Test 2

This is my wife and beloved Melissa:


She's pretty great. And she straight-up rocks that Minnie Mouse jacket.

Today, she turns [redacted] years old. This is something of an 'ode to a happy birthday' for her.

Melissa is the yin to my yang, and nowhere is there more evidence of that than in our living under one roof. I am the laid-back type that operates under the 'take it as it comes' philosophy. But, even before the current state of things related to COVID-19, Melissa has always been the extremely cautious type. The way things are now, she's the one that wants to wipe-down anything that will be entering our house.

No joke. She has been using alcohol wipes to cleanse groceries before we put them away.

But that's okay, because she just wants to protect the ones that she loves. And she's got a lot of love to give.

It's for that reason (and so many, many more!) there is nobody on the planet that I'd rather be cooped-up with in our current coronavirus-inspired isolation. Every day brings a sunshine-filled start, a lunchtime walk with Molly Weasley, and a happy-hour that is like no other.

Happy birthday to my loving, quirky, caring, parent extraordinaire, student-centered, Disnified, and loving partner! (...and yes. "Loving" appeared twice in that list because she's got so much love to give.) When this 'keep-your-ass-away-from-everyone-who-doesn't-live-in-your-house' time ends, I vow to take you out to a lovely dinner and celebrate the annual reminder of just how awesome you are.

But for tonight, you'll have to settle for home-made lasagna and a cake that your daughter baked and decorated.

#GoTeamDolphin

Seriously guys. It's things like this that help me to believe that people are good. What a great way to start your day.

Oh, and as a music nerd, I can't begin to understand how the cast stayed together via a video conference call. So good.

Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Bill Withers passed away yesterday at the age of 81. A great write-up at the New York Times captures the essence pretty well:

William Harrison Withers Jr. was born on July 4, 1938, in Slab Fork, W.Va., to William and Mattie (Galloway) Withers. His mother was a maid, and his father worked in the coal mines.

At 17, eager to avoid a coal-mine career himself, Mr. Withers joined the Navy.

“My first goal was, I didn’t want to be a cook or a steward,” he told Rolling Stone. “So I went to aircraft-mechanic school.”

He spent nine years in the service, some of it stationed in Guam. He quit the Navy in 1965, while stationed in California, and eventually got a job at an airplane parts factory. A visit to a nightclub to see Lou Rawls perform was a catalyst for changing his life.

“I was making $3 an hour, looking for friendly women, but nobody found me interesting,” he said. “Then Rawls walked in, and all these women are talking to him.”

He bought a cheap guitar at a pawnshop, started learning to play it and writing songs, and eventually recorded a demo. Clarence Avant, a music executive who had just founded an independent label, Sussex, took note and set him up with the keyboardist Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG’s, to produce an album.

“Bill came right from the factory and showed up in his old brogans and his old clunk of a car with a notebook full of songs,” Mr. Jones told Rolling Stone. “When he saw everyone in the studio, he asked to speak to me privately and said, ‘Booker, who is going to sing these songs?’ I said, ‘You are, Bill.’ He was expecting some other vocalist to show up.”

Mr. Withers was laid off from his factory job a few months before “Just as I Am” came out. After the album’s release, he recalled, he received two letters on the same day. One was from his workplace asking him to return to work. The other was from “The Tonight Show,” where he appeared in November 1971.

The quintessential discovery story - love it.

While Withers has several recognizable songs ("Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean On Me", "Just The Two Of Us", "Lovely Day" and others), for me it doesn't get any better than "Use Me":



Studio version is here. Whether a live performance or in the studio, dude simply oozed soul. This is one of my personal top five favorite songs of all-time. And that's saying something.

It's too bad that Withers became frustrated with the music industry because I'm sure that he had more music to share with us.

Gross groove. Some good music for your earhole on a Friday morning.

Late yesterday big news broke about the University of California system, and how they will respond to the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 crisis:

The University of California announced Wednesday that it will greatly ease some admission requirements for fall 2020 and beyond by eliminating SAT test scores and minimum grades, saying that “grave disruption” to schools during the coronavirus crisis calls for maximum flexibility in evaluating students.

The move, authorized by UC Board of Regents leaders, will relax the admissions process for more than 200,000 prospective freshmen and transfer students who annually apply to the UC system’s nine undergraduate campuses but are now studying under dramatically different — and, for many, highly stressful — circumstances.

Those students may not meet UC admission requirements this year because their high schools or community colleges have shifted to online instruction with varying degrees of success, pass/fail grading systems or reduced course offerings.

In addition, standardized test scores may be difficult to obtain because testing dates are being canceled or postponed for many required tests, including the SAT and ACT, high school exit exams and, for international students, evaluations of English-language proficiency.

More:

The Academic Senate agreed to temporarily suspend several admission regulations at the request of Han Mi Yoon-Wu, director of undergraduate admissions at the UC Office of the President. “With such grave disruption in the education system, administrators are seeking flexibility where possible under these untenable conditions,” Yoon-Wu wrote in a March 20 letter to Comeaux.

The modifications to admission requirements include:

• Suspending the letter grade requirement for the 15 prescribed college-preparatory courses completed in winter/spring/summer 2020 for all students, including UC’s most recently admitted freshmen
• Suspending the standardized test requirement for students applying for fall 2021 freshman admission.
• No rescission of student admissions offers that result from students or schools missing official final transcript deadlines. Also, admission will be honored through the first day of class until official documents are received by campuses.
• For transfer students, temporarily suspending the cap on the number of transferable units with Pass/No Pass grading applied toward the minimum 60 semester/90 quarter units required for junior standing.

Yoon-Wu noted that efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic had caused an “unprecedented and growing number of school closures” that have forced institutions to confront myriad challenges as they have switched abruptly to remote instruction.

The uncertainty is global, she said, noting that students studying overseas might be unable to earn the credentials typically required for UC admission, as prescribed testing has been or is likely to be disrupted in such countries as the United Kingdom, Pakistan, France, Germany and Italy.

“This period of uncertainty predicated by the COVID-19 situation greatly impacts our previously assured pipeline of students to UC, which includes California resident freshmen, California Community college transfers, domestic and international nonresidents,” she wrote. “The academic verification process ... and enrollments will be notably compromised.”

All very good reasons.

Many folks were watching to see how large publics like the UC system would respond to the coronavirus situation for their future enrollment pipelines. Now that a very large domino has fallen, it will be interesting to see how many other institutions will follow that lead.

More:

Depending on how things go -- what the arc of COVID-19 is nationally or in certain regions of the country, whether physical distancing rules are still in place, etc. -- college campuses may remain off-limits to students come September. Whether that's a 5 percent likelihood, or 25 percent or 50 percent, I have no idea (I'm no Tony Fauci, and even he can't say for sure). But it's almost certainly not zero.

In such a scenario, the impact on college campuses would be enormous -- operationally, financially and otherwise.

[...]

Any decisions about the fall are multiple weeks, if not months, away, and many people aren't ready to discuss the topic, at least publicly. But some foresighted campus officials are (often quietly) exploring that possibility, and I'd like to share some early assertions (or at least hypotheses) based on those discussions.

So, I just discovered Run The Jewels.

I know, I know. If you're like my kids you're likely thinking, "well, you're a mid-40s guy who just doesn't know what is 'hip' anymore." To that I respond:

1. Shut up, and;
2. You're kind of right

The reason that I know that you're kind of right is because I used to have a proverbial finger on the pulse of music. But Run The Jewels (RTJ, as it were) has been around for quite some time now and I was just made aware on Friday of last week.

Damn. I must be slipping.

For work we use the Microsoft Office suite of products, of which Teams is a part. Ever since we have ventured into this 'remote work' space, we use the Teams app even more to stay in touch with each other. Most of it is work-related communication, but sometimes things venture into the personal or "hey have you seen this show/movie/heard this music?"

Last week I created a Teams channel that I dubbed "Entertainment Swap"; a place where folks could go during their lunch hour (or anytime that they were just taking a break) to post up ideas or suggestions. During the course of the first real dialogue in this newly created channel, a colleague mentioned a hip-hop group by the name of Run The Jewels. He explained that it included Killer Mike - with whom I was already familiar due to his appearances on early Outkast songs.

This led me down a proverbial rabbit hole of YouTube videos and Apple Music downloads, and before I knew it, I was bobbing my head and experiencing some serious regret of having just found out about the duo. I mean, check out the video for "Legend Has It" above. Or this NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Or this DJ Shadow tune that features RTJ (and that is a super creative video).

Needless to say, I'm glad that my co-worker brought RTJ to my attention. They're pretty great. Chalk up another win for working remotely!

How cool is John Krasinski? The full video is worth your time for some good feels. And, I think that we all need some of that right now.

Epcot, looking at Future World from the World Showcase, on our last trip

Given all of the shut-downs due to Novel Coronavirus, it's certainly no surprise that all of the Disney-related theme parks (as well as non-Disney attractions as well) have completely closed. I was reading the other day about the financial impact that it has on the Disney company specifically (estimates are between $20 million and $30 million lost every day that the parks are closed). /Film has an interesting post up about the impact:

Understandably, among the things taking a pause are construction projects. Walt Disney World, ever-expanding in its 43 square miles of space, has plenty of projects in the pipeline, but they’re taking a break for now. What kind of projects are affected? Well, everything from the TRON Lightcycle attraction to the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser hotel was in some form of construction. Those projects’ original arrival dates are now pushed back to who knows when.

[snip]

Of course, who knows when the parks will be open again. California is essentially shut down for the next four weeks, and Governor Gavin Newsom has said he can imagine that shut down being doubled. In fraught times such as these, it’s especially frustrating that we can’t have escapism such as the theme parks to forget our troubles. For now, do what I’m doing: watch YouTube videos of theme-park rides, shows, and more. Listen to Disney theme-park background music. And most importantly: whoever you are, wherever you are, stay safe and healthy.

My emphasis.

On our last trip the Wife and I spent a great deal of time at Galaxy's Edge in Disney's Hollywood Studios (more about that trip here). While we greatly enjoyed the experience (and were fortunate to fit it in just before the whole planet shut down), I'm not sure that I'm ready to splurge for the Galactic Starcruiser hotel. I am disappointed that the TRON Lightcycle will be pushed back. I also imagine that the Guardians of the Galaxy feature at Epcot will also be delayed.

But back to that emphasized text in the quote. Being the Disney parks dork that I am (and that my wife is as well, for the record), I have already bookmarked several YouTube playlists to give me a Disney fix when I need it.

If you want the soundtrack that is the in-room information channel you can check out this link, or subscribe to ResortTV1 on YouTube. They post lots of a great park-related content.

Grand Avenue has - in my humble opinion - the best soundtrack in ALL of the parks. This is what I refer to as the "backlot" area at Disney's Hollywood Studios (from ABC Commissary toward Muppetvision 3D, just before you enter Galaxy's Edge). It has a funky/jazzy inspiration and includes The Meters, Lettuce, and the New Mastersounds, to name a few. You can check that out here, and also peep the Magical Soundtracks channel for other great soundtrack loops.

So, for those of us that need a quick fix of that good Disney stuff, there are a couple of resources for you regardless of how long the parks are closed.

Screenrant does a fantastic job documenting the what and why of the Force Dyad in the Star Wars universe:

The Force Dyad appears to be an entirely natural phenomenon. According to Charles Soule's tie-in comic The Rise of Kylo Ren, it first manifested when Ben Solo began to surrender to the dark side. He was locked in a duel with the leader of the Knights of Ren, and abandoned himself to the darkness for the first time; far away, on the desert planet of Jakku, a young desert rat named Rey suddenly felt cold. It's clear, then, that the Dyad was created by the express will of the Force itself, rather than from intervention by any third party.

The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary stresses the Dyad can be cultivated. That happened years later, when Kylo Ren captured Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and attempted to probe her mind. This fits perfectly with Jason Fry's novelization of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, in which he explained this was how Rey learned so much about the Force so fast.

[snip]

It's telling that, immediately after the Dyad had been cultivated, Rey was able to use a Jedi mind trick to escape her cell on Starkiller Base; shortly after, she was able to match Kylo Ren in a duel.

[snip]

The morality of Star Wars is usually quite simple, with a strong dichotomy between light and dark. The Jedi are seen as servants of the light side of the Force, while the Sith are of the dark. But it's increasingly becoming clear this is a perversion of the original Jedi teachings; Star Wars: The Last Jedi featured a mural showing the Prime Jedi, and it showed a teacher whose philosophy was very different. Light and dark were given equal prominence in the mural, with the Prime Jedi representing the darkness in the light, and the light in the darkness. This was supported by Cavan Scott's audiobook Dooku: Jedi Lost, which revealed the ancient Jedi treated balance as a separate aspect of the Force, like light and dark.

Rey and Ben Solo both know the light and dark sides of the Force. However hard Rey attempts to commit to the light, there is still anger and pain bubbling up within her - explosively so, when she unleashed Force Lightning in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Ben Solo, meanwhile, has never been able to quiet the siren song of the light side of the Force. Palpatine intended Han Solo's murder to push Kylo to the dark side beyond the point of no return, but Han sabotaged it by his willingness to die for his son, unwittingly ensuring Ben never truly committed to the dark side. Like the Prime Jedi, both Rey and Ben are the light in the darkness, and the darkness in the light. The more they grew in the Force, the stronger their Dyad bond became.

Keep reading the article for more details.

Here's what is great about these new details: the movie(s) never fully developed this idea. Throughout the final trilogy (that focused on Rey), fans were left mouth agape when Rey would flex Jedi skills. When Rey was a captive on Starkiller Base and was able to mind trick a First Order Stormtrooper (ably played by none other than James Bond himself, Daniel Craig), I was left thinking that it took Luke Skywalker several years to hone that skill.

With these additional details, we now can more clearly understand why Rey was so suddenly able to use the Force with the skill of a full-fledged Jedi (or Sith). It would have been nice to have some of this explained in "The Force Awakens" - but at least we're getting it now.