Off-Topic Tuesday!

[icon_uk]

It's "Off-Topic Tuesday" time!

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 amongst yourselves.

Today is Ada Lovelace Day!

Yes, that was Peter Capaldi playing the guitar riffs on the Doctor Who theme tune this week and it sounded so much better than the current arrangement!

And away you go!

Comments

[lego_joker]

Anyone else remember Cyberchase? It was where *I* first learned of Lady Lovelace.

(Granted, she spent most of the episode as a damsel in distress, but PBS was nice enough to put up a biography of her.)

[skjam]

I am between jobs again, though my prospects for getting a new one are relatively bright. Still, if anyone knows of specific customer service related jobs in the Twin Cities area, or a specific person who might know, let me know. (I am already on all the job boards and signed up with temp agencies.)

And of course, if you folks could see your way to sharing some of my blog posts on social media, that would be helpful. http://www.skjam.com
There are plenty of new reviews to choose from!

[icon_uk]

What/Where are the Twin Cities?

[skjam]

Minneapolis/Saint Paul in Minnesota, U.S.A. Home of the Minnesota Twins.

Think of them being like Central City/Keystone City in the Post-Crisis DCU.

[coldfury]

SKJAM, man, your name sounds really familiar. Improfanfic, maybe?

[skjam]

That is correct!

Haven't done much fanfic lately.

[coldfury]

Me neither. Technically, I inherited the responsibility to write the last chapter of Ultra over a decade ago.

[informationgeek]

So... did anyone watch American Horror Story: Hotel's season opener? It was something else. Very pretty to look at, some good acting, rather creepy, but man is this thing brutal with the sexual violence. It's like an Avatar comic come to life, but with a few more likeable and complex characters and visually it is interesting to look at.

Speaking of which, has anyone watched any of the previous seasons of the show before? I've only seen Freakshow, which I liked (human horror about the things we don't understand and serial killers) but became a bit overbloated with storylines by the end of the season.

[icon_uk]

Someone tried to explain the plot of Season 1 of AHS, but I only got as far as them explaiaing that the new resident of a house put on an old gimp suit they'd found in the house in order to spice up their own sex life before asking them to stop as they'd already lost me...

I'm all for recycling, and I'm in no position to critique whatever harmless little sexual foibles people may have, but the notion of using a second hand gimp suit, without at the very least having it dry cleaned (or, preference, incinerated) probably did more to disturb me than any creepy ass monster they could think to produce.

[baihu]

I got to the half-ghost-baby and just checked out. But also when the ghosts outnumbered the human characters, you lose the fear because if they're all ghosts, there's no risk or tension anymore.

And also that half-ghost-baby what?

[zapbiffpow]

This week on Games That Will Never Be: Gotham City, Fallout-style!

Imagine it: [Melee/Guns/Speech/Barter/Sneak/etc.] your way into the [Bat-clan/GCPD/Rogues Gallery/Gotham Mob's] good graces, then [strengthen/torpedo/manipulate] your alliances all the way to endgame. Spend one playthrough as a Red Hood-style killer (Guns/Melee/Explosives), then spend the next as a manipulative, Luthor-like captain of industry (Speech/Barter/Science).

It'd be a great change from the Arkham games, without excluding the action stuff for those who want a Batman-style build. Which, I guess, would be Unarmed/Sneak/Science.

[baihu]

Recently wrote a major update for my interactive fiction game: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/122504794/Rook%20Playtest/mygame/index.html

Main WIP thread here: https://forum.choiceofgames.com/t/rook-got-inspired-medieval-story-wip-prologue-currently-available-online-in-alpha-state-for-testing-and-feedback/12059

But if you have any feedback, just post it here, I really appreciate it.

Special thanks to janegray from last week, I incorporate more choices and customization in the ending (the dialogue branching basically doubled), but I have not updated/improved the beginning to match that style just yet.

[drexer]

I've only started playing just now, but there's one slight thing that annoys me in every page which probably comes from considering it as a"book" and not a "web post".

Can you indent the first line of each paragraph please?

[baihu]

It's part of the formatting for ChoiceScript unfortunately. Basically it's a universal code that's also for mobiles, so then the lack of indention is more economical for mobiles.

Unfortunately it becomes a pain when reading larger amounts of text. The only way I can alleviate it is to break up the paragraphs into smaller chunks.

[janegray]

:D

[venatosapiens]

In my day job, I'm a journalist, and I recently had two articles come out about very different aspects of The University of Alabama.

One is about ancient sea serpents, German con-men, and the most important Alabama fossil that nobody's heard of: http://www.oxfordamerican.org/magazine/item/680-clidastes-in-limbo

The other is about racism, student political corruption, and a secret society that controls the University of Alabama campus. This one is pretty fucking bonkers, especially to anyone who hasn't run across talk of the Machine (that's what they call it!) before.
http://bittersoutherner.com/elliot-spillers-a-shifting-tide

I'm pretty proud of both, but that second one has been in the works for about two years, and man, it feels good to go IN on my Alma Mater.

[stubbleupdate]

How can you talk about Ada Lovelace day and not mention The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage by Sydney Padua?

[kates]

I don't know whether it's the sunglasses, the guitar, the hoodie, the hair, or all of the above, but Peter Capaldi has gotten INFINITELY HOTTER between series 8 and series 9, something which I am perfectly fine with.

[aeka]

I bought the Italian translation of the Huntress miniseries from 2011 a few months back to see how the Italian translator fixed Paul Levitz' Italian language errors. As I read through it I noticed more changes that were made from the more obvious to the more subtle.

I'm thinking of writing a series of posts that discusses the differences between the original English version and the Italian translation, though I do need a little help understanding some of the Italian colloquialisms and other language nuances. I'm wondering if anyone here who speaks the language is willing to answer a few questions I have?

janegray can I borrow your brain? :P

[lego_joker]

Uh... I know a guy fluent in it, but he's kinda pro-Gamergate and thinks that humanity was better off when we didn't care about saving every single life and focused on only letting the strong survive.

[stubbleupdate]

[baihu]

Why does that fit so well...?

[thanekos]

CRASH AGAINST MY TWITTER ACCOUNT AND BE BROKEN

[janegray]

[starwolf_oakley]

Gamergate. The more I learn about it, the more I wish I hadn't learned about it.

[janegray]

I will be very happy to help :)

[janegray]

Gotta love videogames.

CUTSCENE, HERO SPEAKING: "Tomorrow, we shall go face the Villains and fight our final battle. This is out last night together. The fate of the world rests on our shoulders, brave companions, so rest well, for tomorrow we change the future!"

GAMEPLAY, PLAYER GETS CONTROLS BACK: *taking joyrides around the world and doing a bazillion subquests including trips to the hot springs and parties and festivals and gambling at casinos and playing at the beach and collecting outfits and renovating the castle and going on dates and playing card games and and and...*

[icon_uk]

I'm currently playing a game where Sauron is standing atop a Dalek flying saucer, fighting Batman!

Gotta love Lego Dimensions!

[pyrrhocorax]

uh, does anyone know why captainbellman deleted? I enjoy reading their thoughts on comics and I’m a little concerned about their welfare, given that their only remaining message is "there’s no point". I hope I’m just being foolish...

[deh_tommy]

I was hoping to ask the same thing. Is there any reason?

[icon_uk]

Nope, we haven't heard anything and can't think of any way of contacting them if their account is deleted and google doesn't suggest new places to try.