Tale

Clearly this is just a ploy to increase ratings for a season. He's still going to show up as an ascended being from time to time until the next ratings slump and they can advertise that they're bringing him back full time.

Slaves.

I'm either a really ballsy Planetside 2 player, or really dumb. One of my recent escapades involved defending a Biolab from TR attack. I'd accidentally spawned as Light Assault and camped on top of a building to shoot the gallery as they came up. They seemed to entrench well and I couldn't find any good targets. I'm not used to LA, so I thought "what kind of grenade does this have? got to be explosive, right?" and just hurled it into the middle of the TR horde. Smoke blanketed the area and I thought "well, crap." The TR must have been as surprised as I was, because they stayed exactly where they were. So I lead the charge. Worked out boffo.

Only if I get a fully featured Dreadlord pet. I'll love him, and squeeze him, and name him Varimathras, and pretend he never betrayed us.

I feel nothing. But maybe that's because they've revealed nothing to appeal to me. No Warlock artifact, no Warlock heroes who aren't evil, but even the bad guys they have are dull. Ooh a Satyr boss, a lieutenant of Azshara, and something called a drogbar. I guess Gul'Dan is kind of cool, for a puppet.

Loving Planetside 2. It's not pre-Bending Planetside, but it gives it the ole college try.

Isn't that true of all the Mission Impossible films? I've pretty much forgotten every single previous Mission Impossible film, recalling just a hint of Ghost Protocol. Which I think means yes.

Saw Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Felt like I could have watched any other spy action movie and I would have had the exact same experience, but with some different stunts.

I may have wasted the weekend playing Planetside 2 for the first time. I also may have decided that I hate my teammates because 4/5ths of them are too busy sniping to do their frickin' job.

Life is Strange: Episode 4 Squirrels are cool...

Can I get a cliff's notes on what they promise and didn't fulfill?

Checking reviews, Flashpoint Paradox will be the winner when I get around to it. Supposedly it's even better than the source material!

Would you recommend the animated movie over the graphic novel? I've been tempted by both.

What are the best ones that aren't about Batman?

I read The Killing Joke, that oh-so popular Batman comic everyone who cares about Batman comics seems to love. Got mixed feelings about it, but overall don't feel it lived up. It has really good ideas, it starts with Batman visiting Joker to go over how eventually one will kill the other if they don't make up. And the book basically carries that theme through to the end, mixed with a tragic backstory for Joker that makes you think it's entirely possible that he could get better one day. But none of any of that is going to happen. For a much beloved Batman story, it seems nobody likes the ideas it presented. And the unwillingness to fulfill any of those promises kind of takes the impact from the story.

I found it so underwhelming. Compared to the previous DC animated movies that came out it was really disappointing. It's the first DC animated movie I've bought. 90% of the rest appear to just be adaptations of comic stories.

Justice League: Gods & Monsters I heard Bruce Timm was returning to DC animated movies and was producing an alternate universe where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are willing to kill. How could I not watch it? Anyway, it was great. I've always wanted more fresh stuff from comic book stories and alternate universes are kind of the compromise they do for guys like me. The art style is very reminiscent of the old Justice League cartoons from early 2000s, too, for anyone suffering from that nostalgia. Superman is the son of Zod raised by Mexican immigrants, Batman is an actual vampire, and Wonder Woman is one of the New Gods. She uses a sword real good.

Poor poor thread, always slipping away. I'm reading House of Leaves. It's equal parts pretentious and fantastic. And it might be getting to me. Two nights ago as I lie in bed trying to sleep, it suddenly got very cold and I could hear growling. I quickly realized that it was all the ceiling fan and for some reason I'd become more sensitive to its noise, but for that one night, I felt like a kid cowering under his sheets from imagined monsters. It was wonderful. This book is just weird. Everything I know about writing and publishing tells me that this book should not be. It colors words, it plays with the margins and formatting, it's terribly dull half the time, on purpose. The writer in me views it as a comedy, while the reader sees it as a horror. It's a maze in book form and even its absurdities are delightful. It's basically three stories. Johnny Truant, who found the book in the trunk of a dead blind man, has decided to insert footnotes which alternate between him bragging about his sexual conquests and him being paranoid as a consequence of dealing with this book. Zampano's, the aforementioned dead blind man, pretentious scholarly analysis of a found footage horror movie. And then the found footage horror movie, described by Zampano almost moment by moment when he's not trying to overanalyze it in terms of myth, camerawork, and psychological analysis like a wannabe Joseph Campbell. It's long stretches of boredom marked by brief moments of tense horror for what should be all the wrong reasons. The pages have scenes painted with words, as characters go down corridors, the text takes up thin lines in the middle surrounded by rambling footnotes, one of which forms a column through the book itself. Two characters meet in the dark and when they talk about one he's at the bottom of the page, the other is at the top. It's silly, but I've bought into it wholeheartedly.

Finished Swapper, on to Bastion. I never did finish Bastion back when I played it on PC, so here's to hoping I have better luck this time.

Completed Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Can't recommend it. Started up The Swapper. Most definitely can!

I use mty ikdeyboard and my fists together. Thgis mis hard.

Depends on context. There are some aspects of white privilege that I'm imminently aware of my being a beneficiary of. Like, I've never been pulled over for simply being suspicious. I've had very fair interactions with the police overall. In Texas. And that's only what seems most obvious. I'm not inclined to think my experience and knowledge is comprehensive, there could easily be a multitude of everyday interactions that I get a much easier time of for being part of an assumed in-group due to my skintone. If someone were to point one of these interactions out, I'd be interested in learning more about the situation.

Vanishing of Ethan Carter I thought I was on the right trail, but now I'm positive I'm lost.

Saturday I asked for a raise and got it. I fully intend to be gruntled this week.

Am I allowed to talk about non-Japanese animation? Just try and stop me! I may or may not have just bought all three seasons of Batman: The Animated Series. Over 30 hours of Bruce Timm/Paul Dini goodness.