The Random Thread Of Randomosity

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I was in TK Maxx today, browsing their eclectic art supplies section and I found these cool DC “Fan Art Like A Pro” Spectrum Noir marker sets.

You get four alcohol markers that have three colours in each (there’s a nib on each end and then also a third in the centre, which goes into a cap on the other side’s centre – all the photos I can find of these sets online have different markers) and then a load of A6 prints of line art to colour in. Each set is themed around one DC character with colours to match. They’re pretty nifty.

Spectrum Noir’s a good brand and these pens have a lovely brush tip (again, everything I’m seeing online has a wider variety of tips in them) which are certainly nicer than the fine and broad tips on the cheap 80 pack of alcohol markers I got off Amazon for £15 recently. Not convinced there’s enough ink in them to finish all the cards in the set though. But for £5 a set, they’re pretty sweet.

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Sean Robinson, Dave, Todd

I noticed in some youtube videos Americans from the Appalachians have trouble pronouncing the letter L at the end of a word. Like “roll” sounds more like row. That’s similar to how Polish make the L sound like a w.

Man the last few days were really unpleasant. Very cold for Novembers, only 2 degrees celsius, sleet, and a strong wind. Today it feels nicer.

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Todd

[Al-x]

I wish something like this happened to me:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/original-superman-comic-found-attic-breaks-world-record/story?id=127857485

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These AI stuff is getting sofa king creepy. Seeing a still picture or image that’s been known for decades  (ie. the Mona Lisa) moving and talking.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 6 days ago by Al-x.

This has been debated regarding wedding gifts, but:

Give an envelope of cash as an Xmas gift? Y/N
How about a gift certificate?

Sun Kyeong is a wacky but insidious cult from South Korea that has enchanted a bunch of Dutch celebrities. They’re a bit like Scientology but with an East Asian/Buddhist/Taoist bent, asking exorbitant sums of money for healings. They also worship a “Mother Goddess” who is a regular living South Korean woman. Unsurprisingly a lot of the money end up with the Mother Goddess.

Al-x wrote:

Give an envelope of cash as an Xmas gift? Y/N

No, not cash.

Al-x wrote:

How about a gift certificate?

Yes, plus the giver gets to decide what business gets the help they need (especially nowadays).

Although be fair to what the recipient would want. Try to be “in the ballpark”.

Mofo got “drunk as a skunk…”

Drunk raccoon found passed out in Virginia liquor store – The Guardian

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Christian, Arjan Dirkse, Ben, Todd, njerry

That raccoon did what the rest of us WISH we could do!

Well, maybe not all of us.

Well, maybe just me…

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Todd, Sean Robinson

Sean Robinson wrote:

Al-x wrote:

Give an envelope of cash as an Xmas gift? Y/N

No, not cash.

Al-x wrote:

How about a gift certificate?

Yes, plus the giver gets to decide what business gets the help they need (especially nowadays).

Although be fair to what the recipient would want. Try to be “in the ballpark”.

As a counterpoint, by the time I was a teenager most of my older relatives just gave me cash in a card or envelope as a Christmas present and I was fine with it

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Al-x, Ben, Todd, Dave, Sean Robinson

I believe that if you don’t have a lot of money, getting some money is a pretty thoughtful present. Better than some toy or a dvd boxset

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Ben, Todd

lorcan_nagle wrote:

As a counterpoint, by the time I was a teenager most of my older relatives just gave me cash in a card or envelope as a Christmas present and I was fine with it

Same here. I always felt that gift cards were a worse deal because as much as I appreciate the thought it always felt like “here’s some money, but I’ve restricted what you can spend it on”.

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Ben, Todd

There’s a strong cultural element. In the west giving money has been seen as either a bit vulgar or more commonly means a lack of thought given to the gift. Hence even though Dave is right that a gift voucher is just cash but with a limitation on where you can spend it, it passes the ‘thought’ test of at least he or she likes Starbucks coffee or clothes at GAP.

In east Asia, cash is pretty much the default, on weddings and birthdays you get a red envelope with money in it. The vulgarity of money isn’t an issue, maybe because of the lack of Christian influence and the camel/eye of a needle stuff. Chinese New Year wishes are basically around prosperity and wishing you make a load of cash in the coming year.

This is massive when it comes to weddings, when I got married 18 years back the average cost in the UK was around £18k, usually borne mostly by the couple or if lucky a wealthy parent. Mine cost around that but every penny came back in the red envelopes given as gifts at the reception (the hotel keeps them in their safe). In a roundabout way (there is no set price and close family give more) you charge them for the meal and entertainment.

I see now that trend is heading westward and I think by necessity, young people don’t have that much money now with housing costs etc. Usually they live together in advance so they don’t need the cutlery, saucepans, tea sets etc for a new home they needed 40 years ago. It may be in 10 years time or so it becomes the norm, I’m not sure.

 

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njerry, Ben, Todd

Next week 14 degrees. I’m not complaining, that’s the ideal temperature. But for december that’s superhot.

Powerball fever is here again. Almost 900M. The last drawing had 2 consecutive numbers and threw everybody off.

————–

Now I am seeing some John Byrne and Jim Lee X men covers processed through AI software for this “life like” rendering.

Sofa king creepy. Like that Homer Simpson pic.

Powerball at 1B now.
Next drawing on Saturday.

Don’t worry… I won’t forget you all. I will remember you all fondly. 🤣

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Scott Snyder is in town.
He was at the Midtown Comics store by the South Street Seaport signing for Absolute Batman title.

Absolute line is doing good.
Less doom and gloom than Marvel’s Ultimate line.

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Todd

Al-x wrote:

Absolute line is doing good. Less doom and gloom than Marvel’s Ultimate line.

Really? The whole point of both is that they’re new universes created by villains who designed them to be as hopeless and hostile to heroes as possible. They seem pretty similar to me.

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Todd

Dave wrote:

Al-x wrote:

Absolute line is doing good. Less doom and gloom than Marvel’s Ultimate line.

Really? The whole point of both is that they’re new universes created by villains who designed them to be as hopeless and hostile to heroes as possible. They seem pretty similar to me.

I admit I have some catching up to the Absolute, but from the Ultimate line, the Maker really screwed over that Marvel Universe. He crippled so much of it.

Absolute was more about some energy spark from the dying Darkseid. Anyway… fans love the Absolute Batman and the line for Snyder yesterday was so long it went around the store into an alley

The Absolute line seems to have been more successful across the board, led by Batman but also the Wonder Woman and Superman books seem to be doing pretty well.

With the Ultimate Universe it’s really only Hickman’s Spidey that seems to have been a real hit, everything else seems to be hanging off that.

PBall had no winners for a while and it draws tonight at 1.1B. Again… I won’t forget you all. 🤣

———

MacKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos 1st) got a 37B divorce from Jeff (not that it hurt him. Amazon made 40B the following 6 months because of the pandemic back then. The river goes into the ocean.) And she gave a lot of it away:

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/13/mackenzie-scott-revealed-her-total-charitable-donations-for-2025.html

Maybe she could be so kind and toss a few my way but I digress…

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I passed by the local book store and checked out the graphic novel trade section. I didn’t notice it before, but DC got these smaller trade formats.

Al-x wrote:

DC got these smaller trade formats

Yup, DC Compact Comics.
Putting a story in your hands at a very reasonable price.

There’s about 35 of them, and they’re always adding more.
Frequent the Trades thread, we’ll keep you updated.

Awesome for young people, you and me just need a magnifying glass.

(Actually, a couple of years back I gave magnifying glasses to friends (similar age) and they love and use frequently.
Best stocking stuffer idea ever!)

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Al-x, Todd

I’ve got a number of books in Dutch that are translations from Latin, that were done by Flemish translators. It’s always noticeable. The vocabulary is slightly different, Belgians often use more words that are derived from French. For instance, Flemish people often use “plezant” meaning enjoyable or pleasurable, where Dutch people would use “leuk” or “vermakelijk”. And the word order is different sometimes than the way a Dutch speaker would express things.

Dave wrote:

With the Ultimate Universe it’s really only Hickman’s Spidey that seems to have been a real hit, everything else seems to be hanging off that.

Honestly, apart from the first two Ultimates and Bendis’ original Spidey back then, the UU was never up to much.

Christian wrote:

Dave wrote:

With the Ultimate Universe it’s really only Hickman’s Spidey that seems to have been a real hit, everything else seems to be hanging off that.

Honestly, apart from the first two Ultimates and Bendis’ original Spidey back then, the UU was never up to much.

I enjoyed Ellis’ Ultimate Galactus trilogy and some of the early X-Men and FF stuff too. Some of the random minis like Ultimate Adventures and Ultimate Hulk vs Wolverine were also quite good fun.

It just ended up doing that standard Marvel thing of taking an initial hit, and then milking it with loads of substandard expansions and spinoffs that diluted the quality and appeal.

I think Ultimatum was probably the nail in the coffin and it just limped on towards death after that.

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Christian, Todd

Al-x wrote:

dying Darkseid

Is he dying AGAIN!?!

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Todd

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Al-x wrote:

dying Darkseid

Is he dying AGAIN!?!

It was his scheduled turn to do so.

Twitter automatically goes to the “for you” tab now, when you reload it. And the for you tab is giving me 50 % of Ruski propaganda and 50 % AI slop of cats driving cars.

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Christian

Arjan Dirkse wrote:

Twitter automatically goes to the “for you” tab now, when you reload it. And the for you tab is giving me 50 % of Ruski propaganda and 50 % AI slop of cats driving cars.

Maybe stop using it then?

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Al-x, lorcan_nagle, Todd, Sean Robinson

And then what, go watch netflix? I’ve been checking out bluesky but for the moment the more interesting discourse is still on twitter. You just have to click the “following” tab after  you reload.

 

The worst brainrot out there I think is still tiktok.

Read a book, go for a walk, paint a picture, learn to cook a new meal. Life isn’t an either/or between Netflix, Bluesky, Tiktok and Twitter.

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Arjan Dirkse, Todd, lorcan_nagle

Ha yes I think you’re right about that. I’ve been thinking about getting a library card, for some reason I don’t even understand I never got a card from the local library.

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Dave