I Had A Random Thought...

[tegan]

So when people get mad over whatever new incarnation or depiction of a character not following whatever they think the character is, I always wonder what decade or writer or artist they are even clinging to if they are even clinging to anything at all

 

but captain marvel is called shazam now and that's butt

 

 

 

I've always hated the notion that superheroes should be the public face of comics, because comics and superheroes stopped being intertwined years ago. Superheroes are all about movies now, and comics are incredibly diverse. There was a lot of outspoken disappointment about DC and Marvel's lackluster comics content at Comic-Con this weekend, but try telling Image or Boom or Vertical that comics are dead when they went to the same show and found enormous success.

[syntheticgerbil]

Haha, SAM, soap operas are a great way of putting it. I will steal that!

I've always hated the notion that superheroes should be the public face of comics, because comics and superheroes stopped being intertwined years ago. Superheroes are all about movies now, and comics are incredibly diverse. There was a lot of outspoken disappointment about DC and Marvel's lackluster comics content at Comic-Con this weekend, but try telling Image or Boom or Vertical that comics are dead when they went to the same show and found enormous success.

 

Yeah that's sort of what I was wondering, does the new generation of kids growing up even care anymore? My wife has a sister who is 12 years younger than her and as she was growing up she would find a lot of comics at the library that had nothing to do with superheroes, but mostly she just reads webcomics because there's much more variety out there in that world.

[tegan]

Tell her to read Lumberjanes.

[syntheticgerbil]

Okay message sent via Facebook!

[Twig]

To answer your question: yes, kids love superheroes.

[Zeusthecat]

Nice avatar Twig. That might be my favorite one yet.

[Twig]

OK

[Gormongous]

My music player app on my phone has a podcast plugin. It scans the media files I download for a bunch of different signs that they are podcasts and puts them in a special class with cool features if they are. Unfortunately, in practice, the only reliable way to get the plugin to flag podcasts is to put "podcast" as the genre, which almost no one does. I'm not really complaining, because what other piece of software actually uses the "genre" section of an ID3 tag, but for some reason, I deeply resent people who release their podcasts with "blues" as the genre. Without any conscious judgment on my part, I find it pretentious on an entirely different level from people who give their podcast's genre as "comedy" or "talk radio" or "podblaaah". And there are multiple people who've had the same "clever" idea. "Oh, I know! We aren't recording a conversation for online consumption. We're singing the spoken-word blues!" In one case, it's the only field of the ID3 tag with any information in it. Well, you know what? Fuck you, dude.

 

Nice avatar Twig. That might be my favorite one yet.

 

I still miss the weird crying tree guy, but then again I don't like change.

[Twig]

You mean Dr. Wily?

 

 

Source: http://www.fanboys-online.com/index.php?id=420

[osmosisch]

This new one isn't frantic enough to fit all the yelling you do. Tree guy was best.

[SecretAsianMan]

Yeah I miss Wily too.  That's still my mental image of you even though I've met you in real life.

[JonCole]

So, a Utah blogger working for an "English Language Center" writes a post about homophones, is subsequently fired for promoting a "gay agenda" -

 

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58236366-90/says-english-homophones-language.html.csp

 

I have no words.

[Twig]

This new one isn't frantic enough to fit all the yelling you do. Tree guy was best.

Yelling?

[SecretAsianMan]

So, a Utah blogger working for an "English Language Center" writes a post about homophones, is subsequently fired for promoting a "gay agenda" -

 

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58236366-90/says-english-homophones-language.html.csp

 

I have no words.

 

It sounds like maybe the guy had previously written or said some other stuff that was offensive, but that is still crazy.

[Twig]

Are you sure that's not The Onion? Holy wow.

 

i don't

 

i don't get it

 

As Torkildson tells it, Woodger said he could not trust him and that the blog about homophones was the last straw.

"Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality," Woodger complained

 

Woodger says his reaction to Torkildson’s blog has nothing to do with homosexuality but that Torkildson had caused him concern because he would "go off on tangents" in his blogs that would be confusing and sometimes could be considered offensive.

 

Is this Woodger person a crazy man?

[Bjorn]

So, a Utah blogger working for an "English Language Center" writes a post about homophones, is subsequently fired for promoting a "gay agenda" -

 

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58236366-90/says-english-homophones-language.html.csp

 

I have no words.

 

This...this can't be real, right?

 

The boss said, apparently to a reporter directly, not second hand:

 

"People at this level of English," Woodger says, " … may see the ‘homo’ side and think it has something to do with gay sex."

[Ucantalas]

So, a Utah blogger working for an "English Language Center" writes a post about homophones, is subsequently fired for promoting a "gay agenda" -

 

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58236366-90/says-english-homophones-language.html.csp

 

I have no words.

Oh, wow. When I read your post I thought you said he wrote a post about homophobes and was fired. Then I read the article, and it was much, much worse. I just... I'm having trouble believing this is real.

[Professor Video Games]

Just imagine if he'd written an article about Homo erectus.

[JonCole]

Buzzfeed puts out a critical response to "Saved You A Click"-type sensibilities and the Twitter account dedicated to that cause - http://www.buzzfeed.com/charliewarzel/please-stop-saving-me-a-click

 

Maybe so. But scrolling through @SavedYouAClick’s feed it’s hard to see much charm here. Instead, @SavedYouAClick feels less like a delight than it does an insecure college freshman delighting in beating a professor to the punch line of her own lecture. Other times, it feels like a petulant 8-year-old unfairly answering simple questions posed to a younger sibling by Mom.

 

I read this analogy as the writer saying that Buzzfeed, which is often the butt of @SavedYouAClick's pithy responses, is effectively the professor or Mom. Seriously? Part of the whole reason such an account exists is because places that are self-defined as "serious news organizations or blogs" write ridiculous stories that literally have a one word or one sentence "point".

[Merus]

As an impartial observer, it seems like most of what Saved You A Click focuses on is clickbait headlines easily ruined by answering the question the headline poses. There were a couple of headlines where it seems clear there's content there.

 

So that analogy of Buzzfeed's is kind of shitty because professors don't structure their lectures that way: they know you'll tough it out, and they'll structure it so students can work out what they're building towards early. The 8-year-old analogy is more revealing, because clearly the audience is 7 and under to that writer.

 

The problem clickbait headlines are trying to solve is that we are drowning in content and most of it's shit. The solution is to not make that shit easier to shovel, it's to not write anything if it's just going to be shit.

 

 

So I'm trying to design this shapeshifter character, and I'm trying to work out what the material would look like when it's in flux. I want it to be made up of thick, rough sinews (not like tentacles) with sharp angles and splits, and most of my sketches don't look particularly good. Does anyone know where I can get some good reference material for something like this? I stopped Googling when I realised how 'stretched flesh' would not lead to anything good.

[Bjorn]

Well, that's the funniest thing I've ever read on Buzzfeed.  Apparently someone is sensitive about shitty headlines and contentless stories. 

 

Holy fuckaround, these people don't understand what a good headline is, or what clickbait is.  Or they want to intentionally obfuscate what a good headline is.  Checkout Deadspin's defense of modern headlines.  I actually think Deadspin by and large does a better job than a lot of other sites. 

 

Odd aside, I was surprised to see the Lawrence Journal-World referenced in that DS piece, and the author didn't go to school at Kansas.  The journalism school at KU is huge, and you can almost always spot alumni by a few references that any other alumnus would recognize.  So many students work or freelance for the LJW at some point (myself included), that it manages to find itself referenced in all sorts of interesting places.

 

Edited to add: Merus' last line is pretty much the best response possible. 

 

Edited to add more: DAMMIT MERUS!

[Zeusthecat]

I just saw a political ad where one of our sheriffs is giving his endorsement to a specific gubernatorial candidate. Something about that just feels horribly wrong. I feel like law enforcement officers have no business trying to influence people to vote for one candidate or another and should instead just focus on enforcing the law in an impartial manner. Not sure if these types of endorsements are common practice or if it is just an Arizona thing but it irritates the shit out of me.

[Gormongous]

I just saw a political ad where one of our sheriffs is giving his endorsement to a specific gubernatorial candidate. Something about that just feels horribly wrong. I feel like law enforcement officers have no business trying to influence people to vote for one candidate or another and should instead just focus on enforcing the law in an impartial manner. Not sure if these types of endorsements are common practice or if it is just an Arizona thing but it irritates the shit out of me.

 

There was a period in the early 2000s, while I was living in Dallas, when several sheriffs gave endorsements to various mayoral candidates, saying that they knew them best and that they'd be easiest to work with. I found that a little distasteful, because a couple of the candidates had no notable political experience and it was obviously a partisan rather than practical endorsement, but nothing compares to a sheriff endorsing a gubernatorial candidate. It has as much relevance as an endorsement from the assistant comptroller of civic waterworks, northeast district.

[Twig]

I sorta wish these forums didn't host my avatar for me so I could link to a page on my website that would return a random image avatar every time someone accessed it.

 

Does that make me a bad person?

[Ucantalas]

I sorta wish these forums didn't host my avatar for me so I could link to a page on my website that would return a random image avatar every time someone accessed it.

 

Does that make me a bad person?

I'd never know it was you ever again. I recognize people here by their avatars instead of their names... hell, I'm still getting used to the fact that OK Man is also FishMan is also Scared Dr.Wily.