Participant #2, Arnold Stevens

Arnold Stevens is the Ultimate Puppeteer, in his mid 20s. He wears a turtleneck and his main article of clothing is...well, his puppet. Dino Drake is a green hand puppet, who insists is a T-Rex, but is canonically is a velociraptor.

Both of them are part of the cast of a popular children's TV show, Unny's Playhouse. By the title, it's known that Dino Drake is NOT the main character of the show, instead, he is a supporting character, like Zoey to Elmo. He's gained his talent by word of mouth, being known as the nicest person in the show's cast, even being asked to participate in multiple other shows, though always bringing the Dino Drake puppet with him, in fact, when speaking, Arnold himself almost never speaks outside of the occasional hum or hello, instead speaking as Dino Drake and puppeteering the dinosaur along.

Overall, Arnold is a kind soul who's learned to overcome part of his shyness from his childhood. He signed up for the True Colors Reality Show after knowing children (Leo and Martin) would be in the cast, so, he signed up as a way to keep the two calm, and make sure to be there for them to feel safe.

...All he wants is for the children to be safe...

Likes: Cozy Clothes, Rock Candy Dislikes: Funk Music, Small Spaces

DOB: April 23rd Height: 6'0''

Jurassic Park

“Jurassic Park” is an important part of film history and it’s easy to see why.

Dr. Alan Grant loves being an archeologist, but isn’t a fan of technology and children. He meets John Hammond, the eccentric capitalist who is funding their whole archeology research. John Hammond explains that he’s opening a new biological preserve and he wants Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler to provide their expertise. They all fly out to Hammond’s private island to see Jurassic Park.

I’m super familiar with “Jurassic Park”, but I’ve never properly sat down to watch it the whole way through. I’m glad I did today. This movie is known to have a super strong screenplay and it’s clear to see why. Alan Grant is a great protagonist that compliments the themes of the movie very well. He’s stuck in the past and doesn’t want to embrace the future. This is represented by his likes and dislikes. On the other hand, you have John Hammond who is too eager to make progress that he’s not learning the lessons of the past. Alan learns to embrace the future through the adventure by caring for two kids. He protects them while also passing down his knowledge to them. This arc is wrapped up nicely with the last shot of the movie. He’s in a helicopter going home with the kids now resting on his shoulders. He looks out at birds, which he’s been saying are the modern-day dinosaurs, tying back to the whole ‘embrace the future’ theme. John Hammond finally snaps to his senses after potentially losing his grandkids forever. He has this really amazing scene with Ellie Sattler where she’s lecturing him on the dangers of trying to control that which he cannot. After the lecture, she tastes some ice cream and remarks that it tastes good. John defaults to his catchphrase of “spared no expenses” knowing how ironic it is after everything that has transpired. This is just how strong the story is. “Jurassic Park” is most known for its dinosaurs. The mixture of CGI and practical dinosaur puppets really holds up even today. The scene with the sick Triceratops still blows my mind because of how convincing it looked. The Velociraptors are made mostly with CGI, but I barely noticed especially with how tense the kitchen scene was. The main attraction is definitely the Tyrannosaurus of course. The rainy chase sequence is iconic at this point and it’s almost certainly because of how good the tension and effects were. Speaking of tension, this movie expertly builds on tension and even uses jump scares effectively. All of it is nail-biting in all the best ways. Finally, I need to talk about the music in this movie. Even if you haven’t watched any of the Jurassic Park movies, you still know the song. It’s permeated through pop culture, but still hasn’t had its impact diluted. With a strong story, timeless visual effects, heart-stopping tension, and an iconic score, it’s no wonder this movie has stood the test of time.

★★★★★

Watched on June 6th, 2022

Cetnology Baby Velociraptor Hand Puppet With Sound and Movements-Nancy

Velociraptor for @somewhatoften

🦅.🦅.🦅 - 🦖.🦖.🦖 - 🦅.🦅.🦅

MHA OCs Aesthetics

So, this are for my three My Hero Academia original characters. I'll put their quirks and info under the images, just to give you all an idea as to what they're like.

Now, all the Japanese translations were done via Google translations. So, if any of them are incorrect, please let me know and I'll correct or edit them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Ariana Acqua (Japanese: アリアナ アクア {Ari-ana Akua} or アリ{Ari})

Nicknames: Ari (アリ{Ari})

Age: 15

Birthday: March 24

Hero/Vigilante Name: Oceana

Quirk: Mermaid 🧜‍♀️ (Allows her to breathe underwater, water Telepathy, develop a tail when her legs are submerged in water and sing like a siren {which lures the impure of heart or soul to her})

Drawbacks: Become dehydrated if out of water for too long/uses water Telepathy too much, her singing can lure innocent men/women if loud enough, and her tail takes 30 minutes to dry out and disappear {not good when in a time crunch}

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Jayden Raptor-Akano (ジェイデン ラプター-赤野 {or Jeiden Raputā - Akano})

Nicknames: Jay, JD (ジェイ {or Jei})

Age: 15

Birthday: August 9

Hero/Vigilante Name: J-Rex

Quirk: Hybrid 🧛‍♀️ (Can turn into a dinosaur the size of a T-Rex or Velociraptor, Extreme Empathy, Thermal Homostatsis, Heightened Sense of Smell and Hearing, Velociraptor Call, and Retractable Claws) 《Quirk is inspired off the Indoraptor from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom》

Drawbacks: Transforming can tire her out, Unsheating her claws can be painful and can sometimes make her fingers bleed, in her Dino forms (both sizes) her rational thought is almost completely clouded

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Lilith Darcwood (リリスダークウッド {or Ririsu Dākuuddo})

Nicknames: Lili (リリ{or Riri})

Age: 15

Birthday: November 19

Hero Name: String Shade

Quirk: Marionette🦸‍♀️ (can create strings from a special fiber layer over her skin, can use the strings to manipulate people and objects physically, telekinesis-can move objects with her mind, Muscular Regeneration-can recover from a strained or damaged muscle faster than a normal person, and Lullaby-can stun or hold back an enemy by singing) 《Quirk is inspired off Fnaf's Puppet and the Bandit from Showdown Bandit》

Drawbacks: Scarring on hands and fingers from strings, migraines if she uses her telekinesis excessively, her Regeneration can't help regenerate limbs or fix broken bones, uses her Lullaby ability too little can't stun opponents for needed time and too much can strain her voice and throat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Whoa!”

“How are you doing that?”

“Do mine next!”

You were surrounded by a sea of kids, each and every one with eyes aglow as you used your telekinesis to make a balloon elephant skip along the edge of the park fountain. They were all completely enthralled, throwing massive smiles at one another and begging you to do another trick. None of them were afraid of what you could do. To them, your powers were a gift. To them, it was magic.

The crowd of children erupted into a fit of laughter when you made a pair of dinosaur figurines perform a synchronized swim routine in the fountain. 

“You guys like that?” You asked playfully, “Well, you’ll love this.”

Suddenly, from the top of the fountain, half a dozen plastic velociraptors leaped from the upper tier and did a series of graceful flips before diving into the water in perfect unity. The kids went wild. They cheered and laughed and jumped up and down begging for more. 

You couldn’t help but smile as they watched the show with big eyes and crooked grins. When you had discovered your powers just a few years ago, you had been terrified. What would people think of you? Would they see you as a freak? A monster? For a time, you believed that you were. But then you began to see through the children’s eyes. You saw that you could use your powers for good, for the pure enjoyment of kids. Now you had purpose. Now you could be happy.

It wasn’t long after the aquatic parade of dinosaurs bit that you called it a day and began packing up. As much as you wanted to stay and please the kids, you knew you had things to do. The groceries weren’t just going to buy themselves, after all.

“The diving raptors were a nice touch.”

You looked up from packing your bag to see a man seated nearby with his arms draped over the bench. He had a unique streak of gray in his charcoal hair and a well-kept goatee that seemed to carry with it a sense of wisdom and poise.

You smiled. “Thanks,” you said as you zipped up your bag, “Kids get a kick out of it every time.”

“Can’t say I blame them. Though, I think the fencing balloon animals will always top my list.”

You cocked your brow at the mention of that particular bit. You hadn’t done that one in days. You threw your bag over your shoulders and crossed your arms. “So you’re a regular?”

“I suppose you could say that,” he remarked casually. A slight smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth when he noticed you eyeing him cautiously. He nodded toward the hot dog cart across the way. “It may not look like much to a passerby but they serve the best hot dogs in New York. Sure beats going to Weinerschnitzel for lunch.”

“A meal and a show.” You let out a huff of laughter. “Wish I could make it as exciting as Medieval Times.”

“Don’t sell yourself short.” His eyes traced the path of a young girl bolting through the park with her brother hot on her heels. “To them, there isn’t anything more thrilling.”

“And what about you?”

He looked at you curiously.

“What is it about my glorified puppet show that keeps you coming back?”

He smiled and slowly leaned forward, folding his hands in his lap. “Let’s just say I have a particular taste for magic.”

You gave him a funny look. He chuckled at your expression and rose from the bench. It was then that you noticed the strange necklace hanging from his neck. The golden eye-shaped medallion was completely out of place against his gray t-shirt and looked like something straight out of an Indiana Jones flick.

“You showed me yours, now I’ll show you mine.”

You furrowed your brow and took a tiny step away from him. He smirked and began moving his arm in a circular motion. Sparks suddenly appeared in the air and twirled around and around until suddenly there was a massive portal sitting in front of you. You blinked and gazed through the portal at a staircase leading up to a massive, intricately designed window. Where this place was, you had no idea. But that didn’t stop your desire to find out.

You looked over at your companion. “What did you say your name was?”

He grinned. “Doctor Stephen Strange.”

A/N: Shoutout to @bluecoattallmadge for the idea! Hope this is along the lines of what you were looking for! This is also my first ever imagine for Doctor Strange so apologies if he’s a little out of character. Practice makes perfect, y’know?

Tagging: @justauthoring

The Age of the Dinosaur.... The Demise of the Fishes

James* 9 loves dinosaurs! He seriously is obsessed, when I first went in to meet the little guy all of his reading materials were about dinosaurs, his alphabet and maths equation materials involved dinosaurs, he had even created little dinosaur puppets to act out his writing materials! 

Children with Autism can possibly develop obsessions, routines and rituals that they feel need to stay the same and this can help them cope with their surroundings. (Raising Children, 2020) This is not uncommon and it can make them little geniuses about random topics they are interested in. These can last for a couple of weeks to a month; or stronger obsessions and routines can continue all the way into adolescence and adulthood. 

So yesterday was not a good day for James, he wasn’t feeling his best and came into the classroom quite tired, yawning quite frequently and unable to keep his head up. It was Friday which meant that we were going to be doing reading in the morning; this was one of James’ favourite activities, however he wasn’t very skilled in this area. 

When Annie* his teacher began the micro lesson, she asked us to read a book out of our readers and write down the most important words which guide the story. James didn’t seem to excited by this until I mentioned the dinosaur book; well did this catch his attention! 

And before you know it;

“Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Spinosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, T-Rex!”

All these dinosaurs names coming at me left, right and centre - I asked him how he knew all of them and he said he ‘just knew’. As mentioned before Autistic kids have a knack for wanting to learn everything about one specific topic and this was when I knew - this guy is a dino guy!

The symptoms of the obsessive can often be disabling (Russel et al, 2005) and it can remove the student from the learning within the classroom, while we have seen a side where it can be beneficial to engage unfortunately this is not always the case. 

Well today was;

The Demise of the Fishes

Everything was good, we were doing well we might not have gotten as much work done as yesterday but we were still on a roll to getting close to it. We were continuing on with Maths; today was all about learning chance. We would roll a dice, write the number that came up and repeat until the worksheet was full. Once completed, there was a ‘chance chimp’ which was required to be coloured in based upon the frequency of numbers that occurred. 

1 = pink

2 = brown

3 = green

4 = yellow

5 = blue

6 = brown

Some autistic kids love to create things with their hands; seeing a finished product gives them a sense of accomplishment that regular learning cannot fullfill. While James had an absolute field day with this.... that is where the fishes came in the everything went downhill..... Annie decided to put on a video of an underwater scene with calming music to get everyone to concentrate on their work, well did this do the opposite. 

It is very interesting to watch as James was engrossed by the fishes following them with his head as they swam around, calling out the other underwater creatures when they came on screen - there was no coming back from this. James was all about the fishes now, drawing and watching them swim around. This continued on for the rest of the day - I now own 4 different fish drawings, I didn’t even have that many real fish as I was growing up!

This goes to show that while many Autistic kids have obsessions these can change in an instant, we will never be able to catch up with everything they know because they think about that topic more than we breath! But it also shows us that we can use it to our advantage; sparking their interest with the topic and moulding it back into school work. I have many resources now that involve dinosaurs; alphabet dinosaur eggs, dinosaur puppets, dinosaur poems and all of these bring them back to earth. 

We need to start thinking of these obsessions as a useful tool and how can we twist it to our advantage; I can’t wait to explore this more with James and update you all on his next obsession.

*Names removed for privacy

Raising Children, 2020.  Obsessive behaviour, routines and rituals: autism spectrum disorder. Raising Children Net. https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/behaviour/understanding-behaviour/obsessive-behaviour-asd

Russell, A.J., Mataix-Cols, D., Anson, M. and Murphy, D.G., 2005. Obsessions and compulsions in Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 186(6), pp.525-528.

Self care for a raptor, with a preference for soft things, for @unclerazzhead

Bamboo Washcloths (set of 3) - $9.50 [very soft, and since they’re made with bamboo products, they should also have a naturally cooling effect!] Affirmation Stones - $10.00 [the listing is only for one lot but the shop has more available should that one be taken] Fingerless Scale Gloves - $15.00 > $22.00 [many color schemes to pick from!] Velociraptor Hand Puppet - $20.60 [there surprisingly weren’t many raptor things but this might be cute for pretending to attack things, lol] Fuzzy Fidget Animals - $5.00 [squishy and fuzzy little pigs, hippos, elephants, or monkeys! I picked this listing with “prey” in mind] Dinosaur Fleece Blanket - $13.00 [yet another super soft thing, with a nice friendly dino design]

-Mod End

is jurassic park a franchise

yeah i'd say 2 books and 4 movies qualifies as a franchise1) more ian malcolm!!! 2) stop calling them velociraptors when they were obviously going for deinonychus 3) feathered dinosaurs please4) this is entirely personal but when i was a kid i had one of those raptor hand puppets that made noise and shit and i don't know what happened to it... anyway i'd like that back5) MORE IAN MALCOLM