A Semi-Rant About Pods

I don't normally talk about serious topics here on Pleiades. However, I've been really annoyed with all of the flack Tide Pods have been getting. Most of the flack comes from consumer error rather than the actual Pods themselves.

It should be common sense to keep laundry detergent of any kind OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. Apparently, some consumers of Pods need to be whacked over the head with a big stick reading "KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN" because that bit of common sense has left their brains. Apparently a large enough number of Tide Pods consumers kept their Pods where their children could reach them and so the "dangers" of Tide Pods got media attention. With a warning label clearly stating that they should be kept out of reach of children, there should have been no danger in simply having them around for use in the laundry.

Flash forward to today... well, a couple days ago. There I am, happily scrolling through my Facebook feed when I come across an article about Tide Pods. This one has to do with a two year old supposedly squeezing a Pod and getting the detergent into his eyes. Okay, my problems with this are as follows:

1. The mother in this story apparently ignored the warning label.
2. The mother states in the article that "Two-year-olds will be two-year-olds and help mom with laundry." I understand helping out, but why the heck is your two year old having anything to do with the detergent? He's two! My mother never let us near the laundry detergent until we were old enough to understand what it was and how to handle it properly. That's not at age two, people!
3. Of course the little balloon of detergent is going to pop when you squeeze it. I can tell that just from looking at them.
4. The mother also says to let your kids do dishes, not laundry, because the pods are dangerous. I got news for you, lady, dishes can be plenty dangerous and they have pod-things for that, too.
5. The mother also says that her Pods are up really high now. They should have been there in the first place.

So the big "moral" of the story is: Keep Pods as far away from your children as you possibly can. In fact, don't buy them if you can't trust yourself or your kids to handle them properly. If you are going to have them around, do the smart thing and talk to your children about the dangers of ingesting laundry detergent of any kind. Don't EVER let small children do anything other than help you sort, fold, and shove laundry into your machines.

Also, don't blame other people, products, or companies for your user error. It's not their fault you did or didn't do something.

If you would like to read the article I talked about here, here's the link: http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/laundry-pod-dangers/?id=150483

Love ya, Jessie.

The Superman Rant

Overview

This blog post will contain a rant and an Altador Cup Update.

The Superman Rant

Okay so, I've been seeing a lot of really stupid Man of Steel tie-in commercials lately. I'm not gonna lie, this is one superhero movie I'm not even remotely interested in seeing. I only saw the last Superman movie because I was bored and it was on Netflix. The stupid tie-in commercials cement my disinterest in seeing this one.

Part of my personal disinterest in Man of Steel is the attempt to make Superman dark. Supes has never been a dark hero. The only reason they're even attempting a dark Superman is because the Batman Trilogy was such a giant hit. Thing is, the reason Batman was a dark hero with a dark story is because he's always been that way. They got the darkness spot on with this particular trilogy. Superman, however, just doesn't have that kind of darkness in him.

Granted, these assumptions have been made by someone who'd never been big into Superman and avoids anything Superman related like Supes avoids green Kryptonite. My personal experience with Superman starts with really old, really sexist cartoons then to The Justice League (animated) to Supes appearances in Batman comics and, of course, the last Superman movie. Also, a random smattering of Smallville and Lois and Clark. It's incredibly fair to say that I strongly dislike Superman.

I find Superman to be a boring character. the Clark Kent "disguise" is akin to the Sailor Moon style of disguise, which is essentially nonexistent. Superman is also incredibly over-powered, in my opinion. Not only does he have ridiculously-powerful-superstrength and flight, but he can burn holes in stuff, freeze anything with his breath, and turn time backward for no discernable reason... in addition to X-Ray vision and super-hearing. Most of which end up in groups of one or two of those powers in other heroes. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather watch Carol Danvers or Wonder Woman run around on screen and they only have superstrength and flight, for the most part.

In my horribly biased opinion, Lois Lane is the only good thing about Superman, even if she is sidelined and horribly portrayed most of the time.

But yeah, that's pretty much what I think of Superman and part of why the tie-in commercials annoy me to no end. Man, that commercial thing got side-lined quickly, didn't it?

Altador Cup Update

Shenkku lost to Meridell yesterday in everything but Slushie Slinger... I hate that game, by the way. Today, we play Terror Mountain and we'll probably lose, too... perhaps I ought to switch teams next year...

Also, the results of the first round of the Staff Tournament will be revealed tomorrow, so you've got the rest of tonight to pick a team.

Love ya, Jessie.

Things That Annoy Me: Internet Stuff

GIANT DISCLAIMER

• This will basically be a rant. A well structured rant, but a rant nonetheless.
• This is what happens when TV shows go on hiatus and I start thinking about stuff.
• I know I'm not going to change anything be writing this, I just feel the need to get it out there.
• Don't send me comments about how wrong I am about this stuff... I don't care and will ignore you.
• All opinions expressed here are opinions. If you don't know exactly what "opinion" means, you need to go look it up.
• There's swearing. Deal.
• There's also some over-explanation just in case people don't know what I'm talking about.

 INTRODUCTION

As stated in the disclaimer, this is what happens when TV shows go on hiatus. I start thinking about stuff that really has nothing to do with anything else I might post about. This time, I started thinking about the internet and how people interact with other people through it... and whatnot.

PAYING FOR PIXELS

What annoys me most about people paying for pixels is that they then get pissed off when whatever they paid for doesn't then pay off for them in turn.

Example: I play OviPets. OviPets uses credits as their currency. There is only one currency. You either spent tons of time "turning eggs" to get credits or you pay for credits. Credits are used to buy traits for your pets. These traits can then be passed on to the offspring of the pets. Credits are also used to generate and research pets. It takes a lot of credits to essentially get exactly what pets/traits you want. Also, unless you pay actual money for credits, you can't do anything with your earned credits but research, generate, and trait your own pets. You can't "buy" pets from other people using credits.

Still the Example: One of my friends on OviPets got annoyed because she spent a lot of actual money to get credits to pay for a "project" and no one was "buying" the results of that project. I saw her complaining about this and thought to myself: "Most players aren't paid players and therefore can't buy your pets. Also, you paid for pixels. Essentially nothing. So... why don't you just stop spending money on the game. It's obviously not worth it."

I didn't articulate this to her, of course, but you get my point, right? Yes, actually paying for pixels supports the webite/game/whatever but at the same time, it's completely within that website/game/whatever's rights to just up and shut down, leaving you with less money and none of those pixels you paid for. I'm not sure if people don't understand this or think their website/game/whatever won't go under or live up to expectations.

My personal feelings: Don't actually pay for something you're not going to get physically if you're the type who's going to get pissed at companies for doing what they do. Or, if you are going to actually pay for pixels, make sure you really, really like the thing you're paying for and that the thing is stable.

OTP FIGHTS

Most people probably aren't familiar with the term: OTP. OTP is an acronym standing for "One True Pairing." The term is mostly thrown around by people in fandoms who write fanfiction or have very strong opinions about which characters should be in a pairing together. I hadn't actually heard it until I started listening to podcasts run by people who were very immersed in the fanfiction scene.

Anyway, OTP fights border very closely to evangelical religious types. "Let's take this thing and shove it down your throat 'til you either get pissed or start agreeing with me."

I just don't understand why people get into fights over them. Granted, I have a few OTPs myself, but a) I have very few of them and b) I'm not going to shove them at you and make you believe they are THE OTP.

HEADCANON WARS

This basically goes along with the OTP thing. A "head-canon" is something your head does to explain why something happened or how something you would like to have had happen in actually canon came to be in your head. Basically: fanfiction.

People get so attached to their head-canon that they will argue with you about it for hours on end until you either agree with them or get the hell out of the conversation. No one wins these things. People walk away with basically the same head-canons they came into the fight with.

Even worse, people create a head-canon that ends up not meshing with what the original content ends up being. Example: Vinyl Scratch/DJ-Pon3 from the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic cartoon. Vinyl Scratch wears these sunglasses all the time. We, as a fandom, had no idea what color her eyes were. We sort of collectively decided that Vinyl's eyes were red, because they looked cool with her white coat and bright blue mane. However, Hasbro had other ideas and her eyes ended up actually being magenta. Hello giant uproar. Hello disgruntled fans.

SHOWING DISABLED CHARACTERS IN CARTOONS

Of course, talking about My Little Pony brings me to talk a little about "The Derpocalypse." And yes, I will be using the not exactly PC term of "disabled" because that's the word I've used all my life and I don't see a problem with using it.

Okay so... there's this pony who started out her life as an animation error. One of her eyes pointed up and the other one pointed down. She's this gray pegasus with a blond mane and gold eyes. The fandom took her and named her "Derpy Hooves" because her eyes are, as the internet has coined, "derped." She appeared in a lot of episodes in the background, as a lot of ponies do. But then there was this episode in which she got to hang out with Rainbow Dash for a bit. Derpy was clumsy, oblivious, cute, and actually got her name. Her voice was done by the same woman who voices Rarity, though she sort of talked in a sleepy drawl that might have made Derpy sound disabled in addition to her eyes being funny and all the clumsyness. Otherwise, Derpy was treated as just another pony. Yes, Rainbow Dash got annoyed when she kept breaking stuff, but she wasn't sent to sit off in a corner with "safety scissors and glitter."

Cue overprotective mothers calling Derpy offensive. Cue the episode being pulled. Cue the episode being slightly re-written and slightly re-voiced. Cue episode being re-released and aired with the new edits. Cue fandom losing their shit.

Derpy lost her name and now sounds like a blond airhead. Yeah... cuz that's not at all stereotypical or offensive or anything. All Derpy merchandise has now been labeled "Best Pony"... not that it was ever labeled "Derpy," but that would have been nice.

My point, I guess, is that there is more wrong with disabled characters not being shown in kids cartoons, or in fact in most TV shows or movies, than there is with them not being shown at all. At most, there's that one kid in Glee with Down Syndrome and a random smattering of people in wheelchairs. I personally have a more realistic expectation of disabled people by being around them than I do from watching TV.

And no, I'm not saying TV is realistic at all, I'm just saying it's ridiculous how upset people get over "offensive" content.

THE END

Okay so... yeah... that last one was only tangentially internet related, but my point is still valid, I believe. But yeah... that's it from me for tonight.

Love ya, Jessie.

 P.S. Derpy Icon by Pix3M of DeviantArt.

Giant Rage Monsters With Unfinished Business

A Giant Rage Monster Appears!

No No No, The Other Giant Rage Monster.

There, That's The Right One

Okay, yeah, that's not exactly giant, but, let's face it, I'm no Hulk.

Why am I a Giant Rage Monster, you might ask? Because The Vampire Diaries tonight is a rerun.

The one time in a couple weeks I manage to be all ready to watch TVD and do Initial Reactions, it's a rerun. For No Discernible Reason! Gah!

A Wild Spoiler Warning Appears!

Rage Monsters aside, I have managed to watch and review last night's episode of Arrow. So if you haven't seen the episode, please leave the blog and come back later. The following review contains spoilers.

Oh! And there's a Housekeeping section with some announcement-y type stuff in it.

Arrow - "Unfinished Business" - Review

The very end of "Unfinished Business" was really creepy. I did not like the looks on either Merlyn's face.

I really enjoyed the flashbacks this time. Olly's training is much more interesting and doesn't jar as much as they other things have. Not to mention how much I love watching people be confused by Eastern training techniques. As they say, there's method to the madness. Also, I'm glad Olly couldn't completely draw the bow after just a day, or at least it seemed like a day, of water slapping. It takes time to build up that muscle strength.

I'm getting rather tired of Detective Lance hounding Olly and Tommy every other episode. Yes, it usually serves a purpose, but it's getting old. I'm also kind of tired of these super packed episodes. I can't properly get my thoughts about them together in a coherent order because they're all over the place.

I thought the twist on the Vertigo story was fun. I didn't suspect the Doctor until Olly had the thought about The Count never leaving the hospital. Interesting Olly didn't think of that before he got hit 'round the head. Also, wouldn't adding anti-psychotics to Vertigo sort of negate the psychotropic bits of it? I'm not at all up on how the different substances work or interact, but it sounds as if that would be the case. Hmmm... I'd research it, but my mind's numb enough as it is.

Final Batch of Thoughts:

• Looks like they used a hospital or hospital set from Supernatural episode. At least, the entrance looked really familiar.
• How has Fyers not found their hideout? It's a giant plane wreck and the island isn't that big, is it? It would make sense to go look for places the annoying pests would hide, right?
• Diggle doing his own investigating is interesting. Also, who's that Lila chick?

Housekeeping

I'm going to Dallas again this weekend. I may or may not get to watch Doctor Who on Saturday. I'm pretty sure that's the only show I'll miss since Once Upon a Time is also on hiatus/showing reruns.

I might be doing slice-of-life/trip blogs, but I'm not sure, so... yeah. I think that's pretty much it from me for tonight.

Love ya, Giant Rage Monster.

In Which I Rant a Little and Review Arrow

Today, I watched an episode of Arrow, went to Target with my mom and sister, spent a bulk of my evening de-Easter-Grassing Celestia and Luna ponies, watched an episode of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, and then spent till now de-Easter-Grassing Cadance.

If you have figured out that I'm going to rant about Easter-Grassed Doll Hair, you'd be right. I have always hated that stuff. It would periodically show up in Barbie dolls when I was younger. We'd play with them a little and then go to brush their hair, only to find out it was made impossible by EASTER GRASS. Yes, it makes the hair look more shimmery while in the box. Yes, it makes the hair look terrible once the doll or pony is out of the box. Yes, it tangles the hair very easily. Yes, I just spent a good three-ish hours cutting it out of my ponies' hair with a razor. Yes, it was annoying. No, they shouldn't put it in toys.

This stuff was in every single hair plug the ponies had. It looked horrible. It was annoying as all get out to find, especially in pink, yellow, and purple hair. There was A LOT of the stuff, too. See Figure A.

Figure A.

Anyway... I mentioned I watched Arrow today, yes? Here's your SPOILER WARNING. If you have not seen this week's episode of Arrow, go away and come back later. There are lots of SPOILERS in the following review. Oh, and a SPOILER for River Song's identity, if you haven't gotten there in Doctor Who yet.

Arrow - "Dead To Rights" - Review

This episode was fun. It also blew my mind there at the end, that was fun. I spent a good five minutes pacing in my room freaking out. I was not expecting to see Ms. Alex Kingston show up and proclaim that Sarah Lance might be alive. Alex Kingston, for those who don't know, has been on Doctor Who for the last... three, four years?... as Professor/Doctor River Song/Melody Pond/Mels. That's two Doctor Who alumns to show up as parents on Arrow. Gah! Oh, and I also thought Mrs. Lance was dead for some reason... but meh.

Speaking of Doctor Who alumns, I really, really enjoyed John Barrowman in this episode. I think that's partially because I'd rather see him in action instead of trying to look creepy. He doesn't do creepy well. My completely unrelated weird crossover fan observation: I was slightly disappointed when Mr. Merlyn did not come to with a gigantic gasp of breath any of the times he came to. But that's just me being a little weird and nerdy...

But that's a good segue into how awesome Felicity was this episode. I like that she's getting some combat training from Diggle instead of just sitting at a desk. However, the quick costume change from work-out gear to work gear was a little... disconcerting. But she was awesome anyway. Quite the Oracle-type-person... which I keep saying.

The other big reveal of the episode was Tommy being told point blank that Olly is the vigilante. I don't think it bodes well. I think Tommy's going to end up being a villain. I think he's going to hold Olly not trusting him as a big thing and that'll be part of what sends him to the villain side. I do like that he's keeping Olly's secret, though. It's nice. I'm also wondering when Olly's going to tell Dig and Felicity that Tommy knows.

Can't wait for the next episode. Hope we get some answers to some of my questions, because those questions are important.

Obelisk War Coverage

Basically, today's thing is Battledome centric. Really easy battles with various members of the other team. Yay.

Housekeeping

Buffy took precedence over TVD, sorry. Hopefully, I'll be watching Supernatural and TVD tomorrow. I'll also be styling some ponies so... ya know, that'll be fun.

Love ya, Jessie.

A Rant Just For Sidekicks

I'm incredibly sorry, but ABC has decided to delay the next episode of Once Upon a Time until FEBRUARY! GAH! But more on that later...

If you did not see Saturday's episode of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic or do not wish to have anything to do with my Brony-ness, please feel free to skip down to the section after this next one. There will be SPOILERS and discussions of ponies.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - "Just For Sidekicks" - Review

In this episode we get Spike... exercising his Dragon Greed with a bit of complete randomness. I'm not a fan of this episode. Spike is not Best Dragon. Spike needs to stick to being a secretary because he pretty much fails at pet-sitting. Yes, he learned a little something, but I can see that not sticking.

I'm extremely glad that animals in the Friendship Is Magic universe are semi-sentient, otherwise Spike and the Crusaders would have been found out as soon as they arrived in The Crystal Empire. Those animals would have made bee-lines for their owners and made a gigantic fuss in that train car. Spike definitely would have deserved to have been found out, though how no one noticed he was being ridiculous about those gems, I just don't know.

But anyway... I'm being incredibly down on this episode. Here are some good things about this episode:

• Rainbow Dash and Tank were super cute.
• The Cutie Mark Crusaders were awesome, as usual.
• Angel was not being a spoiled rabbit.
• Pewee got a cameo.
• Crystal Empire Continuity!

The Rant About TV Scheduling

Okay so... I go to turn on Once Upon a Time last night and find out that they've decided to rerun episodes from earlier in the season. Why? No actual reason that I can see. This greatly annoys me. I would understand it if they had a sporting event or awards show, but no. They had neither of these things. Just: Oh, your show is back for two episodes and then gone again for a couple weeks, but here, have some reruns. WHY?

Mind you, I get really annoyed when my shows are delayed by sporting events or awards shows, but I really do understand that. I even understand, though not really, breaking shows for the holidays. Apparently no one watches TV over the holidays... Wrong, but just me saying it isn't going to change anything. Seriously, would it kill them to just air a show until the season is over rather than toying with us like that?

Okay... think I'm done with that rant now...

Housekeeping

Uh... not sure what I'm going to do about blogging tomorrow, seeing as there's nothing on I care to review until Wednesday. Yeah so... see ya!

Love ya, Jessie.

I Am Really Pissed Off Right Now

Okay so... I got in a fight with my mom today, about an hour ago. I'm still pissed off about it. So pissed off, in fact, about the entire, repeated, situation that I've decided to write this blog post about it. It's essentially a rant so if you'd like to just skip down to the Housekeeping section, I completely understand. If you're looking for an Arrow Initial Reactions thing-y, that not happening tonight. I was too pissed off to watch.

My Mother and the Great Cooking Debacle

Let me start out by saying that I love to cook. Sometimes I may not be in the mood to cook, but I still like doing it when I am in the mood. I also like to try new recipes and combinations of things. Cooking and tasting the same old stuff is boring. To me, cooking is fun.

Add my mother to the mix, though... fun does not begin to describe it.

I have recently (tonight included) had two butting of heads with my mother over my cooking. Both instances resulted in me not cooking and being pissed off.

Instance 1: Queso

We buy cheese at Sam's Club. Sharp cheddar in a 5lb block. Perfect for slicing up for sandwiches and also for making you very tired of eating sharp cheddar. My solution for getting rid of some of the cheese: Make Queso. I look up several different recipes for Queso using chopped up sharp cheddar and start to prepare for chopping up said cheese.

My mom comes in before I've even got the knife ready for the cheese and vetos my making of Queso on the grounds of sour cream for Chili. Okay, fine. I tell her I'll make it later. Skip to later and I take her the recipes so she knows what I'll be doing. Nope, can't make Queso because I'm not making it with Velveeta. Cue anger.

Instance 2: Pierogies and Tortalini

My mom texts me this morning asking me to pull something out of the freezer for a dinner she's not going to be home for. I scan the freezer and pull out a bag of pierogies and a bag of meat-filled tortalini. My mom gets home around 4, I don't start dinner until around 6. She's still there, but getting ready to leave.

I've looked up recipes for a sauce I think would be good on both the pierogies and the tortalini and was boiling water when my mom tells me she's going to want dinner when she gets home. That's fine, I tell her what I'm gonna cook and ideas for how I'm going to cook it based on the packaging of the noodle-y stuff. She tells me I can't cook them together. Also fine, I'll just cook them separately and put this sauce over both.

Turns out, I apparently can't put this sauce over both these things because they're "not even close to the same thing." She tells me I can cook one of them and the sauce or both and two sauces, but not both and the one sauce. Cue anger.

She then grabs the bag of... pierogies, I think, and turns to put them in the freezer. Cue more anger. I'm really pissed off at this point and end up throwing the bag of tortalini into the sink and telling her I'm just not gonna cook since I apparently can't cook what I'd planned. She tells me to text my dad to tell him I won't be cooking dinner for him. I did. No problems there.

After I'd done that, my mom tells me I can cook two different kinds of tortalini if I want, but not the tortalini and the pierogies together. I tell her, angrily and half in tears, that I don't even know why I try to cook anything anymore, since I can't ever cook what I was planning to cook because she keeps critiquing my not-even-cooked food within an inch of its life.

What I Learned

I'm going to tell my mother "no" the next time she asks me to cook dinner... unless that dinner's coming out of a box.

Housekeeping

If you read through that... thanks, I guess. I know it's mostly drama. Tomorrow, I'll be watching Arrow and Supernatural... and hopefully The Vampire Diaries. Not sure on that last one because I have a friend coming over to help paint my nephew's room. Until then, have a great night.

Love ya, Jessie.

A Rant About Amy Pond

So... I was going to pack for my trip today; but as soon as I opened my suitcase, the smell of cat urine assaulted my face. Turns out, my sister's cat had decided to pee in it while I wasn't using it. Here's me, incredibly pissed off about that. I figured telling you guys about it would be a nice way to vent since my sister is at the movies. I have to wait to pack until the Febreeze dries and gets rid of cat smell...

Also, since I'm not doing anything else at the moment, I may as well rant a little about something I posted about on my other blog a while ago: Older Who Fans vs. Younger Who Fans. As I'm not sure I've moved that post here or just deleted it, I'll give you an overview:

• Whovian - Someone who is a fan of Doctor Who.
• Older Whovian - Someone who grew up watching the show between when it aired in 1963 and 1980. They also watch the new incarnation of the show and often start podcasts about it.
• Younger Whovian - Someone who just started watching Doctor Who between 2005 and the present. May or may not have an idea Doctor Who started in 1963 and may or may not have watched any of the older incarnation of the show.

Older Whovians, I've found, NITPICK the show to DEATH. They will sometimes come off sounding like they hate the show because of their nitpicking and then say things like "Well, I still love Doctor Who, else I wouldn't be watching it or podcasting about it." They've also been known to talk about fans who essentially sunk the show in 1980-something by NITPICKING and coming off like they hated it. Okay, granted, I enjoy listening to them talk about Doctor Who and sometimes agree with them, but... sometimes they just piss me off.

Take today, for instance. I was happily listening to The Doctor Who Podcast where James and Leeson were talking about "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship." James, first of all, came off sounding like he didn't really enjoy the episode and said differently after they'd got done talking about it. And secondly, James said something that a) made my jaw drop and b) I don't agree with AT ALL. He said that Amy Pond (current Companion to the Doctor) hasn't been portrayed as all that bright. SERIOUSLY? SERIOUSLY? No, no, no, I did NOT just hear that. Cue jaw dropping and staring over at my iPod with an open mouth.

Now, Amy is one of those Companions who is a lot self-centered. I get that. She's also quite polarizing, I've found. Either you like her, or you don't. I get that, too. However, she's never been portrayed as being dumb, stupid, or... anything else like that. She's a strong, confident, capable, SMART, somewhat self-centered woman. I've never gotten the impression that she wasn't supposed to be smart. Amy was the one who stopped The Doctor killing a Space Whale because she figured out what was up with it. Amy survived to save herself in "The Girl Who Waited." Amy saved The Doctor in "The Big Bang" by remembering him. Amy paid attention to what The Doctor does and replicated that in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship." Amy is plenty SMART.

*Seething and Heavy breathing and calming down* Okay, rant over. I was just... shocked. I've never been more shocked at something a Doctor Who podcaster has said... Frankly, I'm disappointed... and that's all I have to say on the subject.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to drop me a comment either below or on Twitter.

Love ya, Jessie.