152 insights into my soul

Back in the ATL. Or at least I hope I am! Had a creepy dream loop this morning, where I woke up, but I hardly had the energy to move. And I felt this force surround me and grab me, and my manage to break free, but then it got really dark. And I like tried to illuminate the darkness with my phone, but no light would come. And I thought I was awake, because I could really feel my phone in my hand and the floor beneath my feet. But after a few minutes, I'd "wake up" and the whole process would repeat. I went through that loop at least three or four times before my phone alarm woke me up for real.

Unless this has been one big dream, but whenever I have these fake waking up thing, it only last for like a few minutes before I realize I'm still sleeping. (And as I've said before, how boring is my life, that often times, my fake waking up consists of me being all, that was weird, and like making some post?) But yeah, that would suck, since I spent like three hours today in traffic. Like it took me as long to get from Macon to Atlanta as it did to travel up to Macon from Hilton Head because of all the construction on 75 and 285.

Eventually got back though, caught up on some of the TV I had missed, then had dinner with M and clevemire.

Comics commentary:

The Walking Dead- Didn't they just have a new issue a couple of weeks ago, or does time just pass fast? But seriously, what the frick?!!!!! ( spoiler cut )

TV commentary:

NTSF- So Rebecca Romijin-Stamos, or wait, did she go back to Rebecca Romijin? I guess she would have to, it would be totally weird for her to still go by that if she's married to the fat kid from Stand By Me. Which, why is that his defining role, and not Sliders? Or Crossing Jordan, since apparently he was actually on that longer than Sliders? But I digress, I guess she's out since she's like on King and Maxwell now with Fritz and Opie. And in her place is Karen Gillan. Which I'm amused they don't even do any back story or anything. She's just there.

Anyways, does TV purposely make nerd arguments that are ridiculous? Like why would anyone argue who would win between the Hulk and Green Arrow?! Like Green Arrow vs Hawkeye would make sense, because they're both arrow guys, or Green Arrow vs Iron Man because they're both rich guys, or Hulk vs Batman (since in addition to being a rich vigilante, he has plans to take on all sorts of big threats) or Superman, because of their power levels. But I'm guessing the show was trolling or something, because who would think Green Arrow is more powerful than most of the heroes in the DC universe?! He couldn't do anything to the Hulk. But, I will agree that he could beat Rulk, because Red Hulk can overheat and knock himself out when he gets too mad, so Arrow can keep away (which is harder than it sounds since Rulk does use guns) until Ross gets all dizzy from the heat and passes out.

Or were they just mentioning people that people would know because Arrow is a current show? But its not like there wasn't a recent Batman or Superman movie! So its not like either of those guys are not in the public's mind. Like its possible to make an argument that's accessible to the public but still makes sense to comic book fans.

Oh heh, my sources tell me they're considering a new Rocky movie where he's training Apollo's grandson?

Was chatting with the gang earlier today and posited, why haven't they had a Graviton/Magneto team-up or fight? I mean, in the 30+ years they existed at the same time, they've never run across each other? They control two of the four fundamental forces! They've already both singlehandedly almost destroyed/taken over the world. What if they teamed up, imagine what they could do! And no one ever wanted to see if gravity or electromagnetism was more powerful? (Also, no masters of the strong or weak forces out there?)

TV commentary:

Defiance- Finally caught this. ( spoiler cut )

Major Crimes- Sad ep. I didn't like how it turned out through. ( spoiler cut )

Someone made a silly little "animated" video of the Patton Oswalt Parks and Rec filibuster:



So with HeMo being all preggers and having a reduced role on Glee next year, the show is casting a new NYC girlfriend for Santana. So of course After Ellen had an article about who they should cast for that. Apparently the top 3 answers were Anna Kendrick, Brittany Snow, and Shay Mitchell. I'm guessing Anna Kendrick or Brittany Snow because of Pitch Perfect (and the lesbian vibes they were giving off in that movie and all the twitter flirting they do IRL. Plus, ha, their celebrity portmanteau would also be BrittAnna, its like kismet or something). Shay Mitchell would be kinda weird, because its like Hilary Swank in the Black Dahlia all, making love to someone who looks like yourself.

Anna Kendrick and Brittany Snow do have the whole singing thing though, I have no idea if Shay can sing or not. I mean, a lot of the people they cast have some singing background, even if they never end up singing- like Victor Garber for Will's dad, Gloria Estefan as Santana's mom, Katey Segal as Artie's mom. She is cousins with Lea Salonga though, maybe singing runs in the family.

Comics commentary:

Team 7 #1- I'm still trying to figure out who these other randoms on the team are. Like they have Grifter and Lynch and Fairchild from actual Team 7, and then they throw in Black Canary, Deathstroke and Amanda Waller. But Summer Ramos? Diggle? Bronson? Who?! Are they just glorified redshirts who's sole purpose is to get killed so the comic seems grittier?

Walking Dead- Heh. ( spoiler cut )

WO blather- New DLC out this week, including the DW costumes for SW characters. For some reason Bao and Zhurong's outfits look even skimpier on Gracia and No. One of the new DLC stages, "Speed Is of the Essence", seems great for maxing everyone out. Its my favorite kinda stage, just you versus everyone. No allies to babysit, and no bond missions to hamstring you by forcing you to not use musou. And, given the stage is basically grading you on how fast you can beat it (giving you a 15 minute time limit), it doesn't take too long.

But yeah, basically, there are so many enemies you can't swing your weapon without hitting something. So not only do you get a lot of kills (a minimum of 5000, which is double the average number of kills I'd get on the previous "good" stages for leveling up) which means more exp and more rewards for beating the level, your TTA gauge fills up fast because you're carving through folks left and right, which means more triple attacks and more gems (I've been getting 35-55K, it seems!) Plus, there is just a ton of officers, so with prosperity you're getting like more than a dozen weapons (and given its a ten star stage, they have good attributes)

My fastest time so far is 13 minutes. Which I thought was fair, given it gave me a ranking of "swift", but it also says I can do better. I prolly could do it faster if I ignored a lot of the scrubs and went for only the important officers, but its always been hard for me to not kill enemies. Which is why my times on speed runs aren't too hot, because like the Dread Pirate Roberts, I don't like leaving survivors. In any case, I did find out in the mission I was killing Orochi X too fast there at the end, because there was this big boat showing up, and I was all, "what's with the friggin boat?" right before killing the big guy. But I guess it actually releases a couple of supply captains who give you even more rewards!

Walking Dead- I kinda needed that! ( spoiler cut )

TV commentary:

Pretty Little Liars- WTF, did they really have Emily kiss a distraught Nate? Way to piss off your lesbian audience, show! And wait, why do they act like Wren is not in the same boat as Ezra? He is a doctor, which means he's around a decade older than these girls. First Spencer, now Hanna?! He was acting like her being with Caleb was the only reason they couldn't be together, and not that it would be statch.

Degrassi- Ugh, Drew proposed to Bianca? Whatever, as long as he doesn't mess up her college plans. Dave on the other hand dumps Alli, because he feels they've grown apart.

But I realize Imogen is supposed to be miss quirky, but putting your face in front of a confetti cannon to figure out why it didn't go off is prolly not the wisest idea. The knock down drag out fight was a little excessive though. And while the Ice Hounds can be dickish, again, I feel bad for Dallas. He can be a jerk at times, but he can also be a good guy. So its interesting he seemed actually hurt when Fiona kicked him out. I guess he did think they were kinda friends, but only he got sent away, and not Eli and Jake, who technically threw the first punches. Of course, he and the hockey team did crash the party, with the intent of stirring up shit.

And hey, at least Claire finally told Eli the truth!

Woke up early this morning, so I read the latest League of Extraordinary Gentleman book. I got a lot more of the references than the previous ones. The things I recognized- Entourage, West Wing, Doctor Who, Torchwood, 24, Burn Notice, The Thick of It, 30 Rock, Harry Potter, Mary Poppins and Heroes. I'm sure there were more hidden references, but those were the only ones I picked up on. Anyways, since it was still early, went back to sleep. Don't do that after reading such things! Or maybe do, it will lead to some interesting, action packed dreams to say the least.

WO blather- Although I still have a lot of people to play, I've been using growth points to get everyone to level 20, so when I do play them, I'll have access to their full moveset. I believe I just need to get Okuni, Takeda, Ieyasu, and Yoshimoto up to 20, but that shouldn't take too long. I plan to at least get everyone to S rank, with a maxed out four or big star weapon with satisfactory attributes. So far, that leaves them in the mid-30s level wise. The ones I've played the most are in the 60s right now. I could try to get everyone's special bonds maxed at least, but trying to max out everyone's bond with everyone else might be too insane. If I wanted to get everyone to L99, that would take forever too. A couple of thousand boards, by my calculations. And since I shockingly hadn't yet gotten the played a thousand levels trophy in DW7:XL, its no small task.

Having played all the new SW characters except Aya, I'm concentrating on the Wei (and Jin) right now. Played Zhen Ji and Cai Wenji. Can't remember if it was this way in DW7, but her EX attack here will also give her a speed buff. She's fine, but Cai's awesome. Her moveset is very safe, as she's always hitting 360 around her, so she doesn't get hit often as she's keeps crowds off her. I don't remember her being this good in DW7, but she's definitely great here.

Also played Xiahou Yuan, Xu Zhu, and Sima Yi. Looks like they were all decloned from the original bow, club, and war fan movesets. Xiahou Yuan's moves are kinda spry for someone as... bulky as him. But I do like his new charges a lot though, they're all cool looking, and his c4 and c5 are especially useful. Xu Zhu's new C4 is quite solid, he quickly just bounces and slams into the ground twice, which is really good for taking out crowds. And cool, Sima Yi basically got his old moves back, particularly his c4 and c6. I hear Zhuge Liang also got his old moves back- in DW7, the fan moveset seemed to have elements of both their old movesets, but it didn't really seem them because all their good moves were stripped away. I'm really glad they got their DW5 moves back in their repertoire.

The latest Let's Be Friends Again was amusing, because that's EXACTLY what I was thinking at the end of the Avengers:



After discovering what it was, it actually does sound quite tasty, I'd like to try it one day!

New Assassin's Creed 3 video is out:


I think the thing I love the most is the hanging attack. Its so kewl! I'll be hanging people left and right when this game comes out!

Wait, has it always been "Downton Abbey"?! All this time I thought it was Downtown Abbey. In any case, the Spike TV/Downton Abbey fake commercial on last night's SNL was pretty amusing. So when they refer to the daughters as "Hot", "Really Hot", and "The Other One", from what they showed, "Really Hot" daughter is the one played by the cute, prissy, ultra religious mind control chick from the Misfits?

Anyways, this has been going around, Max Landis' take on the Death and Return of Superman back in the '90s:



Its a pretty amusing take on the matter. But wait, was the young Superboy-ish dude who showed up after Superman's death really called "Metropolis Kid"? For some reason that does not sound familiar at all.

Sporcle Quiz:

Name the X-men and related team members past and present- I suck, only 104 out of 217. It should actually be 106, because there were a couple I thought I had already answered, but apparently not. Still, there were others I can't believe I missed, and some who I pictured in my head but whose name I couldn't get to spring to mind. But barring those, there were still about 66 I was all, "Who?!" I mean, I guess its "X-men and related" teams, but should the like twenty or so students from New X-men who did not make it into later teams really count? Though I suppose there are a few I answered that I considered full X-men even though they died rather quickly. And jeez, how many classic X-men villains actually joined the X-men later?!