Saturday, July 13, 2013

Geeky Weekly Funtimez

Monday
5 AM* - Mark Reads John Dies at the End -  Chapter 8
8 AM - Mark Watches Pushing Daisies - 2x08 Comfort Food
1 PM - Mark Watches The West Wing - 2x19 Bad Moon Rising

Tuesday
5 AM -
Mark Reads Page - Chapter 15
8 AM - Mark Watches Pushing Daisies - 2x09 The Legend of Merle McQuoddy
1 PM - Mark Watches Friday Night Lights - 3x05 Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Wednesday
5 AM -
Mark Reads John Dies at the End -  Chapter 9
8 AM - Mark Watches Pushing Daisies - 2x10 The Norwegians
1 PM - Mark Watches The West Wing - 2x20 The Fall's Gonna Kill You

Thursday
5 AM - Mark Reads Squire - Predictions/"Plain Magic"

8 AM - Mark Watches Pushing Daisies - 2x11 Window Dressed to Kill
1 PM - Mark Watches Friday Night Lights - 3x06 It Ain't Easy Being J.D. McCoy

Friday
5 AM - Mark Reads John Dies at the End -  Chapter 10
8 AM - Mark Watches Pushing Daisies - 2x12 Water and Power
1 PM - Mark Watches The West Wing - 2x21 18th and Potomac

 As always, remind us if you want to be added to the list of people who get the time stamp of their "verbs" posts edited so that you can find it through sorting comments by date.

* All times listed are in the US Pacific timezone.

Comments (2,090)

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Stef watches The West Wing and tears and laughs and all that



My goal is to finish the sixth season this week!

Current Progress: 6x13
48 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Stef watches Gilmore Girls and was busy forcing her parents to watch it so I watched season one again and that's why I didn't do any posts last week whoops




Goal is to finish season two this week!

Current Progress: 2x16
1 reply · active 621 weeks ago
Lilykep Watches Lost

7 replies · active 621 weeks ago
spectralbovine watches The West Wing

Comic-Con means only a couple episodes this week!

Current Progress: Season 4, Episode 12.
10 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Pam Watches Breaking Bad



Current Progress: Season 2, Episode 2
3 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Steven rewatches Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and also reads the manga
34 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Tim watches Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Eventually.
28 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Weekly Hugo Reading Thread

So since it's the week of Comic-Con, why don't we talk about our votes for Dramatic Presentation? Next week, we can take a look at the artists.
1 reply · active 621 weeks ago


RIP Cory Monteith
Any loss of life is tragic, but the preventable death of a young person breaks my heart.
9 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Reminder that if you want to contribute to buying FMA:B episodes you can do so via PayPal to memobookworm@gmail.com.
5 replies · active 621 weeks ago
THE WEST WING 2X22 IS UP
14 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Random Question of the Week!

What fictional character do you wish to rescue from their story? Is it because the situation in the story is bleak for them, or because the narrative itself is awful?
35 replies · active 621 weeks ago
I've added a shelf to the Mark Reads GoodReads group for LGBTQ recs, but I need more books to put on it. Please feel free to either post your recs here, or else add them directly to the list (make sure to tag them "to read" and "recs-lgbtq"). I'm also thinking of adding a shelf for fiction with POC protagonists. I want the group to be a valuable resource for everyone.
28 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Spoils Commissions Tortall and Other Lands

Below are the contents of Tamora Pierce's short story collection. I've crossed out the ones Mark has already covered or is planning to cover in the near future. A couple of potentially spoilery titles are rot13'd. Is anyone thinking of commissioning any of the others? I assume "[Anjng]" will be done eventually, but it's still a long time before Mark reaches its place in the timeline. All the other unclaimed stories are not part of the Tortallverse, so there's nothing keeping Mark from reading them. I would really like to commission "Testing".

Student of Ostriches
Elder Brother
The Hidden Girl
[Anjng]
[Gur Qentba'f Gnyr] (commissioned; not yet posted)
Lost
Time of Proving
Plain Magic (commissioned; not yet posted)
Mimic
Huntress
Testing

(Would it be possible for someone with modly powers to edit the tags on Mark's posts so that all of these are tagged with "tortall and other lands"? Only "Lost" is at the moment.)
9 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Spoils plays boardgames

I've been playing pretty obsessively one game: Mythic Battles. It's about Athena and Hades battling each other with troops. It's basically a miniatures skirmish game that remains cheap by using flat disks to represent troops. Unit cards to represent their current strengths and abilities (as units go down in health, so too does their strengths and abilities, usually), and maneuver cards to represent their mobility and initiative in battle (more powerful units will have more maneuver cards in the deck). The latter might be restrictive, except there are Art of War cards mixed in your deck that let you search for any card you like, or can be paid in increasing amounts to activate more units. Power points can be derived from cards you're forced to discard, which then can be used to pay for abilities. Dice determine individual unit fight outcomes in a unique way amongst war games.

It's easy to reason with when playing both sides. I don't think anyone else in my area is interested in battling with this. :( There is a Vassal Module for it, though.

I also played my first game of Duel of Ages II, and it is IMMENSE FUN. The rules are taught on a tutorial basis, gradually immersing you into the rule set (Mythic Battles also uses a tutorial campaign, except that the beginning scenarios are, well, less impressive than the full game, which is awesome). Instead of using characters from one setting, you get characters from across time, both fictional (including non-infringing doubles of characters from popular stories) and non-fictional. Across a wide landscape with different terrain they go on adventures and fight each other using a unique combat mechanism through challenge cards. There are lots of items for them to pick up, including animal friends, bot companions, and henchmen. It's grand fun. I got the expansion (the Master Set) after picking up the Basic Set, simply based on the idea, and I'm glad I did, even though there was much cardboard cutout punching.

Sigh, if I wasn't so tired I'd fit in another game of both!

What have y'all been playing?
Well, here's to yet another Sunday night spent in hospital emergency because of asthma. At least it wasn't as bad this time. Plus as an added perk I may have a chest infection. Yay! =/
10 replies · active 621 weeks ago
This is pretty much how I feel right now/lately:
3 replies · active 621 weeks ago
You know, you'd think walking home in the middle of a tropical storm would be scary and/or miserable, but walking home with a good friend when you know you're not in danger means that it was just enjoyable to feel nature all around you.

(I'm in a very cheery and contemplative mood right now.)
Ryan reads The Demon's Lexicon
12 replies · active 621 weeks ago
Did you know JK Rowling had a new book out?

http://www.themarysue.com/rowling-publishes-under...
As I type this, there are still twenty-two hours and thirty minutes to pick up what I think was the game of the year of 2013, from a series that I've spent my adult life mocking. The reboot of Tomb Raider is 75% off at $12.49 and is worth five times that.

*Not only did they fix many of the most mockable aspects of the series, they also put effort into breaking other problematic tropes - for instance, orfvqrf Ynen, gur bayl bgure fheivibef ner zvabevgvrf. Unprecedented.
*The company made efforts to make the game available to MUCH lower-end machines than most new games. If you think your PC can't handle a new game, check the reqs. It might, it might not, but there's a better than normal chance.
*Despite that, the game is responsible for some of the most beautiful things to have appeared on my monitor. OMG, the enqvb gbjre.... It isn't just gorgeous, it's glorious.
*Square budgeted the game to move 5.5 million units in the first week. Which is ludicrous and Square of course fell short. But the game itself benefited from that overspending. They spent money on this title, and they did not waste it.
*The level design is intelligent, and the enemy placement is even better. Every enemy has a reason for being where they are. That distracts me so much in other games of the type.... There is a path to the game, but the path is wide without being hard to follow, rewards exploration, and isn't always a straight line. So that alone already makes it better than ME2.
*The ebcr neebjf are a blast. I found movement to be one of the great joys of Bioshock Infinite, and it's a lot more fun in this game.

This is the only game where I immediately started another playthrough when I finished it, and I got over half-way before my attention was finally called elsewhere. I have to recommend this title.
1 reply · active 621 weeks ago
Summer Anime Blah Blah Blah You're Probably All Tired of these Posts

Plan was to finish last week but one show was really slow to come out. One last show post, and then a short recap/recommendation post to justify making an entirely new thread.
14 replies · active 621 weeks ago
I have just fixed a clogged garbage disposal by virtue of YouTube and buying a set of "key" wrenches. 1/4" works for my Insinkerator. This was actually pretty harmless and clean---just stick the wrench into the socket in the center of the bottom of the disposal unit under the sink, and turn gently a few times. Then run disposal, turn off, flush with water for half a minute, then run disposal again.

And it worked. Just like that. It was amazing.

(I haven't used my disposal in several months, or my kitchen, really. About the time when I lost a couple of friends in a fairly not nice way.)
2 replies · active 621 weeks ago

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