Thursday Thoughts: Jowls, Howls, and Scowls

Today's random ramblings...

(Jerry Seinfeld voice): What is the deal with right-wing/conservative politicians and big jowls?

Does greed, corruption, and selfishness cause swelling of the goiter, or do big jowls cause those traits? It seems to be fairly consistent.

(I apologize, in advance, for the disturbing images)

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I have been enjoying Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. a lot more the past three weeks, after the warm up laps were completed.

The writing has become much stronger, they've actually used *some* less-than-perfect-specimen actors, and some of the characters are being well developed. I especially enjoyed the eye-camera episode, and the whole chain-of-control it suggests. It's a solid show that we've been looking forward to watching every Tuesday night.

I just wonder when/if we'll see the return of Graviton, the newly created villain.

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If you want one reason why North Americans haven't warmed up to soccer, how about crap like this?

"Arturo Vidal had an evening to forget in Madrid last night, his biggest contribution to the game arguably one of the worst dives of all time.

Juventus' poor European campaign continued with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid, but it was their Chilean midfielder who stole the headlines with a ludicrous penalty appeal in the second half. Vidal who was attempting to square a pass across the area as he approached the byline, completely missed the ball and got his boot stuck in the pitch.

However instead of simply looking foolish as the ball trickled out of play, the 26-year-old made matters far worse by launching himself into the air and appealing for a penalty as he flopped to the turf.

Unfortunately for Vidal there wasn't a Madrid defender within two feet of him so all he succeeded in earning was the scorn of the footballing world for such a blatant and poorly executed dive."

It's bad enough that soccer refs often fall for dives, but why don't they hand out more red and yellow cards for 'simulation'? This kind of crap won't stop if there is no disincentive to do so. Penalties are so valuable in soccer than players will flop quite easily in order to draw them.

Thankfully, most of the MLS doesn't resort to this...North American soccer is a far cry from the Italian league, that's for sure.

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For the Magic: the Gathering geeks who read this, here is a link that shows just the 51 new cards coming out in the Commander decks, and which deck(s) they'll be in. If you want a specific card, and plan to buy a deck, now you have more info.

It looks like the True-Name Nemesis I was drooling over is already pre-selling for about $30-40. Yikes. Good thing the deck I plan to get will have one in it.

Wednesday Wonderings : 10/02/13

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #2

The wife and I are enjoying this show, even if it has that made-for-a-mass-audience hokeyness and predictability to it. As the show isn't on AMC or HBO, I guess we can't expect the high quality of writing and character development we've been spoiled with. "Aww, how cute! They are building a team!"

Again, I do have to rant about the Impossibly Beautiful People Trope this show has going.

OF COURSE!!!! The commandant of the Chilean forces has to be a super-hot model (pictured). It would really hurt ratings if she was average looking!

How many female military commanders could also double as models? Exactly! It's hard to buy into a character when the casting makes absolutely no sense. You wouldn't cast John Goodman as an underwear model, would you?

It wouldn't have hurt the story one bit to have her as a realistic portrayal. It's not like Agent Coulson wouldn't have slept with an ordinary-looking woman, right?

On top of that, Agent Melinda May gets in a very intense fight in the cockpit of the plane. The result? Nary a scratch, makeup blemish, or even a bead of sweat! Unless she's an android, there should be at least a hair or two out of place to indicate actual physical exertion!



DREAM JOURNAL #1 - AN EMPTY WIN

I don't tend to have many dreams, especially ones that I remember. Strange, then, that last night's dream was extremely vivid and easy to recall.

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It all started when I entered an online contest to win a trip to some tropical country. This contest was available only to residents of a certain block of Yew Street (Kitsilano, Vancouver), for some odd reason.

I don't live on Yew Street, of course, but I still entered and pretended to live there. The reason I could do so is that the company I work for (not my real life company) rented out some units on that street, and one of the places was vacant.

So, I put in my entry, pretended to live in Kits, and ended up winning. Yay!! ... ??

I didn't expect to win, and I didn't want to claim my prize. Given that I knew I was lying, and would be busted, I decided to not call in about it. Meanwhile, a couple of other residents on the block won some much lesser prizes.

Somewhere else in my dream, the people running the contest were searching for me, trying to figure out how to contact the winner, and later the person who didn't actually live at the vacant house. I was scared poopless that I would be found out, and made a couple of sneaky trips around the block to see what was going on.

As I used a different surname on the contest form, and my number is unlisted, they had no way of actually reaching me. At this point of writing, I also find it weird that the contest people didn't see the house was likely owned by some company, and just call up that company.

In any event, I was overcome with guilt, but was also afraid of being jailed for misrepresentation. Somebody else missed out on a trip that I wasn't entitled to.

Towards the end of the dream, I went into the contest operators' office and came clean about what I did. I claimed that I didn't expect to win, was unsure if the rule about availability was legally possible (it was), and that I didn't have any malicious or mischievous intent.

As I woke up, I believe the person I was speaking to said they would let it slide, and just DQ the entry.

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A couple of funny photos for today.

The first comes from "Seebelowforcomment" on Reddit, where he found this fine 'school' on the corner of Nelson and Cambie, downtown Vancouver.

I guess you really need to know where to put your ehs, eh?

The second comes from Deadspin, who captured NHL commissar Gary Bettman 'enjoying' the season opener between the Blackhawks and Capitals by having a long nap. It's so nice to have a commish that loves the sport.

S.H.I.E.L.D.S. U.P.

Tuesday night saw the debut of the much anticipated TV series, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. As expected, it garnered a lot of viewership.

Set in the Marvel universe, the show is focusing exclusively (for now) on the CIA-like S.H.I.E.L.D. organization, and plays off the of the popularity of Agent Coulson's character from previous Marvel movies.

Since we're nerdy enough to have read some comic books and watched many of the Marvel movies, my wife and I watched the series, to see what the hype is about. I know many of my other nerdy friends likely watched the show, too :)

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After watching the premiere episode, here are my thoughts and first impressions.

1. Polished - The series obviously has a large budget, and the whole aesthetic is extremely polished. The world has that unusually clean look about it, including the characters, machinery, and settings. You can tell that the powers that be have put in a lot of their chips into this bet.

This look does bother me a big, since the real world, even in fantasy, is a lot dirtier and gritty than what we were shown. Everything was just too pristine and sparkly. A little more realism, please.

2. Beautiful People Syndrome - The one thing that bugged me was that almost every character was cast from a modelling agency's catalogue. Looking at the IMDB entries on most of the lead actors, it seems most of them don't have a lot of experience. From watching their stiff performances, I can see why.

Obviously not cast for his looks. 

We know Hollywood loves to cast beautiful people quite often, but many good TV series will cast fairly regular looking people. This series? Ugly people just don't exist in the Marvel universe, apparently.

This is after she ran a 30-hour marathon.

The worst example of this is the character of 'Skye' (pictured), the computer hacker who helps out S.H.I.E.L.D. in the first episode.

This character lives in a tiny little van with no bathroom, and yet her makeup is *always* flawlessly smooth, her clothes are fashionable and well ironed, and she never has a hair out of place?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

The only character who doesn't look like a model is one of the nerdy, male scientists. Even the female scientist is impossibly hot.

This isn't enough to make me not watch a series, but it does just make me shake my head in disbelief. Such lazy casting.

3. Debut Expectations - Like most any show's debut, the writers try to shoehorn so many things into an hour of TV. The introduction of characters is done quite hastily, and there isn't a whole lot of deep character building.

I can't hold that against the writers, though, as they need to capture the attention of the masses and get all of the characters known to the audience. I expect most debuts to feel rushed, safe, and a bit hokey.

4. Agent Coulson - Why in the hell is he so smiley? His character jokes a lot more than I remember, and just seems a lot different from what I expected, and a bit 'off'. Maybe it's because of his 'death'?

I do like the snarky version of Coulson, though, and appreciate that he's not just another humourless FBI-drone. He's not nearly as bland as the pretty boy agent.

5. Intriguing - At least the debut episode is enough to get us invested in watching more of the series. Given that this is a Marvel vehicle, they are bound to get more leeway than most.

I like the idea of this shadow organization trying to create superheroes, expose the government (shades of the real world NSA), and potential of other Marvel universe plotlines to enter the series. There were a lot of names dropped, so there is a lot that could happen.

Until Game of Thrones and/or Sherlock are back, this is likely our series of choice in the near-term.