Valentine - Dinosaur Votes

Welcome listeners! And readers if you are reading this right now! And if you are doing both? You are the true leaders! Okay I know dad jokes was last week. This week we are talking about dinosaurs and participation in government with my new buddy Valentine.

Welcome listeners! And readers if you are reading this right now! And if you are doing both? You are the true leaders! Okay I know dad jokes was last week. This week we are talking about dinosaurs and participation in government with my new buddy Valentine.

1) I'm about to listen to the Only Everything podcast episode called "Valentine -- Dinosaur Votes." (And I should admit right away that I'm pretty darn excited to hear about the dinosaur situation -- as reported on Only Everything!) I'm planning to jot down my thoughts, while listening . . . 

2) I have seen (at least once), that meme which was mentioned, about how "nobody asks your favorite dinosaur anymore" (when you're an adult). (At least once) I went ahead and reported my favorite dino -- that time, I remembered what it was! (Well, a name of a dino-type jumped around in my brain so I looked it up, and YUP that one looked pretty good so I figured it must be my favorite). And, (sidenote), I did take a class (in college) which was ONLY about dinosaurs, HOWEVER: I realized (today) that I couldn't remember what that dino-type was, that I remembered (a while ago) when I saw that meme (!!!) It's time to do new research, (it's always a good time to do new research), and GUESS WHAT!?? There is a dino-type which is famous now, (it has been Wikipedia-ized, at the very least), and . . . it's my new fave now (even though I might not have heard of it before, even in the class I took), or it might just be that I didn't remember it (if I did learn about it) . . . (either way, it's cool, and) . . . please let it be known that THERIZINOSAURIA is the bestest dino. (According to me.) Because: CLAWS. (Also, because) . . . just try saying it's name -- "Therizinosauria" is fun to say! 

(And just picture a haiku, such as this one . . . ) 

      Theramins for the

      Therizinosauria --

      the thrillingest thing!!!

(You believe it, yes!!?) 

3) (It's time to move on to #3, because #2 was getting too long.) Continuing onward about the Therizinosauria. The idea is: they were herbivorous critters, and used their giant claws (one meter long) to "grasp and shear leafy branches." (That's a pretty good idea.)

4) I 'm listening to the podcast right now, and thinking to myself, "pterodactyls are really cool, too; it will be interesting to see if they make an appearance in this podcast episode about dinosaurs."

5) I remember our dino-guide in the dino-class, (an amazing professor at the college), talking quite a big game about warmbloodedness, (there was stuff happening which pointed in that direction). Another important thing to keep in mind is that we have to do our best-est guesses, about dino-colors! (We don't really know for sure what colors they were, because no photographs were snapped, back in the Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous.) Cameras hadn't even been invented yet! (It is possible that people brought cameras to the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous using time machines, but I have no direct evidence of this and I have not personally seen any photos.) 

6) YAY -- (Caleb mentions pterodactyls, and now I am so happy!)

7) I am suddenly curious about how big dragonflies were, (once upon a time a long time ago), so I'm going to look it up. I found what I want: they were GINORMOUS . . . (okay, it says these critters "resembled and were related to" the modern-day dragonflies) . . . ancient insects in the genus Meganeura had wingspans of 70 cm, (that's 27.5590551 inches). That's PDB. (Pretty Darn Big.)

7.99) There are other growing-capsule thingies (that you put in water and they EXPAND), it's not just the dinos! (Mentioning that, so nobody has to miss out.) (Hint: Fred Meyer. Toy section.) 

9) Has Caleb already mentioned his fave dinosaur, somewhere in there, and I somehow MISSED hearing it? (!!!!!!)  Kris's Fave Dino (KFD) = Triceratops. Valentine's Favorite Dino (VFD) = T. rex. (What is CFD???) And Caleb, I'm soooo sorry if you mentioned your FD, in there (and I just missed it).

10) I know the thing you are talking about, but I can't think of it's name! (The binocular toy with the picture-disc thingy.) Back to google ----> VIEWMASTER. (Ta-dah!) (You can do an Amazon to get this.) (Maybe Fred Myer, but I can't promise, I haven't looked.) Prepare for TOPIC SWITCH!

11) (Mini-thoughts, related to voting.) I think reading up about the people who are candidating, and the issues, is SO GOOD! Also, there are at times, quite a few candidates and issues. So I think that it is good for people to go ahead and vote as well as they can, on the people/issues they've decided on -- (while also, at times, feeling free to leave a few items blank, if they haven't gotten around to researching everything / figuring out which options they prefer) -- it's okay to do it that way if that's going to mean a person will vote the many things they ARE ready to vote on; (rather than deciding they aren't ready, and then not voting on anything). That was a long sentence to share the idea that voting imperfectly, (such as not doing a completely complete ballot), is better than not voting at all! (It is GOOD to make our voices heard, especially on the issues we cares about the most!) 

12) Also . . . (fun fact) . . . if you turn in your ballot at a ballot box, on election day, (at least if you do so near the end of the day) . . . (well, it happened to me, once!) . . . there are people standing there to give you an "I VOTED" sticker!  

13) Oh wow, that was so cool that the number of thoughts about this episode, turned out to be exactly an even dozen thoughts!   (Oops.)