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Settling in and watching Enterprise, S1E3 kind of tickles my nature.

Getting ready to board an obviously damaged, unresponsive vessel: Lt. Reed is inclined to break out the heavy rifles, and Capt. Archer surmises that the phrase pistols are sufficient. Considering the unknown situation aboard the other ship: it would make more sense to have Reed with a rifle, and keep the pistols for the rest: light enough to be non threatening if they encounter survivors, and more punch in case things go sour.

Issuing hand phasers and tricoders to away teams as a precaution is probably one of Star Fleet’s saner SOPs, given the wide range of situations Star Fleet personnel are exposed to. But heavy weapons are actually a pretty rare sight in Star Trek despite the amount of shooting that goes on. I don’t really think there were enough times rifles appeared in TOS to remember the 23rd century phaser rifle more than superficially. In the 24th century, it was largely due to the Borg threat and Dominion war that we really see the Type-IIIs. Actually, it’s kind of comforting that the next iteration made it into Voyager’s armories, lol. Not sure if any real figures were ever given for easier weapons, but the Federation Type-IIs popular in the 24th century probably had more destructive potential than anyone could hope to leverage at the longer distances found planet side.

By contrast the MACO unit attached to Enterprise after the Xindi incident is very abnormal by Star Trek norms. But I suppose even the precursors of the Federation eventually had to go down that route.

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Check out “Iron Sky: The Coming Race” on Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/title/81132624?s=i&trkid=14170286

Said what the hell, why not? And was not disappointed. Much like when I watched the original Iron Sky.

Because if moon nazis weren’t enough, let’s throw in aliens, and Hitler riding a T-Rex, motherfickers! The bit with the holy grail and the Steve Jobs cult, and that lucky red shit, oh it was entertaining, lol.

Somehow, I agree with Sasha’s notion that the transport ship was made by Americans, therefore there must be weapons somewhere; and the iPhone / Nokia 3310 jokes. There’s many little nuggets of greatness, not to mention first fighting dinosaurs, and the hilarity with the world leaders.

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Watching Doom: Annihilation on Netflix, I think it doesn’t suck. You won’t rush to theaters for such a film but it beats the last attempt at a DooM movie, hands down. Or should we say, the people at least cared and that tends to make a video game movie that doesn’t suck.

In my experience, video game movies tend to be either pretty good, or pretty awful, and make no one happy. The only exception that really come to mind is the first Mortal Kombat film.

Doom: Annihilation at least does a decent job of presenting a band of doomed space marines, stuck on Phobos, and being attacked by zombies. Also other things. Like the ’16 video game, it tries to put enough narrative around the concept to make it function. Not a deep, far reaching story; because that doesn’t work for Doom. This film on the other hand, ain’t a bad try. I especially loved the many nods to the game, and related Id titles; not to mention bits like the possession warning on the doors.

I’d actually like to see another shot, that takes on Doom II’s notion of the Earth being overrun. It may also be sad that the only reasons why I remember the name of Mars’ moons all related to video games, lol.

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Watching the end of Lost in Space season 2, I can’t help but think it’s been a great second season. Given much less subterfuge and mystery than the first season, it has a lot more focus than the first thanks to the characters having been developed, and the family solidified over the first season.

As someone who would like to believe there’s some bit of good in everyone, I rather liked Dr. Smith’s development over the season—and the robot’s choice of word. But perhaps the best, is John’s last words to his daughter Judy, as the season marches to its conclusion: “You’ll figure it out.” Because honestly, that’s how life works.

And bless the engineer who designed the corridors aboard the Resolute big enough for a Charriot to speed through, lol.

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Over the years, I’ve pretty much decided: if you can make me laugh, make me think, or make me care, I’ll probably watch or read anything. It’s probably easier to entertain me by making me laugh though.

And then there’s somethings that are just there for popcorn.

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One of my get around to it items has been updating my anime worth remembering list. Something that I’ve been lax of, since it calls for groking at my viewing history to help remember where I last left off. I think it’s been about six months since I refreshed it, sinc ethe last entry was Izetta.

Today’s refresh adds:

The Rising of the Shield Hero is worth remembering because Naofumi stuck in a shit world, deeply crapped upon, but still somehow manages to be a decent person. Also a bit twisted when you consider the biting things under his coat, lol. Plus who doesn’t like Raphtalia? Yeah, it’s been that long since I updated my list.

Overlord was a series that languished on my watchlist, and then I finally watched it and found it simply superb. Seriously, watch it. All three seasons. I hope there’s more to come! Probably should be considered essential viewing for isekai and mmorpg lovers alike.

Log Horizon had been on my watchlist forever, and I still need to finish the final season. But it’s a great series.

Wizard Barristers was also on my watchlist for ages, and turned out to be quite a nice series. I seriously hope the author knows more about action anime than legal proceedings. But if it lands on the “Hmm, worth watching?” question line, the answer is yes.

WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? was a series I had meant to watch, probably since it came out. What I found was a pretty frackin’ awesome story and great characters. Action anime will usually bore me if you don’t make me laugh, or suck me in with the characters.

My Little Monster was a series I decided to watch and see if it was funny. Stayed because it was funny, and the characters were pretty good. Not to mention antics.

Kyo kara Maoh! had been on my wikipedia list of anime and managa to keep an eye on. So when it showed up in Crunchyroll’s back catalog, of course I had to watch. Long, and perhaps a bit twisted and genderbent. You’ll either love it or be bored in five minutes. Me, I found it funny, and the screwy characters make me laugh all the more. I also like that Yuri, who is very unlike the typical demon king stereotype, actually becomes a kind of Maoh worthy character when faced with the injustices stabbing Yuri in the eye–because if you have the power, why not?

Welcome to demon school! Iruma-kun! is a recent series that I almost skipped. Then I sat and watched it, and kind of caught up from half way in one night. The series targets a bit of a younger audience, so it generally passes up on the opportunity for fan service and focuses on good humour. Iruma’s super power to dodge danger, and how he settles in to life in the demon world is funny. Not to mention that Clara is a bloody awesome screw lose, and I may have busted a gut when the student council president called Iruma into her lair….

Kamen no Maid Guy is a series that’s decidedly not for kids, so much as those that like tits. But it’s pretty damned hilarious in a sexy / slap stick kind of way. Hard to watch without bellowing “Who the !@#$ is this masked maid guy!?” while rolling on the floor laughing your arse off at the insanity that unravels.

Ninja Nonsense is a delightful screwball comedy. I don’t know what drugs the author was on, but I sure hope they had some fun before the end. When the show starts off with a ninja girl on a panty theft mission, you just know it’s either going to be sad or funny, and somehow pretty great.

Tenjho Tenge is an action anime I find binge worthy, as it has both good humour galore and a bounty of characters. When a moronic tough guy who never knows when to quit finds himself trying to take over a school, where every badass seems to think they’re Son Goku, how can he not end up in deep? Plus the window -> shower incident in the beginning took a very unexpected, hilarious turn. But mostly, it’s an action drama with a lot of violence.

Trigun I had always heard of but never stopped to watch. Really wish that I had watched it when it first came to these shores. By the time Vash faces the Nebraska family and deals with the reactor melt down, I decided this was very much my kind of show. Vash is the kind of character that I would inspire to be, if I was awesome. It’s available on Hulu, and probably Netflix. At time of writing, I think Vash is the second male character to make my characters worth remembering section.

Phantom in the Twilight I think I had glossed over when it came out, as it sounded like it would either be worth watching or dull. In the end, I would say it’s more interesting than most series.

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Things that make me sad: how slow Crunchyroll’s queue loads in the web page.

Things that make me sadder: when my iPad outruns my desktop at loading that.

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Crunchyroll Announces Winter 2020 Anime Lineup!
Sounds like there will at least some series worth checking out. I’m kind of glad to see that Iruma-kun and Fire Force will be continuing.

From the fall season, Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun! has probably entertained me the most. With oresuki taking second place thanks to the humour. But mostly it’s been kind of a slow season. Iruma-kun was at least funny, and is binge worthy.

Also reminds me, really, really need to catch up on a back log of Fire Force episodes.

On the flip side, the next OAD episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime was a great unexpected treat. The dreamy story of how Butt Sumo became their national sport, was freaking hilarious. I can understand why Rimu’s response to the potion was what it was, hahahahaa.

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The 10 Best Shojo Anime Couples Of The Decade That Represent True Love

Coincidentally, all of these series are worth watching. Especially if like me, you have a broad taste in anime instead of a hard genre filter.

10, 9, 7, and 1 would probably be good gauges of whether you’ll enjoy or throw up, as far as the genre goes as a concept. If you’re asleep by the end of 10, or have no care about the characters in 9 by the middle, you’ll probably want to tune out the shojo bin altogether. If you enjoyed, there’s plenty, and more than a few good laughs to be found.

I remember when I started watching 8, wondering if it would be a waste of my time or worth while. I chuckled often enough to enjoy the series quite a bit. The episode: “Momotarō made mo Meido-sama”, especially was fun. Misaki and Usui’s antics are usually amusing but that was a bit off the deepend, and very well played IMHO. The entire series kind of reminds me of Shakephere’s The Taming of the Shew, and is probably as over the top as the film adaption of that back in the ’60s. I for one enjoyed both Maid Sama and The Taming of the Shrew, but I’m strange.

5 and 4 are surprisingly good series. My Little Monster’s execution gives it broader appeal than most on the list, and is flibbin’ funny. Especially if you’ve ever known some strange people or cackled at the social interactions of your friends. 4 on the other hand is decidedly a candy series. There’s enough to Takeo’s story to keep us awake and chuckling, and enough to firmly cement it in such a list. Personally, I like that the series solved the most important issue rapidly, and moved on to what follows, rather than stretching it out across a zillion episodes. Did I mention how much I chuckled at Ore Monogatari? It’s also filled with good moments like Takeo’s date with the burning building, and him chucking his buddy up a Christmas tree.

3 is like 5 in a broader appeal. In particular it’s entertaining if Shirayuki is the kind of character you like, or you’ll be well amused by Zen’s cohorts. Or have a soft spot for the setting. The first season is a good jumping off point.

2 is a series that should probably be considered essential anime watching. In fact, I am pretty damned sure this rock would be a far better planet if we had more people like Tohru in it. Don’t think Fruits Basket is your cup of tea? Watch it. Don’t like Shojo series? Watch it anyway.

Kuronuma Sawako is a character that I particularly like, and made the notable characters section of my own anime worth remembering her. Her nature is just kind of awesome, and I freaking love how the animation shifts when she’s flustered–that tickles my inner cartoon lover, as well as my funny bone. #1 has plenty that makes it worth watching, and plenty that makes it worth smacking someone with a rubber hose, but by in large can be enjoyed for its characters and the way they comedically frail about as the plot is stretched towards the horizon. You should watch at least as far as the Ayane and Chizuru arc before writing it off, or deciding to watch the rest.

To PowerShell or not to PowerShell

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For the most part, I’ve found it very hard to care about PowerShell. But as time goes on, I mostly look at it with the thought, “Wish I had more use for that”.

Things that I do that require some scripting, and that run on more than unix systems, usually resort to creating .cmd or .bat files to handle the Windows systems. There’s mostly two reasons for that: execution policies and portability.

I don’t really like scripting cmd.exe. As an interactive shell, it’s barely livable but gets the job done. The focus on interactive mode, and the nature of DOS, show through in what can be done in cmd.exe. NT’s modern extensions and so on make it a lot better than COMMAND.COM but cmd.exe is not a good scripting environment, nor a great interactive shell: it just sucks less than its predecessors.

PowerShell on the other hand took some good ideas and largely addressed much of the suck. Exposing .NET even offers the opportunity to solve problems that would call for writing a solution in something beyond bash/ksh, or finding dedicated utilities for. It is really neat the amount of shit you can do in a PowerShell script.

But in the end, the default execution policy is what really keeps me away. Open sourcing and cross platformyness stuff in Core 6.x resolved most of my negative feelings for PowerShell, but it doesn’t suit my scripting needs.

By default: client systems reject running PowerShell scripts, and so monkeying with execution policy is needed. Either to unrestrict it for the current  session or my user. Which makes using it for projects less useful than using the older comspec. Because while cmd.exe is very meh, it doesn’t require any extra monkeying after I’ve git cloned my repo. Yet another thing to do when setting up a system, or document about a code base, that I don’t need.