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.

A very short one today due to other-work deadlines, but I'm sure you'll find things to talk about.

But I should remeber to wish "May the Fourth be with you", to any passing adherents of the Jedi path.

Comments

[malurette]

I'm happy to report that while checking the coating of en ELISA plate this morning I found a dong-shaped artefact at the bottom of one micro-well. So like the Very Serious Scientist I am, I giggled very maturely.
(Actually, I'm shocked to realize it's the very first time it happens in five years of working at this lab. Where have Humourously Shaped Artefacts been all my professional life?)

[icon_uk]

Probably being hoarded by the Botany and Agricultural Science Departments,

[tripodeca113]

Oh boy, they switched the episode order of Adventure Time Distant Lands, so now Finn and Jack getting back together is the penultimate episode. But sure, I guess Peppermint Butler can have the last episode.

The Bad Batch show started. Oddly, they referenced one of the tie-in comics, but in a way that contradicts the comics.

I've been reading Beaststar, I got up to a really disturbing bit....

[icon_uk]

I suspect it's the same bit I stopped watching the anime because I REALLY didn't want to see where this went.

[tinygaylaura]

I worry what Peppermint Butler may get up to

[janegray]

https://64.media.tumblr.com/bd79dbfec7bb8b6709cbfca9ab3e3e89/5cc44a39931e6ee4-15/s1280x1920/3ce838f5c7e6e0ae34d1dc07be0c450e05400f7d.jpg

This is the shit I have to deal with when I have to buy something online and have to use reviews from other customers to figure out if the item is good.

And this one is not even that bad. At least they actually reviewed the product. Even if they bitched that a tea cup was a tea cup. I keep finding bad reviews for perfect items because the shipping was a little slow (including one asshole who threw a fit because he got the item in the afternoon and he wanted it in the morning).

Honorary mention to the twit who gave a fantastic manga a bad score because "reading right to left is hard."

[mrstatham]

Is there a difference between a tea mug and a coffee mug? I know different coffees have different cups, but... Yeah.

And out of curiosity, what was the manga in question?

[zachbeacon]

Watched Muppets Take Manhattan again this week. Always nice when a fondly remembered movie still holds up. There were jokes in there I certainly didn’t get as a kid.


Duck Tales season three thoughts.

I’ve had a lot of the show spoiled already. I’m happy I knew about Manny going in but I wish I’d experienced the Webby stuff as a surprise.

This series has an amazing voice cast even by Disney standards but sometimes I’m so distracted by the Scottish adventure alien’s voice coming out of the Scottish adventure duck’s beak that I take the other voices for granted. I’m still kicking myself that it took so long to identify Rob Paulsen as one of the moon people and I usually spot him right away.

I was happy to finally see some “Red Hat Nephew” spotlight episodes though this didn’t feel like the “Huey season” the same way previous seasons belonged to his brothers. Mostly it felt like the triplets were finally getting equal treatment. The closest Huey got to a character arc was when Lena helped him embrace his wild side and that was in an episode where we got some solid Dewey/Webby stuff and one of my favorite Louie moments in the series.

I found this Christmas episode pretty underwhelming compared to the first one and it wasn’t exactly Scrooge’s finest moment. I did enjoy Webby hanging a lampshade on Scrooge and Santa being red-suited immortals (this show has a LOT of long lived characters).

I really can’t tell when Scrooge is trolling people or not. His life is just weird enough that I can believe the duck dressed like the Shadow made zero impression on him.

Loved the Darkwing backdoor pilot. Just hope the show is still coming.

I’m not sure why they decided Launchpad should be in two places at once when they barely used him in the previous seasons. Thankfully he got more screen time. Really loved the payoff at the end.

I don’t love the Penny/Della ship tease because we know Penumbra reminds Della of Donald.

Donald is still such a good “dad” and Della is … trying

I kind of hate that Daisy and Della don’t interact until the final two part episode (even though they’re onscreen at the same time in the Titan episode). Then again, we only got a few episodes with Daisy in the first place.

So all the Gizmoduck/Agent Dee fights just got recontextualized as kinky roleplaying? I don’t hate it.

Blot and Pepper aren’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever shipped but its up there. Joking aside, as annoyed as I am that we only got one Don Karnage episode this season and that Magica De Spell’s brother never turned up, Blot is easily the least developed villain on the show.

(Though I’m fine with leaving some Magica plots open since she’s the DT villain most likely to turn up in Darkwing Duck)

The Karmic Court seems like a great encapsulation of this show. Scrooge and co ARE responsible for a lot of the terrible things that happen in the show…but the villains like Bradford make it so much worse.

That last ending sequence was amazing.

[thezmage]

As I think I said before, Donald and Huey were my numbers one and two most underserved members of the main cast, followed shortly by Launchpad. The truth is I kinda think that their Huey characterization naturally lent itself to playing second fiddle so even in “his” storyline he would naturally be overshadowed by everyone around him. I’ve largely made peace with it as there will be future takes on Huey but we’ll never see Violet, Lena, Penumbra, etc again.

At least Huey got a podcast (https://youtu.be/2cDUgXVUpks)

I also thought Launchpad got a bit shafted but he was always a sidekick and he’s got that Darkwing thing slated.

Daisy could have, y’know, met more of the family, had another scene or two, not felt like an afterthought as the second fiddle in a storyline that they didn’t really want to explore in the first place, w/e but I did like the line “I can understand you perfectly.”

[icon_uk]

I unapologetically love "The Muppets Take Manhattan" and "Saying Goodbye" is a genuine heartbreaker of a number that I can rarely make it all the way through without a little quiet sobbing.

Yeah, the lack of Huey focus was a shame, though as we've previously discussed he hasn't got the same obvious comedically exploitable flaws that Louie (Greed and laziness) and Dewey (overconfidence and attention seeking) do, so tends to be the straight duck to his brother's antics.

Blot DID seem a rather random addition to the roster.

Yeah, I found both the Christmas and Halloween episodes to be perhaps the weakest of the season (also any episode involving Rockerduck just had the life sucked out of it by him being so... bland as a villain, with a henchman who never struck me as remotely as interesting as I think we were supposed to find him)

I also loved the TaleSpin episode.

And yes, the end titles were just so much fun! :D

[leahandillyana]

In Latvia, a gay paramedic was murdered by being burned alive in front of his home. The man has previously left Riga for a smaller town to escape persecution. The murder perfectly encapsulates the life in Eastern Europe - killing the person who is putting himself in danger to safe lives because you believe in divine inspiration from a thousands years old book. More on the murder here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/gay-paramedic-29-burned-alive-24024381
I urge you to donate to pandemic relief funds in India and Brasil. Everybody is suffering, but those two giant countries fare the worse. If they do not receive massive help YESTERDAY millions of people will die.
Donation links for India:
https://dracogotgame.tumblr.com/post/649609486177353728/a-huge-huge-thanks-to-bi-witch-of-chaos-for
Donation links for Brasil:
https://dracogotgame.tumblr.com/post/649646410793451520/dear-child-of-skylights-hornheadonmain#notes
Medical Aid for Palestinians:
https://www.map.org.uk/
If you are an EU citizen, please sign the petition to abolish intellectual property rights on vaccines so that they can be freely produced and distributed:
https://noprofitonpandemic.eu/
Compared to those events, the ever developing Polish BULLSHIT is mice squeaking.

[deh_tommy]

Thank you for these links. I’ll try to do what I can.

[melplayspersonal]

Been playing New Pokemon Snap, and it's been giving the serotonin my brain so desperately needed. It's like being at the zoo. I miss zoos.

I on and off watch Amphibia, and booooyyyyyy howdy - so there was supposed to be a (pretty epic) season 2 finale. But on the day of, Disney suddenly postponed it with no reason given. Then Apple released it on Itunes. Then Disney made Apple take it down ( i think) The folks working on the show are (rightly) pissed off, begging people not to watch it/share it/spoil it. No one knows when the actual finale will air, it's a whole hullabalo. I feel so bad for the people on the show, and I wonder what in the world is going on behind the scenes.

My dad's the big Star Wars fan in the family, though mostly for the original trilogy. I've been the one who has to to explain to him (multiple times) where all the movies are via timelines. He got to explore the Star Wars land is disney (he's a music teacher and it was a school thing) and came back with his own BB8 droid thing. I'm not gunna lie, watching him play with that and his giddy face was adorable. I feel like as the years go by, he's realized that his geeky habits are now popular and mainstream so he can enjoy them to the fullest.

[tinygaylaura]

I think more adults would be happier if they realised they can enjoy the things the world tells them are silly

I am glad your dad is having fun playing with this cool BB8 toy :)

I miss zoos as well

I used to try and go to one a few times a year with my wife but we can't right now. I hope the animals are being well looked after

BEHOLD, THE TWILIGHT OF MAN

[deh_tommy]

I really, really, really enjoyed The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Why aren’t more people talking about this movie? Granted, that’s got Lord/Miller’s fingerprints all over that, so if you’re not a fan of their brand of humour you’re probably not gonna like the movie but I personally had an absolute blast.

Re: BEHOLD, THE TWILIGHT OF MAN

[silverhammerman]

I watched that the other night and it is really quite good. The family dynamics are a little stereotypical (I feel like the opening ten minutes could have been cut, since everything in them could be pretty easily inferred) but the movie is really enjoyable and funny, with a solid sense of momentum. The whole visual style and even the hand drawn elements work really well and are absolutely the kind of thing I'd hoped to see more of after Into the Spider-Verse came out.

[owlbrigade1]

I'm getting old.

It has gone from the back of my hands looking smooth no matter what, to the back of my hands being dry and wrinkly unless I moisturise; to now no matter how much I moisturise, they remain dry and wrinkly. Damn this inevitable progress of time, damn it to hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!

[mrstatham]

I get this quite a bit, but I think it's partly from the amount of stores providing hand sanitiser now.

[skjam]

Getting to help train more newbies at work.

Visionworks website "chat" feature is useless; their phone customer service was good once I got through to a live person.

Watched the Invincible cartoon. So. Much. Blood. More here: http://www.skjam.com/2021/05/03/webtoon-review-invincible/

[alicemacher]

My grandmother passed away peacefully last Tuesday evening, aged 86, following ten years of Alzheimers. (So the family and I, though saddened, knew it was coming and thus we're doing okay.) I'm thankful for such a cheerful, loving and generous woman being part of my life for so long; among many other gifts, she left me with a lifelong passion for Yiddish, which years ago I taught myself to speak more or less fluently.

I'm also grateful that my wife and I were just close enough relations to be part of the ten-person limit that current lockdown regulations in Ontario permit for in-person attendance at funerals (nine mourners plus the officiant). And I'm further thankful for the wonderful Zoom technology which has allowed many more family and friends across North America to witness the funeral live and participate actively in the virtual shiva (seven-day mourning period).

----

In entertainment doings, my wife and I (shortly before our loss) signed up for the BBC's Britbox streaming service and immediately fell hard for the late-80s/early 90s sketchcom A Bit of Fry & Laurie starring a younger Hugh Laurie (whom you may know better as Dr. Gregory House) and Stephen Fry (who I think was super-cute back then and still cuts a dashing figure now).

I was delighted to learn the other day that my ten-year-old niece is a fan of manga and anime, so now I have more things to talk with her about. (We share a fondness for My Hero Academia.) When I mentioned Evangelion is my favourite anime by far, she said that, having heard of it, she planned on watching it soon. Being a responsible aunt, I warned her that it gets rather... intense in the last several episodes, but she said in her usual confident, "mature beyond her years" tone, "I can handle intense." And y'know, she probably can. Still hope she holds off on End of Evangelion for a few more years, though, and not just because of the infamous opening wankoff scene. :-)

[leahandillyana]

[*] Granny
Have you watched the final Rebuild?

[onsokumaru]

Last week, it was announced that Shunsuke Kikuchi passed away at 89.
This man was a true legend.
He made the musics of Dorameon, Daimos, Tiger Mask, Grendizer, Captain Harlock 2d series, Dr Slump, High Shcool Kimengumi, and many others, including some obscur anime named Dragon Ball.
I spent my early years watching Grendizer and Harlock, and watched Dragon Ball and DBZ almost every week, and sometimes every day during my middle and high school years. So Shunsuke Kikuchi's musics are the musics of my youth, and I neved stopped listening to them. Probably never will.
Piccolo Daimao's theme and Harlock's voice of liberty are probably my favorites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzYw9NaxE9g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCy-arjvFqE

In other news, french infamous HCQ "expert" doctor Raoult's university is now suing a researcher who pointed many errors (or frauds) in his previews works.
Since he complained in january 2020 that the world was making a fuss about a cold "that killed 3 chinese people" and will be "less lethal than motorized scooter accidents", he seems desesperate to get his reputation back by promoting a miracle cure. He is now the super star of the many french covid deniers and antivax (counting an important number of far right people supporting Trump and Putin).
Unfortunately, he seems to know some number of people in high places, which would explain why he doesn't face any consequences for his deeds. I wouldn't be surprised, considering french's ridiculous answer to the pandemia, that president Macron is unofficially listening to him.
Between that whole covid-deniers/anti-science circus and the rise of anti-blasphemy/pro-religion mentality that led to a teacher being beheaded last year, obscurancy in France is rising as fast as covid's death toll.

[iamrman]

I am running out of new things to read, so I am having to revisit things I have already read. Not that I am complaining, those titles I am revisiting are among my favourites. I wouldn't be revisiting them if they sucked.

I am particularly excited about revisiting the Roger Stern/John Romita Jr. run on Amazing Spider-Man. The two issues with Spidey fighting the Juggernaut are responsible for getting me to like the Juggernaut. Well, that and Deadpool 2.

Another favourite run I am looking forward to revisiting is Mark Gruenwald's Captain America. I love writers that dig deep in to continuity and Gruenwald is ho exception. I am also going to revisit his Quasar run as well.

As for DC, I am going to revisit George Perez's run on Wonder Woman and Sandman by Neil Gaiman.

George Perez is one of my favourite creators because he always puts loads and loads of characters into his work. Remember that cover of JLA/Avengers that had everybody that had ever been a member of the Justice League or an Avenger? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

As for Sandman, I always found Dream to be the least interesting one of the Endless. The others always seemed to have more personality than he did. Especially Death. Of course, she is my favourite. The two Death mini-series were what drew me to the Sandman series to begin with.

[tinygaylaura]

You can't stop him...ohhhhhhhhhh....you can't stop this motherfucker....

Gruenwald on Cap and Perez on Wonder Woman are both really good runs

And Sandman is amazing. I do agree that the other members of the Endless and the various supporting characters and one off characters were often more interesting than Dream himself though

[stubbleupdate]

In NFT news, Matt Kindt raised $5,000.

Expensive for a new issue of Mind MGMT, but very cheap for your artistic credibility.

You can read the entire thing (legally) for as cheap as free here

https://www.comicsbeat.com/mind-mgmt-nft-the-artifact/#click=https://t.co/jgnGLckd06

[scorntx]

Since it is May 4th, Classic FM was playing Star Wars music on it the day.
They started with... what else, the Imperial March.
... now, I like that piece, but there are other freaking themes from that film alone. Han & Leia's theme, or Yoda's theme for start. They could play them once in a while.
(as an aside, they also played "Dearly Beloved", which is an odd thing to hear on the way to work. Especially for Classic FM. Maybe their iPod broke?)

Also, got me thinking about how the sequels don't have much in the way of impressive music.
There's Rey's theme and the Resistance, and... not much else.
... not that I'm about to start moaning about the sequels.
(But I might lightly rag on some of the old EU later.)

[icon_uk]

Yeah, I had to raise an eyebrow at Williams being nominated for an Oscar for "The Rise of Skywalker" score because I was barely aware of any new music in it, what with so many "greatest hits" moments.

[lissa_quon]

Got to see people for the first time in ages. (My parents don't count.) Sadly after so long a hermit my social anxiety sort of made me feel very third wheel-y and flee the situation very quickly. Sort of bummed about that since these were old friends of mine I haven't seen in ages but *shrug*.

Also got to report like half a dozen art thieves on etsy that were stealing from me. Make one damn poster as a joke a years ago and have to suffer bots and thieves forever after.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

So Comcrap's removed Cartoon Network from Minneapolis 's local cable. I guess I'll hope either Tubi carries Stone Ocean or to set up a Crunchyroll account. 📺

[leahandillyana]

So mice squeaking is mice squeaking, but few squeaks are more annoying than Polish minister of health demanding that CZECH doctors not perform abortions on Polish patients, something that not only is perfectly legal in CZECH REPUBLIC, but something TOTALLY out of jurisdiction of Polish minister of health.