossed my mind to look it up either. Instead I tried to work it out in my head.

The first P well that obviously stands for player, meaning me. That seemed easy enough. I understood the v meant versus as well. But it was those last letters that had me all mixed up. Eventually I thought I had worked it out. After going through dozens of possible words, I knew for a fact the E stood for everyone. That meant I’d be fighting other players! I didn’t want that. So, I quickly rolled up on a PvP server not ever working out what that second P stood for.

Whoops.

It didn’t take me long once I logged in to work out I’d made a terrible mistake. I got attacked by a player. Instead of trying to fight I ran. I kept running until I found a group of people. They happened to be roleplayers though I had no idea what that was at the time. They very swiftly dealt with the person who was chasing me and explained to me where I’d gone wrong. So thank you random roleplaying heroes! I quickly deleted that character and made my very first main character in an MMO, Dystia.

Sadly my time in Everquest was short. When the first expansion was released there was an upgrade to the system requirements and I no longer met them. But I look back on my time in the game fondly. I was even in my first in game wedding with my first friend in an MMO all because I stood under the Wood Elf city and yelled out “Bored girl looking for bored boy.”

 

This blog post is part 4 in a month long blogging initiative called Blaugust. It was also prepared ahead of time because I’m headed to Gamescom for nearly a week. Though I will make every effort to blog while at Gamescom I’ve prepared enough posts to get through the convention. If you’d to know more about Blaugust head over to the official Anook page.

Blaugust Day 3: Game Recommendation Speed Round

Yep, it’s one more day of game recommendations and also one more day until we leave for Germany! Why? Because they’re easy and I’ve been busy getting ready to go away for a week.

Previously I talked about my recommendations for the various business models for MMORPGs and a MOBA. This time there will be more games recommended for a variety of different interests.

Blaugust Day 2: More Game Recommendations!

Yesterday I actually thought I would get a lot more recommendations in than I did. This has sort of worked in my favor however as I’m writing more than one blog post a day so I don’t have to worry during Gamescom. So if you’re looking for my recommendation on the best subscription based and buy to play MMORPGs head over to yesterday’s blog because we’re moving ahead!