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treacherous-dwarf-of-the-seas · 4 years

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I had a lot of Thoughts about the Steven Universe Future finale

It’s exactly a month after its premiere, but I still have a lot of feelings and I wanna organize my thoughts a bit so I can have them somewhere, perhaps for any future ideas I may have. I think I’m just gonna list my thoughts on the 4 individual episodes, the finale (and season) as a whole, etc. Overall, I liked most of it, but I’m gonna get a bit su critical because although I absolutely loved many things about this finale, Oh boy. Some things I downright Did Not. Spoilers ahead I guess, this is a long one.

This is my favorite part of the finale by far. To me, it did almost everything right.

I loved picking up right after Fractured, and Steven’s expression and body language, *chef’s kiss*

Poor Jasper gets killed *twice*

Homeworld looks so good! It’s all gardeny and disorganized in a good way.

Purple pearl?

SPINEL’S BACK!!!

Edgy theories that spinel and the diamonds were a disaster waiting to happen (I agreed with these) were wrong and this makes me happy.

Steven’s reaction to Spinel kissing him? Was a tad strange//

SO GOOD to see Spinel being mentally healthy and happy and while still being herself.

The Diamonds! Actually working to better themselves!

I love the idea of diamond powers “working in reverse”. Like, Yellow diamond can change bodies and destabilize bodies, Blue can change emotions for better or worse, White can take over others or let others in. Honestly the idea that Pink/Rose could bring random plants to life and basically heal anything always struck me as so overpowered and random. The context that she was a goddess of destruction that changed into a goddess of creation makes the concept make a bit more sense to me, I appreciate that.

I’m so ambivalent about Yellow’s scene.

Like, its so satisfying to see. The thing that everybody (including me) was complaining about was that the diamonds’ redemption did not change the millennia of shattered, corrupted and amalgamated gems and suffering they had directly caused. Its very nice to see them putting their money with their mouths are. There’s acknowledgement that redemption isn’t just saying sorry and being less of a dick than you were before, it’s also correcting past wrongs and making it up to the people who were hurt.

However, I’m not totally sold on the idea of healing every shattered gem and the cluster. Like, I guess it makes sense considering a shatter is just a crack that’s been finished, and cracks in gems can be healed. But I don’t think it should be as easy as it is, and in any case, it just feels like it cheapens the impact of shattering, and even the forced fusions when they were so impactful in the original show. I wish the healing could still be done, but in a way that respects how awful and impactful the harm was.

I totally understand Steven in the Blue Diamond scene. I had had mental health problems where my mom had just offered drugs instead of talking to me or trying to help in a way that showed she cared about the issue, so this scene hit a bit hard.

Blue gets a song!

White, by far, my favorite scene in all of Future.

Spinel White, no joke, gave me nightmares.

The little moment of Steven yelling at himself for being a diamond is exactly what I wanted and I needed so much more of it.

Triggered by everything White Diamond does. *chef’s kiss*. I especially love the little subtle moment of looking uncomfortable and pushing away white’s fingernails.

Finally seeing similarities between Steven and White is canon, though I wish it was more explored.

THE HALLUCINATION

Zach Callison is Intense(TM). This man always goes so hard and deserves mad respect.

TOO BAD.

Intrusive thoughts being represented in this way is amazing.

I still wonder if White knows what happened. Can she read thoughts in that state?

He used White Diamond’s power to go into her body, and then while in her body, used her power of possession to take over his own body to puppet himself? I actually love the twistedness of this concept. It shows how twisted Steven himself has become. It’s so much about self-harm, while also not being self harm? vengeful thoughts, intrusive thoughts, anger, just everything. This moment could take all day to analyze, and I think it is way more thematically relevant to Steven’s internal struggle than the corruption.

Love that the diamonds were still willing to help and only seemed concerned after how Steven was acting. They have changed!

Fairy tale imagery, noice.

This one is odd in the best way.

My favorite scenes in anything with supernatural beings is when they look at their own eyes in the mirror and realize that it’s not human or changed from what they should be. The way this scene played out was in a way I’ve only seen in fanfiction, and I am Here for it. The horror on Steven’s face when he’s looking at his own appearance is just wonderfully done.

Very uncomfortable that there is an actual painting of Steven as an angel in his own room. I love how it ties into this episode, but I genuinely feel uncomfortable that he was thought of in that way at all.

The flat out denial that he had just done the things he had done simply by virtue of who he is, I love the idea that “Steven Universe” has become more of a concept/symbol to him rather than being his own name. It reminds me of his concept of his mother and how her name is more of a symbol to Steven than a person. I just love the subtle parallel.

I love the fact that “toxic positivity” is being explored in this show. I never really see it being discussed, and in a show so centered on being honest about emotions, no matter how painful they are, its so wonderful that the protagonist’s main character flaw is the exact opposite, to the point of being forcefully happy and smiling and actively ignoring things going wrong. It really strengthens the message by showing the opposite extreme.

I love the recontextualization that is present in suf. The criticisms of Steven being “too happy” during the cluster arc, being strangely positive after Lars’ death, etc. Although it was uncomfortable when those episodes came out and those events were all but ignored, I’m happy that it is being addressed as this culmination of madness in Steven, being so forcefully happy that its obvious that those episodes weren’t trying to ignore the problems, Steven was.

I’m also happy to see a genuine “hero complex” in a protagonist. (usually the term is used incorrectly to mean “anyone who is a hero who works too hard.”

Steven talking to himself in typical protagonist fashion.

The crystal gems staging an intervention, good shit.

“Steven’s here to help. Steven help. Help Steven.” Not subtle, but I’m always a slut for the glitchy messages.

The confession of his crimes, love that we get to see the gems react to that.

The whole monologue. Once again, Zach goes hard. I love the manic energy and still the ending is so raw and broken.

“Oh, don't worry! I fixed that too! I can fix anything. I can just keep messing up and fixing things forever, and you'll never have to know or think about any of it! How messed up is that? That I've gotten away with this for so long. You have no idea how bad I am.”

It honestly feels like some projection? (Idk something to do with that). It feels like hes a little put out by the things he learned in Homeworld Bound. Like, maybe he feels the same way I do? That the diamonds got off too easy? Maybe it’s simply that hes put out that they’re getting better and he seems to be getting worse. Maybe even, into the worst parts of his mom? I mean from his perspective, his mother had reverse character development and went, in his mind, from a goddess to a petty teenager, to an actual monster. How upsetting would it be to see the galactic dictators who got to live, do so many awful things, worse things than her, and just get to make everything better, to the point of total reversal of their crimes, while pink just ran away and left steven to deal with the mess.While he had to deal with the aftermath of EVERYTHING. Everyone seems to just be okay with the diamonds now, the monsters he feared for so long, so how come he has to be the bad one? How come he has to be like them now? Maybe it’s even coming back to his whole theory that he’s just a reincarnated version of his mom. (I know that he knows it isn’t true, but old fears and old habits can come back during a manic episode, and he spent a long time thinking that he was just there to clean up his mom’s mess and thinking that he was her in disguise.) If you look at what he’s saying, it’s a little strange that he’s talking about how bad he is and how he messes up and then fixes the stuff and no one has to know. It doesn’t even sound like he’s talking about himself, not really.

This sounds like a hysterical realization of what being a diamond means for steven. This is better explained in this post here :https://pennylogue.tumblr.com/post/613441610438590464/steven-is-a-diamond-and-thats-okay . Like, he is panicking that being a diamond means that he can just destroy everything and just fix it like the other diamonds. It’s terrifying that he can just destroy anything and hurt anybody, and people will still worship the ground he walks on just by virtue of who he is. (This isn’t true, obviously, but after what had just happened with jasper, a terrified mind would latch on to that.)

Dude, I could just go on all day this monologue is just fascinating.

Love the parallel of Connie’s “backpack butterflies” and Steve’s back exploding. Its like a subtle way to show that the thoughts are “suddenly swarming.”

Oh god. I’ve gotta be honest. I hated this one. But I’ll start off with things I liked.

The general concept is okay, but I feel like it is not thematically consistent, which I will get into later.

The moment when the gems tell Greg to leave, and he stamps his foot down saying he needs to be with his son, I like that it is very apparent that his stomp makes almost no sound or impact, which really shows how different Steven is from him, aka, his separation from his own humanity that has been building up.

Connie being amazing as always.

“Yoo hoo! Steven! Is this a bad time?”

Spinel’s entire thing, from her reaction to seeing pink godzilla to her thinking that she is the main villain of steven’s story. It reminds me of Peridot’s “leader of the crystal gems, traitor to homeworld” thing and it makes me so happy.

“WHy is something like this always happening when we show up for a visit?”

The ending. Jesus. Zach always goes so hard I don’t doubt he was actually sobbing. I wish I could have cried during this moment.

I respect the message, that it’s not about fixing it, it’s about being there for the person struggling, and Steven wasn’t cured, he finally hit a breaking point. I understand that the problem was not “solved with a hug” as so many say.

I love that before I saw the episode I saw pics of Garnet being as big as the kaiju and actually said to myself, “Wow the heights really ARE inconsistent.”

I don’t like that Connie included herself as one of the people that depend on Steven. They are the healthiest relationship in the entire show and Connie is always there for Steven? sometimes even more than he can be there for her? Where is this coming from? She has literally always been there. Her calling everyone out did clear my skin and water my crops though.

Also, where is Connie’s emotional resolution? Didn’ she go through alot of the same trauma as Steven?

I don’t think it’s unreasonable that a diamond, Steven, could corrupt themselves. It’s not necessarily a bad ending to have Steven be corrupted into a giant monster. However, I don’t think it’s the ending that was really built up to. The only real build up was the presence of “Wyrm boi” in the theme song, and that’s about it. It’s not as prevalent as eye symbolism and foreshadowing of someone (Steven or Connie) losing a hand or an eye.

The episode itself was 11 minutes long, and the monster was very underwhelming and way too quick. I feel like the emotions were too rushed, and although everyone else seemed to put in their emotional 2 cents, I feel as though Steven did not get the emotional climax that he really needed.

Also why didn’t we have a sweet little moment of connection with Nephrite Jade/Centipeetle? Wouldn’t that have been such a bittersweet parallel? The whole “being there for Steven like he was there for us?” So where is she?

There was so much imagery and thematic elements in both Steven Universe and Steven Universe Future, that did not build up to the kaiju monster in the way that it was.

The imagery with one eye, the eye patches, cat steven, the heterochromatic eyes with Onion’s doll, Cookie cat, split Steven, etc etc, most people have many many more examples. I feel like someone could have lost an eye, or maybe Steven could have had a corruption scar that left his eyes permanently heterochromatic. It also would have been thematically relevant to have Steven come out of this with more of a balance of his gem half and human half. This never really becomes relevant in “I Am My Monster.” His gem half turns him into a monster, his gem half helps him turn back. It’s nice that his gem and human family were there as support, but there was never a sense of balancing both sides of himself in the fact that they are there, as there are only two humans and mostly gems there, and this lack of balance and security with both parts of himself was one of the major themes throughout the series and one of the sources of Steven’s identity crisis.

Connie is always a parallel to Pearls. Our Pearl and Pink Pearl. I wish something had come of that. (There are amazing comics that show her losing an eye like Pink Pearl, as it seemed to be foreshadowed in Open Book and Sworn to the Sword.)

This idea isn’t mine, but I’ve seen it done really well and I feel like it would have been a better ending than 10 minute godzilla monster. I wish I could have seen Steven split up again. I am personally fascinated with the otherworldly enigma that are Steven’s two halves, but I feel that that would have tied into the themes better and tied up more loose ends. By the end of the series, we don’t know Steven’s opinion on his mother, and last time we heard him mention her it was in a negative light. This is connected to Steven’s conflict within himself, his desire to understand his human side better, his fear of his power as a diamond, his insecurity and loneliness as a totally unique being. Homeworld Bound was the closest we got to seeing Steven talk to himself, and confront the two sides of himself. This was also the closest we’ve seen Steven come to being honest with the diamonds about how he really sees them. However, this ended with Steven hurting himself, (wanting to hurt White was a response to trauma as well as symbolically confronting his own diamond self), and running away. We never get to see the resolution to that conversation. We never see Steven accept that he is a diamond and that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Furthermore, Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is not resolved. The negative character development took a huge toll on her character. Not only does the audience think of her as a terrible person, but the characters also forget her positive character development after hearing about all the mistakes of the past. Rose/Pink’s redemption arc still happened. I think it would have been fitting to remind us here, like all the other diamonds get their moment in this special. I feel like having Steven split up would tie up these loose ends. It would be a dramatic ending while also being a way for Steven to confront these issues within himself in a grounded way, while also making genuine peace with Pink Diamond. We could have Steven talking to himself, maybe starting out the way he did with White in Homeworld Bound, then steadily coming to terms with the sides of himself that he is afraid of, maybe how both sides help each other, how Pink Diamond is not a symbol of all that is wrong in his life, but just a person with flaws who was able to be better, like he can be better, too. This was touched on a little in Change Your Mind, but I would love to see Steven’s thoughts on Pink after the events of Fractured and Homeworld Bound, as there has to be some difference in perspective there. I feel that if Steven split into his components, these themes and ideas could be explored more and we could have a better climatic resolution for Steven’s character arc. Even if Steven came out with no scars, even with both his eyes, the imagery and thematic elements would still be satisfactorily resolved if we got to see the two halves of Steven actually talk to each other. This also explains it better. https://scatterpatter.tumblr.com/post/615024679798915072/hmmmm-okay-so-i-just-watched-one-of-those-rose

Btw, if anybody has fanfiction recs with this concept, please hmu.

I think I hate the kaiju ending because it seemed like such a waste of potential and didn’t really resolve any conflict besides functioning as a sort of breakdown.

The Future. aka: Welcome to another episode of Crying Breakfast Friends!

Boogle

The cookie cat rap. Pearl obviously kills it because she’s awesome and I was dying the entire time.

Steven/Therapy is canon!

I like that Steven puts up a poster of Kerry Moonbeam in his room that he’s giving to his dad. It’s like he’s made peace with the whole “mr. universe thing” and it makes me happy to see that he’s not holding it against his dad or even avoiding the subject.

I appreciate alot of little moments with the family while it still lasts.

It is genuinely like watching Crying Breakfast Friends.

Steven gets to be “petty” with his emotions! He is finally honest with his family. I do appreciate the subtle resolution to his character arc (despite my opinions of the climax).

My favorite thing about Steven and Connie is that the fact that they are “canon” has basically always been true. Like, they’ve always loved eachother as best friends and they still do, it’s just that they get to kiss now. I absolutely love that its not a huge dramatic thing, its just Steven and Connie and they are otp for life.

The fanfic potential is strong with this one.

I wish I could have seen a therapy session or at least meeting the therapist. Maybe Steven walking into the office with his family behind him and its a moment of doing the first steps toward getting better.

But as is, this one is fine.

Love the idea of a road trip with our little weirdo interacting with normies.

Time to hit up Gravity Falls, lmao.

TLDR:, the finale was good, but I did not particularly care for the climax. I am genuinely sad to see this show go. I was not a fan until I was already 18, but even after 5 years this show has taught me so much about self love, acceptance, tolerance, emotional honesty, etc. (I’ll probably do another post about it because holy shit this is long.) But this season, or epilogue series, has gotten me through such a difficult time in my life that is still happening, and has given me the tools to get through it. I sympathize with Steven so much, and I know alot of other people did too. It was so nice to be part of a community that just adopted this feral child. Some of future was rushed and of course it wasn’t perfect, but I greatly respect what it was doing. Bringing up PTSD and mental illness in this way in something like this was not something I was prepared for, even in this show, and I certainly couldn’t have imagined it even 5 years ago. Even with its missteps, this show took so many risks and was so incredibly detailed and it was obvious that it was made with alot of love and the fans in mind. I criticize because I love this show and while I feel it is necessary to acknowledge its flaws, I have so much love for the possibilities that this little world makes me dream of. These four episodes in particular was an emotional roller coaster and I am so sad to see it go, but I enjoyed the ride. Thank you, Crewniverse!

#steven universe #steven universe meta #steven universe finale #su #homeworld bound #everythings fine #corrupted steven #i am my monster #the future #steven universe future #pink diamond #connie maheswaran #long post #su critical i guess? if you squint

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lostquickies · 5 years

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Dear Emily, this one time a plane crashed on an island.

You’ve seen this episode, and I think most of the first season, because I made you watch it with me before you gave up. But I’m going to start from the beginning because I’m sure you don’t remember.

So the first thing we see is an eye. I won’t normally get this detailed because that seems like a lot of work, but this show has a THING about eyes.

The eye belongs to Jack. Jack has awoken in a jungle, obviously extremely upset and not really knowing where he is, and he is wearing a suit. There are cuts on his face, and he’s pretty dirty. And there is a golden lab running around the jungle. Already, this is pretty weird. He runs through the jungle, because he’s freaking out, and when he reaches the beach, oh shit there’s half a plane out there, and people are screaming and things are on FIRE. Probably some people are dead.

Jack starts helping people: He pulls a guy out from some wreckage, talks to a pregnant woman who’s having contractions, saves a woman who wasn’t breathing, and wrangles other people to start helping also.

One of the engines blows up, and pieces of the plane start falling everywhere. If I was on this beach I would probably be shitting my pants. The beach sucks anyway; too much sand.

Jack scavenges around for medicine of some type in the wreckage, and then goes off by himself to remove his clothing. Just kidding. I mean, he does do that, but it’s because he has a big bleeding cut on his back and he’s trying to fix it up all by his lonesome. A woman in a white shirt (rubbing her wrists) wanders by and he enlists her help to stitch him up. At this point we learn Jack is a doctor. The woman, Kate, agrees to help.

Now it’s time to meet more people!

A man named Sayid is making a fire, and he asks Charlie (aka Merry the Hobbit) to help him gather wood. The black woman Jack saved earlier is kissing her wedding ring and crying. Other people who are clearly going to be named characters are wandering around, distraught.

Kate finishes sewing up Jack. He tells her a story about being afraid while doing spinal surgery, but honestly it seems like something you won’t care about at all so let’s move on. They’re bonding, is the point.

One of the Lostaways is painting her toenails. She’s the one who was screaming on the beach earlier:

She seems SUPER pleasant and not at all shallow. Her name is Shannon, and she seems to know the hot dummy who was trying to save the black lady earlier, before Jack stepped in. All of them seem to think they are going to be rescued pretty soon. She mentions the plane’s black box.

The guy with the long curly hair is passing out airplane meals, and gives a double portion to the pregnant woman. There is a Korean couple speaking in Korean, and a black man with his young son, Walt. Jack goes around checking people’s injuries, including a man Kate says was sitting next to her on the plane; he has a piece of wreckage sticking out of his side. She asks if he’s going to live.

Jack and Kate talk about the crash. Kate was awake for the whole thing, including the tail section breaking away. Jack passed out. They don’t know where the tail ended up, but talk about trying to find the cockpit and setting up a rescue signal. Kate says if he goes looking for it, she’s going with him.

At this point they hear an extremely loud and bizarre noise coming from the jungle, and everybody freaks out. This noise is indescribable. It makes the jungle move. “Terrific,” says Charlie.

FIRST FLASHBACK! What a momentous occasion. I want you to know I normally skip this scene when I watch because it deeply disturbs me, but I will watch it for you.

We are on Oceanic Flight 815. Jack is sitting in a row by himself, and a flight attendant comes by, flirts with him, and gives him free booze (which he used later as anesthesia and disinfectant for his wound). Charlie runs up the aisle, pursued by another flight attendant, and Rose (the woman Jack saves on the beach) makes a joke about him really having to go. The plane begins to shake with turbulence. Just as Jack is comforting her (her husband is in the bathroom), things go absolutely not well at all, the plane is shaking, people fly into the air, it’s loud, and all the oxygen masks drop.

This is exactly what I picture happening every time I get on an airplane.

Kate and Jack prepare to go look for the cockpit. Kate steals more appropriate shoes from one of the dead people, and while she’s doing so, a man stares at her, and then creepily smiles, revealing an orange inside his mouth. Like, what the fuck.

He’s so happy! Why is he so happy? Everything is terrible.

The Lostaways discuss the NOISE. They all agree it sounded unnatural. Hurley, the one with the big hair, suggests they do something with the bodies in the fuselage, and Jack comes by, saying he’s going to look for the cockpit. Charlie volunteers to come with.

Charlie knows Kate recognizes him, but she can’t figure out from where. He starts singing “You All Everybody,” and tells her that’s his band, Drive Shaft. He plays bass. We have a celebrity on the island!

It starts to rain pretty abruptly. And heavily. Everyone except the orange smile man runs for cover. He’s still inexplicably enjoying himself. The jungle moves again.

After a pretty short search, Kate, Charlie and Jack find the cockpit. And hey, who is aboard but the pilot, Greg Grunberg, who will never be anything for me other than Sean from Felicity. The cockpit has landed vertically, so they have to climb up it to find him, and when they finally reach it, Greg Grunberg scares the shit out of them, because they think he’s dead but he’s not. We learn, because Jack tells the pilot, that there are at least 48 survivors, and it’s been 16 hours since the crash. The pilot tells Jack that six hours in, the radio went out, and nobody could see the plane. They turned back to land in Fiji, but hit turbulence when they were more than 1,000 miles off course. “They’re looking for us in the wrong place.”

(Meanwhile Charlie mysteriously disappears to the bathroom and won’t tell them why he was in there.)

Just when you think they’re going to rescue this poor pilot, the source of the NOISE turns up and kills the pilot. The other three barely escape with the transceiver. They run as fast as they can back through the rain towards the beach, as they are clearly being pursued by . . . whatever it is. They become separated.

Kate starts crying and screams, for the very first time, “JACK!”

Charlie and Kate find each other, but they’ve lost Jack. With the rain stopped, they go back to look for him. They find the pilot’s wings half buried in the mud, and his body resting high up in the branches of a tree. Jack is there, having found him first. None of them saw the monster. The pilot’s body is COVERED in blood, and his face is all mangled. “How does something like that happen?” asks Charlie. My boy, who the fuck knows.

[cut to credits, end of part one]

Transceiver received, they head back to the beach. Charlie tells Kate he was puking in the bathroom, but he’s obviously lying.

SECOND FLASHBACK!

Charlie is on the plane, and he’s jittery. His fingers and rings tap on the arm rest. He’s clearly not okay. He sees the flight attendant talking to someone, and clearly thinks she’s reporting him for something. He heads for the bathroom, and she follows him. That’s when the turbulence starts, and he makes it to a bathroom at the front of the plane. There he pulls out some COCAINE from his shoe, and snorts it. High as balls, he ignores the crew, who are knocking on the door. He hides the rest of it in the toilet, and that’s when the plane starts to go down. SO: obviously he was in the bathroom to get his drugs from the turlet. He runs back to his seat and we cut back to the beach where Shannon is SUNBATHING.

She still thinks they are about to be rescued, and everyone is wasting their time. The pregnant woman asks if the young man is her boyfriend, and she says he’s her brother, Boone. So the dummy Jack helped earlier has a name. The pregnant woman is from Australia. She is worried, because she hasn’t felt her baby move since yesterday.

The black man approaches the Korean couple on the beach. He asks if they’ve seen his son, but they seem to only speak Korean. The husband orders his wife to button up her shirt and is clearly acting like a possessive, controlling dick. I really hated him for a long time after this first episode.

Walt, meanwhile, is looking for his dog, Vincent, the same dog who was running around in the first scene, and who has been creepily popping up from corners throughout the rest of the episode. Walt doesn’t find Vincent, but he does find a pair of handcuffs just lying on the ground. (Why they thought it was a good idea to have a young kid on a show set on an island is beyond me. He was always going to age too fast.) Walt’s dad is very freaked by the handcuffs. (A lot of this show is people just being freaked out by something or other.)

Back on the beach, Sayid and the sleazy looking dirtbag who’s been wandering around rather menacingly since the crash are in a fight. Jack and Walt’s dad pull them apart. Turns out he IS a sleazy dirtbag, because the fight started when he accused Sayid (who is Middle Eastern) of crashing the plane. (Keep in mind this show aired only three years after 9/11.)

Kate calls bullshit on all of it by asking if someone can help get the transceiver working (Sayid thinks he can), but dirtbag isn’t happy about that. When Hurley says they’re all in this together, dirtbag calls him “lardo” and everyone else immediately dislikes the dirtbag who didn’t already. Okay, this is Sawyer. I’m tired of typing dirtbag, and also Sawyer is my favorite character. That probably seems weird now but trust me, he has layers. (Your favorite character would probably be the monster, or the dog. Maybe Claire, the pregnant lady, for some reason, I don’t know why.)

Notably, when Boone asks Jack if there were any survivors in the cockpit, he says no, conveniently eliding the existence of the pilot who was murdered by the monster. I believe this is our first instance of characters purposely holding back information from each other. Huzzah.

Sayid says the battery is good, but the radio is dead. He says he’ll need time to see if he can fix it.

Hurley and Sayid commiserate about what a jackass Sawyer is, and they bond, and it’s pretty cute. We learn that Sayid was a military communications officer who fought in the Gulf War, except on the other side.

Okay so just now I was in the middle of being amused by Kate’s 2004 pants (baggy, totally non-flattering jeans) when I noticed that Sayid has a really long thumbnail and now I’m super grossed out. Oh my god I want to unsee it. Cut your nails, Sayid! A plane crash is no excuse for that! You’ve been growing it for weeks!

Anyway, he suggests they try getting a signal from as high a ground as possible, which means they’re going on another hike.

(The man with the shrapnel in his side is still unconscious, and Jack is thinking about operating since it’s clear they’re not going to be rescued soon enough to matter.)

So Jack isn’t going on the hike because he’s gonna be a doctor. He tells Kate that if she sees anything ANYTHING (aka the monster), she should RUN.

The Korean couple are eating weird raw seafood I think he caught, and when he walks away, she sort of glares at his back and defiantly unbuttons her top button. In this moment, I love her.

Walt’s dad finds Walt reading a comic, in Spanish, and asks him some questions that make it clear they don’t actually know each other that well. He’s basically the most clueless person; he offers to get the kid a new dog. Dude, dogs are people’s best friends, their children. You don’t offer to get the kid a new best friend just a day after he’s lost the old one. What the hell is wrong with you? The kid isn’t into it, either. He rolls his eyes, gets up, and walks away (the leash is still in his hand).

Charlie does some drugs. (It actually looks like it might not be cocaine; it’s too beige?)

Meanwhile, Shannon does have a heart. She’s upset that the guy who wouldn’t let them sit in first class probably saved their lives. She and Boone have a fight that prompts her to join the hike, to prove that she’s not useless.

Speaking of people who have secret human feelings, Sawyer sits on a piece of wreckage and sadly reads a letter he had in his pocket. This will be important for later.

Sawyer also joins the hike! This leads to one of my favorite Sawyer lines. “I’m a complex guy, sweetheart.” It’s better when he says it though.

So if you are keeping track: Kate, Charlie, Sayid, Sawyer, Shannon, and Boone are headed upwards to try and see if they can get a signal.

While Jack preps for surgery (and tells Walt’s dad he saw the dog in the jungle the day before), the orange smile man is still being a weirdo, sitting on the beach playing backgammon. He and Walt have an Important Conversation. We learn that Walt’s mom died a couple of weeks ago, which explains why he’s now with his dad, who he barely knows. Orange man (whose name is Locke) tells Walt about backgammon, how it’s the oldest game in the world: “Two players, two sides, one is light, one is dark.” He also asks Walt if he wants to know a secret, but then the scene cuts away.

I should mention, while all this has been going on, the Korean man has been trying to offer his fellow castaways raw seafood, and they are all really not into it. Hurley laughs him off, but Claire takes a piece. She does not like it, but her baby starts kicking again, and she freaks the man out by holding his hand to her stomach, and he basically runs away from her.

Then a polar bear runs towards the hikers. They all run away except Sawyer, who it turns out has a gun, and he shoots the bear dead.

WHY is there a polar bear on the island? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sawyer tells everyone he got the gun off a U.S. Marshall who was on the plane, and shows them the badge he took, too (because he thought it was cool). Sayid then accuses Sawyer of knowing there was a U.S. Marshall on the plane because he was the one the Marshall was escorting. If you are keeping track, don’t forget about those empty handcuffs! Kate pulls the gun on Sawyer, and then Sayid talks her through dismantling it. Sawyer creepily hits on Kate. He’s so gross sometimes.

P.S. Kate is upset now! I wonder why.

THIRD FLASHBACK.

Kate is on the plane. She’s sitting next to the man with the shrapnel in his gut (except, you know, before he had the shrapnel in his gut). Basically, he’s the U.S. Marshall, and Kate was the one wearing the handcuffs. I genuinely forgot we found out this early. Turbulence! Kate grabs the cuff keys out of his pocket. Crash! Boom.

Oh, oh no. We actually see the plane break off. Oh, god. That’s nightmare fuel. I hate it so much.

So back on the Island, the Marshall wakes up mid-surgery. I’m glad that isn’t one of my fears, because that scene would have been super horrifying otherwise.

All right, last scene.The hikers have reached high enough ground to try for a signal. Only, when they turn the transceiver on, they find they can’t make any transmissions, because somebody close by already is. They listen to the message, which is in French and is repeating. Based on the countdown on the message, Sayid calculates that the message has been playing for 16 years and 5 months. Here is the what it says:

“I'm alone now. Uhm . . . On the Island alone. Please, someone come. The others, they're . . . they're dead. I-it killed them. I-it killed them all.“

Charlie says, “Guys, where are we?”

[credits]

So future posts probably won’t be this long, I don’t think. We’ll see. I wanted to do a detailed post for the first two episodes (which is the Pilot) because it sets up all the characters and the weirdness of the Island. I may combine several episodes into one post in the future, depending on how much happens. Earlier episodes will probably be more detailed, since we’ll know less about the characters, and this show is all about the characters. I’m pretty sure a lot of season two will be condensed. I remember it being the least interesting season.

Love from,

Ashley

#LOST #Season 1 #1X01 #1X02 #Pilot #rewatch

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wikipress01 · 6 years

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The HIV-positive man who stopped thousands getting the virus

Greg Owen wished a brand new drug, not accessible via the NHS, that will cease him changing into HIV-positive. But it was too late – he already had the virus. Despite this, he and a good friend labored on an bold plan to assist thousands of others get the new remedy.

“You know when you do one thing… when your whole life changes? Pressing that send on Facebook was actually the moment my whole life changed.”

Greg Owen grew up in Belfast, the eldest of six youngsters. It was the 1980s, the peak of the Troubles, and he was, as he places it, “very gay”.

Fast-forward to London in 2015. Greg is working in bars and golf equipment, sleeping on pals’ sofas.

There is not any signal of what’s to return – that Greg goes to assist save thousands of lives and alter the method the NHS thinks about homosexual males having intercourse.

Then, Greg met Alex Craddock.

“He was cute, a little bit sassy. And I fancied him a little bit,” says Greg.

Alex had simply come again from New York. He had one thing Greg wished very a lot. He was on Prep, a comparatively new drug seen as a game-changer in the battle in opposition to HIV an infection.

If you might be on Prep and have intercourse with somebody with HIV, the drug will cease you changing into HIV constructive – even in case you are not sporting a condom.

Greg was intrigued. “I was trying to get Prep. And Alex was already on it. He’d got in the States.” Alex instructed him it was straightforward to get in New York. But Alex’s provide was about to expire. Here in the UK, it wasn’t accessible.

“I’d been given this amazing new thing and then it had been taken away from me,” Alex says. “That’s when I first met Greg.”

At the time, HIV diagnoses for top danger teams in the UK have been going up. One in eight homosexual males in London had HIV.

Short for pre-exposure prophylaxis, Prep is a tablet you’re taking earlier than penetrative intercourse.

Some customers take it every day – whereas others take it “on demand”, in the days earlier than and after intercourse.

If a condom just isn’t worn, and also you come into contact with HIV, the drug stops the virus from getting into the bloodstream completely. Prep is prevention not remedy.

But earlier than you possibly can take Prep, it’s important to ensure you do not have already got HIV.

Greg had managed to pay money for a small quantity of the drug – and so he went for a check.

He wasn’t too frightened as he’d gone for sexually transmitted an infection (STI) checks pretty often. He was watching the physician. He knew the way it labored. The testing package would present one dot for unfavourable, and two for constructive. Suddenly, in a heartbeat, every little thing modified.

“Literally, ‘Boom,’ like two dots so [the doctor] didn’t even have to say anything, I saw it because it was sitting in-between us.”

Greg felt numb, trapped and alone. “I was seeing people go past me and I felt like I was in like a bubble – like there was a something separating me from the rest of the world.”

And that is when he made the choice that modified his life and perhaps that of thousands of different homosexual males.

He determined to disclose this large secret to the world. So, he posted on Facebook that he was HIV constructive. And he talked about Prep – this drug few knew a lot about, which might have stopped him getting HIV.

His telephone “just lit up”, he says.

“First of all, people couldn’t believe I’d done that. And then there was, ‘What is all this Prep stuff?’ Why would Prep have kept you HIV negative?’ So, I could tell people what Prep was and I could tell people how it worked. And then obviously the next question was, ‘How do I get Prep?'”

Watch Greg and Alex’s story

The People vs The NHS: Who Gets the Drugs? was first broadcast on BBC Two.

It is now accessible on the BBC iPlayer together with extra programmes about the NHS at 70.

And that was Greg and Alex’s subsequent transfer.

“We don’t even need the government right now,” Alex recollects them saying. “We can do it ourselves. We’ll tell everyone to order pharmaceutical drugs on the internet and start taking them.”

From Alex’s bed room, they began constructing an internet site.

First, got here all the medical data folks wanted to know. And then, the bit everybody wished – the alternative to “click to buy”. “We didn’t want to make any money ourselves. We were just linking up buyers to sellers,” Greg says.

It was a easy, radical thought.

“I’m not going to wait for the NHS to come and save me,” Alex recollects. “I want Prep now and this is how I’m going to get it.”

So, they referred to as the web site I Want Prep Now. It launched in October 2015.

They obtained 400 hits in the first 24 hours and it mushroomed from there.

Then, the medical career took an curiosity.

Mags Portman, an NHS advisor on HIV and sexual well being, emailed Greg asking if she might meet. Will Nutland, an activist at Prepster, an internet site giving details about Prep, additionally turned concerned.

Will even turned a guinea pig.

He took Prep capsules from new suppliers after which had his blood examined at Portman’s sexual well being clinic. It examined greater than 300 batches and located no fakes.

At the identical time, the UK Medical Research Council was operating the Proud examine, evaluating homosexual males on Prep in opposition to non-users.

The outcome was so clear-cut – an 86% fall in new HIV infections amongst in Prep customers – that the examine was ended early and people on the examine not taking Prep have been instantly provided it.

So the place was NHS England?

At the finish of 2014, it had begun a course of to resolve whether or not Prep must be made accessible. Time handed, nothing occurred.

“It was very, very difficult and frustrating as a clinician to know that this HIV prevention tool was out there,” says Mags.

“We couldn’t access it and we couldn’t prescribe it and we were seeing people that we knew were at risk and then coming back with HIV.”

By 2016, the NHS was nonetheless debating the matter. And then it mentioned no.

“I was gobsmacked,” says Sheena McCormack, professor of medical epidemiology, who ran the Proud trial.

“Oh, my goodness, it was absolutely horrifying,” says Mags.

But what started in a bed room ended up going to the High Court.

The National Aids Trust, a charity, took NHS England to courtroom. They wished Prep to be checked out based on the identical guidelines as another new treatment can be.

The stakes have been excessive. The Terrence Higgins Trust – one other main HIV/Aids charity – despatched a letter to the Times, saying that on daily basis Prep was delayed no less than 17 folks have been changing into contaminated with HIV.

The authorized case was advanced. The NHS mentioned it wasn’t legally required to fund prevention. That was the job of native authorities, it mentioned.

The NHS was dealing with one among the largest funding crises in its seven-decade historical past. It was not a superb time to be taking up new funding duties. Today, regardless of file ranges of funding, there are nonetheless funding gaps.

The case additionally revealed one thing else – society’s view of what homosexual males have been entitled to.

The journalist and broadcaster Andrew Pierce, who is homosexual himself, is in opposition to Prep being funded by the state.

“I don’t think the NHS can afford £450 per month to a homosexual,” he says.

“Because this is what it is about – indulging gay men who don’t want to use a condom. Well, that is outrageous – why should the taxpayer subsidise a reckless sex life?”

But for Greg, “gay guys have the right to fear-free, guilt-free, disease-free sex”. For too lengthy, he says, there was an excessive amount of self-loathing.

“We are ultimately conditioned to believe that love, particularly sex between two men, always has to come at a price. And it doesn’t.”

In courtroom, the NHS’s argument unravelled. It turned out it did fund prevention – statins, for instance, which assist to decrease dangerous ldl cholesterol. The choose discovered unequivocally in favour of the National Aids Trust.

But NHS England mentioned it could attraction and despatched out a press launch that Ian Green, chief govt of the Terrence Higgins Trust, remembers all too effectively. “They said the decision had been taken for high risk men who have condomless sex, with multiple sexual partners – it was condemnatory.”

For Greg, it was hurtful. “It just felt, that felt really vicious actually. It felt like sour grapes.”

Suddenly the NHS’s decision-making was below the microscope at nearly a philosophical stage.

“It’s interesting, this question of personal responsibility and on what role it plays in the NHS’s decisions – officially it doesn’t play any role at all,” says Sean Sinclair, a medical ethicist at the University of Leeds. “Unofficially, you can see it playing a role.”

The matter was settled in November 2016. The NHS misplaced its authorized attraction and must take duty for Prep.

Greg, by now again in Northern Ireland, was working in a pub. “I was literally crying. Serving pints of beer to this poor Belfast boy who probably thought I was absolutely off my rocker.”

So what’s occurred since then?

By summer time final 12 months, eight clinics in London, and several other outdoors the capital, had taken half in a trial to offer Prep. And many extra males purchase the drug privately resulting from higher consciousness. In August 2017, the NHS in England introduced it could give Prep to 10,000 folks in a £10m trial lasting three years.

In Wales, the drug is offered from chosen NHS sexual well being clinics as a part of an analogous trial. Prep just isn’t presently accessible from the NHS in Northern Ireland. Scotland is the solely a part of the UK to supply full Prep provision via the NHS.

For the first time lately, the HIV analysis fee in homosexual males is down. From 2015 to 2016, it was down by about 20% nationwide. But in sure clinics in London it fell by 40%.

“That was the first moment when we were able to take a step back and actually be quite shocked at how effective all of this was,” says Alex.

Opponents say Prep could undermine safe-sex messages. They level to a four-year Australian examine in the Lancet, suggesting that as Prep use grows, condom use falls. And males not on the drug, due to this fact not benefiting from it, have been additionally having extra condomless intercourse, the researchers say.

But for Sheena McCormack, who ran the Proud trial, Prep continues to be a game-changer.

“We in all probability had carried out as a lot as we presumably might in the method of frequent testing, early analysis and early remedy.

“The piece that was lacking was the HIV-negative people who have been catching HIV in-between their HIV assessments. That’s the place Prep fills the hole.”

Prep can also save the NHS cash.

Scientists at University College London who studied its cost-effectiveness mentioned it could value cash for the first few a long time however after 40 years it could start to avoid wasting the NHS money.

And after 80 years it could save the UK about £1bn, they predicted.

Greg typically tears up when he thinks about the place they have to.

He remembers one telephone name particularly that made him cry. Sheena McCormack was on the line. It was Christmas 2016, a number of weeks after the Appeal Court victory.

She instructed him that with out his web site, the one arrange by him and Alex, there would have been solely tiny numbers of individuals on Prep.

“Sheena was like, ‘I want you to strip it back, think about the people, of the thousands of people walking around now HIV negative because of something that you did.'”

Looking again, Greg says there was no grand plan. “I had a humble objective. I just wanted one person to remain HIV negative on the back of my diagnosis. That way it’s HIV equal. If we prevent a second person, then I have won – my HIV status didn’t cost anything.”

It’s truthful to say, he received large.

Image copyright:

BBC, Getty Images, Greg Owen, Claire McGeown and Alex Craddock.

Source hyperlink from http://www.wikipress.co.uk/health/the-hiv-positive-man-who-stopped-thousands-getting-the-virus/

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doubledrivel-blog · 6 years

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13. Trump vs Lavar Ball - Ray Allen is a jilted lover - How old was Manute Bol?

Greg: Hello and welcome to another episode of Double Drivel. We are a weekly podcast offering a fan's perspective on the news and issues surrounding the NBA. Thank you for joining us. My name is Greg and I am joined as always by my co-host JT. You can find us on Twitter @doubledrivelers or email us at [email protected]. JT what up my friend?

JT: Not too much Greg. It's so nice to be talking with you again. Where have you been? It seems like you've been somewhere else lately.

Greg: I hosted Thanksgiving, and then we had a little family trip to Germany for a dance completion. I am known as the Lord of the dance. The Lord of the dance is what they call me. There's a lot of things you don't know about me and one of them is so my German folk dancing. It's very important to me, but I'm very private with it.

JT: That's incredible. What is the best thing about Germany?

Greg: My favorite thing is the food. There's a lot of great food, and the people are very nice. You can drink almost anywhere. I don't know of a place you can't drink. I don't really know the laws or the language well enough to know where the limits are. I know that I drank in a grocery store walking inside. I walked in with a beer from outside, drank it walking up and down the aisles of that grocery store, and checked out with that same beer. No one even blinked or looked at me or really cared in the least. Amazing, it's just a strange amazing place. From what I understand there was a lot of strange amazing stuff here during the time since we last spoke. Lavar Ball and Donald Trump went head to head, Ray Allen had some issues, and there's a story about someone that we loved growing up, a really big guy, Manute Bol, We're gonna start with the heavyweight matchup, Lavar Ball and Donald Trump. You had the best little

line here in the notes that it's a federal level Twitter beef, and it really was. Why don't you go over a little bit on why they're fighting?

JT: Yes sir Greg. We have the President of the United States, who recently took a trip to China, a planned trip. The presidents travel, and wheel and deal. This is coming on the heels of three young UCLA basketball players who were arrested for shoplifting in China. We discussed committing a crime in China on last week's show Greg, which is actually a big deal. They actually will throw you in jail for a really long time for things that.

Greg: If you told me people still got their hands cut off in China for stealing I'd believe it I believe it 100%.

JT: There was a high-end retail shop attached to the hotel they swiped some watches from. They got caught, they

got arrested, and we were kind of on hold for a minute. Then they got released and the president started speaking

about how their release came to be. He says that he had to have conversations with powers-that-be in China, and he had to essentially call in a favor. The basketball players were released, they came back to the US, and then they put

these three kids up on the podium do a press conference at UCLA. They ask them look like a hostage video. Those

kids weren't even smiling. They were saved from 10 years in prison. They stood up there like they weren't thankful or happy about anything.

Greg: Very strange to me, but please continue.

JT: Imagine 19 years old and then you go from a very high end Chinese hotel to a Chinese prison to staying in that Chinese prison for a decent amount of time. Then they were on house arrest at the hotel.

Greg: They never made them actually go to the prison that was one good little thing.

JT: They didn't even spend time in a Chinese prison?

Greg: That's great. No one should-

JT: Fine even if they don't have to go there, they come back and our president was waiting for a thank you that he never got.

Greg: Trump was not happy. He felt slighted because he was never formally thanked. He went on an offensive.

JT: Oh no, mercy me.

Greg: Lavar Ball said the release of the students didn't have a lot to do with Donald Trump. Mr. Ball had some people on the ground kind of downplaying Trump's role and it wasn't a big deal. That was the worst line of all. It wasn't a big deal he said.

JT: That's the kind of thing that gets Donny boy fired up. as we've

come to understand and let me pull up

Greg: If they said any sort of thank you he would have caught it. He would have known He would have replied to it on Twitter the same way he replied to the fact they had not said thank you.

JT: It's important to always say thank you regardless of your views. If the guy got you out of ten years of Chinese prison you definitely say thank you.

Greg: The original tweet from the president was “Do you think the three UCLA basketball players will say thank you President Trump?”

JT: He was ready. He's just winding up. They were heading for ten years in jail yeah and this man transitioned right to the 280 characters of Twitter.”

JT: “Donald Trump from Twitter on November 22nd “Lavar you could have spent the next five to ten years during Thanksgiving with your son in China no NBA contract to support you but remember Lavar” he keeps using his name “shoplifting is not a little thing it's a really big deal especially in China ungrateful fool China strongly says.” Strong words from the president.

Greg: You know what they have in common? They both have WWE appearances. Much like WWE careers one actually had almost the whole storyline built around him and one was just really a one-hit wonder that showed up on one episode. Lavar ball wishes he was at the level Donald Trump is. He is someone who wants to be in the news every day. This is someone who's dying for the kind of beef that Donald Trump brought him. It gets him in the news and that's all he cares about. And fighting with the president, you don't do better than that. That's high level beef.

JT: Why waste the words on this? I didn't think it was gonna happen this way. I figured it'd be something stupid, but never did I think that a father of an unproven rookie, who doesn't have the platform for this volume of a message, he just doesn't fucking have it- There's no way I thought that two months into the NBA season these two numbnuts would be wagging dicks at each other. This is certainly much faster than anybody would have anticipated. I would have doubted that those two comments would have put across at some point.

Greg: You're kind of a Monday Morning Quarterback though.

JT: Let me try to guess who else that he'll have a fight with. It's got to be easy enough. After the fighting with the president it's kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

Greg: He's just rounding up people now. It's where we are, everybody's coming into contact. It's kind of amazing.

JT He's gonna fight with Kanye, how about that. He will straight up be fighting with Kanye in the next six to nine months. Like when screech fought Hoody in the fucking celebrity dumb shit boxing show.

Greg: He's fought the guy from Welcome Back Kotter. Poor Horshack. He fought Horshack. Up next we’ve got something that you love, so keep your laughing face on. Ray Allen's on the scene. I know this is a story very close

to your heart. I actually heard someone reference his appearance in a certain movie, and how he was the best part of that movie. I don't know how I feel about that comment. Why don't you tell us a little about your love for Ray Allen, and give us a little backstory.

JT: I don't have a tremendous love for Ray Allen. The majority of it comes from my close association of late 90s basketball movies of which I am a huge fan. There's three I love, “Above the rim with Tupac and Leon. You know my man Leon, who also played David Ruffin The Temptations NBC movie which you know I fucking love Greg.

Greg: He was in Oz too wasn't he?

JT: Yeah and White Men Can't Jump. I have that painting in my garage of Billy Ho getting his Reeboks pumped up by Sidney Deane. I also love He got Game the Spike Lee movie with Ray Allen and Denzel Washington. Everyone loves Denzel Washington.

Greg: In all honesty I don't know if I've ever seen that movie. I've seen bits and pieces of it, but there's no way I've seen the whole movie.

JT: In He’s got Game Denzel puts on a stronger performance than Ray Allen. Ray Allen's character’s name is Jesus Shuttlesworth. Not “Hay-Zues,” they go straight up Jesus. One line from is Jesus Shuttlesworth impersonating his own mother from childhood. They live in the projects and there's a basketball court surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings, and come dinnertime his mother would put her head out the window and yelled “Jesus Jesus!” so yes, he go by Jesus. It's a great movie Greg, you should see it.

Greg: I'll watch it over Christmas break when I'm home.

JT: Be sure to watch it. That’s what put Ray Allen on my radar. He's in this movie I really like and then Ray Allen has a very successful NBA career. He sets the record for the three-point percentage in the regular season. He sets it for that same three-point percentage record for NBA playoff season playoffs. He's out but then he pops back up in the news. Ray Allen recently appeared in the Florida Court to respond to a claim of stalking. Ray Allen responded to claim that he has been stalking a man named Bryant Coleman. You know this isn't going anywhere good. Do we know a lot of stories about NBA players stalking anyone?

Greg: I can't think of any. The closest I can think of is a story I love with Matt Barnes. He drove all that way to punch Derek Fisher in the face. He drove 50 miles to whoop his ass because he was at his ex-wife's house. That's certainly not stalking but that's court stuff I think about when shit's getting dirty. Even in that situation that's NBA player versus current or former NBA player, and you can follow the charges and the situation. What could possibly bring on bothering and stalking a man

JT: I bet you Greg Ray Allen wishes this was a drug charge. He was sitting around like “God I just need one reporter to think I got a coke problem, please!” He claims that this guy Brian Coleman impersonated many different women online and effectively catfished him.

Greg: That's no good. Isn't that weird though? Why would Ray Allen stalk someone who was bamboozling him? Allen was claiming that he was multiple women?

JT: At one time he was kind of stringing Ray along on whatever avenues he was pursuing women on, whether it be Craigslist or-

Greg: It was probably Craigslist

JT: This is what Ray Allen claims, but Brian Coleman says that all along he was looking for me. There weren’t any girls or catfishing. My mam was looking for the Bryan. This guy says Ray knows I'm a dude, we get down, we've done this in the past, and we've done it pretty recently. This guy might have signed a non-disclosure agreement about it.

Greg: Oh snap! They're getting down like a couple of bills fans in the parking lot. Ray’s got to pay him off and get him to sign an NDA and then the guy breaks it. Usually you don't get into that type of situation unless you want someone to stay quiet. The only thing we can do to clear this up is invite them both on the show. We'll just clear the air. We can bring Alan, he’s always welcome, and Brian Coleman. I'll have to try to reach out but, Ray Allen, you’re always welcome.

JT: This is a come as you are, judgment-free environment. Anyone with anything to say can come on and clear the air. That invitation is out there. Ray Allen join us when it's convenient for you.

Greg: If you're in any sort of trouble I'm not gonna hit you with the hardball questions. I’ll give you a nice soft landing here to give you a platform. Thanks again Ray, we love this story. We are gonna move on to our good friend who we grew up with a big tall fella, Manute Bol.

JT: That's a guy who was 7’7. He was the tallest person ever to play in the NBA. There is reason to believe that he made up his age.

Greg: I always found it crazy that you didn't even know how old you were, that there was so little documentation around you that you wouldn’t have any idea. He looks old in some of those pictures we were looking at. He may have been 50 years old. Go back and look at those pictures JT. He looks about 50 years old.

JT: When he went to Cleveland State Greg he enrolled at the University of Bridgeport, a Division two basketball school. When he had to fill out the paperwork, apparently the coach just fudged the numbers because no one knew how old he was. I can relate to this story personally Greg. You and I were rubbing elbows at this point in Pleasant Valley with Mark Bang’s son.

Greg: 'm gonna take the other half of the story. There were two kids in our grade at our school. They were adopted and they definitely came internationally. I don't know what country, but there is reason to believe Mark was very old.

JT: I remember eating lunch with Mark. We were in elementary school. I'll never forget it. It was second grade, and there was a man sitting at our table. His name was Mark, and he was in my class. He was not in second grade. He was 13, and he had a brother who had some disabilities. He was even older. Mark used to yell at him like he was a little brother, but he was much smaller. Joey's age also very cloudy.

Greg: I don't think the world will ever know how old Mark and Joey were.

JT: They were great people Greg. They were great teammates. I got the opportunity to interact and spend time with both of them. He played Little League with us. They were fast as fuck Greg. Fast as the day is long, like a cheetah. He would hold his hands in ninja stance, do you remember that? When he was running it was like he was chopping through the air. He was probably five, six, seven years older than the rest of us.

Greg: Joey, Mark, and Manute Bol kind of riding that same wavelength. They're saying he was 50 years old when he was finishing up his NBA career. That's crazy to think about. He was so tall at the same time, just remarkable. He didn't weigh hardly anything. The guy was thin as a rail, but he was one of the first big men that was shooting threes from the outside. He used to line up behind the line all the time. That wasn't something people did at his size. They still don't. It was a very precious shot he had. It was a lot of fingertip and both elbows were out. He gently put it up there.

JT: Now his son is playing Greg. His son, whose name is Bo Ball, just committed to Oregon. He's gonna be a duck. Greg: He's gonna have that big Nike logo on his giant self. Congratulations to the Ball family. However old Manute is on his next birthday, happy birthday to him. I may have just wished a dead man a happy birthday.

JT: Oh Christ alive, let's see. Yeah, he died in 2010. God rest his soul Manu Ball.

Greg: His son really carrying the torch for the family. That's good for the Ball family. Another great episode JT.

JT: Absolutely. Glad to have you back in the states,

Greg: I'm glad we're back too. Danka. We will be back next week with another episode. In the meantime you can follow us on twitter @doubledrivelers or you can email us at [email protected]. Subscribe to the show on iTunes, podbean, or Google Play. Until next week, we will see you on the Internet.

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