CaptainPete

Yeah, don't they violate the Geneva Convention?

You know, you could just screen shot the posts and put them on a blog or Twitter or something with your comments...

I've taken to referring to the Imperial system as "Freedom Units" and it makes me chuckle every time.

There's a Deadlands adventure called Guess Who's Coming To Donner? I had the pleasure of running it with some friends for Halloween last year. My favorite characters were the duo of women who were "historically close friends" and may be (read: definitely) responsible for the death of one of their rich, older husbands. They were a Huckster and a Mad Scientist, which made it even more funny to me.

So my mom put down foil to keep the kitten off of one of the chairs. As you can see, it's super effective...

I've been buying the books, on and off, for something like 20 years and I've still only played it a handful of times. It's... A beautiful mess.

It appears I'm going to running a game of Rifts for my neighbors. Pray for me...

I think the highest I worked in was 775? We had a couple of spots in town that were so bad, the levels couldn't be read. Stay safe and stay inside.

You and I are on the same page. I saw it and thought to myself "well, looks like my mom's house has a new owner." I won't be able to meet the little furball until next month, so we'll see how much she's taken over by then.

Ah, yes, cat tax. Let's see if I can do this. Pictures are on phone, I'm on computer...

My favorite caption of this is: When you lie on your resume but get the job anyway. A bit of mayo? Surely, you jest... But, I also add mustard. As well as pepper and crushed red peppers. In important news, my mom got a kitten. A little house panther so named Arwen.

I often joke that my dad threw away the assembly instructions for me...

I made deviled eggs and I have to stop myself from eating them all in one sitting. I have a friend with backyard chickens and I have a little egg cooker. I could make them all the time but that is the path to a heart attack...

I saw the manga of that and decided I didn't need more depressing reads. 😅 But that does remind me of another one I was reading, I can't remember the name off hand, about an android and a young girl touring the remains of Japan. They find a cyborg at one point and his memories suggest that there was a war that broke out, but that's all we have. Based on the state of the world, it's been a few decades since humanity has been around. And there was another one, with another name I can't remember, about a female android that's going around and cleaning up the biohazards left behind after a war between humans and some kind of alien race. There's a few others, but I can't remember the names of them to save my life. The main thing is that there's usually a female character that's not human that's just seeing the world dying with not a bang but a whimper. I'm not saying it's some super popular genre but it seems to be popping up a lot. I started reading one called Alphabet[a] that seems to be about the same thing but I haven't gotten too far into it yet.

Has anyone else stumbled across the "quiet apocalypse" genre of manga and anime? Stuff like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou?

I got sick just before Memorial Day and infected a goo number of my co-workers. Yesterday, I started coughing before bed and I haven't really stopped since. I seem to just get sick around holidays now.

Oh, I'm aware of how the heat works in the city. And seeing how there's a good mix of older buildings in downtown, it just traps all of the heat. I think the lowest it got that night was 85 in downtown, while the rest of the city dropped to 80. You mean the place that tried to secede on December 6th, 1941? The one with the two crosses on their "state" flag, because they'd been "double crossed" by Salem and Sacramento? Nope, haven't heard about it before. 😅 Honestly, it's interesting to see how rural folks feel under represented in local things, but have a disproportionate level of representation at the national level of the US. 🤔 Yeah, it's a red v blue thing and I do understand why they feel the way they do, but after watching what's been going on in Salem, it's like... Maybe if there was communication and compromise, maybe it wouldn't be as bad? 🤷‍♂️ It's just weird to me that people just want to switch capitals, without thinking it through all the way. Also, it's not really possible? I do wonder how that movement started and where the money is coming from, because it... Smells a bit, if you know what I mean. Like, while the East and West parts of the state have always had different needs and cultures, but we've usually gotten along even when we didn't agree. I mean, remember Gordon Smith? He co-signed a bunch of bills in Congress with Wyden, because they had more in common with each other than they disagreed. It's wild to think that was less than 20 years ago. And this reminds me that I need to track down who my reps are at the local and state level. You see, there's an intersection I have to cross on my way home and it's a 4-way stop, with crosswalks. Now, with our traffic laws, if a pedestrian is crossing the street, they get a buffer of the lane they're in, the lane they're moving towards, and the lane they've left. Pretty much, peds block the street until they're clear. And a lot of people don't like that. Yesterday morning, I reach the corner, a car going N/S while I'm planning on going E/W stops, and I start crossing. Because that's how it works. The vehicle comes to a stop and the ped is allowed to cross, right? I know I've looked this up. Anyway, I start crossing, check the lane I'm entering and see someone pulling up, so I start hustling, and then turn to the lane where the guy stopped. I guess he didn't want to wait, as he's been slowly pulling forward and is halfway through the intersection as I'm entering the lane he's driving in. As I reach the sidewalk, he's about five feet from me, so I flip him the bird (as if I hadn't been moving as fast as I was, he would have hit me) and he returns the favor. I was this close to calling the police, as I memorized his plate, but they don't seem to want to do much around here these days, so I just moved on. But I know they're trying to "improve" the crossing out here after our state rep's husband (I think that's who it was) got hit by a car while crossing a street one night. And this intersection is damn dangerous. During the winter, if there's ice or frost on the road, I see cars on the grass around the intersection all the time. Plus, people don't seem to actually know the rules for a 4-way stop and there's some people who just blow through it. Doesn't help that it's on a 35 MPH road, with lights at either end...

I haven't watched the anime, so I couldn't tell you. 😅 But, I assume that it's like most adaptations, and it doesn't get a chance to get into as much detail with the characters and plots as the mange. Keep in mind that the manga is on chapter 400+ so there's a lot more of it. Honestly, I want it to wrap up soon and maybe do a spin off or two (Nakanaka solo series please?). In other news, I'm started reading Her Majesty's Swarm manga, as I did start reading the light novels but just kind of stopped. I don't know why but maybe I'll find the manga more engaging.

Two points: 1. I assure you that 117 degrees in the city is a whole different experience than the high desert. I worked that night in dark clothes; under shirt, work shirt, and pants. I just kept drinking water because I knew I would dehydrate faster than I would notice. 2. There's a lot more people on this side of the Cascades than your side. There might be a reason for that... Bonus point: 3. Do you really want to join with Idaho? Because, oh boy, have I heard some stories about that state.

Funny, that's exactly how I described what's going to happen when I quit my job. Scum going to scum. It really annoys me how people just roll into a management position and change things to match their "vision." No one cares. Not about you. Not about your vision. And not about your pictures. They care about their paychecks and a nice working environment. I do wonder what would happen if someone were to inform the local news about what happened with the pictures. I mean, if the building is accessible to the public, it'd be a real shame if someone took pictures of these pictures, paying close attention to the people in the background, crying because their entire lives might have been destroyed, while this... Scum smiles while facing away to them. Yep. Be a real shame if that were to happen... Didn't you want, like, everyone to move there? This does remind me of the punchline of an old joke (that I've probably already told here before): At 130 degrees, - Arizonans change into shorts -Texans unzip their coats -Oregonians vapoize So... No thanks.

I actually started reading that one. I thought the idea was interesting, but I was already reading some other dark stuff and I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going with it. How far along are you in it? For the Manwha I've been reading, I've been keeping up with The Baby Princess Can See Status Windows because it's cute, fun, and mostly light. It's interesting to see how the main character (who's gotten a "replay" of their life with this ability) uses their knowledge of what happened the first time around and what she learns from the "status windows" to guide situations to turn out better, usually for everyone. There's also My Daughter Is The Final Boss, which is another "replay" one, where the main character gets the chance to go back after his death and is trying to prevent his daughter from becoming an evil mage. The daughter is super cute, of course, but there's a fair amount of action, as the world has been invaded by this video game type stuff with monsters and powers and the like. The one Isekai one I like is very clearly a Shojo type story called Handmade, about an older Korean grandma who ends up as a maid before discovering she's a Creation Mage. The thing that's interesting with this one is that she's illiterate in Korean (but is able to read the world's language) and there's a book written in Korean by another Creation mage from decades or maybe centuries ago. For manga, I've got the latest official translation of Komi Can't Communicate showing up today. I'm also trying to get a co-worker to watch A Silent Voice and now I kind of want to re-watch the movie or re-read the manga...

Rise! I command you, RISE! So... I've picked up a few manga series since the last time I posted. Kaiju Girl Caramelise is the shojo series I never knew I needed in my life. I'm The Evil Lord Of A Intergalactic Empire now has a manga and it's fun so far. I finished Magical Girl Spec-Ops: Asuka and I think my soul is still healing... I'm debating about watching the anime but that story is so hard to experience. Yeah. Anyone else read these?

Exactly the one I was thinking about. Not quite right. The last post was from last year. By me.

I freely admit that I've had several incidents of crying in front of the computer recently... But there is also a much neglected anime and manga thread that we should probably use to continue the conversation. I have... A lot of recommendations.

I've also gotten into teenage character stuff, too. I wouldn't say that you're going through a second childhood, but maybe just appreciating things from a different perspective? When I was younger, I wasn't a big fan of normal stuff. Looking over my collection of manga from when I was into it, barely any of it is normal world or slice of life stuff. I've come to realize that I've always looked for stuff that invokes an emotional response and when I was younger, that needed to have some different about it. I was, perhaps, a bit more an edge lord that I realized, but I know it was me chasing intense emotions and characters. Now, I can get that same emotional response from stuff in more mundane settings. And I think that's because the industry has really become better over the past few decades. Maybe it's because it's a larger market and maybe it's because only the really good stuff is getting produced. I'm not sure. But, I also think about the same things you mentioned, as I really dislike love triangles, and that's because they're usually just done poorly or because they're just tossed in there for the same of drama and not the characters. When I look at the love triangle in Komi Can't Communicate, I liked it more than I thought I would because it was really well done. I could completely understand how it developed and we were given time to understand all of the characters involved. Plus, it was used to develop the characters, not just for needless drama. And, let's be honest here, teenagers are dumb and can't deal with their feelings, so it made sense to me that people would end up liking the same person but wouldn't be able to express those feelings properly. Oh, and since the title character has social anxiety, it kind of tracks...