Tech and Repairability

If there's one thing I hate it's the Apple-ization of electronics, by which I mean companies making products that look flashy but break easily and aren't easily repairable or salvageable by the end user.  Apple isn't the only company that does this by a long shot, it's just the most egregrious about it (though Microsoft certainly tries their best to beat that record lol). For example, I stopped buying Nexus phones from Google years ago when they stopped making the battery user-replaceable.  The laptops I've bought over the years run a wide gamut of brands as well--the only thing they share in common is the ability of the end user to change out the battery/hdd/RAM etc without much more than a screwdriver. There's no one brand I'd recommend because companies frequently switch their products from being user-repairable to being unrepairable.  Making sure my electronics are repairable is very important to me, so regardless of other advantages, I always look for decent repairability first and foremost.

Fandom Thoughts

I think I feel uneasy about fandom culture in general because I recognize it as an obsession, and it's so easy for that obsession to be twisted into something evil.  And not because of whatever characters or whatever a person happens to enjoy, but because it is an obsession, it can ultimately be prioritized over other things, or over treating other people with compassion.  And that's why everyone in fandom thinks fandom is terrible--because they notice when this malevolence is directed at them or their friends or favorites.  But how many of us realize when we are directing it at others? 

ramble-tags: Am I giving up my obsessions?, lol no, I just think it's interesting, that it's not just people outside of fandom culture who emphatically hate fandom culture, but also those inside of it, and like, that's the norm, like people will often only defend their friends or people who like what they like, in the way that they like it, but most the people in fandom, are as likely, if not more so, to label fans in that fandom as terrible, as people outside the fandom do

Star Wars Sequels

I saw something once about Kylo Ren not being evil because his eyes aren't, like, Sith eyes.  And it's just like...are we really doing this?  Judging a book by its cover sort of thing?  I mean, Snoke doesn't have Sith eyes either, but I don't see the majority of people who think Kylo Ren is just this poor misunderstood man thinking the same of Snoke. 

Star Wars Sequels Thoughts

I really think the sequels need to be given an extensive backstory to explain exactly how we got from point A (the end of Return of the Jedi) to point B (The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi).  I think they really kind of handwave some major plot points that sequels fans tend to wave away as not being that important to the story or somehow being totally unambiguous and clear from the context, and I just don't agree.  I think it's possible to construct a reasonable narrative for these things, but it isn't to be found on-screen. Basically, I want to know a few things--what's Snoke's backstory?  How did the First Order accumulate such vast resources in such a short time-span?  How did the First Order instantly crush an intergalactic republic by taking out a few systems?  What was Luke's Academy like, and what events led up to, and what was the thought process behind, his most pivotal decisions (eg. raising his saber as he contemplated killing Ben Solo and then exiling himself on Ahch-To and cutting himself off from the Force)?  I've seen people say things like Snoke's backstory don't really matter, and I suppose that's true from a narrative standpoint, but I still wanna know. :P I've also seen many people say some of these things seem perfectly clear to them, so obviously not everyone will agree with this, but so far the interpretations I've seen from fans haven't shed any light on the matter for me, either.

Favorite Sequel Characters

Snoke and Phasma are my favorite sequels villains.  On the heroes side, I also really like Rose and Paige Tico.  This seems to follow my trend of being more invested in characters most of the fandom either actively hates or could care less about and being kind of lukewarm or even disliking the characters with large fanbases.  This is my curse, lol.  Though actually I do like Finn, Rey, and Poe as well, just wish their respective fandoms would stop trying to prop their faves up by tearing down the other marginalized hero characters.  It's not a good look!

My Socialization Issues

I think one reason it's hard for me to maintain relationships is because I tend to be hyperaware of any disagreements I have with people, but almost never feel comfortable approaching anyone about any major disagreements I have with them regardless of their own temperament.  These are deep personality flaws I have, and they seriously impact my ability to have meaningful relationships.  My lack of chill really messes with my social life, lol.

ramble-tags: yes I know it's all in my head, the question is, how do I get the worst parts of it out of my head?, I don't just want to be the kind of person who squeezes themselves into whatever ideological mode makes their friends happiest, just to resolve such feelings, but I hate feeling like there's always this distance between me and other people, and there's nothing I can do, to bridge it, and sure one can always block people or whatever, but I feel it's necessary to ask pointed questions of myself, if literally no one I know can measure up to all my expectations, I think there's something wrong with that, and just blocking everyone left and right, or ignoring everyone, isn't going to fix it

The Clone Wars

Recently I was rewatching some of The Clone Wars to take screenshots, and thinking about different courses the plotlines could have run.  I have a huge interest in the prequels era of Star Wars, and The Clone Wars is just this endlessly fascinating disaster to me.  Also I just really love the cgi and plentifully gratuitous action scenes.

Hemp is Legal in the US Now

I wanted to mention this, since it's a small bit of good news that I've personally been wanting to happen for a while now--it seems hemp is now legalized in the US!

The Farm Bill of 2018 removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act:

http://www.ncsl.org/research/agriculture-and-rural-development/state-industrial-hemp-statutes.aspx

This adds to legislation introduced in the Farm Bill of 2014, which loosened restrictions on the federal laws regarding hemp production, but did not completely legalize hemp.

Hemp is great because you can use it as both a food and a fiber, and from what I know, it produces a lot more fiber per acre than cotton, and uses less water.  Hoping this means we can finally get more hemp products produced in the US.  There's so many useful things that can be made from it.

Sith Eyes

The yellow Sith eye effect seems to be very specific to the Sith.  Like it's not something every darksider in the canon has, and it doesn't seem to necessarily correlate with the intensity of evil a character possesses, either.  Even if we look at characters pre-sequels, Ventress didn't have Sith eyes, but I believe this was simply because she was never fully trained as a Sith and so never participated in whatever portion of Sith custom causes that specific feature.  Whereas all the Darth Siths did develop that trait, (ie Sidious, Maul, Dooku, and Vader).  But neither Snoke nor Kylo Ren developed the Sith eye trait, and I believe that's not due to some lower intensity of their evil, but rather because neither are Sith but instead follow some different and currently unclearly described Force custom.

At some point I want to refine my own headcanons for the specific reasons behind this, as it is relevant to my fic.