What are you currently reading/watching/etc?

Watching some "live action anime" nonsense with the Synchtube Tropers. Called Immortal (Ad Vitam). Anyone know what the heck this is?

EDIT: Holy crap, less than 5 minutes in, and I can already say I'm in for a treat.

edited 26th Jan '15 5:01:19 PM by SeanMurrayI

Reading: Requiem for a Dream. I've gotten into it now, but this was initially a little hard to read because of the kind of stylized approach to dialogue and punctuation - it completely eschews commas, apostrophes or quotation marks, and any time there's an extended conversation it's all in one paragraph without much indicating who says what. But once you get a handle on it, it's easier to read than it sounds: The main characters all have distinct enough speaking styles that once you get to know them enough it's easy enough to figure out who is talking, and commas are really only missed in the occasional long, run-on sentence... And I figured out that Hubert Selby Jr was basically doing the same thing with run-on sentences as Darren Aronofsky did with the montages in the film version.

Watching: I finished season one of Futurama (because it's a short season), I'm still in the middle of Game Of Thrones, and now I also just started Orphan Black. I've decided to start experimenting with self-imposed rules to keep myself from over-extending myself on shows: 1) I can juggle a maximum of three shows at once, and 2) Any time I finish a season of a show, I have the option to start watching a different show. So right now I have the option of either watching season two of Futurama or picking up a new show - once I finish a season of either of the other two shows, I can go back to Futurama for a while.

I'm trying to play Dragon Quest but I have to replace my 72-pin connector on my NES. My literature class at school has just started reading Hatchet.

Just finished Noir. I wasn't terribly impressed. The story followed a sort of a strange arc, starting out pretty gritty but throwing in lots of standard anime cliches towards the end (although maybe those cliches were less cliche back in 2001). Some of the animation looked pretty budgeted, including a lot of still frames that provided less artistic value than seemed to be intended. I also felt there were too many flashbacks, often involving the same stock footage used a number of times. On the plus side, the writing quality wasn't terrible, the ending was strong enough without being excessively tragic, and I barely even needed my yuri goggles. The soundtrack was excellent, one of the strong points of the show. Kotono Mitsuishi's performance was also good, as usual, although I kinda think she was overkill for the role.

Next up is Familiar of Zero. I've had this show on my queue for a long time now, but it got bumped forward due to the fourth season being announced, and has only now gotten back to the top of the queue. I've already seen Shakugan no Shana and Toradora, so I think I have a pretty good idea what I can expect here.

About to begin some B-movie sci-fi action fare with Synchtube Tropers and a little movie called Total Reality. Never heard of it before, so I hope to be in for a delightful surprise.

Finished Requiem, now I am reading About a Boy. I have never seen the film or tv adaptations.

Finally got around to watching How I Met Your Mother

edited 9th Feb '15 5:17:31 PM by Valeson

Watching The Good Wife because Montmorency told me to and it's pretty great. Broadchurch 2 is currently annoying me more than anything else.

Reading... lots. Flat Earth News which is non-fiction and vaguely course relevant, Zenith because holy dang it's finally in print, various comics, another non-fiction and (if I have time) a couple of detective novels.
I am... not good at focussing on one book at a time.

edited 10th Feb '15 4:39:35 AM by SlendidSuit

Finally read the The Giver quartet. I didn't study in the US, so somehow missed this in middle school.

I am currently reading The Morning Of The Magicians by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier. I bought this book last year because 1) it may or may not have inspired a Flaming Lips song title ("In The Morning Of Magicians"), 2) it had memorably trippy cover art◊, and 3) there was some "3 for the price of two" used paperback sale going on, and I only found two books I was absolutely sure I wanted. It is pretty interesting so far, and more philosophical in nature than I expected from the subject matter (conspiracy theories, alchemy, ancient astronauts, etc.), but at the same time I'm considering putting it back on the shelf for a while longer and reading something else.

Last week, I restarted my Pokemon Black 2 game to try the Nuzlocke Challenge. So far, I earned four badges, but I lost my starter along the way.

I've been reading the novelisation of Battlefield 3. There really isn't that much in common with the singleplayer campaign, but the characterisation of everyone is much, much better.

Recently finished reading A Princess of Mars. Pretty pulpy, but a reasonably fun read. I'd already watched the John Carter movie a couple of years ago, but honestly I didn't really remember much of the movie while reading the book, which held up fine on Burroughs's own imagination and descriptive ability.

I thought the movie was a fun watch.

Just started reading The Sum of All Fears for the Iforget^th time.

Just finished watching Familiar of Zero. Pretty entertaining, less serious (and more correspondingly troperiffic) than Shakugan no Shana or Toradora. Louise did get enough character development to avoid turning into another Naru Narusegawa, although it happened so gradually, over the course of 50 episodes, as to be almost invisible while watching. Overall, not a terribly impressive show, but not one with any single major weakness, either.

Next up is Scryed. Ever since hearing that this was basically a prototype of Code Geass (my favorite anime of all time), I knew I'd have to watch it.

Start watching Magic Boy Kitchener. It's a children's show written by an author that writes stuff at the deep cynical ends. Sounds familiar? I doubt if I watch it when it was aired (2007) I would understand anything from there, or that the theme song is depressing even if you put it on an adult series.

I'm reading another Steven Pressfield book: Tides of War.

Reading: Black Hawk Down. I have not watched the movie other than vaguely remembering seeing a little of it in a college class once - I guess that's the natural next step. As a reading experience it's full of Loads And Loads Of Characters, who generally have a tendency of dying once you get to like them, but since it's based on a true story, that's just what fighting in a war would be like, I guess?

Watching: The X-Files, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Futurama. I recently developed a "thing" about only watching three shows at a time, because I feel like if I start watching any more than that, I'll lose my place in one and get lost continuity-wise. My self-imposed rules mean once I finish with the one Kimmy Schmidt season that exists so far, I'll have an "open slot", and I have a few options for what to do with it.

edited 19th May '15 10:41:07 PM by MikeK

I'm on a speculative fiction/alternate history kick at the moment, so I've recently blitzed through the Belisarius series by David Drake and Eric Flint, Harry Turtledove's "Guns of the South", and the first two books in the General series by S.M Stirling. I'm currently reading the second collected edition in that, which has the last three books. I might go for the Honor Harrington books next, we'll see.

Playing Skyrim, watching some films and toying with going to see Max Max: Fury Road again, this time in 2D.

Currently reading: nothing
Currently watching: nothing (until 17:00 on 25 May)
Currently playing: nothing
Currently listening to: Innocent Treasures (if I remember correctly it's a song by the creator of Touhou)

edited 24th May '15 2:24:49 PM by ShaneBaneNeumann

Currently watching: Forensic Files and Cold Case Files. Because I'm a True Crime junkie.

edited 18th Jun '15 11:00:20 PM by MacronNotes

listening to radio, current song, all she wants to do is dance

tomorrow will see jurassic world

Reading: TV Tropes. Duh.

Listening to: THIS.

Playing Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor: All The DLC and Still No Pesky Hobbits Edition.

I still don't like it much but it is very slowly growing on me.

edit. OH yeah, as of my last update, I've finished all the main line Honor Harrington novels. Good books IMHO.

edited 21st Jun '15 3:02:41 AM by TamH70