My footsteps around the internet in the past few days
Today's XKCD is fun, my kind of April Fool's Day silliness. Recommended.
Gunnerkrigg Court is distressing to read lately. I keep hoping it's going to be a joke and my hopes keep being dashed.The protagonist's long-lost father just entered the storyline after years and years of being mysteriously absent and yearned for. Turns out he's a dickhead. He's only appeared in a handful of pages so far, but he's been established as Snape McTarkin O'Denethor. It's getting too painful for me to read in small spaced-out doses, and I'll probably go back to it in a month when I can read this sequence quickly and be done with it. Mind you, I can't recall the last story I read where the long-lost father shows up and instantly turns out to be an awful person, so, uh, well played, I guess. (Might be as far back as DWJ's Drowned Ammet.)
Skin Horse is also hard to enjoy lately. Character torture, which we know is probably an AI manipulating the main character so that no matter what she does she messes up worse and worse, and every bad thing is all her fault forever. This is actually supposed to be funny, but it doesn't really make it for me; it turns out I can't stand watching a person prone to shame and guilt be yanked around by her sense of shame and guilt. Again, I'll probably back off for a couple months and then read this storyline in a rush and get it over with.
Questionable Content has been painful to read, but in a good way. I admire the risks that Jeph Jaques has been taking. That said, the latest strip is a return to Hannelore's priorities, and I can't get enough of her, so I'm happy.
Non-webcomic news: Captain Awkward's latest letter is from a lawyer whose boss (1) generally behaved abominably towards one female employee, and (2) brought a machete to a disciplinary meeting and chopped it into his desk to frighten people. I like how the comments section is full of people going, "GET OUT. NOW." These are people who took away the right lessons from The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.
I am thirteen episodes into the first season of Gravity Falls and I love it. Everyone who's recommended this show to me, you were right and my hat is off to you. It's a show for everyone, but particularly good for people who were once weird kids who read the Time-Life books on the paranormal and identified with Edgar Allan Poe's "Alone." Also, it's fuckin' hilarious. It has my kind of sense of humor, you guys! It's sweet and kind and gentle, and also anarchic and self-deprecating. There are SIBLINGS WHO ACTUALLY LOVE AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER. Mabel Pines is a giggly, happy space cadet who gets the most out of life, sees the best in everybody and brings out the best in them because of that, and the show recognizes how beautiful this is and doesn't make her the punch line all the time. (Someone on Tumblr pointed out that if Mabel was a character on almost any other show, she'd be treated like Meg on Family Guy.) There are two idiot policemen called Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland, who as far as I'm concerned are married ("If being delightful was a crime, you'd be breaking the law,") and whose reaction to seeing a spouting fire hydrant is to rip off their uniforms and run around whooping and splashing each other. The whole goddamn show is jam-packed with stuff like this. It makes me so fuckin' happy. You know that state of mind where you're so overwhelmed by cuteness that you have to swear and use violent language to let out your feelings? I get that way around Gravity Falls.
Gunnerkrigg Court is distressing to read lately. I keep hoping it's going to be a joke and my hopes keep being dashed.The protagonist's long-lost father just entered the storyline after years and years of being mysteriously absent and yearned for. Turns out he's a dickhead. He's only appeared in a handful of pages so far, but he's been established as Snape McTarkin O'Denethor. It's getting too painful for me to read in small spaced-out doses, and I'll probably go back to it in a month when I can read this sequence quickly and be done with it. Mind you, I can't recall the last story I read where the long-lost father shows up and instantly turns out to be an awful person, so, uh, well played, I guess. (Might be as far back as DWJ's Drowned Ammet.)
Skin Horse is also hard to enjoy lately. Character torture, which we know is probably an AI manipulating the main character so that no matter what she does she messes up worse and worse, and every bad thing is all her fault forever. This is actually supposed to be funny, but it doesn't really make it for me; it turns out I can't stand watching a person prone to shame and guilt be yanked around by her sense of shame and guilt. Again, I'll probably back off for a couple months and then read this storyline in a rush and get it over with.
Questionable Content has been painful to read, but in a good way. I admire the risks that Jeph Jaques has been taking. That said, the latest strip is a return to Hannelore's priorities, and I can't get enough of her, so I'm happy.
Non-webcomic news: Captain Awkward's latest letter is from a lawyer whose boss (1) generally behaved abominably towards one female employee, and (2) brought a machete to a disciplinary meeting and chopped it into his desk to frighten people. I like how the comments section is full of people going, "GET OUT. NOW." These are people who took away the right lessons from The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.
I am thirteen episodes into the first season of Gravity Falls and I love it. Everyone who's recommended this show to me, you were right and my hat is off to you. It's a show for everyone, but particularly good for people who were once weird kids who read the Time-Life books on the paranormal and identified with Edgar Allan Poe's "Alone." Also, it's fuckin' hilarious. It has my kind of sense of humor, you guys! It's sweet and kind and gentle, and also anarchic and self-deprecating. There are SIBLINGS WHO ACTUALLY LOVE AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER. Mabel Pines is a giggly, happy space cadet who gets the most out of life, sees the best in everybody and brings out the best in them because of that, and the show recognizes how beautiful this is and doesn't make her the punch line all the time. (Someone on Tumblr pointed out that if Mabel was a character on almost any other show, she'd be treated like Meg on Family Guy.) There are two idiot policemen called Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland, who as far as I'm concerned are married ("If being delightful was a crime, you'd be breaking the law,") and whose reaction to seeing a spouting fire hydrant is to rip off their uniforms and run around whooping and splashing each other. The whole goddamn show is jam-packed with stuff like this. It makes me so fuckin' happy. You know that state of mind where you're so overwhelmed by cuteness that you have to swear and use violent language to let out your feelings? I get that way around Gravity Falls.