James Gunn certainly made some...interesting choices for The Suicide Squad lineup, didn't he?

I remember my reaction back when the lineup for the upcoming Suicide Squad movie was announced last year being a shake of the head and a sensible chuckle. James Gunn really would pick characters like Weasel, Ratcatcher 2, and Polka-Dot Man for a major big budget comic book movie. The other person I can think of right off the top of my head who would make similar choices is Ryan Reynolds.

But honestly? I dig it. Like Marvel, DC Comics has a deep roster of characters that they draw from for their movies and TV shows, so they don't have to rely on more like "marquee" characters such as Superman and Batman for example. It'll be interesting to see where things lead if The Suicide Squad is a big hit. Maybe we'll see more lesser knowns be pulled out of obscurity and given the spotlight.

Will you pay $30 to watch Black Widow on Disney+ this summer?

I'm just a tad bit late on the news, but Marvel recently(ish) announced that Black Widow will finally hit theaters July 9 and for those aren't willing to risk exposure to Covid because we're still in the middle of a pandemic, it'll be on Disney+ at the same time.

For thirty bucks. Which is like almost four times the cost of a movie ticket.

It does raise the question, however: would you pay that much to watch new movie? Me? Fuck, no. The fact that Disney keeps charging people extra for a movie on a streaming service that they're already paying a monthly subscription to is just plain greedy. Like, there's no other explanation for it other than greed. HBO Max, Netflix, or any of the other streamers have charged their subscribers extra for new releases.

I do want to watch Black Widow, so I'm hoping that it'll be safe to go to the theater by July 9. Knowing our (humanity) collective luck, Earth will be blown up to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

I has a Twittah now

 It can be found here. Obviously I'll be adding a widget to the sidebar today. I also have a Goodreads, so feel free to scope out what I've read and am reading.

Elliot Page comes out as trans

An unexpected surprise as the star of Juno, the X-Men movies, and The Umbrella Academy (among many other roles) announced via social media that he was living his truth and coming out as trans and would be using he/him and they/them pronouns. The reason why I'm not mentioning his former name is because apparently that's considered a "dead name" within the context of the trans community and that it's considered gaunche to refer to a trans person by their old name. I think there's exception for like historical context, but I'd rather play it safe and respectful by not saying it. Plus, I mean, given that there was only one actor with the surname "Page" in the X-Men movies and on The Umbrella Academy, it's not difficult to figure what his old name was prior to the change.

My hat's off to him and it goes without saying that I and Nerd Trash support both Elliot Page and all trans people because TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS.

You can be thankful for these links on Thanksgiving

Things that will survive nuclear war: Cockroaches, Nokia phones, and RadioShack.

Of course Norway had to flex on the world with their newly redesigned passports.

Book dust jackets have had a long, winding history.

Some dude was driving around Toronto, Canada with 30 year old expired tags.

Let's take a look at how New Mutants did at the box office

I totally forgot about this movie until I saw it trending on Twitter today. Then I remembered a post I wrote on here where I pondered how well or bad the movie would do once it was released. So with that in mind, I decided to see how much money it made versus how much it cost to make and well, it did better than I expected? According to several sources, New Mutants cost $80 million on the high-end and made $45 million, falling around $35 million short of breaking even.

I'll be honest, I thought the box office was nothing to be much lower by at least $15 million. The movie was in limbo forever; so long in fact that they couldn't do the standard reshoots that all movies normally do because the actors had visibly aged enough to be noticeable. Of course any money made is a profit for Disney, who didn't bankroll the movie save for possibly the cost of finishing the editing and adding the special effects. Even more money is bound to be made now that New Mutants is out on disc and streaming services. Who knows, maybe the movie will break even after all?

Well, that's real lovely

Evidently I can't make any changes to my blog's tabs, which is real lovely. I wanted to remove some blogs from a blogroll while adding a new one and the popup just won't save the changes. Anyone else having similar troubles?

I finished two books on Thursday and it felt good

 

Even before the pandemic hit, the number of books I was clearing through was on the decline, so as you can imagine, finishing two books one right after the other felt really nice. I finally wrapped up reading Victory Conditions, the fifth and final book in Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series. I recommend it if you're interested in military SF that isn't hardcore. The series won't blow your socks off, but you definitely will not have felt like you wasted time reading them. Not long after putting that book down, I grabbed my tablet and decided to read some more of All Systems Red by Martha Wells. I love The Murderbot Diaries, so I've enjoyed re-reading the first book in the series. It wasn't long until I was finishing that one as well. This is another recommendation too. The first four books in the series are novellas, so there's no huge time commitment. At least on the surface there isn't, but I can guarantee you from personal experience that you'll tear through each one in rapid order! The fifth book is a full length novel and the upcoming sixth is another novella.

I have no clue if I'll add any more books to my tally before the end of the year, but I started to realize last year that it doesn't matter how many books I read in a year, so long as I'm reading.

Late night bus riding

Because I keep forgetting that it gets dark early, I'm riding a bus and it is dark as a dungeon on here. But I always enjoy being out at night, seeing everything lit up. There's just a different feel, a different atmosphere.

I think we could all use a snuggle buddy right now

Via Wikipedia.

Well, not me, because human contact is just not my cup of tea. Fortunately for the people of Belgium, who went into another lockdown, they are not me, and so they are allowed to have a snuggle buddy, as a treat.

But even De Croo’s plea to avoid physical contact has some exceptions. Under the new national measures, people in need of some physical intimacy are entitled to one “knuffelcontact” (literally “cuddle contact”), with people living alone allowed one extra cuddle buddy. Unfortunately for polyamorous “knuffelaars” however, only one cuddle contact is allowed to visit at a time.

If you're in the Netherlands, then things are even better because you can have a "seksbuddy" instead. I don't think we need a universal translator for that word.

Have fun with your snuggle fests, Belgians. Please wrap it before you tap it, Dutch people.