Monday: A last day.

Including delicious bbq.

And Pokemon battles.

And bizarre size differences.

And it's probably not actually a felony to use a cheat code to enter an apartment complex parking lot to play the game.

 And, looking back over things, I realize it's been two years since I came up with the scheme to have Julie buy one volume of Sandman, and I'd buy the other.  I read a lot that first year, finishing the first volume quickly (partially due to having read much of it before), and then slowing down in the second despite a good head start.  2018 was just bad for continuing the story, likely due to all the moving and work related things.  It was good to get back to it this evening.  However, it does kind of put the evening into a more somber note after reading ten or so issues.

It doesn't help that the story is kind of spiraling in for the finish I've known about for close to two decades now.

I'll miss the series when it's done, which suggests I should probably start it again.  Or perhaps reread Lucifer, which has much of the same feeling.

Monday: No.

Here's an old screenshot I took because the clock in the middle looks like a very sleepy bear.

• Grumpy kitty.
• Sad kitty.
• Jerk dog.
• Apparently the traffic issues I had last week are part of a known issue.
• I did not like the Lucifer TV show.  It's the same as all other cop + not cop shows.  There's no explanation about why Lucifer cares about all the humans, or what he gains from that.  Is it just for funsies?  Then what's the point of making it about Lucifer?  It's just so wasteful.
• Here is an excellent story from the comic.  It is rather nsfw.
• Here is a reasonably good story from the comic.  It illustrates a number of problems that I suspect will be present in the TV show.  First, Duma and Remiel take up the management of Hell, making a lot of the "no one's running Hell" discussion from TV nonsense.  This suggests they will not appear.  Secondly, what they've done to Mazikeen is hideous.

And, just so I have them available if I need them:

Thursday: Action birds.

There were three birds sitting here to get out of the rain, but they flew away when I turned around to look at them.

• Bird.
• You're always fucking things up, Reed Richards.
• Hillary's plot is really the best response.
• Pikachu.
• "Black and Garbett’s ongoing “Lucifer” series will find God dead and the erstwhile lord-of-Hell-turned-nightclub-impresario accused of the murder by no less than his own angelic brother, Gabriel. If Lucifer can prove his innocence, not only will his sins be forgotten – but he’ll be welcomed back into the Silver City."  That sounds fucking stupid.
• Isn't the whole point of God that you can't kill him?
• Wouldn't someone notice is Lucifer killed God?  I mean, that's probably going to leave a mark.
• Gabriel doesn't really have the ability to do much to Lucifer.  I believe that was made rather clear during the war.
• Why would Lucifer have to prove his innocence?  How does that make sense?
• "Oh, sure, you fell with a third of the host, but at least you didn't kill God last week.  So we're just going to call it squaresies."
• Why would Lucifer want to go back, anyway?  That's was kind of the point of A Season of Mists.  He's done with it.
• Also Lucifer left creation at the end of his good series.  As did God.  So.  You know.  
• ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I watched that trailer.

It was even worse than I expected.

And what did they do to poor Mazikeen?  She did not appreciate it when that happened in the comics.

Wednesday: New office tomorrow. For realsies, this time.

I hate you, the 50s.

• Pandas.
• Cool.  Although I'm not a big loco moco fan.  And it looks like you have to call the farm ahead of time if you want to buy rabbit.
• This is going to be terrible.  Why?

First, some background: after reading Season of Mists, I picked up the first volume of Lucifer.  Although there are bits that I didn't like that much, as a whole, it is probably one of the best comics ever.  Need a reason why?

Mona Doyle, murdered friend of Elaine Belloc, daughter of Michael: "How about -- hedgehogs?  They're small and they get run over a lot.  Someone should look out for them."

Lucifer: "Very well. You are the tutelary spirits of this world. Though none will name or bless you, even in their thoughts. Mona Doyle, I set you over hedgehogs. Elaine Belloc, I set you over everything except hedgehogs. Keep the noise down to a reasonable level. And in case you should be tempted to look over my shoulder -- don't."

That is one of my favorite lines ever.  In any case, Lucifer tells a brilliant story with detailed characters who have actual personalities, and I can't imagine a TV show is going to accurately portray it.  It's simply not going to have the budget necessary for things to not look like they're TV-grade computer graphics.  I also don't believe that they're going to be able to pass all the stories through without people freaking out.  Changing the stories to make people more comfortable with them would ruin things

For example: they can't do the Season of Mists story.  That's almost certainly part of the Sandman package.  So they just have to allude to what happened, so he ends up in LA.  But Lucifer spends like zero time at Lux during the story.  The very first story has him leaving to go on the mission that grants him the one thing he needs to launch the entire rest of the storyline, which in turn plays out mostly in Hell, various other similar locations, and then completely different universes.  Are they going to explain who everyone is?  I'm reasonably sure 99% of the TV watching public have no clue who Bergelmir, Susanoo-no-Mikoto, or frankly, even something easy like Fenris are.

So I suspect they'll make the pilot, it'll be weird, and they'll not get picked up.  The only good thing I can see coming from this is that hopefully Mike Carey will get a decent amount of money out of the whole thing.