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.

I was THIS close to posting a half dozen gifs of cute ducklings or of kittens being adorable and just leaving this entire post at that because, honestly, where do I even begin this week?

On the one hand, S_D is an escape for many people, and that is an important thing right now.

But on the other hand, ignoring what is going on in the USA right now might appear to be condoning it or treating it as in any way normal, and that would feel like being against everything S_D has ever stood for.

So I'm making the unsual step of adding a cut, normally something not done for Off Topic Tuesdays. If you want to skip these paragraphs relating to current events in the US because of stress, then there is no shame in that because this is a singularly stressful time for a lot of people and you're likely already at media saturation point.

I think the weeks events in the US are summarised by the fact I can type the following paragraphs without the use of fiction or exaggeration.

Nationwide protests and riots were triggered by the death of George Floyd, an African American man, caused by the actions of a white police officer, who stopped him for passing a counterfeit $20 bill.

Rather than seek to unite and calm the nation, and after spending some time over the weekend in the White House security bunker, Donald Trump, the President of the United States, had a crowd of peaceful protestors cleared out of his way by the use of tear gas, flash grenades and rubber bullets, so he could walk from the White House to a local church and stand in front of it for a photo op of him holding a Bible. The Episcopalian Church (Whose church it is) has utterly condemned the stunt, noting that he didn't even actually pray, he just used the Church and a Bible as a backdrop for the photo op.

There has been comndemnation of the killing all round the world, and in other countries (including the UK) it has sparked protests against police violence against black and other minority groups.

Where this will end is very unclear at present, and that is the source of much of the unrest and fear felt by many.

Some information about the protests and means of supporting protestors can be found here

In the UK we started relaxing the Covid 19 lockdown with what seemed, by some, to be unseemly and possibly unwise speed, but after the Cummings mess of the week before a lot of trust in Gornement advice was shaken so discipline was pretty much out the window, not helped by the complicated nature of some of the new, more relaxed rules. We'll just have to wait and see what happens next, but I, for one, am not feeling particualrly inspired to go rushing out to celebrate my freedom when waiting a few more weeks is unlikely to cause me any actual harm.

In the first commercial space launch of astronautes ever, SpaceX managed to send two astronauts to the International Space Station.

I've been catching up on "Cabin Pressure" a radio sitcom with a pretty amazing cast (Stephanie Cole, Roger Allam and some chap who had a bit of a career since then with a peculiar name... something like Benedict Kumquatsquash) and some deligthfully arch humour. If you're in the UK, I do recommend you try it as it's currently being made availale on BBC Sounds

The latest episode of ArgoNavis anime, had this little moment, as the lead singer of one group is challenged to sing spontaneously by his arch rival... there is NO heterosexual explanation for this, so I think we might guess where this is going!

New rumours about The Mandalorian season 2 abound, but I'm not going to mention them

Another week, another Doctor Who livetweet, (There's one more to go) and this time RTD couldn't resist stirring things up, in a rather entertaining way, with "The Confession of Novice Hame", a follow up to the episodes "New Earth" and "Gridlock" where an elderly secondary chaarcter from those stories, a felinoid nun named Hame, reflects as part of the story on the fact that she has heard so much about the Doctor, "His hundred of faces and forms, the men, women and animals who have taken that name" which might imply the Doctor has the potential for an even wider range of appearances than we've ever suspected.

And you know what, sod it, we need this.



Whatever happens, stay safe and stay strong.

Comments

[commodus]

I hope you're all doing well, and staying somewhat positive even with all the...unpleasant things going on right now.

In lighter news, I've been really enjoying the Phoenix Wright games on the Switch! Can you believe I've never played them before? But they've been an absolute blast.
I've made a little game of noting whenever there's a funny cliched line you'd find in a legal drama, like "stop badgering the witness!" or "you can't handle the truth!" And I smile like a fool every time I see them!

Also, the PS5 event has been pushed back, it was meant to be this Thursday, but obviously with the terrible events in America they felt it would be in poor taste to hold it. Still, when it does come around, I'm hoping we see news of the Spider-Man sequel!

[icon_uk]

Oh, I was going to post about the PS5 thingie, but it completely slipped my mind, thanks!

[tripodeca113]

Ah good old Ace Attorney. The fact your playing it now is the important thing.

[leahandillyana]

Polish government used the coronavirus pandemic to rapidly erode the democracy in Poland. It's too much and too complicated to talk here, but the country can no longer be called democratic and censorship of media is in full force despite officially there being no censorship. Accusations of pedophilia are thrown at opposition politicians, celebrities, feminists and queer people in general. It's awful. Funny enough, I made a mental checklist when the advantages of emigration would outweight the downsides of emigrating as a chronicially ill person, and we've crossed that treshold. Not that I can even emigrate lol.

[lissa_quon]

I saw some of the news out of Poland I'm sorry you are stuck dealing with that shitshow. I hope you stay safe.

[tripodeca113]

It's Pride Month so it's time for empty and insincere messages from massive corporations! Hooray!

The copy of Astro City volume seven I ordered, arrived. Now I just need volume six and I'll have them all. According to Ebay it should be due the 11th of May. Yeah...

Got that Game of Thrones RPG they made years ago. It's pretty rough, but I get the impression the makers had a fondness for the source material.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, even now when I see gay couples represented in adverts I'm always torn between "Isn't it great that that's a thing now?!" and "You cynical money hungry swine, why didn't you do this thirty years ago?"

[iamrman]

I have mostly finished my deep dive through Silver Age Marvel. Early Iron Man is still on my list, so I will see him that goes.

I have run out of Spider-Man and Avengers comics to read, so I decided to go back and fill in the gaps of my Collection with various Masterworks trades. It seemed like a good time to give the Kree/Skrull War another try what with the upcoming Empyre event.

I have also almost finished re-reading the entirity of the Death/Return of Superman.

In non-comics related news, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and take up baking. I tried to make some cookies, but they were a failure, so I mostly stick to savoury stuff now. My latest batch of cheese straws are out of the oven and are very nice if I do say so myself.

[cainofdreaming]

Anyone else having trouble when browsing the site on a tablet? Since the images became shrunk until clicked they seem to spontaneously change size when scrolling along on my tablet, which causes me to jump over parts of the page.

[owlbrigade1]

I know when I click on them they go from tiny to humongously large that necessitates me scrolling side to side a lot since they are now too big to fit on a single screen. Used to be that it was just the occasional splash page that needed that. Now it is pretty much every comic. As far as dreamwidth updates have gone, this is probably the most irritating change.

[cygnia]

Well, MLP does have Doctor Whooves/Time Turner :)

Trying to decide if I should try my hand at focaccia again. The last time I tried to make it, it came out dense and didn't really rise (more like a savory cookie). I'm also thinking about speculoos cookies too to try.

Just very tired right now.

[mister_terrific]

I was limited in my baking for a time because I had a hell of a time finding yeast--then walked into a different store a few miles away and they had tons available.

What's your focaccia recipe like? My wife insists on me making it at least once a month.

[stubbleupdate]

I found out that next year I'll be teaching a lot more Modern Studies and a lot less History, which is a bit shit. Modern Studies is basically politics/sociology. The department aren't as good as the History department, the resources aren't as good as the History department (and I wrote lots for History that I won't be able to teach).

My other big problem with Modern Studies is that it's out of date so quickly. Part of that is quite cool, because the subject is happening as you teach it. But a lot of the course has had its central foundations completely taken apart.

I'm meant to be teaching British democracy as the government tries to disenfranchise disabled or elderly MPs.
I'm teaching Law and Order and the police's role in society.

At least in History (not about what happened already, but what happened next) I get to teach the French Revolution

[icon_uk]

Just a quick reminder that ending every lecture on the French Revolution with "Hint, hint!" might be seen , by some, as amounting to an incitement to civil unrest.

[owlbrigade1]

Only one of my squash and courgette seeds have germinated this year. I've done a quick second sowing, and hopefully I'll get better germination this time and being a couple of weeks behind will not matter too much.

I also saw that new Netflix Space Force show, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It still leant a little too heavily on the cringe comedy in the first couple of episodes, but it moved onto character based comedy after that. The big flaw was one that is common on a lot of Netflix shows, it ended one episode too soon. Rather than tie up its season story arc in the season finale, it left it one episode's worth of story hanging for a possible season two reorder, which means the next season will start with an episode dedicated to tying up this season instead of launching its own story arc. It wasn't even a cliffhanger, it was just leaving things loose.

[commodus]

I'm a bit on the fence about watching it. Space travel is something very dear to my heart - I genuinely consider it the best thing our species has accomplished. So I hope it's not one of these things that pushes the idea that we shouldn't be engaging in space travel because there are still problems on earth - which is a sentiment I keep hearing in various opinion pieces every time NASA does something awesome.

Star Wars possible spoiler

[owlbrigade1]

twiddly um spoiler next post

Re: Star Wars possible spoiler

[owlbrigade1]

io9 is reporting that Disney are running casting calls for someone to play Thrawn in a live-action Thrawn show.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/theres-more-wild-star-wars-rumors-about-another-rebels-1843803318

No other details as yet though, but I would imagine that it has to be post-Rebels. Thrawn's backstory has been covered in new canon books up until the end of Rebels.

[scorntx]

Cabin Pressure is pretty fun.
So much mileage had from emphasis on the word "Sir."
And the otters...

If one's exploring Beeb radio comedy, there's also Bleak Expectations, also from BBC Radio 4.
A delightfully bonkers send-up of Dickens, and Victorian England in general, with some guy called Anthony Head playing the bad guy.
(Apparently when it was broadcast alongside an adaptation of Great Expectations, some listeners had trouble telling them apart.
... which, given one has an episode where the villain possesses a pigeon and drinks human blood to revive himself from death, is just a little worrying.)


Apparently in the UK, Forbidden Planet (the UK version) will reopen its stores on the fifteenth.
(Though unsure whether they're actually going to have anything to sell, whether comics are being shipped now or not. Very confusing.)


Trying to keep upbeat, despite... everything.
Including all this horrible, horrible sunshine.
Just a little rain would be nice...

Rewatched some old Who the other day, "The Hungry Earth".
... it was okay, I guess?
Slightly better than Chibnall's current stuff in that it didn't fall down at the last hurdle, as seems to happen with his Who, but at the same time there's definite signs of Moffat's sticky fingers over the script.
(and gosh, all the actors are so young... hard to think that was a decade ago.)


also, a fic I wrote got a yay. Not sure anyone's actually "yay"'d anything I've written before.
Makes the months of micro-analysis and sweating and lack of sleep and the moments of "oh this is terrible why'd I ever go near a keyboard" moderately worth it.
(Yay!)

[icon_uk]

Weirdly enough I have a CD copy of Bleak Expectations on my stack of "Things to rip to MP3 for my commute exercise walking" that I picked up in a charity shop last year.

[lordultimus]

Conservative Icon George Will Urges November Sweep: Vote Out Trump, All GOP Enablers

[icon_uk]

Paywall means I can't see it, but I did manage to notice them referencing one of my favourite descriptions of the mangled apricot hellbeast;

"Trump is a dumb man's idea of a smart man, a poor man's idea of a rich man, and a weak man's idea of a strong man"

[thezmage]

New Shantae video game out. I’ve nearly beaten it but not 100%

Cabin Pressure is good, even if you, like me, do not particularly like Mr Custardpants. If you’re in the US, Cabin Pressure can be purchased through audible for around $15 a series. I think that’s the cheapest legal way to listen to the show.

HBO Max launched. I find the selection a bit sparse (where’s my more obscure Cartoon Network properties?) but I’ll definitely keep it at least through Lovecraft Country

The Legends of Tomorrow episode that just aired, “The One Where We’re Trapped on TV” is probably the best episode of the series. Probably one of the best “trapped in tv” episodes of anything, too

[skjam]

I am in a relatively safe area (first time I've been glad to be out of the Lake Street neighborhood.) But all public transportation is down, so even if I did need to go somewhere I couldn't.

My niece, who's more openly political than I am, has had a sudden rush of "relatives" come out of the woodwork to denounce the riots on her social media posts, when they very pointedly did not denounce the original murder. (And also did not talk to her at her father's funeral, a huge sore point.)

In lighter news, over at my blog I review "Goldfinger": http://www.skjam.com/2020/05/31/movie-review-goldfinger/

[owlbrigade1]

You wrote Thunderball instead of Goldfinger when you were discussing the theme music there in your review.

Interesting review though, thank you.

[zachbeacon]

Trump has declared Anti Fascists to be terrorists.

He's really going out of his way to be on the wrong side of history.

[stubbleupdate]

Surely it's just a way to disenfranchise people ahead of November.

Protestors = antifascists
Anti-fascists = terrorists

Felons can't vote.

Bingo

[deh_tommy]

Stupid question, but you’re not allowed to post more than four pages from a webcomic without the creator’s consent, right? What’s the stance on webcomics collected into physical editions à la Sunstone, or webcomics who’s creators have stopped working on them or are dead?

[icon_uk]

Correct, no more than four from a webcomic without the creator's approval

Even if they have stopped working on them, they might well earn revenue from page traffic, so obey the four page rule as standard.

If there's a physical version that's... not something which has really been an issue before to be honest. Again, best suggestion would be to stick to the four page rule, and link to that, though you can mention there's a physical copy as well.

Case in point would be "Check, Please!", Ngozi Ukazu's utterly delightful webcomic about "vlogger and figure-turned-ice hockey skater Eric "Bitty" Bittle as he deals with hockey culture in college, as well as his identity as a gay man".

The creator has requested no reposting from the site, and with that in mind I've never been able bring myself to post from the physical edition either as it doesn't seem to be playing fair, though I'll link to the web version as often as I can get away with.

[janegray]

I finally beat Devil May Cry 5 today.

I’m still processing it. There is SO MUCH to absorb. The story in the game itself massively changes the status quo, and then there are the manga and the novels (that some angel has kindly translated).

All I can say for now is that, overall, I loved the game, despite its flaws.

My biggest complaint with it is that a character I really, really, really liked, ended up killed off for what I consider to be a stupid reason. Also, I very strongly disagree with fandom’s take on a certain character’s ending.

However, for the most part, it was a great game, with great new characters, and interesting story, and top-notch gameplay and soundtrack, and the insanely ridiculous over-the-top humor I enjoy so much (THERE IS A FUCKING DANCE NUMBER I’M DYING).

Also, they FINALLY allowed the player to remap the controls. This is really, really, REALLY important, because DMC is an extremely intensive fighting action game. The default key for lock-on, which must be pressed at all times, is R1. And having to constantly press on R1 while pulling fast and complex combos was murder on my thumbs. Something as simple as remapping it to R2 ensured that my hands didn’t hurt like hell after every session.

[icon_uk]

Congratulations! At some level I feel we've been playing along with you... though in fairness the only DMC game I ever played was for the PS2 and I wasn't that great at it.

[mazway_75]

Now word that "Batwoman" will not merely recast Kate: Instead, an entirely new character taking over:

Ryan Wilder "She's likable, messy, a little goofy, and untamed," reads the document. "With no one in her life to keep her on track, Ryan spent years as a drug-runner, dodging the GCPD and masking her pain with bad habits. Today, reformed and sober, Ryan lives in van with her plant. A girl who would steal milk from an alley cat and could also kill you with her bare hands, Ryan is the most dangerous type of fighter: highly skilled and wildly disciplined. An out lesbian. Athletic. Raw. Passionate. Fallible. And very much not your stereotypical All-American hero."

Wow....I mean, I would have been okay recasting Kate with an occasional clever joke about it ("you change your hair/") but this is a lot. Plus, central part of the show is the Alice-Kate dynamic so hard to see that going on.

[caivu]

The only source (and I do mean the only source) that anyone covering this story, be they Deadline, THR, EW, the AV Club, anyone, has for this is a now-removed screenshot from Reddit. A screenshot that wasn't even confirmed to begin with, from a site that isn't publicly accessible. All those articles trace back to a Decider article that used that as its only source. No one I've seen has named anything else concrete for this info.

So I don't buy this.

[dr_archeville]

Now that I'm no longer 42, the answer to life, the universe, and everything has fled my mind...

... which sounds about right for 2020.

(i.e., today was my 43rd birthday! I celebrated with some Chinese food and re-reading some Shadowrun books.)

[lissa_quon]

Happy Birthday - hope it was pleasant as possible. All things considered.

[lissa_quon]

Currently safe if burned out and rattled. I live near Houston so we have a lot of protests here but the mayor and police chief seem to be working hard to work with the protesters and keep things sane. (Whatever their agenda is - so far the chief has walked all day arm in arm with the protesters which is at least something.) I keep waiting for the Klan to raise their ugly head but so far they seem quiet. Maybe H-town is too far out of their usual territory.

Saw a fun Korean movie called Monstrum, which gave me heavy Brotherhood of hte Wolf vibes but without the heavy racism and sexist bullshit. Not a GREAT film but it was fun.

[pteppic]

I'm assuming that if you're listening to Cabin Pressure that you've seen John Finnemore's continuation/lockdown series on YouTube? He's been busy.

https://youtu.be/nhTBp1DRfx4

[icon_uk]

I'd heard about it, which is one reason I dug out the earlier episodes I'd been given ages ago to have a proper listen to.

[laughing_tree]

Icon_uk, could you add to your post this link to how people can help support the protests? https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/

[icon_uk]

Now that's a darned good idea!

[featheredserpent]

Nazis are Exhausting.