are we ever going to talk about palpatine’s kidnapping fetish or?
oh no i have been taken against my will!! so helpless!! i need to be rescued by some big strong jedi knights!!
“His interest was immediately renewed” He needs to be kidnapped from time to time. For enrichment. Senator “oh I’m slightly intoxicated, can I take your arm?” Palpatine making his kidnappers carry him since 33 BBY
I can’t go back to check what Osee was on about. All you need to know about this phase of the bible is guys were prophesying, and pretty much every prophecy is about how the Hebrew people were fuckin’ it up. This all feels like items in what should have been the appendix, but since I’m reading a Catholic bible it’s all just filler until JC shows up. (And we’re just under 70% after two solid years of gettin’ through it.)
I want to love every DS9 book. It’s a struggle to not enjoy them. But there’s a trend here in the Mission Gamma series of trying to do Too Much. The last book was very long, but also very focused, and the premise of taking the Defiant out into the Gamma quadrant sounds fine until they do it again… and again… and again. And it gets to the point where I just don’t care what they’re doing. I want DS9–the setting–and its beloved cast of characters to do their thing there. I’ll read on but this one really should have been two books instead of this A plot-B plot structure.
Divided We Fall by John J. Ordover, David Mack, Andrew Currie, Michael Collins, Richard Bennett, David Roach, John Nyberg, Jenna Garcia, WildStorm FX, Alex Sinclair, Jeff Mariotte (2001)
This one contrasted nicely against Revenant by Alex White. Both stories focus on Dax and how the Trill symbiont managers are real bad at transparency. The more I learn about this world, the more it sounds like a pretty clear caste system that should get them booted from the Federation. But then, I suffer the flaw of binary judgement, and there’s probably some nuance there to consider.
Wow, this was the most broken version of Chutes and Ladders I’ve ever played. I recommend a house rule of doubling each number on the spinner if you want any chance at winning. The event cards are just so punishing and the strict time limit makes it a steep uphill battle.
Gargoyles Remastered dev. Walt Disney Computer Software & Empty Clip Studios (1995, 2023)
I had a problem with input lag in the original version that ruined my initial impression, but that was on me. Playing the remaster with no input lag and the extra features like updated art, music, and the rewind all added up to a more enjoyable, if short, experience. It’s otherwise an interesting artifact from that transition out of 2D platformers and into chunky polygons and pre-rendered 3D visuals.
I’ve played a few of these mid-90s Tiger handhelds and it’s fine for a car ride, which is where I always imagine these things were played at the time. It’s so overly simple that I can’t say it’s worth playing, unlike the classic Game & Watch titles that had real challenge and replayability to them.
As period biopics go, this one’s fine. Not too wild or revelatory, other than its highlighting a segment of the wrestling scene which I had no idea about. The performances were all solid and Ephron clearly committed to the role. The story is from that period of simpler costumes and narratives before my friends and I came aboard in the later 80s and 90s, so it was neat to understand a fictionalized buildup to the more familiar stories.
It was great, stylized, and I suppose does have an act structure but it feels a little loose with it, which I’m all for. It just doesn’t match up to the amazing work in The Favorite.
Yeah this was a rough stretch. Another action snoozer that maybe could have highlighted something interesting about exploitation of elders but just uses that as an excuse for Statham to go around punching dudes in a boring way.
There’s this particular subgenre of space movie where people are just out there in their tin cans, then they’re stuck or screwed, and the drama plays out amid a desperate race to get out of that sitch. Hell, I will myself to sleep by conjuring a little scene I’ve developed where I’m out in my little space tug boat and need to shut down systems and go to sleep for the cycle. Gravity, Interstellar, and Life are all recent examples of this kind of movie that come to mind, and now we can add I.S.S. to that list. And I love these. I love space trouble. I ran into a bunch of these stories in my recent watch of The Outer Limits (1995), and I really can’t get enough. I.S.S. has this uncomfortable angle on what if Earth annihilates itself, huh, smart guy? (Art reflecting reality, etc.) And that’s a bummer to consider. But the story that plays out onboard the station is still neat and I would definitely watch this again.
Mean Girls dir. Samantha Jayne & Arturo Perez Jr. (2024)
Dug it! Maybe more than I did the original. Mostly because the musical sequences are great.
It comes from the angle of true belief, so you have to buy into that going in, but the questions it raises and the general production all make it worth the watch. Plus, they tackle the question of why even is Jesus a white guy (well, we know why), so that makes it extra fun.
Ey Bruce Willis being moody before that was his brand. I watched the 60s version and now I feel obligated to see what issues of the day were popping up for 80s TV people.
Oh, okay, I didn’t realize they were angling for the Showtime adult crowd with this. I was so used to the sanitized Saturday afternoon syndication version of the episodes. In any case, still a good start. Another show to watch in full later on.
Holy shit, those first five minutes! I knew immediately I’d enjoy this show, whatever it’s going to be. I heard enough good things that I figured I gotta.
My mom wouldn’t stop talking about this show so now I’ll have to see what’s what. So far it’s Kevin Costner as an old asshole who raised his kids to also be assholes?
I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again “hobby hopping” is a made up phrase that people use to shame ADHD people for no reason.
“Hobby hopping” is only a problem if:
You have so many unfinished projects that it has become a hoarding situation (and you are not willing to get rid of any of them).
You are having financial issues because you keep buying new supplies and equipment.
The picking up and putting down projects is a result of you finding it hard to enjoy things long-term (and that’s a problem not for practical reasons but because you deserve to live a life where you’re not stressed out or guilty over the things you enjoy???)
This whole “you need to pick something and stick with it” thing that always has a weird moral undertone has got to stop. Because you know what? People saying they “love to try new things” or “like to learn new skills” is viewed as a positive open-minded thing, but “hobby hopping,” which absent the three conditions above is the same thing in my opinion, is a negative phrase that implies someone is flighty, unfocused, and undedicated.
You’re allowed to try new things and be like nah this is not for me??? You don’t have to stick with something just because you thought you’d like it, or you bought a lot of supplies for it. How are you gonna become the cool absent-minded yet mysterious professor-type who knows how to do everything if you limit your skill acquisition based on fake rules?
Personal advice for healthy hobby hopping. Context, I always have a list of things I want to learn and right now it includes: machine sewing, wood burning, knitting, crochet, and digital art.
I frequently end up getting the supplies to learn these new things on sudden impulse, but that’s actually a result of me putting a restraint on my hobby hopping: Unless I’ve sat down and done a lot of research before deciding I want to get into ____ thing, I don’t let myself buy what I deem as expensive supplies. BUT: I do let myself buy supplies for hobbies on my list with absolutely no research when I can find them supper cheap. Ex: I went to a mega thrift store the other weekend, and they had yarn and knitting needles. Yarn was $1 per skane, and the many pairs of needles were 50 cents each. I suddenly realized knitting needles come in different sizes, so I Googled “What is the best knitting needle size for beginners?” Google said six, and I walked out of there with yarn and a pair of size six knitting needles. Prior to this, I found a book on how to knit for $2. Have I used them? Not yet. No prob: I am out $3.50 to have the stuff on-hand for when I’m ready for it. I have not allowed myself to buy the $120 Kintsugi kit I want because that is a lot of money to have it sit around.
ALSO: Join the ADHD Craft Swap and Shop group on Facebook. It’s all people destashing craft supplies to recover a bit of money they’ve sunk into hobbies they’re no longer interested in. Which means: Other hobby hoppers can get new supplies dirt cheap, and people who have dropped hobbies can recoup some of the cost of supplies. Also the posts are so funny. “I bought $100 worth of molds for soap, and I found out I hate making soap. Destash in comments.”
In this wood engraving entitled Taipei, American artist Lawrence Keaty (b. 1986) offers us a vision of the city he was born in and where he lived when he made this print in 2020. The print is made from six separate blocks and together measure 65cm x 35cm (25.5" x 14"). The print was selected by my Wisconsin colleagues Tracy Honn and Jim Moran for inclusion in the Fourth Triennial Exhibition 2020-2022 of the American American wood engravers society, the Wood Engravers’ Network (WEN). This image is from the catalog for that travelling show.
Lawrence Keaty received a BA from Kenyon College with a major in Studio Art and he earned his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. He taught English in Taiwan and South Korea from 2011 to 2019 and then worked as a writer/editor for Global Village Organization in Taipei for a year before returning to the U.S. (New Mexico) where he currently works as a UX/UI designer as well as a professional artist.
