Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday
Aug. 22nd, 2023 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyIn the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.
Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.
Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.
It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.
The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than me.
A US court has rulled that art created by AI cannot be copyrighted.
In a move which seems utterly bizarre, even by the usual "standards" of such things, the International Chess Federation has banned transgender women from competing in the women's competitions. I honestly could not have told you chess competitions were even gender split because... Why would they be? But to add transphobia onto institutionalised sexism for a purely cerebral game is appalling.
The Twit/X-Pocalypse continues with a plan to remove the Block function
California hit by its first tropical storm in 80 years, and an earthquake at the same time.
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians" got a new trailer
The "Ahsoka" TV show debuts tomorrow
Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.
Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.
It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.
The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than me.
A US court has rulled that art created by AI cannot be copyrighted.
In a move which seems utterly bizarre, even by the usual "standards" of such things, the International Chess Federation has banned transgender women from competing in the women's competitions. I honestly could not have told you chess competitions were even gender split because... Why would they be? But to add transphobia onto institutionalised sexism for a purely cerebral game is appalling.
The Twit/X-Pocalypse continues with a plan to remove the Block function
California hit by its first tropical storm in 80 years, and an earthquake at the same time.
"Percy Jackson and the Olympians" got a new trailer
The "Ahsoka" TV show debuts tomorrow
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 10:10 am (UTC)Context:
1. I am living in Poland. Poland is being governed by hardcore right wing political party. The justice system was dismantled some time ago and now the courts are controlled by representatives of the party and judges who do not agree with party line are fired and/or blasted with false charges.
2. Earlier this summer the parliament of Poland passed a law calling for investigation of “public” people who may be foreign agents. What “public” and “foreign agent” mean was left vague enough that potentially any person can be charged and banned from having part in the democratic procedure, such a loosing your passive voting rights.
3. There will be a parliamentary election in Poland in October. It is obvious that the governing party will win, as it consistently has above 50% popular support. The question is how many other parties will make it to the parliament, as currently only one opposition party can be sure it will make it. In worst case scenario, the governing party can get over 66% of places, change constitution and rule any way it likes.
4. There will be a referendum accompanying the election with a handful of VERY misleadingly worded questions regarding issues as different the wall on the border with Belarus (it was partially constructed, for the same racist reasons Republicans wanted to build a wall on the border with Mexico), acceptance of refugees (misleadingly called “illegal immigrants”), LGBT-free zones (if I remember correctly) and other things. The referendum will be binding if over 50% of citizens take part in it.
5. Recently the government has been revealing protected information of people they consider enemies, such as revealing the name of a victim of hate crime (where the minister of justice protects the criminal) or a list of medicine a doctor who complained about the new perscribtion system perscribed for himself. Furthermore, the government owns the Pegasus program used liberally to spy on the phones of the members of opposition party and people related to them.
The Question:
What should I do? I definitely will want to vote so that my chosen party has a higher chance of making it to the parliament. I’m not sure what to do with the referendum part.
-If I refuse to take the page, my decision will be marked in the proceedings, and I may face future prosecution from the government. I am used to frequent threats from people living around me, but they do not have power over me, and government has.
-If I take the page and destroy it, I could face imprisonment of up to two years.
-If I submit an empty page, choice may be made without my knowledge by people counting the voices.
-If I answer the way I think, I will be helping legitimize the referendum anyways.
-If I submit an invalid vote, it will be counted as “voted” for the purpose of legitimacy of the referendum.
It feels like a lose-lose situation. Please help me find a way not to lose.
I’m being fed up with feminists online. Chances are when you encounter somebody calling herself a feminist, this person is simply a bully who wants to have acceptable targets of harassment in adult life. Again and again I meet people who don’t give a shit about the plight of women worldwide or even stateswide and spend their whole time harrassing their favourite targets, and for “some” reason those targets are always groups marginalized in society. People love the slogan “we do not live in a vacuum”, but they should apply it to themselves first!
I am also fed up with my international leftist comrades. They love talking how queer rights are white people’s shit, but being a leftist means, or rather SHOULD mean that you care about all human rights, and in this community I encounter microagression after microagression, and if I voiced my displeasure I would be mocked with “white tears” memes. Just because Western Left overprioritizes cultural progressivism doesn’t mean we have the right to joke about Uganda introducing death penalty for homosexuality!!! Not Very Leftist OfThose Guys.
I’m very disappointed with Western animation. Big studios have terrible working conditions, very low diversity of stories produced, and a tendency to buy out popular independent studios only to close their animation departments, with Cartoon Network, Blue Sky Studios and Rooster Teeth being most notable casualties. My Little Pony, My Adventures With Superman, and Castlevania: Nocturne are three mainstream animated are are “happening”, but Ponies are animated in Canada while Superman is animated in South Korea, making Castlevania’s Powerhouse Animation Studios the only one currently operating independent animated studio in the United States as far as I’m aware.
(Speaking of Ponies, I do like the Gen 5 characters and the trailer for the next season made me actually interested in the series. I wanted to buy Misty and Sunny, but only Gen 4 dolls are still available in Poland, even though the new generation debuted two years ago.)
People in Western animation fandom are having hopes in truly indie, non-studio projects based mostly on Youtube, but those tend to suck! Hazbin Hotel, Murder Drones and Lackadaisy all have strong pilot episodes but that was followed with either disappointing content or no content at all and plenty of controversies overshadowing the production. Helluva Boss seems to be the best of the bunch, but it’s a series where in any given episode you can expect only one of the four: gorgeous animation, great music, funny jokes or good writing. In my opinion the series has all of one truly good episode. I know there are more independent productions and more series for little kids, but I’m talking about what I personally am interested in, as a sort of metaphorical payback for years of fandom experience of things I liked being ignored.
I’d like to talk about something nice for a change. I haven’t read American comics for a while. I kinda lost my interest in the medium. I’ve read a lot of Eastern comics though. One that caught my attention was Interspecies Reviewers by Amahara and Masha. It’s porn, plain and simple, but what I find fascinating is the amount of worldbuilding put into creating a fantasy society that makes sense. It’s honestly the first fantasy series I encountered that takes place in a democratic parliamentarian system, and when I reached the scene about election I felt mind-blown. It also has notable amount of body diversity even outside of the typical fantasy species, with older women, fat women and intersex characters being portrayed as sexy. I mean, it’s for the purpose of porn, but it kinda makes me feel good when I see those characters. The story also has a strange mix of queer positivity and intenalized homophobia, it’s really weird to read those scenes. It seems that the series is banned in several English-speaking countries, WTF.
Sixth anniversary of Magia Record is ongoing and I’m enjoying the event a lot. I obtained the special magical girl, Holy Yachiyo (she has a different official name but come on, she’s a literal angel) on my second try, which is incredible luck again. Holy Yachiyo is the best magical girl in the game, I highly recommend rolling for her if you are playing. She’s also very pretty! :) We also finally got Devil Homura, she was way, waay overdue.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 10:35 am (UTC)I remember the game being harder, guess this time I actually know how to play it properly.
Read the first volume of Gotham Central. I think I'll probably read more. Bhgvat Erarr Zbagbln vf gur jbefg guvat Gjb Snpr rire qvq.
Played more Star Trek Resurgence. One of the main character's is a Kobliad, an alien from an episode of Deep Space Nine I don't remember watching. They need a space mineral otherwise they die. People were praising me for overcoming adversity. I thought they were talking about the mineral, but apparently the Cardassian's occupied their home-world. (I couldn't have known that before because the writers made that up for this game).
I hope that wasn't the adversity, otherwise the Bajorian guy in the background when people were fawning over me must have been so annoyed.
Wasted $15 getting Missing, the follow-up to Searching a movie I enjoyed.
My thought process went: "Oh this is going to suck", "huh this could be interesting", "oh this is exactly what I didn't want to happen".
Decided to watch Regular Show, I saw some of it when I was younger but not as much as Adventure Time. (Rigby and Reverend Putty from Moral Orel have the same voice actor. When I hear them I think of the other character).
Benson is obviously the hero, poor man doesn't get paid enough to deal with Mordecai and Rigby.
"The "Ahsoka" TV show debuts tomorrow"
Since I'll be watching it via bootleg DVD that doesn't really matter to me. I do hope it doesn't suck.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 11:08 am (UTC)Trying to get through my Netflix DVD queue as much as possible. They've announced that they'll be shipping out as many as ten DVDs from your queue on September 29th, but that will depend heavily on chance.
Over at my blog, I now have a least favorite movie in which Steve McQueen escapes from prison. https://www.skjam.com/2023/08/20/movie-review-nevada-smith-1966/
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 11:18 am (UTC)Current events:
I’m guessing corporations will be a lot less interested in AI “art” now that they know they can’t make money from it.
I was going to dunk on the idiot running the social media platform formally known as Twitter for consistently making it worse but it is becoming hard to keep up. He says he wants to remove the block function. Then the community notes people point out that that would violate the Apple and Google TOS. Then he removes the note and goes on a blocking spree. Meanwhile they just quietly removed all the Twitter media (links, photo, video, ect) from prior to 2014 while everyone was distracted.
(But seriously, if anyone has a Blue Sky invite..)
Is it just me or are conspiracy theories getting dumber?
(This is specifically in relation to the tragic Hawaii wildfires which have attracted at least three deranged beliefs…but it could have been in reference to any number of things including other recent natural disasters.)
Music:
It’s here!
https://youtu.be/S-OgkNgxm3k
I sort of have mixed feelings here. I think the look of the original video was a big part of its charm but I can 100% see the new version as a late 90s Europop video. Mostly I’m just happy the song of the summer is an actual song now.
TV:
Two thirds of the way into Arcane. I have zero knowledge of League of Legends but I heard it was good. So far it is but the show sure takes a long time to get anywhere.
New Futurama episode felt a lot like the old Futurama without rehashing an old plot again. I’m curious if getting brought back on Amazon Prime Video was ever a possibility for this series. This episode flipped a coin and decided Fry and Leela are a couple; we’ll see if they still are next week (really wondering if these are getting aired out of order).
Comics:
Wishing Jeff Smith a speedy recovery.
Visually, Deadly Neighborhood Spider-Man reminds me of Spider-Man Hooky and Spider-Man Fever. In terms of story, I can’t shake the feeling that the guy from the Black-Eyed Peas wanted to do a New Mutants story but it got reworked into a Spider-Verse thing.
While the Archie series started as an adaptation and quickly became its own thing, TMNT: Saturday Morning Adventures is very much a love letter to the original cartoon. Actually, the first issue covers just about every bit of 90s Turtlemania BUT the comics (from characters that I’m pretty sure only ever existed as toys to the terrible LCD handheld game).
Chances are good that everyone here that is interested already has it but its something I was curious about and I didn’t see it mentioned in the solicits so I figure I’ll bring it up. The Batman: Wayne Family Adventures trade collects 25 “episodes” from the first 51-episode “season”. Its smaller than a typical trade and bigger than a lot of those younger reader OGNs they’ve been doing lately. And …just because this has been an annoyance with DC lately…I feel obligated to point out that the paper quality is actually pretty good. Also, I don’t know who was responsible for reformatting the scrolling comics to a regular comics format but I hope they were compensated well because that must have been a big job.
Games:
Wishing Charles Martinet a happy retirement.
Karai is in the Shedder’s Revenge DLC! (Yeah, I know everyone is going to play the rabbit instead)
RE Snap
I had a longer bit that I cut here but, as much as I thought the card acquisition was an improvement in the short term, I’m already a little aggravated about long-term payouts. Feels like we’ve gone from having about four very old cards a month becoming widely available in pool three drops to UP TO four newer monthly cards in Spotlights. That “up to” can be a pretty big difference.
Unlocks:
1000 Tokens – Whatever my first Spotlight would have been, I guess I already had it …so I get 1/3-1/6 of a card instead.
Silk – My Move decks just got better.
X-23 – My Destroy decks just got better…but I expect I’m going to see a LOT of Cosmo, Armor, and Knull this week.
Stormbreakers Kitty Pryde Variant – Conquest shop. I don’t really play Bounce but I know the card is good and the art looks nice.
Max Grecke Spider-Man Variant – Okay, I don’t actually have him as I type this but … https://marvelsnapzone.com/gamescom-opening-night-live-2023/ (Note: mostly posting this to give others a heads-up because its time-sensitive)
Made it to the 80s before hitting a wall. Still, this was where I ended last season and I’m only halfway into this one.
Speaking of hitting a wall, I’m not sure I’ll be able to get Conquest Wolverine at this rate because it has been VERY hard to get any wins in lately. I only just hit 300 medals (which became the Kitty Variant) last night. At least the shop isn’t still at last month’s prices.
Thursday update was positive. I don’t know how you could call the Forge change anything but a buff (still not sure he’s good, though) but apparently people are arguing that making Crystal and Shanna cheaper but weaker makes them worse and that gaining Surfer synergy doesn’t offset losing the Zabu synergy. Those people are wrong, BTW. I genuinely can’t wrap my head around the logic. They’re mad that they can’t use a two-cost card to make some four cost cards into three cost cards because they were turned into three cost cards by default? I guess I could see being upset about the power loss but neither is a heavy hitter and Crystal is the strongest she’s ever been with a Silver Surfer buff.
I don’t love that they keep making changes to the weekend missions.
On the bright side, they’re back to being three days instead of two.
On the other hand, the “win X games for credits” mission has been replaced by “win X games with [pool 3 card] for credits”. Its not as bad as the pay to play missions that require Spotlights/Tokens (“win with new spotlight card”) or money (“win with season pass card”) but it does lock out some people with incomplete pool 3 collections and force everyone to play a specific archetype (or against the archetype) for a weekend. TL; DR: Mister Negative is only effective when you're very lucky and the other player doesn’t expect him.
Speaking of missions, I know this is too late for anyone that needed it last week but the quality of life improvement that lets you upgrade a card multiple times at once only counts as a single upgrade so be sure not to use it when completing the card upgrade mission.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 03:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 09:15 pm (UTC)I really want to get Miguel next week, but Silver Samurai is meh and I don't like the Kitty variant. So not sure if I'll take the risk to have to open 4 boxes.
I'm stuck in the low 70s, like last season. Still don't know when to stap.
Got a long streak of crappy variants (pixel and an Hipp) but I long last I got Skottie Young's Rocket.
I just realized I didn't yet built a deck with Dani, Berto, Rhane, Illyana and James. Damnit! I should play more for fun and less for winning.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-23 02:07 am (UTC)I love Miguel but I'm not in a huge rush to get him. He does sort of feel like Shang Chi with extra steps.
Wow, when the teams start to fill in you really start to notice the holes. Crazy idea for Karma; the opponent's next on-reveal ability at this location triggers for Karma instead.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-23 03:06 am (UTC)(Very disappointed Jeff is the ONLY card I don't have the week after next. He might be a token purchase if he drops to 3000 ...assuming anything will ever drop again.)
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 11:09 pm (UTC)The redemption was pretty tedious but I got the Spider-Man variant. There are a bunch of other Twitch drops this week but the required watch time and generally unreliable nature of Twitch drops means I have doubts I’ll get them all*.
The Steam version of Snap is officially out of beta and I have a few notes:
First of all, you’re going to want to log into the Steam version with your mobile account immediately because there are daily login drops for the next week. I just got a Mech Devil Dinosaur Variant. Apparently, the login bonuses show up on mobile too once the accounts are linked but I’ve yet to confirm**.
Secondly, you have to use the Steam app on a desktop or laptop. The Steam version of Snap SAYS its playable on Steam Deck but it was impossible to log into my Google account due to security roadblocks.
Ultimately, I think I’ll stick to my phone but – just from briefly poking around – I noticed a major quality of life improvement that they still haven’t implemented into the mobile version; you can search variants by type (Baby, Steampunk, ect) or artist. Now is the time to build the truly awful Pixel deck we’ve all wanted to make at one time or another.
Snap once again has a truly amazing promo video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmPpS4dpqo
(I wonder when/if they’ll put the Sailor Squirrel Girl Variant in the game. It seems legally dicey)
*Edit: Left Twitch playing on mute overnight in an attempt to get the drops. I only got one of them (Nightcrawler). Apparently progress toward the next drop doesn’t start until the last drop is redeemed manually.
Edit 1.5 – And I have the Moon Girl and Sunspot drops. I think that’s it for Twitch.
(There’s something funny to me about Sunspot coming with boosters. For a long time, he was the most played card in the game and I have over a thousand unused boosters)
**Edit 2 – Can confirm daily Steam login bonus works on mobile once accounts are linked; they'll be in your inbox. However, they happen midday instead of at the beginning of the in-game day.
Well, back to only logging in once or twice a day.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 11:25 am (UTC)Jack of Fables #7-10: Jack of Hearts
Back on the story arcs, we catch up with Jack Horner after escaping from Golden Boughs Retirement Village. He’s extremely down on his luck before running into Gary the Pathetic Fallacy again, whose powers give him a chance to make his money back in Vegas. From there, romance and chaos!
In comparison to the Jack Frost mini-arc, Jack of Hearts is a breath of fresh air. It’s a far more interesting and fitting tale as we see Jack try to get back in the game with a new scheme. It’s not as clever as the Hollywood one, but given what happens, it’s still a lot of fun. There’s plenty of good twists and turns to keep things interesting, encountering a new Fable villain and what that brings to the table. I like how the story progresses, following up on the Jack Be Nimble arc in an unexpected manner and the ending pretty much brings us back to how the first arc ended, but a bit more tragic. Also, I found the writing a bit more funny and made me smile more.
What helped this arc is Jack Horner was more tolerable. Sure, he’s still an utter bastard and not a good person, but he’s not aggravating as Jack Frost. He has some minor moments of depth such as what happens with his new wife and there’s him reflecting on things, even briefly. While he certainly pushes him around, I like him working off Gary and how he is definitely building a bond with him, even if he doesn’t fully get the guy. The main villains are awful much like Mr. Revise and it is enjoyable seeing him get the best of them. Sure, there’s still issues, but I rather follow an antihero like this than what he was in that mini-arc.
There are some parts of the story I’m mixed on. I do think it rushes some part of the plot, especially towards the end. The subplot with the two buddies and the golden horseshoe feels almost superfluous, since they barely interact with any of the main players in the story. I can tell it seems to be setting up for something later, but it felt like it could’ve been better integrated. The ending itself feels abrupt, like the writers needed to hit the reset button to get Jack and Gary into a certain position. It feels like the script needed another go to smooth some stuff out.
Artwork is handed back to Tony Akins, for the most part. His work is still pretty good, though he doesn’t get to stretch himself as much with less fantastical elements here. He also seems to struggle in some points with a consistent, on model approach with his characters, since some don’t seem to look like themselves from scene to scene, like with Lady Luck. Still, the action is nice, there’s some good layouts and story flow, and I think his comedy timing with the art is better here than before.
Curiously, there’s some art switching going on. The final pages of the arc are drawn by Andrew Pepoy instead, but thankfully, it’s not too noticeable I felt. His and Akins’ style fit together well enough. Lee Loughridge also jumps in on the second issue and finishes out the arc over Daniel Vozzo. However, unlike the main Fables book, it’s only for this particular arc. I’m not sure why exactly, but Loughridge’s colors do fit some of the moodier and more tense moments of the arc later on, so it’s not a bad fit here.
Jack of Hearts was a good arc. Maybe not as good as the first arc due to pacing and its ending, but I did really enjoy myself. It was a fun tale of Jack making his way through Vegas and getting into trouble, giving you what you would want out of this scenario. Hopefully the next arc keeps this momentum going.
Fables #52-55: Sons of Empire
After Bigby’s attack on Geppetto’s home, it’s time for a meeting. All the higher ups of the Empire and representatives get together to discuss their next plan of attack. Meanwhile, trouble falls upon Fabletown in new and old ways.
It’s been a while since we had a full arc like this, something akin to The Mean Seasons. This is a much quieter story about setting the stage for the series going forward. It’s not focused on action, but character drama and expanding on the world a bit more. Though, this is a far more intense tale given the characters are discussing war, plans of attack, and some dark history in the universe. And for all of that and the execution, I was thoroughly invested from start to finish.
The execution is key here in making this such a thoroughly engaging story. Basically, the four issue arc can be summed up in a bunch of characters coming together, discussing how their battle plan will go, a new character heads to Fabletown and we get their backstory, and then we’re told how that battle plan will fail. How basic and simple everything feels is done justice with the amount of rich detail, explanation, and gorgeous/haunting artwork that goes into it. All the angles are explored and the darkness of the plans and history feel true that you are left wondering where this series will go. If anything is wrong, it’s that we didn’t spend more time on the Empire and their meeting to get more of their personalities and attitudes playing off each other.
What also helps is all of the smaller stuff besides the main story and bonus short tales. The issues with Flycatcher, the return of an old face after so long, catching up with Boy Blue, and more. It’s all good drama and characterization that continues everyone’s arcs in good ways. The bonus stories at the end of each issue are also nice. Mostly superfluous fluff, but they’re all charming in their own ways for some fun gags or follow ups on characters.
The only flaw I find in the story itself may be the military wanking off the comic gets into in the final issue. It’s a bit much in how much the comic is talking them up in being this ultimate, awesome force that would save the day. Though, admittedly, it isn’t too bad due to the comic commenting on how bad that can be in the long run with the more subtler jabs at the nations’ power-grabbing and colonialism. Also, the person talking up the military is pretty childish and ignorant, so it’s not like even he fully believes it would play out like that.
The artwork by Mark Buckingham is great, back in top form that I haven’t seen since Arabian Nights (and Days). Like mentioned with the execution, his work is doing a lot of the lifting in this story. His depiction of the battles and Hansel’s backstory are some of the most visually striking, horrifying work the series has produced with the carnage and utter depravity of the characters. This is also where Lee Loughridge shines, his moodier color palettes fitting the far darker tone this story arc is going for. I don’t think the previous colorist wouldn’ve hit the same note required for this arc as well as Loughridge did.
Also, last to note, the various artists who contributed to the mini-stories all did a good job. All of their styles are very different from Buckingham, but fit well enough with the tales they were telling. Not much to say, but I do hope to see them all again in some way or form.
Sons of Empire is a great arc, one that I feel is overlooked when you have stories like Homelands and March of the Wooden Soldiers in its ranks. It’s a tale of war planning and a storm slowly setting in on our heroes, one that is intense and page-turning. The art is striking in a way the series hadn’t hit before, providing imagery that I soon won’t forget. Add in some excellent characterization and fun backup tales, this is another strong outing for the series!
Next time, more Jack of Fables and lots of one-shots and mini-arcs with regular Fables.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 12:15 pm (UTC)The Dangers in My Heart. Teen edgelord thinks he is in a dark psychological drama, but he is actually in a romantic comedy.
Is It Wrong to Pick Girls in a Dungeon? Fairly obvious, I think.
O Maidens In Your Savage Season. Girl joins her high school's literature club only to find oit the reading material is of a much more adult nature than she expected. Hehe, 'dewey mounds'.
Saint? No! I’m Just a Passing Beast Tamer! Girl is fated to be a great hero, but she just wants to pet all the goodest boys.
A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School. Remember Gravedale High? God, I'm old...
Marvel trades on my list:
Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Spider-Man No More. Spider-Man gits gud. Okay, so I totally stole the idea of reading the Lee/Romita Spider-Mans from somebody else.
Avengers Masterworks Vol. 14. It's all about Mantis!
Eternals by Gaiman and Romita Jr. Sersi telling Iron Man to piss off is worth it alone.
Iron Man Epic Collection: The Crossing. Pray for me!
I am running out of good Marvel things to read, so I decided to go back and re-read some DC titles.
Green Lantern: Sector 2814. Time to make fun of Hal Jordan again!
Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers. A Steve Englehart thing that doesn't have Mantis shoehorned in to it?
Superman in the Fifties. Silver Age shenanigans.
Marvel Snap unlocks:
Lady Deathstrike. I put her to some use in my destroy deck.
Thanos baby variant. (Token shop). I know I said I refused to pit Thanos in my deck out of principle , but this car was just so cute.
Jubilee Hellfire Gala variant (mystery variant).
Wolverine baby variant (mystery variant).
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 12:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 05:36 pm (UTC)(Though recently I trudged through 200 out of 300 pages of a Cleopatra sort-of-biography-more-of-a-RPF-novel before deciding I was bored to tears with it and dumping it, nevermind the sunken cost fallacy of having spent so much time on it already. If it sucks it sucks!)
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 02:35 pm (UTC)Having said that, there are some pretty popular books that I've noped out of. Sorry, but I can't only take so many pages of tree descriptions (the Hobbit was good, though)
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 03:25 pm (UTC)Failing that, I go on goodreads and read the reviews. If the haters agree with me and the lovers don't say "I thought this at first but then..." or something to that effect I drop it.
Last one I did that for was Double or Nothing, ostensibly a Bond book starring other double O agents but which just changed far too much of any sort of Bond canon.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 02:50 pm (UTC)House still hasn't sold, daughter still hasn't got a job. We close on the new house this week (hopefully--the original close date got moved at the last minute because some appliances hadn't yet arrived). We've got things in place so it's just a matter of sitting down, signing a mountain of papers, getting it notarized, sending it back, and wiring money to the developer. Strangely, this isn't stressing me out. :)
During my last round of stressing, my wife gently noted that I'd gotten away from doing the things that normally ease my stress: running (or whatever it is I do, because I sure as hell ain't a gazelle), baking, and writing. The fourth thing, quilting, is a no-go because everything's in the storage unit. But the other three I was able to start doing again, and life is much better. Wise wife is very wise. :)
My father-in-law is still concerning us. We went over for a visit/wellness check last Sunday, and sure enough the AC wasn't on (we're under a heat warning all week). Someone (cough cough) MAY have snuck over to the thermostat while he was talking about this and that and turned it back on. He's still a problem, though. Getting increasingly absent-minded and repetitive, but he's adamant about not moving into an assisted living complex. Wife and I sadly agree that sooner or later, the decision is going to be taken out of his hands one way or another. But we aren't the ones he listens to, so....(helpless shrug).
Really enjoying Waid's work on World's Finest and Teen Titans. Thinking about picking up the recent Ant-Man series, as I really liked the Wasp one. And on a whim, I picked up Danger Street and...ehhhh, typical King. I might keep up with it, though.
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Date: 2023-08-22 03:58 pm (UTC)(from the back of the room)
Doooo eeeeeeet!
It's a fun little miniseries.
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Date: 2023-08-24 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 04:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 04:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 03:28 pm (UTC)Interestingly, just about everything I put on to watch Sunday featured a storm in a (usually very minor) roll
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Date: 2023-08-23 12:03 am (UTC)Happy to know you’re both okay.
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Date: 2023-08-22 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 05:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-23 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-22 03:46 pm (UTC)Artichokes have started flowering, which the bees are clearly enjoying.
Tomatoes growing like growing things (only a few turning red though).
Found some tiny, tiny potatoes while going over the compost. Don't know what to do with them. Either just keep them there or make a really tiny salad...
The peach tree... well... it's got something wrong with it, so all the peaches have got The Ick. So far only one has not been eaten by wildlife or Icked. Bad odds.
Be really nice if it just properly rained. There was something about a storm last week, but you'd never know now...
As was foretold, my interest in looking at the Lee/Romita Spidey stuff has caused all physical copies to disappear.
(tangential note: Looking in the local bookstore, absolutely no trace of anything by Edgar Rice Burroughs - just looking out of curiosity, but not even a single tiny book. Am I just looking in the wrong bit or something?)
Speaking of disappearing, Amazon Prime says it's taking Lower Decks off next week. Maybe? I'm not sure. Amazon Prime confuses me at the best of times.
Bit weird that we still haven't gotten a fixed date for this year's Doctor Who specials.
Weird but also par for the course with modern Who.
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Date: 2023-08-22 05:41 pm (UTC)Depending on how tiny, you could keep the potatoes to try and replant them (they say that to get big potatoes you need to plant tiny ones and if you plant big potatoes you'll get tiny ones? not sure what truth the saying holds but? can't hurt to try?)
Fingers crossed for the rain!
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Date: 2023-08-22 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-23 10:27 pm (UTC)(Having managed to get me mits on a copy of "The Goblin Lives", so far May is definitely... a lot.)
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Date: 2023-08-23 12:45 am (UTC)I just watched this week's and I have TOO MUCH to say and think I need some time to process it all.
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(Abg gung V npghnyyl guvax Wbl qvq vg. V whfg guvax guvf cnegvphyne rcvfbqr JNAGF lbh gb guvax fur qvq)
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Puneyrf’ sernx bhgf jrer gur uvtuyvtug bs gur rcvfbqr. Pbzrql pbzrf va guerrf.
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Date: 2023-08-23 01:27 am (UTC)looks pretty cool IMO
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Date: 2023-08-24 06:28 pm (UTC)Gnlybe Fjvsg vf ehzberq gb or Qnmmyre va vg!