vaguerant

Uh, holy shit. Meta doesn't even make Flo. This is worse: the developers were specifically selling their users' menstrual data to Facebook.

Anybody have an open-source tracker they'd recommend?

I'm thinking about my eye floaters roughly 200% of the time and I still mistake them for bugs flying past my face at least once a week.

I checked, whoever CONEY is isn't saying these things, it's a reaction video making fun of the satanic panic around Pokémon. That's why in the profile pic he looks like one of those dudes who would make an outrageous reaction face in the thumbnail, because he usually does. No shade, except for the obvious shade.

• Satanism in Pokémon and MTG (original video)
• The Disturbing Agenda Behind Pokémon (CONEY reaction video)

EDIT: I'm watching the OG video (35 damn minutes); favorite pull quote so far:

The danger of Dungeons & Dragons or any kind of role-playing game like this is that it's played with the mind and--when played with the mind--the mind begins to lose that fine line with what's real and what's fantasy. And the more you get into the fantasy world, the more it seems real and all of a sudden now, you don't know what's real or what's not.

Seems like.

EDIT2: Hold up though, is this guy working undercover for Prima Guides or something?

And now, parents, if you're not up on Pokémon, you need to be. And one of the things you can do is go out and buy the official Pokémon Trading Card Game Player's Guide. And you can get this at any store that sells any of the Pokémon stuff. I mean anything. You can get it like at Toys 'R' Us or any of those places that sell any of the Pokémon.

From a behind-the-scenes perspective, the most important thing to note about this episode is that it's actually from season 1. If you thought it was weird that the first season had 12 episodes and the second had 14, instead of the more common 13-episode season, here's your answer. I don't think we've had any formal explanation of what happened, but MacFarlane did say that 20th Century Fox's corporate board raised a note about the network broadcast standards in relation to this episode. Maybe it was just too sexually arousing to air.

It was originally supposed to air as episode 12, so despite jumping seasons, it's really only been shuffled down two episodes. They did have to reshoot the scenes with Topa in them, because there is supposed to have been a small time jump between seasons and season 2 Topa is older than the child they filmed with previously. It's interesting to think that this episode was originally intended to air before "Ja'loja", as you might have expected this episode to change that one. Then again, that episode showed deceptively little of the Bortus-Klyden relationship.

I think this episode is missing something as far as exploring the repercussions of Topa's reassignment. We don't seem to get any indication that that is at the root of Bortus's porn addiction until the episode is about 2/3 complete. As a viewer, you might bring that context with you, but if the show was peppering in any foreshadowing about it, I didn't catch it. The episode is kind of goofy and jokey for the first 29 minutes, then we get the reveal and finally have something to really bite into.

The conclusion, with most of the potential refugees forced to remain on the planet and die, reinforces the tonal shift in the last third of the episode. We get a touching farewell from First Minister Theece to her partner and child, a scene which deserves a better episode. Ultimately, I just don't feel like the comedy is really integrated very well into this episode compared to some of the others we've seen. There's so much here for the episode to dig into, but it's all dumped into the final act instead of throughout.

Ultimately, this one feels like a missed opportunity. I don't hate it or anything, it's no "Cupid's Dagger", I just feel certain there's a better episode buried inside this one.

At least we get this exchange:

Lt. Malloy: "Captain, we have another problem." Capt. Mercer: "Oh, neat, what is it?"

I'm always on board for a (quasi-) Jackie Tyler episode; she's one of my favorite parts of the Rose era. It is funny that Camille Coduri is playing a 20-year-old Jackie Tyler here with just an '80s perm to convince us. She's entirely unconvincing as a 20-year-old, but it's not really much worse than Billie Piper being 19. It's the Dear Evan Hansen industrial complex over here.

I love any time there's Back to the Future II (my favorite!) shenanigans in a time travel story, so the opening with multiple Doctors and Roses a few minutes apart immediately wins me over. They're followed by some pretty naff effects throughout, with the red-cellophane vision and dodgy CGI monsters all over the place. I'm still on board.

It's interesting to see the Doctor actively frightened about what he's done to the timeline, since plot conceits usually dictate that whatever he does is fine. There's some interesting moments like him watching that time-displaced death car with genuine concern. We also get his line, "An ordinary man, that's the most important thing in creation." I wonder if somebody overheard the Doctor saying this in 1987 and that's why we're dealing with the manosphere today.

The scene(s) where Pete starts to understand that he's not in Rose's future and in fact not in anybody's future are well written and performed by Piper and Dingwall, who is unfalteringly believable as a deadbeat husband and dad who both knows and regrets it. Rose's false monologue about the kind of father he becomes and his ultimate recognition that he can in some way be that father is genuinely affecting. Even though the music is doing its best to hammer the emotional beats home throughout, I don't think it was necessary in that moment.

This isn't an episode that I think should have won any awards, and don't worry: it didn't. Nothing ground-breaking for the show happens here, the music choices are incredibly un-subtle, and it's ultimately very predictable stuff. But I find it enjoyable from start to finish. It's the fun kind of silly. I like getting to meet a bunch of the recurring cast at a different point in their lives in a story that's self-contained but with a satisfying payoff in the final Jackie and child-Rose scene. This isn't Doctor Who at its best, but it's supremely comfortable viewing and I'm happy with that.

Bonus points for the pre-Rickroll "Never Gonna Give You Up" in the scene with Rose and her father in the car on the way to the church. The meme didn't exist when this episode was first broadcast, it was just a hit song from the '80s. Hearing it in the background just to set the scene without the 20 years of baggage is a fun time. It's hard to remember what it was like to hear it without the modern context, but having nobody react strongly to it in-universe gives us a small taste.

/s != serious

This was so funny I had to double-check the linked article: yes, this part is also real.

Gamers said they wanted women out of games, I thought they'd be happy. /s

"Rate" in the headline feels a bit misleading. It's not an app for quantifying hotness, it seems to be more about checking whether the men you meet online are safe to be around. You can upload their photos to do reverse image searches to detect catfishing, search public records for criminal records, sex offender registries, indications that they're already married, etc. and have anonymous discussions about men you are or have dated in case of any red flags.

Sounds like you've never had to endure Amateur Services.

Understandable, given the circumstances.

I watched the eight-part miniseries Washington Black (US: Hulu, CA/UK/AU: Disney+). It's a sort of swashbuckling 1800s steampunk fairytale of a Barbadian boy (the titular George Washington Black) who escapes the life of slavery he was born into using his scientific aptitude and a fantastical airship. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the depiction of life within the show's universe, but going any further than that strays into spoiler territory. Overall, it was fun to watch. Sterling K. Brown is a major standout in the cast, but everybody is doing good work.

Below I'll go into a bit more detail about the things I liked less. It's fairly minor spoilers, mostly about things that don't happen in the show, but if you don't want to know anything going in, skip it.

Overall, I'd say it's what you might expect from a Disney(-ish) fairytale adaptation of darker source material. It just feels a little weird when the elements that were dropped are the harsh realities of 1800s racism and not ... little mermaids dying (Hans Christian Anderson spoilers). Again, I had fun watching it, but I feel conflicted about how healthy it is to make historical fiction fun by softening the harder edges. Who knows, maybe it's OK to have some escapist fiction with PoC protagonists, as a treat?

For people who have seen Nautilus (US/CA: AMC+, UK: Amazon Prime Video, AU: Stan), I'd say that's a better show, as far as swashbuckling steampunk adventures which try to engage with the racial dynamics of the (fictionalized) eras they represent. But both shows are very enjoyable, quite short and easy to watch. Go watch Nautilus.