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 amongst yourselves.

We mourn the passing of Noel Neill at the grand age of 95. A prolific actress, especially in Westerns, in the 1940's, she was the first ever live-action Lois Lane in the 1948 Columbia series' and then again when she took over from Phyllis Coates in the TV "Adventures of Superman" in the mid 1950's. As such, she defined the spunky, investigative reporter for multiple generations, and though she effectively retired after The Adventures of Superman ended in 1958 she still made cameos in other iterations of the Superman franchise, most notably playing Lois' mother in the 1979 Superman movie.

The UK political situation appears to be descending into an amateur dramatic society reworking of Game of Thrones.

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens has come out!

Comments

[mrstatham]

Yeah, I think more than the very real consequences of Brexit/the Leave campaign on the international stage, it is being overshadowed somewhat by the absolute mess it's made of the two main parties in the UK. Although I have to admit I kind-of imagined this happening regardless, given the very large divide in both Labour and the Conservatives.

Even as a Labour voter I'm perturbed by what's going on with the Tories, though; there's something distinctly disconcerting about the backstabbing and campaigning going on at this level when they're the current party in charge and whoever wins is expected to lead us forward into a EU-less UK.. Despite some of the prospective leaders having to deal with a political decision that they did not want. It is hilarious that they've dubbed the 'big shocker' from last week as 'a Gove', however; I think that's been about long before his time, frankly. It also wasn't that terribly surprising.

I'm also immensely disappointed by Labour, frankly; Corbyn could be the guy the party needs - I think he reflects something different from the shiny-faced Blair - who Cameron cites as a key influence, I believe, and they could easily counter his.. Lack of savvy or outright disdain for the media, but instead they've opted to shaft him. It's a shame, because I don't really like any of his would-be replacements, or the wet lettuce who preceded him.

[owlbrigade1]

I think Labour's problems are that the Blairites are seeing the upcoming publication of Chilcott as being the end of their chances to swipe back control and are pretty damn desperate over it. I think they thought they could have a Toryesque done deal coup, where everyone involved would quietly move aside (which says more about the Blairites than anything else) and badly miscalculated. I just hope Corbyn's support in the wider party bears up.

[mrstatham]

It definitely seems that way, and I'm particularly pleased with Corbyn's stubbornness and refusal to move aside here. His naysayers can say it's damaging to the party, but what actually is is their underhandedness and refusal to support a leader who does seem genuinely different. But.. Yeah. Corbyn has never been popular among his own party but seems to resonate more with the Labour-leaning voters my age, and members of the party overall more than actual MP's.

[icon_uk]

Corbyn's stubborn-ness is sort of impressive, but whilst he is a politician who seems to actually be motivated by ideology rather than soundbites, he is failing to actually be much of a leader. His half-hearted efforts over Brexit were very disappointing. Perhaps in some sort of policy advisory (or even policy dictatorial) role?

[mrstatham]

One thing I have heard about his supposed reluctance and involvement in the Remain campaign was that one of his key advisors recommended against being too closely involved with it/wouldn't let him talk on the tougher topics.. And then the same key advisor was apparently involved in the shenanigans with the numerous MP's resigning. It seems too good to be true, and could be a way to deflect blame from Corbyn, but stranger things have happened.

I think the UK's conservative party is doing what the Republicans are doing here in America.

[7dialsmystery]

Imploding.

[md84]

I'm actually a bit surprised Johnson didn't see Gove's backstab coming.

[owlbrigade1]

The history of the Tory party is well known on this, he who wields the knife on the PM does not get to succeed him. I don't know why Boris thought it would be different this time.

[shadadukal]

Is anyone else playing Lego SW TFA? In the hubs, how do the BB-8 timed challenge work? I don't understand what I'm supposed to do.

[icon_uk]

I'm playing it, but haven't played it all the way through yet (I'm still at Maz's castle) and so haven't found any BB8 timed bits yet.

[shadadukal]

I've found a game walk through that explained what to do. I've finished the main story mode and am now exploring.

[astrakhan42]

I can't be the only one thinking that the multi-party implosion is a precursor to what's probably going to happen to the Republicans. We're witnessing the party's disintegration right now--I'll honestly be surprised if they even get through the convention--but it's just going to escalate if* they lose in November. The Democrats aren't entirely unified either but I don't see a Labour-style division emerging just yet.

*I'm being really, really generous with "if" instead of "when" here.

[junipepper]

It's never just you. :-)

[stubbleupdate]

I finished Gone Home yesterday and it's as good as I've been told. I did not expect it to be so scary.

If you liked it, try Everybody's gone to the rapture, and then try Sleep No More.

I'm now playing Oxenfree, and it's made me realise that no, Gone Home isn't scary. Oxenfree is. It's essentially Gravity Falls but with an 18 certificate, cut with the Tag arc of Ex Machina. It's bloody terrifying.

[janegray]

I actually added Oxenfree to my wishlist after seeing it in my Steam queue. I almost never do that anymore because I got *SO MANY* games I haven't even started yet (between Humble Bundles, 75% off Steam Sales, free games, and games my boyfriend lends me, I got literally dozens of games in my backlog. And many of them are RPGs, so they can take up to 80 hours to beat), but Oxenfree looked interesting enough that I want to eventually give it a try.

Btw, if you like indie horror games, I highly recommend The Cat Lady.

[stubbleupdate]

I don't like indie horror games. I had to take a week off video games after playing Bioshock. I nearly crapped myself at the Cradle revisited in Thief.

And Oxenfree is bloody good. Without giving spoilers, it has compelling replay value.

[janegray]

Question: without giving me any spoilers, can you just tell me if it has a happy ending?

[stubbleupdate]

It is if you make the right choices.

[janegray]

Thank you :)

[tigerkaya]

My prayers go out to the people of Baghdad no one should have lost loved ones especially on Ramadan.

[pyrrhocorax]

I don’t know how they are going to celebrate Eid now, this is a dark time. The IS are the very worst perverters of Islam and truly wicked people.

[janegray]

I'm running out of space for action figures :(((

I don't even have that many! I got 15 normal action figures and 18 small trading figures (going from the tiny 2 inches ones to the 4 inches ones), which isn't exactly few but I've been collecting them for 11 years.

The latest one I got is a Jeanne Action figure from Bayonetta (it was on sale, 30 euro instead of 50. I couldn't resist >_>). I literally have no idea where to put it. I ended up leaving it on my desk.

[icon_uk]

15 figures and you're running out of space... oh you're ADORABLE! :)

This isn't even a fraction of my collection, which includes a whole pile of BTAS figures, Nightmare Before Christmas, Saint Seiya and many, many MANY more.

[janegray]

O_o

Wow ^^

I did always want a Shaina figure. This one looks amazing: https://www.amazon.it/Ophiuchus-Shaina-Tisifone-Action-Figure/dp/B005EVC20G

It's too expensive though, so I passed :/

[junipepper]

I am really, really jealous of you right now. :-)

[informationgeek]

Linkara did a special video yesterday that I feel is worth sharing. It was his 15 Things Wrong with Civil War. It was a list in no particular order, but it hit a lot of the bad points in the event comic. It didn't touch on everything, since he kept it focused on just the main issues and not the tie-ins.

Here's the link if you're interested.

[laughing_tree]

Does anyone follow the iFanboy folks and their podcast? If you do, be aware that it's come to light that one of the group (Ron Richards) is abusive scum: https://twitter.com/jessiawesome/status/748957778899722240

[fiddlingfrog.livejournal.com]

Comixology is currently giving away The Legendary Star Lord #1, Silk #1, and The Superior Foes of Spider-man #1 for free. Just check out the Free Comics section.

[junipepper]

And in other news: 240 years on, the United States is still independent from Britain. Thank God.

:-)

[cainofdreaming]

So, my computer caught fire last Thursday. It wasn't really that dramatic, only the hard drive enclosure was affected before it was dealt with (though it did away with the hdd with my steam installation, and with it most of my savegames... grr...), it just kinda shook me up since I often keep the comp running 24/7. What if it'd happened while I was asleep?

I've got a smoke alarm, of course, but still.

Eh, I dunno. Just feel like rambling is all, I guess.

[junipepper]

That happened to me once in, uh, 1990 maybe? Actually it was the monitor that caught fire; turned out I had a pile of papers blocking the fan. Which, okay, sounds kind of dumb, but we were still getting used to the whole "owning a computer" thing in those days. (On reflection, we had been using electricity for some time, so it was still kind of dumb.)

Do you know what the cause was?

[cainofdreaming]

Looked like the fire started from a power extension cable. Well, the hard drive it went to was very old, from early 2Ks, so it might have contributed, but it looked like it'd burned from the cables and towards the drives.

I did read afterwards that some extension cables do have a habit of catching fire. So... lesson learned. If I need more connectors in the future I'll be sure to check the quality first.

[scorntx]

Seeing all the casting announcements for The Last Knight does not fill me with any great amount of confidence that it will actually improve on the TF film series' "habit" of focusing on the humans and their Human Problems too damn much.
(But on the plus side, Josh Duhamel yay!)

Also, spoiler-y mumbling, I guess?
But since one of the characters turns into a VW van, I get this yawning feeling, knowing this film series and it's usual approach to humour, that they're going to be portrayed as some kind of stoner.
Because as ROTF taught us, stoners are, like, funny.


Also, G.I. Joe Vs. Transformers ended last week.
My sadness is mitigated slightly by the fact that it had one of the images ever committed to paper in it.

[owlbrigade1]

Not to mention the casting call for TF:Last Knight which included a pair of fat kids. Seriously, waist and weight measurements? You just know it is so Bay can make fat-kid jokes.

[icon_uk]

There are a good few rumours about the TF movie featuring ROM the Spaceknight as part of the new Hasbro Cinematic Universe.

[bradygirl_12]

Noel Neill had a great run! She also knew when to get out of Hollywood.

I do like the way the Supers seem to acknowledge their history, with Kirk Alyn and Noel in cameos in the first Chris Reeve movie, and Noel and Jack Larson in

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Noel Neill had a great run! She also knew when to get out of Hollywood.

I do like the way the Supers seem to acknowledge their history, with Kirk Alyn and Noel in cameos in the first Chris Reeve movie, and Noel and Jack Larson in <i<Superman Returns</i>

A pity Lynda Carter wasn't given a cameo in the new <i>Wonder Woman</i> movie.

Oh, well, at least Adam West got some voice work in one of the animated shows.

[junipepper]

And Lou Ferrigno in the first Hulk film. So, did Lynda Carter actually want a role? Just wondering. People do say "No thanks," sometimes.

Agree with you about Noel Neill; great lady.

[bradygirl_12]

Argh, stupid coding!

She's expressed interest but so far there is no role for her.