Darth Fluffy

Not really; it is an overpowered item, of course people want it. Unlimited wishes? I'm sure some creative soul can come up with good uses for the paper image.

Oops.

Ellen and Elliot are not that much alike. I seems that Ellen has Nanase on a pedestal. Understandable, as Nanase has better focus; Ellen is a bit scatter-brained. Recall the four girls figuring out the griffins, Ellen ate pizza and randomly blurted out insight, not recognizing it as such. Nanase is more 'Let's plan', Ellen is more 'Let's see what develops'.

NP Comic for Saturday, June 11, 2022 It appears like she's kind of like imagining herself very much like Nanase, but with her own attitudes and hangups. The first imagined image in panel three looked nude at first (I guess it technically is) but it is fur covered and has a tail, and large ears, so "I'm a mouse" maybe? Girl has issues.

I can relate. I'm apparently a caffeine based life form.

Hmm. In today's Freefall comic, Sam is wearing a breathing mask with a bottle. (Permanent link not established yet) This begs the question, "What does Sam breathe?" Presumably, he's from an underwater culture, and that bottle has water. Does his normal mask have a bottle, or does it condense water from the air? How does an underwater civilization develop steam technology? Volcanic vents? Maybe they're smarter than they look.

I loved Heinlein's juvies, I was a bit older when I found them, around 6th through 8th grade. Citizen of the Galaxy was good, and The Rolling Stones. Loved Asimov's Robot stories and his science nonfiction, very accessible.

... and as we know, 'It's all about the base ..."

GURP covers some archaic and obscure literary settings. Palladium's Turtles had some of the 'kitchen sink' thing going on. With only five or so books, they covered interstellar space and in another multidimensional travel. I'll give Palladium this, their books were dense, you got a lot of content for you dollar. Can't speak to the quality, other than previously mentioned '... it doesn't seem popular ...'. Maybe too rules heavy? In spite of all of that, for sheer weight, does anything really come close to all the versions, settings, and supplements for D&D?

Stainless reality, mops up easily!

Yes, Elliot, reality is weird. So are the alternatives.

I want to see Sam play 'Advanced Sqid Leader'. He will apparently be doing a nudie scene soon. Given this reaction, hilarity should ensue.

I've never played a Palladium game. The settings seem interesting, but lean toward 'throw in the kitchen sink'. Rifts seems to be their most popular property, and I see little activity.

20 X 2 x 30 = 1200. Only 1200 people? I recall seeing a number many years ago, I thought it was more. The ship seems city sized. Guess not.

I credit an early interest in science fiction. Cartoons with Marvin, You Will Go to the Moon (they lied), Dr. Seuss from a kid's perspective, later actual juvenile sci fi. I also credit the space race, which I followed extensively. And books; I had a bunch of How and Why books with decent coverage of topics for that age, my dad got Popular Science and similar magazines, I liked the Time Life Science series and Nature series, which was widely available in libraries, I had a few About ... books, and several Golden Pocket Guides. Also mechanical puzzle toys as a toddler, and science kits later. I got toys that intrigued my dad. I recall winding two motors for two different kits, and yes, they worked. OTOH, if it didn't interest him, it did not happen. I got interested in fishing, and asked him to take me, many times. He took me once, to shut me up, offered no advice, probably because he really didn't have any, and we didn't stay long at all, which if yo think about it, is not a way to fish. I suppose in his day, to be fair, he would have just done it and not bugged his dad. But he lived within an easy walk of a river, I did not. Shows like Mr. Wizard were good when I could find them. The one I recall having access to, I don't remember the name, had a dachshund named Corpuscle, and two or three people mostly talking about science, slow paced, few demonstrations. One of the people was a woman, so props for early 'Involve girls in STEM'. I did like Tom Swift, but I don't think it was a big motivator. I liked stage magic, watched The Magic Land of Alakazam with Mark Wilson every week, and had some magic trick stuff, a few I got good at. I believe that got me thinking in terms of 'what is real' - there seems to be a connection between interest in stage magic and interest in science. Good stage magicians use cutting edge science to their advantage.

NP Comic for Tuesday, June 14, 2022 Not sad to see this series end. The art is good.

It is high on my daily list as well. I only know of one web comic that updates every day, DoA; Willis has been consistent. Many of the ones that are 'newspaper comics' also keep up that schedule, but all of the other independent web comics that are more or less daily seem to take off weekends. I can't say that I fault them for that. I like my weekends, too.

I am surprised you knew it was a comic first. I've never seen the comic for sale. TMNT timeline: Comic: Published 1984 to 2014, appears to have been licensed a few times to others. RPG: 'Active' 1985 to just into 2000 -published by Palladium books. I've seen this in my gaming store, back in the day (1980s). I didn't know anyone that purchased it. There was a line of lead figures for it, the store carried them, and I've seen them on ebay occasionally. Cartoon: Began in 1987, so, not long after, and then it really took off. Lots of action figures and play sets. My kids were never really into this. Movies: Began in 1990. Franchise: They've had many iterations of the cartoon, films, and toys. Still has a fairly strong following. I've never gotten into them myself, (probably why my kids did not gravitate to it) but I like the basic early concept. I like Splinter. The April comic art in the original comic is more ethnic than April in the cartoon. I did not realize Casey Jones was an ally, I figured he was an antagonist. The overall acting of pretty much everyone is more organic in TNG, it flows better, you can actually believe they live on the ship. There are people in the corridors. There are rec areas; 10 forward and the holodeck(s? - there should be several, or is it 'officers only'?). The cheesiness is still above anything else from that era, for the most part. Shatner was odd; I've heard stories about him being very controlling and needing to be in the spotlight in each episode - ST - The Shatner Show. I'm not understanding why he got away with it, it seems that Gene Roddenberry was firmly in control. It would have been a better show if the other characters got more focus from time to time, that was one of the strengths of TNG. Consider, there was a lot made of Data and his background. There was much interest in Spock, but episodes that gave clues about his background were not common, and were highly rated. (Not to mention he is basically a better character than Kirk - he is more embedded in the franchise.) Shatner's follow on series, T.J. Hooker, was basically Kirk as a cop. He's had a long career, though, and it's not all bad. He's in a classic Twilight Zone episode, the guy who sees a thing on the wing of the plane. And he's still going fairly strong. Not my favorite human being, but he has his moments. (He is oddly conspicuously absent from other cast members receiving honors over the years, though they generally support each other.) I would say, 'Talented, but full of himself, and he trips over his own ego.' The 'feud' with George Takei apparently boils down to Shatner seeking hype and notoriety. Leonard Nimoy was more awesome than is obvious. He was in the US Army, was in charge of entertainers, Special Services, and encouraged at least some of his troops to pursue a career in entertainment, wrote contact letters on their behalf, and supported them. On the Trek set, he lobbied for better pay for people such as Nichelle Nichols. He was well liked and well remembered. Perhaps one of Shatner's few friends on the set. He was also in a Twilight Zone episode, one where he's a lieutenant in the Pacific invading a Japanese held island in WWII, and he briefly switches places with the leader in the cave they are assaulting. I had forgotten the strike, I recall you are right. There are several preliminary scripts for unproduced Star Trek sequels. I think there was a pilot for one centering on Sulu's later career. The lady that played Janice Rand was involved in a reboot of her character. I think there may have been some Web based efforts, seem to recall seeing a bit of that. The bits I've seen were well done. The writing was good, and one about a Sargasso Sea -like section of space with many derelict craft I had read in a Star Trek short story collection before I saw the show. (They team up with the Klingons to both escape.) I don't remember any as short as four; I recall frequent cliff hangers, which meant long arcs. Did not recall the contents of the first season at all, then again I watched a lot of it, I'm sure it all blurred over time. Running gags were the characters breaking the fourth wall and interrupting the Narrator, and the Narrator giving two pun titles for the next episode. Only the Rocky and Bullwinkle segment ran over time, the other segments, Peabody and Sherman, Fractured Fairy Tales, Aesop and Son, and later Dudley Do-Right were standard short cartoons. There were a few interspersed very short segments of Bullwinkle antics, such as reciting poetry. There was some continuity between story lines in the sense that a character was introduced, and might appear again, but I think there was enough recap that it wasn't a dependency. Per your last comment, I think if you catch the last episode in one of the story lines, there is enough recap that you've got the gist of the story. I hyped it to my kids and watched with them. We stumbled on it, and were quickly hooked, it was so well done. Entertaining, often a bit silly as befits kids fare, but very deep and clever. He did actual experimental demonstrations, and I've seen similar shows in my day, but slower and more of a crawl (although, if you can find Dr. Julius Sumner Miller, he had some of Bill Nye's brilliance). Bill Nye kept it moving, and that is a key to hooking a kids audience. The end songs were fantastic, worth of Weird Al. Back to Trek being generally above the quality of Sci Fi at the time, I recall the build up to the release of 2001, a Space Odyssey. It was a phenomenal film, a very detailed and realistic portrayal of space travel and lunar colonization given the understanding of the time (up until he flies into the monolith, then it gets trippy). Having such great memories of it, I rented it and showed it to my kids. They were bored to tears. And I realized that it wasn't that it was a bad film, it wasn't that it was lame per se, it was that space travel is essentially boring. Nothing for days, weeks, months, or years; centuries if we ever reach out beyond are local area, potentially. Related, I've run into occasional folks that think the moon landings were faked. No, they weren't. We didn't get to the moon overnight. We and others have been planning that trip for decades; in fiction since the turn of the 1900s. several nations have worked hard on reaching space before Kennedy's proclamation and then it took the better part of a decade. The long development effort and the tiny baby steps were well documented. That we eventually did it should come as no surprise. I saw the fairly recent cinematic recap from archival footage; there are tens or hundreds of people on the Florida coast watching the take off. Not buying that it was faked and they somehow managed to keep that many people quiet about it . Or, as Neil deGrasse Tyson says, "If they didn't go to the moon, why is the Saturn V rocket so damned big?"

Something Positive is uniquely good at what it is. I doubt it's everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a bit of a curmudgeon yourself, you can wrap your head around what he is presenting. As far as liking fans, 'like' seems like it's in his vocabulary, but not his go-to emotion. I don't think he even likes himself. He could have called it, "Coping With Negativity." I like how his characters progress and grow.

That part I get.

Be glad this is not Randy Milholland's comic. He would do it just because of the negative responses. Also, he's doing Sunday Popeye! Way to go, Randy!

I've never lived anywhere that didn't have some coverage that I can recall.

Ashley's new "OC" characters playing a video game?

Wow, that's scary. A quick check confirms the timeline you state. I was by no means a teen, out of college and at my third duty station. Definitely misremembering the circumstances. I know I've seen it, but the context, the surroundings are wrong. Seriously, getting old is not for the faint of heart. You young whipper snappers get off my lawn! I was past the demographic for both Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street when they debuted, was somehow aware of what they were, so I must have seen some. I remember the SNL spoof of Mr Rogers Neighborhood. Fred Rogers had a knack for talking to little kids. He could talk at their level and not be condescending. Sesame Street has changed focus over the years. Initially it was on basic skills, counting and the alphabet, and rudiments of beginning reading. It was a very clever approach. Weirdly, just like Looney Toons, some of the content was WAY over the kids' heads. I recall and Allister Cookie skit, 'Monsterpiece Theater' - with famous movie titles framing a simple short lesson. Cookie Monster even had the pipe to gesture with. In Looney Toons that content made sense, it played in theater cartoons. In Sesame Street, the demographic watching was overwhelmingly kids. Perhaps it was thrown in for parents watching with there kids, which is probably where I've seen it. I've never gotten into Transformers, nor Voltron. Saturday morning animation comes in waves of fashion. When I was in the elementary ages, they still showed a lot of stale ancient cartoons, like Herman and Catnip. Casper, the Friendly Ghost. I remember a wave of superhero shows, they were for the most part not great on down to pathetic. Decades later, they have been gutted for spoof content, like Space Ghost, Coast to Coast and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. I think Voltron and Transformers came about as awareness grew of using the cartoons to market toy lines. While there were toys of earlier shows, these new shows were designed hand in hand with the toy line to market it. G.I. Joe was changed from a 12" scale doll to a line of action figures that corresponded with a cartoon show. The worst wave, the one I dislike the most, is the overly saccharine '<x franchise> Babies' from a while back. Sorry, whoever likes them, not a fan. I don't think I'm alone in this; Animaniacs is great, well liked, Tiny Toons does not seem to have much of a following. Star Trek TOS was ground breaking when it originally aired. After a decade of science fiction shows dominated by Irwin Allen, which all quickly devolved into silly and/or cheesy, it took itself (at least somewhat) seriously. It has not aged well, and it is difficult to find a fan of Bill Shatner's acting. TNG had trouble finding their way at first, they spent the first season trying to imitate TOS, even to the story level, but once they broke out and became their own show, they had some of the best episodes in the Trek setting. Playing with Data's personhood was brilliant. There is a somewhat obscure Star Trek animated series that ran on Saturday mornings after TOS ended. Roddenberry helmed it, it used the TOS actors as the voice actors, and remained a serious Star Trek show. I've only seem a few episodes, but they were pretty good. It's been largely forgotten since TOS aired. The weirdest thing about it was airing it on Saturday mornings. Rocky and Bullwinkle was brilliant, but used more topical humor; also the show had story lines that spanned episodes, and if care was not taken to play them in order, the episodes would loose much value (like what happened to Firefly). I can see a sub-par station picking the show up for syndication and being clueless about how to air it. I had to look up 'How old is Scooby Doo'. Rolled out in 1969. In spite of my logo, I would not call myself a fan; more like I know some of the content, and it is ... interesting. Broadly spoofable. A conflux of tropes. In fact, more than most shows, which tropes seem more organic to the setting, Scooby Doo seems built on tropes and plays with tropes. It is a genuinely odd show. It screams for a backstory that is never spelled out. (If I recall correctly, the eventual movies take various inconsistent stabs at that.) Scooby Doo was not Hanna Barbara's first talking dog. Aside from the obvious anthropomorphics, which don't count, Astro talked in a manner similar to Scooby, and Muttley snickered knowingly, so maybe a fraction for him. A Scooby Doo D&D session might be interesting. Basically, they have no skills for the D&D settings, they run into real monsters, and everyone dies. Did you watch Bill Nye, the Science Guy?

I am curious, why did you stop?