Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In 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.

As the world watches a 78 year old set up a staged "shift" at a closed McDonalds, make bizarre claims about the size of Arnold Palmer's private parts, and make distrubing comments about dealing with "the enemy within", we wonder "Exactly how is this a close race?"

Finally had some spare time and caught up on "The Dead Boy Detectives". Whilst I think it did strayed rather far from the original concept, in order to set up a long form plotline, it was enjoyable, and certainly had earned, I would have thought a second series at least.

I was unaware that Beast Boy was getting his own series on Cartoon Network?

If you want a new reason to be moved to tears of genuine emotion, here's Andrew Garfield discussing grief with Elmo on Sesmae Street. I was NOT ready for this one, let me tell you.

Comments

[tripodeca113]

I don't berudged them for not hiring me, but in retrospect I wish I'd asked them why they were calling me two hours later than my phone interview was scheduled.
Also for another job they said they'd contact me sometime over the next week, but apparenly they couldn't get around to doing that before they went on leave, and I had to contact them about it.
god I fucking hate this

Exciting news Star Wars Resistance fans! Yeager from Star Wars Resitance was in the Battle of Jakku comic. Could this be building up to the announcement of Star Wars Resistance season thre--no of course not.

Finally got round to watching my Peep Show DVD's. haha yes that's what life is like.
I'm trying to work out which one of them is the worse person. Mark generally seems like the worse person on a day-to day basis, but Jeremy has willfully crushed his chances for success multiple times so it might just even out.

Found a book about some 1950's TV show called Space Patrol. Hopefully it has some amusing (possibly made-up) anecdotes, and chrocnicles one or more of the stars crushing falls from grace.

[llordllama]

I always find the joy of Peep Show is realising how my life is nothing like Mark or Jeremy's. And the occasional realisation that I share more than a trait or two of either of 'em. :)

I am not, however (thankfully) SuperHands or Sophie!

[icon_uk]

Sorry about the poor recruitment experiences you've had, that sort of unprofessionalism always annoys me as someone who had to do the interviewing back in the day.

If it's the 50's Space Patrol it's the American live action thing (with Commander Corey and his youthful Cadet Happy). If it's the 60's Space Patrol it's a British puppet series (pre-Gerry Anderson but you can see it as a stepping stone to Thunderbirds). Having seen episodes of both, I do feel the puppets give a more naturalistic performance.

[tripodeca113]

Human actors just can't match up to Supermarionation
(It's about the American one, but it's writtern by a fan who spent years conducting interviews and researching so good on them)

[leahandillyana]

I am very sorry for your experience with job search. It sounds really mean and unprofessional :(

[tripodeca113]

Thank you that's kind of you to say. I'll be better in a while I'm sure.

[leahandillyana]

This absolutely astounded me a few days ago: https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/10/19/polish-government-presents-bill-introducing-same-sex-partnerships/
I am sceptical whether the bill passes (the whole opposition, one coalition party and many individual members of parliament from three other coalition parties are against), and the president will CERTAINLY not sign it (this is the man who refused to shake hands with a gay man), but I'm surprised it even went this far.
A kitten is visiting my garden. I hope to take it in, because it is getting cold. It is less afraid than it was when it first appeared a week ago, so I hope we will make progress. Mother is against taking a fourth cat in though. :(
My planting is almost over. I planed hundreds of bulbs of tulips, narcisses, croquisses, grape hyacinths (and a few regular hyacinths too), irises and a few lilies (six if I remember well, with colours ranging from pastel pink to a very deep, blackish burgundy). Today or tomorrow I will receive the final package of seven rose plants, ten bulbs of tall decorative garlic, and a lot of seeds (for planting in the spring) - and I was writing this the roses arrived! The rest of the plants will arrive in a separate package. I will plant four roses in my garden and three in the garden of an elderly neighbour who has a very poor garden, aaaand I plan to install a miniature greenhouse so that I can plant the seeds early so that the flowers and vegetables have a head start.
Earlier this year I have planted metasequoia in a pot from seeds, and now I have ten young plants. They will spend a few years inside before being planted... somewhere. I have not decided where to plant them yet. My mother forced me to have my black mulberry tree replanted in a small clearing in the forest behind our garden. :( She doesn't want any more trees. I'm not sure what to do with my edible chestnut, but it's slow growing and still small, so I'll have time to think of something. I also have a super tiny miniature orange in a pot, and its fruits resemble yellow berries!
I'm feeling somewhat happier than usual overall. Still no time for manga, anime, games or comics though - I work long hours, feel tired most of the time, and when I feel better I tend to my pets and garden.

[dewinged]

Agatha All Along takes an episode to explain that a character is exactly who it's supposed to be, and how it happened that admittedly makes more sense than the comics. I...got what I wanted from this series with that. I could conceivably walk away now,but I am invested.

And I did not expect that one cameo/guest appearance. That was wild.

S9nce I never saw it, and know some news about the creator saying he's well enough to come back to it albeit at a slow pace to protect his health, I started watching Hunter x Hunter on Netflix. I'm kinda into it.

I'm not sure what I think about One Piece's 6 month anime hiatus. What I want to result is this allowing the dub to catch up, because I don't feel the current format of 12 episodes dubbed every few months to be good for the community of fans as a whole (especially if the dub covers the now frequent "recap" episodes meaning dub watchers get less)

[llordllama]

Having managed to 'hilariously' give myself a sporting injury out hiking that destroyed my ability to sleep or do much around the house for most of last week, I've found spending focused time on my comic collection cataloguing. Couple of thousand down, probably easily another few thousand to go (if we're counting the 2000ADs as well). A few nostalgic discoveries along the way including:

-A signed copy of Justice League #5 (‘one punch’) as well as #1 (I knew I had the latter, not the former)
-Man, Extreme Justice was terrible & is still painful to even look at
-Young Justice (whisper its name) holds up so well.

I’ll probably be sorry when I’ve finished the catalogue and sort, and I send these comics on their way to new owners – but it’ll be nice to have the spare bedroom back to use as like a room!

[leahandillyana]

Very sorry to hear about your injury, I hope it heals soon!

[llordllama]

Thanks, appreciated! And if nothing else, I've learned a whole new muscle group I never knew I had. Ouchie.

[lego_joker]

Hold on... what *do* you have collected?

I know you've probably promised a few (all?) of them to sellers already, but would you happen to have any Moore Swamp Things? I've been looking to scan a complete collection of their letter columns.

[llordllama]

Sadly, not a Swamp Thingy fan! But good luck in your quest.

[iamrman]

Let's see if the Iron Man: Age of Innocence Epic Collection actually comes out this week. The release has been put back twice in as many weeks. I am sure you are all thrilled to get to the end of The Crossing.

[scorntx]

Reached the end of the tomatoes. Ah, well.
Managed to get through the first storm of the season with no casualties.
... well, except for finding two drowned voles by the compost. Major downer.

Job searching continues to be baffling.
"You can only apply for jobs with us if you sign up for an account."
But I - whuh? Why?
Got to do interview prep later. This is gonna be death.


Went to see Transformers One last week.
And it was good. Not just "good for a Transformers movie" but actually... good good.
(okay the Bumblebee comedy bits were a little forced, but apart from that.)
Extra points for not quoting the '86 movie at any point. Mmmm...

Disney+ continues to refuse to play even a second of AAA.
But apparently a Lego mini-movie about a version of D-Man in name only is fine?
(maybe I should just send an e-mail to their complaints goat - I mean department.)

Spider-Man 2 is getting a PC port, and a lot of the articles around it still seem to be people asking whether there's DLC.
C'mon. It's been over a year. There's not going to be any DLC, now or ever.
Let it go.

If you've seen upcoming solicits from Marvel, might've seen the next Ultimate comic coming up.
Excuse me, have to inexplicably scream for a moment.
How naïve to assume that being dead would get rid of that guy.
(If they're doing double-duty as Mr. Murderhands and Winter Soldier, why not go whole hog and mix him with War Machine and Vindicator as well. Go full Ultimate Jimmy...)
The writer's only done like two things for Marvel in their anthologies, so no idea what to expect of them. But so far most of NUU has been solid to average.

Lego have announced a giant X-Mansion (based on the animated series, because of course it is).
Almost all the line-up... except they've replaced Jubilee with Iceman.
Bit suspicious of any minifig of Jean Grey. It can stand up under its own power!
Seems like an awful lot of money to splash out just for a Bishop.

[cainofdreaming]

Can't sell your information to advertisers if you don't provide them by creating an account, duh.

[zachbeacon]

I've seen so many job listings that are obvious phishing scams.

And I think I might have fallen for some less obvious ones because I get way more spam than I used to.

[scorntx]

Preeeeetty certain the NHS is not pulling a phishing scam.
Not unless they and the economy are far worse off than everyone's saying.

[cainofdreaming]

If UK gov is anything like our current one here in Finland all health service people are most likely trying to beef up their income as much as they can before the whole system crashes.

[werehawk]

I've got a few tomatoes left! And then there will be some green ones for cooking I'm sure as the ripening has slowed down dramatically.

[scorntx]

The weird weather this year has not helped with the ripening.
So many green tomatoes can't even make chutney out of them.
(Well, that is, chutney could be made, but there's a limit to the amount of chutney the human mind can take. Also, only got so many jam jars.)
While any red tomatoes seem to 'mysteriously' disappear into sandwiches.

[werehawk]

Half my red tomatoes don’t make it back to the house lol

[skjam]

Work continues to ramp up. Two more years till what used to be retirement age, and lord I wish I could afford to retire then. It's not so much that it's a bad job, I am good at this sort of thing, but I don't want to have to do this until I collapse.

Health continues to be dubious. I am now on a low-meat diet, so only one satisfying meal a day.

Watched 13 seasons of Archer on Netflix, then learned there are actually 14 seasons and a finale and the last bit isn't on there.

Marvel Puzzlequest's last chase character for spooky season is Mephisto as a tie in to the Agatha show.

Over at my blog, I look at a movie with skeletons in it. https://www.skjam.com/2024/10/20/movie-review-the-living-skeleton/

[leahandillyana]

I am so sorry to hear about your experiences :(

[malurette]

I don't enjoy Voyager's s2 very much--I just suffered through the infamous Sky Spirits episode--and I think I'd rather go back to DS9. Is it getting any better soon-ish or should I just cut my losses here?

[scorntx]

Well, at season 3 they lose the Kazon. Along with any and all subplots.
Then in season 4 they bring in Seven of Nine. (though obviously if you don't like Seven of Nine, then things get a little choppy.)

[malurette]

Thanks for the head-up!
That's gonna take so damn long. Oh well.

[icon_uk]

The Kazon are a fascinating case study in world building being utterly derailed by, pretty much everything.

Rather than the usual monolithic empire/consortium (Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, the Founders), they wanted the Kazon to be akin to street gangs. So they would have multiple small groups who rule over their own small areas of the Quadrant that Voyager was passing through, who would vie with each other and anyone else for turf rights, goods and the like.

Some might want to ally with the Voyager crew, some might want to take them down, for others it might vary from meeting to meeting.

Again, unlike previous empires, they'd also skew younger for casting (again, the street gang approach) giving them a chance to showcase up and coming actors and get the "youth" viewership.

A lot of rich potential for plotlines there... which went no-where.

They apparently couldn't find enough young actors who could give the roles suitable impact, so skewed older in the casting again, making the Kazon leaders just like any other bad guys we'd seen.

Worse, they decided to tie them to Voyager by giving certain gangs an ongoing feud with them. Which meant that a supposedly nomadic, small scale operation somehow had influence over a region of space it took the Voyager, going at about Warp7 or 8 on average, over two years to cross.

They could have even played into this by having Seska seize control of them, rather than her being relegated to "power behind the throne" for whatsisname, having them actively chase Voyager, but no...

Plus of course, the design was appalling. How no one at Paramount looked at the design and thought the average Kazon looked like a sunburned Klingon who had been crapped on by a large bird, will forever baffle me.

[mister_terrific]

Been dealing with grief quite a bit lately; my father passed away 29 years ago this month, and my FIL continues to make that slow final decline. It just shocks me to realize how quickly it started in almost two years time. The signs were there all along, but we were too involved in it to really see.

I was talking to my daughter about the situation recently, and in the course of things we got to discussing my father. Got to tell her a lot of things about him she hadn't known, both funny and serious. I told her that what really saddened me was that she was the same age as me when my grandfather passed, so I understood how hazy those memories would be. But I did make sure she knew that so far as he was concerned, she was the greatest thing that had ever come about in the history of mankind.

One funny thing, too--this past weekend my sister sent me a copy of Dad's military service ID. Oddly enough (heh), it had his birthday about two years prior to the actual date (imagine that!), and as for his height...I took one look at it and said, "5'8" my ass!"

[cygnia]

We film the short movie I'm in next week. Still not off script yet though.

[thezmage]

"How is this a close race"- it's a combination of the Electoral College giving empty states an outsized impact on the election, the news media's refusal to treat Trump as an actual candidate who's actually running for president, the number of American voters who only pay attention to hurting the "others" that they want hurt, and the polling being genuinely messed up because they're including pollsters whose only goal is to gas up Trump supporters and make his eventual claim that he really won the election seem plausible.

[john_drake1964]

Modern news media is honestly part of the problem in that in their desire to chase the golden goose of ratings that is Donald John Trump. They sanewash and vacillate and refuse to hold him accountable because he drives up engagement to a media system that's been gutted thanks to the demands of 24/7 news coverage, competition from social media, and the demands of owners and shareholders to bring the money in at all costs, without rocking the boat. Cause Donnie and pals hold grudges, and if he wins...well, he's made all sorts of threats. So the Dems are easier to slap with concerns about electability cause if they get elected, at most you'll get a somewhat stern message of concern or shut out of the White House Press Corps for a bit as a time out.

So Donald Trump can stand on stage for forty minutes, aimlessly swaying to music, and adding further fuel to the fire of "is he actually dealing with age related mental health issues," and you'll see some articles like "How this bad news for Harris" and meanwhile little in regards to "hey, you were all jumping on Joe, where's the concern for ol' Donnie?" Nothing except maybe a piece here or there, to say "we're balanced." Cause if Donnies let go, then its an election between Peter Thiel's Muppet and "actual competent human beings," and we can't have that...

[lego_joker]

This isn't really an objection on my part, but I really have to wonder if there's any genuine damage the media could do against Trump even if they took the gloves off. Don't Republicans - even the non-MAGA types - pride themselves on being hated by the Liberal Media? Would being called crazy or senile dent his numbers an inch in Florida (where, if reports are to be believed, they routinely elect worse to town councils and such?).

[metadronos]

I agree with you. Trump himself once boasted that he could shoot random passers-by on Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him. And that was before he launched a coup attempt because the 2020 election didn't go his way. If that hasn't dissuaded the throngs of Trump diehards, I don't think there's anything he could say or do that would dissuade them, with or without news media with an actual moral compass calling him out.

[john_drake1964]

My issue is even if Trump is like Teflon when it comes to his crimes/horribleness with the MAGA base in terms of anything actually impacting him, the issue is the media abrogating the responsibility of taking him to task means other, even more politically odious folks will get a pass because the Fourth Estate basically gave up on anything approaching meaningful journalism in favor of the Almighty Dollar and engagement.
I'm also probably a bit more pissed because living in Ohio, I not only have to live with the possibility that Vance is potentially a hair breadth from the Presidency, but I also have to listen to other goons like Bernie Moreno and Derek Merrin go on about their desires to Handmaids Tale America/my state.

[thezmage]

The least the media could do is try. There are still undecided or politically checked out voters out there that aren't MAGA die-hards who don't even realize most of what Trump has said, did, and promises to do.

Trump espoused eugenics and it was reported as "an interest in genetics." Trump stood on the stage without talking and awkwardly bouncing around for 30+ minutes is called "a new energy.". I know he has diehard fans who are voting for him regardless but there are others out there that are not being served by a reporting that assumes that they only need to know about whether or not Kamala has a 100 day plan.

[werehawk]

Nate Silver wrote a piece that the pollster issue you mentioend isn't one. All legit pollster congregators rank the bias of pollsters so it is adjusted for...sadly. Which means Trump really is ahead (barely) in the polls. So Freaking Scary.

[thezmage]

Nate Silver's brain broke during COVID when he insisted upon the lab leak hypothesis long after it was soundly disproven. His insistence that his model can take garbage inputs and not result in garbage outputs as well as his partial ownership of a site where bets are placed on the presidential results that he was unsubtly manipulating with his model all add up to his model not being reliable anymore. Also his insistence that Kamala's improved results around the time of the convention were solely the result of a "convention bump" that has yet to drop and he still hasn't taken that assumption out of the model.

Nate Silver has burned his credibility a few years ago

EDIT: Controlling for bias still only works if you assume a certain amount of good faith on the part of the pollsters. Someone with absolutely no care for accuracy of their polls can't really be unskewed because there's nothing there below the skew. It's like including twitter polls

[werehawk]

Went to New York Comicon on Friday. Pretty fun. Walking Dead panels were great. Even Jeffrey Dean Morgan showed up! I almost got a signature but got close to him and Lauren Cohan. So cool. Also trippy to see Daryl and Carol in person and then see them on TV on Sunday.

Sony panel was also great. Tom Hardy is hilarious and got his signal!

Talked to Greg Capullo, Frank Tieri, Mark Guggenheim (my son was excited bc of Arrowverse), and Ralph Macchio (Marvel not Karate Kid). And an interesting IDW panel where Jason Aaron talked about TMNT.

All in all a fun time!

[lego_joker]

You know, I've always been curious about this thing... never been to a con before so I guess tackling The Biggest wouldn't be a very good idea for a first-timer, but...

How far in advance do you have to buy your pass? How much does the hotel price carve out of your wallet? How many different events are walled off behind higher tiers?

[werehawk]

Well, San Diego is the biggest. This is #2. I bought my Friday passes the day they started selling which was June 9. Cost $90 each including fees and shipping. In 2023, by the time I got into the ticket purchasing on the date they started selling, Saturday was sold out as I think were 4 day passes so we got Friday. This year I was in early enough to buy any tickets but purposely bought Friday only because my daughter couldn't go Saturday. Of course it turned out much later that my daughter couldn't go at all so I sold that ticket a month ago (got about $110 after seller fees) and just my son and I went.

The only higher tiers were VIP and all events are open to all tickets. However, VIP is guaranteed reservations for all panels and they have reserved better seating. But regular tickets can sign up on a particular day for all panels online. My son got the Sony panel we wanted but I got booted out of the system (flashback to T Swift) so I got the Walking Dead panel instead of Sony. However, my son saved me a seat fairly close at Sony and I left Walking Dead early and ran up there. Last year they were strict on no saving seats but not this year at either panel. There were actually lots of open seats at Sony this year so no problem.

None of the other big panels for reservations were interesting on Friday and smaller panels (like IDW, Marvel and DC comics) you have to wait on line for (I didn't feel like waiting for DC or Marvel this year - there were open seats at IDW).

Honestly, I am happy doing one day a year and my parents live in NJ so we take the bus into New York and walk the 15 minutes to Javitts. So I don't have any info on hotels. But super easy to come in from NJ.

Andrew Garfield and Elmo

[steverodgers5]

After having my late Father's Birthday at the weekend, (deceased for two years now) and my Uncle passing away two days ago, I can't begin to say how timely seeing that little segment on grief was. It really helped. So thank you for that.

And Andrew Garfield seems like a really decent guy. I wish we'd had more of him as Spidey.

Re: Andrew Garfield and Elmo

[icon_uk]

I'm sorry you've been going through a tough time, and glad that that may have helped.

And yes, I liked his take on Spidey a lot more than the actual movies he was in, if that makes sense.

Re: Andrew Garfield and Elmo

[steverodgers5]

Thanks for saying so..

[ladymidath]

I loved DeadBoy Detectives even though it does stray from the comic series. I watched the latest Venom movie and I really enjoyed it. I have been trying to avoid anything to do with Trump or Musk, living in Australia, we have a fascination with what is happening over in the U.S, but ugh, these guys.
We have our own share of problematic politicians here as well which is depressing. On a more cheerful note, we am getting ready for Halloween, we are excited for that.