A note for any webcomic who hopes to ever be reviewed by me if I ever return to that.

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(From 8-Bit Theater. Click for full-sized out-betrayal.)

I had been planning on posting on 8-Bit Theater in three or four weeks, starting my tracking of it after I was done with the strip I’ll post on later today.

But by all appearances, 8BT doesn’t appear to keep an RSS feed. I haven’t looked very hard, but I have looked quite a bit. In the past that would have worked; I used to follow Ctrl+Alt+Del, Irregular Webcomic, xkcd, Dinosaur Comics, and even Order of the Stick that way. And hell, I don’t have an RSS feed for Sandsday.

But at least recently (as in, for all those strips except OOTS because I didn’t subscribe to as many feeds when I wasn’t subscibed to the OOTS feed), it hasn’t worked well, and I decided to impose a personal policy to only subscribe to RSS feeds to track webcomics I wanted to review.

(No, Buzzcomix Reader is not an option. I can’t even find it on Buzzcomix at all, no thanks to the search function that produces errors in IE7.)

So I may still review 8BT… or I may not. Haven’t decided yet. But be warned.

Important notice on Da Blog’s future

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Tomorrow (which could be today as you read this) I head back to school. It’s important to me that I do as well in school as I can, yet my summer has been positively dominated by Da Blog.

Therefore, posting on Da Blog will be severely curtailed in the near future. Sandsday, the College Football Rankings, the SNF Flex Schedule Watch, the lineal titles, the college football schedule, Sports Watcher, and the Random Internet Discovery will continue as normal, but all else will stop. Which essentially means you can wave goodbye to my webcomic reviews, and even those will continue until my next regularly scheduled OOTS post. In addition, on all of these I will attempt to work as far in advance as possible, except for the College Football Rankings, Flex Schedule Watch, and lineal titles.

College Football Schedule: Week 5

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All rankings come from the new C Ratings, out now. I’m going to do some reorganization later that will mean that link will always link to the current ratings; this will also involve improving access to last year’s ratings, and making some CSS changes. The asterisk still indicates lineal title holders (also updated). All times Eastern.

Top 25 Games
Alabama @ *Georgia 7:45 ESPN
*USC @ Oregon State 9 PM TH ESPN
Virginia Tech @ Nebraska 8 PM ABC
Mississippi @ Florida 12:30 R’com/Y’hoo
Wisconsin @ Michigan 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Weber State @ Utah 8 PM
Kent State @ Ball State Noon ESPN+
Illinois @ Penn State 8 PM ABC
Navy @ Wake Forest 3:45 ESPNU
#15 TCU @ #12 Oklahoma 7 PM FSN
Arkansas @ Texas 3:30 ABC
Western Kentucky @ #14 Kentucky 7 PM Gameplan
Central Arkansas @ #20 Tulsa 7 PM CBSCS XXL
#21 Colorado v. Florida State 3:30 ABC/ESPN
#22 Minnesota @ Ohio State Noon BTN
Troy @ #23 Oklahoma State 7 PM
Connecticut @ Louisville 8 PM FR ESPN2
Mississippi State @ #25 *LSU 7:30 ESPN2
Watchlist and Other Positive B Point Teams
Tennessee @ Auburn 3:30 CBS
Michigan State @ Indiana Noon ESPN
Houston @ East Carolina 3:30 CBS CS
Northwestern @ Iowa Noon ESPN Classic
Colorado State @ California 6 PM
Rhode Island @ Boston College 1 PM ESPN360
South Florida @ NC State 7:30 ESPNU
UAB @ South Carolina 7 PM Gameplan
North Carolina @ Miami (FL) Noon ESPN2
Oregon @ Washington State 6:15 FCS
Fresno State @ UCLA 3:30 ABC
This Week’s Other HD Games
Maryland @ Clemson Noon Raycom
Virginia @ Duke Noon ESPNU
Purdue @ Notre Dame 3:30 NBC
Big 12
Army @ Texas A&M 12:30 Versus
Big East
Pittsburgh @ Syracuse Noon ESPN+
Morgan State @ Rutgers 3:30 ESPN+
Pac-10
Stanford @ Washington 7 PT FCS
MAC
Northern Illinois @ Eastern Michigan Noon ESPN+
Western Michigan @ Temple 2 PM CSD.TV
VMI @ Ohio 2 PM CSD.TV
Buffalo @ Central Michigan 4 PM CSD.TV
Conference USA
Southern Methodist @ Tulane 8 PM TH CBS CS
Central Florida @ UTEP 8 PM CBS CS
WAC
San Jose State @ Hawaii 9 PT Gameplan
Bowl Subdivision
Arkansas State @ Memphis 2 PM CBSCS XXL
Cincinnati @ Akron 3:30 Gameplan
Marshall @ West Virginia 3:30 ESPN+
Louisiana-Lafayette @ Kansas State 3:30
Bowling Green @ Wyoming 4 PM mtn.
North Texas @ Rice 5 PM CBSCS XXL
Florida International @ Toledo 7 PM CSD.TV
New Mexico @ New Mexico State 8 PM Gameplan
Idaho @ San Diego State 8 PM
Nevada @ UNLV 7 PT mtn.

Four straight OOTS posts! Four straight!

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(From The Order of the Stick. Click for full-sized vigilante justice.)

I can’t tell if this is because I’m starting to succumb to my temptations to post on every edition of OOTS, or just because things are really ramping up in anticipation of the 600th strip.

But it certainly seems odd that a villain built up as much as Kubota has would be wiped out of the plot that easily. Of course, this is hardly the end; Qarr still lurks behind the scenes (and who knows who he represents), for one thing, and Vaarsuvius almost certainly would be brought in for his/her own trial if there’s even one supporter of Kubota left (and we did see a ninja seemingly disappear from the fight a few strips back), and maybe even if not – with, if the general consensus on the forums is to be believed, potentially massive consequences.

(If Elan is true Chaotic Good, he sure as hell won’t be the one bringing charges against V, freaked-out look aside.)

More interesting is what this says about V’s state of mind, which for nearly the past hundred strips has been slowly deteriorating as a result of his/her single-minded quest to find Haley and return her, hopefully with Roy or his body in tow, and go ahead and include Belkar if he’s there as well. Whatever moment (s)he doesn’t spend on some harebrained scheme to find them is spent on boosting his/her level to the skies to further advance those goals even more.

So it’s interesting to read his/her last line: “Now can we PLEASE resume saving the world?”

Now, V has said in the past that “any attempt to locate and resuscitate Sir Greenhilt is also the most reliable means of finding Girard’s Gate”, which would be the next step in “saving the world”, but it seems obvious that V would probably have nothing to do with any trial, and everyone else would only have something to do with his/her quest insofar as they could find things for him/her to fight and gain experience. Which, it would seem, giving Kubota a chance to win aquittal may be the better way to go. (I mean, V just vanquished a gigantic demon summoned by Qarr as a distraction. No matter how high level Kubota may be, he can’t compare to a massive demon whose toe is about as big as Durkon.)

So is this a sign that V has finally gotten into contact with Haley? That (s)he has given up the hunt and intends to move on without her or Roy, taking Hinjo and the in-exile government of Azure City instead? Something else? Am I reading too much into a throwaway line?

Well, I’m certainly eagerly anticipating the next episode, at any rate. Then again, I eagerly anticipate every episode.

(PS: I linked to this post from the OOTS forums, so there’s a short-term bump going on here.)

I warned you that once I got going with the OOTS posts, I wouldn’t be able to stop.

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(From The Order of the Stick. Click for full-sized surrender.)

So it turns out I was wrong, and the title of my last OOTS post was incorrect. He did manage to stop Kubota from getting away.

Couple of points of interest, though. Kubota seems awfully confident. Is it because he sees Elan’s reaction coming, or does he have another plan up his sleeve? Does he plan on killing Hinjo himself once he’s in custody, or does he just feel confident he can beat the magistrate?

(Or… heaven forbid… has he paid off the magistrate?)

Second, Elan actually seems to be slightly upset that Kubota turned himself in, and ultimately gives in to his temptation to punch him in the face.

There’s something to be said about that, something about how close Elan has really gotten to Therkla after really only knowing her for a smattering of strips, something about Elan’s current maturity level and control over his emotions, but it took me too long to write even these words and I don’t know if I had anything to say about it anyway.

Only six more strips until the big 600th episode!

Sports Watcher for the Weekend of 9/20-21

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All times PDT.

Saturday
9:30-12:45 PM: College football, Alabama @ Arkansas (Raycom Sports). Look for Alabama to be surprisingly strong when the new ratings come out on Monday.

12:45-4 PM: MLB Baseball, regional action (FOX). As usual, this is the only place baseball can fit.

4-6 PM: WNBA Basketball, New York @ Connecticut (NBATV). Now the playoffs are in full swing.

6-8 PM: WNBA Basketball, Sacramento @ San Antonio (NBATV). Man, the schedule really gets cramped this week and next with all the stuff I have to squeeze in.
Sunday
9-3 PM: Ryder Cup, final round (NBC). Is it just me, or does it seem like only sports journalists and groups that cover sports (ie ESPN) care about the Ryder Cup? And gee, it seems a lot bigger now that ESPN is covering the final round…

Honorable Mention: 10-3 PM: NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing, Dover race (ABC). When I looked, both this race and the next one were identified as the “Camping World 400”, but with different “presented by” sponsors.

5-8:30 PM: NFL Football, Dallas @ Green Bay (NBC). Obligatory NFL game that has to be SNF.

The worst part? He failed at both options.

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(From The Order of the Stick. Click for full-sized Oscar bait.)
If you read OOTS, either run far, far away from this page right now, or click the thumbnail to read the strip before continuing. A spoiler warning is in effect any time I talk OOTS, but it goes double here.

Well, it appears we now know exactly to what extent Therkla’s role in the strip is/was intended to be.

My personal interpretation of events in OOTS is that everything Rich throws in there is there for a reason. That’s why it’s likely Durkon’s one-time flame Hilgya is bound to come back at some point, literally or metaphorically; that’s why I’m half-convinced there has to be some sort of fallout from the Order’s encounter with bandits. And that’s why I have a feeling Kubota’s plots are about to develop in such a way that Elan will find himself really, really wishing he still had Therkla around. I don’t see them burning any sort of resurrection spell on her, given her last wish, and especially with this death scene.

(Well, and given she’d just turned good.)

Well, that or Elan’s encounter with Therkla will lead him to grow distant with Haley if, as appears likely, their reunion is imminent. But I do know there are quite a few people who were awaiting a potential Therkla-Haley catfight who are probably going to be rather disappointed now.

(There is a third option, embodied in the title of the top thread in the OOTS forum just as it went into database backup mode when I checked: “Therkla and Roy?” But the reasons why that’s just wrong are about a mile high… although we could see Haley die and turn out to have the same alignment as Therkla and get into a catfight after all… I’m not honestly suggesting that of course!)

(And then there’s the fourth option that Kubota just left his “fingerprints” on Therkla’s death and left Elan, Kazumi, and Daigo as witnesses… but he doesn’t come across to me as being that dumb, and it would be a kind of tax-evasiony charge to bring Kubota in on, especially as Elan is really the only one who cares about her.)

Two Darths and Droids posts a week apart? What is the world coming to?

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(From Darths and Droids. Click for full-sized self-inflicted breakdown in negotiations.)
When Qui-Gon was caught saying, “Jar Jar, you’re a genius!” it spread through the Internet like wildfire, with more than a little nudging from the Comic Irregulars themselves.

Regardless of whatever the circumstances of the original movie may be, I’m somewhat shocked they didn’t try it again with “Help us, Jar-Jar Binks. You’re our only hope.”

But then I guess you can only do the same trick so many times before people say, “We get it. Now go away.”

(If there were a Darths and Droids drinking game, at this point Pete drinking at whatever fantasy story/RPG cliche happens to happen is worth at least two drinks.)