scans_daily | Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

icon_uk posting in

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.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than me.

I hope that those who had a long weekend enjoyed same and for those who celebrated religious festivals, be it Easter, Passover or Ramadan such observances were pleasant (and will continue to be so for Ramadan)

Doctor Who: The Legend of the Sea-Devils arrived and, well, it LOOKED good, and the Doctor/Yasmin relationship was finally addressed, but I don't think the story made a lot of sense and the celebrity historical aspect was sort of lost by having Madame Ching do pretty much nothing at all, and play second fiddle to fictional pirate Ji-Hun. Rumours abound that there was a LOT of things cut from this episode, which seems plausible given some oddly edited scenes, it only having a 47 minute runtime (when one might have expected an hour at least for a "special") and how things like the sea monster (not a Myrka, alas) just... disappeared from proceedings without comment. It was cromulent enough, but didn't quite shiver my timers.

The Next Time trailer, on the other hand... WOW! V jnf trahvaryl nznmrq gb frr abg whfg Npr, ohg Grtna gbb, naq V nz ernyyl ybbxvat sbejneq gb frrvat ubj gur frys cebpynvzrq "zbhgu jvgu yrtf" ernpgf gb gur srznyr Qbpgbe!

Avpr gb frr Xngr Fgrjneg gbb, ubcrshyyl tvira zber gb qb guvf gvzr. Ivaqre jnf yrff bs n fhecevfr nf V nz fgvyy fbzrjung pbaprearq gung gurl ner tbvat gb tb qbja gur "Zrrg gur ERNY Cneragf" ebhgr jvgu Ory/Ivaqre naq gur Qbpgbe

Gur Znfgre pbzvat onpx sbe gur svany Wbqvr rcvfbqr qbrfa'g fhecevfr zr ng nyy, ohg qnea vs Fnpun Qunjna vfa'g rnfl ba gur rlrf!

Must dash for now, but have fun!

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From:

leahandillyana

A lot has happened this week and I fear the future more than ever before. The battle of Donbas started yesterday, and thus far it doesn’t go well for the Ukrainians. Furthermore, it doesn’t mean other parts of the country have a moment of respite. Lviv is no longer a relatively-safe city. On Monday, hypersonic missiles fell on vehicle service station and main railway station, killing at least seven people including a child. I lost contact with my family members in Lviv, and I hope it is just because they have phone problems. In the midst of the war happening beyond our eastern border, there are several very worrying things happening in Poland:
• There’s a bill that if passed would strengthen the existing protection of religious sensibilities law to an absurd degree, prohibiting what amounts to any criticism of catholic church (technically all recognized religious groups, but we all know it won’t work that for others, given that a few years ago a protestant pastor was arrested for organizing a mass as part of pride parade events, which some catholics saw as sacrilegious). It is meant to silence the opposition and indignation after the mass scale of child sexual abuse by priests and catholic institutions in Poland started to be shown light on. In a darkly humorous way, if the law passes, priestly child abusers won’t find themselves punished for their crimes, but their victims will find themselves in jail if they talk about them – perhaps alongside doctors and activists providing abortion pills, as first such trial started this week.
• Another bill meant to to strangle civil society is one that if passed will demand for non-governmental organizations to disclose full list of all donors and the sum of the money they donated if their income passes a certain amount a year. This would not only add another level of bureaucracy that would eat out the power of the orgs, but also the demand of transparency would be dangerous to donors themselves – ‘Oh look, Kowalska regularly donates to this horse charity, she must be rich, let’s break into her flat;’ ‘Oh look, Nowak donated to this queer org, he must be a faggot, let’s beat him up’ etc.
• The national ban on importing Russian natural resources into Poland and nationalizing properties of Russian Federation located in Poland did not pass even though all of opposition and a large part of the government alliance was in favour, because the government demanded change of constitution as the only way they’d agree. We ended up with shit, as usual.
• Sky over Poland will likely be closed by the end of April. The situation is too complex to describe here, but as a result the airlines will be hit hard. Polish destinations are being served almost exclusively by either flag carrier LOT or ultra low cost carriers like Ryanair or Wizz Air, for whom the closure of fourth major European destination may prove fatal, adding to the already existing recession.
• Today is the 79th anniversary of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. If you are unfamiliar with it, please take a minute to read the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising For a few days, presenters of TVN stations (the group of channels Polish government wanted to close) have been wearing origami daffondils as a symbol of the memory (these were flowers Marek Edelman was giving his fallen friends on each anniversary of the tragedy). Also today the Polin Museum of Polish Jews premieres the play “Mama zawsze wraca” (‘Mom always returns’), an adaptation of a children’s book telling the true story of a little girl whose mother hid her in the cellar to protect her in the ghetto. The book is heartbreaking, and the adaptation utilizes light and shadow art to portray the events in a beautiful and experimental way.
Worth noting that if media were all nationalized people wouldn’t know about any of this, as national media presents all these issues the way Fox News presents ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and similar bills.
I can’t help but feel a growing resentment toward closeted gay men due to this very long chain of events. The men involved in creating the laws that hurts women, queer people, non-catholics, environment and civil society are in large part known to be gay men, having male lovers, hiring male sex workers, frequenting the few gay bars existing in Poland, in some cases known to have been sexually abusing men, or male youths and children, and doing all they can to hurt the majority of Poles and Poland itself. It’s not even like when saint Peter rejected Jesus when he feared for his life, it’s like all those government officials in Western Europe who willingly collaborated with nazi occupants, sending their own fellow citizens to be tortured and killed. I understand saint Peters of modern world, but I hate gay Quislings and Petains.
The renovation of my flat is about halfway finished, but the shitty workers my mother hired did not protect my books and they are all dusty. I’ll have to see how can I safe them. At least the flat no longer looks as if it was hit with a missile, I guess. That said, a) I didn’t come up with the idea, my mother did and forced it on me, b) the renovation started in July and went on a snail’s pace, forcing me to live with my parents and indirectly possibly putting lives in danger, c) I don’t like what she came up with, d) the flat was already renovated a few years ago and didn’t need any changes, it even looked borderline sterile for my tastes, e) not a single surface in renovated flat is even.
I had a dream in which I was bleeding – not in any way that would put me in danger, I was mostly annoyed that I’ll have to wash all my clothes – but where the blood fell on the ground stunning tall red tulips grew. There were also ghosts of girls and cats in danger in the dream, but I think that was just some usual nonsense. I’d be interested in possible symbolism of the dream.
I am trying to think of some positives.
• The snow finally melted just before Easter and while there are few leaves, my garden is colourful with blossoming crocuses, marigolds, daisies, hyacinths (both common garden hyacinths and Armenian grape hyacinths), primroses, violets, early tulips, forsythias, plums and magnolias. In neighbouring gardens I see almonds, cherries and peaches blossoming light pink and willows with adorable fluffy catkins on bright yellow young twigs. I love how nature reacts immediately to the change of scenery.
• I met many friendly animals, including a family of fallow deer, a hedgehog, a fox, and many birds I have not seen here before or seen only rarely - goldfinches, grosbeaks, waxwings, long-tailed tits, and siskins. City dwelling rock pidgeons and jackdaws also seem to have moved here. Friend said that the war caused migration of birds westward, so that’s probably the reason. I think I will have to continue feeding them perhaps even into May. I bought them some parrot food with honey. We’ll see how they like it.
• I baked a delightful tart with elderberry and rose jam, condensed milk, almonds, candied orange peel and chocolate butterflies, as well as a cheesecake with raisins, blueberries, blackberries and plenty of lemon juice and peel.
• I completed the space panda suit in Shinning Nikki and have still over 30k pink diamonds left in the game. In Magia Record, I obtained four new magical girls (Momoko, Mito, Rumour Tsuruno and Tsukasa) in a short time period, surprising myself with this luck. Thank you MagiReco, thank you Momo-kun.
• I accidentally dyed a variety of laundry light pink, but I consider them to be much better looking that way and am satisfied with the accident.
• I also learned that there are at least two underground shelters in my neighbourhood and if worst comes to worst the canals can be a mostly safe hiding space, though not at all accessible with all my family members being disabled and us having to take our cats with us.
I have some thoughts about Dick Grayson and how the character is perceived both in fandom and among the creators, but when I tried to word them I ended up writing a short essay, which I don’t think would be fitting after a page of utter misery :/
If anyone would like to talk with me on any topic in private messages, I’d be glad. I feel guilty, lonely and afraid.

From:

cainofdreaming

Just wanted to post this -- https://newsfounded.com/finlandeng/the-pentagon-has-found-nothing-to-confirm-rumors-of-russian-ammunition-being-carried-across-the-finnish-border-abroad/ -- in relation to our last exchange in last week's offtopic. Thought it might calm any anxiety you might have about the war spreading here.

Still, joining Nato before anything like that happens seems wise.

From:

tinygaylaura

" • The snow finally melted just before Easter and while there are few leaves, my garden is colourful with blossoming crocuses, marigolds, daisies, hyacinths (both common garden hyacinths and Armenian grape hyacinths), primroses, violets, early tulips, forsythias, plums and magnolias. In neighbouring gardens I see almonds, cherries and peaches blossoming light pink and willows with adorable fluffy catkins on bright yellow young twigs. I love how nature reacts immediately to the change of scenery."

I adore the beautiful sights that we get around this time of year its such a lovely feeling seeing all these colorful and fun flowers

"• I met many friendly animals, including a family of fallow deer, a hedgehog, a fox, and many birds I have not seen here before or seen only rarely - goldfinches, grosbeaks, waxwings, long-tailed tits, and siskins. City dwelling rock pidgeons and jackdaws also seem to have moved here. Friend said that the war caused migration of birds westward, so that’s probably the reason. I think I will have to continue feeding them perhaps even into May. I bought them some parrot food with honey. We’ll see how they like it."

These animals sense what a good person you are

I wish I had this variety of fun and friendly animals roaming around near where I live. We do have some stray cats who I try to look out for tho. I leave them out food and a little water bowl

"• I baked a delightful tart with elderberry and rose jam, condensed milk, almonds, candied orange peel and chocolate butterflies, as well as a cheesecake with raisins, blueberries, blackberries and plenty of lemon juice and peel. "

That sounds very tasty! :)

From:

zachbeacon

I had a pretty promising day off last week and I’m really hoping I can get the information I need to make some more progress in my insurance claim this week because I’m going to be limited in what I can do next week.

Current used car prices are obscene.

I don’t know what it is about Turning Red but it seems to be a magnet for morons. The last profoundly stupid internet take I saw is that this movie about a Canadian girl with magic panda powers is unrealistic because it takes place in 2002 and they aren’t constantly talking about 9/11 the year before.

Finally saw No Way Home. Rather than ramble about what I did and didn’t like, I’ll just say I’m very happy for Garfield. He seems like a nice guy and he deserves to be in a fun Spider-Man movie.

I watched about fifteen minutes of The Batman last night before I had to start fighting with the HBO Max app. Maybe I’ll have time to finish it this week.

I don’t have a lot of time to comment on the new Young Justice arc though I do have a fair amount to say. Short version is I’m happy to see Rocket but less enthusiastic about the New Gods stuff (oh boy, another political arc where the heroes ally with terrible people because the alternative is even worse).

I’ve read Slott’s F4 up until the Wizard arc. While I’m enjoying a lot of it, I really think this suffers from the same problem as his Spider-Man run; it just can’t stick to a status quo long enough for me to be invested. Hey, Frank and Val are active members of the team and … nope he lost his powers and if she contributes to the story at all now, she does it against her parents’ wishes. The extremely out of touch members of the team (ie everyone but Ben) have to live among normal people and … nope three quarters of them are back in the Baxter Building. Johnny has a new love interest and …look no one actually expected that to last but they were so busy telegraphing the end of the Sky/HT relationship that they forgot to give them a relationship.

I finished the Kyle Higgins Darkhawk mini and I REALLY hope they actually have plans for the character this time. It feels like we’ve been getting a one-shot and short story about once a year for the past handful of years teasing bigger plans for Powell but nothing ever materializes. This time we got a mini introducing a new character but there’s no indication of where he’ll be used next (are the Champions still a thing? He has an in with Miles) … also it teases bigger plans for Powell.

From:

scorntx

More Rocket is always good. (yay for Rocket representation!)

Maybe the New Gods will instead be more of the stuff with the Lords of Order.
The whole "we are supposedly good but won't actually be of any help to you because of some obstructive code we keep even though our enemies don't." routine.
(Which, admittedly, has been a problem with the New Gods for a very long time anyway...
... digging Highmother's Kirby hat, though.)

Bringing the crack since December 2003

Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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