{"id":1839,"date":"2026-08-27T14:27:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cultofdarian.com\/blog\/?p=1839"},"modified":"2026-08-27T14:34:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:34:00","slug":"playing-this-great-game-of-life-and-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cultofdarian.com\/blog\/2026\/08\/27\/playing-this-great-game-of-life-and-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing this great game of life and death…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Man the hits just keep coming, don’t they? Today it’s Peter Cullen<\/a>, the voice of Optimus Prime from The Transformers<\/em>, who has passed. His “death” already traumatized me once… in 1986. The old farts (and some younger nerds) know the deal…<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
Where were you when you found out Optimus Prime died?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

His death isn’t as immediately impactful as Tim Curry<\/a>, but he literally<\/em> was a voice of my conscience in my youth. Chances are, you are familiar with his voice, even if you do not recognize it – he was the man behind the voice for so many beloved characters, I’m not going to even try to list them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A brief tidbit: I never met him, but my wife and I stayed a night in his home. It happened through a friend of mine, and I won’t go into specifics here, but we were visiting the area and crashed there for a night, not realizing where we were until later. And my car was stored at his son’s property after a breakdown until towed north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
Peter Cullen\n1941 – 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why are all the good ones in their 80’s going now? I can think of a handful of other octogenarians who could go and the world would be a better place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s enough about death for now, it’s getting to be a bit much, even for me. I guess it is time for some of my usual ramblings…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now for something completely different…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First a quick update to something from a year ago<\/a>: My buddy was cleared of all charges, though he still has the custody battle ahead of him. Bit of a bummer for her that he was retiring from the military to spend time with his kid so his income will be that pension. She’s not going to get the payout she wants and he will likely get primary custody since he wouldn’t have to utilize daycare services as she would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started the daikon radish pickles yesterday, and put on Clue<\/em> while doing so. They are currently brining at the moment, and I hope to finish them over the weekend. I need to squeeze and drain everything today and start the sauce, then the final canning should be over the next day or two – though probably not tomorrow since we need to run to the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m still disappointed in my tomato yield this season, but I have been enjoying the ones we’ve gotten. I’ve been eating BLTs pretty much every day for the past week now, and\/or a BLTE (that’s egg) for breakfast. It is a special feeling to finally enjoy the literal fruit of your labor from a garden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I really need to catch up on email and have fallen way behind again. So apologies to those I have been neglecting – I promise to respond soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also need to finalize the planning and itinerary for our trip to see Iron Maiden in a month. And for the trip next weekend as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also need to blend another batch of beard oil and get some shipped off to a few people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Man, I have a lot of things to get done – I’d better get to it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Song of the day: Implosion<\/a> by Killing Joke<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Man the hits just keep coming, don’t they? Today it’s Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime from The Transformers, who has passed. His “death” already traumatized me once… in 1986. The old farts (and some younger nerds) know the deal… His death isn’t as immediately impactful as Tim Curry, but he literally was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-1839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t