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.

In the US, the new Healthcare scheme is being co-ordinated and planned in such cloak and dagger stealth and secrecy that the planning of the D-Day landings look like an information free for all by comparison.

The Supreme Court upheld, sort of, Trump's travel ban, until it's review later in the year, so we'll see how that one goes.

The British PM finalised a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (a party more regressive than even her own Tory Party are) to shore up her minority Government for Brexit, and the cost of this compeltely cynical move? A snip at £1 billion pounds. And this from a PM who told a nurse that the Public Sector pay cap of 1% had to stay because "We don't have a magic money tree"... yeah, right.

A new mini-version of the Super Nintendo is being released in September for $80

This weeks Doctor Who, the first of the two part season finale (and last regular story for Peter Capaldi) was pretty damn awesome... especially if (like one lucky friend) you had managed to avoid ALL spoilers, because the reveals were very, VERY impressive. And even if you knew what they were, they were still capable of holding an emotional gut-punch.

Missy was a delight, in her trying to be good, but not really having the right attitude for it. (Oddly, and I only realise this as I typed that last sentence, in some ways reminiscent of Capaldi's early stories, where his social skills were... distinctly lacking and he ponders over whether he's a GOOD man)

The Cybermen should always reflect a degree of body horror of course, but I can't recall anything on this scale before (The proto-Cyberman screaming "Pain!" repeatedly and endlessly through it's voicebox, until a nurse comes along to tend to it... by turning the volume on the voicebox down... That's just HORRIBLE)

My one serious concern is that Bill does not end up being a victim of the reprehensible "dead lesbian" trope in TV drama, but I'm hoping that Moffatt's tendency to NOT kill characters will shine through and it might end up being something to do with why he's seen regenerating at the start of the episode. Am REALLY jazzed for the finale!

And to shift slightly more ON topic (which I really do try NOT to do), it's the last week of Pride Month, and whilst we may not have had a theme devoted to it, since EVERY month is Pride Month on scans_daily (Well, it is if we're doing it right), a big shout out to all members who identify on the delightful rainbow which is the LGBTQIA spectrum! You are all welcome, you are all celebrated and if some of you want to post scans on the topic, then fly my pretties, FLY!

Comments

[zachbeacon]

I wonder if they'll make more than six SNES Classics

[leoboiko]

One can always get a busted SNES husk from ebay, stick a raspberry pi in it and make SNES Classic: Every Game Ever Edition (or, zachbeacon's Criterion Collection Edition).

[icon_uk]

They might not see much return on investment if they do.

[skjam]

I have a job offer (pending background check)! If all goes well, I will be working again in mid-July.

Yesterday was my birthday; used a gift card I'd been saving for Which Wich. Also finished out my term as Sergeant at Arms for my Toastmasters club.

Latest review on my blog is of a book that reads like YA, but is actually written for geeky 40-somethings. http://www.skjam.com/2017/06/21/book-review-ready-player-one/

[icon_uk]

Congratulations on the employment (If membership of scans_daily might look dodgy in the background checks, we can pretend we don't know you if anyone asks)

[janegray]

Happy belated birthday :)

Also, break a leg for the job offer!

[mesmiranda]

Good luck! That's fantastic news--I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you.

[nightauditguy]

I may have to get a new or used PS3 since mine isn't reading the discs anymore.
/And on a sadder note, my grandmother passed away Sunday.

[icon_uk]

My sincere condolences for your loss.

[mesmiranda]

I'm sorry--I hope you're hanging in there and doing all right.

[llordllama]

I utterly, properly, wonderfully loved Who this week. I'll confess to a soft spot for the tripitch of Nardole, Missy and the Doctor being centre stage; but 'Razor' and Bill were also damned fine too. I think this was the first episode where I really enjoyed Bill as a companion too, which is a bit frustrating - I've been waiting to love her all season, but I've just not grokked her in a big way.

I am hoping, against hope, that the Moffat pulls off a blinder of a season finalé, but going on past experience his part IIs are rarely the equal of his part Is. Fingers crossed I'm wrong this time!

[thezmage]

So I read on tvtropes the claim that Castiel, from Supernatural, was apparently originally written to be John Constantine before a deal for the rights fell through. Now this sounds to me like one of those fan theories that people start throwing around as fact, does anyone know if there's any truth to it?

[icon_uk]

Don't see that as being likely, since Castiel and Constantine have very different motivations and approachs.

Castiel is unworldly, Constantine is nothing BUT worldly

Nothing else about Supernatural suggests DC-verse, so aside from him wearing a trenchcoat, not seeing a lot in common.

[scorntx]

So. That Doctor Who, eh.
Speaking as someone who's found this entire season boring to irritating...
Actually, this one was pretty horrifying.
Though, full disclosure, the first few minutes were irritating.
Like, really irritating.
"Wanting to kill whoever's nearest in a mindless rage" irritating.
The whole "oh he really called himself Doctor Who" thing, and the Doctor being a colossal jerkass... rrrrrr...
(Remember when lovely old Wilfred Mott told the Doctor not to value the Master above humanity? Great times.)
But apart from that, it was great.
The bit with "Razor" turning out to be Him was actually shocking.
The best part was they actually used part of his theme music from series 3. There was goosebumps, there was.
... I remain cautiously cynical, knowing Moffat has every opportunity to screw it all up this week.
(Remember the mess that was "Hell Bent"?)


Speaking of messes, saw The Last Knight at the weekend.
It... it was certainly something.
There were improvements (we actually had Autobots having a conversation. Real, proper conversation! They actually felt like characters!), and the opening scene with Tucci, while ridiculous and horrifically historically inaccurate, might've been a highlight.
But it still has some issues.
Utterly confusing villain, utter lack of explanation for that, characters disappearing, the fact Optimus is absent for most of the film...
And the ending is just sudden. Like, MOVIE'S OVER, FOLK. GET OUT sudden.

[icon_uk]

Thing about Wilfred is that, lovely human being though he is, he IS a human being, neither the Doctor nor Missy are... they SHOULD have a different perspective on relationships. As Missy pointed out to Clara, her relationship with the Doctor is "a friendship older than your civilisation and infinitely more complex". The Doctor would probably not phrase it like that, but Missy would.

It's one reason I've never been convinced by the Doctor falling for a human, he likes us, but because he's a Time Lord, he views the universe in a scale and sweep within which humans have the longevity of accident-prone goldfish.

And the "Doctor Who" bit sort of works when you remember that in the Hartnell story, "The War Machines", the computer starts repeating "Doctor Who is required..." over and over, so at some point he DID use the name "Doctor Who" :)

(I'd much rather Missy said he stopped using it because it sounded like a bad knock-knock joke, but that's life)

[bradygirl_12]

Dems: Made an effort to get as many Americans as possible insured. Plan wasn't perfect, but at least they tried.

Repubs: Yanking coverage from 22 million Americans and smiling while they do it!

[thezmage]

But both sides are totally the same, y'all.

[janegray]

Since I recently beat the game Batman: Arkham City, my guy decided to surprise me by taking me out for dinner to a Batman themed pub :D

I had a ton of fun. I’ll give the pub a 9/10 rating (I had to take a point out because, amongst a ton of cool and fun Batman themes props, somebody thought it was a good idea to put on a hentai picture of Harley Quinn. Nothing dramatic, just her boobs, but still, it clased really badly with the Theme Park feeling of the place).

I took pictures :D

https://68.media.tumblr.com/bcfb5fdd25c2a181be2a53a452cebf1a/tumblr_inline_os7nb9geoV1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/70c74eb283113e28b5e63d060db48331/tumblr_inline_os7nbtF7rO1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/6665e57b27e0f0c45754d83d14919b14/tumblr_inline_os7njzpMMG1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/f90c142fcae15722525332aadd97206d/tumblr_inline_os7nciRB751r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/439d62ece31fcf06ce4c731caf7baafb/tumblr_inline_os7ndaFG031r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e381fb3c9b02a407a98d147b4e2beaad/tumblr_inline_os7ne8qfZa1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/89d783db99dd5847f0e682202a7617be/tumblr_inline_os7nf4nBHA1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/6d535d4f5f07b80f70da9062317eeb1f/tumblr_inline_os7nfwIos61r4pd3o_540.jpg

(The movie on TV, of course, was Batman)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/cc02660bd822f090ce7a5e01b77ebd7c/tumblr_inline_os7ngrQSJA1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/f127a06eac4babb9dbb8a1c53f448cc9/tumblr_inline_os7nidRmMx1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/ff69e9b3e65c24b6771f2b6ffc3e3bf3/tumblr_inline_os7niqbR6j1r4pd3o_540.jpg

Poison Ivy themed bathroom

https://68.media.tumblr.com/980ad5c96eb2492cd0a1aa92dedecdbb/tumblr_inline_os7nj5HNIS1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/09226cf5d5db3218721bd60cb02c10e0/tumblr_inline_os7njh5FJR1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2b1132817557da362ccdc5b6275a0aab/tumblr_inline_os7nkkkpv91r4pd3o_540.jpg

The doormat says “have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”

The menus also have the Italian names of the characters for the dishes (for example, Scarecrow is Spaventapasseri).

https://68.media.tumblr.com/db5194208b68c6448788fc84e789850d/tumblr_inline_os7nlddoQF1r4pd3o_540.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/1f291f5c7636c2bc96b80f77034b04a0/tumblr_inline_os7nmh2c251r4pd3o_540.jpg

There were other cool details, like the fact that each table was themed after a supervillain, so, for example, Catwoman’s table had claw marks while the Clock King table was a clock. But the tables were all covered in plates and stuff, so it wasn’t possible to take a nice clear picture.

I had a lot of fun :D

[icon_uk]

That looks like so much fun! (Though I'm not sure that tables decorated after people who have high bodycount's would be quite what I was looking for in a dining experience! (But who am I to comment, I went to "The Buck Rogers Burger Bar" in Glasgow in the 1980's... patterned after the Gil Gerard TV version!)

Also, no visible Robin's or Nightwings... or are they only on the kids menu? :)

[speedingtortoise]

I think I got my hopes up too much with the idea of the investigation revealing something that could impeach the clown in office.

It's perfectly clear that Russia was very actively involved in trying to damage Clinton in the election, but unless I've missed something in the news, it doesn't seem like there have been any solid leads that the Trump team officially communicated with them to make it happen.

I think we're going to be stuck with this creep for at least 4 years, and it depresses the hell out of me.

[coldfury]

Well, I think the investigations are ongoing, aren't they? I wouldn't give up hope just yet.

But the biggest problem with the tangerine in chief is that the Republican held Congress is unlikely to budge on anything unless they feel it's in their imminent best interests. They've shown an appalling lack of interest in representing their constituent thus far, and I doubt that will change unless the polling leading up to Nov 2018 is abhorrently bad.

So we have to hope for a Blue sweep in 2018 to deal with this mess, hopefully.

[cyberghostface]

Anyone get anything from the Steam sale? Got a few games but didn't go too crazy.

[speedingtortoise]

I grabbed XCOM and This War of Mine. What about you?

[thezmage]

I don't know if anybody else here does Geeks Who Drink pub quizzes, but my nephew was featured in the Geek in Review recap this week: https://www.geekswhodrink.com/feature/geekinreview

I'm the zombie-looking guy on the right.

[drmanbot]

Has anybody tried the revamped Secret World Legends ? I did love the old game, combat and all, but REALLY don't want to go through all the story content again if its not that changed. I am also very skeptical about the story progressing.

[matrix_dragon]

While I adore the new combat system, I have to admit that right now, the story hasn't really changed. There's some rearranging and balancing of stuff, and some standard missions are now also part of the main plotline, but it's not a massive change. I'm happy with it, but then, it's been years since I completed Kingsmouth anyway.

[deh_tommy]

This is probably going to sound stupid and/or offensive, but might I ask why Lesbian and Queer are present in LGBT+? 'Gay' covers both men and women whereas 'lesbian' only applies to women, and (if I'm not mistaken) 'queer' is almost if not identical in meaning to 'gay' (both in their old definitions of merryment/strangeness and the more modern context as informal terms for homosexuality).

[locuatico]

because there are many, MANY gay women who identify as lesbian.
As for queer, is an umbrella term. Someone who identify trans may not identify as gay or something. Saying "queer" makes it easier for them to identify what they can't put into words

[starwolf_oakley]

While "The Assassination of Gianni Versace" looks cool, Ryan Murphy has his work cut out for him. After 20 years, we have no idea why Andrew Cunanan targeted Versace.

Things like Cunanan hiding in plain sight in Miami and using his own name while a fugitive are fascinating. But his motives beyond "he was crazy" will be difficult for a miniseries.

Then again, we didn't know OJ Simpson's motives in "The People V. OJ Simpson" outside of "He didn't want to go to prison."

[stubbleupdate]

Versace just makes me think of Father Ted

"The Italians are good at Fashion too. Remember that fella. He was so good at fashion, they had to shoot him"

[stubbleupdate]

At 34, I might be getting braces. The figures that they're quoting me are only in excess of two months salary, and that's for intermediate fixing. There's also an option that involves surgery and moving my face about.

[lissa_quon]

Oooh good luck. Hope that works out how you want it.

I'm almost 31 and I still want/need to get that handled myself.

[dr_archeville]

My local indy paper (called, appropriately enough, The Indy) is doing a three-part series on the hog farms of NC. (They've been a problem for a while. How long? Another local paper won a Pulitzer for their coverage of it in 1995.) The first part, which can be seen here, will examine claims by lower-income African-American residents of eastern North Carolina that neighboring hog farms have polluted their properties and efforts by lawmakers to shield pork producers from litigation. The second part will look at the environmental impacts hog farming has had over the last two decades, particularly on waterways such as the Neuse River. The third and final part will discuss ways to make the hog industry more sustainable, both for the environment and the state's rural population, and the political and financial reasons those steps have not been taken.

[lissa_quon]

Not much going on here, I threw my back out or maybe its whiplash? I'm not sure but its been fun.
I picked up Fallout 1 during the Steam sale and really appreciating how far we've come game design wise.