Small Talk: a.k.a. 'The Meet Market'

[HoodlumSheep]

^ that's extremely freaky and scary!!! Hope your boss is alright, Souris!

[Souris]

Sounds like he's going to be OK, thank heavens. He wasn't even allergic to bees, but I guess if you get stung in the throat, it's going to make your throat swell and close up. So scary.

[Dianthus]

Popping in on my own birthday to say "Happy Birthday" to all my fellow Virgos out there!

[Rumsy4]

Happy Birthday!!

[daxx]

Happy birthday!!

[Souris]

Happiest of Birthdays!

[OnceUponAJen]

Have a great birthday!

[RadioGirl27]

Happy birthday!!!!!

[HoodlumSheep]

Popping in on my own birthday to say "Happy Birthday" to all my fellow Virgos out there!

my birthday was yesterday (10th), was yours the 10th too or the 11th? Sorry, the times on the posts are screwing me up.

Either way, Happy Birthday! One thing I have found this year is that those zodiac memes on tumblr are scary accurate. I haven't seen one yet that's wrong when describing a virgo (or at least me in general).

Edited September 11, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[HoodlumSheep]

"High Adventure" from Aladdin (it's a deleted demo, but appears in Broadway) has become

my new jam. It's quite catchy and gets my blood pumping. It also makes me sad that Aladdin was supposed to have 3 friends, but then he got stuck with only a monkey as a friend (sorry Abu!). Poor Aladdin :(. Love the final product though. I'm so glad Jasmine didn't end up as a spoiled brat.

Listening to it lead me into a spiral of listening to almost all of the deleted/changed Disney songs on Youtube. I can see why most didn't make it into the final cut (either they didn't work or the story was changed too much). I like the Cheshire Cat's song too. It certainly was odd.

Other random happenings:

Watched "The Book of Life" over the weekend. It's a cute film. Ron Pearlman even voiced a character in it. He has the perfect villain voice. I loved him as Slade in Teen Titans.

Caught the Miss America pageant. You wouldn't guess I was into that stuff, but I enjoy watching it. The contestants were rather "blah" this year (sorry, I'm sure they're all wonderul and amazing ladies). I had pegged Miss SC to win. I thought she slayed the swimwear and evening gown parts, but she failed to deliver in the next two rounds. :( she showed the most personality out of all of them. Her smile was infectious. It wasn't a fake, plastered on smile either.

Miss Georgia won, and the only way how must have been her talent portion (that counts for 30%). She bombed her final question. Did Tom Brady cheat? "Well, I'd have to see the ball and the game, I'd have to feel the ball to know if he was cheating...but he was definitely cheating. He was cheating. Definitely cheating."

I paraphrased it a bit, but that's basically what she said. How can you go from inferring that you don't know if he cheated to saying he definitely cheated? You literally just outed yourself as not having enough info to judge him, and then immediately claim he was definitely cheating??????

Anways, watching Big Hero 6 tonight for the first time. I guess I'll see if it really deserved to beat HTTYD2 at the Oscars.

Edited September 14, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[daxx]

Loving this Walt Disney documentary on PBS!

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/walt-disney/

[HoodlumSheep]

^ missed it :(. I'll have to watch it later. We watched Big hero 6 last night. It was pretty good. My family's favorite character was Fred. He was just so happy and excited about all the superhero stuff. It was adorable. All the characters were fun.

Edited September 15, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[Mari]

I tend to like and collect interesting and/or odd trivia.

 

I can't be the only one, so I figured I'd pass this on.  What's interesting isn't just how old the word is, but how it was used.

 

http://theweek.com/speedreads/577263/british-historian-uncovers-oldest-written-use-fword

Edited September 16, 2015 by Mari

[ABitOFluff]

I love etymology and general history of day to day life. I have several books, but Charles Panati's Browser's Books are a fun read for historical trivial facts, especially "The Sacred Origin of Profound Things". Anyway, I first learned that the F Word stood for For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, but quickly discovered that was not correct. I'm not sure if we'll ever know.

 

I really enjoyed the Walt Disney documentary. It didn't shy away from his imperfections. I'm both fascinated by kindly Uncle Walt and the hard-ass businessman behind the legend. The Jim Henson profile before last night's episode was interesting too. I still miss Jim Henson.

 

So what other shows are everyone looking forward to this fall? Me, I can't wait for The Muppets, American Horror Story and Fargo. Scream Queens looks like it could be good too.

Edited September 17, 2015 by ABitOFluff

[HoodlumSheep]

The Muppets, Gotham, and Ouat are the only shows really on my list for this tv season. Indian Summers is this autumn at some point too. Then the other few shows I watch take place in January like Galavant, and the PBS stuff.

My mom, my brother and me have been watching "Arthur & George" the past two weeks. The last part is this Sunday.

I might watch Jessica Jones as soon as I find out how violent it is compared to Dare Devil (I haven't watched it yet--I made it through the 1st episode, but too violent for my tastes). I wish I could handle that stuff better because I'd love to watch it. Gotham's kinda the threshold of tolerance for me when concerning how much violence I can take.

Watched half of the Walt Disney special tonight. It's pretty good. Will have to watch the rest soon.

[Lieutenant]

Definitely gonna give the new Heroes a shot. I mean it's Zach Levi (and Robbie Kay), how can I not?! I enjoyed the original Heroes, until it went off the rails in a big way *smh*. Otherwise it's Once, Agent Carter, and Galavant (whenever that's back on) for me.

[Mari]

I feel like I should put it in a little, teensy, font . . . Supernatural.

 

Also, Agent Carter, OUaT, and Person of Interest (whenever it ends up back on TV.)

[Shanna Marie]

My TV watching should go down this year, which is probably good for me. I turned off Gotham midway through the next-to-last episode (or somewhere in there) when I realized I wasn't enjoying watching it, so why was I wasting my time? Sleepy Hollow is on probation. We'll see how they come back. I'm hopeful about the Muppets. I'll also be watching Agent Carter, whenever it comes back. I usually also watch NCIS, but these days it's mostly "comfort food" TV for me. I'll try the new Heroes because there are cast members I like, but I gave up on that one in the second season, I think even in mid episode. I'm out on Thursdays, so it'll be OnDemand viewing for me. Then there's Haven on SyFy. Grimm on Fridays. Doctor Who on Saturdays. Sunday is OUAT and whatever is on PBS.

 

I'm thinking of joining the 21st century and getting a DVR. I've been getting by with a VCR for things I can't wait a day to watch and OnDemand, but they recently changed the cable service so that I have to use an adapter even for the basic channels, so I can't program multiple channels on the VCR anymore. There's no OnDemand with PBS, and I'm frequently out on Sundays. When I am out on Sundays, that's generally the week that they don't get around to putting the latest Once episode OnDemand until Wednesday or so. And things taped on the VCR look terrible on the HDTV. I've been trying to justify the monthly expense when I'm not sure how often I'll use it, but I'm telling myself I can make better use of my time that way, especially if I can skip commercials, which I can't do OnDemand. I can save up my TV watching for the evening until after I've done everything else.

[HoodlumSheep]

We still have VCRs at our house. Sadly, we can't record anything through the cable boxes (or we don't know how). We refuse to put out money for a dvr, though.

Taking a short trip up north (still in the lower peninsula though) today and tomorrow. My mom and I are going up to be present when the house inspector inspects the house my brother put a bid on. He wants us there so we can give him the lowdown of how it goes. Hopefully things work out.

[KingOfHearts]

I'm hopeful about the Muppets.

 

As am I. The Muppets have tried to be "adult-oriented" in the past without admitting it, but this time they're being pretty up-front about what they're doing. It's not like they're trying to mimic The Muppet Show for families then infusing sexual innuendos every five minutes for no reason. At the same time, from the previews, it seems they're not losing the original feel either. The jokes were surprisingly funny as well.

Edited September 18, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[ABitOFluff]

At the same time, from the previews, it seems they're not losing the original feel either. The jokes were surprisingly funny as well.

The ads have been pretty funny, so I'm sold. I just had a thought. Since they're going to have guests playing themselves, and they are on ABC, I wonder if any of the OUAT cast will make an appearance. Probably not, but then I can picture Piggy flirting with or karate chopping Josh or Colin.

Edited September 18, 2015 by ABitOFluff

[sharky]

Hoodlum -- Do you live in Michigan? I grew up in Detroit and always loved getting invited to go up north with neighbors, especially this time of year with the leaves changing colors.

 

Like Lieutenant, I'm going to try Heroes for Zac Levi and Robbie Kay, although I never watched it the first time around. I'm also looking forward to the Muppets and I'm going to try Blindspot. My biggest thing right now is actually Doctor Who. I just got into it and have been binging on it -- so glad BBC America is rerunning the show! The only problem is that they're marathoning the show right now leading up to the season 9 premiere so my DVR is going to be a disastrous mess by the end of today, and the fall season hasn't even really started.

 

And yes, I have a DVR and I adore that thing. I rarely watch shows live for various reasons so I love having something that automatically records everything for me. Plus, I can fast forward through ads, which is something you can't always do with online or OnDemand. I also like that I can save shows to watch anytime as opposed to having them disappear after a few weeks with some of the streaming services. In fact, the first season of Fargo is still sitting on that thing and I will get to it before the second one comes on -- maybe.

[Selina K]

I'll be watching Once, Gotham, BBT, Dancing with the Stars even though this is a really thin season for 'star' power, even by DwtS measures, the new Heroes (stayed with the last iteration to the bitter end), Agent Carter come winter, and trying the Muppets.  I saw a funny, but simultaneously discouraging, tweet about the Muppets: "Except now they're assholes!" - the entire pitch for The Muppets."  

[OnceUponAJen]

OUAT and The Muppets for me for sure. But, if they change the Muppets too much I'm out.

[Curio]

I'm really excited about The Muppets, too. My dad is a huge Muppets fan so we have the entire 1970s The Muppet Show on DVD somewhere. If they can capture that kind of magic again with the new show, I'm all in.

[yeswedo]

For fans of the original Muppet Show - check out EHG 55 where Adam Grosswirth submitted the episode with Pearl Bailey to the EHG Canon. The discussion was great. As a bonus that episode of EHG has one of the best game times (my opinion of course).

[HoodlumSheep]

sharky yep, I live in West Michigan. Looks like the house stuff for my brother isn't going to work out for now :(. Edited September 19, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[Souris]

Does anybody else watch "Fresh Off the Boat"? I love it! Constance Wu is just killing it. It's by the same person who created my dearly departed "Don't Trust the B----." I just really like her humor vibe.

[HoodlumSheep]

^ I've seen 2 episodes. It's pretty hilarious from what I can tell. Never watched it all because I try to limit the amount of tv shows I get sucked into watching. if it's paired with the Muppets I might start watching it again though.

[Mari]

Hoodlum -- Do you live in Michigan? I grew up in Detroit and always loved getting invited to go up north with neighbors, especially this time of year with the leaves changing colors.

My biggest thing right now is actually Doctor Who. I just got into it and have been binging on it -- so glad BBC America is rerunning the show! 

 

And yes, I have a DVR and I adore that thing. 

I love my DVR, too, for mostly the same reasons.  It's great.  I don't have to be home, it automatically records stuff I'm interested in, and commercials go away.  (I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who ends up with lots of episodes of something on it that I may or may not watch later.)

 

As for Dr. Who--I catch the occasional episode.  I've discovered my enjoyment of the episodes is directly related to who the companion is.  I tend to adore Donna and Jack Harkness, Find Martha and the Ponds mostly enjoyable, and think "Yuck." with Rose and Clara.

[HoodlumSheep]

and think "Yuck." with Rose.

Noooo!!!!! Waves flag. I'm one of the few people who loved Rose (preferably her interactions with Nine; she did get a tad annoying in series 2 though, but I still loved her). My favorite dynamic is probably Nine/Rose/Jack. They had so much energy.

When it comes to Doctor Who I actually find myself falling into the minority when it comes to stuff. I love Nine. I loved Rose. Didn't care for the Ponds (from what I saw of them) or Eleven that much. I remember catching a random episode from season...6/7? one time and I found it completely devoid of emotion.

Anyways, so close to Monday!! Excited for Gotham! Also, tomorrow is the last episode of Arthur & George on PBS!

Edited September 19, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[sharky]

Yea, I'm working my way through Doctor Who and while I'm liking Matt Smith, my doctor is Ten. Geez, David Tennant is so good! And I'm a big Donna Noble fan. Why didn't people like Rose? I liked her and I haven't even seen season 1 or anything with Doctor Nine. Of course, I should probably also mention that there's a Doctor Who marathon going on on BBC America leading up to the new episode tonight, which is why I have 50 episodes of Doctor Who on my DVR. No joke. Like I said, I have some catching up to do now that I've got this bug. Luckily, I recorded several in SD instead of HD so that barely takes up any space on the DVR. And I have 4B, which I need to start and finish rewatching before the new season starts next week.

 

And then of course there is the Emmys tomorrow night. So excited to see Andy Samberg host. But I've officially sworn off the E! pre-game show. I can't watch that nonsense anymore.

[Mari]

I don't know in general, but  for me it was probably backlash.

 

I didn't start with Dr. Who.  I started with Torchwood.   When I figured out that Torchwood was a Dr. Who spin-off, I watched some episodes of Dr. Who, and they happened to be Donna episodes.  In the meantime, anything I read online seemed to be "Rose.  Rose.  We want Rose.  Rose is awesome.  Nothing can compare to Rose."  That was annoying in and of itself--and I tend to be contrary about those things--but then when I watched a couple of Rose episodes, she completely underwhelmed.

 

Adding in that I truly enjoyed and found refreshing the utterly platonic relationship and friendship with Donna and Ten, and found the romance between Rose and Ten predictable and forced?

 

My Rose feelings were inevitable.

 

Clara I dislike on her own merit.  Or lack thereof.

Edited September 19, 2015 by Mari

[KAOS Agent]

I didn't have any real dislike towards Ten, but I liked Nine and his dynamic with Rose better. I also hated Donna and her introduction to the show in "The Runaway Bride" and she was unable to win me over when she returned later. Mostly I think Nine was my favorite Doctor of the new series and Ten wasn't enough to hold me once Donna was a companion. 

[Shanna Marie]

I ended up disliking Rose retroactively because such a fuss was made about her when she was gone, with the Doctor mooning over her and acting like he could never replace her. What's weird is that in her last season there was the episode where he pretty much rubbed it in her face that she wasn't his first sidekick and wouldn't be the last, invited her boyfriend to join them (over her objections) and fell in love with Madame Pompadour, then after she was gone suddenly she was supposed to be the love of his life. But I already wasn't crazy about Rose because I thought she and Nine were total jerks to Mickey.

 

I think I liked Donna because of the underdog effect. Everyone was telling us how awful she was, including the Doctor and her mother, and yet she went out there and proved to be awesome. It's that old show vs. tell thing -- if you tell me someone's awesome, by golly you'd better show it, and it would have to be even better than you say, but if you tell me someone's awful then show them being awesome, then I'll cheer for them. They told me Rose was awesome and she seemed pretty average. They told me Donna was awful and she turned out to be amazing. I loved that the way she ran into the Doctor again was by going out and doing her own investigating.

 

But mostly, I'm a fan of Rory for life. I liked that he was an ordinary guy who reluctantly got caught up in it all and ended up rising to the occasion. He wasn't in awe of the Doctor, had no real desire to see the universe, would have been happy working as a nurse in his hometown. And he, again, was someone who was put down and ended up being better than we were told he was.

 

I'm usually pretty fickle and my favorite Doctor or companion is the current one, but I haven't yet really clicked with Twelve, and Clara annoys me.

[HoodlumSheep]

^ that's why I liked the Nine/Rose season better than ten/rose. I didn't care for the doctor suddenly flirting with all these other ladies and other behavior after so much was built up between him and Rose. Actually, I think most of the stuff I didn't like in season 2 were the episodes Moffat were in charge of (which includes the Madame Pompadour episode). I also thought Nine and Rose had a deeper connection, but that could be because series one was them falling in love versus series 2 where they were already in love and it seemed just a bit...shallower.

Either way, I still love Rose and Nine the best. I think I just managed to relate to Rose the most in age, averageness (she didn't have a career and was kind of in limbo when she met the Doctor). I could relate. The Doctor and Rose is my ship, Mickey grew into a respectable character (I admired his choice of staying with his Gran in the parallel universe). I didn't absolutely hate Jackie Tyler, Jack's time with Nine and Rose was short and sweet (and kind of bitter sweet). Donna seemed fun from what I saw of her. Martha, I think Martha just ran into the Doctor at the wrong time. It was kind of painful watching her crush on him when he was still getting over Rose.

Basically I prefer the Russell T. Davies era better than the Moffat era.

The "Dream Team" they tried selling in the later seasons can't compare to the RTD era dream team at the end of season 4 in my opinion. They had Jack on their team for one thing.

Edited September 20, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[Mari]

I think my neighborhood is in Bizarro World.

 

An alley that runs past my house dead-ends.  Some of the houses beyond mine have turned the dead-ended alley into things like gardens, rock paths, storage, and planted big trees there.  Result?  To get to their back yards, they'd need to drive through my  back yard, as would the city anytime it tended the empty area beyond. 

 

After spending the last few years trying to figure out what to do about it (it tore up the lawn, and people kept driving over the small trees we planted back there), we put a decorative posts up.  It's spaced out, and it's easily possible to walk through, drive a small recreational vehicle through, or a mower through.  

 

I've already been approached by a neighbor about possibly taking it  down so that people can again get to their alley-augmented back yards.  They want me to make my private property community property, because they've made the community property private.

 

What????  And why do I feel guilty?

[Souris]

Screw them!

[sharky]

Tell them you've recently had a property survey done and that is in fact your property so if they want access to it, they can pool together their money to buy it from you. Just remember that you worked hard to pay for that property so you shouldn't feel guilty about wanting your property to be for you. Also, could you build something more permanent there or add something more permanent there? Like maybe some lawn furniture or a patio? Even cheap pavers and some chairs would be a good way to remind everyone that it belongs to you. And definitely add a Private Property/No Trespassing sign while you're at it.

[kitticup]

I agree with sharky. You need to be careful that you don't lose control of your property by adverse possession. See Wikipedia. Bottom line if you keep letting them do this after a certain period of time (depends on the state, min 5 years according to Wikipedia) , then they might claim an easement by adverse possession.

[Mari]

Thanks!

 

One part was surveyed a few years ago, so that marker was easy to find, and with a little effort we found the original cornerstone for the other side.  Our posts are safely within our property boundaries. And we checked--we didn't even need a permit for a fence, as long as it was on our property line.  This a step down from a fence, so we should be well within legal rights.

 

We've gone the "Oh, it's too bad that people can't get to their back yards.  Maybe someone should contact the city to discuss opening up a street or alley there.  Our posts?  The city was driving these huge vehicles through, and we just couldn't let them continue to drive those big maintenance vehicles through our yard."

 

Very polite, nonaccusatory, but firm.  Possibly even playing a little dumb, and not acknowledging what they're actually meaning.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Mari

[Shanna Marie]

In the category of "Murphy's Law," I finally decided to get a DVR from my cable company, in large part because not only is OUAT premiering Sunday night, but there's also stuff on PBS, and I'm at a convention this weekend. It's in town, but I'm staying at the hotel for late-night events, and I'm on the con staff, so unless I come up with a really good excuse, I have to stay to help with teardown. I got the DVR earlier this week, but as of Friday when I made my last trip home to get everything for the convention, it still wasn't activated. That's after about six calls to the cable company and spending a lot of time on the phone with their technicians (Roger and I are going to end up on each other's Christmas card lists at this rate). So after all that effort, I still ended up having to set the VCR, and I guess I'll have to watch the PBS stuff online. Be prepared for a lot of whining if there was a power outage, yet another cable outage (their first attempt to activate the DVR ended up killing the regular service I had in the other room), or some other mess-up (this time, I made sure there was enough tape on the tape in the VCR). But this does mean that this will be the week they're late posting the episode OnDemand. At this point, I'm not sure I'm even going to keep the DVR because if it wasn't useful for the main night I wanted it, there's not much point in paying their highway robbery for it. Supposedly, I'm being credited for all the time I haven't been able to use it.

 

So, I'll be seeing the episode late anyway, depending on what time I escape and what time I see the episode, if everything works, and then I have to take one of the convention guests to the airport Monday morning. Everything that will need to be said about the episode will likely have been said, but I really haven't ragequit the show yet.

[Camera One]

Is everyone else throwing flour on their face and pretending they're The Dark One tomorrow?  Alternatively, host a dinner party where you pull a knife out of the knife block and call it Excalibur.

[Souris]

Please don't have a Tweeze Your Eyebrows Off party.

[Worsel]

Is anyone going to go outside tonight to see the lunar eclipse?  The time it will be at its greatest eclipse will be rather late for me to stay up and still wake up for work tomorrow, but I'm tempted to stay up anyway.

[HoodlumSheep]

^ I've been looking forward to the super-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse for about 2 weeks now.

But of course...#MichiganWeather

It completely clouded over and doesn't look like it'll clear up anytime soon. Honestly I feel like crying. This kind of awesomeness isn't happening again until 2033.

I was going to go out to the channel and take pics at around 7:15 because that's when we'll get part 1 of the blood moon. The sun will be setting in the west and the moon will be rising directly across from it in the east.

The peak of eclipse happens around 10:11-11:23 p.m. tonight.

If you have the time to pop your head outside and see the eclipse, please do it for me, people! I'll be with you in spirit.

Edited September 27, 2015 by HoodlumSheep

[Curio]

So, I'll be seeing the episode late anyway [...] Everything that will need to be said about the episode will likely have been said, but I really haven't ragequit the show yet.

 

Unfortunately, I also have to watch the show later tonight or tomorrow morning. But luckily with these boards, we're chatty enough where the episode thread will be hot and happening for a good couple days after the premiere has already aired.

 

It completely clouded over and doesn't look like it'll clear up anytime soon. Honestly I feel like crying. This kind of awesomeness isn't happening again until 2033.

 

I feel you. I'm on the road for work this weekend, and of course the state I'm sent to is listed as one of the worst parts of the U.S. to view the eclipse. I'll still peek my head out to see if I can catch a glimpse of awesomeness, but I'm not holding my breath.

[Shanna Marie]

I will probably be carrying heavy things out of a hotel around sunset and for an hour or so afterward, but I will be surrounded by astronomy nerds, an actual astronaut, and at least one NASA scientist, so if anything interesting is happening in the sky, it will be pointed out to me.

 

As for dressing up with a theme, I wore my all-black outfit yesterday. Maybe I can get my hair to do Merida today (though I'm more likely to just put it in a bun because the wild Merida hair gets in the way).

[Worsel]

HoodlumSheep and Curio, I'm sorry you won't get a good look at the eclipse.  I'm lucky, I live in the northeast US and the weather where I am will be clear (something pretty rare around here in general.)  Yes, you can be with me in spirit (if I can stay awake long enough...)

[sharky]

I'm going to let the kids stay up late so we can see it a bit. May actually even get my telescope out of mothballs in the basement. We'll see.