scans_daily | Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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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.

A happy Summer Solstice to all!

The UK is facing it's biggest rail strike for thirty years.

Sport seems set to make life more difficult for trans competitors, with swimming and rugby being the latest.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" had another fun episode (The T'PRing/Spock relationship is so much more interesting than "Amok Time" ever hinted at) which ended with a character reveal so unexpected I really did do a "Whaaaaat?"

Slammed by work today, so shorter and sweeter than normal. Have fun!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

From:

leahandillyana

For a few weeks I’ve been a patient of a psychiatric hospital. Being on a mental ward is an extreme taboo, comparable to being in prison, but I think the taboo needs to be overcome. Psychiatric help is what many people need, and better and more common psychiatric help would be greatly advantageous to the society. That said, I am thinking about psychiatric help more or less as it is in the EU, where stay in the hospital is not only free, but so are all medications you get during your stay and you are being paid the equivalent of the medical leave. I have positive experience here. I can take part in several artistic and hobbistic activities that my family thought of as a waste of time, but here are considered a part of the therapy. Even playing elaborate card games is a part of therapy! I can visit the beautiful local park and go home for weekends. Speaking of weekends, my improved psychical condition allowed me to take family trips to neighbouring cities, visiting some interesting places. I am still not well, but not as unwell as I used to be. I tried working during my stay, but combining work hours with therapy sessions was too tiresome for me, so I took a very long holiday to cover my stay. Our business is closing off anyways, so I’ll have to be looking for a new job once I leave the hospital. That said, I am aware that I am in a much better situation than any person in similar position in USA, UK or Canada, and I understand why many people there hate the idea of psychiatric hospitals.

I finished the Polish edition of “Darling in the Franxx”, and the series in this version is surprisingly decent. Sure, there are some serious problematic elements, but thanks to much more compassionate approach to the characters, even the unpleasant teens, and overall much less ideological bloat the manga is a much better read. While the anime was very normative, the manga took the approach of “even if you are strange and don’t fit the conventions, it doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a happy ending”.

At the same time, I finished Polish edition of “Caste Heaven”, which provided a satisfactory ending to the story. Once again, much of my enjoyment comes from the compassionate approach to all the characters, even those who did terrible things to others, and the awareness of the system fucking everybody over – a system that was overthrown in the end. I was positively surprised by a chapter focused solely on a female character and the fact that a couple that broke up earlier ended up coming back together. I’ve read many other manga, but these were the longer series I finished recently.

As for shorter ones, “Boy meets Maria” by Peyo left a deep impact on me despite being a single volume long. It’s a psychologically deep love story of a troubled teenager confused about their gender and a boy who fell totally in love with them. It follows the culturally curious trope of a parent bringing their child as a gender opposite to the one assigned at birth, but nonetheless it’s the first manga I’ve read explicitly dealing with the intersection of trauma and gender identity. I wouldn’t mind reading more about the characters. Please note that the story is VERY TRIGGERING. If bad things happening to children bother you, please don’t read it, it takes a shocking swerve right into trauma amids a silly romantic comedy.

The climax to the second arc of “Virgin Road” was brilliantly adapted in the anime, and I hope there will be a second season in the future. Meanwhile, please read the books, they are being released in English. I intend to watch the second season of “The Shadows’ House” as it is coming out and finally finish “Modaozushi” now that I have no excuse not to do so.

I watched the new “My Little Pony” cartoons, but I cannot call them anything but charmless – the very premise of the story makes the whole plot of Friendship is Magic pointless, and the characters don’t even act like friends, they are jerks to each other most of the time. I also do not appreciate a bizarre mini episode featuring bad life lessons, adult joke and imperial Japanese flag in the background.

June has been so far a very good month for me when it comes to American comics too. I’ll write more about my impressions once the month is finished, but I was positively surprised by DC Pride anthology and cried over Hulkling and Wiccan special. I’m also excited for Nubia, Poison Ivy, Robin, more DC vs Vampires, Legion of X, X-Men ‘92, Immortal X-Men, maaaaybe X-Men Red (loving the author, on the fence about characters and premise) and Marvel Pride. Let’s see how those things turn out.

There are many things that make me angry when interacting with Westerners online, in social media and fandom spaces alike, but I’m not sure if here is the place to discuss them, as the community is remarkably the place where I encounter them the least.

From:

skjam

One of the frequent headaches at work is how few inpatient mental health facilities are both "in network" (have contracts with the insurance company) and have open beds. And that's before any financial hardships that might apply!

From:

minervasolo

It sounds like you're in the right place for you right now, and I agree it's important to break the stigma by being open about it. I hope you manage to hold on to the gains you make while you're there once you leave; I think there's something very serendipitous about being able to take a holiday from your job while being freed from it to find something new afterwards.

From:

lissa_quon

I'm glad you're feeling better. And yea we really need to stop stigmatizing mental health care and facilities. We had to get my mom on some meds for her resulting depression and anxiety while healing from cancer treatment. We had to take a lot of time to talk her around/through the stigma she had about the whole situation.

As someone whose dealt with mental health issues in the US - our system for it sucks. I'm glad your experience is working out and sounds pleasant.

From:

donnblake

I've read a bunch of books lately. The Isiah Coleridge novels by Laird Barron are noir teetering on the edge of horror. Fans of Hannibal or True Detective may find that itch scratched.

Brian Evenson's The Last Days, on the other hand, feels like it really should have tripped over that abyss, but the ultra-spare text keeps it grounded in crime/detective area no matter how many amputation cults the plot leads to.

Gangs of New York presents an interesting overview of crime in New York city over the years, overlapping with King of Heists which follows the spectacular career and untimely end of George Leonidas, wealthy architect turned archburglar.

From:

scelestus

I just finished the Imago Sequence from Laird Barron, and it gave me nightmares- and I've been a Lovecraft fan since I was a pre-teen, so that's saying something! Absolutely love Barron's writing style!

From:

skjam

Work wants me to do more cross-training after being in this particular department less than a month. I appreciate that this is because I'm very good at what I do, but I've barely met my current teammates. Mentoring new hires is more fun than taking on yet another set of rules.

Reading has been slow (still on "Behind the Crimson Blind" by Carter Dickson, while in movies, I've been enjoying a Clint Eastwood month. http://www.skjam.com/2022/06/15/movie-review-magnum-force/

This upcoming weekend is my birthday, for which I am attending the last regular service at my hometown church. (Closing as all the young people moved out of that small town, and the handful of elderly members left are just not able to keep the place up.) I understand there is scheduled to be one last wedding ceremony there in July, and then a closing ceremony sometime in the fall.

Edited (more news) Date: 2022-06-21 12:49 pm (UTC)

From:

iamrman

Nothing much really sticks in my mind with my comi c reading this week. One thing that does stick in my memory is Batman Arkham: Talia al Ghul. It collects various 'important' Talia stories. I don't know the criteria was used to decide which stories went in the book. I did like seeing her first appearance and the two issues of Batman Incorporated inspired me to check out the series proper as well as Grant Morrison's Batman run. Well, maybe not Batman and Son because I really don't like Damien.

At the moment I am readimg volume 7 of Doctor Strange Masterworks. Next on my list is the first volume of Batman: Legacy, then it's Asterix the Gladiator. Tonally, my comics reading is all over the place!

Most of my free time has been taken up by video games.

It is all change again on my Animal Crossing island. I have decided to replace Ruby and Skye. I am working on getting Marshal to move in. I was thinking of giving him Ruby's old house next door to Sasha, then the northeastern corner of my island can be called Cute Boi corner.

There was a sale in the Nintendo eshop, so I got some new games. I am enjoying wreaking havoc in Saints Row the Third. I was going to create a character that looked like Rahne from the New Mutants, but one particular style of eye makeup convinced me to model her on Squirrel Girl instead.

From:

stubbleupdate

I have a terrible sense of foreboding

From:

deh_tommy

Towards what exactly, if you don’t mind me asking?

From:

malurette

Sitting around Tumblr, chin propped in hands, wondering whether "my gender is fruit" will gain traction and take on as a meme or quickly disappear into nothingness.

From:

cyberghostface

So we're getting a Kraven film and Aaron Taylor Johnson has described the character as "an animal lover and a protector of the natural world".

He also said Kraven is "one of Marvel’s most iconic, notorious anti-heroes — Spider Man’s number one rival". Whaaa--? Not the Green Goblin, Doc Ock or Venom? Kraven? (I know he's probably using hyperbole but come on.)

The funny thing is Kraven could make a decent villain for a Spider-Man movie -- I never thought Mysterio or Vulture would be top-tier MCU villains but they proved me wrong -- but a giving him a stand-alone film makes less sense than giving Morbius one.

https://variety.com/2022/film/global/sony-aaron-taylor-johnson-lyle-lyle-crocodile-1235298930/

From:

deh_tommy

I argue they could have done a good Morbius movie because it’s not like the potential isn’t there (heck, wasn’t he like the first Spider-Man character to get his own spin-off comic or something?), but the way it went down it’s clear they’re repeating the mistakes of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 where the movie solely exists for the post-credits teaser. “It’s Morbin’ Time” has had a bigger cultural impact on the Internet than anything actually in the movie itself.

Heck, just look at that post-credits scene: Vulture meets up with Morbius in footage that was very obviously meant for some other scene, and tells he tells Morbius “I figure a bunch of guys like us could team up and do some good”. The Sinister Six. Doing some good. Who are they even gonna fight?

Bringing the crack since December 2003

Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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