843 thoughts on “Am I Evil? The Graphic Novel IndieGoGo Launch! 9/9/20”

  1. Firsties ?

    Rerun from last page-

    Informal poll.
    Spotify or Pandora?

    I am thinking of giving in and getting a subscription. I currently use the free version of Pandora but the kids are Spotify fans.

    Discuss.

    • Well, not that it’s worth anything, but I don’t use either. We have family plan subscriptions for Amazon Music and Youtube/Google Play Music. Used Amazon as my primary for a good while, though of late I’ve been making a lot more use of Youtube Music. There’s all kinds of remakes/remixes/alternate styles of songs from crazy talented folks on Youtube, so I find myself drawn them more often.

    • Between those 2, Spotify is what I’d choose – – though I hate to give more money to that scumbag CEO, after his recent “let musicians eat moldy cake” comments.

      Amazon’s premium music service is OK (speaking of supervillain CEOs).

  10. I’ve been doing the Amazon music thing. It has almost any album you can think of and a few good mixes. I’m tempted by the Youtube music app though.

  12. Also, also, I bit the bullet and downloaded the new Flight Simulator and did a virtual flyover of my neighborhood for 20 minutes this morning. For all the complaining online I expected the worse, but overall the visuals are great and everything ran smoothly on my system. I pulled by 10-year-old joystick and FS found it and set up all the buttons automatically, it even showed the correct graphic representation of it. I flew over my daughter’s high school and could see school buses parked outside and flew over the small park by my house. I look forward to spending more time on it this weekend.

  17. Thanks for the birthday wishes, all. It was mostly a busy day of work, followed by a nice small gathering of friends for dinner.

    And, The Mandalorian Season 2 was announced today to be available October 30, so that was a nice present.

  19. Hey, I am encouraged that people are digging Lovecraft Country ep 2 (and ep3).

    I’m certainly not going to try to convince you guys that you’re wrong for liking it.

  23. Hey guys- I recommend taking a few minutes to give this a watch. It’s The latest post from Hudson Alpha on new Covid info. Specifically the link between metabolism and your likelihood of needing hospitalization if you get Covid. Nothing scary or dire here, it’s just an interesting data point That may be too new to have gotten much coverage.
    I follow this blog because they are not combing the Internet for news…they are combing science journals, hospital data and science lab reports.

    Watch “Shareable Science Beyond the Blog: Metabolism and COVID – September 2” on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/453880379?ref=em-v-share

  25. My furnace died. While it’s not a huge deal now, it will be an issue soon. Someone’s coming over to look at it this afternoon.

    What is the mask protocol in these situations?

    • Rebels starts off slow, especially in it’s first season.

      Stick with it though, and start stocking up on tissues for the later seasons. It will be hitting you in all the feelz.

      Trust in Filoni.

      • We’re 6 episodes in on Rebels. We’re not going to abandon it because of our youngest viewer. . . and at least it’s less violent/disturbing than Clone Wars, for her. . . I don’t know about Filoni, but I’ll trust in Ed and keep my (many, many) complaints to myself. Well, except one.

        Ezra.

        Seriously, this is the worst character in all of Star Wars. Yes, even worse than him.

      • So you know my policy. I’m not gonna harsh something you guys dig.

        I’ll report more as we get further along. In these first 6 episodes, though, I’ve found myself cheering for the imperials and monsters every time Ezra is in danger.

    • Yeah, that’s not a long wait until the regular D+ subscription will be enough to watch. I’ve got enough going on that I’ll probably wait for the “free” version as well.

    • I’m not. I wanted to see this in the theater. It’s only $30. That’s not far off 2 tickets and concessions for us.

      Plus, I want Disney to keep making movies like this, and not shot-for-shot remakes of their animated films. This is also the most expensive film directed by a woman and I want it to succeed. There are a lot of things that Disney has done differently for this film and, again, I want it to succeed.

      So, yes, I’m voting with my wallet. $30 bucks does not break the bank. Some people have been bent out of shape about “the cost” and “the money grab” when Disney has lost Billions this year. I don’t feel the same when it is a movie I’ve been excited about. But if you aren’t, waiting is certainly fine.

  31. Hey Van, you saw the new Bill & Ted. Do you feel like it requires a rewatch of the first two movies to get what’s going on? I remember them both, but more of the first one and less of the Bogus Journey.

    • I saw both films last year so they were still fresh in my memory. My sister also watched and she hasn’t seen the first two films since original release and she still enjoyed the new film.

  33. Heading home after watching New Mutants.

    Feels very 90s and more like a pilot of a tv series than a film. Not terribly good or bad, wait for it to go to streaming is my advice.

  35. JW: I’m thinking of ending things

    What a pile of tripe!

    I’ve liked a lot of Kaufman film in this past by goodness this was pretentious shite.

  38. This is driving me mad, would Anybody with a Netflix account have a look at the film ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ and tell me if it displays wide screen or has black vertical bars on either side of the visible screen?

  42. So we watched Empire Strikes Back last night. I really tried to watch it from the perspective of a 2020 viewer who’d never seen it before. Impossible – – but mainly, I can only think that the stop-motion tauntaun effects and some of the snowspeeder effects might seem dated to kids raised on CGI.

    But man, this movies holds up. A lot of it is the performances. From the imperial stooges to the main actors.

    • Two more points:

      Return of the Jedi is coming up next movie night.
      Lots of people bag on RotJ (not me), but ESB wouldn’t be as great if the resolution didn’t also work. And it does. Even with Ewoks. As great as Empire Strikes Back is, it’s not a complete standalone story without Jedi.
      For comparison: Matrix 2 is a lot of setup and fun action scenes, but Matrix 3 doesn’t pay off on any of it, so both sequels are commonly remembered as crappy.

      At the very end, when the Millennium Falcon gets away, Vader stalks off of the Stardestroyer bridge, I LOL’ed at the imperial peon who’s writing on his clipboard, just trying to look busy.

  49. Last night we watched the third of John Carpenter’s apocalypse trilogy, In the Mouth of Madness. We enjoyed it.
    Of the three movies my ranking would be, The Thing, followed by In the Mouth of Madness, with Prince of Darkness being third.

  50. So the latest Lovecraft Country episode had a Indiana Jones/National Treasure vibe which was fun but I preferred the low key approach the author took in the novel.

  53. I just finished slogging my way through Terry Pratchett’s “Reaper Man”.
    I suspect that 12 year old me might have thought it was amazingly clever.
    “Current” me found it ponderous.

    • I’ve read a number of Discworld novels, but I don’t remember that one. I’ve really liked a few, but there were also a few that I started and stopped. All this as a grown-ass man, closer to current me than 12-year-old me.

      I recall liking “Night Watch,” “Small Gods,” and “Mort.”

    • Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      I actually just ordered a 30″ x 40″ display box to display my rare Venture Bros. t-shirt of the week collection. Not it’s going to wind up being more of a shrine.

  59. Jack! I’m going to be late to the party tomorrow. John comes home and we eat at the time it starts so I’ll be a half hour late to the live event.

  62. So I switched to Heinlein.
    Turns out my problem with the Pratchett book wasn’t me, it was the book. This is good stuff! Very engaging.
    Book is “The Green Hills of Earth” and seems to be a collection of short stories that may have been published, one at a time, in magazines in the late 40’s or early 50’s

  63. So, seems like Hollywood may have misinterpreted my request to stop with all the reboots/reinvisionings/reimaginings. The latest fad seems to be what I call playing in someone else’s playground. Take a property like Watchmen or Lord of the Rings and do something that lets you use the title of the work but not be tied to the original materials. Now that seems to be expanding into taking secondary characters and developing them so that they don’t have to be tied to the original materials. Examples are the Nurse Ratched series on Netflix and now:

    https://geektyrant.com/news/mgm-is-developing-a-robocop-prequel-series-that-focuses-on-a-young-dick-jones

    • I have a problem with this as well.
      The new “Road Warrior” seemed a prime offender of this.
      Tieing a new movie to an existing name like that … shows an amazing lack of faith in the films ability to draw it’s own audience.

      • Right? I know that movies/tv have always been mostly business ventures as far as studios go. But they sometimes let real art flow into the works. That process seems to be slipping away.

        And I am keenly aware that much of the problem might just be me becoming a cranky old man. The more I’m able to see the formulas and cliches, the more sensitive to them I become.

  66. Exhausting whirlwind evening. That Livestream was wild! We talked to about a dozen+ people who each on their own would make for a fascinating solo interview.

    TBH, I was a little overwhelmed, and I hope I didn’t short-change anyone.

    And btw, Ryah, Derek made it into the chat, but never on video.

    JustaJoe, sorry, I never saw your post here. I will post a link here.

  67. So yesterday I cancelled my pledge on Kickstarter for an expensive (300 quid) 8 bit computer hardware emulator that would use an FPGA.

    Delivery date was August 2021 and I’m just not confident my will not have went tits up by then.

    • Yes, that is bonkers. But excellent – – Muse translates well. Reminds me a lot of Vika Yermolyeva’s piano interpretations (I think she did a few Muse songs too, in addition to Slayer, Metallica, Opeth, etc).

  80. A certain site just sent me a “how did we do?” About a service request I put in. This is when you find out how much you are valued. After blasting them, if they don’t approach me on their knees, I will never touch them again

  81. I finished “The Last of Us II”. Wow. It was an even better game/story than the first. 😥

    Here’s hoping Netflix can do the series justice.

  85. The game I played obsessively this week was Stela on Apple Arcade (it came out on other platforms last year). If you’ve played Limbo/Inside than you’ll have a good idea how this game plays.

    Just one last achievement to get, To play through the entire game without dying.

  89. I finished a second Heinlen, “The Red Planet.” – enjoyable. Sort of “The Hardy Boys on Mars”
    In fact the lead characture were two high school age boys named Jim and Frank.

    • Mrs. Asshat has one of those somewhere around the house. It’s a kid standing in the corner. Not sure why is so amazingly fucked up compared to any other dolls she’s got.

  97. We have the kind of tv service where you speak to it and say what you want to watch. Last night we told it we wanted to watch Raised By Wolves. It came back saying it could find no program called Baseball by Wolves.
    Now I kind of want to watch Baseball by Wolves

  102. I rarely impulse buy games these days, especially on the day the games are released.

    However today is different as Spelunky 2 was just released on the PS4 and that game was bought!

  109. In reply to a comment way up there in the thread: I was in a class that was assigned “The Babysitter” shorty story as reading material in a college English class. As I recall, the short story did a lot of interesting things with perspective, kinda like Rashomon.

    • I’m looking forward to exploring the iOS 14 changes. But, Mrs. Asshat is practically a technophobe and I will have to learn everything I can about it so I can ease her into the massive changes they have planned. I’m sure I’ll be listening to a lot of griping while she accustoms herself.

  117. Hey, Deadpan! I should check back in here more.

    Some of my local friends and I just had the first session of our FATE Core RPG over Roll20. Good times, good times. We’ve been planning this game for over a year now, so it was a bit of an achievement for all of us. For the curious: The game is set in a series of interconnected simulated worlds called The Fractal, described by the GM as “if Stargate Universe took place inside The Matrix.” We are runaways and wanderers who came together through happenstance and a series of events involving street racing (part of the character-building and game-planning process is to work out what these events were), and now, the childhood friend of Ophelia (another player’s character) has invited us to meet her to discuss a favor she needs. Today’s session was just us receiving the invitation and road-tripping to the meeting, but I had fun and am looking forward to the next one. 🙂

  125. Today’s movie is Cruel Peter

    When he was alive, he was a little terror. Now that he’s dead, he’s got bigger problems.

    Today’s theme, will be the alphabet

  197. Absolutely breathtaking creative display, Energizer! Fascinatingly grand happening in Jack’s killer landscape made nicely on Peter’s quirky R-rated suspense turkey under visions with eXcellent yuks, Zmed.

    • Just a reminder that there is still a pandemic going on.

      Employee at my wife’s company was out “not fealing well” a few days last week but was back on Friday. Sunday he took a turn for the worse and went to the hospital.
      Quick test apparently showed he had Covid. Monday night he was dead.
      He was in his mid 40’s. Previously Healthy. No pre-existing conditions that anyone knows of.

      Covid is still “a thing”. IT doesn’t care how old you are, what your political views are or where you live.

      It may give you no symptoms or it may take you from perfectly healthy to DEAD in a handful of days … however YOU don’t get to decide!

      What you can decide is take sensible precautions. You can decide to avoid well known, high risk situations. You can wear a mask so as not to spread it.
      You CAN support public officials who have actual plans to combat this killer.

      I realize I am preaching to the choir here but geez.

      • In an email with my dad, I found out my nephew had it, but apparently it was a light case and he is out of quarantine. There are still watching his wife to see if she develops any symptoms. An old high school friend and his wife apparently had it back in March and they are okay now. Those are all the people I know personally that were infected. I’m fortunate that these cases were not serious. Stay vigilant, everyone.

      • We’re just about to hit 200,000 deaths.

        Yet a huge swath of the population believe that COVID is fake, that the real threat to the entire nation are a dozen thugs in Portland.

        History will not remember our era kindly.

    • Another beautiful colloquy, deeping empathy for great heuristic intelligence. Judicious kudos lavishly materialized neatly over ponderous quagmire, relentlessly stating truth. Ultimately vocalizing wild xanthic youthful zeal!

  202. Morning Pan
    Hubby and I were talking. I think we are the very rare group where Covid-19 has actually been better for us financially. We’ve always been carful and budgeted properly but, because we haven’t been gaming every weekend, we’ve been saving on snacks and alcohol.
    We also have been doing a lot less impulse buys (i.e. going to the mall and, oh look, this game looks interesting and we don’t own it, we should get it.)
    It feels good, so I think we’re going to rethink how we approach such things once semi-normality resumes.

  209. So eight episodes into to watching Star Trek Lower Decks and I realise the male main character is played by the guy who plays Hughie in The Boys.

    Doh!

  211. CW: Warrior E6

    I stopped watching this as I thought it would not get a S2, but S2 is on it’s way so this week I’ll be watching the rest of S1.

  212. Return of the Jedi complete. I was never a hater, but it’s even better than I’d remembered. The new Lucas edits are all horrendous, but they don’t damage the overall movie.

    I really love the scene where C-3P0 recaps the previous movies – – with sound effects – – to an audience of Ewoks.

    And of course, the Rancor handler. . .

  216. Crap joke for the day:

    A small church had a very attractive big-busted organist named Susan, and her breasts were so large that they bounced and jiggled while she played the organ.

    Unfortunately, she distracted the men in the congregation considerably. The very proper church ladies were appalled.

    They said something had to be done about this or they would have to get another organist.

    So one of the ladies approached Susan very discreetly about the problem, & told her to mash up some green persimmons & rub them on her nipples and all over her breasts, which should cause them to shrink in size, but warned her not to taste any of the green persimmons, because they are so sour they will make your mouth pucker up & you won’t be able to talk properly for a while.

    The voluptuous organist reluctantly agreed to try it.

    The following Sunday morning, the minister walked up to the pulpit and said,

    “Dew to thircumsthanthis bewond my contwol, we will not hab a thermon tewday.

  221. A blind man walks into a bar. He picks up his seeing eye dog and starts spinning it around over his head.
    The bar tender rushes up to him and says “can I help you?”
    “No” said the blind man, “just looking around”

  224. I made an off-hand joke yesterday on a Facebook post from Charlie Benante, the drummer from Anthrax, which as of right now, has 132 likes and a bunch of replies.

    Not that it means a goddamn thing, but it’s a nice little validation.

    • I have something signed from him that I’m pretty sure was after 2010 (when they claim he was banned) from either Megacon (Orlando) or Tampa Bay Comicon. He seemed nice enough and was charging the same as everyone else.

  232. Man, I guess it’s been that kinda of coupla weeks – Just noticed my Deadpan tab had closed and I had fallen seriously behind.

    Caught up now….won’t let it happen agian.

  235. I’d be down for an Asshat Teams meeting or a ditto Zoom or even an unpaid Zoom.

    Saturday morning is out for the Mangans. I’d prefer Sat or Sun around 2pm PT.

  238. I will be traveling pretty much the entirety of Saturday shuttling my son to a photography class. I can definitely be available on Sunday.

    • From what I’ve read Kubrick was a staunch individualist. He wanted to make “his” vision and everyone around him was simply a tool for him to exploit. He was most likely a “toxic narcissist”. While he may have been a chauvinist, the “toxic masculinity” label seems to be a bit clickbaity to me.

    • I think this is ultimately what may kill Netflix. After all, if you’re a new subscriber and see Altered Carbon being suggested for you, are you going to bother when you know it was already cancelled?

      Plus, how many more times are folks going to invest in a Netflix series like these faced with a high possibility that the show won’t last?

      Has Netflix become the new Fox?

    • “Texas is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to Texas.”

    • One Christmas when I was a lad, our family drove to my Aunt’s house in Albuquerque. We had to cross Texas.
      After a few hours I began to feel that time had stopped and perhaps the car wasn’t actually moving. I would go to sleep and wake up and the view was unchanged.
      It was fortunate I was a passenger and not the driver because it made me lose my will to live. I just wanted Texas to stop.

  259. “Black Gives Way to Blue” is a genuinely great modern day Alice in Chains song, and a touching tribute from Jerry Cantrell to his lost friend.

  260. Spelunky 2 is now out on Steam.

    10% off for the first day of release.

    Bought and it’s been a while since I’ve bought the same game on the PS4 and PC.

  261. Currently taking a break, 3 hours into a 6hour road trip.

    Favorite post of the day-

    Every time Trump speaks tomorrow night Joe Biden should say: “If I had $750 for every time Donald Trump tells a lie, I could pay off the national debt.”

    • The sad fact is. . . for the few who are still somehow undecided, and even the tiny minority of trump supporters who are wavering, it’s going to take playground insults to reach any of them.

      And my unhappy prediction: trump is going to be all about those childish “sick burns,” while Biden will go the supposed “high road,” and be seen (by them) as weak and boring.

      I hope I’m wrong.

      • I think at this point, a “debate” can’t possibly reveal anything about trump that the world doesn’t already know.
        So Biden is the one with the most to loose.

        He needs to not get drawn into trump’s cesspool.
        Biden needs to use this possibly massive national audience to remind the world what his plans are and also, what it would be like to have an adult at the controls.

  263. Today marks 3 weeks til the end of the AIE IndieGoGo. No one is ever obligated, but if you’re going to give, the clock is ticking.

    Man, I want to continue my writing groove beyond this, but I don’t know if I want to grind through another crowdfunder. It’s grueling.

    • Tried to watch a little and all I saw was trump shouting over top of Biden and the moderator doing nothing about it.

      That may have changed but I checked out.

  266. Morning Pan
    Is it considered spousal abuse when the husband decides to watch the debates?
    I’m not suppose to have any alcohol for a few weeks, I had a drink last night.

    • I felt my blood pressure rise just reading some of the reactions to it.I refused to watch.

      And those reactions were from reasonable people – – I only saw one dipshit pro-trumpy comment (and promptly snoozed that person)

    • I expected a sh$& show from trump. (Check)
      I hoped for a chance for Biden reiterating his plans and highliting the fact that HE even has a plan.
      (Lost in the sh$& show)

      I did not have – “Sitting POTUS refuses to denounce white supremist groups and actively instructs one (labled by the FBI as a “Domestic terrorist group”) to “Stand by”

  270. So… I just saw the following comment on a friend’s FB post:

    “I am always puzzled by how some are still so obsessed with white supremacists. Yes, they are terrible. So are great white sharks. Neither has any real risk or impact on my everyday life. But I assure some of the questions we should be asking and obsessed about, should.
    “I denounce Great White Sharks” ” End quote.

    Turns out, this nugget of wisdom came from a co-founder of Atari Hotels – – who is a PoC, btw.

    I did not break my rule and argue, but I did ask for clarification.

    • And he was a dick in response. Guess which hotels will get none of my money or support, ever?

      Jack Mangan: Napoleon Smith III, can you please explain that statement a bit further? Are you saying that a US President’s stance on white supremacists is irrelevant? I’m not here for debates, I just want to understand your comment.

      Napoleon Smith III: Jack Mangan do you really think he supports white supremacy? If you do. I have nothing further say.

      Jack Mangan: Napoleon Smith III Not what I asked. Cheers.

      • Presumably the end of the conversation:

        Napoleon Smith III: Jack Mangan I am saying that White Supremacist are as relevant as great white sharks. Of course they are bad. But honesty pretty irrelevant in today’s society.

        • 2 points

          1) If he doesn’t understand how trump is providing aid and comfort to white supremists… then that is all you really need to know about him.

          2) I do not think “irrelevant” means what he thinks it means.

      • “Napoleon Smith III: Jack Mangan do you really think he supports white supremacy? If you do. I have nothing further say.”

        Well NSIII clearly doesn’t support commas.

  271. Crap joke for the day:

    Two clever nuns

    There were two nuns

    One of them was known as Sister Mathematical (SM),

    and the other one was known as Sister Logical (SL).

    It is getting dark and they are still far away from the convent.

    SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following us for the past thirty-eight and a half minutes? I wonder what he wants.

    SL: It’s logical. He wants to make love to us.

    SM: Oh, no! At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes at the most! What can we do?

    SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk faster.

    A little while later…

    SM: It’s not working.

    SL: Of course it’s not working. The man did the only logical thing. He started to walk faster, too.

    SM: So, what shall we do? At this rate he will reach us in one minute.

    SL: The only logical thing we can do is split. You go that way and I’ll go this way. He cannot follow us both.

    So the man decided to follow Sister Logical.

    Sister Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried about what has happened to Sister Logical.

    Then Sister Logical arrives.

    SM: Sister Logical! Thank God you are here! Tell me what happened!

    SL: The only logical thing happened. The man couldn’t follow us both, so he followed me

    SM: Yes, yes! But what happened then?

    SL: The only logical thing happened. I started to run as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he could.

    SM: And?

    SL : The only logical thing happened. He reached me.

    SM : Oh, dear! What did you do?

    SL : The only logical thing to do. I lifted my dress up.

    SM : Oh, Sister! What did the man do?

    SL: The only logical thing to do. He pulled down his pants.

    SM: Oh, no! What happened then?

    SL : Isn’t it logical, Sister? A nun with her dress up can run faster than a man with his pants down.

  272. Crap joke the day, second attempt:

    Two clever nuns

    There were two nuns

    One of them was known as Sister Mathematical (SM),

    and the other one was known as Sister Logical (SL).

    It is getting dark and they are still far away from the convent.

    SM: Have you noticed that a man has been following us for the past thirty-eight and a half minutes? I wonder what he wants.

    SL: It’s logical. He wants to make love to us.

    SM: Oh, no! At this rate he will reach us in 15 minutes at the most! What can we do?

    SL: The only logical thing to do of course is to walk faster.

    A little while later…

    SM: It’s not working.

    SL: Of course it’s not working. The man did the only logical thing. He started to walk faster, too.

    SM: So, what shall we do? At this rate he will reach us in one minute.

    SL: The only logical thing we can do is split. You go that way and I’ll go this way. He cannot follow us both.

    So the man decided to follow Sister Logical.

    Sister Mathematical arrives at the convent and is worried about what has happened to Sister Logical.

    Then Sister Logical arrives.

    SM: Sister Logical! Thank God you are here! Tell me what happened!

    SL: The only logical thing happened. The man couldn’t follow us both, so he followed me

    SM: Yes, yes! But what happened then?

    SL: The only logical thing happened. I started to run as fast as I could and he started to run as fast as he could.

    SM: And?

    SL : The only logical thing happened. He reached me.

    SM : Oh, dear! What did you do?

    SL : The only logical thing to do. I lifted my dress up.

    SM : Oh, Sister! What did the man do?

    SL: The only logical thing to do. He pulled down his pants.

    SM: Oh, no! What happened then?

    SL : Isn’t it logical, Sister? A nun with her dress up can run faster than a man with his pants down.

  274. Holy shit… Youtube Music is FUCKING awful. Not that Google Play was great but at least I could find my shit, change metadata, and stream w/o using data over T-Mobile. This… this is fucking garbage.

  276. So.

    We’re a bunch of episodes into Rebels season 2, and I have to say, it’s like a completely different show. So, so much better. We’re all actually enjoying it now.

    They’ve mostly fixed all of the things that made Season 1 so terrible.
    Thank Yoda. I’ll continue to report back.

  277. Last night I looked at Mars through my telescope. Unlike two years ago there is no planet wide storm, so I could make out distinct features. I could easily see the southern polar cap, the northern sands and a dark feature I am pretty sure was the Syrtis Major Planum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrtis_Major_Planum. I only managed fleeting glimpses as the high magnification and Earth’s rotation Mars would only stay in view for seconds at a time. I’ll invest in a scope that tracks for the next time Mars is this close, i.e. 15 years from now.

    • I know a number of people who think it’s another falsehood to take attention away from other issues. However, it’s not good for his tough-guy image so I’m not so sure… unless he comes out of it with no issues, then it’s good for the tough guy image.
      I’m so confused.

    • So one of the many problems with having a POTUS who has issued tens of thousands of lies or “misstatements” durring their term, is that one must look at an announcement like this, at this point in the election, with a great deal of skepticism.

      • This would get him out of any more debates without looking like he had “backed out”.
        He can say he wants to but “they” won’t let him.

      • He could declare himself “Covid free” in a week and then say, “See, I told you this was NOTHING! Plus now I am immune! It was all a Dem scare tactics. Covid… go get you some!”

      • Also … if you hear anyone complain about the Democrats making trump’s health a political issue … it took the Trump campaign about an hour to put out a fundraising email seeking donations based on the President contracting the virus.

  282. apparently my comment to Pixie’s comment is in moderation.
    Ah well. It’s either false and he will “come out of it stronger than ever”, or it’s not.
    *shrug*

  283. Crap joke for the day:

    A 77-year-old man is having a drink in a Chicago bar. Suddenly a gorgeous girl enters and sits down a few seats away. The girl is so attractive that he just can’t take his eyes off her. After a short while, the girl notices him staring, and approaches him.
    Before the man has time to apologize, the girl looks him deep in the eyes and says to him in a sultry tone: “I’ll do anything you’d like. Anything you can imagine in your wildest dreams, it doesn’t matter how extreme or unusual it is, I’m game. I want $100, and there’s another condition”.
    Completely stunned by the sudden turn of events, the man asks her what her condition is “You have to tell me what you want me to do in just three words.”
    The man takes a moment to consider the offer from the beautiful woman. He whips out his wallet and puts $100 dollars in her hand —He then looks her square in the eyes, and says slowly and clearly: “Paint my house.”

    • Back in 2015, when Trump keep stating that Obama was not born in America, and was a secret Muslim, he never changed his story even when confronted by Obama’s birth certificate. I don’t believe Trump ever thought Obama was a Kenyan citizen, but it played to his base, so he kept at it. And thus the way of Trump, create so much chaos and infamy that he is always a moving target. Then promote yes men into the upper levels of government to do his bidding. Everything he says is suspect and he established that back in 2015.

  287. Real (First World) conundrum. With the cocksuckery that is YoutubeMusic I’m lost as to where to put my digital collection. Other than scrounging the internets for a 2004 Ipod (god fucking bless you Jack) does anyone have real advice to a trustworthy and actual usable place to upload my music?

    • It’s pretty. She has the voice … but the song is a dissapointment.
      Played it for someone else and two minutes it they said “When does it ever get going?”

      That’s my take as well. For a Bond theme it just drags along in a semi-coma.

  290. Alright, for some reason we stuck with it and watched the full 10 episodes of “Raised by Wolves”

    What. the. actual. fuck?

    Sadly, the comparisons to Prometheus that I’m seeing with regards to this being a Ridley Scott….thing appear sadly apt.

  292. I joined Cj and Ralph’s chat last night. It was nice to talk face-to-face with them again1 You guys should all do that one of these days.

    • The article is a bit unclear – I don’t think the intention is to announce that they are going out of business, but that they are not going to operate the theaters. Presumably that means furloughing/laying off most of the staff and staying in a shut down mode until … vaccine? Who knows. It certainly could turn into a permanent thing.

      Sounds like w/o any big movies coming soon to try to draw anyone in, there’s just not enough cashflow to justify keeping the theaters staffed and operating right now.

  296. So we began the final trilogy last night.

    I guess it was only my 2nd time seeing The Force Awakens? IDK, maybe I saw it twice in the theater. Either way, it had been awhile.

    This movie is not as good as I remembered. It has its moments, but it’s a actually a little dull at times, and it’s really a fucking weak story and a mostly terrible set up. The rehash elements of eps 4-6 – – especially 4 – – were a lot more glaring during this rewatch. And don’t get me started on Rey’s 10-minute leap from regular person to full-on Jedi.

    There is a lot of good. . . . I like Rey, Finn, and Kylo quite a bit. Phasma doesn’t do much, but shows lots of promise. There are a few gorgeous shots, especially the aerial combat and a few of the lightsaber duels. And the scene with Kylo and his father on that catwalk is very well done. It’s not a bad movie, but not great either. Star Wars should be great. Definitely a blown opportunity.

      • Sadly, this is the truth. I know that if I take off the rose colored glasses of my youth, I can acknowledge that the original trilogy had it’s issues. But, they were also the vanguard and a great learning of lessons.

        There’s no reason why a newly announced trilogy should have ever started filming without a clear start, middle, and expected end for that trilogy. And, you know, some attempt at cohesion to tie those pieces together.

      • The new trilogy is sort of all over the place. Finn and Rey are strong characters and I think there was a lot of wasted potential to let them flex their artistic muscle. My inner 12 year old want Star Wars movies to be like Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is an adventure movie first full of mystery and discovery and harrowing action. There were some cool ideas in the new movies, but they seem to get bogged down with a confusing plot and many scenes that felt like filler. I’ve really enjoyed the Mandolorian series, it has that old sense of whimsey without being campy.

        • My rose-colored glasses for the original trilogy are surgically implanted.
          I think they’re goddamn masterpieces, with wonderful characters and a truly brilliant setting and storyline. Even the Godfather movies would show some weaknesses under intense scrutiny. The only cringe moments from those are the ones that Lucas stapled on in his special editions.

          (OK, OK. . . the “brother and sister?!” late reveal feels a little contrived).

          I’m still looking forward to rewatching The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
          I just have to acknowledge that TFA was more about celebrating the past movies than moving forward with something truly new and original.

  299. Watched “Cabin in the Woods” again tonight.
    This is a brilliant piece of film making.
    Some of the shots in this are exact replications of shots from other teen slasher films.

  300. Morning Pan
    Hubby’s parents called last night. Apparently they are cleaning out their house and found some of hubby’s toys from when he was young and are sending them to us. Among other things, we are getting his old GI Joe’s, some viewmaster reels (we have a viewmaster and some reels already. I guess they found more), and an 8mm film viewer.
    Frankly I was surprised they had this stuff. Quite some time ago, we told the girls to take everything of theirs or we would toss it.

  311. Morning Pan
    Off to the city later this morning.
    I wear a mask all the time. However, in Airdrie, masks are not mandatory, in Calgary they are. It’s very different walking down the street of Calgary vs. Airdrie.

  315. So people are really not wearing masks in Airdrie?

    And btw, afaik, it’s safe to walk outside maskless in open air, as long as you’re not in a crowd and social distancing. Am I wrong?

    • It’s public places like stores, doctors offices, food places, buses, trains, etc that masks are required in Calgary and not Airdrie

      There are some places, like Walmart that it’s mandatory no matter where you live

      When hubby and I go grocery shopping on the weekend, not counting the grocery store employees, I’d say less than half the people we see are actually wearing masks

  325. The livestream tonight was a pretty exciting guy in his own right – – but we ended up with a pretty exciting unintentional cameo.

    Thom Hazaert was our guest, but he ended up taking a call from David Ellefson while we were streaming.

  327. Morning Pan
    Hubby is working late tonight. I asked why he can’t work from home when all the parent teacher interviews are virtual. It was a long, convoluted answer that basically boiled down to teachers and tech.

  330. In all seriousness (for a moment). . . My concern before the debate was this:
    While Mike Pence is the absolute scum of the earth, unlike his master, he’s able to behave himself and be polite and speak with a tone of respect. That was all he’d need to do to be considered the winner by many.

    This “act of God” is the story of the debate, and he’s now even more of a living joke than he was before.

    Is it fair? No. But fuck him. What in the