theodyssian

[theodyssian]

Oh okay. I don’t take Phil Lollar seriously. He gets very defensive that Odyssey is no particular place and no particular time. So everything would be no.

Where is Adventures in Odyssey located? Odyssey, duh. But what state is Odyssey in?

Saw some discussion on where Odyssey is located a while back, so I decided to try to throw my hat into the ring to narrow it down the best I can. Personally, I always headcanoned it in Illinois, but other states make sense too. But I wanted to go through every state and see.

First, I ruled out all the states we know it isn't located in using the Official Guide and what I remember of the most recent episodes. Let me know if I missed any States. Then, I ruled out the states that aren't reasonably close to Chicago since that seems to be the closest major city. There have been several episodes where they seem to make a relatively short drive to Chicago. So I'm guessing it's less than a 6 hour drive. That leaves Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, and Missouri. Wisconsin, and Minnesota seem unlikely. Why would you go to Chicago when St. Louis/Minneapolis/Milwaukee are probably closer? That leaves Illinois or Indiana (most likely in the northern half because the southern half would be closer to St. Louis or Cincinnati)

TLDR: Odyssey is in Illinois or Indiana.

[theodyssian]

Where and who said Odyssey wasn’t in Ohio?

I standby Illinois and Indiana being extremely flat. I live in Michigan (also flat but not that flat). I’ve been Chicago a lot too, and I assumed that was the nearest giant city, which is why it gets referenced. Not proximity, it’s just that city that is the most prominent.

Where is Adventures in Odyssey located? Odyssey, duh. But what state is Odyssey in?

Saw some discussion on where Odyssey is located a while back, so I decided to try to throw my hat into the ring to narrow it down the best I can. Personally, I always headcanoned it in Illinois, but other states make sense too. But I wanted to go through every state and see.

First, I ruled out all the states we know it isn't located in using the Official Guide and what I remember of the most recent episodes. Let me know if I missed any States. Then, I ruled out the states that aren't reasonably close to Chicago since that seems to be the closest major city. There have been several episodes where they seem to make a relatively short drive to Chicago. So I'm guessing it's less than a 6 hour drive. That leaves Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, and Missouri. Wisconsin, and Minnesota seem unlikely. Why would you go to Chicago when St. Louis/Minneapolis/Milwaukee are probably closer? That leaves Illinois or Indiana (most likely in the northern half because the southern half would be closer to St. Louis or Cincinnati)

TLDR: Odyssey is in Illinois or Indiana.

[theodyssian]

✨ Christian Homeschooled Kid Aesthetic™ ✨

[theodyssian]

Why would you rule out Ohio? That’s the state that Odyssey was originally written as. Family Portraits regularly says “Odyssey, Ohio.”

It adds up that writers still used that as a reference even if they didn’t want to identify the state.

I rule out Illinois and Indiana because AIO regularly references mountains. Those two states are extremely flat. Ohio does have hills especially southern on the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.

Where is Adventures in Odyssey located? Odyssey, duh. But what state is Odyssey in?

Saw some discussion on where Odyssey is located a while back, so I decided to try to throw my hat into the ring to narrow it down the best I can. Personally, I always headcanoned it in Illinois, but other states make sense too. But I wanted to go through every state and see.

First, I ruled out all the states we know it isn't located in using the Official Guide and what I remember of the most recent episodes. Let me know if I missed any States. Then, I ruled out the states that aren't reasonably close to Chicago since that seems to be the closest major city. There have been several episodes where they seem to make a relatively short drive to Chicago. So I'm guessing it's less than a 6 hour drive. That leaves Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, and Missouri. Wisconsin, and Minnesota seem unlikely. Why would you go to Chicago when St. Louis/Minneapolis/Milwaukee are probably closer? That leaves Illinois or Indiana (most likely in the northern half because the southern half would be closer to St. Louis or Cincinnati)

TLDR: Odyssey is in Illinois or Indiana.

[theodyssian]

Today, my application to adopt a shelter dog was rejected. I don't understand it. I think I'm over-qualified , over in the sense that I can give more more than the minimum of what makes a good dog owner. I've owned my current dog for 8 years. No kids in the house. I'm young but not that young. I work from home, but have other people - clients - over every single day. I go no where without my dog (I'm such a homebody, that maybe I go to the store for an hour once a week - MAX). In 8 years, I've gone on vacations with my dog (camping/hiking mostly). I've only gone on one ever trip without my dog. That was to my grandmother's funeral and my dog stayed with a friend. My dog actually came with me to my father's funeral. So in 8 years, my dog has only ever spent 2 nights without me. Of the 70,000 hours we have spent together, only around 500 hours have been spent apart (1 hour per week X 8 years). I'm a former dog groomer, so I take care of grooming needs.

I love dogs. My current dog has heart disease... I'm home cooking a significant portion of his food. The only reason I can think that maybe my application got rejected is because I don't have a fenced yard. But there is a reason that that doesn't make sense for me (the back lot is used for parking for clients + I live in an urban environment where I would never leave dogs unattended). Not because my dog doesn't go outside - in fact, I live next door to a beautiful park. Maybe they didn't like that I have two rabbits and a tortoise? I honestly don't know. I'm ranting anonymously because I don't know where else to rant. I'm considering going to a breeder, because I hate this feeling that someone else is judging me like I'm a bad dog owner who doesn't deserve a dog. I'm taking this hard. < / 3 I love the idea of rescuing but hate this feeling that I have to prove myself worthy.

[theodyssian]

[theodyssian]

[theodyssian]

I agree with this (homeschoolers can be great at socializing/conversations and public schoolers are definitely more likely to be exclusionary.)

However, I don’t know that public schoolers have social shortcomings - or more than homeschoolers. It’s just different. It’s human nature to converse about and form bonds with those you relate to and teenagers are still learning.

There aren’t too many situations where a public schooler is thrown in with all homeschoolers, but I think it could be hard in that situation too where homeschoolers are all talking about things and the public schoolers have nothing to say on the topic.

I've also recently seen comments from conventionally schooled people who felt like the homeschoolers they met were socially ill-adept because they were not good at "relating to their peers."

Allow me to share some inside perspective as someone who was home schooled, and what that looked like from my side:

I had a great social circle in high school with friends from different schooling backgrounds, but I routinely found publicly schooled kids to be the hardest to socialize with in unfamiliar situations (e.g. a family friend's party, church youth group, etc.).

I'm sure it seemed to them like I had nothing to say and was overly quiet, but from my perspective, almost every conversation topic revolved around gossip. Not necessarily the mean kind, but two-thirds of their discussions were about other people - mainly other kids at school - whom I didn't know. The remaining third was pop culture and complaining about homework. It made it difficult for me to contribute to conversations, and they would quickly lose interest in talking to me once they realized that.

I don't know why, but many of the public schoolers seemed to dismiss socializing with kids who couldn't relate to the things immediately relevant to their personal lives (if you couldn't gossip or talk pop culture, what else was there to talk about with you?). I didn't have that issue with most private school or homeschool kids. Public schoolers were by far the most exclusionary in their social habits on average, in my experience.

Maybe I'm just on crack with this theory, but sometimes I wonder if the "socially awkward homeschooler" stereotype that's so prevalent in public school circles, isn't at least partially because many public school kids have only surface-level conversation skills, but their social shortcomings are instead blamed on homeschooled kids' "inability to relate".

[theodyssian]

Yep! Renee, Jules, and Jillian.

Also, we probably aren’t going to be seeing Eugene and Katrina anymore so the idea that all the young adult characters are married isn’t accurate either. (I mean, point holds if you have major marriage stories around Eugene/Katrina, Wooton/Penny, Connie/Oc, add too Jason/Jillian. Please no on the last one! But minus the first and last couple and this isn’t true of that anyway).

The real reason Connie cannot get married is sexism. The writers cannot imagine a scenario where she is married and continues to have an interesting story.

"oh, Connie can't get married because if she did there wouldn't be any young women for the listeners to relate to."

lies. Renee exists and even fufils the same role that Connie did when she first came to Odyssey. Between her and Jules we are perfectly set when it comes to young women in Odyssey.

[theodyssian]

BRYAN DERN WITH GLASSES I AM GOING TO LOSE MY MIND

[theodyssian]

Even in Odyssey most of the wives/mothers have jobs. I'm not sure why Phil Lollar even said Connie would quit her job except a) that's what Connie debated on doing when she considered marrying Mitch. and b) a jab at the fans, basically saying "you don't want this, fans... Connie will be a shell of herself." I think "submit" is misunderstood or at least over focused on in conservative communities. In the same commonly quoted verse, it also says husbands love your wife, and I 100% believe that means supporting your wife with what she enjoys and that can include career (but also hobbies, dreams, friendships, volunteer opportunities and you name it). Yes, of course, wives should support their husbands too, but I think you hit is exactly when you said "supportive role." There is a difference between support and supportive role, as that latter implies always have a secondary role in the story/life. Joanne isn't the only character that's personalty was "erased" when she got married. Katrina's character was also diminished when she got married. She was originally introduced as incredibly smart and quirky in a way that matches Eugene. She became much more generic after she got married -- was still a teacher but nothing that makes her stand out. Eugene, on the other hand, kept his quirks... and his struggles. All of the wife/mother characters have less personality than the husband/father characters. Consider memorable traits in Mary Barclay, Elaine Washington, Ava Parker, or even Doris Rathebone... when compared to their husband characters. The pattern is clear. It does feel that the writers believe that "submit" and "support" reduces a wife to a single ideal personality (which is basically not having much of a personality on her own, just kindness and backing her husband's story). I doubt it is intentional from the writers honestly... it's more of a combination of their beliefs and their subconscious bias.

so, aio tumblr… how are we feeling about the latest bit of connie and nick grant? 👀

[theodyssian]

Right!! Connie is one of the most romanic characters which I would be place as least likely to voluntarily choose singleness.

Yeah, they could have easily made Jillian that character. We already have Whit, which I know is different because he was married before but still an example. Prior to Penny, Wooton would have been a character that would make sense to be single for life.

Even Jason… I think there is a case that at least while he was traveling and having adventure, he was choosing to be single / not pursue relationships. But then, he has also expressed desires for romance and settling down, etc. Still, I would rate his character as more likely than Connie to be a bachelor for life.

The problem is the writers have an outdated / narrow-minded idea of a “wife” character. For example, Phil Lollar said Connie would have to quit her job if she got married (um what???).

With the exception of Penny (probably because both her and Wooton are sooo off beat and non traditional), all of the wife/mother characters do have less quirks and less storylines than their husbands. I could give a bunch of examples but basically it amounts to the writers believing “wife” means boring/follower while the husband gets the main spotlight.

so, aio tumblr… how are we feeling about the latest bit of connie and nick grant? 👀

[theodyssian]

Oh yeah. I agree!! My point was if the writers try to make her have “chosen” singleness (as in, her knowingly chosen to never get married), this would mean she is intentionally hurting guys she dates.

That’s far worst for her character than if she is earnest but just hasn’t met the right man.

I think Phil Lollar’s interpretation is outright wrong and I doubt the writers will go there, because like you said, if they really close the possibility of marriage forever they upset a lot of fans.

Anyway, I guess personally I am fine if she casually dates in an earnest way and it just doesn’t work out..:. But I can also understand not wanting casual dates either if that’s all it is. Either way, I don’t like the idea of forever single as it ignores her character and desires.

so, aio tumblr… how are we feeling about the latest bit of connie and nick grant? 👀

[theodyssian]

I hope not! Also if Connie had chosen singleness, she has no right to date at all. Intentionally breaking guys hearts? That would be so much worse.

so, aio tumblr… how are we feeling about the latest bit of connie and nick grant? 👀

[theodyssian]

Declaring love after two dates is a bit much. Plus, it’s in comic form so it’s not going anywhere. Idk. I’d rather have kept it more casual.

On the plus side, this is yet another example of Connie dating and Phil Lollar’s “Connie had chosen singleness to honor God” is bs.

so, aio tumblr… how are we feeling about the latest bit of connie and nick grant? 👀

[theodyssian]

Lying / deflecting for sure. Having a crush on someone else wouldn’t explain her behavior that led Eugene/Jason/etc to think she had a crush on Jason in the first place.

Also, if she didn’t have a crush on Jason, the natural response would be to laugh it off. Like “No, dude, Eugene is an idiot when it comes to relationships, don’t listen to him.”

Of course there is Jack’s explanation that she was “bored” (so not a real crush?). I don’t buy that though.

There was no one else she had a crush on either.

I have a question for AIO fans on here.

I was just listening to Love Is In The Air, where everyone thinks Connie has a crush on Jason, and she deflects by telling Jason she had a crush on someone else.

But they never say who it is, and this is way after Jeff Lewis and way before Mitch.

Is it revealed in another episode I’m forgetting about, or was she just lying??

[theodyssian]

I can’t see them getting rid of Whit! I think of Knox as filling the void of Tom, Jack, etc.

Whit is around 96 years old and they’re slowly replacing him with pastor Knox