A Minor Variation

In honor of the incredibly sexy variant cover of X-Men: Legacy #255, I have uploaded my 100th LJ icon.

That is all.

Finally finished watching Blood+. It was not nearly as bad as I feared. I will admit, however, that a large part of the entertainment value of the series had by this point become watching people on the TVWoP forum explain what was going on to those who were having trouble following:

( snipped for Other People's Words )

Other things that are amusing me lately: Saiunkoku Monogatari, which I am too out of it to properly explain at the moment, but it's kind of like Ouran High School Host Club in feudal fantasy China with politics and open bisexuality. Srsly.

Also the Legion Abstract, which I recommend to the LSH fans on my flist. Reviews and synopses of all current ongoing Legion storylines, including threeboot, the stuff going on in Action Comics, the cartoon, and the comic of the cartoon, but more interesting than these are the writeups on signature moments of each Legionnaire and other random Legion-related stuff. I live in hope that he will eventually get around to a writeup on Magno, because thus far it's taken characters on the level of Atmos, Visi-Lad, and Calamity King to reduce him to "yeah, he was here, he didn't really do anything, we don't care, moving on," and any kind of appreciation for Magno as a character makes me happy.

Plus, he's funny:

( snipped again )

Not to mention that he actually went to the trouble of explaining the entirety of Mon-El's continuity, which, dear God. Anyway, Legion fans, check it out. Makes for some interesting reading.

I now own a hot cocoa maker.

It's a kitchen appliance that makes hot cocoa. Doesn't really have any other use that I can think of.

Yes, I can make hot cocoa perfectly well with a microwave and a spoon.

It's a nifty little gadget anyhow. I can't help it, I love kitchen gadgets. And it does churn out a pretty nice cup of hot cocoa.

Granted, the fact that I gave it Godiva hot cocoa mix to work with may have had something to do with that.

But.

I ♥ MY MR. COFFEE COCOMOTION.

Also: new icon. Because I didn't have enough Dyrk icons. Or something.

Eve says, "See, what happened is that the year Kitty was born, stupid was on special. And it never really goes bad - I mean, how can it? So the universe stocked up. And now whenever it runs out of ideas for dinner, it opens up the pantry and goes, 'Oh look! Stupid - Stupid goes with everything. I'll have this.'"

It's funny because it's true.

wah i do not want to drive to Starkville tonight. Should not have waited so late.

So, I'm playing Final Fantasy XII. I've recently acquired the second-level Quickening for Basch, which is called Ruin Impendent. The animation for this involves Basch punching the enemy several times, and the usual light-show. It's shiny, but fairly standard for FF.

Until I happen to look at the game's description of the move, which begins: "Collapse space-time..."

Immediately, all I can think is:

Basch punches time.

I am such a geek for finding this so funny.

Probably only funny to me...

...but I find it hysterical.

...I'm not all that thrilled with Rogue #11, either. Oh, if Shiro had to go out, I guess I like how he did it, but still, sucks for him and his fans. At least 'til they bring him back. And while I wasn't ever exactly thrilled with Rogue losing the Ms. Marvel powers, I didn't want her to go picking up anyone else's - especially not an elemental/energy-based set.

These points I could probably live with, but I am not at all happy about the role Blindspot's been cast in - particularly not the "I can't let them take me! I need my best friend back!" I wanted to see a doublecross, and this doesn't exactly count, unless more gets revealed in #12.

And considering that the first thing Rogue does after Blindspot yoinks her memory is absorb Havok, the scenario doesn't exactly play... along with his powers, she should have absorbed enough of his thoughts and memories involving her to twig to the fact that hey, something's up here!

Not to mention, dude, what's with the anime antennae? Her stripe is pastede on yay.

I've recently picked up Rogue #6, the final issue of the first arc of the Rogue ongoing. It's been pretty underwhelming thus far. I am not impressed by Richards' artwork; the heavy outlines make it stiff. Worse than the art, though, is Rodi's writing and his poor characterization. The story depends mostly on everyone involved behaving as though they've been brain-damaged, and over the course of six issues not a whole lot happens... yet for all that nothing much happens, they managed to wrap up Rogue's family history so that it doesn't seem like there's much room to expand on it further - and what was established is pretty piddling after over twenty years of secrecy on the subject. Not much of a big revelation.

On the bright side, both Rodi and Richards are off the title. The new team is Tony Bedard writing and Karl Moline penciling, and judging from what Bedard has said, the outlook is a little more promising. Bedard at least seems to think of Rogue in terms of her potential as a powerhouse, and the issues he names as favorites are old classics like UXM #172 and #173, when Rogue was rampaging around Tokyo with Wolverine beating up Yakuza. His first arc is supposed to involve Rogue's history with the Brotherhood, and he's promising some new developments with her powers - of course, we've heard this before. But I am hopeful.

I'm also going to pick up X-Men #166 to check out the new writer, Peter Milligent, and the start of his arc "Golgotha." I love Salvador Larroca's art, and since Rogue and Gambit are both actually in this issue, I'd like to see how it turns out.

And, on an even brighter note, there's Quantum Leap. My brother, smart boy, gave me season two on DVD for Christmas, and I am struck once more by how excellent the series really is. I don't think I appreciated just how good it was when it was airing. I just teared up watching the episode "Jimmy," in which Sam leaps into a mentally handicapped man. Seriously teared up. It's amazing how well it holds up; it doesn't look over twenty years old. Anyone who hasn't seen it, my God, people, you have no idea what you're missing.

I also picked up X-Men Legends, which is also good stuff. Finally, an X-Men video game that's more than just two characters beating up on each other. It's not perfect, but it's very good. I had a great deal of fun tromping around the Sentinel factory as Rogue, throwing trucks around and breaking everything that would break, which was pretty much everything. When Cyclops announced, "X-Men, it looks like we're going to be putting in some overtime," I felt like the game had succeeded. My only complaints is that the enemies, aside from the bosses and the Sentinels, tended to be too generic... some characters you unlock too late to make much use of them, and though there are fourteen to choose from by the end, they're not evenly balanced. Cyclops, Storm, Jean, Wolverine, and Iceman have skills and advantages that make them almost necessary to whatever team you try to put together, while Gambit, Jubilee, and Beast wind up being pretty superfluous. And both Gambit and Colossus had terrible, terrible accents. But I'm looking forward to Legends 2 and, with luck, a few new playable characters. In the meantime, it's got at least one more play in it; I want to see how I make it through with Storm instead of Cyke for my leadership bonus and some other alternate characters.

Edit to add: Something else that is awesome is Robin McKinley's Sunshine. funwithrage was very right. McKinley has, of course, never let me down yet.