We hosted a couple families for Lego building and had wonderful exchanges about our various home education journeys.
Back to Building
The True Nuttiness
Something big is coming.
Mary, my late wife, visited me in a dream last night.
Yeah, Valentine’s Day, cool, thanks for that babe.
I’m a weird dreamer. I will slip deep into a dream state as soon as I close my eyes. I will often shake out of that state just as quickly. This can result in hyper realistic dreams that span more time than the few seconds I’m unconcious.
That’s how Mary chose to visit me. In the dream, I was leaving our tattoo studio and walking down the hall to our jiu-jitsu neighbors at Elevated Studios. She was there, coming out of another doorway to follow me. I didn’t stop, but my eyes were locked on her face. It was different. She has a twin sister, so I thought maybe it wasn’t Mary, but it was. It was different because she had aged. It’s been six years since she passed and it looked like she had been living those years somewhere else.
She wore a grey dress, an old Halloween costume. She smiled at me. She was peaceful and comforting in my confusion. I opened the door to the jiu-jitsu studio to let her in first, but we froze there for a moment, staring at each other.
Then I awoke.
There’s been a tension hanging in me recently. There’s a weight that I can’t properly articulate.
Mary reassured me. She was there at our new venture to let me know that I was safe and in the right place.
I believe deeply in signs and Mary hasn’t visited me this vividly in a long time. There were other small things too, it was an odd day.
This podcast episode fit right in to my intuition that a new chapter in my narrative is close. Jonathan Pageau and Seraphim Hamilton discuss divination from the Old Testament to Artificial Intelligence. The path I desire most is to align my attention as closely with God’s will as I am able.
Mary showed up to let me know she will be with me through every obstacle God offers me to master.
Is Zionism Antisemitic?
Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro and Thaddeus Russell take a look at Zionism and its relationship to Judaism in a conversation that flies in the face of US corporate and political propaganda.
Can’t Be Canceled
Tucker Carlson interviewed Alex Jones this week.
Jones has been blocked from every social media platform and refuses to go away.
Listen to the interview and find out why the corporate media has conspired to silence him.
“I Hope You Win”
I took this message from Tucker Carlson personally. I’m not through his conversation with Theo Von, but I was inspired by this positivity to return to blogging.
I listen to a lot of podcasts and I’m trying to read more. I’m going to work to share the resources I value. The effort to silence dissident voices (even those as vanilla as Carlson) is a threat to individual thought and I hope to combat it with some “radical” conversations.
Fun-A-Day 2023
Catching up on all our builds!
This year, my sons and I committed to creating a Lego One Piece build every day for the month of October.
This was our most collaborative year participating in Delaware Fun-A-Day.
My eldest son (Westen, 14) and I don’t know much about my younger son’s (Isaac, 12) favorite manga. Isaac was our guide in choosing subjects, finding referencing pictures, and providing narrative context. It was encouraging to see him take on the role of project manager while also putting together a couple of our most impressive Lego scultpures.
His first build was The Red Force, captained by Shanks, mentor of the main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy.
Westen’s specialty is minifigures and scenes. One Piece has many wild ships and islands, but the characters bring the world to life.
I thought a “raft” would be a simple build, but Blackbeard’s Raft grew into one the month’s largest.
Capone Bege captains Nostra Castello, an amphibious castle.
The Big Top was a fun challenge from the color scheme to the main tent and clownish insignia.
Westen completed the build with an almost-to-scale Captain Buggy.
Westen’s imagination shined on his dynamic depiction of a One Piece game feature.
Isaac’s re-creation of Torino Kingdom is one of my favorites. His waterfall effect is exceptional.
The following builds were from my own imagination. When I was stuck on a One Piece build, I would clear my head with another nautical build.
The orange hydrofoil came out of a challenge to use Lego separators and a single color. I had to bend the rule for a couple bushings.
These two grumpuses are not going to be happy at the Delaware Fun-A-Day Opening!
The Canary Camel was also born out of a challenge to only use the classic Lego yellow.
I made this island oasis when I was intimidated by the more complicated One Piece designs.
Shoutout
Here’s a shoutout to all the folks who leave laughing reactions and no comment.
This is the mockery we are modeled in a school environment where any ideas outside of allowable opinion cannot be engaged. If school hasn’t taught you how to compassionately listen to, and engage with, ideas you disagree with, it has failed you.
Blackbeard’s Raft
I don’t know a thing about Blackbeard, but my son said he had a raft and I thought that might be a simpler build.
The flag, angular sail, and rigging were all significant challenges.
I’m very happy with the result, but I have got to build smaller. We have a limited amount of space at Delaware Fun-A-Day.
Hitsugibune
Dracule Mihawk carries an absurdly large sword and captains one of the smallest ships found in the world of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.
The Hitsugibune is coffin shaped and adorned with green-flamed candles. This was the last detail I added and was an extra joy as we own just two green flame elements. I’ve never seen much use for them, but they are perfect in this build.
The mast is a scaled-up version of the hilt of Mihawk’s sword. That sword may also appear in our Delaware Fun-A-Day exhibit.
Arlong Park
This is getting more fun.
Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase, with no additional cost to you.
This is Arlong Park, an amusement park commandeered by Arlong, a pirate fish-man.
One of our Lego Unschool Club visitors helped me find the right shark head for the peak of the pagoda. There should be shark heads on the ground level guard houses, but I scaled them down to grey pyramids, each with a single, sharp tooth.
