My Bubly Flavour Journey - Watermelon

It’s tall can time again. I got my wires crossed and thought that Watermelon was a limited time flavour. It was at one point, but it’s now a permanent fixture of the Canadian Bubly options. I think. Based on the commercials, it seems that way. I grabbed a tall can, thinking I wasn’t going to be able to get a case of them. I could have. I should have known. Live and learn, I guess. It’s not too disappointing. Like most Bubly options, I like this one.

I don’t have too much to say about watermelon flavoured Bubly. There’s no backstory to me trying this flavour. I was well into my Bubly drinking by the time I had it. It was more of an “Oh, here’s another flavour” thing. There was nothing more to it. I just needed a change in flavours and thought I’d try that one. So I did. And I enjoyed it. Let’s see how much I enjoy it.

Now, here’s the issue I have with things that are watermelon flavoured. They never quite taste like watermelon. They always taste like a specific flavour that is supposed to taste like watermelon. That flavour always tastes like that flavour. Those sour watermelon gummies taste like it once you get beyond that sourness. Jones has a sour watermelon flavour that has that same exact taste. Guess what? Bubly has that flavour, without the sour. It’s that exact flavour profile in a sparkling water. But that flavour isn’t quite watermelon, no matter what anyone says.

Watermelon Bubly certainly has that flavour. It certainly smells like that flavour. I like that flavour. I don’t love it. It’s good, not great. Now, if it tasted like real watermelon, a cold can of this Bubly would be nice to have on a hot summer day. That would be a nice feeling, like biting into a chilled slice of watermelon. You know that sensation. Everyone knows that sensation. Bubly can’t live up to that expectation when it takes its flavour from watermelon flavour and not the flavour of real watermelon. It’s like banana flavour, where there’s a distinct flavour, but that flavour isn’t what it claims to be. This has become a hit piece on watermelon flavour as a concept, I guess.

The watermelon flavour stuck around through the whole can. Even the final few sips tasted like watermelon flavour. I don’t know what it is about some of the flavours that make them permeate the water a little bit more. There wasn’t too much carbonation left by the end of the can, but the flavour was still there. It was a much more water-forward flavour than some of the other scent-forward flavours. It didn’t find that sweet spot in the middle, which is a shame.

When it comes to Michael Bublé songs, I would compare watermelon Bubly to his cover of Wonderful Tonight. It doesn’t start great, much like the weaker smell of the Bubly, but when you get into the bulk of the song, there’s just a groove you go with. It’s not quite what you wanted. It’s not the original. It’s not Eric Clapton or the actual taste of watermelon. But, for what it’s going for, it nails the sound or taste. They are two in the same. Watermelon Bubly is Michael Bublé’s cover of Wonderful Tonight.

My current ranking of Bubly flavours would be peach, then watermelon, then lime, with cherry at the bottom.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always and How It Provided Closure

In a perfect world, we would always get closure. No lingering questions. No unresolved feelings. There would be a clear end. Everything would be nice and complete. We don’t live in that world. People move in and out of our lives and we don’t always get to say goodbye. Places that you meant to visit could be gone in the blink of an eye. You could lose your favourite hat and never find it again. Things don’t wrap up nicely in the real world. In the world of storytelling, however, there’s always a chance to give a good send-off.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was released directly to Netflix on April 19, 2023. It was a proper closure to the Mighty Morphin era or the Power Rangers franchise, while also leaving some things open to a potential continuation. It also gave closure to some lingering real world events surrounding the show. The special was a tribute to two actors who had passed away since the original airing of the series, as well as an in memoriam for another who passed while the special was being made.

In order to fully get into why the special brought closure to these real-life deaths, I have to go back to season two of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It started out like a normal season of the show. All the characters returned to fight off monsters that once again attacked Angel Grove. Midway through the season, three new characters were introduced who would replace three characters of the originals. Jason, Zack, and Trini were gone. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha were now Power Rangers. The actors playing the original characters had been gone for a few episodes prior to transferring their powers, only showing up in their Power Rangers suits or by way of body doubles. There was no real send-off to the actors. They were there one episode, gone the next, and popped up in archive footage in their final episode to transfer the powers. That was it.

Jason would return in Power Rangers Zeo and Walter Jones, the actor who played Zack, would return to the franchise to voice a few monsters. But when it came to Trini Kwan actor Thuy Trang, that was it for her time in the Power Rangers franchise. Thuy Trang would die in a car accident in 2001, putting an end to any idea that she would one day return to the franchise. The show never acknowledged the character beyond that point, aside from a couple silent Power Ranger appearances in big team-up episodes. The audience never got closure for the character or the actor.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always changed that. The story was built around the death of Trini Kwan. Rita Repulsa, the villain from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, returned in robot form to attack Angel Grove. She tried to kill Billy Cranston, but Trini dove in the way of the attack and was killed. The rest of the special dealt with how Trini’s death affected Billy, Zack, and Trini’s daughter. This was the closure that audiences needed, being handled more maturely than it would have been in the original run of the series.

The three different perspectives on Trini’s death allowed audiences, and the actors, to mourn in whatever way they needed. Billy’s perspective was guilt that he caused her death. She had sacrificed herself to save him. She died for him. But she also died because of him. A wrinkle in the story revealed that Billy had accidentally released Rita Repulsa from the power grid. He gave her the freedom to attack Angel Grove. It hit him especially hard because Billy and Trini had been best friends. Early episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers showed that Billy and Trini were close. Her character essentially existed as a translator for Billy’s smart speak. If any character was going to feel the loss deepest, it was him. The guilt just added to his sorrow.

Trini’s daughter, Minh, didn’t have the same guilt. Her perspective was rage. She blamed Billy for Trini’s death. She blamed the world for Trini’s death. Her rage fueled her. It motivated her actions throughout Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. She stole Trini’s old morpher to use herself. She rebelled against Zack, her parental figure after her mother’s death. She tried to fight putties by herself, without telling anyone where she was going. There was no care for her own well-being. Minh just wanted revenge. She was mad and wouldn’t stop being mad until Robo Rita was dead.

Finally, there was Zack’s perspective. He mourned Trini, for sure. But someone had to be level-headed. Someone needed to pick up the pieces following the death and make it easier for people to go on. Zack was that person. He took the responsibility of looking after Minh. When Billy immediately wanted to tell Minh how Trini died, Zack wanted to hold back until Minh was ready to learn the Power Ranger side of her mother’s life. Zack was the stability that everyone needed. He was the glue that kept them from falling apart. All while still mourning the death of his friend.

These are three perspectives that I’ve seen throughout my life. People will feel guilty when other people die. It could be a death they directly caused, through drunk driving or negligence. It could just be a situation where they were supposed to be somewhere and something happened, then they felt survivor’s guilt for not being there when they should have been. I’ve seen people get mad when someone dies. They blame everyone for the death, even though the death could have been inevitable. And then I’ve seen people who had to become the leaders, the caretakers, for other people when death struck. Life happens and very frequently happens like this.

Watching the characters mourn in these different ways allowed the audience to finally have closure on Trini Kwan and Thuy Trang. It was twenty years late, but at least that closure came. The audience was able to mourn with the characters. Emotions could finally be released. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always tied up some loose threads that had been hanging for far too long.

The special also gave a good lesson on death to the viewers. It was a lesson that has been told many times, but one that’s important, nonetheless. To teach the audience this lesson, there was a tribute to another late actor who was an important part of Power Rangers history. It was the actor who played Zordon, Robert L. Manahan.

Zordon was one of the most important characters in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He may have been more important than the Power Rangers, themselves. He was their mentor, the character who put them in their superheroic position. Zordon was the reason there were teenagers with attitude fighting the evil of the moon castle. The character was a giant head in a tube of energy. His voice was a key point of the figure. When the look or the voice of the character is gone, a character who had such a great influence over the team of monster-fighters, finding a replacement would feel wrong. Robert L. Manahan was the voice of Zordon from the mid-first season until the character’s “death” at the end of Power Rangers in Space. Bringing the character back with a new voice in canon with the television series would do a disservice to Manahan’s work on the show.

Zordon still had an influence over the events of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. Part of the reason Billy accidentally released Rita back on the world was that he was looking for Zordon within the power grid. That’s why he felt so guilty when Trini was killed. He was the reason Rita came back in the first place. His reason for wanting to bring Zordon back was the final lesson about death.

The Zordon aspect of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was a way to teach people, specifically the younger demographic of the franchise, that you can’t bring back the dead. As much as you may miss them, you need to come to an understanding with their death. You must accept that the person you loved is gone. The whole special was about acceptance of death, but the Zordon story really brought that home. It showed the extents that Billy went to so he could bring Zordon back, and how those attempts failed. By the end, he learned that life was about moving forward. You could remember the dead when they were around and look fondly upon those memories. You couldn’t live in those memories, though. You couldn’t create more memories when that person was gone. You could cherish what you had and how it made you the person you are, but you had to find a future on your own with the people who were still around. That was Billy’s journey, through the lens of a Power Rangers monster fight.

Those were the two actors and characters who got proper send-offs that allowed both the audience and the other characters to come to terms with their absence. The final actor who got a small tribute was Jason David Frank. The fan favourite actor declined a return to the franchise in this special because he was busy directing his own movie. Sadly, he committed suicide during the production of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always. His name was thrown into the end credits alongside Thuy Trang’s name as a tribute to the actor, but his character was not written out of the franchise due to their assumption that he would be alive to reprise his role at a later date, if he wanted. Alas, here we are.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always was a loving tribute by the Power Rangers franchise to three late stars of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers who helped lay the groundwork for the long-lasting franchise. It helped the audience grieve those losses through a story that shed light on the different ways people could grieve. It let the audience know it was okay to move on, while also saying that you should never let go of what you had. Don’t be sad for what you lost. Be happy that you had it at all. That’s a solid message to give long-time fans, while being a good lesson for the younger, newer fans.

If Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always did anything right, it was bringing closure to some things that nagged fans for years. It brought back Zack and Trini, two characters who had been unceremoniously written out of the series during the second season. It showed who Zack had become, and it added some closure to Thuy Trang’s time in the franchise. Audiences got what they had been waiting decades for. I’d say the Power Rangers crew did a good job. It was worth the wait.

My Bubly Flavour Journey - Cherry

I don’t like cherry flavoured things. There are exceptions to that statement. Rocket popsicles with the blue, white, and red sections are good, even when the red is cherry. Gummy worms and gummy bears and such candies are fine. Once in a while, I’ll do a cherry blaster. But, in most situations, I do not like cherries or cherry flavour.

That is the main reason that, until now, I have not tried the cherry variety of Bubly drinks. With nine other flavours to chose from, there was no real reason to go to the one I would likely dislike. I know I’m in the Bubly game for the carbonation more than the flavour. I’d still rather enjoy the flavour I’m drinking than not like it. Why would I want to put myself through a bad taste just to get some carbonation? That’s not really a factor right now. I’m going to drink it to write about it, so I can get the complete spectrum of flavours available to me.

The can of cherry Bubly I have is a little different than the previous ones. Because I expect to dislike it, I only got one can. I didn’t get a case. The can I ended up with was a tall can, sold by itself at Circle K. Strange things are brewing there, I tell you. Buying a single small can is tough to do, so the tall can is what I got. I’m not super excited about the thought of drinking more cherry than other flavours, but it is what it is.

Much like the other flavours, the first thing that hit was the smell. The cherry smell was strong enough to be immediately recognizable. Every time I take a sip of it, that cherry smell overwhelms my nose. I don’t love it. It reminds me of medicine from when I was a kid. Maybe that’s why I don’t like the flavour. It immediately makes me think of medicine. That’s not something that I can change just by knowing. It’s engrained in me from a young age, and it would be almost impossible to break that connection. I’ll just have to live with it.

The taste in the cherry Bubly is more apparent than in some of the other flavours. There could be a couple reasons for it. My dislike for the flavour in general could make it more noticeable for me. The size of the can could also affect the taste. I know it slightly affects the taste of some of the other flavours, making them a little more prominent. What’s to say that’s not also the case with this one? I’m sure the size of the can could change how the cherry tastes.

That’s not to say I like it. As I thought before I tried cherry Bubly, I don’t like cherry Bubly. It’s drinkable. It’s not so bad that I want to pour it out and be done with it. I just don’t like it and will never go out of my way to drink it again. It’s like Dr. Pepper. It’s a flavour I don’t like, but will drink if it’s the only option, or if it’s free. This flavour doesn’t click with me.

Of course, to finish off this look at cherry Bubly, I have to find a Michael Bublé song that fits my thoughts on the flavour. I’m going to go with a song called Sway that was packaged with his cover of the Spider-Man Theme from Spider-Man 2. There’s a remix of Sway called Ralphi’s Dark Rhumba Dub. Reading that, I thought I wouldn’t like it. Listening to it, it’s fine. It’s not my cup of tea. I wouldn’t necessarily turn it off, but I would never seek it out. That’s the same sort of feeling I had while drinking the cherry Bubly.

The ranking so far is peach at the top, then lime, then cherry at the bottom.

Major Problem in United States

This isn’t going to be a long post. I don’t have too much to say on this subject. I have a couple quick points and one main point. Then I’ll be out of here. It’s a serious topic, so I understand if you might not want to read this one. Everyone deserves positivity in their lives, and this isn’t a positive one. I need to get these thoughts out, though, so here goes.

The United States has a gun problem. We all know that. At least, half the people in the US and most of the people outside the country know that. The other half of the people in the United States (and they’ll likely say the same about me), are too hung up on their convictions to see the other side. They’re too hung up to realize there’s a problem. They want guns to the point that they don’t care about people being constantly killed or injured with them. To them, it’s a small price to pay to own and play with a device designed for death. I would say that price is too high.

Just this year alone, there have been over 180 mass shootings. That’s more than one per day. And the definition of mass shooting is that at least four people are shot. That’s over 500 people being shot or killed in mass shootings this year. No other first world country has that problem. And that’s only the mass shootings. That doesn’t include any of the shootings where one, two, or three people were shot. Again, no other first world country has that problem. No other first world country has this many people killing residents of their own country at this rate. Why? Because the other countries learned from their mistakes and put restrictions on firearms.

This is where three counter-arguments for gun restrictions will come up. The first one is that people will find a way to get guns anyway, likely from the black market. Okay. Sure. Some people might. It would be more difficult, though. The added difficulty will turn some people away. They won’t want to put the effort in to get a gun if it’s not readily available. That’s a good thing. You wouldn’t have as many people grabbing a gun, spur of the moment, to shoot someone in a fit of rage. That already reduces some of the gun violence because of people’s inherent desire to be lazy.

The second argument that pro-firearms people have is that gun restrictions will never eliminate all shootings. All I have to say is that everyone knows that. But it’s better to have one mass shooting than seven. Four people get shot in a mass shooting, maybe killed. Seven mass shootings means that twenty-eight people were shot or killed. If you put in restrictions and the mass shootings theoretically go down from seven to one, that’s twenty-four people who are no longer victims. That’s a good thing. Gun restrictions are about reduction. Everyone knows they won’t eliminate all shootings.

I want to take a moment to bring up Australia. The Port Arthur Massacre happened in 1996. Thirty-five people were killed and another twenty-four were injured. It was the worst massacre in Australian history, bringing things to a head after an increasing number of mass shootings over the decade prior. Strict gun restrictions were put in place. It wasn’t an outright ban, but a series of licenses required to obtain firearms. Since the restrictions were put into place, only a handful of mass shootings have occurred. None of them were anywhere near the high victim count of The Port Arthur Massacre. Most of them have been familicide, as opposed to the American trend of shooters going to public places and shooting anyone they see. The restrictions made a difference.

The third argument is that the 2^nd Amendment gives people the right to bear arms. Fair. It does do that. But, it’s an amendment. It wasn’t there originally. The constitution was amended to put that in there. It could be amended again to take it out. It’s not like the 13^th Amendment was always there. The Constitution was changed in 1865. The 2^nd Amendment could be changed. Also, the 2^nd Amendment was written by a bunch of white men who owned slaves in 1791. I wouldn’t recommend following everything they did declare. Society has changed. So should some of the rules.

I just don’t understand why people choose guns over human lives. I get the government doing it. Many of the Republicans are funded by the NRA. But you would think that people would be against the senseless shootings that happen far too often. You would think they would vote the NRA-funded congresspeople out. Alas, here we are. This is not a great, or safe, place to be.