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.

In the UK, sleaze and corruption allegations are flying around as our Prime Minister's former closest ally, creepy oddball Dominic Cummings, has (in a completely expected turn of events) turned on him mere months after being forced out of his position. Honestly, the whole thing reeks of bad melodrama, and makes you long for the dignifed decorum of a sack of crazed weasels.

Incidentally, there are a number of local elections in the UK next week, and Soctland has it's own parliamentary elections. So if you're registered to vote, please consider making your voice heard.

The Oscars happened in a weirdly low key manner, and also saw the lowest viewing figures ever, but did see Chloé Zhao win the Best Director award, only the second woman, and first non white woman, to do so, for "Nomadland", and Daniel Kaluuya became the first ever Black British actor to win an Oscar.

Sir Anthony Hopkins, at 83, became the oldest Best Actor winner, and paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman (another contender for the award) in his thank you speech, posted a few hours after the ceremony, on his Instagram page. (I did say it was a weird Oscars, but his Instagram IS delightful)

In cheerier news, the Josh Fight happened. A social media joke last year turned into a remarkably good-natured absurdist pool-noodle brawl as several hundred people all named Josh showed up to defend their right to the name. In a genuinely heartwarming moment, the winner of the battle (which included two Spider-Josh, a Josh Jedi,) was declared to be Little Josh, a local four year old, and several thousand dollars was raised for a local hospital to boot.

Comments

[skjam]

Hoping to see my parents Memorial Day weekend as we should have reached immunity by then.

Over at my blog, I look at a DC-related cartoon: http://www.skjam.com/2021/04/26/tv-review-dc-super-hero-girls-2019/

[zachbeacon]

Decided to resubscribe to Amazon Prime for the month.

I’ve watched all of Invincible (so far). Its good but mostly it reminds me that I really need to finish the comic. I could talk at length about the changes that were made or how the new art style makes the violence seem worse but mostly I’m just amused that JK Simmons is playing a character who is both a Threat and a Menace.

Also noticed that Prime had a lot of Muppet movies that aren’t on Disney+. Rather than rewatch a childhood favorite I decided to watch one I haven’t seen before. That was a mistake. Good lord, Muppets From Space is awful.

[icon_uk]

It's not as bad as The Muppets Wizards of Oz (which, apart from the cute number "When I'm with You" is pretty much utterly awful) but any movie which works on the principle of "You know what everyone has always wanted? A definite backstory for Gonzo" has missed the point of Gonzo by light years.

[tripodeca113]

My copy of the Venture Brothers artbook, arrived recently. I'm very pleased with it, it's very thick and thorough. Each episode gets an overview from the creators, and their honest about which ones they don't like. It seems very honest. We also learn the origins for a lot of characters.

In a hedonistic attempt to bring meaning to my life, I went out and brought some things. Now I have all the Adventure Time DVD's. I also got the Animorphs comic. Props to the adaptors for not toning down any of killing, and fixing a few continuity issues. It was odd seeing Tobias as a blonde (which he is in the books, but not on most of the covers).

Look a trailer for Inside No 9, season six. Unfortunately I didn't really like the previous season that much, so I may give it a miss (or wait for the DVD to go cheap).

The Game Of Thrones spinoff show, has apparently entered production. I'd recommend ignoring it.

I've been watching more of the show Murder. The investigation element is lacking, and the character drama leaves something to be desired, so it's understandable why this murder mystery show seems to have been widely ignored.

[tinygaylaura]

I thought the most recent season of Inside No 9 was pretty weak overall but I did really love the final episode of the season (The Stake Out) for being both a good story and delivering a plot twist that was earned instead of feeling like it came out of nowhere

I look forward to reading the Animorphs comic!

Adventure Time is always a fun watch it's one of my favourite cartoons :)

[scorntx]

Mildly intrigued about House of the Dragon, and whether it'll turn out to be a trainwreck like GOT proper.
(Not enough to actually watch it, though.)

... still can't get m' head around the idea of Matt Smith playing someone like Daemon, either.
It's just... Matt Smith < > Daemon Targaryen. Does not compute.

[malurette]

While I was on sick leave the lab worked on improving our CoViDiag microarray to include British, Brasilian and South-African variants and it's working well and we can be proud of it!
Also the marketing intern has worked on developping a prick-your-finger-at-home-and-send-the-blood-to-the-lab-for-analysis kit which... doesn't work that well. 300µL seems not much, is actually much more than what the test really needs, but is a lot of capillary blood to try and bleed into a microcentrifuge tube and not all over the opening's exterior. Let's say there's still a lot of room for improving the labware choices here.

[iamrman]

I finished reading 52 yesterday and I must say I quite enjoyed it. I enjoyed some parts better than others (I was more invested in the Booster Gold and Renee Montoya plot lines, while I didn't much care for the Black Adam and heroes in space plots).

Comixology is having a linewide sale on DC trades, so I'm going to get volumes 4 and 5 of Grayson. I might get the newer editions of Batman: Knightfall. I already have the whole story in various omnibus editions, but they are quite cumbersome to read, and the newer editions are split into smaller volumes. They should be less of a slog to read.

[tinygaylaura]

The Renee Montoya storyline and Kate Kane's appearances in it are my favourite part of 52 easily. Definitely the best story arc of the series

I do also enjoy the buffoonery of the evil scientists on Oolong Island and their evil egg boss

[stubbleupdate]

Does the new edition of Knightfall have the bit where Batzrael lets a guy die?

It's not included in my big trades

[deh_tommy]

When did “Jedi are good, Sith are bad” become such a hot take?

[zachbeacon]

When we found out Ben lied to Luke?

And then the prequels showed us Obi Wan was one of the more likable Jedi.

But the Sith are worse so the Jedi are the heroes by default.

[tinygaylaura]

Dominic Cummings, the answer to the question "What if Gollum decided he fancied giving politics a try"

That Josh Fight is the best news story of the year.

All hail the One True Josh

[stubbleupdate]

This week I saw somebody refer to Classic Dom as "Big Daddy Cum Cums"

No thank you

[leahandillyana]

Eh. It's difficult to write a compilation of what happened this week. Everything is upsetting and cruel in a stupid, pointless way. Poland in short: judge who opposes the ruling party was arrested and is facing trial over bogus claims - first instance dismissed the charges, but the persecutor immediatelly made an appeal. There's a poster campaign that has an LGBT child asking parents to love them. The posters are notoriously damaged with cruel words. Several animals I cared for as a volunteer died in short succession, in large part probably because our org no longer accepts volunteers and the animals are not observed 24/7. My covid infection ended, but brain fog remained. My head hurts constantly, really lowering my quality of life.
A project I'd ask you to take part in if you can is a petition urging the EU to drop the IP rights over the covid vaccines to make them avaiable free for all. If you are an EU citizen, you can sign here: https://noprofitonpandemic.eu/ They are very close to gather enough signatures from Italy.
On a happy note, a sequel to Madoka: Rebellion is finally happening. It'll be a movie called Walpurgis no Kaiten. No other information is avaiable about it at the moment.

[tinygaylaura]

I am so sorry you are in such pain and that you have been through the loss of these animals this week

[owlbrigade1]

The whole thing about Dom Cummings trying to unseat Boris is that it is a gambit to let Nyatharlotep's current avatar in human form, Michael Gove become PM in his place. The latest in a parade of godawful idiots. I swear, if any other country in the world went through PM's and governments at the rate the UK is, then the British Press would be the first to be calling them unstable and failed states. Of course, since it is us, "we're a special case" instead. Ugh.

[mrstatham]

The whole thing about Dom Cummings trying to unseat Boris is that it is a gambit to let Nyatharlotep's current avatar in human form, Michael Gove become PM in his place.

Boris kind-of brought it on himself with the incredibly dumb decision to target Cummings last week, accusing him of the recent leaks; I'm not really much into politics but even I know you don't go after your former right hand man who was very much involved in *everything* you were and was cleaning up the messes left in your wake.

Not supporting the idea of Gove in charge, of course - I think the last thing we need is the human Spitting Image puppet running things - but.. Yeah. Boris definitely stepped in it here.

[mister_terrific]

Having been fully immunized, I went to my first dental check-up in over a year. And it's a strange commentary on the times that I actually enjoyed it. Just being able to do something "normal" was an incredible feeling.

In an attempt to do something else "normal", I signed up for a 5K run being held this weekend...not immediately realizing that I needed to take my wife to a local health clinic for her second COVID shot the same morning. Oops. Guess I'm going the virtual route on that one.

[scorntx]

Apparently, the twenty-fifth was the anniversary of the changeover between the old Star Wars continuity and the new stuff.
Didn't know that when I decided to watch some of The Clone Wars on Disney+ that night, but hey.
(And rumour abounds of remaking / rebooting Knights of the Old Republic. Don't know if that means just touching up the old game or redoing it for the new yin. Though given how much of KOTOR has filtered into the Disney continuity anyhow, what would they need to change?)

Been replaying some of the old Assassin's Creed (five months and still no sign of a damned Playstation 5 anywhere).
... I forgot how tedious Revelations' bank system is. It says "every twenty minutes", but I'd swear it's at least twice that.
And as for III... ... ... grrrggh... the exploration system is such a bizarre choice, but it's the hair-trigger guards that are the worst.
Can't even go for a casual stroll without fifty of the buggers descending on you for no reason whatsoever.

[stubbleupdate]

Yes, but in 3 you get the knife on a rope, which is just an insta=kill, even against the lads with the drums.

Also, you can set explosive traps, yes? Try doing that with bear bait. I absolutely launched a bear when I did it.

[thezmage]

JSA: WW2 came out digitally today. Without revealing the spoilers I've heard, it's officially not a follow up to Apokalips War so I'm gonna go ahead and pass on this and most future DTV movies

[cygnia]

Hubby's almost cleared the 2 weeks after his second shot and now he's making noise about wanting us to Go Out, Be Social & Do Stuff.

Whereas I just want to burrow under the sheets and keep hiding from the world.

[icon_uk]

Maybe compromise: Go out for short thigns, but be anti-social? :)

I know that a lot of people are going to take time to adjust to, well, "people-ing" again. (Myself included, and I've never exactly been a social animal to begin with)

[mazway_75]

Man, I feel for Hopkins. It was obvious how the producers were convinced like many Boseman was going to win so had it all set to end on a tribute, ignoring that Best Picture should always close the Oscars.

And it blew up in their faces big time. Had it been earlier, jarring but okay, the great wins by Zhao and Nomadland balancing it out. Instead, it ends with Joaquin Phoenix going "Um, okay, he's not here but sure he's happy."

Then again, a deserved end for that show as I have no idea what Soderbergh was thinking having an Oscar ceremony that shows almost NO clips of any movies, even for visual effects or sound. Too bad, the wins were good but the show was awful.

[stubbleupdate]

The moral of the story is...People will stop offering accommodations for disabled people when they feel that the not-yet-disabled don't also need them.

[melplayspersonal]

Newcomer here - long time stalker to this fine community. Nothing terribly interesting about me - 32f, part-time retail employee, giant disney nerd, and currently my apartment has no hot water while blasting heat in 80 degree weather. Fun times. For anyone curious, my icon is the pokemon Ampharos, as the electric sheep line is one of my favorites among the mons.

I'm not surprised the Oscars had low ratings. I feel like these days, award shows just aren't as important to anyone anymore. No one I know recommends films based on what they won. I saw that as part of their gift bag thing, they made/put a NFT that was basically Chadwick Boseman's golden head in each one - which, to me, feels VERY wrong in at least six different ways. More here if anyone thinks I'm exaggerating.

The Josh Fight was so delightful to hear about. Just a small reminder that there IS good in the world, and it can show up in the oddest of ways.

[janegray]

Hey, fellow Disney nerd :D

Please accept this offering of really cool fanart <3

EDIT: NOW WITH ACTUAL FANART ^^"

https://princessesfanarts.tumblr.com/post/642859559012253697/by-woohnayoung

[janegray]

My friend is a talented artist, so if you are like "oh boy do I ever love that character, would be sweet to buy customisable fanart of them!" send her a DM (she does both SFW and NSFW)

mana-sputachu.tumblr.com

[zachbeacon]

The World Ends With You Episode 3 thoughts:
So, I went into the episode expecting THAT moment* but I wasn’t expecting the accelerated pacing to also get us to the end of the first week and everything that comes with that**.

*Baby shark dodododo
** Renfvat Eulzr NAQ Fuvxv va gur fnzr rcvfbqr fb bayl gur qhqrf ner yrsg oruvaq vfa’g n terng ybbx.

I kinda love how ridiculous the animated CGI on the Game Master is.

Anyway, we’ve moved past the week where I want to smack Neku and are entering the week when I want the strangle Joshua. Before you know it, we’ll be on the week where I want to hug Beat…poor kid.

PS: Yeah, looks like they’re sticking with Twister for the opening.

[leahandillyana]

India is in a dire situation due to pandemic. This person explains it:
https://dracogotgame.tumblr.com/post/649280690562744320/so-india-is-dying
If you can, please donate. Reblogs of the post list more ways you can help too:
https://dracogotgame.tumblr.com/post/649609486177353728/a-huge-huge-thanks-to-bi-witch-of-chaos-for

[donnblake]

I'm a few days past my second vaccine shot, so soon I'll be able to lick strange statues and frolic in stagnant pond water with all the woodland creatures again.

Unfortunately, of the group of people I'm actually excited about seeing in person again, I believe I'm the first to get vaccinated, so still a ways to go before we can assemble everyone.