Quiver

What is this "overtime" you speak of? Nope. No overtime. But for every hundred hours, I get a holiday, which is...something? Sorry. whine so much.

I'm looking at 45 hours at work, over the next four days. I am going to be exhausted.

...does it surprise you if I chime in with "I don't like children and babies"...?

Eh, I've shared this story before... but what the hey. My first ever roleplaying experience; a mortals game of Exalted. If you know Exalted, you should already realize this means our life expectancy could be counted in hours. I did not know that until after the game; it was just a one-off, intended to try and court players to the game. (It worked, but the game died a week or two later for different reasons) So, Exalted. to set the scene; we were playing a party investigating some serious "Children of the Corn" type shenanigans, and our investigations led us to a nearby jungle/forest.We entered the area, cautious and wary, and still managed to get jumped by the locals, who scored off a series of shots with blowdarts tipped with poisons. Most of us got jumped anyway; the rogue managed to escape, and settled for tailing them, as the natives dragged our unconscious bodies to... somewhere, and dumped us in a cage. So, our characters came to sitting in a cage which was made of bones. This was less than encouraging, made even less so by the fact that the poisons they knocked us out with? Had trippy side-effects. As in, the "lick the back of a frog, and space out man," kind of trippy. So, the rogue is scouting out the scene. And whatever she saw, it didn't bode well for us... you know, in case the bone cage hadn't already given that impression. So, she decides she's going to stage a jail break. With Exalted running off of "Rule of Cool", and because she didn't want to risk being too open while she did so, she decided to be a cool rogue type. She would toss the dagger she had on her, breaking the lock and letting us all escape. She flipped the dagger, caught it by the blade. Lined up the shot; threw it. And that's when things started to go wrong. I'll start with the rogue. Unfortunately for her, people noticed the dagger flying out of the bushes, and started to swarm towards her. Immediatly, she decided to take off through the wilderness, enemies chasing behind her trying to stick her with spears and blowguns and other pointy things. We ended the session before we found out what happened to her; she was the lucky one. As for the dagger... the GM rolled, to see if it hit the lock and how much damage it would do. Turned out it missed. So he rolled to see if it would hit the bars of the cage, or go through. Turns out it missed the bars, and went through towards us. So he rolled to see if it would hit one of us. Since I'm the one telling this story, you can probably tell how that ended; with my ranger, still coming down from a drug high, suddenly having a knife planted blade first in his chest. He fell to the ground. Now, I cna't recall our precise party load-out... but we had a druid with us. And the druid had healing skills; not magic, but actual, battlefield surgery. Which he immediately leapt up to do. Leading to a stoned out druid trying to perform impromptu heart surgery, with no equipment, on a guy who had no unaesthetic, in the middle of a (presumably unsanitary) cage made out of the bones of the dead. It ended poorly. Only other games I'm doing at the moment... well, haven't had anything really crazy or cool happen yet. Statistically improbably, yes, but nothing crazy or cool.

Not posting pictures, but. Urgh. I have put on so much weight, and am so fat now.

Whoops. He confirmed her as bisexual? Didn't see that part! ...I think I'm gonna stick with headcanoning Diana as pansexual. That just makes more sense to me.

Objection! (Could not find a decent Wonder Woman picture to caption that with...) Diana's sexuality is a really complex subject. The current writer, Greg Rucka, has outright stated in an interview that he writes Wonder Woman as "queer", but exactly what that means hasn't been expanded upon. There is, absolutely, a lot of lesbian images, refrences and inferences across Wonder Womans 75-year publication history; Wonder Woman: Earth One has a lot of allusions to it, with Diana on-panel being confirmed as having had a girlfriend. There's one issue (I think by Gail Simone?) where Wonder Woman presides over a lesbian marriage, and tells Clark that "Where I'm from, we don't call this a gay marriage. We just call it a marriage." Rucka's run has been a little more ambiguous when it comes to what's on the page, with Diana being the focus of other Amazon's attentions and rumors. There is a scene where one of the characters she is (rumored) to have been in a relationship with kisses her on the cheek... but Diana herself doesn't visibly respond much to it. Her sequances with the Cheetah do have kind of a tragic undercurrent to them, but it's really at the readers discretion as to whether or no they want to interpret that as romantic. Personally, I interpret Wonder Woman as pansexual. Considering how her whole deal is about Truth and Love as forces, it makes more sense to me that she would care less about what gender a person is and more about what that person is like as a person. There is a LOT of alternative sexual stuff associated with Wonder Woman over the years, dating right back to her origin story. The man who created her was engaged in a polyamorous relationship and household with two women, and had a belief in the power of women and the need for men to submit to "loving authority". It's... interesting. But I admit, it's stuff which I am a little wary of talking about too much on an open-forum, given the subject matter.

Wonder Woman is being made an honorary ambassador of the United Nations. That's not hyperbole or Snark; it's not an actress who played her who is getting that. Wonder Woman, the comic book character, is the one being acknowledged. I'm not sure whether her 70's theme song, with it's rollicking lyrics, or her awesome BvS theme does a better job describing the experience. Point is, is cool. I like.

For liking guitars, according to one topic.

It airs next week. But so far, I've heard decent things? Hoping Sunset gets to keep her protagonist role, though. Sunset is Best Human.

I'm sort of disappointed by the Stormlight Archive. Roshar is a fascinating world. I love the setting, the cultures, the creatures and the peoples. I love Rysn's chapters because she's been our main viewpoint to see the world. But the narrative itself feels very 'safe', very traditional High Fantasy. After years of having the genre deconstructed by the likes of Game of Thrones, that's kind of refreshing... ... But I don't think the narrative is strong enough. Few of the characters connect with me as strongly as Vin did. The story isn't as subversive as Warbreaker (delightful and twisted) take on the Sword and Sorcery genre. The Stormlight Archive feels more like a sequel to Elantris than anything else. And I think a portion of that does apply to Kaladin, as has been pointed pit above. His depression and racism are interesting, but on the whole, he feels like a very "traditional" hero figure to me.

You know... I'm actually hoping we get a good Skybreaker at some point. Right now, Naln is an antagonist, and Szeth has a...shall we say chequered past? I'd be really interested in seeing a Lawful character presented in a positive light; right now, the implication is that Skybreaker don't care for anything that doesn't exist within the legal framework. I'd love to see the reverse of that; someone who is compassionate, kind, who still holds the morals and values of the Skybreaker order.

A meta discussion thread, since I don't think we have enough of those. As the title says...do you guys think that Hoid is too much of a presence in the Stormlight books? As fans who are aware of the Cosmere, we can understand Hoid's presence in the books, why he is such a big deal, why he is interested in events, and how he connects to the metaplot of Honor, Cultivation and Odium. But... I do wonder if the way Hoid is presented is a deterrent to readers who aren't familiar with the Cosmere. Frankly, if I didn't know who Hoid was? My immediate guess would be "He's a Herald." After all, he shows up in unexpected places, has philosophical discussions with three point of view characters, is present for the return of two major characters in epilogues... In previous books, Hoid has been an easter egg for eagle-eyed fans. In the Stormlight Archive, he's like a flashing neon sign...and I wonder how readers unfamiliar with the Cosmere will take his character, and how that effects their readings. Are they frustrated that Kaladin doesn't press Sigzil for information on the obviously important guy? That Dalinar isn't more suspicious of the King's jester appearing with "Taln" and running away? Because I admit; it stands out to me. I enjoy the books -don't get me wrong- and I like finding Hoid in stuff, and wondering what he's doing; heck, Warbreaker is my favourite book, and it's becoming cosmere relevant in a big way! But the complications Warbreaker brings to the series are going to be resolved in the Stormlight Archive. Since Nightblood and Vasher were originally meant for this series, they fit in a little more easily, and will presumably be fully explained and resolved within the narrative of Roshar, while Hoid... Hoid can't be, because he's tied to the narrative of the larger universe. Unless Roshar gent's really heavy with the worldhopping as it goes on, I find it hard to see how Hoid can get a satisfying storyline and conclusion in this series, especially for readers who aren't familiar with the larger Cosmere. Am I overthinking things?

So... Rwby volume 4 trailer

I choose to interpret Trixie saying they are "Best Friends" to same way Lyra and Bon Bon were "Best friends", so.

Actually...what is the political spectrum of media? I know of liberal leaning shows, like the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight, but not sure on media outlets... I'm kinda worried I talked too much and bugged people about it. But. Season 6 finale. It was alright.

Uh...Sorry. What's NPR? ...irrelevant side note! The UK is airing season 6 of MLP. I actually haven't talked Pony here (or in general) for a while. Work means I kept missing episodes when they first aired, so I decided to just leave it until I could get the time. ...well, the UK is airing the season 6 finale early so. Watching that. Halfway through, and my main takeaway?

I actually remember an episode of the 80's Transformers show which had that concept, sort of. An old version of Cobra Commander downloaded a bunch of Autobots into human bodies so he could use their robot forms for...something. Evil, presumably. But...you know, I did have a sci-fi idea floating around in my head, a spaceship crewed entirely by A.I. which served as the last proof of human existence, long after Earth was destroyed. That might work for this; an alien species decides to resurrect the Human race by downloading their old computer programs into cloned bodies...

So... Question. Is it normal to feel sick in dreams? So, as I said before, most of my dreams are about me having essays due, or failing exams...despite the fact that I've been out of school for years now. Anyway, normally I feel really anxious in those dreams. But last night, said anxiety was enough that I felt physically ill. Mentally ill? Whatever. So...yeah. Is feeling sick -like stomach churning sick- in dreams normal?

...see, now you've got me thinking about #assimilation, and how that might work...

My excitement for the upcoming seasons is a little muted, to be honest. Don't get me wrong; I'm still excited and looking forward to them. The crossover episodes have me psyched, the Legion of Doom should be fun, I'm a fan of the JSA...there is a lot of cool stuff coming this year. It's just a little tempered by the fact that...well, the last two seasons of Arrow haven't been very good. Flash season two had a lot of really amazing episodes (Earth-2) but overall, I don't think it was as strong as season 1. And Legends, while enjoyable enough, didn't live up to it's potential. (Still haven't finished Supergirl. Thanks work!) I'm hoping that was teething problems. They've started adjusting Legends, Arrow is going back to being the gritty crime drama it was in the first two seasons, and the Flash has a chance to do stuff playing to it's strengths. But it's more cautiously optimistic than I was this time last year.

...huh. Admit, I'd be curious about getting in on the drawing...but I am far too self-conscious of my appearance for that. If people like ghost stories, though, I'll just repeat that they should check out The Black Tapes.

So... DC is unveiling the cast for a new Justice League comic. By sheer coincidence, the cast thus far consists entirely of characters who have appeared, or are slated to appear, in their DCTV shows. I snark (somewhat inaccurately, since the Atom of the show is Ray Palmer, not Ryan Choi, but Ryan is wearing a suit that looks like TV!Ray's, so I think we can call that a wash), but honestly? I'm excited. One of DC's flaws is that they don't really capitalize on the success they find in other media well. Not that they don't capitalize, of course. Smallville led to Lex being re-established as having grown up in Smallville, for instance, while recent Green Arrow runs have introduced Diggle and Felicity (to mixed success). Heck, a lot of crucial Superman lore (the Fortress, Jimmy, Kryptonite) originated from movie or radio and was introduced to the comics retroactively; DC definitely pulls on extra-comic influences a lot. But at the same time they botch things so hard sometimes. Like the fact that at a time when Green Arrow and the Flash are riding waves of popularity, they don't really promote the characters any more than they had been, and instead saddle them with terrible writers who write terrible stories that aren't going to make readers stay. And if you saw Supergirl, or Vixen, and thought "She looks cool!" and wanted to read a book about her? Too bad, because DC didn't publish any Supergirl or Vixen comics when those shows were released. So... yeah. Having a book which has CW-based characters? That doesn't sound like a bad idea. It could definitely help draw in new readerbases. Also, the teaser images just look so cool that I want the book right now.

Random idea that occured to me last night. I'm not much of a sci-fi guy, but I've watched enough to understand the kind of fears associated with roboticisation. It helps that I grew up in the 90's, when the Borg were one of the most terrifying things and even I -someone who never watched (and don't especially like)- TNG knew what their deal was. Of course, Star Trek always ends with assimilated crew members going back to normal (er... spoilers?). But that got me thinking: how terrifying must it be to actually have those robot parts replaced with human ones?

Actually, I really like the 'Secret Feeder' idea. That's kind of neat. Alternatively... go for the most obvious solution in the book: perspective swap. Write the story from the point of view of the UBBQ. Or, maybe, alternate the chapters? Like... chapter 1, show it from Unpopular Girls perspective, and really play into the stereotype; that UBBQ is... well, an Uptight Blonde Beauty Queen, who spends more time concerned with her appearance than with what is actually important. The chapter 2, write from UBBQ's point of view... and show her thoughts on Unpopular Girl, and all the neagtive flaws she see's about her. Actualy, thinking about it... I would recommend the Twilight sporks on Das Sporking. I mean, I would recommend those anyway (they are great fun), but Twilight is, by and large, a traditional chik-lit story of the (supposedly) Plain Unpopular Girl winning. The recaps, riffs and sporkigns do a lot to flesh out the rest of the world of Twilight, and it's characters, and that includes pointing out how the UBBQ characters of that piece are villainised unfairly, and what makes them more interesting and sympathetic than our lead.