Joe Walsh

Just saw Joy in the theater with my mother Christmas Day. Mom was incredibly impressed with Jennifer Lawrence (best know for the Hunger Games films) as a young woman with a horrible family situation who invents a new and better mop -- and what happens to her when she tries to sell it.
 
Lawrence is very impressive, and her struggle is gut-wrenching as disaster after disaster piles on to her. That horrible family is the cause of much of it; her father is a bull-headed man with no sense of tact or place, while her mother lives entirely in her favorite soap opera. Nobody really believes in Joy, and there are times when you doubt whether they should. Even when you want her to succeed, you must admit that she makes some pretty bad decisions.
 
The main thing I'm glad about? That David O. Russell is a better writer than Ayn Rand and has a much more nuanced view of the world. 

The rape reference was certainly gritty, which while it goes hand in hand with dark, is not necessarily the same thing.
 
 
 
 
Keep in mind that "dark" does not necessarily equal bad. It's just dark. That I prefer the Flash does not make the Daredevil and JJ stories any less compelling or "good." It just makes them, for my purposes, less fun (and thus a little less enjoyable) for me. And this is the me of late 2015. In another year, I might be seeing JJ and DD as moderately grim and Flash as too frivolous. My tastes change that way.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/358709-cbs-postpones-supergirl-episode-4-following-paris-terrorist-attacks#/slide/1
 
Postponing an episode due to the Paris attacks.  Personally, I never get these moves as I have a brain and understand one has nothing to do with the other but understand they want to avoid the inevitable hyper politically correct complaining and criticism.

They were NND Blasts.  Debilitating against living tissue but ineffective against inanimate objects. 

I will agree that Melissa Benoist is the best thing about the show

I was writing my thoughts of the episode while I was watching it, but scrapped it when I realized that a lot of my issues could be explained by the notion that Supergirl is like a Champions character being played by a total Champions newbie. Someone who doesn't fully grasp the combat mechanics yet and has no tactical experience to draw from. In that sense she's no dumber than every first-time Champions player I've ever come across.
 
Of course, that doesn't excuse the horrible wire work they employ for her hovering and landing shots. OMG it's awful.
 
I do wish she would stop referring to her family crest as an "S". It's not an "S". She even went to pains to explain that in the pilot.
 
And I'm still waiting for them to explain what her costume is made of (not the cape). It appears to be as invulnerable as she is.
 
The romantic triangle they are setting up feels trite and cliched, but that's to be expected given the sort of show this wants to be.
 
I do like the theme they are building upon that Supergirl can accomplish things that Superman can't by virtue of working with a team. However, I feel that Superman ought to know (and benefit) from teamwork as well, but this show doesn't operate in the DCU where there is this thing called the Justice League. It is in a universe where there are only two superheroes on the planet, and one of them just got started two weeks ago.
 
Nevertheless, I just don't buy that Superman couldn't defeat that lame villain, Reactron. Are you kidding me?
 
The best thing about the show continues to be Melissa Benoist. At this point I watch it just to see her radiantly cheerful take on the character. Everything else, except perhaps for Jimmy, er, James Olsen, is pretty weak sauce.

Ratings continue to fall. A shame, I still enjoy the show even if they getting a bit heavy with the idiot ball (Seriously? James is giving Clark's name out like that now?).
 
Supergirl does have a few moments where her pride gets pricked and she handles it less than maturely in one scene, imo. I think some would disagree. However, it is a very human reaction so I'm not offended etc. She's still trying very hard to prove herself after all.
 
And, by the end of it, she does through a victory that may have needed the help of others, but more on terms she could accept. 
 
Enter Lucy Lane, and a romantic triangle of sorts.
Maybe 2 triangles, since you can tell that this was pitched first as CW show.
 
And for a guy who only gets to talk through texts, Clark is a class act

Let's see... early season1 lineup was Coulson, May, and Ward for field agents. Then Fitz/Simmons for tech backup, and Skye was recruited. Coulson's a badass, as seen in the short they did for the movies where he stops the gas station robbery. But he's in charge, so he doesn't get involved in the action too much. May's a badass. Ward is on her level in hand to hand skills and also pretty devious, but that's not shown until a bit later. (I'd say she's slightly better at hand to hand, though.) The rest are all support characters, though Skye starts training as a field agent later on. I never played in a Super Agents campaign, just Top Secret SI back in the 80s. Coulson, Ward, or May would crush an average TS:SI agent, and be very experienced agents IMO.
 
Post-Winter Soldier, we get another faction of SHIELD that pops up. Coulson and his team think they're the only loyal remnants of the organization, and so does the other group. The Inhumans plotline also gets going strong. Mockingbird is introduced, along with two (as far as I know) non-comic characters. Skye is trained up to a decent level of competence. This gives the team a more fleshed-out feel as far as having a good number of capable field operatives. We also get to see more of the larger organization, as the team moves from being a special operations unit to being the core of the organization. IMO, it takes on more of a SHIELD as an agency -- albeit a broken one -- feel in Season 2. The end of Season 2 is pretty epic, and Season 3 is off to a good start. The show has a much better sense of itself than it did at the beginning, and at this stage has pretty decent world building that isn't reliant on waiting for the next movie to hit the theaters for something to happen.

Get your tinseled toes off my Thanksgiving.
 

So my wife of 18 years has finally decided she'd like to try out this weird hobby of mine! I'm talking her through the basics of how RPGs work, this is how you create a character, etc. And she asks "Do you have a couple character sheets for characters I'm already familiar with that I could see for comparison?"
 
That loud smacking sound you heard was me & my forehead. Yes. Yes I do. And no, I don't know why that never occurred to me before!

How I currently acquired my current group for Hero probably won't work for most.
All it takes is have a bunch of kids, then wait between 1 and 2 decades...

Hmm. Well you certainly seem to know your subject matter and based on the other books I have by you I really like the way you present useable information rather than just waffle. The page count is high but the quality of content matches. I like.
 
I don't know if you already had this in mind but how about a chapter on legendary artifacts of the gods and such? Excalibur, the Ark of the Covenant, Thor's hammer...that type of thing. Might be useful to build games around or use in high powered games?
 
Also if this is going to Kickstarter...on a purely selfish level...how about the add on or stretch goal of a print run of the 6th Edition Core rulebooks? They are next to impossible to get and priced stupidly where available. The 'Complete' versions...I understand the publishing logic of...having to keep entry costs to players low etc but with a Kickstarter print run you'd be financially covered...get enough money to do it...it happens...don't...it doesn't and you don't get left with a loss making pile of stock. Just a thought.
 
Anyway, I wouldn't normally buy a book on gods etc because I can google most of the information I want but I trust you would save me a whole mountain of trouble and be better informed than most of the 'net. Good luck.

Well, yes, but culturally acceptable in the wider context of social interaction, for all that lack of attention span.  At least we were
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sorry, I got a FB update of a funny cat.  What were we talking about?

Yeah, teaching people Hero system should be just teaching them how skill rolls work, how combat works, etc. No way should a newbie be asked to create a character.
 
Fortunately, Hero System is simple, outside of character creation.

Yeah, teaching people Hero system should be just teaching them how skill rolls work, how combat works, etc. No way should a newbie be asked to create a character.
 
Fortunately, Hero System is simple, outside of character creation.

Yeah, teaching people Hero system should be just teaching them how skill rolls work, how combat works, etc. No way should a newbie be asked to create a character.
 
Fortunately, Hero System is simple, outside of character creation.