A bit of travel this week. Work travel, but not the usual “go work at the other location” deal. Because I have a company car now, I had to go take a leader led defensive driving class. Because the class was scheduled for all day, I was allowed to go stay in a hotel for a couple of nights instead of driving back and forth super early and super late. So I went down Tuesday, and did some work at the office down there, went to the class Wednesday, and then back to do a bit more work at the remote office Thursday before heading home. Work travel of this type also means I get a food per diem allowance, though its not particularly large, I am one person, and I can only eat so much. I also picked a hotel closer to the training than the remote office I cover in the city. The whole point of the hotel is for the training, not working at that office, and I could avoid the busy traffic this way more easily. The hotel seemed to be in a pretty nice area. And so, I tried some “nicer” places to eat. Plus I picked places I had never heard of, though both are pretty widespread chains. First night I got a pizza from the Mellow Mushroom across from the hotel. I went with a half and half meaty and half great white. Both halves were really good. I had some leftover that I took home. It also came with a free pretzel bites for signing up for an account. The second night I went to this place called Chicken Salad Chick, that one of the class members commented was good when we passed one during the driving portion of the day. It was pretty tasty as well, but I wish I had gotten bread instead of a croissant for the sandwich. In case you are keeping track, I didn’t skip lunch, I had some kind of nasty Qdoba. I generally like Qdoba but the rice or something was off on this bowl. The hotel was nice, but kind of boring. There is only so much entertainment I can get being stuck in a little room alone. I mostly sat around trying to watch Godzilla vs Gigan on the TV. Which should have been easy, except only one of the TVs in the room had working internet, so HBO Max only worked on the bedroom TV and I didn’t feel like sitting on the bed the whole time, especially when eating. Then halfway through the movie, internet just completely crapped out so neither. Plus I was bored and a little tired so I kept falling asleep. There wasn’t much going on in the area that seemed exciting that was within a reasonable driving distance, I even checked for some concerts in the area, from venues like The Pageant to even just, local park bands or something. Nada in the middle of the week in the evening. I had a little bit of time after training which ended a bit early, so I went to the zoo for a bit, but half the animals were inside because of the heat and I was kind of lonely without my wife to hang out with there. Plus its only open until 5. St Louis Forest Park Zoo is free to get in and its probably the best zoo of the many I have been to. Brookfield in Chicago is a very close second (its not free though). Another fun little event today, the local National Weather Service office was having an open house event and giving tours of their facility. I met with my dad and went. It was a little less technical than I had hoped for but still interesting. Our tour slot got over just in time to watch them launch one of the weather balloons off into the sky. Toys While traveling, one night I hit up this long ass shopping center near the hotel. Went into like 5 stores, didn’t find much. The Ross had another one of those transforming Godzilla Egg toys though. Godzilla this time, no sign of Mechagozilla or Ghidorah. The Godzilla is a pretty competent but basic Godzilla though, and the egg feels less like “Godzilla folded up” than the photos I have seen of it, in person, the color makes it all blend together a bit more nicely. I also went ahead and ordered that Transformers 10 Day Countdown Bot-Bots set. I was going to put it off but I decided that inevitably it sill just sell out and I will regret skipping it. They are Bot-Bots of G1 characters. I like Bot-Bots, but I could never find them anywhere. I have some, but I would have more if I had seen them more often. They are a way better “gimmicky mini line” than those weird Swapticons for sure. Lastly, on the subject of Godzilla vs Gigan, I added a few more to my McDonalds Godzilla x Hello Kitty set. I may actually manage to get them all. I only need three now, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, and Destroyah. Movies and TV What a terrible week for famous people. First Dolly Parton passed. A wonderful musician and actress but more important she was just a super great person and did a lot of good solid philanthropy work. Then Tim Curry, well known for a variety of eccentric roles in a lot of pretty good movies and.a few TV shows. He had an interesting manner of acting that was kind of, both serious and funny at the same time. Over dramatic may be a good word for it. Then the next day was Peter Cullen, best known as the voice of Optimus Prime, but also pretty well known as Eeyore. Not that it was intentional on his part but the timing feels extra unfortunate for Hasbro, who has spent all year promoting that time they killed Optimus Prime for the 40th anniversary of the G1 film releasing in mid September. I have been pushing a sort of concept for a while now that the idea of “Celebrity” which exited, but really started gaining more steam in the 70s and 80s, means that we will eventually reach a point where we will get a major “celebrity death” almost daily at some point. Music I don’t have anything to really talk about this week for music so have a Dolly Parton video Top Artists Sigrid — 7 scrobbles CHVRCHES — 3 scrobbles The Offspring — 3 scrobbles Aurora — 3 scrobbles Radiohead — 3 scrobbles Top Albums There’s Always More That I Could Say by Sigrid — 3 scrobbles What Happened To The Heart by Aurora — 2 scrobbles Conspiracy of One by The Offspring — 2 scrobbles The Contortionist by Tarquin Alexandra — 2 scrobbles Don’t Kill My Vibe – EP by Sigrid — 2 scrobbles Random Links “Y” vs. “e”: What does “y” mean in Spanish? Buffy the Vampire Slayer Monster High Skullector Buffy and Angel 2-pack revealed by Mattel Country star & LGBTQ+ ally Dolly Parton dies at age 80 LEGO Skylines City Builder Game Announced Pete Buttigieg’s replacement’s new, unpopular reality show puts GOP hypocrisy on the small screen LEGO Skylines is a cozy city builder coming to PC and consoles Dolly Parton claimed gay people as family when country music wanted us invisible Dolly Parton Knew How To Be Human Only Murders in the Building heads to London with season 6 first look LEGO Super Mario Minifigure Sets Officially Announced Dolly Parton Set a Magnificent Example of How To Be Human Ikea’s Xbox collection includes a giant thumbstick stool A furious backlash lies ahead as a sleeping giant awakens Bill Gates Issues a Strident Warning About AI Emulating the iPod I Am Begging Websites To Remember They Are Read By Human Beings, Who Possess At Least Some Small Amount Of Dignity Transformers: The Movie Upper Deck Sets Announced, Future Hasbro Sets Planned Outpost building strategy game Star Trek: Outposts Unknown launches October 20 Pokémon Is For The Gays Tecmo Super Bowl: NCAA 2K27 Edition