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@kindaoffkilter / kindaoffkilter.tumblr.com

Started this to follow fanfic of various and Person of Interest in particular, though I have LOTS of randoms randomly. A lot of Marvel, esp Marvel men. I don't know what I'm doing here (feel free to broadly interpret "here"), but maybe if I keep poking buttons something will clue me...Now a lot of political stuff is forefront because holy batshit, things are getting crazy.
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You are Superman, aren’t you? Lois, look, we’ve been through these hallucinations of yours before. Can’t you see what you almost did? Throwing yourself off a building 30 stories high? Can’t you see what a tragic mistake you almost made? I made a mistake? I made a mistake because I risked my life instead of yours. Lois! Don’t be insane! And don’t fall down ‘cause you’re just going to have to get up again! Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)

This scene features one of the best things about Chris Reeve’s portrayal, which is that he physicalized his different choices between playing Clark and Superman. Like, look at the difference:

He could go from Rick Moranis to Chris Evans with just his posture. It’s like his glasses are weighing his entire body down. Here it is, in motion:

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Acting.

This is a perfect example that proves that the Clark Kent disguise actually does work….and how it works….

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Christopher Reeve was the best Superman and still is

Are we gonna discuss that Lois Lane rationalized that Superman wouldn’t even feel a bullet, thus wouldn’t even know he hadn’t been hit, causing Clark Kent to reveal himself for who he truly is without her having to risk anybodies life?

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God I love Christopher Reeve’s Superman because some of Clark’s clumsiness can be seen in Superman too. The fact that this man didn’t realize it was a blank even though he can see things move in slow motion is really funny to me

Like he grew up thinking he had to hide his powers and I just assume that sometimes he forgets he has them because Clark is Clark. He might be superhuman but he’s still a clumsy dumbass and that’s his biggest flaw.

You don’t need kryptonite when you’re dealing with a good honest clumsy man and Lois knows that because she knows Clark!

It’s why I don’t like pretty much any other Superman movie as much. They make him too perfect, that’s not what makes this Kansas man so charming!

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Reblogging specifically for the shot with the glasses (so fabulous a transformation) and also for the emotional context of the scene, which his face continues to do extraordinary things—including signaling a kind of vulnerability that has nothing to do with being proof against bullets.

Tumblr is so funny because you can make a post like "hey do not mix bleach and vinegar in your cleaning, you'll make chlorine gas and you do not want to make chlorine gas. It is dangerous to mix these two specific chemicals together", and the comments are like

"Um vinegar isn't dangerous?? My mom cleans things with vinegar all the time and we have never had lung issues. White people are insane." (<- does not use bleach, missing the point)

"OH MY GOD BLEACH IS CHLORINE GAS? NOBODY EVER TOLD ME I'VE BEEN CLEANING WITH BLEACH MY WHOLE LIFE, I WILL DIE." (<- has literally never used vinegar in cleaning, and never mixed the two, missing the point)

"This is just stupid fearmongering, we use bleach and vinegar to wash the floors all the time, OP is lying." (<- does not actually know what "vinegar" is, and is confusing the word for something else)

"Yeah this is true enough but also keep in mind that this kind of household cleaning product chlorine gas is too weak and unreliable to use for domestic terrorism purposes." (<- raises concerns, but potentially has a point)

the funniest thing ever just happened to me

im changing my name purely bc i don’t like it and we just told my family like a month ago. i haven’t been home since then but today i got back and my (extremely country) uncle gives me a pat on the back and goes “so i hear you’re my nephew now. proud of you, son” and i have to very gently say i am so so happy to hear that but i am still his niece just with a cooler name. and he throws his hat down on the table and goes “no! but ive been practicing!” so now he is calling me his nephew for fun

IM NOT A WOMAN I AM ANY/ALL GENDERQUEER

I know it feels like an understatement but you sometimes make more progress by pointing out that conservatives are fucking rude. going out of your way to call someone the wrong name because you don't like them? rude. childish. this isn't fucking kindergarten, Carl. she said her name is Jennifer. Everybody knows her as Jennifer. You are the one making things confusing. Grow up.

"misgendering is violence": invites discourse over the TraNs DeBatE, puts people on the defensive, opens you up to accusations of liberal snowflakery, comes off as a hypothetical thought exercise

"Who the fuck is Jason? I don't know a Jason. Oh her? You mean Jen? You mean fucking Jen? That's Jen, dipshit." : crystal clear. you're making shit more difficult for everyone because you're a rude manchild.

A clinical trial that included both adolescents and adults with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma shows that 94% of the patients treated with an experimental immunotherapy plus chemotherapy were cancer-free or had no progression of disease after one year. The results are likely to change standard treatment for this type of cancer, says Jonathan Friedberg, director of the University of Rochester Wilmot Cancer Institute. He is senior investigator of the study and chair of the lymphoma committee at the SWOG Cancer Research Network, which designed the S1836 trial as a part of the National Cancer Institute-funded National Clinical Trials Network. “We hypothesized that the newer treatment would turn out to be most beneficial for patients,” Friedberg says, “but the magnitude of the benefit exceeded our expectations.”

Do not cite the deep magics to me, witch. I was there when it was written.

^ This.

You kids are so cute with your “remember Windows XP?!” That’s very sweet. When I started using computers, everything was run by typing in DOS commands.

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My first computer looked like THIS.

My first computer was an Atari 130XE, which–wow!–had DOUBLE the memory of my dad’s Atari 65XE. That, btw, is 130k total system memory. I started COLLEGE with this beast (though ended it with an Apple Mac SE with no hard drive, only floppies.) Before that, I wrote fic on a typewriter, and before that, on paper.

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What the fuck

This is absolutely fascinating. I've now been looking at Alex Colville's paintings and trying to work out what it is about them that makes them look like CGI and how/why he did that in a world where CGI didn't exist yet. Here's what I've got so far:

- Total lack of atmospheric perspective (things don't fade into the distance)

- Very realistic shading but no or only very faint shadows cast by ambient light.

- Limited interaction between objects and environment (shadows, ripples etc)

- Flat textures and consistent lighting used for backgrounds that would usually show a lot of variation in lighting, colour and texture

- Bodies apparently modelled piece by piece rather than drawn from life, and in a very stiff way so that the bodies show the pose but don't communicate the body language that would usually go with it. They look like dolls.

- Odd composition that cuts off parts that would usually be considered important (like the person's head in the snowy driving scene)

- Very precise drawing of structures and perspective combined with all the simplistic elements I've already listed. In other words, details in the "wrong" places.

What's fascinating about this is that in early or bad CGI, these things come from the fact that the machine is modelling very precisely the shapes and perspectives and colours, but missing out on some parts that are difficult to render (shadows, atmospheric perspective) and being completely unable to pose bodies in such a way as to convey emotion or body language.

But Colville wasn't a computer, so he did these same things *on purpose*. For some reason he was *aiming* for that precise-but-all-wrong look. I mean, mission accomplished! The question in my mind is, did he do this because he was trying to make the pictures unsettling and alienating, or because in some way, this was how he actually saw the world?

omf i never thought i'd find posts about alex colville on tumblr, but! he's a local artist where i'm from & i work at a library/archives and have processed a lot of documents related to his art. just wanted to give my two cents!

my impression is that colville did see the world as an unsettling place and a lot of his work was fueled by this general ~malaise?? but in a lot of cases, he was trying to express particular fears or traumas. for instance, this painting (horse and train) was apparently inspired by a really tragic experience his wife had:

iirc she was in a horrible automobile crash, as the car she was in collided with a train. i find it genuinely horrifying to look at, knowing the context, but a lot of colville's work is like that? idk he just seems to capture the feeling you get in nightmares where everything is treacle-ish and slow and inevitable.

Jesus Christ.

I am so glad that Pat Robertson's death isnt exciting to some of y'all. I am so glad that there are kids that get to grow up in a world where they don't have to know that bastards name. Rest in piss you homophobic antisemitic piece of shit.

There’s one thing I always think of when I hear “how could you let it get so bad?” and similar phrases. It’s in the comments of every video of matted hair or a dirty kitchen.

I think the appropriate response is “what would have to happen to you for you to let it get that bad?” And when you think about that question, and the horrifying answers that come with it, you almost certainly have more sympathy for the person you were being judgemental to.

People who let their self-care needs go unmet for long periods of time are only rarely lazy and even more rarely comfortable and happy with that state.

How badly injured would you have to be to say “fuck it” to washing dishes?

How bad would you mental health have to be to give up on brushing your teeth?

How much grief would you have to be in to stop making yourself meals?

And the answer is probably lower than many of us have ever had the misfortune to realize.

That. Includes. Hiring.

That. Includes. Scheduling.

That. Includes. Firing.

That. Includes. Approving. Or. Denying. Social. Benefits.

1000 years ago, a great king had his soul infused with the crown so he may rule eternity, taking possession of anyone who wears it. But with each new ‘successor,’ the king took his extra lives increasingly for granted, until one day…..

The crown hit the floor of the blacksmith’s forge, the heavy ringing sound of gold on packed earth echoing long after it should have faded away.

“Melt it down.”

The blacksmith choked, glad that she’d put down the horseshoe she’d been working on. “What?”

“Melt it down,” the Heir repeated patiently.

The blacksmith glanced at the Heir, then to the discarded Crown of Helgrath lying on her floor, then back at the Heir. “Why?” she asked plaintively.

“That thing ate my mother,” the Heir said grimly. “My mother died thirty-nine years ago, when she first put it on, and something else stepped into her place. It’s soaked in blood magic.”

“Magic is forbidden in this kingdom,” the blacksmith said automatically.

“Probably because any halfway competent mage would take one look at that thing and know what it was.” The Heir grinned. “Probably the one thing old Helgrath never thought about; that a royal scion would learn about magic outside the Kingdom.”

“When you stayed at other courts, on your search for a spouse,” the Blacksmith said, horrified. “That’s - that’s heresy.”

“Not for much longer, if I have anything to say about it,” the Heir said, mouth forming a thin line. “Look, it’s five pounds of gold, it’s stupidly, neck-breakingly heavy, and it could be much better used to fund a clean water supply than it would on my head. Especially since I have no intention of being possessed by some greedy bastard who likes to murder his descendants so that he can hold on to power.”

“And fire will destroy the evil magic?” the blacksmith asked.

“Should do, fire destroys most magic. If not, we’ll figure something else out.”

The blacksmith nodded. “You had me at ‘clean water supply’.” Wrapping her hands in her leather apron so that she wouldn’t come in contact with the cursed crown, she lifted it into a metal bucket and swung it onto a hook over her forge fire.

The screaming coming from the bucket was a little disturbing, but it did prove the Heir’s claims.