Flat tire while I’m on campus means that I can spend some time enjoying campus.

Finally updated to macOS Sonoma on my Mac and iOS on my iPhone. My watch didn’t update because apparently, I don’t have enough space… not sure what that is all about.

Absurd Ahsoka Finale Speculation

Tomorrow night, the Ahsoka finale airs on Disney+. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve enjoyed the show. It’s not perfect, but I love Star Wars Rebels and it’s great to see a continuation of the story line.

I’ve got a few absurd ideas about the finale that I figured I’d share. Our heroes are on Peridea, in another galaxy. Thrawn is ready to come back to the core galaxy, partnered with the Nightsisters, to restore the Empire.

Here are 9 absurd things that are not going to happen on the season finale of Ahsoka:

  1. Our heroes (and maybe villains) will remain stuck in the Peridea galaxy. That would at least explain where they were during the Rise of Skywalker.

  2. Force ghost Kanan Jarrus appears to… Ezra? Hera? Jacen?

  3. Yoda’s species is actually from this new galaxy, and they are the enemies of the Nightsisters.

  4. There is an even darker power in the new galaxy that is stronger than the Nightsisters and Thrawn… which is why they want to escape.

  5. Huyang helps Ezra make a new lightsaber, and the blade is… yellow or purple.

  6. All those New Republic ships are actually filled with Imperial technology and spies and Thrawn will be able to control them.

  7. There’s a Jedi temple on Peridea… with a portal that transports our heroes to Lothal via wolf ride.

  8. Post credit scene features Hera assembling a team to fight Thrawn… including Zeb, the Mandalorian, Grogu, the surviving members of the Bad Batch and Rex.

  9. Baylan Skoll actually does have a plan.

I warned you they were absurd, but the list was fun to come up with. Looking forward to seeing where the show lands. There is no way they can resolve all the various plot threads, so I assume there will be another season, or the storyline will be continued in another series. Eventually, we already know this leads to a new Dave Filoni-directed movie.

Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

My son, Ryan, is back in goal for another fall lacrosse season.

Lacrosse goalie stops a shot.

Weather is beautiful today. Hanging out on the back deck and cooking out on the grill.

Columbia’s Soda City Market is hoppin’ today. I remember when they only took up two blocks of Main Street.

People walking around the Soda City Market.

Date night.

Overheard at a grad school symposium:

I mean, we’re grad students. We should geek out about our research.

Loved this story on the Washington Post about the evolving color palette of Lego bricks.

As a designer who is also a Ph.D. student, I don’t understand why all diagrams in academic journals are poorly crafted.

Happy 16th birthday, Jilly!

Reading back through some journal articles for class from 2001 about the potential of the internet to shape public relations. It’s a flashback to a moment after the popularization of the web, but before social media. A very different world. (I miss that world.)

Got to film in the South Caroliniana Library on campus today. Hadn’t been in since the renovation started in 2015. Designed by Robert Mills in 1840, South Caroliniana is the oldest freestanding college library in the United States. The renovation/restoration is phenomenal.

Stairwell at South Caroliniana Library on the campus of the University of South Carolina

Sports talk radio all over South Carolina is going to be a dumpster fire tomorrow.

Rewatching the first few episodes of Ahsoka again. Thrilled to see the Star Wars Rebels storyline continuing.

Today is a holiday, but my daughter needed to study and I had some grad school work to do so we headed out to Starbucks. This was the only coffee shop near my house when I started grad school and I was here for long hours most weekends. It was open late and was seemingly always filled with other grad students. After COVID shut everything down, several new coffee shops opened up including two very close to my house. I don’t visit “Grad School Starbucks” very often these days, but it’s funny how a space can hold so many memories…

I realized a long time ago that watching South Carolina play football on TV just stresses me out. So I’ll follow along with the game against UNC on the ESPN website. I’ll be happy if they win. And I’ll be less frustrated if the lose.

The wifi at my daughter’s dorm room is slow and she has a hybrid class that starts this week. I dropped off an ethernet cable and a USB-C adapter today and now her internet incredibly fast. Wifi is convenient, but ethernet is fast and reliable.

Saw these flowers outside of a restaurant this evening.

Four yellow flowers surrounded by green leaves.

I had a great view of campus today. From the 8th floor, you can really see how many trees are all over the University of South Carolina campus.

View of the University of South Carolina campus from the 8th floor of the Close-Hipp building