Armory

"We may have both started off as angels but you are fallen."

"I didn't really fall, I just, you know...sauntered vaguely downwards."

I miss Terry Pratchett.

June 3rd

1888 - The first publication of Ernest L. Thayer’s poem Casey at the Bat appears in the San Francisco Examiner. The work is originally published under the pen name ‘Phin’, because the poet feels embarrassed by what he considers to be bad verse and decides to keep his identity a secret, until others come forward to claim the work to be their own.

1953 - Congress cites the research of New York City librarian Robert Henderson in proving that Alexander Cartwright founded baseball and not Abner Doubleday. His 1947 book Bat, Ball and Bishop documents Cartwright’s contributions to the origins of the game of baseball.

10 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

I can sense a George Perez influence on the handling of the shine on the character. 

Good eye!

Here's another one from a couple of years later.  This character is still going strong, and although his powers have had an overhaul with each new version, he's still in the same costume!  You just don't mess with a good design.

I dug out my very first character sheet, from 1982.  My forum avatar is a City of Heroes version of this character.

Stop watching comedy?!?  That would be like refusing to eat dinner.

Recently watched comedies:

Season 3 of The Santa Clarita Diet.  Unfortunately it's been cancelled.

Brockmire.  Oh no, adult humor!  Plus baseball!

What We Do In The Shadows.  An enjoyable series version of the Taika Waititi-Jemaine Clement movie.

Speaking of Jemaine Clement, I recently watched the concert special Flight of the Conchords: Live in London, after binging both seasons of the HBO series.

Next up is to binge the new season of Barry on HBO.

Forty years ago today:  the day the Chicago Cubs scored 22 runs...and lost.

https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2019/5/17/18629215/today-cubs-history-phillies-cubs-20-runs

"There were 11 home runs hit in this game: three by Kingman, one each by Buckner, Martin and Steve Ontiveros for the Cubs, and two by Schmidt, and one each by Maddox, Bob Boone and pitcher Randy Lerch for the Phillies. To this day this remains the National League record for home runs by both teams in a game. It’s been done four times, three at Wrigley Field, but this was the last such occurrence."

21 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

 

My wife uses that show to help with bouts of insomnia.  Something about the absolute lack of life in the narrator's voice.  Ten, fifteen minutes of him droning on, and she's out like a light. 

Interesting; my wife does the same thing.

I just finished all six seasons of Letterkenny, and I'm a better person for it.

"Nougat, eh?  I like a candy bar that...fights back."

I saw it tonight and I think this was the most thoroughly entertaining of any DC movie yet.  I didn't read Capt. Marvel growing up, I just knew of him and the Marvel family in general, and what little I've seen of the character in the animated shows, so I had next to zero expectations.  Very well done.  Mark Strong was good as usual, but Zachary Levi really nailed it.  I really liked how they handled all the flying too, the hovering and aerial combat were great.

On 4/13/2019 at 11:19 PM, wcw43921 said:

The same could be said of science fiction movies.  Unless it was something like Things To Come, Forbidden Planet or 2001: A Space Odyssey (and how often did one of those come along?) most science fiction movies were either Saturday matinee fare aimed at kids, or horror-themed movies aimed at teenagers.  That is, until George Lucas came along and changed everything.  

Star Wars was decidedly for kids, Lucas didn't change anything.

I guess I'm the contrarian regarding the OP too, I don't think it looks very good at all, but I'll watch it and give it a chance.

10 hours ago, Starlord said:

The Affleck Daredevil was brought low for me by that awful, vomit-inducing teeter-totter fight scene.  The rest of the movie was solid.

I don't hate it, but it had more problems than that.  For instance, the court scene was incoherent.  The screenwriters didn't know if he was a defense attorney or a prosecutor.

I'll sign up for Disney+.  We have Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix.  I refused to add CBS All Access just for a Start Trek series that doesn't look much like Star Trek to me.  I refuse to get the DC streamer because it's DC.  But I will get Disney for my Marvel fix.

"That smelled so bad it hurt my feelings."

"The old Jim would've used this an excuse to go on a bender and catch that super gonorrhea with both hands.  But I'm the new Jim."

Never again, isn't that what you said?

You've been through this before,

You swore this time you'd think with your head.

No one would ever have you again;

And if takin' was gonna get done

You'd decide where and when.

Just when you think you've got it down,

Your heart securely tied and bound,

They whisper promises in the dark.

Armed and ready you fought love battles in the night,

But too many opponents made you weary of the fight.

Blinded by passion you foolishly let someone in;

All the warnings went off in your head, still you had to give in.

Just when you think you've got it down,

Resistance nowhere to be found,

They whisper promises in the dark.

But promises, you know what they're for;

It sounds so convincing but you heard it before.

'Cause talk is cheap and you gotta be sure

So you put up your guard, and you try to be hard

But your heart says try again.

So you desperately search for a way to conquer the fear.

No line of attack has been planned to fight back the tears.

Where brave and restless dreams are both won and lost,

On the edge is where it seems it's well worth the cost.

Just when you think you've got it down,

Your heart in pieces on the ground,

They whisper promises in the dark.

Okay, I didn't carry you up a mountain not to eat cheese after, so...

4 hours ago, Cassandra said:

 

Lex Luthor on Supergirl had added a lot and Jon Cryer is surprisingly good as Lex. 

I watched two more episodes yesterday (just one behind now) and I agree, I like Cryer in the role.

7 hours ago, Starlord said:

Speaking of the end, I would like to hear at least one actual Avengers Assemble! (not teased like in AoU) before the end, preferably from Cap.

In this case it should be "Avengers Reassemble!"

Doom is 6'7"?  Really?

12 hours ago, Spence said:

One of my favorite Hunteds is the "unknown" Hunted.  A player selects a level of Hunted and asks the GM to surprise them.  The enemy the that the Hero doesn't know he has.

I've done this on the last few PC characters that my players drew up.  They can take a Hunted of their own, but I gave each of them a Mystery Hunted, usually tied to their origin in some way.

5 hours ago, Doc Democracy said:

oh! And don't just consider the appearance of the villain. A hunted can be considered by that person giving some other opponent useful detail on how to defeat the hero without actually making a direct appearance in the scenario.

This!  It could even be just a clue that leads the PCs one step closer the Hunter's plans.

I'll confess, I don't roll Hunted appearances.  At this point in our campaign I have so many sub-plots running I don't do 'random'.  When writing the scenario I just review the last couple of sessions and my notes on each character, to see which sub-plots, including Hunteds, are hanging out there, and I select which ones I want to use next time.

On 3/27/2019 at 12:57 PM, Cassandra said:

DC :Legends and Brooklyn Nine Nine are the only reasons I watch TV.

I love that Nine-Nine was picked up after being cancelled.  One of the few shows on TV that gets a literal LOL from me every episode.

I actually bailed on Arrow yesterday.  I was catching up on this season, watched two-and-a-half episodes in a row before I realized I wasn't being entertained anymore.  I was watching it just to have watched it.  It had become a slog.  I may tune in next season to see the final episodes but for now I'm done.  I'm this close to doing the same with Supergirl, it's become too CW for me.

On 3/25/2019 at 12:41 AM, archer said:

 

Rumor around the industry is that both Legends and Arrow are cancelled after wrapping up their next season. But I don't know if that's set in stone or not.

 

CW has announced that Arrow will end after Season 8 and the Legends are returning for Season 5.

I thought her acting was fine.  She was playing someone trained to be an unemotional soldier.  It was her character arc that was a bit weak but I see that as the fault of the writers, not her performance.

I was bugged for awhile about the whole flerken thing.  Whether or not they explain later why the thing suddenly attacked Fury, it struck me as completely random and jarring.  As was Fury's nonchalance about losing an eye.

I agree that the lightspeed engine story doesn't make much sense; these races are already capable of racing all over the galaxy; I think the writers could've thought about it for another ten minutes and come up with something better.  Call it a teleportation engine, or a dimensional portal generator.  Something, almost anything, else.

My main concern coming out of it was the same thing articulated by a couple of others here:  power creep.  She's way overpowered compared to the rest of the MCU.  I really don't want to see her single-handedly drop Thanos, but they sure have made it appear that she could.  I have trust that Feige and the Russo brothers (my next cover band name) are smarter than that.

I'm actually fine with a pitch clock, they've had it in the minors for a couple of seasons now and nobody noticed.

The three-batter rule is supposed to be imposed in 2020, I'm hoping somebody comes to their senses before that.  It's a horrible idea to dictate on-field strategy.  That's the same reason I don't like the proposal to ban the shift.  Stop hitting into it and they won't do it.

I'm very happy to hear that the September roster expansion will be a lot more reasonable next season.