It’s Sunday, which means that it’s time for Seriously Geeky Sunday prompts! These prompts are brought to us by Heather of Just Geeking By. Today is National Tell a Joke Day, which prompted today’s questions. Be sure to check out the rest of August’s prompts if you’re interested in joining in on the fun!

Funny Guys

Sometimes I feel like the prompts will be difficult for me, and this week might be one of them! Comedy is not a genre I partake of often, though I do enjoy comedic timing and sarcastic humor in the content I consume.

What makes you laugh?

There’s a long list of things that make me laugh, but there’s also nothing specifically that makes me laugh. It’s like the song from Mary Poppins: I just love to laugh.

What TV show makes you laugh?

There’s quite a few. Mainly, Ouran High School Host Club and West Wing make me laugh, despite knowing what jokes are coming. Otherwise… I don’t really watch television to get a laugh out of it, though it’s a nice bonus when I can even get a snort or chuckle.

What is your favorite comedy movie?

Oh, this is a tough one, because I truly don’t go out of my way to watch “comedy” movies. Especially since I find many comedy movies, well, annoying and boring. “Classics” like Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back make me roll my eyes and choose something else to watch. The only movies that I suppose could be classified as “comedy” that I enjoy are Mel Brooks films. So, in that vein, probably Robin Hood Men in Tights.

What scene always makes you crack up?

Back to Mel Brooks, again. It’s a scene from Spaceballs, this time. Fun fact, did you know this scene was entirely ad-libbed? Bless Rick Moranis.

Who is your favorite funny guy/girl?

To be fair, I’m not sure what this questions is referring to, because I’d initially thought it was asking about a favorite comedian, though that’s the next question. So… can I just say that I think Mel Brooks is probably the funniest person alive and his humor shaped my childhood?

Who is your favorite comedian?

Since I already used up Mel Brooks, I’m honestly going to have to go with Robin Williams. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but partly it’s due to the fact that I grew up with him in Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Birdcage, Jumanji, Dead Poets Society, Hook… His stand-up routines were also some of the only stand-up/adult humor my father let my brother and I watch as kids.

As an adult, I also very much connect with the above quote/sentiment. As someone who suffers from depression, I very much feel that sentiment in my soul. I would never wish depression on another person. Because when something feels this heavy, you never want others to feel this way. And as such, because you know how heavy and grueling it feels, you always try to cheer up others in any way you can.

Another Sunday, another set of prompts brought to us by Heather of Just Geeking By! This week’s prompts were spawned by today being both National Cherry Cobbler Day and National Walnut Day, along with a bunch of other National food “holidays” this week, so Heather decided it obviously had to be a food-related question week! Be sure to check out the rest of May’s prompts if you’re interested in joining, or start planning for June’s prompts!

Food

If you could have any fictional food item become reality, what would it be?

Probably some of the confectioneries that show up in the Harry potter novels. Probably the chocolate frogs, even though I have to be in the right mood for chocolates.

What is your favorite food moment/scene?

I don’t know that it’s my favorite, but one that always sticks with me is the scene where Edmund meets the White Witch for the first time in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. But my favorite food movie would absolutely have to be Tortilla Soup.

What fictional restaurant would you like to visit?

The Double R Diner is absolutely my first choice. Need some of Norma’s cooking, after all. Especially her pie. Yeah, it’s a Twin Peaks thing.

What is the most decadent dessert you’ve seen in a fandom?

To be fair, I’m honestly not sure that I pay much attention to food in fandoms. So I can’t say a specific dessert has called to me. I guess I’m going to have to go with Norma’s pie as mentioned above, really.

What is the most disgusting food item you’ve seen?

Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean. I’m sure there’s grosser things, but the fact that people have tried to replicate them for jollies just absolutely grosses me out.

What is your favorite fandom-inspired recipe/food item?

Oh goodness, I’m not sure! I love seeing what various creatives come up with, and have even attempted some myself from WoW and Harry Potter.

Another week, another Seriously Geeky Sundays prompt! Seriously Geeky Sundays is hosted by Heather of Just Geeking By. This week’s prompt is a tribute to Mother’s Day in the US, with a focus on geeky families. Be sure to check out the rest of May’s prompts if you’re interested in joining!

Families

Who is your favorite family?

This was an extremely difficult question to answer. I have a lot of families I enjoy. The Gilmores, the Spellmans, the Siskos… but I finally decided that my favorite family would have to be Joyce and Buffy Summers (and later Dawn, who grew on me eventually). I love the dynamic the two of them have, and the growth they both go through on the show… and it is still shattering to watch that specific episode where everything comes crashing down.

Who is your favorite unconventional family?

I keep waffling between the Gilmores and the Spellmans on this one, but I finally had to go with the original 90s Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I’ve yet to watch more than the first few episodes of the newer Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, but I do enjoy their dichotomy so far as well. The 90s Sabrina had a huge impact on me as a kid, and since I didn’t watch a lot of television, it’s one of the first times I remember seeing an unconventional family (after Jake and Ben Sisko, of course). You know, once I finish Stargate and Star Wars, I may need to yoink Manthing’s Hulu login for seven seasons of Sabrina…

Which off-screen/non-played family member would like to learn more about?

I honestly can’t think of any media I’ve consumed where the family had a specifically off-screen member, and Googling hasn’t been much help in answering this question, either. So I’m just looking forward to seeing what other folks have answered for this question.

Who is/are your favorite grandparents?

Beyond my own late grandparents? Well, need I say more than post this image?

What extended family/legacy is your favorite?

Again, a picture is worth a thousand words, here. I haven’t watched the movie in a while (and have yet to watch the second one), but I very much enjoy the quirky extended family in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Plus, it’s just so quoteable!

Take the main characters from your last five shows/movies/games/books (etc.) and create a family with them.

I’ve been watching a lot of ensemble cast television shows, so it’s been difficult to choose a main character. Therefore, I compromised a bit on the question. I use two television shows (Star Wars: Clone Wars and Stargate SG-1), and chose some characters that I would consider “main”. From Clone Wars, we have Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan. Even though I’m no longer in seasons with O’Neill, I decided to pick O’Neill and Carter, because they really do deserve to love each other like they want to. My family layout would have Jack and Samantha as the parents, and Ahsoka as their daughter. Obi-Wan would be the Uncle, and Anakin would be Ahsoka’s older cousin that’s almost like her brother.

Seriously Geeky Sundays is a new weekly blogging prompt put together by Heather of Just Geeking By. The idea is to answer some questions about various topics. The nice thing is that she gives you all of the prompts for a month up front so you can decide if you’d like to participate in particular ones, or go ahead and start scheduling posts for Sundays to answer the questions.

Kings and Queens

I think this set of questions are going to be difficult for me to complete because I don’t consume a lot of media with royalty in it, but I’m going to try!

Who is your favorite female royal character?

So figuring out the answer to this one took me longer than I wanted to. I had to eventually settle on Queen Nehelenia. Don’t get me wrong—I love me some Neo Queen Serenity, but I always loved the villains in Sailor Moon more than the main cast. To the point of making a Geocities fan-site dedicated just to all of the villains, including the single-episode monsters of the week. Yes, seriously. I think it was the goth-aesthetic that they all presented that captured me more than the story of them. I would have chosen Wicked Lady for this question, but I don’t think that she was technically classified as royalty, even if Chibi-Usa technically is. While I enjoy the Black Moon Family arc, Queen Beryl was never as interesting to me as Queen Nehelenia. Honestly, the whole Dark Moon Circus arc was more interesting in general.

Who is your favorite male royal character?

Mmf, there was some serious lusting after Prince Diamond as a young girl. Earrings, white hair… Needless to say, this line just got better with age.

Who is your favorite royal couple?

I thought long and hard about this one. It was a tough call. Do I choose more Sailor Moon characters? Do I partake of another fandom? I ended up deciding to mention another fandom. While the movie is nothing like the book, I have a soft spot for Stardust. It’s one of my go-to movies when I’m feeling down, and I need something to cheer me up. So my favorite royal couple is actually Tristan and Yvaine. (Plus Charlie Cox, I mean…)

What is your favorite story line involving a royal character?

This was another tough one, but I decided on one of my favorite book chronicles. The Hythrun Chronicles by Jennifer Fallon. The Wolfblade trilogy within the Hythrun Chronicles has some of my favorite characters, and Marla is a pretty intense character that I can’t get enough of. I should add all of those books to my reading list and pick them up again, soon.

If you could live in any fictional royal residence, which one would it be?

I honestly have never thought about living in a royal residence. Any time I think about living in a fictional residence, it’s always some witchy cottage filled with plants and cats. So I sadly have no answer to this question.

The main character of the last fandom you experienced just became King/Queen of their universe; how do they react?

Oh goodness. I most recently watched some Stargate: Atlantis, which happens to be an ensemble cast. So there’s no true main character in the series. Besides, nobody can beat Harry Maybourne as a king. And the one and only time I’ve seen Wayne Brady not be the one making jokes.

This is post 10/31 for Blapril. You can find out more and sign up at Belghast’s original post. You can view those participating on Twitter via the Twitter list I put together. Nogamara of Battlestance has put together an RSS feed of all Blapril participants.

Wednesday night was date night, and as is tradition for Manthing and me, we sat down in front of the television to watch something and eat dinner to kick off our weekly four-ish hours together. Sometimes we watch something on Netflix (most recently IT Crowd and Sherlock), or pick a movie (recent selections including Aquaman and 10 Things I Hate About You), but it is typically something that one or neither of us has watched in entirety.

This past week, we watched Detective Pikachu. Neither one of us had seen it, and he was looking forward to watching it, whereas I was indifferent to seeing the movie.

Overall, I thought it was okay. The ending was a feel-good ending, but the ridiculousness of the writing in the first twenty minutes or so of the movie was off putting, and then carried into the entirety of the movie for me. It almost felt as though the writers were trying to make Deadpool, but for kids. I just couldn’t get over the start of the movie and get fully immersed into the rest of it until very close to the end.

I want to give the movie another try, and see if maybe having a bad day (I was in a lot of pain) affected my initial opinions of the movie. Right now I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to watch it again, but I wouldn’t change the channel if it were on.

Something I’ve seen going around the blogosphere and twittersphere is this XKCD comic. And I figured it’d make a nice simple post to try to figure out which movie I like falls into this. I was a bit confused with “below 50%”, however, because there’s both an audience score and the “tomatometer”, so I decided to go by either score.

I found that one of my absolute favorite movies (starring Bill Nighy and Alan Rickman) scored a solid 19% on the Tomatometer, and a 55% on the audience score. What movie, you ask? Blow Dry.

A lot of complaints about the movie seem to be that it’s “too formulaic”, which, I agree, it is. But it’s sweet. It’s a story of choosing your family. It is one of the first representations of LGBTQIA+ family that I remember seeing. Plus it’s just funny and cute, and the soundtrack is so much fun. It’s one of those movies that I absolutely have to put on when I’m feeling terrible because I just can’t help but laugh at the quips that come standard with British humor.

Besides, it’s Alan Rickman. That’s honestly the reason I picked it up at Blockbuster the first time I saw it, but it’s not what made me love it. Have you guys done this “challenge” yet?

Art by Momo-Deary

Favorite holiday movie?
White Christmas is away and by far my favorite holiday movie in existence. I’ve always loved the movies that my Grandmother would play for us as kids (1950s movies and the like), and White Christmas just stuck with me. Plus, it’s Bing singing great songs.

What are 3 things on your wish list this year?
The Saga graphic novels collection, Sailor Moon Season 1 DVDs, and Sailor Moon graphic novels. Two of which I received from Chaide for Christmas, and one from my brother. I feel very lucky that they got me them. I may or may not have squeed a bunch over all of it.

Why yes, I do have a Sailor Moon addiction. Problem?

Does it snow where you live? 
Not usually. Living in the south pretty much guarantees it’s a rare occurrence. But when we do get snow, it’s Snowmageddon.

Which winter holiday do you celebrate?
I was born and raised Catholic, so I grew up celebrating Christmas. While I consider myself more spiritual now, than following any particular religion, we still celebrate Christmas. However, I really just enjoy the season and that it tends to bring out the best in people–which really is the true meaning of the Holidays.

Worst gift you’ve ever gotten?
For Christmas? Uh, I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve ever thought, “this is a terrible gift”. I’m always thankful that people take their time to get me something, because it’s definitely not a necessity.

Biggest pet peeve about the holiday season?
Aside from it “starting” before Thanksgiving? (Which is completely my biggest pet peeve in existence–let each holiday have its own time to shine without overlapping!) The fact that people get all righteous over the holidays. Not everyone is Christian, or Jewish, or Pagan. And while not everyone of these faiths gets uppity, the few that do are very vocal. Why can’t we all just get along and be decent human beings to each other, which is the prime teaching in every single religion?

Favorite seasonal song?
I think it goes without saying that it’s Bing’s version of White Christmas.

Would you rather it be cold and cloudy, or be kind of warm out?
I prefer cold and cloudy. Because maybe we’ll get some snow that way.

Hot chocolate or eggnog?
I used to adore eggnog when I was younger, but I think I’ve just grown out of it. I’d give it a try if it were that homemade stuff, though. Hot chocolate would have to be my answer–though it’s a year-round thing.

Favorite thing to wear during the holiday season?
Leggings! Even though I’m plus size, I love to wear leggings. Though I usually wear them with dresses because who needs “winter dresses” when you can wear summer ones with leggings?!

Anybody you’re hoping to bump into under the mistletoe?
I think mistletoe is kinda dumb. Always have. Always avoided it, and still do.

Embarrassing holiday story?
I don’t know of any embarrassing ones. Though I do remember in middle school one of the few times we had Christmas Eve at our house, my grandpa had a heart attack and had to be carted to the hospital in an ambulance…

Favorite holiday treat?
One of my grandmothers makes these “ginger cream” cookies that are to die for. But I can’t share the recipe with you–it’s a family secret. But seriously, they’re this molasses cookie with spices and icing and they’re soft and oh-so-tasty.

Latest you’ve stayed up on New Year’s Eve?
I’ve done the ball drop a couple times. Honestly, it’s not my thing. I’d rather stay up and play video games. Which I think is the plan this year, too!

Favorite holiday character?
I honestly don’t know that I have one. I can only really think of the Grinch and he’s not a favorite or anything.

Do bird boyfriends count as holiday characters?

What are you doing for the holidays this year?
This year we flew up to visit my family for the holidays and spent some time with them, which was very nice. Though I think next time we might make it a bit shorter because the poor cats were so upset.

Favorite pie flavor?
I know it’s a sin, but… pie really isn’t my thing. So no thanks. I’ll take some home-baked cookies!

Your favorite holiday tradition growing up?
My father’s birthday is early December, so we’d always decorate the house for his birthday, and then put the tree up a week or two later.

White lights or colored lights?
Depends on which ornaments we’re using to decorate the tree! And if we’re not doing a tree and just lights, depends on the area and the general lighting/decoration situation.

What tops your tree?
Chaide and I don’t do a tree at home (three cats…), but my parents have an angel topper that my mother made to top their tree.

Candy canes – Yum or Yuck?
I love minty things! Gum, candy canes, soft peppermint candies…

Favorite gift ever received?
Just being able to visit my family for the first time in 2.5 years was pretty much the greatest thing ever.

Favorite seasonal activity?
Does staying home and doing nothing but gaming count as a seasonal activity?

Favorite seasonal story?
I don’t really know that I have one…

Which of the “12 Days of Christmas” would you most like to receive?
I’ll take the ten lords a-leaping. Especially if they look like some sexy Otome boys. *fans self*

I can’t wait to play this~

So in raid last night, we came to Gravitron’s room, and a guild member, Marlis, just casually mentioned that the room reminded them of Event Horizon. I’ve only ever seen Event Horizon once, and it was creepy as fuck. But I’d definitely watch it again.

Honestly, the only thing about the room is a somewhat out of place is the globe in the middle with moving rings. We don’t really see Eldan items like this around. I wonder if it’s the Genetic Archive itself? But, why would one put it on the first floor by the “piddly” bosses? Shouldn’t it be with Ohmna?

I also wonder if the Devs tasked with creating the vibe for the Genetic Archives raid pulled from Event Horizon for the ambience of the room, or if they just kinda said, “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool to have a big floating ball in the middle of the room for no reason?!”.

So, I’ve calmed down since writing the WildStar post yesterday. And while I do feel that NCSoft has a financial model change up its sleeve, I have to admit that I’m really scared.

I’ve never been actively playing a game during a shift in model. More often than not, I’d play a game some, get distracted by another game, and then come back to the game after the model change. Or, I’d played it as it released B2P.

However, much as I don’t particularly care for NCSoft as a whole company, they do have great B2P models in their repertoire, so that helps to calm my nerves, some. Also, if WildStar goes anything like ESO, I think we’re in for a smooth transition, IF/WHEN it is announced.

From what I know of the ESO community, many people deem their developers much as we see Carbine developers–people who really do want to listen and give us the best game possible. So I guess the love and dedication the development team has for the game and the community is another reason to help make me not so scared.

But mostly, it’s the community at large. So long as things don’t go down the toilet, and the community stays, things will be fine, and quite possibly get even better!

But, this is all speculation, of course. And my feels. Because talking about my feels is good, right?

Game-Free Night

Tonight, Chaide and I are going to take a gaming break for the week and curl up with some Brie en Croute, fruit, and summer sausage in front of the television and watch Animatrix and Matrix Revolutions.

I’ve only seen both of those once, so I’m looking forward to watching them again. While Revolutions wasn’t the best movie, I do feel it did a good job of wrapping up the story. And Animatrix is just amazing. One, because it’s anime, and two, because the story depth and the way all of them tie into the Matrix universe as a whole is pretty freaking awesome.

Tomorrow we plan on doing an Explorer’s Night, where we go through a low level zone in WildStar and just smash face on everything, and help some low level guildies and non-guildies with elite mobs and quests and such. We’re also going to give another go at the Goldensun Essence. So if you’re on Entity and interested, you should come along!

This weekend is really busy, so I’m not sure we’ll get in any TSW or FFXIV. So if not, I’m going to try to convince Chaide to get some in on Monday, which has essentially become the “guild’s day off” from scheduled events. Officers and members schedule things on our calendar Tuesday through Sunday, but never Monday. It’s interesting, because it’s almost like it’s become an unofficial thing…

This is a different kind of post for me, and I’m not sure how I like it. But I want to write more, even when I don’t have a lot of gaming stuff to write about. So constructive feedback is welcome.