Care & keeping of one
very small dinosaur.
Welcome to Merl’s little corner of the internet.
If you’re here, you’ve probably been entrusted with our favorite tiny dinosaur while we’re away. The good news: Merl is remarkably easygoing. Keep them warm, hydrated, well-fed and right-side-up, and you’re doing great.
Scroll on for everything you could possibly need to know.
The Merl Lynn
Manual
01 — MEET MERL LYNN
Sulcata tortoise.
About one year old.
Merl Lynn is curious, independent and surprisingly full of personality.
They love food, warmth, sunshine, digging and the occasional adventure — while also maintaining a deep appreciation for being left completely alone.
Merl generally does not love being picked up and may retreat into their shell when handled. Don’t take it personally. Once returned to their enclosure, placed in their bath or presented with something leafy, normal operations usually resume immediately.
Merl is gentle, not aggressive, and fairly forgiving.
In other words: you’ve got this.
02 — THE SHORT VERSION
Just stopping by? This is really all you need.
Merl Lynn's routine is pretty straightforward. If you only have a little time, these basics are enough to keep them happy and healthy. Each step has more detail below if you want it — but don't overthink it.
1 — CHECK MERL
Make sure Merl is upright and everything looks normal.
2 — FRESH WATER
Empty and refill the water dish with regular tap water.
3 — FOOD
Remove yesterday’s wilted food and replace it with fresh greens.
4 — BATH
Give Merl a warm soak for about 25 minutes.
5 — MIST + CHECK
Mist the enclosure and glance at the temperature gauges.
6 — BACK HOME
Return Merl to the enclosure and make sure the water dish is full.
That’s it.
If you only have time for the basics, the basics are enough.
Have more time?
Keep scrolling.
ON BOARD —
He isn't
traveling alone.
His mother is aboard the ship on what would have been her 40th wedding anniversary. His father is gone.
Around his wrist is his father’s watch—a small piece of the man who never got to see the world his son now moves through for a living.
While he scrambles to get back to the ship, his mother begins an unexpected journey of her own—making friends, finding trouble, and discovering that there may still be parts of herself she hasn’t met yet.
For years, movement has meant freedom. Another ship. Another city. Another audience. Another horizon.
Music has always been how he makes sense of the world. But this time, the right song hasn’t come yet.
THE TITLE —
White
Thunder.
n Alaska, the sound of a glacier calving can roll across the water like thunder.
In the story, one such moment becomes a fault line—between what was supposed to happen and what happens instead.
For a man who has spent his life performing other people’s songs, this journey finally gives him one of his own.
I knew the world.
The story came later.
INSPIRED BY A REAL JOURNEY —
I spent several years performing aboard cruise ships, living out of a suitcase and watching the world pass outside the windows.
During that time, I made many journeys through Alaska—from the ports and waterways of Southeast Alaska toward the glaciers and mountains farther north. I took photographs, met people, kept moving, and eventually went home.
But Alaska didn't really leave.
Years later, pieces of that experience began finding their way into a story. The places are real. Some of the circumstances have roots in things I knew. The characters and the journey they've taken are now very much their own.
THE FILM —
Drama. Comedy.
Music. Romance.
A missed ship. A thousand miles of Alaska. An unexpected companion. And a song waiting to be found.
Funny until it isn’t. Tender without getting precious.
White Thunder begins in the polished, slightly absurd world of cruise-ship entertainment and gradually opens into something more intimate and expansive.
It’s a story about grief, an unlikely connection, and the moment music turns a journey into something more.
A journey through an extraordinary landscape that keeps asking a very ordinary question:
What if the life you’ve built to feel free is also the thing keeping you from staying?
—WHITE THUNDER—
Original Feature Screenplay
Written by Kyle Meiers
INTERESTED IN THE PROJECT?